Previously: Jake meets Goetz, the Hudson River Virus jumps the Blue Line, J&R is creepy; Goetz returns.
We open up in Indian Springs Missouri, where Dale is trying to get to a trading post. He doesn’t get far, however, as he is stopped by a soldier who lets through a Hum-Vee full of dudes in scary-looking gas masks. My guess is poor Dale is near a site of the Hudson River Virus outbreak.
Beck, Jake and Eric are walking through town when they encounter D.B. Sweeney. Jake immediately reaches for his gun, which I like to think is a reaction to an ex-girlfriend having had him sit through one too many viewings of The Cutting Edge, but is actually because of his interaction with Sweeney’s character Goetz last season. It is for the latter reason that Beck stops Jake from killing him, because if it were for the former, he totally would have let him shoot. (Aw, just kidding. I love that movie. “Toe Pick!”).
Beck explains that Goetz is the contractor that was called in to handle his day-to-day responsibilities after he let the “terrorist” escape last week. Jake is still all, “hey, did you hear about the massacre this guy has perpetrated, and how he’s basically an all-around dick?” Beck has apparently heard a different version of the story; one that includes Jake randomly opening fire on a government contractor as he entered the town and killing one of his men.
Goetz asks for some alone time with Jake, and we find out that Jake’s reaction to seeing the J&R tents in the premiere wasn’t just based on a first impression of creepiness. Apparently they’re part of Jake’s mysterious backstory from when he was in the military—and was a J&R employee.
Deputy Taylor is released from the hospital and returns to work at the sheriff’s office. He immediately stirs up trouble for Hawkins when he sees a “Wanted” poster for Sarah Mason and tells beck that she and Hawkins were connected. Jimmy still thinks Hawkins is undercover FBI, so he didn’t say much, but Darcy thinks it’s just a matter of time before they come for him and the rest of their family. Awesomely, instead of running, Hawkins goes balls-out and marches into Beck’s office and accuses him of ruining his FBI investigation by plastering Mason’s picture all over town.
Jake and Eric are in the mayor’s office and Jake decides to come clean about his work in Iraq and his involvement with Ravenwood (aka Blackwater). He was hauling supplies when his convoy was ambushed. Not having any rules of engagement, they just went in and started shooting. When all was said and done, in addition to the perpetrators, 4 bystanders were killed, including a 12-year-old girl. Jake tells him that there were no repercussions for this whatsoever. The point is, Ravenwood is basically J&R’s own private army and was, and continues to be above the law.
Dale returns to Jericho with the supplies that he’s managed to pick up at various trading posts. Included in the supplies are Hudson River Virus vaccines that he bought on the black market. Emily and her ratty extensions don’t believe that the virus has spread at first, but comes around once she hears about what happened in Missouri. Unfortunately, Goetz gets wind of the contraband and comes to confiscate it, saying if Jericho needs meds, Jennings & Rall will supply it. Talk about ominous.
Heather hears from a nurse in a quarantined town in Missouri who says that the virus is spreading really fast. They’ve lost 220 people in the past week. Jake, Eric and Emily set off to find a way to prevent that from happening to Jericho.
Eric, Emily, Heather and Jake all go out to try to save Jericho. Emily tries to enlist the doctor’s help with vaccines, while Eric goes to Trish, the blonde from J&R, who is sympathetic, but ultimately unhelpful. Heather goes to Beck to tell him about the town in Missouri, but gets nowhere. Jake, meanwhile tells Dale that it would totally be a terrible idea if he hijacked J&R’s shipment of the vaccine and saved the town from certain death.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, it looks like Bonnie is heading to Cheyenne to possibly work for J&R. She and Trish were talking about service organizations based there, and Stanley gives her his blessing if she wants to go try it out.
Dale manages to steal back some of the vaccine, but Goetz has gotten ahold of Kenchy and is grilling him about the syringes he just ordered. Kenchy doesn’t give everything up immediately, but of course folds eventually and tells Goetz about the warehouse full of vaccines.
Jake somehow manages to get to the warehouse before Ravenwood does and tells everyone to take as many vials as they can and get the hell out of there. Ravenwood, who for some inexplicable reason has decided not to surround the warehouse, is taking their sweet time entering through the front, so Dale et al. have ample time to sneak out. Jake and Goetz have a standoff, in which a lot of guns are pointed. Goetz tells an underling to get on the horn and tell the powers that be that the vaccines have been located. Fortunately for Jake, they tell Goetz that the vaccines made it to Cheyenne and were destroyed.
The Scooby gang sets up an immunization station, hopefully saving the town from an outbreak. Jake is still trying to figure out how Cheyenne thought the vaccines were delivered and figures it must have been an inside job, since J&R doesn’t make mistakes with their books. Eric thinks it’s Trish, and it turns out he’s right. Aww, maybe Bonnie will be okay. Speaking of inside jobs, Heather thanks Beck for going outside his chain of command and helping those people in Missouri. Mild Spoiler: I hear that Beck and Heather are slated to become love interests soon.
Hawkins convinces beck that Sarah Mason is a spook, not a terrorist, and tells him to contact Valente to confirm it. Valente, of course, denies that Mason has ever worked for the U.S. Government, so Beck realizes that there is something fishy going on and accepts Hawkins’ offer to assist him in his search for Sarah Mason.
While Hawkins was waiting for Beck to finish with Valente, he intercepts a coded transmission that he hopes is from one of his men. However, it’s from a stranger that says, “I know who you are, I know what you’re trying to do, and I want to help.”
Next week: The new government consolidates power and the struggle turns deadly.
