It’s the season finale of Jericho! Man, I am going to be annoyed if it isn’t renewed for a second season. The previouslies show Heather, which is not surprising to me as I saw a preview with her in it.
This episode has lots of flashbacks to Eric and April’s wedding six years ago.
In the present day, New Bern has taken Talbot’s farm. Johnston wants Jericho to make a stand at Stanley Richmond’s farm, because it’s on high ground. (Not to mention there’s a tank in the barn.)
Somewhere, some military dudes find a crashed car with only one survivor…Heather Lisinski.
Six years ago, Jake and his grandfather are drinking at the bar with Emily & Stanley, and Grandpa is telling a WWII story about not surrendering, with the punchline that they told the Nazis “Nuts!” Emily & Stanley apparently need this explained as “go to hell.” Gail arrives to drag best man Jake back to the wedding, and gives him a toast she wrote for him to read. When they get back, Eric also pulls Jake aside and gives him a speech to read. Apparently nobody trusts young, drunk, Jake. Gee, I wonder why.
Hawkins tells Johnston that he can use his Top Sekrit satellite dealie to track the New Bern attack. Johnston says “okay,” apparently too weirded out by going to war with “the place where the Costco is” to even find this spy business odd.
Stanley talks to his parents’ graves and makes Mimi do it too, and he and Bonnie tease Mimi. Stanley hopes their kids will make jokes on their graves someday.
At the farm, two hundred men (“including Dale’s crew”) gather. They talk about the tank. Do they only have one mortar round?
Hawkins does his satellite thing. Darcy hovers around worrying about Allison, who’s out guarding City Hall or something. Hawkins reports that New Bern is on the way. But someone’s tracking Hawkins, or trying to. He tells Darcy he thinks it’s Valente. Oh, maybe he wasn’t kidding about “no more secrets.” Darcy asks why the bad guys don’t use the tracking system in the bomb that she read about. Hawkins realizes that the bomb’s uranium signature is unique, and Darcy, who is super-smart in this episode, points out that the bomb is “the smoking gun behind the greatest crime in history.” That’s why they want it, not as a weapon.
New Bern attacks near Stanley’s farm and there is much shooting back & forth. Jake wants to go up a hill to get a better shot at a gunner, and since he’s the hero of the show, bullets only hit the ground near his feet as he runs. The tank arrives, for some reason with men walking next to it. They use their mortar to explode things. Boom. Mostly the New Bern men seem to just run away unhurt, though. Jake says “next tiem wont’ be so easy.”
But Johnston has been shot. Emily runs off to get Gail and the doctor, and they take him inside the house. Johnston makes everyone leave so he can give a deathbed speech to his sons. He tells them to “make a stand here,” and tells them each he loves them and is proud of them. He wishes his wife were there. The captions say “He’s gone” although I don’t hear either of them say it. Jake and Eric hug.
Jake goes outside to the assembled men of Jericho, and we flash back once more to Eric’s wedding, where Jake gives a nice toast about how proud he is of Eric’s kindness. (His mom wrote it.) In the present, he says just “My father’s dead. We’ll get through.” He orders Gray taken back to town, to safety, because they’ll need a leader. Gail and Emily arrive, and they leave her alone with Johnston’s body.
Emily goes to Jake, and he cries. Hawkins radios to say New Bern’s reinforcements are arrive, and something more – a train seems to be on the way filled with men, hundreds of them. But Darcy disconnects the uplink as they’re about to be tracked. Jake asks Hawkins to get back to the farm, and then kisses Emily.
Heather wakes up in a med tent somewhere that looks like M*A*S*H. It’s Camp Liberty, in Southwest Nebraska. They have choppers and everything. She finds someone in charge (Colonel Hoffman) and tells him about New Bern’s impending attack on Jericho, but he doesn’t care, and says the federal government’s been restored and he has other orders. But when he reports Heather’s news along with various other things to several people (on video screens), one is particularly interested…it’s Valente, who says a terrorist has been tracked to the area of New Bern and Jericho. He orders them to “Go to Jerichoand crush the skirmish.”
Stanley tells Jake he wants to ask Mimi to marry him. He’s afraid he’s going to die, and Jake promises he won’t, and hugs him. Hawkins arrives, and Jake hopes he has a plan, “a really good one.” Hawkins wants the tank, even though it has no ammo.
As Jake, Emily, and the men watch for New Bern’s next attack, Constantino calls, and offers Jake both condolences and one last chance to surrender. Jake tells him “nuts!” and, since Constantino wasn’t there for the flashback, also says “Go straight to hell.” He adds in, “And, about my father? You’re the one I’m coming for.”
Colonel Hoffman tells Heather that Jericho’s “been moved up the priority list,” as trucks move out. She is relieved, but then notices the flag. (The Morse code in the beginning says “To the flag.”
Jake gives one last speech. “My father expected us to make a stand here, to defend our home. That’s what we’re gonna do.”
In a cloud of dust, the enemy seems to arrive. Jake warns everyone not to waste ammo, to wait for a clean shot. But is it New Bern? Hawkins, out by the tracks, sees choppers fly overhead. Back at the farm, Jake orders them to fire. Aaaand…that’s it. Let’s hope Jericho‘s back for another season.
-Mel, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Photo credit: CBS
Staff Columnist, BuddyTV
