''Jericho'' recap: The resistance begins

”Jericho” recap: The resistance begins

I know, I know, this mini-season that CBS has given us Jericho fans pretty much blows chunks, but we’ve got to soak it up before it’s over. I seriously doubt they’ll give this show a full season, especially when you take into account its current poor ratings, but at least the writers are…trying? (Yes, I was grimacing when I wrote that.) The creative team sure did something with Jericho; I’m just not convinced they did it with the purpose of persuading CBS to renew. It seems to me that they are, as many of you have noted in the comments, simply shoving a whole season’s worth of story into seven episodes, poorly. But hey, at least Dale’s back!

Speaking of Dale, I kept wondering why he was traveling around to different trading posts. Yeah, he had lots of stuff at the market he could trade, but with Jennings & Rall in town, and an abundance of bottled beer, long-stemmed roses, hamburgers, and chocolate chips around, just what was he looking for? Granted, if he hadn’t been out and about, we wouldn’t have had proof that the Hudson River virus had crossed the blue line. And the boy should get mad props for having the foresight to trade some goods on the black market for the vaccine. Even though the second the boxes showed up in the warehouse, I said, ”Dale is so going to drop something.” (The boy didn’t let me down!)

But leave it to Goetz to stop this good deed. It was obvious from the first time he showed his face that he was an ass of the highest degree, but now that he’s basically in charge of Jericho, he’s gotten worse. He called Jake out by letting him know that he knows what Jake did in Iraq. And he probably threatened Kenchy with some sort of gruesome dismemberment to get him to reveal where the vaccines were.

Jennings & Rall and Ravenwood are like this all-knowing power that reminds me of the Umbrella Corporation from Resident Evil. It’s like they’ve created their own militaristic, dictatorial state. As Jake told Eric, ”Ravenwood is above the law.” How else would you explain every last bit of inventory being meticulously counted? It’s just creepy.

And it’s now clear that the creepiness is leading to some dissension in the ranks. Jake obviously knows what they are capable of, and Trish started to see it when Eric talked to her. Look at who put her life — yes, life — on the line to falsify the arrival manifest for the vaccines headed to Cheyenne. Let’s hope she can pull off some other tricks before heading off to Cheyenne with Bonnie, if they manage to leave town.

In other news, Jimmy’s finally out of the hospital and back at work, but it’s obvious he wanted to be sheriff. Did you notice that scowl he gave Beck? I hope he’ll stop being so dense and actually put two and two together. Let’s see him take Jake and Hawkins on! After all, he almost blew Hawkins’ cover by telling Beck that Hawkins knew Sarah Mason (who is now starring in a Nissan Murano commercial — well, the actress who played Mason is). Lucky for us, Darcy was working in the office and warned Hawkins what was going on.

NEXT: Hunting a dead woman

So off we go, with Hawkins inventing a new story for Beck to bring him to his side. But we still don’t know for sure what side Hawkins is on, or what he’s trying to do. Is he really CIA? Is he really ”black ops,” as Beck said Chavez is? Would there really be two separate FBI databases for each country? At least Hawkins persuaded Beck to talk with Valente about the Sarah Mason mess. Let’s see where that leaves us next week. It better be someplace with answers, that’s all I know.

I think Hawkins should bring a piece of Sarah Mason to Beck. Maybe a dog will dig up the body, by accident, like the way Freddy Krueger came back in Nightmare on Elm Street 4. (Given how uneven these three episodes have been, I won’t put anything past the producers.) I am convinced that her corpse has to make an appearance at some point, and Hawkins is going to be the one to bring it to light.

Maybe I’m just too bitter about what’s happened to one of my favorite shows, but the suspense in this episode with the vaccines was so forced that I was left saying, ”Who cares?” The ”emotional segment” with Bonnie and Stanley and the cheesetastic music seemed oddly out of place. And wouldn’t Ravenwood have noticed hordes of people waiting in line for a vaccine, or were they hidden by some magic wall? Someone got sloppy with the details.

There is still hope for the last four episodes with Chavez, Hawkins, and Valente. And let’s just see where Beck’s loyalty really lies. Will he be with the Allied States or with Hawkins? Most important, who the hell did Hawkins call? It can’t be good if even he looked spooked. What do you think?