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Original Air Date: October 25, 2006

Morse Code Translation:
The EMP hits

Synopsis: An electromagnetic pulse fries everything with a circuit board at 9:02 pm, plunging the town into darkness. Before the power goes out, the citizens of Jericho watch as Minuteman missiles are launched into the sky. Meanwhile, Allison, Hawkins’ daughter, starts to question her father's motive for moving their family to Jericho.

Not all electronic devices were disabled in the EMP burst. Hawkins has a shielded satellite enabled laptop and a shielded basement room (Faraday cage). While everyone else in town lost the internet,Internet, phones, television, radios, etc. Hawkins can still access email, and databases with background information on individuals.

Hawkins learns that Mitch has been arrested for gun trafficking and robbery.

We also learn in this episode that Jake's sudden departure from Jericho had to do with Mitch and Chris (Emily's brother) who was killed.

Episode Recap:
Episode 6 begins with Jake, Eric, Stanley, and many other citizens standing outside. They are still watching the missiles in the sky. Stanley voices everyone's thoughts by asking, "Are they ours or theirs?" Jake says they must be American because they are going up. Eric remarks, "So this is it. We're at war." Shortly afterward, there is an EMP burst, destroying all technology with a circuit board.

Two weeks pass.

A bunch of teenagers in the town square have decided to have some fun with their now broken cell phones. They play baseball with them. One kid hits a phone through Gracie Leigh's window. Dale comes out looking very upset. The kid who broke the window starts to run, but is caught by Jake. Dale runs up and tries to tackle him, but the teen escapes. Jake tells the strangely furious Dale that he can't go around hitting people on Main street. Dale complains that all the other teens were trying to rob Gracie's Store, and that he had to protect it. Jake notices that he is more than usually stressed.

Then Jake runs into an "old friend" named Mitchell Cafferty at the bar. It is quite obvious that Mitchell is not a friend and he seems angry at Jake. Jake sees this also, and walks away. Mitch catches him by the arm and looks ready for a fight, but it is broken up by the ever-helpful Hawkins.

Stanley, meanwhile, is helping his sister try to fix their truck. Suddenly Mimi Clark, the auditing agent, walks up. Stanley grins and calls her "Uncle Sam," and asks her what she wants. She requests to not be called Uncle Sam and she begins explaining a business proposition.

"The hotel I was in closed, and since you owe the government $180,000..."

"No one's heard from the government in weeks," interrupts Stanley.

"Think of ME as the government," Mimi says.

"Fine then, I still get to call you Uncle Sam," Stanley grins. They eventually come to an agreement that Mimi can stay at the farm if she helps Bonnie with the housework. Stanley finds corn worms in his corn, and fears that his whole crop will be infested if they didn't harvest it now. The corn was kept safe from the fallout supposedly, or at least Stanley is risking it. He states that he wouldn't let his sister eat it if it wasn't safe.

Gail goes out to the Green's small ranch to feed the horses. She takes Jake with her, hoping to have a talk, but Jake will not speak. Jake goes to get some water, and as he is coming back toward the barn, a stampede of horses come crashing right into Gail. Two men on horseback are stealing the horses, and Gail is nearly trampled. Jake glares daggers after the thieves, one of whom is none other than Mitchell Cafferty. Gail is alive but her arm is broken.

Jake goes back and says to Johnston that he wants to go after Mitchell. There is death in his eyes. Johnston says that he would like nothing better than to string up the thieves, but that they must have justice and humanity. Jake gets ready to walk outside. Johnston stops him and says don't you dare kill him. Jake replies that he's not that guy anymore. Johnston reaches into his son's pocket and takes out a pistol. "Let's just make sure it stays that way," he said. Jake kicked the door furiously.

Meanwhile, Stanley goes to Gracie and asks her for some plant pesticide. She refuses to give him the pesticide unless he gives her half of his corn harvest. Mimi, who accompanies Stanley, is hating Gracie every second for her stubbornness. There is real tension, but luckily Stanley decides to leave. He asks the Mayor for help, wondering if he has any pesticides. Gail and Johnston say sorry but they don't have any, but Gracie wasn't treating him fairly. They said if Stanley was going to share his crop then she should share her supplies. Stanley is upset, demanding to know why he should share his own food with the town. He wants to be sure he keeps Bonnie alive. He storms out of the room, despite Gail's attempt to call him back.

