The Following takes place between one a.m. and two a.m. on the day of operation nightfall 01:00 (italian time) — 16:01 (L.A. Local)
At Townsend’s house he shouts down the phone and then realizes that he is in danger, he takes a CD from his computer with everything that he found in the Delta system then and presses ‘esc’ on his keyboard, after which changes the screen from the CTU generic to a standard home desktop. He opens a draw to the side of his desk and grabs his gun, he hears shots fires and dives for cover and then with a sharp “CLICK” loads his gun, he peers round from the filing cabinet he is hiding behind, then runs out the back door.
Walsh still outside the Bauer house looks worried if Townsend’s hacking of the Delta system was detected!, he got in his car, a navy blue Taurus, and puts his foot down. Teri who was watching Walsh from a window looked worried as she thought was that call something to do with jack?.
01:01
Townsend circled around his apartment, carefully and quietly to find a better vantage point, when he did he sees that there, two men ransacking his apartment, obviously looking for something. He moves back round the front of the house, closing in on a fuse box attached to the outside of a wall.
01:04
At Aviano, Jack got a call, looking at the face of his cell which displayed the time 01:04 and the caller Richard Walsh, jack pressed a central button on his phone to pick it up.
Walsh: Jack, thank god. Panic clear in his voice.
Jack: Richard??, what’s wrong?, have you found anything out?
Walsh: Something, not a lot.
Jack: What?
Walsh: There are two missions going out tonight, one is nightfall
Jack: And the other?
Walsh: I didn’t find out, I had Townsend from my office hacking the delta system, I was talking to him just a few minutes ago, but then he got cut off before he could tell me about the other mission.
Jack: What, so you think he was detected?
Walsh: Exactly, I’m on my way to his place now.
Jack: Good luck, get back to me, bye.
Walsh: Bye Jack.
01:05
Ellis gets a call from Johnson
Ellis: What’s wrong?
Johnson: Taylor, that’s what’s wrong!
Ellis: Why
Johnson: He ain’t got no balls, and he’s a liability
Ellis: Well you’ll have to live with him, we don’t have time to pull him from the mission and find a replacement.
Johnson: I’ll replace him…
Taylor gets Ellis’s rather puzzling phone message and tries to contact him but he is still on the phone to Johnson.
Johnson (continued): I know the mission plan, so there will be no effect on the mission.
Ellis: I’ll leave it up to you, just make sure that the mission runs smoothly. Johnson: I will, and I’ll take care of Taylor.
Ellis: What do you mea….Johnson cuts him off before he can finish.
01:08
Walsh on-route to Townsend’s apartment calls his mobile to see if he is all right, but he doesn’t get through.
Walsh: Damnit!
At Townsend’s apartment the two men are taken off guard when suddenly the lights go out, before they can react the first of the two goes down with a double tap to the head, the second dives for cover behind a row of kitchen cupboards.
01:10
At Aviano, Jack goes into the coffee room where many of the team members are catching up, most of them are old friends who haven’t seen each other for a while. The mood is calm as they joke about how Gary (Graham, First Sergeant and Medical Officer) can’t hack it anymore (Nightfall is his last mission), Shelton continues the joking by saying that he is going soft in his old age, Peltzer seeing Jack come in says
“Sorry Gary but come on your ancient, I mean you trained the same time Jack did”, they all look at Jack who looks jokingly hurt
“I could have you done for insubordination for that comment Sergeant Peltzer…”. They all laugh including, then Jack continues “…Just joking, but you might want to know that you were not my first choice for this mission”, Peltzer gives Jack a mock hurt look and asks
“so who was your first choice?”, he tells them that
“David Taylor” was, but he was already assigned to a mission. Gary Graham says
“Hey!, I remember him, how’s he doing now?”
Taylor gets a call from Ellis,
Ellis: Your in trouble, Johnson wants you off the mission. Taylor looks down the hall and sees Johnson coming towards him.
