Jericho - Oversight (Episode 204)

Oh my God, everybody.  I’m lucky that I could put down my Kleenex box long enough to write this recap.  I swore off spoilers, which is a blessing and a curse.  On the plus side, the action is always fresh.  But on the other hand, when something downright awful happens (as it did tonight) I’m entirely unprepared to be angry, horrified, and saddened to the core.  I spent most of today moping around my office.  Yeah, didn’t really feel the need to tell my coworkers it was because a fictional character on one of my TV shows died.  But I digress.  If you didn’t catch this week’s Jericho, grab your hankie and hang on tight.  This ride’s about to get bumpy.

Outside the Richmond Ranch house, shifty looking men change the tire on a small delivery truck.  It’s the return of Manly Stanley as he strides across the lawn, his blonde hair rippling in the breeze, baby blue eyes flashing, strong pecs majestically… ahem.  ‘Scuze me, I had a moment there.  Anyhoo, Stan’s aiming a shotgun at the strangers.  What the hell are they doing on his property?  Who should come around the truck but Dale, looking pale but determined.  He and his compatriots here are “importing.”  Through Stan’s yard.  At four A.M.  Dale, like the suavest of confident mafia men, gives Stan a bottle of liquor to look the other way.  The next day, Stanley returns it via Jake.  He wants Dale to quit using his property as a freeway.  Dale complains to Jake that it’s the easiest way to get his wares into Jericho.  His store is has become the only shopping alternative to Jennings and Rall, the giant corporation that’s taken over all other commerce and, IMO, seems to get more villainous with every passing episode.  Without Dale, everyone would be in debt to J&R, but his alternatively-imported goods are illegal so he can’t come through the checkpoints.  Just then, Getz slams a notice on the door of the store.  Dale has to register with the Nazis J&R and submit to weekly inventory inspections.  Otherwise he’ll be shut down for good.   

Hawkins gets a call from his new mystery contact, who wants to be called John Smith.  John Smith may not be the most original dude in the world, but he knows all about Hawkins.  The men apparently have goals in common.  An untrusting Hawkins snarls that he’s going to make the rules in this little tête-à-tête.  If John Smith lies about anything, Hawkins will find out.  And then Hawkins will track his ass down.  I completely believe him because Hawkins is just that badass, and wisely, John Smith agrees o these terms.  Although I must admit that I’m not sure why he contacted Hawkins in the first place; there doesn’t seem to be much in this for him.  Anyway, to get this party started, John tells Hawkins that “You’re a day away from being caught.” 

Over at Bailey’s, a gaggle of p.o.ed townsfolk have gathered to discuss the supply problem.  Jennings and Rall is jacking up prices and freezing bank accounts when people can’t pay.  Everyone is practically waving pitchforks and torches around, and they remind me of the angry town meetings on South Park where everyone just yells, “rabble rabble rabble!” Emily points out the similarities between what’s happening in Jericho and the stamp and sugar acts before the American Revolution.  In fact, every revolution throughout history started in rooms just like this, with groups of disgruntled people secretly talking about change.  Stanley proclaims that this isn’t a revolution, it’s simply a problem to solve.  They need a way other than Jennings and Rall to funnel in supplies.  Dale says he has the trade connections and trucks, and they really need to travel across Stan’s land.  “This isn’t Red Dawn,” fumes Stanley.  Jennings and Rall helped him become debt free, and he believes they’re there to help.  “How, by taking over everything?” Skylar yelps shrilly, instantly reminding me why I really don’t like her character very much.  Stanley’s done with this meeting.  Jake promises to find Dale another way into town, and just then Darcy comes looking for him.

Over at Hawkins Hideout, Jake gets filled in on the John Smith info.  Tomorrow a binder full of government radiation scans will be delivered to Beck’s office.  Cheyenne has used advanced technology to survey the area, and even lead can’t disguise pockets of radiation… such as, for example, the freakin’ nuclear bomb Hawkins has stashed in a hole in his garage.  Only one hard copy is being sent, and Hawkins needs Jake to get the correct page the heck out of that binder before Beck gets a gander at it.  Fortunately he has a plan.  Which apparently involves Hawkins burning down a house somewhere, because he takes off with a jug of gasoline. 

