The first of the unnecessary sub-plots for this season has begun and will possibly run through the entire season, the president's sister is going to be fighting the government. This really has all the makings of any good USP in that it will take up some screen time, meaning that Jack and others can move around without being on camera, and it will take up the time of a major player during the day and distract him from what is really important. It has all the makings of a good USP, but could it be the Ultimate USP? Could it be that they are going to one-up the Sherry Palmer USP?
Previous USPs that did not really work out too well were the cougar and Kim, and the Kyle Singer is infected sub-plot.
PLEASE DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE EPISODE AND PLAN TO.
Jack didn't really do anything spectacular in during these 2 hours, but he has shown that he is unwilling to take action as he would have before for the second time this season. After refusing to continue torturing a known terrorist to get information as to the where abouts of Fayed I assumed he would get back in the rhythm of things, but he further proved himself as a hindrance by not shooting Ahmed, Kumar, prior to someone else saving him. Had Jack been his old self, he would have disabled the terrorist without killing him.
What do you get for writing about the episode in the middle of the episode? You get to be completely wrong. The final ten minutes of this episode were amazing. Jack gave up. He has totally submitted to the fact that he is incapable of continuing in his line of work after his time being held captive and his prior experiences. And then, just when you know that CTU will overcome the terrorists and the nuclear weapon will not explode, it does.
I will make only one prediction, and that is that Jack will use the attack to convince himself that it is necessary for him to come back.