Watching Jericho

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Opening Morse Code - ALLEGIANCE

From CBS.com:
As New Bern rains mortars down on Main Street, Gray Anderson can’t decide whether Jericho should fight or simply surrender. Jake knows that his father’s past military experience makes him their best shot at winning a battle against New Bern. Emily is swept into her father’s world, where she is exposed to his enterprise as well as New Bern’s advancing army. Hawkins and Darcy reunite, reaching a new level of understanding as together they decide to stay in Jericho and fight on behalf of the town.

Originally aired: Wednesday May 2, 2007 on CBS
Writer: Frank Military and Josh Schaer
Director: Guy Bee

Recap below the fold…

Jericho, Coalition of the Willing, TV, television, CBS

Oooh, the recap showed Jonah… here we go, boys and girls…

Stanley and a possee have a roadblock set up on a back road, and they see a light coming up to them in the distance.

Johnston, Hawkins and Jake show up in Gray’s office, and tell him that they’ve got a problem. When Gray asks after Eric, they tell him that they dropped him off at the Medical Center.

A solitary figure with a lantern is walking down the road towards Stanley’s crew, and when Stanley finally gets him to stop, he asks who the young man is.

Back in Gray’s office, Johnston and the boys are trying to catch him up on everything that happened in New Bern. Stanley brings in the young man, and he hands Gray a walkie-talkie that has Constantino on the other end. Henry, the young man, is told by Constantino to go home. Constantino makes his demands, which includes the salt mine and multiple farms. When Gray questions what he’s asking them to do, he tells them that Jericho is going to be invaded, and he’s giving them the opportunity to surrender.

Day has broken, and everyone it seems is crowded into Gray’s office going over the maps and what they know about the people from New Bern. Gray mentions that they were high school rivals five months ago, and Jake responds that they tortured Eric to find out Jericho’s troop strength and supplies. Obviously, things like football rivalries are most definitely a thing of the past. Johnston and Hawkins detail the mortars that New Bern has been creating, and Gray is still in denial as to the situation that his town is in.

Eric, sitting in the Medical Center, is reliving April’s surgery when Gail interrupts his trip down memory lane and takes him away from that room to “fix him up”.

Town Hall is in an uproar, with everyone appealing to Gray to fix things. Dale talks with a farmer, who he obviously has a deal with, and when he confronts her about leaving the farm behind, because it’s too far out from the town center, she tells Dale to do whatever he wants to with the farm, since the bank owns half of it anyway. Dale clarifies that if he defends the farm, it will be his, and she agrees. When Skylar questions how he’s going to defend a farm, he turns to some guys to “Get him every refugee you can find”.

Mary finds Eric being tended to by Gail at the Medical Center, and Gail smiles to herself as they embrace.

Dale’s got his hands full with a store full of refugees that have been promised food in return for showing up for this “meeting”. Dale tells them that if they help him to defend the second-largest farm in Jericho, he’ll promise them three meals a day. When they start to walk out on him, he pulls out another card from his deck, promising all the refugees that help to defend the farm from the New Bern invasion, they’ll each have a stake in the farm themselves, which turns them around.

Gray and the “council” in his office say that Constantino gave them four hours, and that time is up. When Bill asks if they should call Constantino, Gray says that he’s got nothing to tell him, and that he’s not just handing him the town.

Emily runs into the town hall, finding Jake, where he breaks the news that Heather’s dead. I’m sorry, but her death didn’t happen on-screen, so until they show Sprague Grayden in a coffin, I’m not buying it. Neither is Jake it seems, but they get interrupted by a mortar that blows in the middle of Main Street.

Jake runs out to survey the damage, and finds Gail, out cold, in the middle of the street. Before he can do much more than yell out “Mom”, another mortar falls from the sky, Jake hurriedly covering Gail’s body with his own as the mortar strikes a car a little ways away from them.

Jake pulls Gail over to the side of one of the storefronts, and Johnston comes running up to them, trying to make sure that they’re ok. Gray tries to organize the people out in Main Street when Jim calls Gray back into the office to tell him that Constantino is calling him on the walkie-talkie. Constantino warns them that he’ll wait an hour, then they were going to fire three more mortars, unless Jericho gives into their demands, and keep it up until they were met. When Constantino finishes the conversation, Gray grabs Stanley and tells him that the scouts said that the mortars were fired from the west, and for him to gather some rangers up and get out there.

Darcy finds Hawkins on Main Street, helping some people get to shelter, and asks him what’s going on. He tells her that New Bern is attacking Jericho, and that he knows of a safe house that they can get to, other than the fact that it’s in Montana. While I’m not all that great at Middle America geography, that’s a long haul on a good day, and when people are firing mortars around you, I wouldn’t qualify that as a good day.