Town.  Hey, I hadn’t realized that Jennings and Rall built their new HQ (which, btw, resembles some sort of Evil Fortress of Doom– seriously, it’s all metal plated and studded with rivets) on the site of the burned-out library.  Hmmm.  Trading books for the ironclad fist of Big Brother.  Did I accidentally tune into a miniseries based on the novel “1984?”  Inside the Evil Fortress of Doom, J&R is doing all sorts of brisk evil commerce-y business.  Mimi’s there, too, happily unaware of how treacherous her new employer is as she does the books.  She’s found something odd, and wants to check her ledger against the office’s.  There’s a $10,000 difference in one account balance, which popped up when they switched over to the new currency.  Trish cheerfully says it’s probably a mistake.  The money’s under armed guard at all times.  She’ll take care of it.  Ummm… whoa.  Red flag, giant clanging alarm bell, do not pass go.  Somebody stole that money, man, and they’re not going to like the fact that Mimi figured it out. 

Jake walks into City Hall and discovers that the Sheriff’s office is being wired to resemble Ft. Knox.  The military types are installing a thumbprint scanner, because that room’s going to house top secret government documents.  And guess what?  Jake’s not on the list of people who’ll have access.  In fact, he’ll be the first Jericho sheriff in history without a key to the sheriff’s office.  Ha!  Jake takes a look at who does.  The only recognizable name is one Heather Lisinski.  At the moment, Ms. Lisinski’s filling Beck in on some problems over in New Bern.  My thoughts: she’s certainly come a long way from the complete dorktacular spaz that she was last season.  Heather thinks that New Bern’s curfew problems are too organized – the thugs are “testing the fence” as it were.  Beck promises to keep an eye on it, and is it just me, or is he a lil’ bit taken with our Heather?  Just then, he binder with the radiation survey is delivered, right on time. 

Over At Bailey’s, Mary, Eric and Emily map out possible alternate routes into town.  Dale shows up, and they wonder if they could manage to stop avoiding the checkpoints – simply waltz right on through.  Meanwhile, a nervous bald type who was at the revolution meeting the other night has decided to go all Benedict Arnold and make a trip to the Evil Fortress of Doom to nark to Getz.  Dude, who would go talk to this guy voluntarily?  At any given moment he looks like he’s about to put a bag over somebody’s head and attach jumper cables to their nipples.  Nervous Baldy does a deal with the devil in exchange for debt forgiveness, and tells Getz that Dale’s the one behind Jericho’s flourishing black market.  Hey Dale!  All I have to say is that I hope you have tough nipples. 

Jake lets Hawkins know that he can’t get access to the binder, short of amputating the thumb of one of the people who’s authorized to enter the room.  But he has an alternate suggestion: tell Heather everything, and bring her into their exclusive little Take-down-the-Cheyenne-Government club.  Beck trusts Heather, and she could get the paper, but she’s smart and will want to know why.  Hawkins whines that every time they hit a snafu, Jake wants to bring someone else on board.  Whereupon Jake hollers that Hawkins had better damned well have another suggestion.  Eight people have access to that room, and seven of them are military.  Got any brighter ideas?

Apparently not.  Next thing you know, Jake’s gotten Heather and Hawkins together.  Hawkins makes a well prepared little speech.  He’s going to ask her for help, and in doing so, tell her some dangerous things.  There are people who will kill to prevent these secrets from coming to light.  If she knows what’s at stake, he thinks she’ll want to help: it’s The Future of Our Country.  Stunned, Heather says that she’s listening.  Meanwhile, over at the Evil Fortress of Doom, Bonnie meets Getz while hanging out with Trish.  At the sight of Bonnie’s sweet cuteness Getz somehow manages to crack something that probably intends to be a smile, but which ends up resembling a twisted death mask.  Shudder. Trish fills Getz in on the missing money sitch, and passes along an incident report so that he can open a formal investigation.  After all, they both know about Jennings and Rall’s no tolerance theft policy.  A freakily deadpan Getz asks where she got the info, and Trish tells him that a Mimi, a local contractor, found the discrepancy.  Getz promises to take Mimi out look into it right away. 

It turns out that Mary’s alternate plan for getting Dale directly through the checkpoints is this: flirt with the soldier guarding said checkpoints (who frequents her bar) and ask him to look the other way when the trucks drive through.  She’s all, “Gee if you want to keep drinking booze here I have to keep my lil’ shelves stocked!”  Eyelash bat, eyelash bat.  Nice.  All seems to be fine and good until Dale gets accosted by a smug Getz as he loads up his truck.  Get your hands off of my Dale, you creepy bastard! 

