(S01E06) Well, well, well...so Hawkins has been gone from his family for the past four years, eh? Just like Jake. Hmmmm...
That was the most interesting revelation in tonight's episode. It was mostly a mix of tedious scenes and a few plot developments we had to have to move the plot along and set up future events
Oh, and horses. Lots and lots of horses.
An EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) takes out all the power and anything with a circuit (laptops, watches, etc) just when Hawkins has sent a message to somebody to find out if the rockets are "ours" or "theirs," but with no explanation as to what exactly he means. Luckily he has a lot of those green glow in the dark sticks you snap to give you light. He gives them to his family.
Meanwhile, we learn a little bit more about the trouble that Jake was into years ago that made him leave town (looks like they're really pushing this part of the plot now). It involved his former best friend Mitch, a friend of Mitch's who was killed, and Jake having to leave town. At the Green's home, the horses start to act up, and Jake's mom goes to see what's going on with them. Just then, the horses run out of the barn, and two of them have men on top of them. Jake's mom hurts her arm, but otherwise she's OK. Jake thinks it's Mitch and his buddies, so he goes to the airport (?) to see. Yup, there are the horses, all in a corrall. I have no idea why Mitch stole the horses during a possible nuclear war (to eat? to sell? to ride off into the sunset?), but Dale is there too. He's been roped into helping them, and Jake knows he might go down the same path as he did when he was a kid and he wants to help him. But Mitch knocks him out from behind.
Jake's brother (back with his wife and ditching the bartender who's in love with him, for now anyway) shows up with others and save Jake, but Mitch escapes on a horse while shooting a shotgun. I thought this was a rather stupid scene, like something out of Matt Houston or Charlie's Angels. Thank God Jake didn't jump on another horse and chase him. Mitch gets away. Bonnie comes to bail out Dale with her credit card, but Jake just lets him go.
The government woman who has come to close down Stanley's farm has a deal: let her stay there and she'll subtract what he owes the government as her rent. I wsa waiting for him to say, "fine, my rent is $10,000 a day," but he just makes wiseass remarks. Stanley then notices that his crops are all ruined with worms and maggots and beetles (I was eating at this point and it kinda grossed me out), and he needs pesticide. The cranky lady at the store won't give him hers unless they make a deal, and Johnston insists the crops be used for everyone in the town. Stanley doesn't want to do that. The government woman pays someone to steal pesticides for him, and hides them in his barn. The police find them, so Stanley is about to do something drastic, but the entire town shows up to help him with his crops. All while a country-ish pop song plays in the background, of course (it was Jakob Dylan).
Hawkins daughter goes snooping, and not only finds the map with all the possibly destroyed towns marked with a push pin, but finds out his laptop is working. Hawkins tries to explain. He also decides to give her shooting lessons outside, just in case she needs to know...
A so-so episode, with a bit of filler. But not bad. I like that the characters were made a little stronger and that the mystery of Hawkins (and Jake) is beginning to deepen. And I liked that scene in the field near the end, where Hawkins' daughter asks dad if Jake is a good man or a bad man, and he replies "there's no such thing."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-25-2006 @ 11:47PM
Shaun Daily said...
Pretty solid episode I think. Gail had more to do in this episode and yes it pushed forward the two mysteries about Hawkins and Jake.
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10-25-2006 @ 10:22PM
ladi said...
Is it just me, or does Jake always seem to be trying to touch his ears with his shoulders?
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10-25-2006 @ 10:32PM
Stephen Knowles said...
Did you even watch the episode? The kids who steal the pesticides hide them in town, so Stanley's cop friend(or ex-friend now?) doesn't find anything. Stanley takes the cranky woman to the hiding spot, they make amends, and just as Stanley is going to burn the bad crops the town shows up to make happy.
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10-25-2006 @ 10:49PM
Robert said...
Ha ha, I thought I had watched something different when that part of the story came up. I was eating too, so I thought maybe I got caught up in my food and missed that part.
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10-26-2006 @ 3:55AM
Shaun Daily said...
