Jericho - Jennings and Rall (Episode 203)

Mmmm, Jakester... me likey!

Previously on Jericho: the show was cancelled and then given a reprieve, whereupon the Powers that Be apparently decided to cram seven seasons’ worth of action into seven episodes.  Seriously, for the past three weeks I’ve felt like I’m watching an accelerated, condensed version of a seasons-long series run.  The recent premiere would have been the entire second season, and would have devoted twenty-four episodes to introducing soldiers and Jennings and Rall to Jericho.  Last week’s episode would have been season three, designed to bring in the Cheyenne government and its sticky conspiracy.  And this week’s ep would have been season four, all about the mysterious Hudson River virus.  Damn, Jericho writers!  You obviously think that this is the last chance you’re going to get to tell your story, so you’re packing in every plotline and twist you have up your sleeves.  These episodes are more crowded and chaotic than a bus full of tweens on the way to a Miley Cyrus concert. 

Anyhoo.  Let’s untangle the latest installment, shall we?  A truck makes its way down a country road, only to be stopped by a couple of Hummers and soldiers with guns.  It’s a blockade outside of Indian Springs, Missouri, and who else but my boy Dale emerges from the truck!  Hey there, Dale!  I was afraid you were “visiting out of town relatives forever” like Gail.  Your cheeks are as pinchable as ever.  The soldiers tell Dale that he’s going to have to make a detour ‘cuz there’s no going through Indian Springs, and as he walks back to his truck, another army Hummer drives past the road block.  The soldiers inside are wearing gas masks.  An inquisitive Dale is ordered to return to his vehicle and cease and desist with the annoyingly relevant questions.  Sounds like things ain’t so good for the hapless residents of Indian Springs.

Beck breaks the news to Eric and Jake that Jennings and Rall has sent a new head administrator for Jericho’s day-to-day operation.  Guess who it is?  Oh yes.  None other than Getz, the v.v. bad Ravenwood soldier whom Jake threatened to blow up on a bridge back during the first season.  Jake pulls his gun when he sees the guy, who’s looking somehow even more creepy than usual (if that’s even possible) in a black polo shirt with a J&R crest on it.  Jake furiously tells Beck about the massacre in Rogue River and the looting that this guy did in New Bern, but Beck can officially only believe Getz’s side of the story – they work for the same organization, y’see.  When Getz sees how pissed off Jake is, he calmly says that he has a J&R file on Jake and his very, er, interesting period of employment in Safa, Iraq.  He threatens to spread the word on what’s in the file, staring Jake down with dead eyes.  Immediately Jake backs down and walks away.  Ooh, I wonder what’s in that folder??  If this was a real season, we’d probably have to wait at least a few episodes to find out.  But with the way things are going, I’m thinking they’ll tell us in oh, about five minutes. 

Deputy Jimmy’s back at work, having been released from the hospital after being wounded in the New Bern war.  He sees the wanted poster for Sarah, and since poor dumb Deputy Jimmy’s lousy at keeping secrets, he gets an unsettled look, which Beck is quick to notice.  Darcy’s using her “secretary” job to lurk about in the background, and she goes right home to tell Hawkins that Jimmy may have spilled some of the proverbial beans.  If you’ll recall, Jimmy still thinks Hawkins is an undercover FBI agent.  Darcy’s worried that someone’s going to put all the pieces together, and she wants to get the kids and make a run for it.  But Hawkins has a better idea: head Beck off at the pass.  Next thing you know, he walks straight into Beck’s office, slaps down his fake FBI badge, and announces that he’s Robert Hawkins, FBI.  And Beck is just ruining his investigation.  Damn, this man has some serious cojones.

