Watching Jericho

Watch the full episode here.

From CBS.com:
Heather knows how to fix the local windmills if she has the necessary equipment and convinces Jake and Johnston to travel with her to “Black Jack,” a trading post several hours outside of town. Against Johnston’s wishes, Dale joins them in hopes of trading supplies from the market for something the town can actually use. Meanwhile, much to the dismay of his family, Hawkins brings Sarah back to their home as they both try to figure out who is watching Hawkins.

Originally aired: Wednesday February 28, 2007 on CBS
Writer: Jonathan E. Steinberg & Dan Stolz
Director: Helen Shaver

Recap below the fold…

Jericho, Black Jack, TV, television, CBS

We open this episode with a little Breaking and Entering, courtesy of Jake and one of Jericho’s Finest. Why are they breaking into houses in Jericho? Well, winter’s come in with a vengenance, and they’re going around and checking on the corpses, er, people that haven’t come around.

Over at Town Hall, Mayor Gray is freaking everyone out about the lack of fuel for the generators, and how they’re not going to make it through the winter if they can’t tighten up, between three hours a day at Town Hall, and six hours a day at the Medical Center. Those pesky sick people can’t seem to do without their generator time. Johnston, sitting in the audience mentions to his wife, Gail, that he “needs a hobby”, presumably so he doesn’t end up throttling Gray.

The Deputy and Jake pop in at the back of the meeting, and the Deputy (can’t seem to find his name at the moment) comes up behind Hawkins to ask that he comes up to where they’re processing the refugees from last episode, because one them says that she was a cop in St. Louis. Hawkins takes a moment, then the lightbulb goes off over his head and he leaves with him.

Gray’s going on about how they don’t really have a lot of options at the moment, when Heather (yeah, she’s back!) starts thinking aloud about the windmills and using wind turbines to power everything that they need. Gray pulls up an engineer who says that they’ve been looking into just this, but it’s going to take time, with Gray stepping over him verbally to remind everyone that they don’t really have that time. Heather, Jericho’s version of MacGuyver, looks a little confused as if all she needs is a ball of twine and some gum, and they’d be set.

Back to the meeting, where the engineer is getting quizzed by Jake about what parts they’re missing, and Roger mentions the Black Jack Fairgrounds, where the refugee group walked through on their way into town, and it’s like a post-apocalyptic Walmart with the barter system fully in place. America, the land where consumerism will always rule the day.

Gray’s not buying it, until Heather starts pointing out that even if they get one windmill functioning, they would eventually be able to get off the gasoline for good and go Green. Ok, maybe that’s not a good statement to use around Gray, considering the election and all. Gray admits that it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, and plans on getting a small group together to check it out. He asks if anyone would be interested in volunteering, and the crowd all ends up looking at Jake, trying to mind his own business in the back. Looks like you got Volun-told, Jake.

Hawkins is greeted with a sucker-punch from Sara, who has decided that Hawkins is the rat in the proverbial house, since the guys in black masks said that someone had sold them out while they had her. Hawkins says that he couldn’t be, because he just got punched in the mouth and didn’t hit her back. She asks about who else was here in Jericho, and he responds that only Victor (Radioactive Guy from Walls of Jericho - 1.4), and he only lasted a couple of days after becoming a night-light because of Denver’s blast. Hawkins, meanwhile, wants to know how she escaped from the three black masks, and she, with a lot of bravado in her voice, comes back with the fact that one of the three got a little too close, and then there were two. Two were easy for a woman of her talents. After she escaped, she refugee camp-hopped until coming to Jericho.

Roger’s going over the route that Jake should take to Black Jack, reminding them to watch their backs when they’re there because of the guards at the site. Heather butts her way into the expedition, stopping Jake from complaining by asking him if he’d know what a working something-or-other mechanical would look like. And here’s where we’re reminded that Jake’s not that great of a liar, when he responds with a well thought out Yes to her question.

Outside of Town Hall, Mary Bailey asks Gail Green if there’s anything that she can do to help out, since her main squeeze, Eric, left his pregnant wife for her. Gail, venom in her voice responds with a “I think you’ve done enough.”

