Refresh your memory and get ready for TV’s new season of ’Housewives’ and other continuing sagas

Many of TV’s top series left questions hanging, relationships created and broken, plot twists dangling. Where did we leave off - and where are we headed? USA Today’s TV team catches up and looks ahead at others.

’Desperate Housewives’

When it returns: Sept. 24, 8 p.m., ABC (WKRN-Channel 2) Where we left off: Lynette (Felicity Huffman) found out Tom (Doug Savant) wasn’t cheating but had fathered a baby girl 11 years earlier during a one-night stand. With the help of a baby monitor, Gabrielle (Eva Longoria) caught Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) in flagrante delicto with their impregnated maid, Xiao-Mei, and threw him out.

Betty Applewhite (Alfre Woodard) learned her son Matthew, not Caleb, was responsible for the killing that led to the family’s move to Fairview. She warned Bree (Marcia Cross), who confronted Matthew (Mehcad Brooks) and daughter Danielle (Joy Lauren). A police sniper killed Matthew. And just as Susan (Teri Hatcher) and Mike (James Denton) were rekindling their relationship, dentist Orson (Kyle MacLachlan) ran down Wisteria Lane’s leading man.

What’s ahead: Season 3 opens about six months later, with Mike still hospitalized and Xiao-Mei close to giving birth to the baby conceived from Gabrielle’s egg. Orson will be back, courting and marrying Bree. Susan, left waiting for poor Mike at the end of Season 2, will find a new love interest, Ian (Dougray Scott). Edie (Nicollette Sheridan) will have her hands full with 17-year-old nephew Austin (Josh Henderson). Jesse Metcalfe, who plays Gabrielle’s lawn-mowing boy-toy, will make an appearance, and a hostage situation and the death of a significant female character are designed to add spice to later episodes.

’Veronica Mars’

What’s ahead: Creator Rob Thomas says the critical fave’s migration to the new CW network will coincide with a streamlining. Starting with a nine-episode mystery, the show will air without interruptions for repeats. "Instead of having 12 people who can be in the running for the villain, there might be five in one of those mysteries. I think it will be much cleaner," allowing new viewers to "jump in" without feeling lost.

’Grey’s Anatomy’

When it returns: Sept. 21, 8 p.m., ABC (WKRN-Channel 2)

Where we left off: Izzie (Katherine Heigl) quit the surgical team after the death of her fiance, heart recipient Denny; Cristina (Sandra Oh) committed herself to help Burke (Isaiah Washington), who was trying to regain use of his hand after being shot; the wife of surgical chief Webber (James Pickens Jr.) revealed she knew of his affair with Meredith’s mother; and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Derek (Patrick Dempsey) conducted a spur-of-the-moment joint "physical."

What’s ahead: Meredith must resolve the second season’s final image, a love triangle in which Derek and veterinarian Finn (Chris O’Donnell) each implored her to choose him. Izzie has big choices, too, after losing Denny and her surgical position. And viewers will have a choice: "CSI" or "Grey’s," after the latter’s move creates TV’s biggest ratings battle on Thursday. In acting news, Sara Ramirez, who plays orthopedic surgeon and George’s lover Callie Torres, is now a regular. Diahann Carroll will play Burke’s mother, and Abigail Breslin of "Little Miss Sunshine" will make a guest appearance.

’Lost’

When it returns: Oct. 4, 8 p.m., ABC, (WKRN-Channel 2)

Where we left off: In exchange for his son and a boat to freedom, Michael (Harold Perrineau) betrayed Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) to the Others, who insisted they’re the good guys. Meanwhile, there was a tantalizing suggestion that a conduit to the outside world still exists. Or not. Who knows with these jokers?