Hawkins claims to have been undercover in Jericho for months.  He says that he hasn’t registered with the Cheyenne government, and still works for Ohio.  Beck’s all, “That makes you a treasonous beeyotch.”  But Hawkins is more worried about “catching the terrorist” than he is in who’s working for whom.  He’s pretty sure that Beck’s been trying to sniff out Sarah for weeks now, with no luck… wouldn’t he like Hawkins’ help?  A suspicious but apparently undecided Beck examines the badge.  He’s firing snooptacular Darcy, but wants to hear more of what Hawkins has to say.  Somehow I doubt that Hawkins is going to tell Beck the truth – that his teenage daughter blasted a cap in Sarah’s ass and now she’s buried somewhere in the nearby forest.

Eric and Jake have a little chat.  Getz is all but above the law, and Jake thinks things could get ugly fast.  Ravenwood is a subsidiary of Jennings and Rall, practically the corporation’s own private army.  These dudes play by different rules.  Remember all that innuendo last season about Jake’s mysterious work history?  Here it is, revealed!  Turns out that Jake did some work for Jennings and Rall, hauling supplies in Iraq.  While he was there, his convoy was ambushed and a couple of men were killed.  A bunch of soldiers wanted revenge.  They’d seen where the locals had fallen back, and they went in with guns blazing.  When the smoke cleared, six jihadists were dead, along with four onlookers, including a twelve year old girl.  The army had no authority over Jennings and Rall employees, so the men involved just went back to their jobs, and the company kept the whole thing quiet.  Jake’s obviously really torn up about his part in the whole thing, and Eric consoles him that this isn’t Iraq.  “The rules are the same,” Jake replies.

Dale finally makes it back to Jericho and starts unloading the supplies he’s been collecting on his magical mystery tour of post-nuclear America.  He tells Emily that he acquired some black market vaccine for the Hudson River virus.  Chirpy-naive Emily’s all, “We’re not in danger from the virus!”  But Dale knows better.  Back in Town Hall, Beck apparently already trusts Hawkins enough to let him hang around all of their sensitive equipment and information.  Hawkins tells Jake that he can’t run from this situation; now that Jimmy’s outed him, the only way out of this is to go through it.  Hmmm.  That’s actually really good advice, for many different situations.  I will keep it in mind.  Hawkins has decided to test Beck’s loyalty to the Cheyenne government.  If Beck isn’t open to hearing the truth about Cheyenne, then nothing Hawkins says will matter.  Beck will call Valente in the end, and it’ll be curtains for Robert Hawkins. 

Bonnie seems to have found a new friend in Trish, the blonde J&R bitch who tried to dupe her brother in the first episode.  Hey, she knows sign language, so she’s a good guy now!  Trish wants to know if Bonnie wants to go back to Cheyenne with her.  Cheyenne has become the new Portland, and all kinds of hipsters young people are moving there – the population’s gone from 60,000 to 800,000.  It’s a whole new world.  Like all teenagers throughout the entire history of the world since time began, Bonnie is tempted by this offer of moving to the city and leaving her smalltown roots behind. 

Getz has found out that Dale smuggled in the bootleg vaccine, and he’s confiscating the boxes; all unregistered pharmaceuticals are routinely shipped back to Cheyenne to be destroyed.  If the virus makes it to Jericho, J&R will issue a safe supply of vaccine.  This is unacceptable to Emily, and Dale, who team up with Jake, Heather and Eric to figure out just what the extent the virus has spread.  They hop on the Ham radio and Heather gets in touch with a woman in a quarantined town not so far away.  The virus has nailed their population, and they’ve lost two hundred and twenty people.  Frak! The Jerichoians look at each other in horror.  Only Jennings and Rall is authorized to distribute vaccine, but clearly it’s not getting to where it’s needed.  There’s no reason to believe that the generic is harmful, and they need those confiscated meds back.  Jake tells Eric to find Kenchy and come up with a plan for inoculating as many people as possible.  He’s going to get the vaccines back: the virus isn’t going do its dance ‘o death in Jericho. 

Hawkins, Jimmy and Beck run fingerprints from a gun clip that Hawkins v.v. handily provides, claiming Sarah left it behind when they had a gunfight and she “slipped away.”  Dude.  I can’t believe that Beck is buying this line of utter horse puckey.  Hawkins has sussed out that Beck’s not completely devoted to Cheyenne, and wants to know the truth.  But he’ll need Jake’s help to keep an eye on Beck, so no shenanigans that might cost him his job as Sheriff.  Har!  Jake’s all, “It just so happens that I might be up to some of those shenanigans of which you speak right now.”  Hawkins is less than pleased. 

