Rogue River

Oh my dear little blog, how I have been neglecting thee! Things have been rather crazy at Château de Palette recently, and I might be forced into a thrice-weekly schedule until they settle down.

Loyal readers, centuria that ye be, are no doubt aware of my love for the post-apocalyptic TV show known as Jericho. I am, however, not completely convinced that all of you have actually taken the time to watch this little gem of a program. Normally the punishment for such a transgression would be fifty strokes with a silken lash, but I suspect you'd enjoy that too much for the lesson to properly take. Thus, I shall forgo your corporal punishment -- this time -- in lieu of you taking 45 minutes out of your life to watch a single episode with me.

Go to the CBS website here and select Episode 8: "Rogue River". While it's loading I'll give you a brief synopsis of what the heck is going on.

Jericho is a small Kansas farm town, the kind of place you would expect Superman to have grown up in. It is also, conveniently enough, outside of the fallout zones for all major cities in Kansas and Colorado. That fluke of geography, as well as access to a salt mine and uncontaminated water table, allow it to survive being cut off from the rest of the world when twenty-three major American cities are simultaneously destroyed by nuclear bombs.

There are three plots that occur in this episode.

1. Major Plot: Jake and Eric Green must leave Jericho in search of antibiotic for their father (and mayor of Jericho) Johnston Green, who has gone into septic shock as a result of the flu. They take Jake's car because its 1970s-era guts weren't toasted by the EMP.
   
2. Minor Plot: Gray Anderson, the man who wants to be mayor, decides he doesn't know enough about some of the new people in town. He drops in unannounced at the Hawkins residence and starts asking very undelicate questions of people who don't want such questions asked...
   
3. "C" plot: Heather, a friend of Jake, tries to make ice to cool Johnston's fever. Without electricity, this becomes difficult.
   

And there you go. That's a typical episode of Jericho: Adventure in the unsafe lands beyond home; rampant paranoia; once-easy necessities of life becoming a struggle to produce. The "previously" bit that begins the show should reinforce what I already told you and give you enough of a feel for the characters and the setting that you'll be able to pick up what's going on with to trouble. This particular episode doesn't depend on any specialized knowledge of prior episodes, and (in my opinion) is exciting and well-paced.

Go! Watch!

Finished? Good! I hope you enjoyed it. If not, I respect your opinion (even if it's, y'know, wrong) and I thank you for taking the time to give it a chance.

Now, for one last thing: Did you notice how the title sequence had a morse code message? Well, that changes with each episode. The message encoded in "Rogue River" ....





















... "Rob not FBI."