Episode Report Card Strega: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Dust In The Wind
By Strega | Season 1 | Episode 2 | Aired on 09.26.2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.First things first: we find out that the town's population is less than five thousand. One mystery solved! After her close encounter with the dead birds, Emily runs out of gas, boo. But she's picked up by a couple of cops, yay. Who are, of course, actually escaped prisoners, boo. But the cops they're impersonating are still alive, yay. But they're in the trunk of the police car, boo. Emily takes them to casa Richmond, where they have a nice breakfast with Bonnie. Then she sneaks out to place an emergency call via the police radio in the car. While that's going on, it's time for the townsfolk to duck and cover, since a whole lotta fallout is headed their way. Eric helps herd the townsfolk into the old shelters, and we learn that he may be a good son, but he's not scoring so high as a husband; he trades smooches with the bartendrix while his wife tends to patients at the medical center. Hawkins goes to see if he can get any news on the ham radio. And he does, but he doesn't tell anyone about it. Since the shelters are full, Jake helps convert the mine into a makeshift shelter, and then gets the S.O.S. from Emily. Dale makes an extra effort to save the bitchy townie from certain death. Dad goes missing for a while, and then turns out to have had a heart attack, or a fainting spell, or something. Back at casa Richmond, Emily finds herself in a standoff with the fake cops, who hold Bonnie hostage. Jake turns up just in time, and he and Emily kill the fugitives, then take shelter in the Richmond's cellar. At the end, Hawkins visits his wife and kids, and they hunker down while Hawkins reveals to the audience that the message he picked up is a list of other cities that went boom. There's a lot of them. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously: Jake hugged people, crashed his car, and drove a bus. Also, stuff blew up.
Emily walks along the highway in the morning light, toting a gas can.
Jake hauls himself up a ladder, groaning with each step. Jake, honestly, the frisbee can wait.
Hawkins stands in front of city hall, being his thoughtful, secretive, nigh-omniscient self. Gary wanders out to join him, and asks if anyone's seen the sheriff. Hawkins hasn't, but he tells Gary that he needs to talk to the mayor. I don't know why he thinks Gary cares. Hawkins looks up at the sky and says, "We got trouble coming. Right here in Jericho. Trouble with a capital 'T, that rhymes with 'G,' and that stands for gamma rays!" He then heads inside. Gary looks up himself, like, "I don't see nothin'." We pull back to reveal flags flapping in the breeze.
Jake finally reaches the top of whatever he's on, and looks out at the mass of dark clouds on the horizon. "Oh my God!" he gasps. "Why didn't I walk half a block instead of climbing up here? God, I'm dumb."
We're spared Jake's twenty-minute climb back down, and cut straight to Jake limping through the clinic. He runs into Mom, asks where April is, and tells her to call Dad on the radio. Poor Pamela Reed. I hope she eventually gets to do something besides pass messages between people.
April turns out to be a redheaded doctor, who's just finished putting a cast on Heather's leg. When April asks how she feels, Heather eyes her cast and says, "I feel like a bad-ass!" Jake bursts in and asks if there's a fallout shelter in the clinic. April says, "Yes...what's going on?" Attention, Citizens of Jericho: Please, try to pay attention. I'm amazed some of these people can remember their own names. Jake just says it's bad, and tells her to come along.
Sheriff's office. Dad says, "Jericho has two underground shelters: one right here, under the town hall, and the other under the medical clinic." Gary asks whether people can hunker down in their storm cellars. Hawkins says, "They're better than nothing," and adds that people will have to seal up their houses with duct tape and plastic sheets. Having spent a depressing few hours reading about fallout, I think I can say that there's really no point in doing that, but whatever. Eric asks how Hawkins knows that, and Hawkins says, "Because I was a cop in St. Louis." And then he goes on about disaster preparedness, but I think that if he turns out to be an expert on the works of Truffaut, he'll say it's because he was a cop in St. Louis. He adds that their big problem is the rain. Some guy asks, "Won't the rain clear the radiation out of the air?" Hawkins says, "Yeah, and bring it straight down on Jericho." A fireman comes in with a map of the town, and Dad proposes splitting up the town -- the south half goes into the town hall's shelter; the north half goes to the clinic. Dad asks Hawkins how long they've got, and Hawkins shrugs and says, "I'm new here." But you were a cop in St. Louis! You should know everything! Hawkins asks how long it usually takes for a storm over Denver to reach them. Gary gulps, "Less than two hours." Everyone starts muttering, and Dad says, "We've got work to do, guys."