At the hospital, Emily begs Kenchy the ‘fraidy cat doctor to help out with their madd inoculation plannz, but he’s all sweaty even thinking about going against Big Brother Jennings and Rall.  After some more blonde pleading (apparently the most effective kind), he finally agrees to give her instructions, and rattles off a shopping list of what they need to do to administer the vaccine on their own.  Emily pretty much gives up on trying to take notes.  “Please help,” she eyelash-bats.

Eric sits down with Suddenly-Trustworthy Trish and tells her he wants Getz transferred out because the man’s a sociopathic killer nutjob.  Trish says that J&R’s official policy is that Ravenwood people can only do their jobs if they’re protected from repercussions.  Personally, she thinks Ravenwood’s behavior is inexcusable, but she can’t change it and neither can he.  Trish’s parting gift to Eric is telling him that for “every one of them, there’s one of me.”  Whatever that’s supposed to mean.   Before he goes, Eric asks Trish if she’s been inoculated against the Hudson River virus.  Her guilty expression means that yes, yes she has.  Meanwhile, Heather tries another authority figure tack and goes to Beck, giving him the name of the nearby quarantined town.  She doesn’t care what the official reports say; people are dying, and they need help.  She hopes that Beck will cowboy up and provide it. 

Jake goes to give Dale a stern talking-to.  He’s all, “Hey Dale, those vaccines are headed out of town on a transport truck and it would be a big mistake for you to carefully remove the vaccines from their barcoded boxes but leave the boxes behind so that the theft won’t show up in the J&R system.”  Get it?  I think we all do, Jakester.  Unfortunately for the Green Gang though, Getz, although he is a thug of monumental proportions, is no dummy.  Currently he’s ordering Trish to let him know when the meds are destroyed.  Then he picks up a purchase order for 9056842 syringes for the “medical center,” and of course immediately gets suspicious.  He orders Trish to call the driver of the departed truck and have him physically examine its contents.  Meanwhile, Getz heads over to the hospital to strongarm an even sweatier Kenchy.

Over at Mimi and Stanley’s, Bonnie brings up Trish’s offer over dinner.  Apparently there’s a service program in Cheyenne that needs people who can sign.  Mimi and Stanley are both okay with Bonnie’s idea to go work in the big city, but Bonnie hesitates, saying this is her home.  Later on the front porch, Stanley approaches Bonnie alone.  He says that if she wants to go to Cheyenne, it’s her choice.  Bonnie protests that Stanley was going to play college football, but gave up his scholarship to stay in Jericho after their parents were killed in a car crash.  Stan brushes off the comparison – he wanted to come home anyway, and he couldn’t leave his little four-year-old sister alone.  She survived a horrible car crash – she can do anything she wants.  Stanley tells Bonnie that she just hasn’t had the chance to figure out what that is yet.  Life is short, and he wants her to be happy.  The sibs hug, and goddamn if a little tear doesn’t trickle down my cheek.  Again.  Damn you and your condensed storylines, Jericho!  You’re making me cry every freakin’ week!

Dale has gone “against” Jake’s advice and somehow swiped the vaccine.  But since this is the new, sped-up Jericho, we don’t get to see how.  Shucks.  Anyhoo, he shows up at a warehouse with a couple thousand doses in coolers.  He, Jake, Emily et al are planning on taking them to various secret locations around town, where they’ll inoculate the townsfolk.  Only one problem: Kenchy hasn’t shown up yet.  Jake takes off to go find him.  Get your ass in gear, Jake!   An extraordinarily nervous Kenchy is currently being menaced by Getz, who is becoming less neatly ironed polo shirt and more batshit insane Ravenwood by the moment.  Guess what?  He recognizes Kenchy from Rogue River.  And if Kenchy doesn’t tell him where the vaccines are, Getz is going to show him just how uncivilized he can be.  Yikes. 

