''Jericho'' recap: The new bosses

”Jericho” recap: The new bosses

I’m an Air Force brat and grew up on military bases all over the world. I’ve been around many generals and colonels in my time, and I have a really hard time believing Major Beck and the military crew with the Allied States would just accept Tomarchio as the new president. Perhaps my view of the military leadership is too idealistic. It also doesn’t seem logical that the military would split its allegiance in half. But that was only one of the many “huh?” occurrences on this week’s Jericho.

I have to start off with Chavez, because something just doesn’t sit right with me about him. Like everyone Hawkins has worked with, he doesn’t seem trustworthy. Even though Hawkins was sharing information with him, that look in Hawkins’ eye said he was questioning much of what he was hearing. And I have the feeling that Chavez knows what’s in that computer file the password wouldn’t open, and that he isn’t telling Hawkins everything he knows about the situation in Texas.

I love the writers for giving Darcy something ballsy to do. She’s developed into the character I always thought she would become, strong willed, forceful, and intelligent. The way she swiped the walkie-talkie and then slipped it out of her purse unnoticed was brilliant. And let’s not forget how she scrubbed the office of all traces of Chavez. I secretly hope it turns out that Darcy knew about all of this beforehand and has been playing dumb. Maybe she’ll even turn around and take out Hawkins.

Don’t tell me I was the only one excited to see Bonnie. I’m glad they didn’t find some way to write her off. I was also relieved, paradoxically, when Stanley and Bonnie told Mimi that they had asked Jennings & Rall to look for her relatives and that none of them had survived. That could have been a weak, predictable development — you know, like in War of the Worlds, when everyone from Tom Cruise’s family survives. Lame.

Is anyone else puzzled that Jericho seems to have everything only four weeks after the New Bern war? Electricity is back up, they have regular food coming in (Heather was eating a burger in the season premiere; Stanley and Mimi had pancakes with chocolate chips in this episode), and communication lines seem to be up and running. As a friend of mine said, ”It’s probably because ‘they’ think Sarah is there and the president is coming, so that town is getting all the resources.” But think about it: If 23 cities across the U.S. were nuked, would a small town like Jericho be among the first to get back on the grid? Or should we believe that most other towns are already up and running?

NEXT: Alert the media!

The president’s speech at the farm gave him a chance to spout his new agenda on a fresh battleground. He was supposedly trying to heal Jericho’s wounds, but not everyone bought it. Earlier, Emily and Eric had spoken with Gray about the new history textbooks, which have completely rewritten the history of the last 50 years. This would imply that the attacks were in the works for a long while. How else would the textbooks be written and published so quickly? Initially, Gray didn’t seem to care, but he soon came to his senses that ”something just isn’t right” about this new government. Tomarchio’s talk about a new constitution provoked him further. Let’s hope he sticks to his guns on this one.

And this new government is definitely one to be questioned. Jake formed an alliance with Alex Utley from the Modesto Bee, only for him to be found dead mere hours after Jake fed him some information. We learned from Alex that nothing gets published unless the new government approves it. If the country is split in two, this leads me to believe that news from the ”other side” doesn’t get through to the Allied States.

You know what I’d like to know? Just where else did the EMP hit? Was it only around Jericho? Was it the whole country? Clocks are working again in town, but the EMP was supposed to have fried all the circuits. There are also newer cars driving around; of course, these could all be cars that weren’t anywhere near the EMP site. But still, doesn’t it make you wonder?

So, besides the thinly veiled attacks on the Patriot Act (the facial-recognition database that cross-references DMV, library, and voter-registration records) and Valente sending the now clean-shaven Goetz from Ravenwood to take over operations from Major Beck, what else got your attention this episode? Should we be scared of Chavez? How did Eric and Jake’s vendetta against Constantino just vanish overnight? And are we going to hear more about the Hudson River virus?