Jericho Nuke Notes: Oversight

Posted by Ryan

Jericho OversightJericho, Season 2, Episode 4 “Oversight”: Hawkins receives another call from his mysterious new contact, John Smith, who continues to know his every move, and who informs Hawkins that he is one day away from being caught by Major Beck. Mimi discovers someone inside of Jennings & Rall is embezzling money.

J&R is forcing all businesses to register with them, to “protect” them against illegal activity. Cheyenne has put a price freeze on retail goods, but J&R is charging businesses exorbitant prices — gouging, essentially — for supplies. This J&R monopoly has resulted in a black market economy which Dale seems to be pretty good at. Dale can smuggle cheap stuff into Jericho through Stanley’s farm, bypassing the military checkpoints. But with Stanley’s fiancee and sister now in league with J&R, and the fact that the debt on his farm has been erased, Stanley sympathizes with J&R and won’t allow Dale to use his farm for smuggling. The soldiers manning the checkpoints can be easily convinced to look the other way so long as there’s booze in it for them. But before they can get the plan into action, someone rats out Dale to Ravenwood. Dale is arrested and is immediately escorted to a high-security prison. But Jake intercepts the military transport and convinces Major Beck to release Dale.

The guy who Hawkins called on the phone at the end of the last episode, a.k.a. “John Smith,” claims to know about Project Red Bell. He also knows that Hawkins is a day away from being caught by Beck. A binder containing aerial radiation survey data is going to arrive at Beck’s office — and the data would reveal the bomb that Hawkins has stashed. The military has set up a new thumbprint security system in Beck’s office, and Heather is the only civilian with clearance. Jake and Hawkins realize the only way to get the binder is to let Heather in on the government conspiracy, and she agrees to remove a page from the binder.

To get Beck out of the office, Hawkins tells Beck that Sara Mason has been spotted in Nebraska, and they have to move on the lead immediately. Beck’s troops arrive at the location and find the burned-out remains of a cabin, a dead body and a computer hard drive. Beck analyzes the information on the hard drive and comes across a number of communications that prove Sara was black ops. Beck also finds surveillance video that shows Sara was working for Valente.

Mimi, working as an independent accountant for J&R, discovers a $10K discrepancy in the books at about the same time that the currency exchange began. She suspects that someone is embezzling from within J&R, and the likely culprit is Goetz (D.B. Sweeney). When Goetz is confronted with the discrepancy, he’s a bit too interested in making sure it gets ignored. Goetz wants Mimi’s records, so he shows up at Stanley’s farm with some goons from Ravenwood. When they force their way into the house, Bonnie surprises everyone with her competence with a shotgun. She takes out a few Ravenwood guys, but in the firefight, Mimi gets shot and Bonnie gets killed. Stanley’s likely going to be out for justice and revenge, but since Ravenwood has no accountability, J&R’s going to cover this up instead of deal with it. Stanley’s going to turn into one-man army out for revenge like the main character in a Brian Bosworth movie.

John Smith tells Hawkins that Project Boxcar is a covert operation run by the Cheyenne government to eliminate all evidence of its involvement in the attacks. John Smith e-mails Hawkins a report that J&R prepared as a government contractor in the early ’90s. The report was about what would happen if 23 U.S. cities were destroyed in a nuclear attack — with special attention to the weaknesses in the government’s ability to deal with this catastrophe. Smith has this report because he helped prepare it. We’ve suspected J&R’s involvement in the attacks for quite a while now, but this report reveals more about the depth and breadth of their involvement. Were the attacks simply a demented moneymaking venture and not the work of political nutjobs?

Photo: Robert Voets/CBS ©2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.