Stanley is soon surprised to see Sheriff Bill show up at his door and accuse him of stealing Gracie's pesticides. Stanley gets a stubborn look and defends his good name. He hasn't stolen, he wouldn't steal, and he didn't steal. Bill won't believe him and insists on searching the barn. Reluctantly, with many pleas from Mimi, Stanley agrees to let him search. After all, he has nothing to hide. After the search, Bill says he was just doing his job. Stanley asks why didn't Bill just take his word for it, but Bill has no apparent reason and leaves.


Stanley, now really leaning onto his hot-head side, takes a a bucket of gasoline and starts pouring it on the field. He tells Mimi that he is going to burn down the infested parts of the field. It was an old farmer's trick. But Stanley had never done it before, and he would risk starting a huge fire. Frantically Mimi confesses that she stole the pesticides. Stanley is dumbstruck and demands to know why she did it. She answers that, "We don't really have a choice Stanley. It's every man for himself now." Stanley looks resolute. Holding to his honor, Stanley goes back to town and gives the pesticides back to Gracie. In an attempt to protect Mimi, he does not tell Gracie that Mimi stole them. He simply returns them to Gracie and calls it a misunderstanding.

Meanwhile Jake is looking around for Mitch. He finds a place where the stolen horses are. Unexpectedly, Dale walks up. He stares at Jake and looks genuinely disturbed. "Jake, I am so sorry," he says. Jake ponders what the teen is talking about when suddenly Dale's face changes and he shouts, "Jake, look out! Jake!". Mitch comes up from behind carrying a large gun, and hits Jake over the head with it. Jake falls down, unconscious.

He regains consciousness inside the building right beside where the stolen horses were being held. Dale, Mitch and Sean are there. Mitch looks deadly serious, Dale looks scared to death, and Sean just stands by with a smile, thinking the whole things is funny. Dale takes a step closer to Jake and asks if he is okay, but Mitch pushes him back. "Get outa here, Dale," Jake says weakly. Mitch says, "No, stick around!!" He then talks to Jake for a little while in mock-friendly, smiling, interrogating way unique to Mitchell Cafferty. Jake says weakly that Mitchell has crossed the line. Mitchell asks him to repeat what he said, mocking Jake's momentary weakness. Jake doesn't bother to repeat it. Mitch goes on to say that he hated Jake for quitting the gang they were in when they were young. He said that right before a planned robbery, Jake chickened out and left Mitch and Emily's brother, Chris, alone. As a result, Mitch was imprisoned and Chris was killed.

"I told you I wasn't gonna rob anyone," Jake stated.

"Oh, come on! Stop actin' like an angel!" Mitchell shouts.

There is a silence, then Jake looks seriously furious, yet calm. "If you ever come near my family again," Jake says breathlessly, "I will kill you."

"Now that's the Jake I know," Mitch replies. "Now get up!!! I'm taking you to see Jonah." Mitch offers Jake his hand, Jake takes it, and as he stands up he grabs a hold of Mitch's gun and tries to get it. Mitch and Jake begin to brawl, Sean tries to help Mitch, and Dale tries to help Jake. Jake is shouting for Dale to get out of here. The fight goes on until Eric and Hawkins rush in and break things up. Mitchell gets away on horseback, but Sean and Dale are arrested.

Jake questions Sean about Mitch's whereabouts, to no avail. Jake is having a bad day, and kicks the office desk forcefully, and calls Sean a liar. Hawkins, who has read Mitch's "file" says that to get info, they should separate Sean and Dale. Hawkins grabs Sean by the ear and takes him away, and Jake has a more calm conversation with Dale. Skylar Stephens interrupts and bails out Dale. Dale gets ready to leave with Skylar, but he sighs and turns back. "I think I might know where Mitchell is," he tells Jake. "I'll take you to him."

