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Jericho Commentary: Episode Five, "Termination For Cause"

I can feel the tension ramping up.  I know that the makers of Jericho have three episodes left to either finish the series or get it re-upped, goals which might be at odds with one another.  I have to admit that through the first three episodes, I thought they were aiming to wrap things up, but episode four convinced me that the people behind the show believe they have a shot at another season.

Jericho, episode five, "Termination for Cause," begins where episode four left off.  Bonnie, Stanley's sister, has been killed by Goetz, and Stanley is so angry I expect him to turn green and split his pants.  Jake and the 5-Oh find 9 mm shell casings and Humvee tracks around the house.  This happens to be the contents of the parking lot of every happening club in Atlanta, but is out of the ordinary in Jericho.  They decide to gather the Rangers at the med station to protect IRS Lady.  Jake finds out Beck is headed to New Bern because a pipe bomb went off outside the Jennings & Rall office, killing six of Beck's men.  Beck tells Jake that Goetz is off limits, and Jake tells the Rangers that they are on their own.

Wisely, Jake sends Eric to the morgue with Stanley.  We cut to Goetz burning IRS Lady's records to cover up his theft.  Goetz finds out from one of his men that IRS Lady is in the hospital.  Goetz is surprised that IRS Lady was in the house.  I guess he skipped the Thorough 1101 class at Ravenwood Academy.  This is a bit of a plot hole, given that I would have searched the whole house and I don't kill people for a living.

Goetz and Jake face off outside the med center.  Jake pulls a gun and tells Goetz in no uncertain terms that Ravenwood will not be allowed to question IRS Lady, or to step foot in the medical center.  Goetz tells Jake that if he kills a Revenwood contractor, Cheyenne will classify Jericho as an insurgency hotspot.  Goetz is betting that the citizens of Jericho want peace and quiet more than they want to kill Goetz, which is a bad bet.

The New Bern resistance, presumably responsible for the pipe bomb, has placed a bounty on Heather's head for helping Cheyenne.  Heather's New Bern Schoolbuddies show up to warn her.  Hawkins is again on the phone with Mysterious Caller, aka George Mason, aka Xander Berkeley, who used to work for J & R.  We find out that President Condor was a star at J & R, as were many of his advisors, so much so that at "the highest levels, that government and this company are one and the same."  Hawkins finds this surprising.  Someone should tell him he is living in a weekly drama.

Goetz starts pulling Rangers' family members out of their houses to force them to come out of the med center.  One of the Rangers leaves, and then we see two Ravenwood guys trying to convince Hawkins to persuade Mrs. Hawkins, who they say is one of the "hostages" at the med center, to leave a "dangerous situation."  Hawkins points out that she's not really a hostage if she can just leave, but the Ravenwood yum-yums are unaffected by this logic.

Of course, they don't know he is the nastiest person within hundreds of square miles and that the audience has been waiting all season for his Keyser Soze moment.  And it comes.  One Ravenwood neck wrung, quite like a chicken, actually, and one Ravenwood guy staring down the barrel of a very angry Hawkins' gun.  Hawkins would like to know where his wife is, and he would like to know now.

IRS Lady wakes up in the hospital.  She immediately inquires about Stanley and Bonnie, and Mrs. Hawkins is evasive.  IRS Lady knows something is wrong, and is told that Bonnie is dead.  Stanley sits with Bonnie's body in the morgue.  In one of the better conceived scenes in the episode, he speaks to her body in sign language, the way he would have if she was alive.  It was touching, and not overdone, and a realistic expression of his grief consistent with his character and their relationship.  Well done, writing staff.

The New Bern Schoolbuddies tell Heather that the New Bern Resistance is lining up behind Constantino, and that Heather's tips have made things very hard for them.  The Schoolbuddies, instead of claiming the bounty on Heather, try to persuade her to stop helping Beck.  They also want a trophy to bring back to New Bern: Goetz.  If anyone deserved to be stuffed and mounted on a wall, its Geotz, an they Redneck Pride Parade that is New Bern would happily perform the taxidermy, I am sure.

We're back with Hawkins, who kills two more Ravenwood guys outside the med center.  Jake says they had twelve men, Hawkins has made it eight.  Now Ravenwood is outnumbered, and the Jericho folks have a hostage.  We also fins out that Goetz uses Sprint for cellphone service.  Which means my cell will work after the Apocalypse.  Awesome.  Goetz is calling Fred, the turncoat from episode four.

Hawkins rings Mysterious Caller to ask for help recreating IRS Lady's ledgers.  He needs access to the J & R system to prove Goetz is embezzling money.  Hawkins convinces IRS Lady to ask Blond J & R Decepticon for help. Decepticon pretends to be sorry that Bonnie is dead, but I don't believe her for a second.

Jake and Hawkins figure out the Fred is the turncoat, and use this to their advantage.  The feed him false information so that Ravenwoodwill come in through the front door while the citizenry pretends to escape through a hole in the wall.  They stay behind, though, and wait for Ravenwood to leave.  Before he is effectively shunned, Fred tells Jake where Ravenwood is meeting their reinforcements.

Turns out they aren't really reinforcements.  Goetz is fired for embezzling money, and Ravenwood loeaves Goetz and his men stranded at the crossroads to walk back.  Once the Ravenwood trucks have left, the Rangers move in.  And so do the New Bern Schoolbuddies.  Man, Goetz made everybody mad.  They'll need one of those number ticket machines at his execution.

Everyone is too busy debating who gets to take Goetz that they don't notice Stanley, who puts a bullet in Goetz's ear.  That pretty much settles the argument, and while Stanley is heaving in the tall grass, Hawkins points out that Goetz's death is something that cannot be hidden from Beck.

The Schoolbuddies are nice enough to take credit for Goetz's death, though.  They hang him up outside of New Bern just to make sure everyone notices.