Post a Comment        E-mail this Article to a Friend        Join the List

New season of Jericho fulfills the promise of season one

When it was announced at the end of last season that Jericho would not be renewed, I was upset.  The mayor was killed, a fight was on with a nearby town that promised to escalate to full scale war (as full scale as a war can be between two small towns in Kansas), and suddenly, deus ex machina, a government appears from, of all bizarre places, Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Since the future of the show was uncertain, they filmed two endings. And then cancellation.

Then I heard that a half-season of new episodes had been ordered, to air midway through the current season.  Some said it was because of viewer write-ins or peanuts, which might be true.  Jericho is the sort of show that would be downloaded or watched online so the Nielsen numbers would not accurately represent its true popularity.  In my circle of friends, we were all watching it.

The second season, set to be a Godsend to a strike-broken season, started last night.  I am hoping that viewers that might normally not give the show a trial run will tune in, given that there's not much else to watch.  Maybe this is one of the good things that will come out of the WGA strike.

The first episode of the second season, "Reconstruction," begins ominously.  There is a lot of gunfire, as the border war has just started, and Hawkins (Englishman Lennie James) uses a tank to block the rail line and wreck an inbound train.  Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) is forced to sit down at the negotiating table with Phil Constantino (Timothy Omundson - The Dude from Deadwood), the honcho of New Bern, and neither of them like it at all.  We find out that 136 people have died in the fight between Jericho and New Bern.  Newcomer Major Beck (Esai Morales - great casting) announces an end to hostilities, and in response to the objections and evil eyes of Green and Constantino points out that he has the power to back his pronouncement.

During the first season, the lack of reliable information about the bombs created an atmosphere of dread that hung over the cast and plot lines.  Early in season two, though, we see a brief television news segment informing us that the "day that changed the course of human history" killed 15 million people.  The news segment comes complete with a ticker at the bottom of the screen letting us know that the "Hudson River Virus Still Contained East Of Mississippi." I'm told that the Hudson makes the Thames look like that bottled Fiji Water, so any virus named after that river must be especially nasty. 

Oh, and it looks like the conspirators have planted evidence that the bombs were organized and financed by Iran and North Korea.  One bomb?  Maybe Iran or North Korea.  23 bombs?  Start looking for Dr. No.  Check the hollowed-out volcanoes first.  We've jumped to four weeks after the New Bern-Jericho conflagration.

The Cheyenne government (Allied States of America) has a new flag with fewer stars - folks east of the Mississippi are apparently too caught up with the Hudson River thing to join the government.  Everyone seems appropriately sad about the missing stars.

The East is allied under Columbus, Ohio (does this explain the continual, undeserved ranking of the OSU football team?)  We're led to believe by Hawkins and a new character, Chavez (Chris Kramer) that the Cheyenne government is less virtuous than the Columbus government.  Cheyenne is tied in with the bombs in an as-yet unknown way.  Still uncommitted is (God Bless)Texas, a large territory with oil and a steady supply of Republican Presidents, is the key.  One Texas to rule them all.  Chavez, part of Hawkins unit from before the bombs, announces their new mission: expose the link between the Cheyenne government and the bombs before Cheyenne can solidify its power.  Luckily, Hawkins has one of the bombs as evidence.

Stanley has his farm back (due to a dubious agreement with the new government) and the IRS lady proposes to him.  He accepts, because he's the kind of dope we like.  Looks like she got his farm after all.  The IRS lady reads over the deal to get the farm back, realizes its tilted in favor of the multinational corporation who negotiated it, and forces the multinational to let Stanley out of the contract, resolve his debt with the government, and give him a tractor.  We want Stanley to be happy, regardless of the piles of absurd plot points required to make him so.

New Bern, while likely at fault for the war, is given amnesty.  Constantino is removed from office, but it doesn't look like he'll be punished.  Jake is furious, but Major Beck asks him to be sheriff of Jericho knowing that once Jake is in a position of responsibility he'll calm down and get on board.  Once out of sight of Major Beck, Jake tells Eric they're going to New Bern to kill Constantino.

Jake proposes to murder Constantino on his way home from work at the factory, and Hawkins refuses to participate.  In true Hawkins style, he doesn't object in principle to killing Constantino.  He thinks the plan is dumb.  Revenge is best served cold, apparently.  He tells Jake he should be smart and wait three months.  Beck has the foresight to pick Jake up and give him an object lesson in the price of disorder: the bodies of three men from New Bern caught trying to infiltrate Jericho.  Beck is serious, and those men are dead.

Beck is a great addition to the cast.  He has just enough starch to be a serious military man, but seems flexible enough to make his character more than an icon for military order.  If you're going to add a central character, especially to fill the gap left by Johnston Green (Gerald McRaney), it must be a morally complicated, reflective presence.  There is also the same mystery about Beck as their was about Hawkins in the first season: when it comes down to it, whose side will he be on?  I have confidence that Esai Morales can give the kind of nuanced performance required to make this character a living, breathing person.

Beck's gamble on Jake works out.  Jake prevents his brother Eric from going to New Bern to kill Constantino.  Instead, they have Dan Dority do it.  Oh, wait.  Wrong show.

The episode ends with Beck telling Jake that his first test as sheriff is coming soon.  The President of the Cheyenne government is coming to Jericho for a visit.  I am certain he will be as creepy as I imagine him to be.