Dale, Jake, and Eric go to an old barn where Mitchell is supposed to be. On the way, Jake tells Dale to be careful with who he hangs out with. Dale replies that the doesn't like Sean or Mitch but that he made a deal with them. Jake scolds Dale for trying to protect Mitch by not, at first, telling them where Mitch was. Dale explains that he wasn't attempting to protect them, he wanted to protect Gracie. He explains that a train full of food was crashed outside town, and that Mitch and Sean helped Dale unload it into the barn, from there to be transported to Gracie's. If people knew about the food and about Mitch, they would blame Gracie and/or take all her food. They all reach the barn, but find it deserted of both food and Mitchell.

When Jake and Eric hear a noise from outside, they tell Dale to stay put and then head outside. Eric, gun in hand, sees Mitchell and tells him to drop his weapon. Mitch reluctantly does so. Jake then pounces Mitch from behind. Jake jumps on top of Mitchell, demands to know where the food is, and punches Mitch in the face numerous times. Luckily, Eric interfered and they brought in Mitch alive. Gail asks what do they do with Mitch, Eric suggests locking him up, but Jake still expresses an interest in killing him.

"STOP IT, JAKE!" Gail shouts suddenly. "You're not that guy anymore!"


It is agreed that Mitch will be locked up for now, and Gail is not pressing charges on Sean or Dale. Instead, she suggests that they help her in a plan. She and just about everybody in town go up to Stanley's farm, just as he is about to set fire to the field. "You said you needed to harvest today. We're to help," Gail tells him. "No strings attached." So everybody in town helps to harvest the corn, Dale humbly apologizes to Gail, while Sean (as usual) stands back and smiles mischievously. Gracie comes and decides to give Stanley the pesticides that he needs.

HAWKINS
In this episode, Hawkins' daughter Allison gets a little nosy. She decides to sneak into her father's locked room in the basement, which for once is unlocked. He catches her looking at his gun and mysterious papers. He also has the map dotted with red push-pins for the 23 cities which were exterminated. Allison begins to suspect her father is involved with something. She asks what the gun is for, and Hawkins replies grimly, "Shooting. And it's about time you learned how." Hawkins instructs Allison and she learns how to shoot. Hawkins also helps around town a lot in this episode, breaking up the Mitchell/Jake fights and helping with the corn harvest. Hawkins looks up Jake's file and reads some about his past. He also investigates Mitchell's file. Hawkins seems genuinely impressed with Jake; he is the town's hero and Hawkins has plans for him.

When they are harvesting corn, Jake thanks Hawkins, and then walks off. Allison emerges from the corn stalks and asks, "Is he a good man or a bad man?"

Hawkins answers, "Baby, there's no such thing."

Questions:

Quotes:
Dale: He tried to break in the store twice this week.
Shawn: Aw, that's terrible.
Jake: You got a problem?
Shawn: Not me. Dale's my buddy. Right, Dale? (walks away)
Jake: You can't go shoving people around in the street, alright. If you got a problem you take it up with Jimmy or Bill
Dale: All they'll do is write a report.
Jake: Well then come to me.
Dale: I can take care of myself.

Jake: You've crossed the line.
Mitch: Excuse me?
Jake: You heard me! Coming to our family's ranch.
Mitch: I crossed the line? I went to jail that night that you bailed on us. My best friend, had half of his head blown off.
Jake: I told you, I wasn't gonna rob anybody.
Mitch: Oh, come on. Stop acting like an angel. Did you come back to settle down? Raise a family, maybe do a little farming?
Jake: Never planned on staying.

Trivia:

Cast:

• Guest Starring: Alicia Coppola (Mimi Clark), Beth Grant (Gracie Leigh), Clayne Crawford (Mitch Cafferty), Clare Carey (Mary Bailey), Richard Speight, Jr. (Bill), Darby Stanchfield (Ann Green), Bob Stephenson (Jimmy)
• Co-Starring: April D. Parker (Darcy Hawkins), Jazz Raycole (Allison Hawkins), Sterling Ardrey (Samuel Hawkins), Shiloh Fernandez (Sean Henthorn), Cari Zoch (Townsperson #1), Musashi Alexander (Townsperson #2), Reid Godshaw (Kid)
• Written By: Nancy Won
• Directed By: J. Miller Tobin

See also:
Music of Jericho
Morse Code
Plot Theories

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