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Previously on 24: An Army convoy carrying a nuclear warhead was ambushed and robbed of its atomic payload in the backward, jerkwater Midwest, where we have no telephones, internet, satellites, or highway patrol. One of ImhoTerror's henchmen was about to get nabbed along with Joe Prado, who killed the henchman before CTU could move in. Prado said he was innocent, and had a lawyer protecting him. The Veep (who's finally identified as the President in his freeze frame this week, not that I care) put off the decision as to whether to torture Prado. Kiefer decided to take matters into his own hands by asking Buchanan to accept his resignation and release Prado. Kiefer broke Prado's fingers until Prado gave up ImhoTerror's location, and then Kiefer thanked him by clubbing him unconscious. The following takes place between 1:00 AM and 2:00 AM.
However poorly Kiefer may have treated Prado in the parking lot, the folks at the CTU clinic are more than making up for it. In the two minutes and fifteen seconds since Kiefer knocked him unconscious, he's been uncuffed, brought into the clinic, revived, and had his hand splinted up. He's even got a hot young doctor or nurse daubing his head wound. This is ridiculous. Wheeling him past the camera unconscious on a gurney would have had the same effect without completely flouting the real-time format. Not that we're done doing that for tonight, either. Buchanan's in the clinic too, trying to get Poor Man's Hume Cronyn on the phone. Just then, DoDder marches into the room, takes one look at Prado, and grabs his medical chart. Damn, lady, it's not enough that he just got his Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights stomped on, you gotta go and violate his Fourth? She puts down the chart and confronts Buchanan, who just says, "Prado talked." DoDder insists on knowing what happened, in her capacity as a representative of the DoD. Might as well be the SecDef herself, given Devane's absence from the past several episodes. Buchanan says Kiefer did it. "It was the only way to get him to give up ImhoTerror's location," he lames. Okay, we're going to be hearing that a lot for a while now, and it's not any more true than it was last week, but I think I covered that in last week's recap. I'll just refer Buchanan there. DoDder seems surprised to hear that the Veep gave clearance to use torture. Buchanan says the Veep didn't. "Where's Kiefer now?" she demands. Buchanan says he's prepping a team to go after ImhoTerror. So I guess Buchanan didn't accept Kiefer's resignation after all. Or he tried to, and it didn't work because Kiefer already doesn't work there anyway. Wonder if that'll bite anyone in the ass soon. Like, potentially the entire country. DoDder glares at Buchanan for a minute, then stomps off.
Many viewers are disappointed to see that by the time the cameras reach the CTU locker room, all the big, strapping tactical agents are already fully dressed. But that might have something to do with the fact that after a brief, time-killing-exchange between Kiefer and Curtis, DoDder is standing outside the locker room's glass door glaring in. Kiefer joins DoDder in the hallway. She confronts him about the fact that Prado's being treated in the CTU clinic. Shouldn't she be happier to learn that Kiefer also tortures people that she hasn't had sex with? Kiefer goes right into defensive mode: "What do you expect me to do?" I can't speak for anyone else, but I expect Kiefer to do something clever or creative. By which I don't just mean a clever or creative way to do something obvious. "You know what I did was absolutely necessary." Well, no, it was the only thing you could think of. There's a difference, sometimes. "As least now we know where he is." Yeah, for the fourth time in eight hours. Better luck this time. DoDder says he "can't keep working outside the lines without consequences." Like that one time when he disobeyed orders and rescued her, EARLIER TODAY, right? In any case, that's the wrong thing to say to Kiefer. "Nobody understands the consequences more than I do. Nobody." Yeah, those stretches between seasons when everything catches up to him are a bitch. He's gotta go.