Johnston asks Gray what he’s doing, and gives him a little grief for not letting him go with Stanley and the Rangers. Gray’s only response is that he wasn’t there, and there wasn’t time to find him.

Hawkins starts yelling to everyone on the street that they need to get underground, quickly, and Darcy pulls him to face her and tells them that they need to go home. He agrees, still disorientated, and with the ominous music floating in the background, I don’t know how good of an idea this is.

The Hawkins Family is back in the house, everyone piled into the basement. When Sam goes for Daddy’s Room down there, Darcy tries to shy him away at the same moment Allison asks Hawkins if she should go into the garage to get the extra water from there. Hawkins looks over at Sam, and tells them that the room is the safest place, since it’s been reinforced with concrete and rebar, and that they should all get in there.

Hawkins lets them into his room, and Sam’s first reaction is to say that it was too cool, while Darcy notices the corkboard with photos on it, including Sara’s with a big X over the photo. Darcy sends the kids into the other room for a moment, and Hawkins just looks at her and says “No more secrets”.

Stanley radios Gray back at Town Hall to update him on what’s going on to the west. He tells them that he sees the mortar cannons, and that they’ve set the cannons up in a clearing about two miles west of town. Gray tells them that if they’ve got the ability, they should go in and destroy the cannons, but Johnston balks, saying that Stanley needs to send out scouts to flank the cannons so they know what they’re going in against. Gray shuts him down, saying that he doesn’t care what he does or where he goes, but that this is his call, and Eric grabs for the radio to tell Stanley to get the hell out of there. Gray’s boys all react by pulling out and cocking their guns at Johnston and Eric. When Stanley asks what they should do, Gray tells him to take them out, which just goes to prove that Gray really never dealt with any war-games scenarios in life.

Hawkins is going through his things in the basement room, pulling them out for Darcy, it seems. When Darcy asks what they’re going to do now, Hawkins says that all he wants to do is to keep them safe, but after today, he’s not sure that he can do it. Darcy tells him that nothing’s ever safe, and he tells her that the only thing that matters to him is her and the kids. She tells him that she missed him, and they kiss, which Allison sees through the cracked door and she smiles.

Bill breaks the silence in the basement of the Town Hall by asking Gray how will they know if it worked, and their response is another mortar burst over the building. Gray frantically grabs for the radio, and calls out to Stanley, fear lacing his voice, and when all that greets them is silence, Johnston gives Gray a look that should have dropped him to his knees.

Stanley walks up Main Street with a few surviving men, and they all coming running out of Town Hall, sending some people to the Medical Center and asking Stanley if he’s alright. He’s covered in splashes of blood, my long-time CSI obsession kicking in and saying high-velocity blood spatter. Stanley drops to the curb, and Jake and Johnston ask him what happened. He goes onto say that they walked straight into an ambush, because as they reached the mortar cannons and truck, they were surprised by groups on either side of the truck. Again, Johnston shoots the death look at Gray, and when they ask where everyone else is from the group, Stanley tells them that they are all dead, that the New Bern men just wouldn’t stop shooting at them. Mimi, who I didn’t see come up on the group at all, wraps her arms around Stanley and says that the whole thing’s insane, which is, I think, what sends Jake up and straight into launching himself at Gray, until he’s stopped by Hawkins, who backs all of Gray’s boys up as Johnston looks over and says to go to Bailey’s, now. Jake, Eric and Hawkins follow quickly.

At Bailey’s, Johnston and his boys are going over the map, and Johnston sends Jake out to scout (and ONLY scout, as Johnston reminds him), and Emily walks into the tavern and tells him that she’s going with him. He hands her a gun, and they’re off.

On horseback, Jake follows tire tracks, saying that they had three or four trucks pass through there, and that they could hit pretty much anywhere in Jericho once they made it out to Route 6. Eric comes up to them, riding hard, saying that Hawkins spotted a five-ton truck coming this way from New Bern, and Eric puts a bug in his ear that they could take it, since it could be supplies, including mortars, going to the New Bern guys.

Didn’t y’all even bother to listen to your Daddy?

The boys come up to the truck on horseback, while Hawkins has his sniper rifle to take out anyone that gets in their way, off to the side of the road with Emily, which he does as the passenger tries to aim at Eric. Jake hops up on the sideboard and orders the driver to stop the truck, and as he does, a bunch of guys on dirtbikes come up from out of nowhere, not only disabling Jake and Eric, but Hawkins and Emily too. As these new guys gather up the Jericho people, an older model muscle car drives up, and out comes Jonah, with a new haircut and nice leather jacket, telling his boys that they’re alright and to let them go. He looks at Jake and Emily and says they’ve finally turned to a life of crime.