Over at the Hawkins Hideout, you can tell Heather’s been told the whole story, because her jaw is practically resting on the rug.  She agrees to help.  Hawkins tells her about needing to remove the page from the binder in Beck’s office.  Heather balks, saying she’s certain Beck’s a good man.  Hawkins agrees, but says that Beck is taking orders from baddies.  This piece of paper has to be swiped today.  Jake apologizes for dragging Heather into this, but tells her that there was no other way.  Over at the Sheriff’s office, they put their plan into action.  Hawkins heads in to see Beck and urgently asks how quickly they can get to Nebraska.  One of Hawkins’ “informants” supposedly saw Sarah at a remote farmhouse, but she won’t be there long.  Beck falls for the bait and calls for backup and choppers, and he and Hawkins charge right out the door.  Meanwhile, outside, Bonnie and Stanley are strolling along the sidewalk, talking about Bonnie’s great adventure – she thinks she may go work in California.  They spot Getz’s Hummer as it pulls up in front of the J&R building and Dale is unloaded with his hands bound.  The sibs figure out that they must have caught Dale smuggling, and an irate Bonnie signs that they’re not police – they shouldn’t have the authority to make arrests.  “This isn’t right,” Stanley fumes.  They take off to find Jake.

It’s Heather’s moment of opportunity.  She makes her way to Beck’s empty office and presses her thumb to the scanner to get in, walking past the soldier guarding the door.  Dude.  To say that Heather’s nervous would be an extreme understatement.  I bet this chick never cut class, never snuck out, and never swiped money from her mom’s purse.  Ms. Straight and Narrow is about to sweat a puddle as she glances around the office.  The window blinds are all open, and anybody paying attention would see what she’s doing.  Nervous!Heather locates the binder and finds the correct page.  She takes a deep breath… and rips it out.  Way to grab onto your wild side, girl!  Quickly, she folds it and tucks it in her back pocket.  Heather replaces the binder and heads for the door… and suddenly a soldier walks in and accosts her.  “What are you doing in here?” he asks suspiciously.  Busted.

Meanwhile, Hawkins and Beck roll up to the farmhouse where his “informant” supposedly “saw Sarah.”  Guess what?  The place has been burned to the ground.  So that’s where Hawkins went the other night!  Hawkins fakes chagrin as the soldiers do some investigatin.’ They find spent bullet cases and the burned body of a male victim.  Say what??  Where the hell did Hawkins drum up a body to stash in that house before he burned it down??  Please tell me he didn’t murder somebody to advance this little subplot.  The guys also find a hard drive hidden in the wall of the house.  Hawkins thinks that Sarah came here to tie up a loose end, but got sloppy.  Meanwhile, over at the J&R Evil Fortress of Doom, Jake demands that Getz release Dale to his custody; Getz has no authority to hold him, and J&R may be an Evil Fortress of Doom, but it’s not a jail. Getz smirks that they’re too late; Dale’s guilty and he’s already on his way to prison.  DUDE!  What happened to innocent until proven guilty?  Or a fair trial with a jury of your peers?  Guess there’s no place for those kinds of minor details in the Cheyenne government.

Jake knows that he’s on his way to losing whatever control the townsfolk have left in Jericho.  He needs to put his foot down, pronto.  He sends a man to find Beck and relay a message; he and Stanley are stopping Dale’s prison transport.  Back at the Sheriff’s office, Beck returns from his mission with Hawkins to find Heather being guarded by the suspicious sergeant.  She looks like a naughty schoolgirl who’s been sent to the principal’s office.  Heather’s all, “I swear teacher I wasn’t looking at intelligence outside of my clearance level!” Beck believes her, and coldly dismisses Sergeant Suspicious.  He even apologizes to Heather and says that he hopes she hasn’t lost faith in him.  A tremblypants Heather gets the hell out of there. 

Dale’s prison transport truck rolls to a stop, because Jake has blocked the road with his Sheriff’s car.  He, Stanley, and Deputy Bill stand behind it with their hands in the air as a soldier descends and orders them to clear out.  Jake shouts that he has orders from Beck to turn Dale over to him.  The soldier raises his gun, shouting that he’ll shoot if they don’t move right away.  Jake and his pals stand their ground, and suddenly another soldier comes running up with a field phone.  It is indeed Beck, and he wants to talk to Jake.  Jake gets on the horn with a very pissed off Beck, and asks that the Major declare Dale a terrorist witness, to place him under Jake’s jurisdiction.  Getz is sending him to prison with no trial, and he’s just a kid.  Sure enough, Beck helps them out.  The soldiers turn Dale over and they cut off his plastic bindings before loading him into the police car. 

Back at the Evil Fortress of Doom, Getz wants to see Mimi’s ledger with the discrepancy in it.  She tells him that her original ledger is at home.  In order to provide independent checks and balances, she needs to be, well, independent.  Getz’s eyes burn like hot coals in the depths of  hell as he says, “I’m the chief administrator and I want that ledger right freakin’ now.”  To keep it “safe.”  Riiiight.  Mimi tells him she’ll bring it tomorrow, and carefully excuses herself lest his gaze burn a hole straight through her forehead. 

