Jericho gets political
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- February
- 26
Tonight’s episode, entitled “Jennings & Rall,” gives us more insight into exactly what Ravenwood is.
Quick refresher course: Way back when starting in the Season 1 episode, “Rogue River,” we were introduced to Ravenwood. They were a bunch of rogue soldiers, it seemed, ransacking town after town for food, medicine and basically any other supply that could be useful. Whether the townsfolk needed it or not didn’t matter to Goetz and his flunkies.
This is where Kenchy came into the picture, as he was an ER doctor in Rogue River, completely traumatized by what he saw the Ravenwood folks do. Jake & Eric brought him back to Jericho with them.
Soon after, Ravenwood came a-calling to Jericho. It basically took Jake threatening to blow up himself and the main bridge into town to get Ravenwood to back off (in “Crossroads”). Just in time, Jonah and his crew showed up, and Ravenwood left. By the end of the season, we learned Ravenwood had headed on to New Bern, where they devastated the town.
The bad blood between Jericho and New Bern came from this incident. Jericho escaped the wrath of Ravenwood; New Bern did not. As much as we all hate Constantino and what he did to Jericho (and causing Johnston’s death, too), we have to put ourselves in his shoes and recognize that he, too, was doing what he believed he needed to do for his people. His actions were wrong and he was mistaken about Jericho’s involvement in Ravenwood coming to New Bern, but he wasn’t completely incorrect in that Jericho’s repulsion of Ravenwood probably caused the “soldiers” to be even harder on New Bern.
Tonight, we learn far more about exactly what Ravenwood is and how Jake is connected to J&R and Ravenwood. We finally truly learn what it is that Jake did (sure, we learned in “Heart of Winter” last season that he had killed a young Iraqi girl, but we get the full details tonight).
So, anyway, at WonderCon in San Francisco last weekend, Carol Barbee told the io9 website that the inspiration for Ravenwood came from research the producers did into Halliburton’s and Blackwater’s work in post-invasion Iraq. The fact that Ravenwood was basically unaccountable to anyone, however, presaged news of the scandals about Blackwater, she said.
But, she said, “We don’t talk politics in the writers’ room. We talk characters.”
Speaking of characters, she also said it was always the intention to have Johnston die, so that Jake would have to step up and take his place, so to speak. And Lennie James also opined that Robert Hawkins “could kick Jack Bauer’s ass.”
Hmmm. I have to say that’s one cage match I’d watch. What Jack has going for him is that he has absolutely nothing to lose, and it’s hard to win a fight against someone like that. But Hawkins is far more subtle. I honestly can’t say who I think would win that fight, though I hope that doesn’t get my Blogs4Bauer credentials pulled.
PS: She also told SciFi Wire that she’d try to shop Jericho around to other networks, broadcast and cable, if CBS were to decide not to renew it. Though I hope she doesn’t have to do that, this could bear fruit. SciFi is losing Battlestar Galactica after this upcoming season and other than the Stargate series, it doesn’t have another marquee show.
Lennie James photo courtesy of CBS; Kiefer Sutherland photo courtesy of Fox. Question: Who’d win in a bare-knuckle brawl?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 11:19 am by Amy Vernon.
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