Spoilers for this episode.
Jack arranges a private meeting with Mike Novick to expose Walt Cummings without alerting the presidential staff. McGill permits the approach because Jack can act outside CTU's formal chain of command. Before leaving, Jack tells Diane that he must stay to help. Their conversation confirms that he still loves Audrey, who asks him whether he will return to her once the danger is over. He cannot promise what comes next.
Cummings learns about the meeting and confesses his operation to Logan first. He claims the stolen gas will be destroyed after reaching the separatists' base, creating grounds for an American presence in Central Asia and protecting oil supplies. Logan allows Jack to be detained and CTU to be removed from the investigation. Jack persuades Aaron Pierce that Cummings ordered Palmer's murder, and Pierce helps him reach the President despite those orders.
Under Jack's threat, Cummings identifies the shipment carrying the canisters. Logan restores CTU's authority, and a team searches the container at the port. They find Cummings' inside man Schaeffer dead and the gas missing. Ivan Erwich calls using Schaeffer's phone, making clear that the separatists have discovered the betrayal. Cummings' assurance that the weapons would remain under control collapses, leaving Jack and CTU to find gas now intended for retaliation against the United States.