Beck learns that the hard drive they found in the house contains transcripts of conversations between Sarah and Bosley a mystery boss.  It seems that she worked as a Charlie’s Angel assassin.  There’s also surveillance, and he zooms in on a satellite shot of a couple of men meeting in a parking lot.  One of them is bald as a cueball.  Beck takes one look and you can tell by his “oh shit” expression that he recognizes the man as his own boss.  Later, he and Hawkins chat.  Hawkins says that Sarah was black ops, and anyone connected to her had to die.  She must have killed the man in the house and set fire to it on her boss’ orders.  The real question remains: what are they cleaning up?  Beck looks at Hawkins slyly and pops off with, “There was no informant, was there?”  Quoi?  He knows that Hawkins is lying!!  Beck says that ever since Hawkins waltzed in here he’s had answers.  The convenient house fire and handy hard drive were just a little too easy for his tastes.  Any good reason why he shouldn’t just kick Hawkins’ ass off to prison?  Hawkins proves that he’s just as calculating by craftily wondering what Beck saw on that hard drive to get his panties into such a bunch.  Did he find something he doesn’t want to believe?  Beck pulls up the footage.  The bald guy is Thomas Lillinghammer, head of the Department of Homeland Security.  And he lied.  Sarah Mason worked for him. 

Back at the Richmond Ranch, Mimi hurries in the front door and finds her original ledger.  She tells a worried Bonnie that someone’s stealing money from Jennings and Rall, and the head administrator knows she’s onto it.  Just then, a hummer pulls up out front, and Getz and four other Ravenwood types climb out, arraying themselves menacingly across the front yard.  Oh fuck me, I knew he wouldn’t wait for her to bring that ledger in.  He’s come to get it at any cost, and Bonnie and Mimi are alone in the house.  Crap, crap, crap!  “Anybody in there?”  Getz yells way too calmly.  He orders any occupants to come out and talk to him.  Mimi frantically shushes Bonnie, Grabbing her by the hand and telling her not to go out there.  But Bonnie slips away and goes out front to face the men.  “Bonnie, right?”  Getz says.  “Is Mimi Clark inside?”  Bonnie tells him that she’s sorry, but Mimi’s not at home right now.  Whereupon Getz decides that they’ll just have a look around on their own, kthx.  The men pull out their pistols, and Bonnie turns tail and runs back into the house.  She locks the front door behind her, but goddamn, I think we all know that’s not going to stop Ravenwood.  I’m starting to get a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.  Mimi frantically and tries to drag her into the pantry to hide, but again, Bonnie slips away.  A Ravenwood thug kicks down the front door and comes in with his pistol drawn, and… BLAM!  He goes flying backwards!  Bonnie, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, has shot him with the shotgun!  As he hits the ground his pistol goes off and the bullet slams through the pantry wall and straight into Mimi.  She falls to the floor and another Ravenwood type comes in the front door, gun blazing.  Badass!Bonnie reloads and fires again, taking down thug #2.  She looks around, shotgun at the ready, unable to hear what else might be coming her way.  There are three men left.  She nails another one as he creeps past the living room window, and then the fourth.  And then, finally, Getz comes in the front door and raises his pistol.  Oh shit.  Oh, no.  Back inside the pantry, three more shots rip through the wall, and then all is silent.  Mimi, blood covering her right side, sits shaking for a moment.  It’s written all over her face that she knows what just happened.  She manages to peer out one of the bullet holes before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.  No, no, they can’t cut away!  

But they do, and we see Hawkins talking to John Smith.  He wants the truth to come out: Jennings and Rall had something to do with the bombings.  Cheyenne’s running something called Project Boxcar, designed to eliminate evidence about the nuclear attacks.  John smith sends Hawkins a picture mail of a Continuity of Government Report for fiscal year 1993.  It’s a classified disaster plan prepared by Jennings and Rall, identifying weak spots in the nation’s defenses.  Jennings and Rall was supposed to help protect the U.S., but someone in their company made our worst nightmare come true.  And how does John Smith know about this report?  Because he helped write it. 

Time for the reckoning, everyone.  Jake’s Sheriff car pulls up at the Richmond Ranch.  Paramedics are there, and so is Eric, shaking his head sadly.  Jake walks in to find  Mimi’s unconscious on a stretcher, an oxygen mask over her face.  And there on the floor is sweet, vibrant, hopeful little Bonnie, lying dead in her brother Stanley’s arms. 

Pass me that tissue box, folks.  I think I’m going to need it again.