Jericho: Why We Fight
May. 9th, 2007 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiSo this week, I have two things to say. First of all, why are you not watching this show? And second, this show, this show I used to think didn't have a lot of emotional depth, this show made me cry tonight. This was one hell of a season finale.
So first of all, Heather! She's alive! She escaped! And she's responsible for the 7th Cavalry (or modern equivalent) turning up to rescue Jericho, just in the nick of time. And yet of course, all is not what it seems -- the army she found may be full of good guys, but somewhere at or near the top of the government it serves is that man Valente, and he wants his bomb back. His smoking gun, as Darcy tells Hawkins -- and how well that scene was handled! the way Darcy gives the viewer the information as she figures it out, and how clear it is from Hawkins' face that he's known all along that the bomb is more than just a bomb, how dangerous he is and how much danger it puts him in. I do love a well-handled piece of infodump.
But to get back to Heather: that moment, when she looked up at the flag, and we saw it clearly for the first time, and it was wrong: absolutely chilling.
Oh, Johnston. Well, you could kind of see it coming, for the same reason we all knew John would die eventually on Supernatural -- his sons have to grow up, and they can't do that with him standing over them, always there to take the lead. And he got to use the tank, and had a great final episode. He was hysterical, in the scene with Jake and Hawkins, when they tell him about the satellite, and he just doesn't care. "I am about to go to war with New Bern, Kansas, home of the nearest Costco. This is just about as much weird as I can handle in one day."
And the deathbed scene wasn't too bad, either. But the flashback, that final scene with Jake, that's what made me cry. I actually sobbed. I'm really going to miss Johnston Green.
I was a little suspicious when the wedding flashbacks started: I mean, this was the season finale, and there was a lot of action -- why show us the past? But it was all worth it, for that last scene -- Johnston's assurance that one day he would stop worrying about Jake, that Jake would become the man -- the leader -- Johnston knew he could be. And of course it turns out to be the day Johnston dies, the other day he would naturally stop worrying. But they were also great for the contrast in the relationship between Jake and Eric -- how distant they were back then, and how close they are now -- how absolutely they can rely on each other.
Also, the information that Jake's grandfather taught him to fly a crop duster when he was 13 made me enormously happy. And I didn't even mind the Jake and Emily romance (with short hair, she looked a bit like S1 Kara Thrace, out of uniform.) They were cute!
I also liked the scene with Stanley and Bonnie and Mimi at his and Bonnie's parents' graves -- they're so adorable, and they've come so far. And Stanley, I don't want you to die either.
What was interesting, though, is that this episode had such a clear focus -- first on the Greens, and then on the New Bern plotline. Everything else was pushed into the background, because by now we all know why it matters. I thought it was really well done -- the cutting between the front at Stan's, the basement, the flashbacks and Heather in Nebraska was so well done. The show finally found its feet in the second half of the season, and these past few episodes have just been getting stronger and stronger.
Please, please let this show get a second season. It deserves one, now.
I may have more to say about this show through the summer. I hope the DVDs come out over the summer, so I can watch the whole thing again.
So first of all, Heather! She's alive! She escaped! And she's responsible for the 7th Cavalry (or modern equivalent) turning up to rescue Jericho, just in the nick of time. And yet of course, all is not what it seems -- the army she found may be full of good guys, but somewhere at or near the top of the government it serves is that man Valente, and he wants his bomb back. His smoking gun, as Darcy tells Hawkins -- and how well that scene was handled! the way Darcy gives the viewer the information as she figures it out, and how clear it is from Hawkins' face that he's known all along that the bomb is more than just a bomb, how dangerous he is and how much danger it puts him in. I do love a well-handled piece of infodump.
But to get back to Heather: that moment, when she looked up at the flag, and we saw it clearly for the first time, and it was wrong: absolutely chilling.
Oh, Johnston. Well, you could kind of see it coming, for the same reason we all knew John would die eventually on Supernatural -- his sons have to grow up, and they can't do that with him standing over them, always there to take the lead. And he got to use the tank, and had a great final episode. He was hysterical, in the scene with Jake and Hawkins, when they tell him about the satellite, and he just doesn't care. "I am about to go to war with New Bern, Kansas, home of the nearest Costco. This is just about as much weird as I can handle in one day."
And the deathbed scene wasn't too bad, either. But the flashback, that final scene with Jake, that's what made me cry. I actually sobbed. I'm really going to miss Johnston Green.
I was a little suspicious when the wedding flashbacks started: I mean, this was the season finale, and there was a lot of action -- why show us the past? But it was all worth it, for that last scene -- Johnston's assurance that one day he would stop worrying about Jake, that Jake would become the man -- the leader -- Johnston knew he could be. And of course it turns out to be the day Johnston dies, the other day he would naturally stop worrying. But they were also great for the contrast in the relationship between Jake and Eric -- how distant they were back then, and how close they are now -- how absolutely they can rely on each other.
Also, the information that Jake's grandfather taught him to fly a crop duster when he was 13 made me enormously happy. And I didn't even mind the Jake and Emily romance (with short hair, she looked a bit like S1 Kara Thrace, out of uniform.) They were cute!
I also liked the scene with Stanley and Bonnie and Mimi at his and Bonnie's parents' graves -- they're so adorable, and they've come so far. And Stanley, I don't want you to die either.
What was interesting, though, is that this episode had such a clear focus -- first on the Greens, and then on the New Bern plotline. Everything else was pushed into the background, because by now we all know why it matters. I thought it was really well done -- the cutting between the front at Stan's, the basement, the flashbacks and Heather in Nebraska was so well done. The show finally found its feet in the second half of the season, and these past few episodes have just been getting stronger and stronger.
Please, please let this show get a second season. It deserves one, now.
I may have more to say about this show through the summer. I hope the DVDs come out over the summer, so I can watch the whole thing again.
