Jericho Recap: Federal Response
With things almost settling into a normal routine in Jericho, something is bound to happen, and sure enough, that's just what's in store in this episode. The lights come back on, the perpetual static on the television suddenly turns into a "Please Stand By" message and every phone in town rings at the same time, providing a glimmer of hope - in other words, a message from Homeland Security telling everyone that things are looking up, and to try and stay calm until help can get to them. I'm not sure I'd be calmed by a message from the government, but at least it's something, right?
To liven things up a bit more, the kids are out and the sudden surge of power causes a fire at the library as a transformer explodes, which would be enough excitement if it didn't knock out Emily, and one of the kids didn't run back inside to get her favorite book (Alice in Wonderland). To make matters a little more exciting, the fire at the library was only one of two, which spread the already thin forces of the town a bit thinner.
And just in case that's not enough for you, cutting the power to the library because of the electrical threat also cut the power to the water pump, which means that there wasn't any water flowing to put out the fire to the library. So Jake and Stanley high-tailed it over to the water station and used their brute force to get the manual override going again (which they of course did).
After which, they climbed up on top of the building to see if the water was flowing, and not only did they see that they were successful, but that there was a third fire threatening Eric's house, and that enigma Mister Hawkins was sitting in his backyard with a laptop and a satellite dish doing who knows what. But now, someone (that being Jake) knows that he's up to something. Unfortunately, Hawkins saw Jake looking at him, so he knows that he's been seen - but we still don't know who knows what at this point.
At the end of it all, the fires are all out, the kids are all safe, and everyone's gathered at Bailey's to watch the satellite, which is the only feed in town that can get the developing story, which seems to be the presidential dais. Only there isn't anyone there yet. But it has to be better than watching that infernal "Please Stand By" message, doesn't it? While they are waiting for something to happen, the ground starts to rumble and they see some rockets soaring into the sky. Interesting.
