I Am Jack's Uncompromising Sense of Duty

Well, Jack Bauer's chances of keeping his relationship with Audrey were slim to none already, and slim left town just before 3:00 am. You could kind of see the direction the plot was heading as they rolled Paul Raines back into surgery, but I thought the ride was good anyway. It gave Kim Raver (the actress playing Audrey) some good scenes to play, and it had been a while since she'd had that.

Speaking of Paul coming back into the plot after a few episodes away, it was fun to see Tony's bitchy girlfriend back, too. I never would have guessed she'd make an appearance again this season. But it did start me thinking about some abandoned plot threads that have gone by this season, and made me wonder if we'll ever come back around to them. I ranked them in descending order of how likely I think it is we'll see them again:

Marwan and the Nuke -- Just what exactly was Marwan up to all hour? I would have expected at least one badgering phone call to the guys in Iowa working on the warhead. I'm sure we'll be hearing tons from them next episode, of course, but it was odd for the true threat to sort of vanish off the radar this week.

Secretary Heller -- Many hours ago, he left to (if I recall correctly) go brief the president in person. We know he wasn't aboard Air Force One when it was shot down, so just where the hell did he go? He's had enough time to reach Washington DC by now, if that's where he was headed.

Behrooz Araz -- Last we saw of this poor kid with the terrorist parents, he was being hauled away in a van by Marwan's goons. Did CTU ever recover him? Did Marwan's people drop him in a ditch somewhere?

Mitch Anderson -- Last we saw of him, Mitch had successfully shot down Air Force One and was flying away in a stolen stealth fighter. Did he get away with it and escape? Would there be no further information he could provide if he were captured?

McClennan-Forster -- This corporation set off an EMP in downtown LA, supposedly to hide information in their computers on Marwan. It was truly odd behavior, them doing that. I mean, they weren't actually helping Marwan plan the attacks, were they? Marwan was just working there. But they set off the EMP to hide something they felt made them look particularly guilty, and the info Jack finally recovered from their office didn't even begin to justify the need for EMP action.

Your opinion of just how loose some of these loose threads are may vary, of course, but I would hope we get answers on at least a couple of these issues by season's end. (And you never know, we just might. After all, they did bring back Marie Warner for a surprise Hannibal Lecter-esque scene in the Season Two finale.)