S1·E1 12:00 A.M.-1:00 A.M.

Episode recap

Moments after Jack Bauer discovers that his teenage daughter, Kimberly, has slipped out of the house without his knowledge, his phone rings and he is summoned back to his duties at the CIA. As the head of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit office, Bauer receives an urgent briefing that a presidential candidate, David Palmer, is the target of an assassination plot that is expected to be carried out within the next twenty‑four hours. The intelligence officer delivering the warning makes clear that the responsibility for safeguarding Palmer rests on Bauer’s team of agents, placing the unit under immediate pressure to prevent the attack. The hour is marked by a rapid transition for Bauer, who must shift from the personal crisis of a missing child to the professional imperative of protecting a high‑profile political figure. The briefing emphasizes the narrow time frame and the lethal intent of the threat, underscoring the stakes for both the nation’s electoral process and the lives of those involved in the protective detail. While Bauer assembles his operatives and begins to formulate a response to the looming danger, his wife, Teri, independently sets out to locate Kimberly. Teri’s search proceeds in parallel with the counterterrorism operation, creating a dual narrative of a family coping with a sudden disappearance and a government agency mobilizing against a possible assassination. The episode’s focus during this sixty‑minute segment is therefore split between the emergent national security emergency and the personal urgency of a parent trying to find a wayward child. Bauer’s role as both a father and a senior intelligence officer is highlighted by the juxtaposition of these two crises, establishing the central tension that will drive the unfolding story. The hour ends with both the protective mission against the anticipated attack on Palmer and the domestic effort to locate Kimberly still unresolved, setting the stage for the challenges that will follow.