People are saying how hokey the ending was. From the scene before, Gail obviously got the town to go to Stanley's farm to harvest the corn.
Johnston is going to have to declare martial law at some point and that should be interesting to see.
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10-26-2006 @ 12:16AM
armando said...
the only thing i hate about his show is that most people react to life as if the nuclear war that just happened doesnt effect like it would in real life. "so how was your day? oh cool, nukes went off so i went to some parties with friends at my empty house." sub par writing....
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10-26-2006 @ 12:55AM
Grace said...
I think Gracie is a good woman, she's just afraid. Hawkins admits to his daughter (and I do think they are a real family now) that he is government. Gail the Mayor's wife is pretty cool. I wish the Mayor would get well soon. He is such a great actor and could add so much to the show. It is beyond me why they aren't using him more. Of course without good writing, what can a good actor do? A lot of the stuff we complain about are due to money restraints if you ask me. Maybe they tried to save money by not hiring the best of writers? Or maybe the show is a comedy and we don't know it yet! Anyway, I'll keep watching. I like it enough and I'd like it even more if the Mayor would get well and start bossing people around. HATED that Mitchell guy. Hope he's not around to stay.
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10-26-2006 @ 1:05AM
Jeffsmith said...
Come on...if Bob isnt going to watch the show at least give us someone who will...You dont miss a word when Studio 60 is on lets do the same here k?
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10-26-2006 @ 2:09AM
Adam said...
Yes, this episode was a little drier than I expected, but hey, plot development is key. If something wickedly exciting happened in every episode, it would also get old.
I'm a little disappointed that they didn't focus more on the rockets at the beginning. Were those the rockets that caused the EMP or did others do it? If they were ours, then why would the people launching it feel the need to blow them up in the upper atmosphere? My theory---> The invasion is in progress and our rockets sent off the EMP to slow down the enemy's military. We shall see.
The country music scene at the end where everyone was picking corn---seriously, that should have been shortened. And the ad at the end to advertise the crappy song---NO MORE PLEASE!!
One thing does seem off in the world of Jericho- how come people from neighboring towns aren't showing up? Why aren't people going to the power plants to see what's up (surely power plants are in rural Kansas). I know Kansas is a wide open state, but if one town 2-hrs (by storm) from Denver can survive an atomic blast, surely the next one can too.
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10-26-2006 @ 2:32AM
Mark said...
Couple of geeky points, then an observation
- Cranky lady from the store is probably cranky because Earl didn't get it on with her (she was Earl's bandmate's mom in My name is Earl last week)
- IRS Lady's "rolex" was hit by the magnetic pulse? Hrm. Well, I'm an Omega watch person, and Omega does make quartz watches, but I'm pretttttty sure Rolex only sells all-mechanical watches. And I don't think an EMP would knock them out. So either the writers slipped up a bit or....
okay, geeky stuff over, real observations now.
The IRS woman? I bet she turns out to be more evil than just normal IRS evil. An IRS agent with a Rolex watch? Especially if it were "real" (and the writers slipped up)? And she hires kids to steal stuff and it's okay? Maybe the writers are setting it up that's she totally corrupt, takes bribes, yada yada, and will build something out of this.
Then again, who knows - not enough character development there (they were too busy with the schmaltzy stuff this week).
One other observation - the missing food? Well they set it up as it may be Dillon (I think that's Jake's nemesis?) has a higher-up he answers to, and that higher up goon took the food. But what happened when Hawkins "took the kid for a walk" - no resolution there... maybe he found out about the barn from the kid, and somehow in TV land managed to go and move the food - hey, if the grocery store kid could do it, why not Hawkins...
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10-26-2006 @ 3:35PM
kao said...
Liked it better this week - darker. More people looking like the events are catching up with them (except for the spoiled girl with the credit card who was perfectly showered, blow-dried and made-up).
Bad guys going after horses makes sense. Historically, those with horses more powerful than those without.
Had to wonder about the small airport. That implies pilots live in town who should have gone out at the same time as the 4-Horsemen to determine what was up after the blast. Could have seen a lot from the air and did not know at that time about other crashed planes.
