JERICHO: Coalition of the Willing
© ABC
Mania Grade: A+
Starring: Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, Kenneth Mitchell, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed
Created By: John Turteltaub
Starring: Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, Kenneth Mitchell, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed
Created By: John Turteltaub
JERICHO: Coalition of the Willing
By: Stephen LackeyReview Date: Friday, May 04, 2007
Over the past episodes, this series has really pushed its way up my list of “must watch immediately from DVR” recordings. Jericho has always been about the decisions regular people would have to make in a monumental tragedy. If it came down to the survival of yourself and your loved ones, what would you be willing to do? An even tougher question is: what if you had to do harm to a neighbor, an acquaintance, your best competition in a fishing tournament? The townspeople of New Bern have already made that decision with the help of their charismatic and possibly insane leader Constantine; they’ll do whatever it takes. A battle between New Bern and Jericho has been in the works for weeks and it finally begins with this episode. Constantine sends a boy with a walkie talkie to allow Constantine to communicate with Gray and he demands that Jericho give up 7 farms and half the salt mine. This of course is more than the town can stand to lose, plus Jake hasn’t mentioned the map he and Hawkins saw with the town cut up with leaders of New Bern’s names on various parts. Why didn’t he mention that to Gray when Gray was willing to give up the 7 farms?
Constantine gave Gray a deadline to agree to his terms or he would drop a few mortars into town square. Gray didn’t meet his deadline so the mortars started flying and people were hurt. Gray sent a team out to find the New Bern people and take them out before they could fire more mortars. Due to lack of a plan and bad orders, the Jericho team was taken out, all accept main cast of course. Gray falters before finally conceding that he’s in over his head and asking Johnston for help. Some things about the episode were predictable but no less entertaining, such as the return of Jonah. I knew we weren’t done with him. He agrees to a plan offered by his daughter where he would use his men to help her, Hawkins, Eric, Johnston, and Jake take down the mortar base and the weapons and food found there would be split. They do take down the base and Jonah and his men change the deal and take all the weapons and food. He tells his daughter he’s a thief and she should stay away from him. Thematically, this is interesting because previously Jonah and his men were kicked out of town, then they were asked for help. Similarly some refugees who not so long ago were asked to leave Jericho were now being asked to fight for it. Most of this situation is tied to Gray’s failures as a leader, and I have a feeling in the season finale that Gray will pay for it with his life.
The political commentary in Jericho is a bit muddled but it’s there, and it’s interesting to see it develop. There’s a conservative versus liberal tug of war going on in the series and more often than not, neither side is completely wrong. The right decision is somewhere in the middle but both sides are too steadfast to see that as a possibility. Whether you believe Jericho should tighten up its borders and give up nothing to New Bern or if they should find a way to help a neighboring town that’s obviously doing much worse than they are, is a topic of conversation and even how New Bern is going about getting assistance from Jericho could be supported. In a tragic situation, if you and your family had nothing but another family had plenty would you try and steal from them if they didn’t offer you any? What keeps it all from getting to deep is Constantine himself. He’s become a tyrant, and behind closed doors he seems most interested in just having everything. Sure he may want help for his people and if that’s all he wants then why was Jericho cut up on that map with his name on parts of it? He not only wants help for his people he wants control of everything. So he’s an obvious villain and easy to hate, and easy to take a side against. What if he were just a mirror image of Gray, someone who just wants his town to survive but is incapable of making the right decisions? Now that would be interesting, but hey this is network television, we have to have a good guy and a bad guy. Now with Johnston running the show, we have our good guy in place to go up against Constantine in the season finale.
The writing and action in this episode was top notch, I was riveted. My favorite scene though was the final moments when the town realizes that in order to survive that everyone will have to fight. The musical montage of Jake and Hawkins handing out weapons, especially to teenagers, gave me chills. By the end of the episode, I was stunned at just how great it was compared to how the series started off. I may have said this before, but I’m really glad I stuck with Jericho. A couple of final thoughts: Is anyone else sick of Dale? Also, where’s the tank? Even with no ammo, I’m sure Jake and Hawkins could come up with some use for it.
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I think the mini re-imaging they did helped a lot. In the beggining I could not stand all the sappy talk between Johnston and his wife. I think over the course of the season they have toned those characters down some, so that I find them less iritating. It also helped that they got rid of some characters, that seemed to only be there to create soap opera melodrama.
I'm glad the series got a second season. Besides, it is in a timeslot in which I don't think there is anything else on to watch.