Johnston gets onto Jake because he’s got what my friends like to call Balloon-Hand syndrome, or “I can’t say no to a dangerous situation”. Johnston asks who’s in this merry band of travelers, and he’s surprised that Jake’s bringing along Heather, and a couple of the Border Patrol guys to cover their backs. He ends up inviting himself along, by asking if Jake thinks that he can watch his son’s back. Jake wonders if he’s asked Gail yet, and after Johnston lists his resume, he comes back with “Of course I asked your mother”. Here’s your hobby, Johnston.

In a quick burst, we welcome Roger back to the house with Emily, Hawkins surprises Darcy with a new houseguest in Sara, and Dale strokes his gun, remembering how he shot Mitchell dead. He’s surprised by Skylar who poses the idea of Dale going out to Black Jack to get a better deal for the stock that he has.

Heather comes up to Johnston and Jake who are loading up the salt bags that they’re going to use to trade over at Black Jack, and uses the dreaded, “We’ve got to talk” line on Jake. Jake looks like he’d love to be already on his way to Black Jack than have this conversation, and Heather sends Johnston scurrying away with a, “We kissed, and then didn’t talk for a month.” Jake apologizes to her, which she says she doesn’t need, and lets him know that she’s going because they need the parts, not to spend time with him.

Dale grabs Johnston to say that he wants to come with them, using some of the goods that he has at the store to barter for other things that the town needs there. Jake realizes what a motley crew he’s going to have for this expedition, and tells them that they’ll leave first thing in the morning.

Darcy and Hawkins are having a little talk of their own about their new houseguest, with Darcy not feeling that this is just an acquaintance of Robert’s. While Hawkins does genuinely look upset that he can’t get into specifics with her, he’s tight-lipped on anything other than Sara being a friend. Darcy reminds him that four years prior, he had shown up at the house with one of these “friends”, and ended up disappearing from their lives until he grabbed them out of DC, two months ago. She tells Hawkins that she can’t deal with the idea of him putting the family through what he did when that happened. Hawkins doesn’t respond other than by taking the laundry that Darcy was folding down to their “guest” in the basement.

Hawkins lets Sara know just by ignoring her stark naked in the basement that there’s to be no hanky-panky between them, instead deciding to let her into his inner sanctum and showing her the surveillance images of him and his son playing football. Sara asked who could it be that’s watching him, and he replies with the “Old Man”. Sara wonders aloud about that, saying that this is the guy that’s been coordinating everything since the beginning, and realizes that Hawkins still has a “package”, i.e., a bomb. Hawkins tells her that he wants Sara to contact the Old Man and let him know that she’s in contact with Hawkins to gauge his reaction.

Wow, two hundred miles sure goes quickly… Jake and crew are at the entrance to Black Jack Fairgrounds, where they’re searched and their guns are confiscated until they leave the fairgrounds. Heather gets a reality check about the fact that the sign saying that thieves will be strung up by seeing a body that’s been hung displayed prominently.

Jake tells everyone that they’re headed for the main tent, which acts as a central trading point, setting up buyers with sellers and vice versa, with Dale mentioning that it’s like Ebay. Ah, as one of the only “wired” people in Jericho it seems, poor Dale’s missing the internet. They walk past some guy getting the crap beat out of him, setting us up for something later, I’m sure.

Emily greets a newly-shaved Roger with a cheery good morning, and they have an interesting heart-to-heart about what he has seen on his walk into Jericho, starting out with something that sounds ominous, saying that he hasn’t told anyone about something that he saw out there, until he takes an interesting leap to “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen…”

We cut to Sara regaling the Hawkins family with takes from the refugee camps that she’s been to, stopping only when Hawkins cuts off her more vivid description of radiation victims. The parents get the kids to leave the room, and Darcy cuts Sara off once they leave saying that she doesn’t need all of this on her kids, and she knows enough about the people that Hawkins works with. She also gets a little dig personally in on Sara, saying that she’s been married to Hawkins for long enough that she knows how to read between the lines.

