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Original air date: October 11, 2006

Opening Morse Code Translation:
He Knows Rob

Synopsis:
When Jake and Heather find a stranger who is sick from radiation poisoning and has broken into the pharmacy, they must decide whether to help him and risk contamination or do nothing and allow him to die. After they decide to help the stranger and take him to the hospital, Jake and Hawkins sit vigil in hopes that he will be able to give them information about what's going on outside of Jericho. Meanwhile, when the generator at the hospital is low on gas and supplies in town begin to dwindle, the police must ask disgruntled and panicked townspeople to siphon gas from their cars.

Episode recap:
At the beginning of this episode, everyone is at Mary Bailey's bar but when they "run out of booze" as Jake describes it, everyone starts to leave. At this point, Heather finds Jake and he offers to walk her home. They hear a sound in the alley next to the pharmacy. Inside, Jake finds a man who is ill from radiation poisoning. Heather goes to get help while Jake decides whether he should help him (of course if he does, he chances becoming contaminated). Jake and others decide to carry the man to the medical center so he can get help. Stanley and Jake are the only ones who will risk touching the ill man. Stanley is angry at the Sheriff's deputies, Jimmy and Bill, for not helping.

When Heather comes back she finds Jake just coming out of the shower (wearing only a towel). Embarrassed, she tries to talk to Jake without looking at him, informing him that the medical clinic is almost out of gas for the generator--but if they used a water pump, they could siphon gas from the gas station into a container, and take the container of gas to the generator. Jake, Stanley, and Heather volunteer for the mission. Before he leaves, Jake decides to check in on the man with radiation and finds a very upset Bonnie. Bonnie asks if this is how people die when they have radiation poisoning, with so much pain and suffering. Jake tells her not to worry because Stanley didn't get it that bad. Stanley comes up and tells Bonnie not to worry about him. "Take care of him," Bonnie says to Jake. Stanley gently puts his arm around her and the brother and sister walk away.

Meanwhile, Gracie walks into her market, getting ready to open up, when she hears someone. It turns out to be Dale, who shows her newly stocked shelves of food and supplies. Gracie is astounded and after a minute she asks where Dale found all this. Dale explains that the train which was supposed to deliver the next shipment crashed about five miles away. Dale then spent hours transporting it to the market. Gracie says that maybe they shouldn't keep all this. Dale is apparently still angry at the town for taking all Gracie's supplies, and says to forget about them. Gracie reluctantly agrees. Eric decides to listen to April's pleas for once. He goes to collect gas to power the med center generator. Gracie, although trying to teach Dale about sharing, will not share herself. She refuses to give Eric any gas.

Heather and Jake are at the gas station and are getting ready to put a bunch of gas into a container. The thing is, they don't have container; they are waiting for Stanley to bring one. He shows up wearing a cute blue hat and has a huge steel container strapped to the back of his truck. Heather, being the brains of the operation, points out that it is not a good idea to put gas inside a steel container. However there seems to be no other choice. "Well... who's gonna fill it?" Heather asks. Stanley asks Jake if he wants to draw straws. Jake says he'll do it because Stanley has to take care of Bonnie, Stanley argues and tells Jake not to be such a martyr. Stanley says he'll do it because he's "been radiated" and is doomed to die anyway. Jake quickly objects to that idea and reminds Stanley that when they were were younger they made a pact that they would both live to be 100.

"Our pacts never work out," says Stanley.


Heather shouts at them to get going, and Jake forcefully pushes Stanley off the truck and does it himself. Then they drive the container back to the med center, but the cap on the container is stuck. Stanley takes his gun and gets ready to force the cap open by banging it. Heather shrieks and makes him stop, saying that if he forced the cap open, it could spark. One spark, static electricity, and fumes from the sloshing gas... it was the perfect combination to blow everything sky-high. Jake asks what Heather wants them to do, but there doesn't seem to be another option. While their backs are turned, Stanley decides to risk it and whacks the cap off the container. Heather and Jake stare at him. There is a dead silence, but no explosion.

"That was dumb," Stanley observes.

Eric, meanwhile, marches into the clinic and proudly tells April that he's collected 90 gallons of gas. April tells him that they've already got things covered. Somewhat dejected, Eric leaves, and decides to give the gas to Mary Bailey instead.

