Well I guess we had nowhere to go but down right?

After what was one of my favorite episodes in a while in the season premiere, tonight's "Oiled" was not quite a well oiled machine and brought us back down to earth. Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed it, there just wasn't as much to rave about in this second hour of the season.

"I don't give a sh*t about retaliation. I'm gonna find my kid," Jax tells Unser early in the episode. And that seemed to be how I as a viewer took things as well. The stories couldn't really grab my attention, as they're all taking a back seat to the need for the club to get Abel back.

When Jax's eight month old boy is kidnapped and taken to Ireland, it's unsurprisingly difficult to worry about the Mayans patching over some smaller club in order to get into the heroin game. Oh sure watching Jax smash some dudes head against a table 100 times, or Jax and Opie speed past a dude's head as he is buried in sand, is entertaining, but I knew it was going to get blown off because there was just too much on SAMCRO's plate at the moment.

The other main stories of the episode might have had me a little more interested, if only because they were new. Hal Holbrook is fantastic in this role of Gemma's dad, Nate, but it really is tough to watch at times. You can't help but feel for Gemma as she takes care of her sick father, only to get ridiculed when she messes up the coffee and have her name forgotten by her beloved Daddy.

The dynamic at Nate's house is interesting to say the least. To have Tig be Gemma's protector is a great choice because of their obvious history, but to have him get it on with Nate's nurse makes the whole thing that much weirder (better?).

It was also great to see some more of the inner workings of the Irish, even though I couldn't understand half of what was coming out of their mouths. It's a tough crowd this IRA. The Priest has his own cousin (Cameron) killed just so that he won't incur a worse death at the hands of Jimmy O or SAMCRO? Wow. Rough.

Then there is Deputy Chief Hale's brother. I really love to hate this guy, but he's so right in his description of Charming. Putting Unser back as Chief isn't going to help things. With him at the helm there have been a whole lot of shootings and murders recently. The Sons of Anarchy, as much as we love them, are pretty awful people. Having said that, Hale is a slimy dude that deserves what I hope is coming to him.  Basically, the wrong Hale died.

So while most of these stories are kind of on the back burner before SAMCRO can find baby Abel, you have to figure that they're all going to play a major role at some point in the season. How will Gemma's relationship with her father play into her dealings with the MC? Once the Sons handle their business in Ireland will the Mayans have expanded too much? How does Hale and Unser's deal affect SAMCRO?  Although I'm sure none of these questions get answered soon, they're all worth thinking about as the season rolls on.

Other Thoughts:

• Tara continues to grow as this week she again showed that she is all in with Jax.  After he admits to trying to scare her off, she just tells him that she'll see him later and goes in for the smooch. Love this girl.
• That was a great, if short, moment between Gemma and Tara on the phone. Their budding relationship is so fun to watch.
• "Let's go visit the red headed rattle snake," Bobby Elvis exclaimed. To me, his ex-wife looked like a blonde with brunette roots.
• If they let Abel stay kidnapped for too long, he is going to get attached to this Irish woman.  She's being a great mother to him right now.
• I love the John Teller references.  This week the Priest criticizes Cameron for stealing the grandson of the man responsible for their great, long relationship with SoA.  The history of JT has to come up in a big way this season right?

Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.