Mar 5, 2008 05:30 PM
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San Francisco, 8:29 PM
Tue Feb 9
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This scene from last night's episode of post-apocalyptic survival show Jericho really startled me. I had to rewind my DVR a bit, because I didn't believe what I was seeing at first. It was the first really surprising thing in this whole season of Jericho, which has been cool and subversive, but not really startling except in a twisty-turny suspense thriller way. But this clip — which you really shouldn't watch unless you're prepared for major spoilerage — changed all that. Click through for spoilers.
I have to admit Stanley the square-jawed farmer, his girlfriend Mimi the brassy accountant, and his deaf sister Bonnie were probably my least favorite characters on the show. I often felt tempted to fast-forward whenever one of their heart-warming scenes of stoic tenderness and oatmealy love-saving-the-day-hood came on the screen. Seriously, Jericho has two different scores, especially in season two: tense and jaggedy action music for every other scene, and then suddenly a huge Englebert Humperdicnk thing whenever Mimi, Stanley and Bonnie are having a tender moment.
So how shocking was it that Bonnie was the one who just took out a whole squad of Ravenwood goons with her shotgun? Holy crap. In case you were one of the evil bastards who didn't watch, here's what happened: Mimi had discovered evidence that someone (almost certainly Goetz, the thug in charge of the town) had embezzled $10,000 and cooked the ledgers to cover it up. Mimi had her own private ledger which proved that the money had disappeared, so Goetz and his goons came out to her farm to seize it, and probably deal with her.
This was about the 500th scene of Goetz and the Ravenwoodies being psychotic fascists over the past couple of episodes, including seizing a vaccine for the deadly Hudson River Virus, shutting down independent businesses, trying to control the town's economy totally and arresting Dale the tousle-headed smuggler. Awww Dale. He looked kind of cute in handcuffs. Anyway. I figured the whole Goetz-must-be-dealt-with thing would be part of the show's finale. (And it still may be. We don't know if Goetz survived the shootout.)
Can I just get back to Bonnie the heartwarming kid sister suddenly turning into Rambo? I want to watch that clip over and over.
In other news, Major Beck is a patsy. I know, according to all the hints the show's producers have dropped, at some point Beck will figure out quite how much everyone has been playing him, and will have some kind of Abu Ghraib-esque response. But for now? Total patsy. Practically a teddy bear. Heather plays him, Jake plays him, and most of all, Hawkins plays him. My favorite moment is when Beck makes a big speech about how he's not a total sucker... and then Hawkins suckers him. Hawkins practically has Jedi mind powers! Oh, and the secret informant who keeps feeding plot info to Hawkins? I really hope there's a twist coming there, because it seems way too convenient. Of course, I know they only have three more episodes to wrap this up. But still.
Oh, and meanwhile... some bad news. After a nice ratings surge last week, Jericho didn't have such a great time last night. The title of this report pretty much says it all: "Jericho is toast." Sorry. Let's hope the producers do manage to find a cable network to pick it up.
Send an email to Charlie Jane Anders, the author of this post, at charliejane@io9.com.
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