[JER] Vox Populi

TV Programme: Jericho
Season: 2
Episode: 11
Date I watched this episode: 09/08/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 6 days.

As the midseason finale, I had even higher expectations of this episode than normal, but Jericho never fails to disappoint. So many things happened - the election, the Roger/Emily/Jake/Heather love square, Gray's justice on Jonah, Rob's - whatever that was, and Dale's arc.

I was pretty surprised at the election result to be honest. Perhaps, like Johnston, I was just too complacent about the outcome. Johnston himself was dressed in black for Gray's speech, as if at a funeral. We all know (except perhaps Bill, who was totally dumb) that Gray's sense of justice is terrible and horrifying. As Johnston said at the end, Gray needs to realise that we live in a democracy, and he will have many people, including Johnston himself, watching him from now on - Johnston promised that.

Of course the incident that sparked all this off was when everything came to a head in Jonah's cell, following Gray's "tribunal" (starkly showing the lack of democracy in the new order). I think this showed Johnston how far things had really come. Johnston was being rather an idealist earlier in the episode when he said he was going to bring Jonah back to Jericho for a "fair trial", given the amount of hate directed towards Jonah, some of it misdirected.

Anyway this scene (with Jake and Gray) was by far the best scene of the episode and possibly the best scene of the programme so far. Jake is just so good at showing people how ridiculous they are being, much more so than the approach that would have been taken by Johnston, Gail or even Rob. And the acting here from both Skreet and Michael was absolutely brilliant.

The whole Jonah storyline had a marked effect on Dale, whose relationship with Gracie had been quite strong, although also quirky. His inheritance of the store has given him a certain amount of responsibility which he doesn't seem ready to handle. Although his killing of Mitch was not entirely unjustified, and in some sense he feels he IS doing the responsible thing and protecting the store, if/when he is found out then he will be in very big trouble. He was brave to tell Johnston about Mitch, but his bravery is not being channeled in the right direction. I suppose all of this goes to show that he definitely does need help with the store.

In terms of relationships, the main focus here was on Emily and Jake, I mean, what were they thinking? I don't think they go well together; they've grown apart, and they haven't thought all this through. Now that Roger is back, whether Emily gets back with him or not, her relationship with Jake is certainly doomed. So the big question is whether Jake and Heather can patch things up. But all this tied in quite nicely with the whole Jonah storyline. When Jonah was on the edge of death, Emily showed her true feelings for him as a father and he reciprocated by helping her see her true feelings for Jake.

The other relationship story was Stanley and Mimi - who last time I commented could never work, and this time they seem to be starting to realise this themselves, but are kind of ignoring that. But what was really beautiful in this episode was Bonnie's reaction to it all. I've never seen an argument in sign language like that before; it was brilliantly done. The emotions were conveyed through amazing body language and I'm just blown away by how cool this scene was. Later in the episode, Bonnie hooked up with Sean and we got to see her rebellious streak emerging. I think she's going to have a much bigger part in the second half of the season.

Rob's story was kind of separate from the rest of the episode here, but still as compelling as ever. We knew from the "previously on" that the traitor was going to come into it somewhere, but what does that even mean? Who is the traitor, is it someone we know? Is it Jake? This ep certainly didn't give any answers, only questions. Rob's tough decision to stay with his family was heartwarming, but we still don't know what he was choosing between, or who his employers are. We are getting closer though - and that ending was brilliant as always. The way the music built up and then just went totally silent with the single message "See you soon." - could not have asked for a better close to the midseason.

We have quite a lot built up for the second half of the season now. First off it's not just Roger who's arrived in Jericho - there's a whole load of people. Second we will have to see Dale try to cover up his mess. Thirdly Emily has some tough choices to make. And finally Johnston trying his best to stop democracy from falling apart once and for all. All in all a breathtaking episode and an amazing testament to just how good this show can and will be.