Johnston appeals to Dale for his men, and when Dale says that his men don’t fight for Gray Anderson, Johnston says that they need to defend the town, because if the town falls, Dale won’t have anything. Skylar pipes up that if they fight with them, they’ll get another farm, and Dale adds another abandoned farm to the list, and Johnston reminds them that they not only have half of the salt mine, but they also get a percentage from every farm. Dale says that it’s just “business” and Johnston says that it’s not about business, and he tells him that he’s asking him to do this for him before he walks out of the store.

Emily and Jonah bicker at each other, Jonah trying to get his men to hurry up, since “the last time I was in town, they tried to lynch me”. Emily tells him to listen to her, and he retorts with a No, you’ll listen to me. He goes on to say that he’s been watching the men from New Bern moving artillery and such around Jericho for the last three days, and all it’s going to be there is a bloodbath and she should come with him. She tells him that Jericho is her home, and he responds that he’s her father. She tells him that she won’t be any safer robbing trucks with him, and he tells her that if it isn’t New Bern that destroys Jericho, somebody else will come along and do it instead. Emily tells him again that she won’t leave, but she does hand him a proposition to help them by giving them his maps and helping them take out the New Bern force, offering half of whatever they take from them, which, considering how large of an army Jonah has told them that they have, would be a really great take. Jonah smiles at her, and tells her that she’s got more of him in her than she’ll ever admit to, and turns to yell out to his men that there’s been a “change in plans”.

Johnston is working with other men, Stanley included, trying to get their support, telling them that the men from New Bern are coming to Jericho intent on killing all of them. One of the men tells Johnston that Gray says that they’re only three farms away from a deal, and Johnston tries to convince him that it’s better if they fight. As they argue, Jake and Emily bring Jonah into the Tavern, and while Johnston doesn’t look pleased, there’s a glint in his eye to say that he may have just found his secret weapon.

Hawkins shows the men surrounding him that there are eleven potential mortar sites around Jericho, but they don’t know what target is likely to be next. Johnston asks Stanley how the trucks are guarded, and Jonah cuts in, saying that there are thirty men to guard each mortar truck.

Jim comes over from Town Hall to tell Johnston that Gray’s found the seven farms and is about to surrender to Constantino. Johnston comments that the New Bern forces will have those farms taken over within thirty minutes, and then they’ll never get them out, and Jim asks him what they should do. Johnston comments that he’s about to make a deal with the devil, looking straight at Jonah. Jonah laughs and takes that as a compliment of sorts, and Johnston sends Stanley, Eric and Jim back over to Town Hall to do whatever it takes to keep Gray from surrendering. When Jim asks him what he means by that, Johnston tells him that it means that it’s time to pick a side, which honestly, should have been said ages ago.

Jim leads Eric and Stanley into the room that Gray’s occupied in the basement of Town Hall, and Bill gets on Jim’s case about bringing Eric down there. Eric and Stanley tell Gray that he can’t make the deal with Constantino, because they’ll just keep taking and taking, and probably end up just killing them all outright when the food runs out. Gray tells them that they need to leave and one of his guys starts pushing Eric and Stanley back towards the door, and chaos starts to happen, Stanley yelling that he almost gave his life for him out there, and Eric telling him that it isn’t his fault that all those men died out there, Gray yelling to get them out of there. Stanley pushes back at one of Gray’s men, and all of a sudden, it’s become a Mexican standoff in the basement of Town Hall, Gray standing to the side, the only unarmed man.

Everyone is yelling at each other, and Gray finally hears Eric’s yells saying that there are men out there. Gray pushes the guns from his guys down, and Eric tells him that Jake, Hawkins and Johnston are out there and are going to try to put down the mortar trucks. Gray tells him that they can’t fight them, because they aren’t ready for something like this, as this morning proved. Gray goes on to say that he’s talked to Constantino, and that they’re giving Gray time to get everything together to give them the farms. Stanley tells him that they’ve got maps of all of the locations of the mortar trucks, and arms and men. When Gray questions where they came from, Eric tells him that Jonah and his thirty men are fighting with them, and all Gray has in response is to say that they’re going to get them all killed. The walkie-talkie provided by Constantino goes off, shattered their palaver, and Eric tells Gray not to go near the radio.

Somewhere outside of Jericho, Jake’s talking with some guy, while Johnston holds a gun discretely to the driver of one of the trucks. The driver asks him if he’s Johnston Green, and goes onto say that he’d come over to New Bern about two years ago for a bass-fishing contest, and Johnston came in fourth, while the driver came in second. Hawkins, Jake and some of Jonah’s guys get in the back of the truck and they drive off to have a fight. Hawkins asks Jake if things get nasty, does Jonah have his back, and while Jack doesn’t look convinced, he does go on to say that Emily’s with Jonah, so he’ll be there.