Over at the bar, Gail wants to sit down with Mary for a little while…

And, back at Black Jack, Heather gets propositioned for an hour of her time, which she doesn’t take all that kindly to, and Jake comes to her rescue, incurring a little of the guards’ attention, who take it to ugly quickly as one of the guys that steps in to help them out. Heather runs into a childhood friend, Ted Lewis, and they walk off, Heather and Ted talking over the fact that they’re looking for parts for the windmill generator. One of Ted’s friend’s says that there’s a guy that doesn’t sell from the central tent who might have what they’re looking for and takes them over to him.

Johnston and Dale get a little talking-to from one of the guys, saying that most all of what they’ve brought won’t be bought for any price, because people are getting sick from things taken out of radioactive areas. Dale says that they aren’t from there, but the guy responds with the fact that it doesn’t matter, people won’t buy them anyway. Johnston and he walk over to the main board of things that are needed, and Johnston gives Dale a brief history lesson on the uses of salt. Growing up around a slat mine will do that to you, I guess.

Heather and Ted play catch-up, and when Heather tells him about the air-drop of the generator and supplies from China, he responds that they received a similar air-drop, but theirs was from Germany. Guessing that aid is coming from all over the world, Heather wonders who did this to America then.

Jake gets the skinny on Ravenwood from one of Ted’s friends (I’m too lazy to look up his name), finding out that they ran in and slammed the town that these guys are from, which doesn’t really surprise Jake. They show them the “News” Board that’s been set up on the grounds, which gathers information from all of the people that are passing through the area to keep everyone informed. Jake asks Heather if she has anything to write with, and she starts writing notes from what’s on the board. One of the guys says that they must not get out much, and that he’s got a surprise for them, leading Jake off to the side to show him the revised US map, with six stars for capitals, and when Jake asks which one is where the President’s at, all the guy can respond with is, “Which one?”. They get a little run-down on the how the lines of succession broke down, with different senators vying for the big office, and how they will either have to compromise or fight to figure out who’s going to be the only President.

Dale, pushing a dolly of goods through the grounds, complains that what they’ve picked up just isn’t enough, and Johnston responds with the fact that it’s a good first start. Johnston tries to console Dale, telling him that both Gracie and his mother would have been proud for the fact that he’s fighting to keep the store running, and telling him that one of these days, Mitchell Cafferty will get what is comign to him. Ah, Johnston, if you only knew…

Back in Jericho, Gail and Mary share a mason jar of spirits at a table in the bar. Instead of a two-sided conversation, Gail really just needs to get some things out of her system, going so far as to have written a list of grievances against the fact that Mary has divided her family. Mary takes a large swig of ’shine, then begins her response that she’s terrified that she’s put April in the same position that her father was when her mother walked out on them, but she couldn’t help the fact that she fell in love with Eric, and she also couldn’t help the fact that he fell in love with her, and that Gail, and the family, were just going to have to come to their own resolution about it. Which, of course, promptly makes Gail get up and leave the bar.

Roger is telling Emily about the thing that happened to him out “there”, saying that he got to the point somewhere in Nebraska where he knew that he would die. Just as he had given up hope, a bright light appeared in the sky, and the next thing he knew he was just outside of a refugee camp, saved.

At Black Jack, Johnston finds Jake who thinks that they might just have found what they’re looking for. The guy that has the part, though, doesn’t seem to want to part with it without a large amount of salt, which Jake says they’ll handle for the part. Dale, unfortunately, finds something that disturbs all of them beyond what they’ve seen so far here, with multiple bunk beds in the back with handcuffs attached, and some don’t-want-to-identify stains on the dirty mattresses. They back out of the deal, saying that there’s no way that they can support something like that with their deal. The seller gets irritated at them, telling them to get out of his place then, and Dale takes the opportunity to snag the all-important part off the counter when no one is looking.

When he catches up with the others, it doesn’t take all that much for them to realize that he’s snagged the part, but not before the guy that he stole it from brings the goon squad, er, the guards of Black Jack with them. The guards take Dale, Johnston in particular following close behind him, until the guard tries something with Johnston, and Johnston takes him down. Jake joins the melee, and all of a sudden, Ted’s friend (I know, I know, what’s his name?) pulls a gun, bringing everyone to a stand-still.

