Why We Fight - Episode 22

Well, this episode was the saddest of all. Poor Johnston.
So, we get into tonight's episode with flash backs of Eric and Aprils' wedding. Apparently, Eric had a tiny problem with Jake, and was not happy to have Jake as his best man. But their mom made Eric chose Jake, now at first I was unsure what this had to do with what is going on in Jericho. During this flashback, we see Jake, Emily and Jake's Granddad at the bar, during the wedding, and Jake's Grandfather is telling a story of a time in WWII when an American Unit was surrounded by the Germans, trying to hold this small piece of land until the American reinforcements arrives. The German leader radios to the American leader telling him that if he surrenders his men will be alive, that he was totally outnumbered and such. The American leader tells the German, NUTS; "go to hell".
So Johnston's plan was to use the tank, and Hawkins was at home using his Satellite to track the men from New Bern. This was not such a great plan though, it was the only plan that would work but it backfired on Hawkins. As Hawkins and Marcy are in the basement, using the satellite to track the New Bern men, someone ( three guess who) picks up on his use of the device and begins the process of locating him! Marcy proved she is a smart cookie, picking up on the fact that the uranium was the 'fingerprint' on the bomb, and that those people who Hawkins thought were after the witnesses attached to the bomb were really after getting the bomb to keep everyone from knowing who started this whole war. Just before Hawkins has to shut the laptop down, he sees a train coming at Jericho, loaded with New Bern men! He knows he has to stop that train.
The towns people under Johnston's steady leadership all decide to only try to hold onto Stanley's farm, to keep from being spread too thin. And their backup is that tank they got when the 'fake' army people came into Jericho. They only had one mortar tho, so they had better make it count!
As the men from New Bern round the bend in the road at Stanley's farm, one of their gunners opens fire, and war has come to Jericho.
It looks pretty grim for a while, and Jake decides he needs to climb a nearby hill to try and take out the shooter in a truck. As he gets up the hill and into position, he sees a tank coming over the hill practically on top of him! Its Johnston and hes packing a loaded tank.
We watch as the fight begins to get intense until the New Bern guys see that tank, and when they realize what that is coming at them, they begin to fall back, but not far enough. The tank's mortar goes off and there is a nice explosion!
The people of Jericho are enjoying a small win, when Jake and Eric realize that their Dad is lieing on the ground, he has been shot.
Here is where we know for sure one thing at least, Johnston is not going to make it back home tonight. I was not particularly attached to his character, but I was actually sad during the death scene. It was really realistic as far as the emotions coming from Gerald McRaney. He is an excellent actor, and was a credit to the show.
Johnston does get to clear the air with Jake and Eric though, telling them both how much he loved them, and was proud of them. It was hard to watch, even knowing it was not real.
He passes before Gail could get there, and his last words were " tell your mom I love her".
Jake and Eric share a moment of pain , but the war is not letting them have even this moment in full. Jake and Emily share some moments as well, and she is actually able to be a comfort during this time to Jake. She tells Jake that his dad is there, watching over him and everyone from town during this fight. This seems to be good for him. We then see Gail brought into the house by Emily. Jake and Eric let her know they are there for her, and then every leaves the house. Gail walks to Johnston and leans down and hugs on him, kind of like what Mrs. Reagan did at Ronnie's funeral, and I can tell you it was as sad tonight as it was then. She will miss him, but will go on.
Jake then gets a call from Constantino, who tells Jake that he was told of Johnston's death, and that he was sorry. Jake thinks a moment, and then proceeds to tell Phil "NUTS", go to hell. The he says to Constantino, "about my dad, its you I am coming after".
Hawkins shows up on horseback and asks for the tank, Jake and Stanley tell him there is no more ammo for it, and he says he doesn't need it. He had better move fast to get that tank into position, to do what I think he is going to do. All he has to do is derail that train far enough away from Jericho to make it not advantageous to the New Bern men to try and make a go at Jericho.
In between the scenes with fighting and the flashbacks , we see that Heather in fact is not dead but rather found out what New Bern was about to do, and tried to run from New Bern to warn Jericho. She was in an accident, and left for dead. The Army ( whose, we see later) finds her lying by the wrecked car, and takes her to their Nebraska camp to be treated. When she comes to, and finds out where she is, she goes off to find the Captain and she asks for his help with the New Bern-Jericho war. At first he tells her he cant help in that matter. Later we see him talking to a few people on some television screens, and one person we see is old baldy himself. The evil person who is behind the whole war!
This man tells the Capt. that they had tracked a 'terrorist suspect' to within 200 miles of Jericho, and that the Capt. and his men need to go to Jericho, stop the war and then find this terrorist!
At the end of the show, we see Hawkins on the tank and over his head comes helicopters. The Army, is on its way, but its not the Army we know or trust. We go back to Heather, when she was thanking the Capt for going to help Jericho ( she has no idea what is going on) she looks over to the flag on the pole and its the flag with vertical stripes, a non military flag. She seems to know something is not right.

Is this ending a clear indication of a second season? I have not read any new news about this, I could have missed it, and will check in with the wiki after I post this tonight to see what folks know. What ever I find out, I will post. If you have info, story lines I missed or just some thoughts, please feel completely free to post away!
As for the countdown video and extras or previews, I don't think I will get those up until tomorrow, but i will sure try for getting it done tonight.
End was great, but very sad.

add on info - this link at an about.com site for which shows might be saved or cancelled - shows Jericho as a pretty good shoein for being picked up for second season, will post more as soon as I hear more.