Writers were reading my mind about MiMi's plan. Had calculated it out last week for basic federal per diem for Kansas. Lowest ammount is $106/day. That would take about 4.6 years room and board to pay off Stanley's $180,000 IRS bill. I think the rates are higher in disaster areas (like post-Katrina NO).
Silver medal for silly - Had to laugh at guy doing batting practice with pile of cell phones. What did he do? Go door-to-door and collect them?
Gold medal for silly - Stanly went to the GROCERY store to get "pesticide". He used that generic name when he had a specific problem. its as if he would go to the store and buy cans labled only "food". And who would stock big buckets of agricultural pesticide at the grocery store, on the bottom shelf near the Oreos? Its not like in urban California stores where the writers pick up a can of Raid when they stop for milk. Not gonna happen. And how was he planning to apply it when his equipment is fried? Paint it on each ear with a brush?
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10-26-2006 @ 7:55AM
Dr. Funbags said...
What is up with the townsfolk whinging and whining about everything to the Mayor's office? Pipe burst and your yard is flooding? Tough luck, you're in the Jungle now. I think Mitch and his gang are the only ones who know what they should be doing - the rest of the town has to stop the hokey stuff, you know sing alongs, communal harvest and put their efforts towards something that will help them - like building the Thunderdome.
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10-26-2006 @ 10:19AM
adhonus said...
No one has commented on the "two weeks later" thing. While this was a nice thing to move things a bit forward. I don't really see that it was necessary. If anything, it opened up a few plot holes here and there.
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10-26-2006 @ 11:08AM
Murphy said...
Yeah, seriously, are we watching the same show?
Um, Skylar bails out Dale...not Bonnie. Bonnie is Stanley's deaf sister. I'd be all kinds of confused had I not watched the show. Bonnie, with a credit card? Highly unlikely.
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10-26-2006 @ 12:26PM
Nathan said...
Anyone else think Hawkins has one hell of a battery in that laptop..Its been 2 weeks and it is still going??
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10-26-2006 @ 12:49PM
mike said...
I hope for Hawkins' sake that laptop isn't powered by Sony.
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10-26-2006 @ 12:59PM
Karen said...
"Bonnie comes to bail out Dale with her credit card"
As Murphy points out, it was Skylar, not Bonnie.
You made the same mistake last week, saying it was Bonnie who came to the store to see Dale.
Are you having trouble telling adolescent girls apart??
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10-26-2006 @ 1:06PM
Gordon Werner said...
Questions ...
the town is down one more cop now (shot at the airport)
did the rich girl and her friends take all the food from the train?
however, i liked the quote from Hawkins' daughter re: Jake.
Daughter: Dad? is he a good guy or a bad guy?
Hawkins: There is no such thing.
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1-11-2007 @ 4:51PM
DuPont said...
This show is weak all around. No one seems too upset at all that there have been multiple nuclear explosions around the country, and that EVERYTHING has changed... and the beginning of the ep, watching those missles go across the sky, I'll tell you - that would have sent me over the deep end.
As a college freshman I watched "The Day After" with everyone on my dorm floor. We had an intense all-night discussion about what would happen if that had actually occurred. It was still "cold war" time, and tensions between the US and USSR were still hot. I had many sleepless nights druing that time.
This show is very poorly written - it started out with soem promise, but is coming up lame...
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10-26-2006 @ 5:45PM
ColdChilli said...
Better episode from prior weeks. I like how they jumped 2 weeks. Should have been more like 2 months.
Somethings getting on my nerves.
. People aren't acting like a nuclear disaster happened. They're just like la-ti-da. After 9/11 people in my 'hood were scared out of their wits and getting survival supplies and etc.
. Radiation fallout doesn't go away after 1 day and one rain storm.
.Why did the EMP effect them Now and not when the first wave of bombs went off?
.Why is no-one going around town and using the horses for transportation?
Does one believe in a barter system? How is the farmer going to make any funds when he harvests the corn? Does he think he'll get the corn all by himself in when get gets harvested?
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