Jericho
A friend of mine, Shrek, previously from IWZ, currently a gaming companion, introduced me to the television drama “Jericho”, from CBS. I hadn’t even heard of it (I don’t watch much network t.v., mainly the History Channel, Discovery, Learning Channel, etc.). Being a child of the Cold War, being that I was a major fan of the fascinating 1980’s “post-nuclear-war” story-lines for movies, tv and books, I immediately became hooked on this new show. Considering CBS is kind enough to provide previous airings of Jericho episodes, I went to their site and watched all of them. No, not at one time like some of you may think, it actually took me two night :-). At any rate, I’ve found a helluva show and I am sure, if I decided to look around the web and usenet, I’d find a plethora of theories concerning everything from Mr. Hawkins (watch the show to find out about this stuff people, don’t make me explain it to you) to what or who caused the attacks to occur. Well, I am going to give you my take on the events and let it play out and let’s see how far off I am about the authors storyline.
     At the time of this entry, we’re up to episode #7, “Long Live the Mayor”. That being said, let me be the first to point out that considering this is a television show and not real-life, my “theory” doesn’t really do the “real world” justice. For that matter, it has little to do with the real world. However, through a little imagination and considering some of the points I am about to make, I believe my theories will shed a bit of light of what *could* happen, if certain circumstances present themselves.
     On with the theories. First, and this is probably “the big one”, I theorize that the writers are intentionally misleading the viewers about who delivered the bombs. I think they’re wanting to you believe a foreign power delivered the devices, whether terrorists or not. It is my theory that the people responsible for the attacks are American Citizens and this is their effort to “do something”, whether it be start and/or win a second civil war or wipe out the existing government (see Terms Limits by Vince Flynn, Amazon.com). *** Also see last few paragraphs below.
     The second part of my theory, Mr. Hawkins is a part of the group of people that initiated the attack. He at least knew it was coming and he didn’t try to do anything about it. That’s pretty well evident in the storyline of the show. I am not so sure of Jake. I don’t think Jake Green knew anything about the attack, at least he didn’t think it was going to happen then. Perhaps, he knew and he knew that Jericho would be ok. But I really don’t think he knew it was going to happen, at least at that time. Perhaps he knew it was to occur later and he was preparing by coming to Jericho and attempting to get the money his grandfather had bequested upon him.
     I believe “Gray” will try to take over the city now that the mayor is literally on his death bed. UPDATE 12-11-2006 At the end of the last episode, we found that Gray had won the election for mayor, ousting mayor Green. This proves my “Gray’s power take-over” theory. UPDATE 11-8-2006: “Gray” did try to do something in a “take over” mode when he attempted to interrogate Mr. Hawkins and his family. Although they “found” his FBI identification, I believe that was planted by Hawkins’ daughter and Mr. Hawkins is still hiding something. UPDATE 11-15-2006: Gray attempted more “takeover” moves in the last episode, the episode where Johnston (Jake’s dad, the Mayor) recovered from his infection. Johnston promptly told him to butt-out, that he was still in charge until he was voted out. Jake and his brother will make it to the town to get the Cipro (sp?), they’ll encounter some trouble and I believe Jake will return. As for his brother, that’s iffy. I doubt he’ll make it back, he’ll probaly die while saving Jake and getting the Cipro to take back to their father. UPDATE 11-8-2006: Jake’s brother did not die.
     That ends my theories about the who, what, when, where and why of the show. Below, you’ll find additonal info and some theories concerning America in general.
     *** To expand on my “American Citizens” theory, I’d like to first point out that I did not call them “Domestic Terrorists”. There’s a specific reason for this. Say for instance there’s a large number of Americans that believe the current form of government is bad for their country. If they decide to do something about it, say they decide to vote out the current administration, executive and legislative. They get the job done but partisan politics absorb the newcomers into the “good ole boy system” of Washington (Again, see “Term Limits by Vince Flynn). At this very moment in History, our current 2006 General Election has ousted the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and put more Democrats into office. Now, say the citizens out there that supported the democrats to take over the House decide that the new House of Reps, now with a first-female-speaker in history decide to “play ball” with Washington insiders and nothing substantial get accomplished in Congress, could the folks that put the new House in order get pissed and cause a domestic uprising? Now, these folks may not be in the majority of Americans, however, if there’s a large enough number, are they terrorists or patriots? Bear with me here. Don’t go off on a rant simply because I posed a question you’re unwilling to accept as a possibility because of your self-centered beliefs. The possibility exists and in my opinion, grows stronger every day that a second civil war will occur (I know damn good and well it will occur, I’ve said that for 15 years or more) but I don’t know when. The Second War Between the States could occur over this election. It could occur over gas prices. There is however, no doubt in my mind that it will occur and the current role of government will be turned on it’s head.
     Here’s a couple things to support my theory: On the show, the Director of Homeland Security (or any other agency for that matter) doesn’t provide any information when they finally get the communications link up. The “EMP Bomb” that hits, that didn’t come from the Chinese or from the Terrorists, perhaps an allied country had one get lose, but chances are, it was from an American that was a part of the establishment. Either FEMA/Homeland Security or one of the people involved in attack released the EMP bomb from American stocks. They probably released enough to blanket the country. I would bet, the American Government did it themselves, to counter act the communications links of the people responsible for the initial attacks. If FEMA/H.S. sent up the EMPs and basically counter attacked the citizenry, disallowing communications between different people involved in the attacks, they’re effectively initiating some of the same tactics we would use on other countries. Again, I don’t think another country did it to us. I don’t think there’s any country capable of hitting us in multiple locations like we’re seeing on the show. China has “X” amount of ICBMs but I don’t think they have that many. As for the EMP, why wait that long to do it? The reason is, America was hit by devices delivered in small ground-based vehicles at multiple locations, not by ICBMs. America was hit dramatically. By the time the .gov figured out it was internal, the first step would be to disrupt communications. Could it be that the attackers themselves restored the communications, at least televison wise and the .gov disrupted their signals with the EMPs?
     I am not a kook. If I am a kook then mainstream television is currently catering to the same ideas. Many people I know have said something to the effect of: “…I wouldn’t care if they killed every one of those sons-of-bitches up in washington.” Every month or so, a new program is presented showing the possibility of some of the items I’ve listed above. If I am right, Jericho will show one of these ideas, coming from mainstream Hollywood. Over on the left, you’ll notice a link to the New American Revolution. To go a bit further on this, the author mentions “do you think an armed citizenry could win against the strongest military in the world…” The author further elaborates about the success of the Vietcong and NVA during the Vietnam war. The author doesn’t really take into account that the people that make up our military are American Citizens. Will their loyalties lie with the Federal Government or with their hometown friends and neighbors. I believe, as I wrote in my introductory short story (now defunct however preserved in my archives) for Battlefield America (which was to be a mod for a game), that the military would split, pretty much down the middle. The National Guard will lean to the citizen, so will parts of the other services. People frown when you say “National Guard” because they’re considered “part time soldiers”. Lemme tell you something about our Guard and Reserve that you may or may not be aware of, they receive, in parts, the exact same training as our career military personnel do. Don’t you dare take them for granted, they’re as good as any full-time soldiers. Sometimes, they’re even better because not only do they have the acquired military skill, they’re also skilled in their civilian profession, something that seldom happens in the military rosters of full-time soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine.
     At any rate, I’ve given enough to think about for now. Enjoy and let’s take a look at this in a few weeks when the writers for Jericho reveals what actually happened.