[JER] Long Live The Mayor

TV Programme: Jericho
Season: 2
Episode: 7
Date I watched this episode: 25/07/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 15 days.

After the show practically re-inventing itself in the last episode, I was very impressed with this episode, which kept up the story threads from the last episode whilst also progressing the main story to some extent. Some compelling characters were introduced, some were developed, some pretty big stuff happened (like Jake and Heather's amazing kiss) and it left the door open for some staggering revelations in the next episode which will be the first time we've ever seen the outside of Jericho.

The opening sequence showed us the survivalists' camp (that's what I'm calling the group led by Jonah) from the word Go. Various shots of it in different parts of the episode shows it to be a fair amount bigger than shown in this opening sequence, but that's really understandable since the group apparently live there. They seem to be a fairly self-sufficient community, but they don't look like they get out much. I didn't expect them to be so hard-working: you'd imagine from their thuggish nature as depicted in the previous episode that they spent most of the time lazing around.

I should have known the "I'm taking you to Jonah" reference of the previous episode referred to the leader of the group Mitch belonged to, but for some reason I thought it must be some obscure Biblical reference. This first scene showed a very calm but brutal side to Jonah, which wasn't really seen in the rest of the episode. In most of his other negotiations he seemed incredibly reasonable, and almost seemed like a father to Jake, to the extent that I forgot that he'd burnt somebody's face with a blowtorch in the first scene, and forgot how he'd corrupted Jake in the past beyond recognition. He almost seemed like a nice guy, and his camp seemed like a nice place to live.

The revelation that Jonah is Emily's father was somewhat shocking even if Jonah had only been introduced in this episode. It suddenly escalates Emily from someone who was basically a background character (I mean, what did we know about her apart from that she was an old flame of Jake's?) to someone who could be pivotal in the hanging together of this community. Jonah seems to really care about her - but as above I'm skeptical given his continuing brutal nature. Details of her character were revealed; she is headstrong and brave; in her own words "nobody dragged" her into all this. I'm not sure whether Jake has really confessed everything to her as he told Jonah he had, but since we the audience don't even know the truth of what really happened that night, or indeed many, many things about Jake's past, it doesn't really matter. The backstory is still being slowly revealed - for example the car apparently used to belong to Jonah, but we don't know the story behind that quite yet.

With Johnston incapacitated, the decisions about Jonah seemed, at the end of the day, to fall to Gray. This is wrong and really Eric and Jake should have put a stop to the power he appears to be able to wield. This seems to go to his head when he tries to take matters into his own hands at the end (during Mitch's escape - which Mitch himself predicted) and doesn't really show strength of character here. It does keep to Gray's original mantra of not forming alliances with the survivalists' or allowing them to get away with things, but I don't think many voters would look favourably upon someone who had thrown justice to the winds and shot another human being. Jake was the voice of reason through all this, and was right most of the time, though admittedly he is without doubt emotionally involved. Gray on the other hand is right about one thing - Rob Hawkins - and I think some good will come of that, though Johnston won't be too happy about it.

A number of side-stories were present in this episode. One such was the Gracie-Dale-Skylar thing. Gracie once again proved her cold-hearted nature, and seems to be becoming a bit of a two-dimensional character. In the absence of any kind of backstory or context at all, and in particular contrasted with the behaviour in the previous episode, she is not very believable right about now. Dale and Skylar on the other hand have a beautiful relationship - the untypical pairing of a popular schoolgirl with a very unpopular schoolboy, thrown together under desperate circumstances.

We see a bit more of the Hawkins family saga. Rob reveals that he went back for Darcy "because she is his wife" and this obviously still means something to him. I think he is struggling inside, trying to stay together and fulfil the role set out for him. I wonder though how much Darcy knows about Rob's true motives for being in Jericho. I figure she knows a lot more than most other people in the town, but doubt she knows everything Rob knows. If she doesn't know what's truly going on, then I'm not sure how Rob persuaded her to come with her.

The Stanley and Mimi story is quite a cute one and there were some quite funny moments with that in this episode, as well as heartbreaking ones. The cinematography here was excellent - that wide shot of Mimi surrounded by her now useless farm audits, breaking down in tears while Stanley looks on (shortly after she learns of the destruction of Washington DC) was beautiful.

As mentioned above, one of the biggest things in this episode was that Jake and Heather FINALLY got it together. What a kiss that was - I think even Jake was a bit taken aback. And the whole awkwardness afterwards because Heather thought he was just about to drive off into the sunset - was a brave thing to do from a writing point of view and looked very believable. The question is whether Jake can really start again with Heather, and how she will react when she learns some of the secrets of his past.

Obviously however, the actual biggest thing from this episode was Jake and Eric's departure from Jericho. It almost seems a bit odd that we've now spent 7 whole episodes (that's over 4 hours) with no scenes whatsoever shot outside of this tiny little town. But now the world is our oyster and we can finally get some answers as to what the hell is going on.

Jake and Eric have quite an odd relationship. They are two such different characters: Jake the rebel and Eric the "Dudley Do-Good" (as Mimi called him in a recent episode). This is fairly typical for two brothers. However at the end of their respective days, they have the same emotions, albeit about totally different things, and are able to meet at some level, e.g. at the scene at the bar. I think the fact that the two of them are on this road trip together will result in a very even decision-making process.

The actual scene where Jake and Eric decide to go to Rogue River was quite tense. We saw a side of Gail there that we hadn't seen before. She kept a completely straight, focussed face on when she said "Go. Go Now." and didn't hesitate to put her two sons into mortal danger to help save her dying husband. In fact, from her point of view there's only a small chance of them coming back alive, given what Gray had had to go through.

So I look forward to the next episode with bated breath, and find it very enjoyable to speculate on where this show is headed. Only seven episodes in and I'm already starting to see this as one of my favourite shows ever; I'm very hopeful for continued brilliance from the cast and crew in episodes to come.