Jericho: Ep. 202 - Condor

**Bacchus** · #1 02-20-2008

Jericho

Jericho might not be up for any awards come next years Golden Globes, but for fans of the series it is great to see the story take a dramatic turn adding intrigue, action and a few unexpected plot twists.

One thing that is apparent is the writers are not very shy about making parallels to the current real world White House administration. The new storyline revolves around the fact that the "Allied States of America" attacked two countries that were not implicitly involved in the presumptive external terrorist bellicosity that devastated the nation. We "retaliated" and produced the needed evidence after the fact to impugn the acts of Iran and North Korea, both now smoldering nuclear wastelands.

This episode also gives a very disturbing view of post apocolyptic America. The future is of an unmistakable fascist nature with a degradation of such staples of Americana like freedom of the press. There is a quick revisionist history of the country written to include such gems as the pullout from Vietnam being premature. All of this sets the stage for our protagonists Jake and Hawkins to save the day, hopefully!

The first major "got you" moment of the night came when the journalist that Jake had shared the truth about the attacks (Russian Plutonium) ended up dead from a heart attack. Obviously he was a fool and called his editor to share the details of this historic find. Good thing they decided to kill him off rather then take him alive. Jake would have been stewed.

It was great to see that Hawkins buddy is actually a good guy (maybe.) The whole subplot about Boxcar (or is it Bockscar like the plane that dropped the Nagasaki bomb?) had me nervous as the way that entire conversation went down made me question for a moment if he was really on the up and up. I think he is and it was another great moment when we found out he was a spook and they flash to the humvee (with the MP's dead and him gone!) Badass!

I was not especially impressed with the marrige sidestory. There are just not enough episodes or time to waste with slow motion character development. Sure, if Jericho had been greenlit for 22 episodes I'd say go for it. However, with the limited schedule I think they need to stick to the action and forgo the mooshy details.

I am going to have to assume that as this story progresses we will see the Colonel join the good fight (now that Ravenwood is involved which was the final clincher) and help Jake & Hawkins free the Western States from the grips of a new American Mussolini.

A couple of side notes:

1. Did anyone notice the topography in some of the shots of Jericho? I swear they are in Southern California...lol

2. Why in the world out of all the places in Western America would the president all of a sudden come to the sleepy town of Jericho to give his speech? Not very likely. I really don't think Jericho is the center of the Universe as the writers want us to believe, but ok, I can take that leap of faith.

**Bacchus** · #2 02-20-2008

More Jericho ratings bad news. My guess is they are going to go with the alternative ending that sums everything up, although even worse - there are rumors it will go straight to the internet rather then finish its seven episode run!

CBS got off to a positive start last night, with a repeat of old faithful NCIS at 10.85 million viewers (#2) and a 2.2/ 6 among adults 18-49 (#3). But the combination of Big Brother and Jericho took a hit from 9-11 p.m., with Big Brother: ‘Til Death Do Us Part at 5.42 million viewers (#3) and a 2.0/ 5 among adults 18-49 (#3) at 9 p.m. (#3) and episode two of season two of Jericho at an equally disappointing 5.94 million viewers (#3) and a 2.0/ 5 in the demo (#2) at 10 p.m.

One week earlier, Jericho opened with 7.08 million viewers and a 2.6/ 7 among adults 18-49. CBS would have been better off finding an earlier time period for Jericho.

[ via Pifeedback ]

BTW: Big Brother is tanking! It would have made much more sense to run Jericho after NCIS (much closer thematically and retain some of that audience) and run BB9 after Jericho (and outside the influence of the elephant reality show on the block, Idol.)

**Kathleen** · #3 02-21-2008

Whoever makes these program scheduling decisions really disappoint me. I agree Bacchus, Jericho should have been right after NCIS for maximum viewer retainage (yes, I know that's not a word

) and I can't complain too much about the day, with the power house American Idol running three nights a week and a full slate on Thursday with other popular shows like Survivor and Lost, the only other night is Friday and we all know that even with no competition...Friday is death.

I have to admit I was confused for most of the episode in regards to Hawkins and his buddy. To me it sounded like they were attempting an attack on the 'president' or in the very least Hawkins was back on assignment. Was I just slow on the uptake or was that the writer's intention?

Bacchus I think that the 'president' is in Jericho because he is part of the 'terrorist' group that released the bomb and who Hawkins was working for. The bald man sent them (the army) there to find Sarah (remember they had no intention of helping out Jericho when school teacher...forget her name... told them Jericho was under attack, until the bald man said to go) and since they can't seem to find her, he sent in Ravenwood.

And even if the 'president' is not with them...he's on the campaign trail. Just like in pre-television, pre-national media coverage. He has to literally go from town to town and rally support.

I think it's crazy that only a few people actually understood the meaning behind the president's speech, you would think a lot more alarm flag would have been raised. This really is like reliving history. You see parallels to today's politics and I see parallels to 200 years ago.

I'm not really understanding the big picture though. How can two federal governments be forming, like this? Where is the UN? Would they not have the power to step in to guide and protect the American people?