It’s funny that “Jericho” seems to be taking a coincidentally similar tactic to “Lost” lately, putting a few disparate people into groups and having them react to each other; they did it last week when they went to the flea market, and they did it again this week when they went on a hunting expedition. This time, we get Jake, Stanley, and Mimi…and, yes, it’s pretty obvious which of these people is not like the other. As it happens, though, Mimi’s inability to hunt never really comes into play, what with all the discoveries of dead bodies, the car chase (and subsequent wreck), inclement weather, and whatnot. The real payoff from the sequence, aside from the thieving of the Jericho folks’ vehicle by the masked marauders who ran them off the road in the first place, was that it led to Jake finally opening up to his dad about what had gone on in Iraq…and how he was responsible for killing a little girl.
Hawkins and his lady friend embark on their mission, and although we knew from the last moments of the previous episode that she was preparing to betray him, I think we all suspected that he suspected this would happen. They managed a decent amount of tension as we waited for her to betray him; I was surprised that she didn’t play her hand…and given the finale of the episode, I’m not entirely sure she knew about everything that Hawkins found on the computer.
Emily’s fiancee still seems out of it, but his interest in assisting the others who suffered through the same fate as himself has, if nothing else, made her a bit more sympathetic to what he’s dealing with…and her conversations with them have reminded her just how much he loves her.
The obligatory “Little House”-styled moments – when Ma and Pa Green find Jake’s secret stash of liquor and get a nice buzz going – were nicely done…although when they showed up later to save Mimi’s hide, I kept thinking, “Geez, good thing there’s not much chance of them getting pulled over and given a breathalizer!” I’m not sure if they’re getting better at slipping these moments into the action or if I’m just getting used to them, but they don’t feel as forced as they used to. What does feel forced, however, is the romantic dialogue they saddle Stanley and Mimi with; they’ve got no chemistry whatsoever. At least their last scene of the episode has her responding to one of his comments with, “That’s the worst line I’ve ever heard.”