Taylor: Speak of the Devil, Thanks Robert, I’ve got to go”
01:15
Townsend moves to get a view of the second man, but behind the kitchen counter sees he unknown man sees Townsend’s reflection in some hanging pans. The man comes up from cover and shots at Townsend who ducks out the way, but two late, the bullet clips his shoulder, he knows that he must keep moving, circles the room and fires at the second man, hitting but not before he gets another hit, in a similar place to the last, knocking Townsend back, Townsend gets another two shots off, first shot misses, second hits. The Shot knocks the man down, his gun skids across the floor. He picks it up, he is about to take aim again but Townsend does the first and shouts “freeze”, the man slowly starts to move again, Townsend shouts again, louder “Don’t Move, I’ll Shoot”, the man taunts him “Go on then shoot me, I dare you”, Townsend gives in and pulls the trigger, but a large CLICK reveals his gun is empty. The man takes aim and shoots him in his other shoulder, dropping him to the floor, the man stands over him, and points his gun straight at his head.
01:23
The man says “Did you make a copy of the Delta mission List?”,
“Go to Hell” is Townsend’s reply,
“Don’t waste my time, because that would really piss me off, and when something really pisses me off, well I’m liable to blow someone’s head off, so I ask you again, did you make a copy?” Just then a car pulls up outside, a blue Taurus, the man crouches down and continues in a very soft voice (trying not to be heard)
“I’m running out of time, so I’m gonna count to three and at three I’m afraid it’s lights out, …. so ….. 1, ..2 ” just as he says 3, Townsend shouts with all the breath he has left
“OKAY, OKAY”, he is out of breathe but he continues “in… in my….. pocket”
“Thank You” the man replies as he goes into Townsend’s pocket and grabs the CD with the Delta info and dashes into the apartment’s garage via a side door, he does this just as Walsh bursts in. Walsh shoots as him but misses, he goes over to Townsend,
Townsend: Sir, I’m fine, He’s got the only copy of the delta mission data. Walsh, knowing and regretting what he must do is spurred into action when there’s the roar of a engine as Townsend’s car fly’s out of the garage with the unknown man at the wheel. Walsh quickly runs to his own car in pursuit.
01:30
At Aviano, Jack Bauer calls the team to attention, for the final mission briefing, he says
“Right, we are to board the plane in half an hour, it will take approximately 1 hour and twenty minutes to get to our destination.”….
01:35
Both cars are now on a main freeway and are weaving in and out of the traffic, as Walsh makes a call to the CTU L.A. Office and asks them
Walsh: Send paramedics to Agent Townsend’s apartment
Other line: Is there anything else sir?
Walsh: Yes there is….
….The unknown man gets a call, he picks up and the caller asks Caller: “do you have it?” (in Russian), the man replies in Russian as well,
Unknown Man: “I do but, I’ve got a tail”,
Caller: Where are you?….
….back in Walsh’s car he is still on the phone and he asks Walsh: are they in place?” Other line: Yes Walsh: Good, he ends to call and mumbles to himself “now we got him”
01:42
The unknown man is now off the phone, he is still weaving through traffic when he sees a road block up ahead, He looks into his rear view mirror, he sees not only Walsh following him, but two cop cars as well. He says “if that’s the way to wanna play it” in a low voice and then makes a sharp turn and off the freeway.
The police and Walsh are momentarily caught off guard by his sudden change of direction, giving him chance to escape the every growing net of police road blocks.
The man similes at his maneuver, but he soon realises that he isn’t out of trouble when he hears a helicopter in the air above him.
From the view of the chopper we can see him make a few more direction changes. The chopper pilot tells the fleet of police cars he is heading for the bridge over the freeway.
01:50
Aviano
Jack: I think that just about covers it, so go get changed and meet at transport in ten minutes…
01:53
The man takes another corner, but he is blocked by police cars so he continues onto the bridge where he is met 10 police cars blocking all of the bridge, he goes to reverse but is met with the same on the other side. He stops the car and gets out, with a gun in his hand, seeing this, the police raise there’s, the police chief shouts through a megaphone at him to lower his weapon, raise his hands, and step away from the car. He complies with all three and then continues stepping back, to the edge of the bridge. The police chief tells him to stop moving and that a officer will approach to handcuff him, The man shouts “SO YOU WANT ME ALIVE!?” he moves onto the ledge of the bridge and is seen to be fingering something in his hand. He shouts out “WELL THAT’S A SHAME”, and then jumps backwards of the bridge and can be seen to be putting something into his mouth…
01:59
Back at Aviano, the Nightfall Delta team board an Air Force Special Operations MC-130 Combat Talon, prepared for their mission….