Image from Jericho: Semper Fidelis
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Mania Grade: C-
Episode: Semper Fidelis
Stars: Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, Kenneth Mitchell, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed
Created By: John Turteltaub

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"Jericho: Semper Fidelis"

This week the U.S. Marines show up in Jericho promising a reunification of the country, a won war, and electricity and supplies on the way.  There’s a lot of celebration and fanfare but it’s obviously all too easy for a series based on this town being miserable.  A female Marine even finds herself interested in Jake, who lost his girl to her fiancé’s magical return from the dead a few weeks ago.  The marines couldn’t have arrived at a better time as the paranoid mayor and other town officials are trying to figure a way to make the food and fuel they have last the winter.  Gray doing exactly what you’d expect offers the marines extra fuel and supplies for their trip further through Kansas if Jericho can get bumped up in line to receive assistance from the government.  What he gives them amounts to nearly half of Jericho’s reserves.  Jake and his father both have experience with the military and they sense that something’s amiss.  Almost simultaneously Jake hears the fireworks the town is setting off for the marines through a radio signal back to the marine’s base that’s supposed to be hundreds of miles away and Jake’s daddy notices marines using slang common to army men and soldiers botching ranks.  Jake sends a patrol out to catch the lone guy with a radio who has to be just outside town and they do. 

OK, so this ends cool in one way, and irritating in another.  The cool way it ends is that Jake and Co. sends the marines packing minus a tank which they decide to hide in a barn.  Having a tank in Jericho could lead to some fun stuff down the line.  The part I found irritating is the decision not to tell the town the truth.  I’ve seen this too often on television and I’d like to have seen the writers go a different way with this situation.  It’ll probably lead to plot holes down the line.  Also, these don’t seem like the kind of people who don’t care about neighboring towns, well other than Gray of course.  By letting these people go free they can pull this same scam at the next town they come too.  What Jake and dad should have done is stripped them all of their military attire and forced them into civis, then sent them on their way minus a tank. 

The second story, the fun one involves Hawkins and his turncoat girlfriend.  Well actually I guess Hawkins was a turncoat too he’s just seen the error of his ways.  Too bad a bunch of nuclear bombs had to go off to make him see the light though.  Anyway, Hawkins is on to her and he steals her communicator and reads her chat logs to learn the complete truth about what she’s been plotting.  In a standoff Hawkins reveals that the nuclear device has been in the house all along, hidden behind a concrete wall.  Eventually eh and the girlfriend fight and she kicks his butt.  Then Hawkins’ oldest daughter picks up a gun and kills the girlfriend.  Hawkins sends a message in the communicator pretending to be the dead girl on his floor and tells the person on the other end that he has the package and asks where to meet.  The reply is TBD. 

As I’ve said before, Hawkins is what keeps me coming back.  He’s a bad guy, don’t be fooled.  He’s trying to be a good guy now for his family but he was part of a plot to detonate nuclear devices all over the country.  I’d like to see some guilt over what has happened start to plague him a little more as well as his investigation of the people out there still trying to recover his bomb.  The marine thing felt a bit stale too me and I think Hawkins’ girlfriend went down a bit too quick so overall I was disappointed with the episode.  I’m still enjoying Hawkins and Jake though, so I’ll be back next week hoping for a unique story.