What’s ahead: The show returns with six new episodes, followed by a two-month break, and then 17 straight shows at the end. Terry O’Quinn, who plays John Locke, said the expectations that grew out of the show’s breakthrough first season may have given way to something new following the dark, twisting paths the show’s plot followed last year. "The expectations are very different," O’Quinn said. "I get the feeling that people want to change gears, to ramp (the show) back up a little bit." O’Quinn said the show’s behind-the-scenes chemistry remains in flux with the subtraction of Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros and a new group of characters on the way. Cast member Daniel Dae Kim also hinted at the upcoming plot at a DVD release launch recently, saying "We saw a statue with four toes on it."

’CSI’

When it returns: Sept. 21, 8 p.m., CBS (WTVF-Channel 5)

Where we left off: In the season finale, the Las Vegas criminalists investigated one of the show’s signature deaths: a decapitated body by the train tracks. In a more personal crisis, Gil Grissom (William Petersen) decided not to pull the plug on friend and shooting victim Capt. Brass (Paul Guilfoyle), who eventually recovered. But it was "CSI"-yi-yi! as the final scene revealed Grissom and freshly showered colleague Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) in an intimate bedroom conversation.

What’s ahead: Viewers will see occasional subtle signs of the Grissom-Sara relationship, but the main personal matter in the Season 7 premiere involves criminalist Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), her father, Sam Braun, and her daughter. The opener also features some Vegas glitz - a death backstage at the renowned Cirque du Soleil show "KA" - and a musical performance, John Mayer singing "Waiting on the World to Change." Investigation of another crime, the killing of an ’80s rock star played by Danny Bonaduce, carries over into the second episode. And if you think Bonaduce is the apogee of guest acting talent, wait until Britney Spears’ husband, Kevin Federline, plays a thug who’s part of a gang that swarms and beats people.

’ER’

When it returns: Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., NBC (WSMV-Channel 4)

Where we left off: Two prisoners determined to escape come to the E.R. for treatment and wind up in a shoot-out. An intubated Dr. Luka Kovac (Goran Visnjic) is strapped to a gurney. Dr. Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney), bleeding, is passed out on the floor. (Will their baby survive?) Jerry (Abraham Benrubi) has been shot and his blood pressure is dropping. The cons have kidnapped nurses Sam (Linda Cardellini) and her son, Alex (Dominic Janes), and have fled in a van. Dr. Neela Rasgotra (Parminder Nagra) and Dr. Gregory Pratt (Mekhi Phifer) missed the action, as they were at the funeral of Neela’s new husband, Michael Gallant (Sharif Atkins), who was killed in Iraq.

What’s ahead: John Stamos joins the staff of Chicago’s County General Hospital as Tony Gates, an Iraq War vet who is a paramedic and a med school student/intern. He is particularly drawn to Neela. Over a span of six episodes beginning in the season’s fifth episode, Forest Whitaker will play a carpenter who enters the emergency room with a seemingly simple cough. But because of heavy patient congestion, he suffers a stroke while waiting. Paula Malcomson (Trixie of "Deadwood") will appear in several episodes as the widow of Gates’ deceased friend and war buddy. John Mahoney from "Frasier" will play a drag queen who wants to assume legal authority for his dying partner’s medical care. Sally Field (who stars in new series "Brothers & Sisters") returns as Abby’s bipolar mother in the second episode.

’The Office’

When it returns: Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., NBC (WSMV-Channel 4)

Where we left off: Much of "The Office" romance so far has focused on the fallout of boss Michael (Steve Carell) having made out with his boss, Jan (Melora Hardin). But all of that paled when salesman Jim (John Krasinski) finally kissed receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer) in the season finale. The two have flirted all season, and he’s madly in love with her, but she’s engaged to another guy.

What’s ahead: We have to find out how that kiss affected Jim and Pam. And we’ll follow "Office" workers Kelly (Mindy Kaling) and Ryan’s (B.J. Novak) blossoming relationship, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) and Angela’s (Angela Kinsey) secret relationship and Michael’s new relationship with real estate agent Carol, played by Carell’s real-life wife, Nancy Walls. Not to be missed: a visit to Dwight’s family beet farm.