Wednesday May 9, 2007
122
The residents of Jericho have survived the attack on their town but there is a lot more in store for them.
Write a Recap »My personal favorite... hide show
Of all the episodes of Jericho that I have watched, I'd have to rank Why We Fight as one of my favorites, mainly because of how the previous episodes lead the way to the conclusion of a good season.
Some of the things that I really enjoyed about the episode were how Jack and some of the other members of his family were remembering a happier time in their lives when they were flashing back to Eric's wedding to April while preparing to fight their war with New Bern. It was during one of their flashbacks that I also enjoyed hearing the peanut story Jake's grandfather told Stanley before the wedding started when they were sitting in the bar.
One scene that I thought was priceless was when Stanley and Bonnie brought Mimi to visit their parents' graves. While it was kind of somber the way he was telling them that it might be a while before they come back to visit their graves, I thought Stanley's description of Mimi when he introduced her to them to be priceless.
After the war started, I thought it was pretty comical the way Johnston reacted to finding out about Hawkins' satellite computer by saying he was about to bomb the town that had the closest Costco. It was also neat the way Hawkins was willing to help Jericho after being found by the bad guys.
With that said, there were also a few parts that I didn't like: such as Johnston dying and the way New Bern was bringing in so many reinforcements that Jericho was more outnumbered than before. Another part that I didn't like was when Constantino told Jake that Jericho should give up the next wave of attacks while expressing his condolences about what happened to Johnston. Jake's response of "Nuts" to him was absolutely priceless.
Despite Johnston's death in this episode, Why We Fight is one of my favorite episodes.
Good episode, but falls short compared to the last few. hide show
Ever since Jericho came back from it's midseason hiatus it's been throwing more and more intense episodes at the viewers than the entire first half of the season altogether. The show's soap aspect has been reduced to minimum, and in the last couple of episodes the action became an important element of the show.
It was also great to finally learn about Hawkins. Once his character's motivations were revealed, his character didn't feel all 2 dimensional anymore, like in most early episodes where you knew he's up to something mysterious, but he's been over-mystified: after the 50th mysterious laptop-browsing it just became dull and laughable. But, as I said, it was great to finally learn more about him.
The problem is, this finale feels more like a finale of the first half of the season rather than the second half.
The stage was set for an explosive and adrelain pumping finale, but instead the show goes off on an emotional stage. Which isn't bad... unless there's a gigantic build up like here.
The first mistake the writers did in this episode was keeping Heather alive. It's not that I dislike her, but I thought her death was a really good shocker. A cold and sudden shocker. This show could use more of that. But revealing she's alive... well, okay. But why now? It felt really out of place. In fact most of her scenes were out of place, expect maybe for the last one.
Another mistake was the flashbacks. It's a very common things nowadays to have flashbacks in season or series finales. And oh, I do love flashbacks... when they add depth or help understanding the storyline. But in this case, they were way too long, and way too "deconcecrated". Most of the flashbacks didn't add anything to the story.
So if we remove the useless flashbacks and useless Heather scenes, we get around 25 minutes out of the full 40. Almost half of the episode's a filler, and nothing helps that. Even though the non filler part is alot of fun.
The fight between New Bern and Jericho isn't as spectacular as you might expect. In my opinion there were more explosive stand offs in the last 2 episodes. However, Johnston's death was really well done, even if I could say that it was useless. It didn't add to the story but it definitely set up some future plot threads and motivation for certain characters. And it was, of course, pretty touching. Well done. To make it more emotional, the flashbacks helped, although as I previously said, only a very little.
What really disappointed me was Hawkins' storyline. Almost nothing new happened, and the whole him getting tracked down was lame. It was very unrealistic... it's a shame, because the show tends to try to be as realistic as possible. Now it all seems a bit negative. But it's not bad at all. In fact it's good. It's just not as great as the last few episodes.
Why we fight...to survive! hide show
Writers have a way of taking what we think is a certain and promptly tossing our certainties out the window. Who saw April's baby dying? Who saw April dying? Who would have thought Johnston would have died? He did. Jake is livid at his father's death and decides to wage a war against the man whom he thinks is personally responsible, the mayor of New Bern. Jericho now has to fight for it's very survival or lose its salt mine, its land and its farms. With all the weaponry out there among the masses, the guns and ammunition in Jericho's possession and mortars in New Bern's, the order is given and the fight to survive begins. And to think CBS saw no future for this show!
Great way to end the season hide show
I liked this one very much. How the two towns went to war, it all started to build up after the second half of the season picked back up. Sad part was when johnston died and I fell Jake will slowly take over and run jericho. Gray Anderson doesnt do much. I fell Jake may become jericho's leader from the peoples voice. no vote, no election, the people want him to become mayor and that will but a huge key between jake, johnston, Erik as well as a few other important characters. what ever happens season 2 will be great. Hope its soon.
What an ending and what an idiots were the people who originally cancelled this show.
Truly amazing episode with tears and laughs, twists, flashbacks and war.
Perhaps the flashbacks were a bit too long, but they were still very well-timed, aimed at increasing the tension of the episode.
I was sooo afraid Jake was gonna mess up his speech at Eric's wedding, but fortunately, he didn't
I was a firm believer in the Jake-Heather relationship, but I think I'm convinced now about Jake and Emily, nevertheless, I was pleased Heather was still alive in a big plot twist. Her being at a military camp of the US government was suprising too.
Johnston dying was sooo sad, his two sons at this side, being proud of Jake especially made this very, very moving.
The ending, what can I say. I can't find for new episodes!!
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