Meanwhile, Skylar Stephens has thrown a party. She is very depressed and says that there is nothing else to do in life--she is despairing about ever seeing her parents again. Allison comes to the party, but gets in trouble with her Dad for doing so. He says he doesn't want Allison marching around town making their family known to everybody. Dale invites himself to the party, bringing Skylar a bag of food. As usual, everybody makes fun of him. Dale asks why Skylar is such a jerk when she's around her friends. She doesn't answer and kicks him out. After a minute her party is called off by Sheriff Jimmy who says that they are wasting too much generator power. Dale returns to Gracie's market, and Gracie comfortingly tells him that he is worth 10 of Skylar. Dale quietly remarks that Skylar wasn't a bad person. Gracie tells him that Skylar wasn't like them, and that even if her kind seemed nice, don't be fooled.

"That's what my Mom used to say," said Dale.

"Well, she was a smart lady," Gracie answered.

Meanwhile, the man with radiation poisoning has revealed his name to be Victor Miller. He warns everyone that "they're coming." Jimmy and Bill freak out at this, concerned that that Victor might be talking about terrorists. The sheriffs fetch Hawkins, who is genuinely surprised when he hears the man's name. Hawkins suggests that they wake up the now unconscious Victor and question him. Jake hears the plan and protests. "He's suffering from third degree burns; it would be like waking him up on fire!" After some convincing, Jake decides that it is best for the town to question Victor. Hawkins ask if he can question Victor alone, but Jake doesn't trust him and wants to be there too. April also disagrees with the plan, but Eric literally grabs her long enough for Hawkins and Jake to get through the door.

Jake learns that the "they" Victor mentioned are a group of refugees. Jake promises that the refugees will be kept safe. He then leaves to go get some morphine. Hawkins is alone with Victor. He gets a dead serious look on his face and says that they agreed "families only." Victor replies that he had to save the others; he couldn't just leave them to be blown up. Hawkins says that's bad news because, "now we are a man down." Hawkins then asks why the plan went wrong. Victor answers that there was a traitor who sold them all out. Hawkins asks who the traitor was. "You...know..." were Victor's last words. When Jake came in with th morphine, Victor was dead. Hawkins made no comment.

Jake immediately goes to Bailey's and asks if anyone is brave enough to get the refugees with him. No one volunteers. Then Heather raises her hand. Not about to be outdone by a girl, lots of men from Bailey's agree to come and help. Emily comes too. But when they reach the refugees' camp, they find all twenty people dead of radiation poisoning.

That evening the mayor gives a solemn speech in memory of those who died. At the end, Johnston asks everyone who has lost a loved one to stand up. Both Skylar and Dale stand up and look across at each other. (Heather stands up too because she lost her friend, Mr. Rennie, in the last episode.) Johnston asks everyone to stand up who is willing to help people get through their grief. Gracie, Stanley, Bonnie, and many others stand up. Then they all go outside. Emily catches Jake on the way out and says, "You're a good man for wanting to help people you didn't even know." She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and walks away.

Quotes:
(Everyone is in Bailey's watching the video footage of a town being blown up.)
Stanley: "It makes you wonder what happened to the person who shot this."
Hawkins: "I think this might have been the last thing he ever saw."

Heather: So, is it weird being home after so long?
Jake: A little bit. Still can't get used to Baileys without the mechanical bull. Stanley must've cried when they took that out. The guy had the record. When did the Pizza Garden become the Cyberjolt Cafe?
Heather: Ah.....when the health department shut down the Pizza Garden.
Jake: What?
Heather: Don't tell me you like the Pizza Garden
Jake: Yeah, I used to work there. Washing dishes.
Heather: Ahh, you must not've done a very good job.

Questions:
Q. What was the connection between Hawkins and the man with radiation poisoning?
A. Both knew what was to happen and had a deal that they could evacuate only family

Trivia:

Cast:

• Guest Starring: Beth Grant (Gracie Leigh), Clare Carey (Mary Bailey), Richard Speight, Jr. (Bill), Darby Stanchfield (April Green), Bob Stephenson (Jimmy)
• Co-Starring: April D. Parker (Darcy Hawkins), Adam Donshik (Victor Miller), Yvans Jourdain (Mr. Murthy), Jazz Raycole (Allison Hawkins), Kristen Rodriguez (Lisa Whalley), Sterling Ardrey (Samuel Hawkins), Thomas Bankowski (Fred Taylor)

See also:

Music of Jericho
Morse Code
Plot Theories

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