Constantino’s getting impatient waiting for Gray to respond on the walkie-talkie, and Eric tells him not to make the deal, but to negotiate with Constantino to buy the time that they need to take out the mortar cannons and trucks. Gray doesn’t seem at all convinced, other than the fact that he wants to make sure that Constantino doesn’t think that he’s involved with what’s going on outside.

He finally picks up the walkie-talkie, and Eric says to him that he’s a good businessman, so he knows what he needs to do. Gray still doesn’t look completely convinced, but he answers Constantino and starts bartering a dairy farm for the Richmond farm, slowly gaining the confidence he needs to get through this.

The Trojan Truck makes its way into one of the makeshift camps for one of the mortar cannon placements, Jake and Hawkins getting ready to rumble in the back. When one of the guys asks the driver why he’s three hours late, Johnston readies his gun in the guy’s side as he tells him that they got sniped at by a gang and had to go the long way around. The driver goes on to tell him that he’s got food in the back, and the guy gathers the rest of the men around to get the food out of the back.

He starts to open the back of the truck, deciding to let the men eat in shifts so that they aren’t all around at once, then pulling it up all the way to reveal Jake, Hawkins and some of Jonah’s men in the back of the truck, guns at the ready. They surrender their weapons and Jake and Hawkins have them get into the back of the truck.

Gray is still negotiating with Constantino on the walkie-talkie, when Constantino realizes that there’s something fishy going on, and signs off that the negotiation is finished, and that they’ll start sending mortars over soon.

The driver takes advantage of Johnston looking away for a moment, and runs out, warning the rest of the men at the camp. Everyone starts firing at once, until Johnston tells them to cease firing so Jonah’s men can move up. Jonah does come as promised, and his men mow down every single man from New Bern.

The smoke clears, and the Jericho men are astounded to see the destruction in front of them. Jonah walks up, finding the driver of the truck still alive, but wounded, and before Johnston can stop him, Jonah shoots him in cold blood. Emily comes up from behind Jonah, and the disgust and shock is plain to see on her face.

They start to divvy up the supplies of the New Bern force that was just destroyed in front of them, and Jonah tells Jake that the deal has changed, that he’s taking everything that they’ve recovered from the site. When Jake gets up in his face, Johnston pulls him back, and it’s Emily’s turn, reminding them that he owes her much more than what he’s leaving them with. Jonah tells her that he’s a thief, not a soldier, and she tells him that he promised to help them. He pushes her away, and drives off with his men and his stuff.

Jake looks to Hawkins, saying that they need to do something, because they need those guns. Hawkins tells him that the guns are the easy part, and it’s off to Hawkins’ Secret Stash.

Hawkins shows Jake the arsenal that he’s keeping in a storage shed somewhere in town. When Jake says to him that he had all this stuff the whole time and didn’t say anything, Hawkins replies that he never thought that he’d make this town his home.

Gray and everyone in the basement of the Town Hall wait impatiently for Constantino to do or say something, but all is quiet. As they start throwing suppositions around, Johnston appears in the doorway to tell them that they took the mortars out, followed by Constantino’s voice on the walkie-talkie asking if Gray is there.

Gray picks up the walkie-talkie and Constantino tells him that they’ve brought this upon themselves and that they’ve brought war to Jericho. Gray turns off the walkie-talkie and looks to Johnston and says those words I think we’ve all been waiting for, “Johnston, I need your help.”

Johnston comes up to the table and tells Stanley to get all the runners that he can find to send out orders to everyone, then holds out his hand, which Gray takes.

OUt in the middle of Main Street, Jake and Hawkins drive up to the crowd with a pickup, which Johnston takes as a podium. He tells the crowd that this isn’t a fight about land, it’s a fight for existance, and for all of them to not only pray for everyone around them, but also for the people of New Bern. He finishes, and Jake jumps up to the truck bed, and tells them that every able-bodied person needs a gun, as long as they’re sixteen or older and for them to line up before throwing back the tarp to show off Hawkins’s Not-So-Secret Stash to the people of Jericho.

While Jake’s handing out guns, Stanley and some scouts are out on the edges of the town, scouting out around New Bern’s Tent City that has been erected.

OHMYGAWD!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you seen the ads for next week?!?!?! It’s Heather!!!!!!!!!!!!

I told you she wasn’t dead. But, it does look like Johnston’s going to that Big Mayor’s Office in the Sky.