While Kayla is locked in the bathroom at the Teodore Hotel, Tarin receives a call from Samir, who tells him that Marco talked to CTU before he died and may have compromised his cover. As Jack and the CTU team race to the hotel, Tarin tries to coax Kayla out of the bathroom. When his efforts fail, he looks out the window and sees police officers converging on the hotel. He breaks through the bathroom door and grabs Kayla. The NYPD storms the hotel and Turin shoots three of them. Two more officers are killed by Tarin’s driver, who arrives in a cab. CTU tries to track the cab but the group loses them in an underpass.

Mr. Prady, Kevin’s supposed parole officer, arrives at CTU at 3:15 a.m. to discuss Kevin with Dana. Dana tells Prady that she met Kevin in a bar and slept with him, and that it was a mistake because of her impending marriage. Dana sells the story well, but Prady has some additional information: Kevin and Nick’s fingerprints were all over the botched police warehouse robbery. Prady tells her that the cameras in the warehouse malfunctioned at the time of the robbery, and he believes that someone inside CTU must have helped Nick and Kevin with the robbery. Prady has a request for the footage files. Dana calls Cole to tell him she’s going to give the information to Prady, but he tells her to wait. Dana parks Prady in a conference room at CTU where he spends the entire episode staring her down.

Jack meets with President and Mrs. Hasan about Kayla and ask to set up tracking equipment for what they assume will be a ransom call from Samir and Tarin. The call comes in and Samir demands that President Hasan send him “File 33” for Kayla’s life. President Hasan initially pleads ignorance, but when Samir plays a videoclip of himself suffocating Kayla with a plastic bag, Hasan says that he will get the file for them. He reveals that File 33 contains intelligence on all the weaknesses of the United States’ nuclear defenses, which would allow Samir to smuggle the nuclear rods into Manhattan.

As CTU races to find Kayla’s location before Samir’s deadline, Tarin has a change of heart – he loves Kayla and will not lead her to her death. They flee Samir’s hideout, but while Kayla is able to drive off, Tarin is shot dead by Samir. Before he dies, he gives his phone to Kayla and tells her that she must contact CTU – they are the only ones she can trust. Kayla calls CTU and tells Hastings that she has escaped but does not know where she is. Bauer asks her for information on where she was being held; Chloe is able to determine the terrorists’ location. Cole and Bauer storm the hideout but they are too late – Samir and his men have already fled. Arlo and Chloe track the terrorists with the drones while Dana gives Kayla directions to CTU. The drones pick up the terrorists and run a facial recognition scan, revealing that Tarin is alive and well and still with Samir. Jack surmises that the ransom was a decoy, and Samir allowed Kayla to escape and directed her to CTU to disable its command center. Kayla’s car pulls up and Hastings sees that it contains an EMP device capable of shutting down all of CTU’s equipment. As the hour comes to an end, the EMP goes off, rendering CTU blind.