The prints that Hawkins gave to Beck came back listed as classified.  Hawkins says it’s not a mistake; they’ve just stepped on a proverbial land mine.  This means that Sarah the “terrorist” that the Cheyenne government is hunting had a previous association (like, worked for) a classified government organization.  And now Beck has orders to shoot her on sight.  Isn’t that just a little fishy?   Hawkins does his best to convince Beck that if he lets on that he’s suspicious of the Cheyenne government, he’ll be removed from command – or worse.  There’s one way to find out if Valente’s lying – ask if it’s possible that Sarah ever worked for the government.  If Valente says no, Beck will have proof that something’s rotten in Cheyenne. 

Medical Center.  Jake shows up and interrupts Getz’s interrogation, but unfortunately not before Getz gets the info about the warehouse rendezvous.  Jake runs back there at full speed, ordering everybody to grab the meds and go – Jake will distract the Ravenwood dudes who have just come in the front.  What follows is a silly drawn out and confusing cat-and-mouse scene where Jake and Getz stalk around big pallets of supplies with their guns drawn.  Finally Jake turns a corner and comes face to face with Getz, who questions him about the stash of vaccines.  Innocent!Jake assures him that he’s checked the warehouse and it’s clear.  He doesn’t know anything about where the medicine might be.  Just then another Ravenwood type reports that the vaccines have been located in Cheyenne – they were indeed delivered and destroyed, right on schedule.  Everything was accounted for.  Jake gets an absolutely priceless smirk on his face, but the expression on Getz’s face tells me this ain’t over.

With Hawkins lurking about in the background, Beck contacts Valente and lies that he’s trying to make sense of some difficult intel.  Is it possible that Terrorist Sarah was ever in the employ of the US government?  A little too quickly, Valente replies that it is absolutely not possible.  He’s tired of Beck’s delays – the next time he gets in contact, he wants to hear that Sarah’s been eliminated.  Conversation terminated. Beck knows that Hawkins was right.  He accepts Hawkins’ offer to work together, and they shake on it.   As Hawkins exits, he swipes a piece of paper off of a desk. 

Bonnie’s decided to go to Cheyenne for a couple of weeks, just to “check it out.”  She’ll make a  list for Mimi, who promises to take care of Stanley.  The girls give each other big hugs.  They’ve come a long way from hating each others’ guts last season.  Meanwhile, the bootleg vaccine is being given to townsfolk in a back alley.  Jake and Eric conclude that someone on the inside of J&R must have changed the disposal facility log.  And I’m pretty sure Eric has a good idea of whom.  At the J&R office, Trish calmly shreds a fax that would have told Getz the truth about what really happened to the vaccines.  I think it’s safe to say that Trish has become a bona fide good guy.  Dammit.  I really wanted to keep hating her.  

Heather goes to see Beck and lets him know that she got a call from that quarantined town, which suddenly and mysteriously received a medical convoy with help for their outbreak of the virus.  Beck went outside of the chain of command and put himself at risk to help them – why?  Beck says that he has a family, too.  His wife was in Santa Fe when the bombs went off, and he is still hoping she’s okay.  Until the day he finds her, he’s doing his job and trusting that wherever she is, some army major is helping her the way he’s helping his people.  Okay, this just reaffirms my conclusion that Beck’s definitely a good guy. 

Back at home, Hawkins unfolds the stolen piece of paper.  Darcy says similar pages have been coming through the fax machine all week – she thought they were junk and was throwing them away.  Hawkins lets her know that it’s a type of code, only decipherable to people in his group, for when they need to communicate without anyone else knowing.  He’s pretty sure it’s not from Chavez.  Hawkins deciphers the code and gets a telephone number, which he punches into his cell.  A masculine voice answers:  “You found my message in a bottle.”  The man doesn’t identify himself.  “I can’t talk now, but I know who you are, and I know what you’re trying to do,” he says.  “And I want to help.”