Safe From Cancellation: Renewed 2007-08 Television Series

Episode 21 - Coalition of the Willing

I have been dealing with some internet issues that hopefully have resolved themselves, and so I return with my posting by talking about this weeks episode Coalition of the Willing.
First, I would like to say that I have not had any news of whether or not the return next fall of Jericho is official yet,

Now, on to what we saw this week ~
We see that Jake, Johnston and Hawkins have returned from the New Bern fight, and report what they saw and did to Gray. Next we see Stanley , Jimmy and a few others standing in the night, guarding the towns border, and a lone person walks toward them. Stanly calls out to him, asking who it is. Stanley then brings this person, a teen it looks like to Grays office in town, where he hands a walkie-talkie radio to Gray. On the other end is none other than Constantin, and he has demands! He wants Jericho to forfeit 7 farms, one of which is Stanley's Farm as well as 1/2 the salt mine; if this is not done good old Phil says New Bern is invading Jericho!
Meanwhile, Eric is at the Medical Center, and he is looking into the same room where April and their child died, and as he does he has a flash back ( I prefer to call it feeling guilty), then his mom shows up and takes him to be cared for and that ends.
Meanwhile , Gray is meeting with the towns people, and outside the office Dale makes arrangements with a local woman farmer, who says she is giving up on her farm because it is so far outside of town that Gray and the men can not defend it. Dale tells her he will defend it, she tells him if he can defend it he can have it! Dale then makes a deal with the refuges to help him defend that farm, he will then give them a stake in it. This means they now will have a place of their own, making them truly part of Jericho, as Dale puts it; they now will have a future.
Mary comes to the medical center and see Eric and they have a love filled reunion while Eric's mom looks on, and she finally sees that this is making them both happy so she is happy.
With the four hours up, Gray has a decision to make. Outside in the hall, Jake meets up with Emily, and as he is trying to break it to her that Heather is dead, the first round of mortars falls on Jericho! Jake rushes outside to find many hurt in the street, including his Mom. As he rushes to her , more mortars fall, and Jake tries to protect his mom.
Johnston rushes outside to help Jake with his wife, the devastation is huge. Gray tells everyone to get into shelters, when Constantine comes on the radio and gives him one more hour to comply. He also tells Gray that he will shell the town day and night for as long as it takes. Hawkins meets Marcy and tells her they should go to a safe house in Montana, but she tells him she wants to go home.
Meanwhile, Stanley radios that he has found the mortar site, that it is on a flat bed truck, and Gray tells him and his men to try to take the site. Jake and the others try to stop him from giving the order.
They wait and wait, until another mortar falls.
Later, Stanley and what is left of his men come back into town and tell Gray and Jake that the others are all dead, that they had met with a ton of planned resistance. Jake then tries to chock the life out of Gray, and frankly I don't blame him. This is where it becomes apparent to Gray that he is in way over his head.
Johnston tells Jake to do recon and Emily says she is going as well. They ride out on horseback, and as they are talking Eric rides up, say that Stanley spotted a truck coming. Jake ends up trying to get into the cab of the truck, but there is a surprise coming. Its Jonah and his men, and after some deal making with Emily, ( 50 percent of the take from New Bern's mortar site) they all go back into town.
Johnston has asked Dale for men to help fight, but little Dale wants to make deals for more farms! Johnston tells him this is about more than land, and that Dale already has half of a slat mine and some farms, that he needs to do it for Johnston.
All the men meet in the bar, and discuss what to do next, and in comes Jake, Emily, Hawkins and Jonah. Johnston ends up making a deal with Jonah for his help. They decide to go take the mortar site themselves, and Johnston tells Eric and Jimmy to go to Gray and stop him from making the deal to give away the farms to Constantino. Its barely a success, with alot of arguing by Gray, he is now losing it big time.; but they make it and convince him to use his business savvy to keep Constantino on the ropes.
Then we see Johnston in a truck driven by a New Bern man, and they are heading to the mortar site. Johnston has a gun on the driver, who tells him he remembers him from a race one year in New Bern.
Inside the truck is Jake, Hawkins, and others. They plan to get the drop on the New Bern men when they come to the back to open the truck. As they arrive at the mortar site, the driver tells the check in man that there is a barbecue venison in the back for them. Almost all the men who are guarding the site come to the back of the truck save a few. As soon as the open the truck Jake and Hawkins get the drop on them, and get them disarmed and in the truck, just at the driver gets away from Johnston, and screams "they're here!". This brings the other guards and there is a gun battle , that looks to be lost until over the hill come Jonah and his men. The battle ends quickly, and as Jonahs men are picking up the guns and searching the bodies for whatever they can take, Jonah comes upon the driver, he is hurt but alive. Jonah looks down at him, and then as Johnston screams NO!, he shoots him. Emily sees this, and is in shock ( this is strange seeing how there has been a nuclear war, and other things happen)
As Jonah and the others pack up the supplies they took from the mortar site, Jonah tells them he has changed the plans to split it 50-50, that he is taking all the guns and fuel and supplies. He tells Emily that she needs to stay away from him, she is a teacher and he is a thief.
Jake wants to stop him, but Hawkins tells him that he has guns, and later we see Hawkins and Jake at Hawkins storage building; where the entire unit is filled with guns of all kinds, enough for almost the entire town to at least have one gun each to protect themselves.
The meeting between Gray and Constantino ends with Phil calling him and telling him that he blew it and that this means war, as Johnston looks on; Gray breaks down and asks him for his help. They shake hands and Johnston takes over leadership once again.
Later in the town square, all the towns people are gathered. Johnston tells them basically that like it or not, war has come upon them, and they should pray for each other, and for those people of New Bern. He tells them this is more than a fight for their lives, its a fight for their very existence.
Then Jake tells everyone that is able bodied and over 16 to get in line for a gun. They begin handing the guns out, as Dale and his men, Marcy, Emily, and Hawkins daughter among others get their weapons. It is time to fight! While this is going on, Stanley and some men, all in dark clothes are heading over a hill, looking down on the city of lights, New Bern.