[JER] The Day Before

TV Programme: Jericho
Season: 2
Episode: 12
Date I watched this episode: 28/12/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 4 months, 19 days.

Well finally back to this programme, and it never ceases to blow me away. This episode didn't really touch on a lot of the points in the midseason finale (the Mimi/Stanley/Bonnie/Shaun situation, Dale's murder, the election result) but I'm sure we'll get to that. Instead, most of the episode was devoted to getting some real answers about Jake and Rob. This is about the only place they could really do this kind of episode, right at the beginning of the second half of the season, where it doesn't ruin the pace.

The episode intercut between three areas: one focussing on Jake, one focussing on Rob, and one focussing on everyone else (events in Jericho on that day). However, this was seemingly just to keep the show interesting, rather than for any dramatic/storytelling purpose. So I'll try to deal with each of those in turn.

First up with Jake, the character of Freddie was introduced, and a lot of time was spent developing this character as Jake's closest friend. This just served to heighten the emotion when he was killed, even though he was only a one-episode guest star. This entire piece showed just how brutal and powerful Ravenwood are, or were at the time of the bombs.

I've been asking for ages what Jake was doing prior to the events of this programme and now we have at least a partial answer - he was working for Ravenwood. Again I see that I was right to give the show some leeway on this - if someone had told me this at the start then it wouldn't have had so much suspense during episodes like "Rogue River" and "Crossroads" when we were just getting to know Ravenwood.

There is still the issue of the incident in Afghanistan though. The show doesn't reveal what actually happened, but I suppose I wonder, does it even matter? We know that Jake and Freddie just tried to survive, and that innocent people died, and maybe that's all we need to know. We have a sensational view now of Ravenwood as this evil entity.

When Jake called home, the expression on Gail's face really acutely reminded me of when Clark Kent called home in [SMV] "Exile". She must know to some extent what Jake has been up to, though she clearly doesn't know now that Jake was involved with Ravenwood. The ep also answers the question of what compelled Jake to return to Jericho after 5 years. We know why he left - because of Jonah - but he returned because he was desperate. Him and Freddie had tried to play both Ravenwood and the government, and that could never end well.

The other facet that this touched on was Jake and Emily. It was only a small comment, but Freddie confirmed that Jake did still have feelings for Emily, even before he returned to Jericho and met Heather. This puts the current state of affairs into a new perspective.

Turning to Rob, well on the face of it he seems to just be a terrorist. But the question is - what kind of terrorist organisation could run such a massive operation as this? All the people we see in it have American accents and different ethnic backgrounds, so in that sense it almost feels like they are an organisation similar to "The Company" of Prison Break or "The Alliance" of Alias.

The exit strategy for the bombings also seems a bit ambiguous. Are we to believe that these were supposed to be suicide missions? Surely not, as Rob has had extensive training on the aftermath of the attacks, including the rally point talk. He seems too clever to be wasted like that. However, the "men who will change the world"? The timing doesn't seem to add up, how could they possibly get away so fast?

Rob's sheer determination for his family is shown here. When we see him approach Darcy that first time, he is completely determined and he goes to great lengths to get them to safety, even assaulting police officers. We see toward the end of the episode how far along things have come, and how Darcy admits she does trust him - perhaps not knowing how close he was to the people behind the attacks.

Sarah's return at the end of the episode was shocking and unexpected. It's unclear how she escaped from the men holding her at gunpoint, but maybe she has been sent from Rob's organisation, maybe she was the one typing "See you soon." Rob does say earlier in the episode that the entire bombings plan was her idea, so she must be quite senior within the organisation. Clearly there is something extra we haven't seen - as we don't even know where the bomb is at this point. Perhaps Rob did go to Columbus to rescue Sarah, who knows. I'm sure we will find some answers soon enough.

In the Jericho area, there are a few little things going on. We get to see Stanley meeting Mimi for the first time, and it's believable in the context of what has happened since. Johnston's offer to Eric is completely unexpected and I'm sure there will be some fallout from that in the near future. And we get to see what's really the first ever character development of Roger: showing that while he is ambitious, he does have a good heart and he does really love Emily.

The last part of the episode, after replaying some footage from the pilot, played out some "present day" footage for 5 minutes. Roger is seen to be in heavy shock and a changed man, while Jake tells Emily to go to him and forget about the two of them. That's not going to happen easily now that Emily has experienced it again and her father has implored her to have another go. But will Jake manage to go back to Heather? Who knows, they haven't spoken in days/weeks.

In general, the episode does ask more questions than it answers, but in a much more elegant way than some other shows like Lost. A lot is coming up though - not only those situations from the midseason finale but also the introduction of Sarah into the equation, will keep me coming back for more. Once again a brilliant episode from a brilliant show.