November 1, 2006: Let's Make a Deal
When we last left Jericho, Jake was on to Hawkins, Mitchell came back to town, and acres of corn brought everyone together for a
Little House on the Prairie-like moment (one which some of us laughed at and some of us found as relief in the midst of chaos). This week, the episode opens with unfamiliar faces tied to Mitchell, Jericho's new bad boy sitting pretty behind bars.
Surrounded by pumpkins, which almost seem too colorful for this town, we finally have a moment between Emily and Heather. "There are a lot of things about Jake you don't know," Emily warns her. And then fear immediately takes over Emily when she sees Jonah (
James Remar) roll in to town, who we later find out is her father. Their broken ties over her brother Chris' death have put up a hefty wall between them, and she can't forgive him. We see her unravel as her past comes swirling back to haunt her. She was just beginning to deal with having Jake back in town, but this addition can only make things worse.
On a more positive note, I'm really beginning to like Stanley and his attitude toward Mimi, who, by the way, has rearranged his kitchen in an intrusive/neurotic kind of way.
Meanwhile, Johnston is messing with his temperature, and Gail is laying down the Green-house law with a ridiculously carved pumpkin in hand.
Just as I was starting to forget about him, Gray has returned without Shepp. He reports that Lawrence was hit, Topeka suffered from the fallout, and New York is fine, much to Hawkins' surprise. As for D.C.? It's gone, and Stanley has to break the news to Mimi that her home is no longer. But she's not the only one who left love and life in that city. Allison asks about her friends in D.C.: "Did they feel it when they died?" And we find out Darcy had a boyfriend there, Doug. She mourns his probable death, and we actually see Hawkins stuck in an awkward conversation. "You hated me, Robert," she says to him. "Why did you come back for me?" She's stuck in a "house of secrets" with nowhere to go and no one to talk to.
When Skylar finds out her parents might be alive in New York, she wants her mom's jewelry box back that she traded in for some diet soda. It's every man for himself now, and deals are going down left and right. Jake meets up with Jonah to get the town more food, but without trading in Mitchell for the goods, Jake is left standing on the open road empty-handed. Back in the store, Dale finds the jewelry box hidden away.
As they do each week, the town conjures up some spirit during hard times and has a little Halloween parade to distract the kids. But in a creepier turn, Jonah's men force the officer who's stuck at the police station to let Mitchell go, and a chase weaves through the trick-or-treaters (who have no candy with which to spoil themselves). And for the first time, we really see a darker side of Jake. "We're going to do this
my way now," he tells Gray.
And with that, Jake confronts Jonah for another round of negotiation, but Jonah wants something bigger than a material exchange. He wants to talk to Emily. He wants to set the record straight about Chris. And he gets his wish... not because she wants to hear his side, but because of a frightening moment in the Green house.
The hardest (but, in my opinion, most riveting) scene was seeing April and Gail perform CPR on Johnston, with his sons watching nearby. With the lack of medication in Jericho, he may live 12 hours if he's lucky. So in a desperate attempt to save his life, Jake prepares to search for meds in Rogue River, and Emily pays an unpleasant visit to her father. The only catch is, she's going to have to spend some time with the old man. Trapped with no alternative, Emily is forced back into a two-person family to get the help Johnston needs.
I still haven't warmed up to Skylar and don't think I ever will. But Dale's her new roommate, and I'm sure more teen angst will come along with that. But there is one love story I
do want to watch: Heather and Jake's kiss was a much-needed break to slow Jake down for a minute, and, as I said in a previous post, I'm rooting for them. On another promising front, Stanley lets Mimi know in a silent gesture that he's there for her. The music closes the episode and takes us out of town, along with Jake and Eric riding in a questionable truck to face the unknown.
Fourteen new families have settled into Jericho since the attacks. Maybe things will really start heating up on the Hawkins front. Will the town confront him? Will these new additions to Jericho unveil information we don't know?
What I took most from this episode was the anger rising up on all fronts. Dale's fed up after all he's done for the town and the store. Emily's stirred up about the return of her father. Darcy's questions come pouring out as she's hurting more than we've seen. Mimi lashes out at Stanley to mask the pain of losing everything she ever cared about. And Jake's heroic measures are hard to keep in line when he's still fighting whatever happened years ago. We couldn't expect people to stay calm forever, right? At least we got a break in this episode from Mary Bailey and all the duds sitting around her bar. I'm anxious to see what Jake and Eric find on their little journey, how Johnston will hang on without meds, and any truths Jonah can reveal.
