While the other shows I write about have been struggling a bit creatively of late, Jericho has been consistently entertaining. Even when they do have a slower episode (like last week), things have been great. And “Collation of the Willing” continued that trend.
I really liked the moments in this episode emphasizing just how twisted the situation had become. In most fictional post-apocalyptic settings an attack by an outside force is viewed rather impersonally. But on Jericho things are different. It’s only been a few months since the bombs plunged the country in to chaos so the people have Jericho haven’t been hardened by the harsh reality of their new life. So when Constantino ordered a round of mortar attacks on Jericho, Gray’s rage and insistence that he would see that Constantino was “held accountable” for what he had done worked really well. While Gray was understandably livid, from the way he threatened Constantino you could tell Gray was thinking along the lines of having Constantino brought up on charges and sent to prison. Which, of course, isn’t much of an option any more in the world they occupy.
Despite their troubles, the people of Jericho seem to have lead a relatively normal life since the attacks. They have trouble fathoming the kind of desperation that drives the people of New Bern to willingly blow up friends and neighbours to ensure their town’s survival. Even Jake and Hawkins seemed stunned by what had happened. And when both Jake and Hawkins have a hard time accepting something, you know it’s bad.
The brief scene between Johnston and the truck driver was a great way to bring some sympathy to the New Bern position in a few short lines. Up until now when dealing with people from New Bern we’ve only seen people like Constantino and Perkins, who just come off as cold-hearted bastards and people like Ted and Russell who oppose taking action against Jericho. That one scene reminded us (and Johnston) that most of the people of New Bern they feel (and have been encouraged by Constantino to believe) that attacking Jericho is the only for New Bern to survive.
Speaking of Johnston, how awesome was he in this episode? I loved how after Gray refused Johnston’s advice and ended up getting a bunch of men killed in an ambush, Johnston decided that he was going to have to solve the problem himself. Its telling how when the town’s in a crisis almost every character of importance followed Johnston (though Johnston did have the advantage of having his headquaters in the bar) while Gray was stuck with just Bill and a handful of extras.
On a side note, where the hell did Maggie go? She was wounded at the end of “One if By Land” but given that everyone else was bantering about the sky and the weather while Johnston was carrying her, she couldn’t have been too seriously injured (or else Hawkins and the Green men are just really insensitive). Presumably she was in need of medical treatment, so I can understand her not actually doing anything in this episode but an offhand remark by Jake that he had dropped Maggie off in the med center would have been much appreciated.
I’m curious as to how Jake and Hawkins explained the huge cache of weapons. Most of the town’s people could be fooled into thinking that they confiscated the guns when they took out the New Bern mortar position. But anyone who was actually there for the assault (like Emily) would know that Jonah took all the guns. And it’s not like they could use Hawkins FBI cover story since most people don’t know that story.
But in any case it looks like they’ve got quite a large number of people armed and ready to defend Jericho against New Bern’s looming assault. I’m curious as to the population figures for New Bern. From the looks of things just about everyone after the age of 16 is going to be participating the the defense of Jericho. While most of those people have little or no training, unless New Bern has employed a mercenary army their people should also be relatively inexperienced in combat. If the population of both towns is roughly similar, that’s got to give Jericho a decisive numbers advantage (as one assumes that a significant number of people from New Bern would have to stay behind to defend their town from raiders and the like). If so New Bern’s only real advantage would come from having mortar shells. But since they’ve never established the population of New Bern (to the best of my knowledge), I suppose it’s possible they could be bringing a very large army.
I’m curious as to the composition of Constantino’s army. If Constantino’s only concern is ensuring the survival of New Bern I could see him loading up the army with a lot of expendable members of society. That way even if Jericho successfully repels their attack, New Bern will have a lot fewer mouths to feed. On that front it could be a win/win situation for Constantino.
On Heather watch this week, we still have no confirmation that she’s actually dead. Jake didn’t even get a chance to tell Emily that he thinks Heather is dead, as their conversation was interrupted by the mortar attacks. I’m glad that Jake did think to tell Emily about Heather’s fate at the first possible opportunity though. While we haven’t seen them on screen together in a while, Heather and Emily have always been close (other than Jake and maybe Mary, Emily’s the only person we’ve seen Heather spending a lot of time with) so I’m glad the writers didn’t just forget about their friendship.
I haven’t seen the preview for next week, but even the most dim-witted individual could tell you that Jericho’s problems with New Bern are far from over. The only real question is whether the season finale ends on a cliffhanger or not. Since there’s still a chance Jericho won’t be getting renewed, hopefully we’ll be getting a non-cliffhanger ending, but the situation is prime for a cliffhanger, so who knows what will happen?