Allision, meanwhile, is quizzing Sara back in Jericho about her time “in the FBI”, and Sara tries to cut her off with the fact that her mother wouldn’t want her talking about this. Allison says that she’s not a kid, and that her father’s been teaching her how to shoot. Before they can get any more involved in this conversation, Sara’s Mystery Decoder PDA comes back with a message from the Old Man, and she finds Hawkins to let him know that she’s supposed to retrieve the package and eliminate him. She’s all for packing up and getting out of Jericho before the Old Man sends anyone after them, but Hawkins says that he doesn’t know. Instead of running, he wants to go and visit the Old Man to take him out, because he says that he just can’t make his family run anymore, even if he doesn’t come back from something like that.

Darcy knows that Hawkins is leaving again, though not really why. Knowing that, she tells him that Sara’s a threat to their family and Hawkins needs to kill her. Instead of responding, Hawkins leaves the room without another word.

Jake and the crew at Black Jack are high-tailing it out of there as quickly as they can, given the fortuitous gun that Ted’s Friend had. They hop into the car just as the gates start to lower, Jake gunning towards them regardless of their existence. Johnston gets a little worried, then from out of nowhere, Ted’s driving an old army truck straight through the mobile trailer just to the side of the gates, Jake following close behind through the whole that he made.

Once they get a clean get-away, all of the wanna-be criminals meet up on the side of the road, talking about how they could make a deal where the other town supplies tools and machinery, and Jericho provides them with salt. Johnston and Ted shake on it, and they start to go off to their respective vehicles. Heather stops, and tells Jake that she got a good look at the part that they need, and with Ted’s help and machinery, she could make them as many as they needed, but that she needs to go with them to do this. Jake doesn’t seem to like that idea (or maybe he doesn’t like Ted - it’s a little hard to tell). Heather says that it would just be for a few days, and Jake asks her if she really thinks that this is a good idea.

Heather responds to him with the fact that she knows why they would never work out, because she’s not dangerous. He needs someone “hazardous”, to which Jake responds with an empthatic negative. She says that it’s a good thing that he’s like that, otherwise Johnston would be dead, and she would have never gotten off that schoolbus. She’s taking a page from his book by throwing caution to the wind and making something good happen for everyone. Jake just says that it’s just for a few days as his response and acknowledgment, asking her to come back in one piece before a brief hug with her, then watching her hop into the truck that drives away.

Hawkins and his son discuss the lack of toothpaste, leading Hawkins to let Samuel know that he’s got to go away for a little while for work. Samuel just asks if Hawkins is mad at him, which is why he thinks that he’s going away. Hawkins is hurt by this, but tells him that he should know that he loves them, and that he doesn’t want to leave, but he has to. It’s not fair for Lennie James (Hawkins) to have that half-second hitch in his voice when he tells his son that he loves him… I think that’s the closest I’ve ever come to getting truly teary at this show.

Mary’s cleaning up after the bar has closed, and finds Gail’s list that she had pulled out during their “conversation”. Being a human being, Mary opens the note and reads it. It says simply, “Be nice. She’s going to be family soon.” Aw, Gail… you’re such a hard-ass, but you know what’s best.

The crew, minus one, comes back to Jericho and are met by the Can’t-Remember-His-Name Deputy, who asks about their trip. Jake gives him a brief recap (unlike mine) as Johnston leans on Dale some about his irresponsible behavior back at Black Jack. Dale takes it in stride, but like most teenagers, he doesn’t really look like he’s listening. Johnston doesn’t leave Jake out of his “things went wrong” speech, asking Jake why, if he knew that the car wasn’t going to fit through the gate, why he didn’t slow down. Jake only responds with “I don’t know”.

Skylar comes out to help Dale with the stuff brought back, and looks in awe at what he’s brought back. Dale says that it wasn’t much of anything, and then asks Skylar how much of the salt mine does her family own, because they might just be exceedingly rich, which just confuses her.

Hawkins finds Sara sitting in front of the fire, and tells her that she’s glad that she made it, and that they leave in the morning before he takes off to bed. Sara smiles at him, watching him leave, then pulls out her Mystery Decoder PDA, where she’s got a message waiting for her asking if she knows where the package is. She replies with “Not yet” and her unknown correspondent asks how they should proceed. Her reply is to use his family, which is where we leave this episode.