''Jericho'' recap: You want a revolution?

”Jericho” recap: You want a revolution?

I’ll be honest with you. I was about to give up on Jericho, but last night’s episode changed everything. It was the first time this season that I was so tense and wound up after the show that I couldn’t concentrate; the episode was so rife with raw emotion that it physically drained me. What’s more, it answered many questions.

Once again I have to start with Dale and his unending quest to save his hometown. He has taken Gracie’s spirit and run with it. He’s put his life on the line more than once to make sure Jericho’s citizens have what they need to survive. If it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t have received the vaccine for the Hudson River virus. This time around, he was smuggling in goods to the town to sell. Not such a bad thing considering that Jennings & Rall seem to be on their way to controlling the Allied States of America like they own it.

Luckily Bonnie and Stanley saw Dale being escorted, in plastic cuffs, into the J&R building and let Jake know. Once that happened, we knew Dale would get out of his predicament. While I understand that Beck’s job is to find Sarah Mason and Goetz’s is to keep order in Jericho, I’m still not clear on the actual chain of command. The way I understood it, Goetz was brought in to take control of Jericho since Beck couldn’t handle it. Yet Beck seemed to have power over Goetz, especially when it came to Dale. Apparently, Goetz just needed to be told that Dale was a confidential terror informant. I don’t think Goetz would have accepted this, seeing how he’s managed things so far. Then again, maybe Beck didn’t tell Goetz that he was letting Dale go. I’m confused just thinking about it all.

Adding to my confusion is this ”John Smith” person. Who could he be? It initially sounded like Goetz on the phone, but that wouldn’t make any sense. Then as Smith told Hawkins about Sarah Mason, Project Red Bell, and Chung and Chavez’s survival, I thought to myself, ”It has to be someone on the inside.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s someone who was in the room when Sarah Mason and Hawkins were first briefed on the project. (This was the same meeting where Sarah Mason spoke with Valente.) It’ll be interesting to see where Smith leads us. Since we know Hawkins, we know he wasn’t playing around when he told Smith he would kill him if he lied to him. I’m secretly hoping he lies.

Hawkins looked completely perturbed speaking with Smith, for a good reason; Smith told him he had 24 hours before he would be caught. And with that, Hawkins concocted a plan to obtain the page of the report that would lead Beck to his hideout. The plan included not only burning down Sarah Mason’s faux safe house but also convincing Heather that it was a good idea to rip the page out of the report in Beck’s office.

Sure Hawkins made the hard drive that was found in the charred house, but Beck isn’t stupid. He questioned him about the drive and its contents. To which Hawkins obviously played dumb. I see Hawkins’ motive here, to force Beck to question Valente as much as possible. But even with this data, Beck still doesn’t know who to trust.

At least we had Mimi, who was direct, straightforward, and a strict rule follower. Well, she was working at J&R as an independent auditor (a job she got after taking them to task for tricking Stanley into signing over his farm). And what do you know? She found that $10,000 had gone missing from the coffers once the new currency showed up. Like a good employee, she reported the discrepancy to Trish, who in turn told Goetz, and then things really got interesting.

I mean, who would have guessed that Goetz would have been embezzling money from a company that tracks inventory like a hawk? At least, that’s the only explanation for his reaction to the news of the missing funds. Doesn’t it go counter to what he told Jake about Dale when he picked him up? ”There is no place for thieves in Jericho.” Oh really, Goetz?

NEXT: Shootout at Stanley’s farm

We all know what this led to, an unbelievably sad, and completely shocking, shootout between Goetz’s crew and Bonnie. Mimi tried to protect her, but she couldn’t. Bonnie had too much moxie to let anyone attack Mimi. They had their initial differences, but Bonnie obviously cared for Mimi as part of her family. And so it ended, with Bonnie lying dead in Stanley’s arms and Mimi with a bullet wound.

While this would have been a shocking enough ending, we then witnessed another call from John Smith, wherein we learned about Project Boxcar, a covert operation run by the Cheyenne government to eliminate any and all evidence of the bomb attacks. Then Smith sent Hawkins a classified Department of Defense report from 1993, written by J&R, about what would happen if nuclear weapons went off on the ground in 25 U.S. cities. It was meant to protect the country, find the weak spots in case of attack. Instead, it appears to have been used against us. And how did John Smith know all of this information? Well, he helped write the report — obviously.

Whoa. Amazing. Jericho is back, in a big way. I wonder just how far they’ll take the ”revolution” idea that Emily tossed about in Mary’s tavern. Stanley didn’t want to hear about it, but I think it’s coming. I think a revolution has to happen if they want to survive.

What do you think? Were you as shocked as I was by Bonnie’s death? What will be the repercussions of the shootout with Goetz? And do you trust John Smith? Is he really trying to help Hawkins?