Jericho marked its triumphant Season Two premiere Tuesday night with "Reconstruction", an episode which featured less action than one might have expected, but which laid the ominous groundwork for six-plus episodes’ worth of conflict. But don’t worry – if you were left hanging at the conclusion of Season One, you got the exciting results you’d been waiting for.

Note – here there be spoilers if you haven’t seen it, as there will be in every week’s review to come.

Despite predictions from the creators that we’ll be seeing a slimmed-down Season Two, the season premiere introduced three major storylines. The most immediate concern is the New Bern invasion of Jericho, which has just been forcibly interrupted by the Army. Led by new character Major Beck (Esai Morales), the military literally splits the two sides by laying down a wall of napalm between them, while Hawkins has disposed of New Bern’s flanking attempt by rail by leaving one hell of a cow on the tracks. And by cow I mean Jericho’s tank. Beck hauls both Jake and Constantino in front of him and informs them that they can return to their respective towns because the war is over. We don’t need Jake’s promise to know that regardless of what the army says, there’s a blood feud running deep between the two towns that won’t die easily.

No one knows that better than Jake, who watched his father die after New Bern’s initial assault. Holding Constantino personally responsible, it’s his mission to infiltrate New Bern and execute him, and Eric isn’t far behind him. This hasn’t eluded Beck’s attention, and in between disposing of smaller murder attempts by residents of both towns, he alternates the carrot and the stick as he tries to block Jake’s vendetta. Beck illustrates the folly of attempting to circumvent the military lockdown of New Bern, while offering the sheriff’s badge to natural leader Jake. Beck’s arguments begin to fall on fertile ground as both Hawkins and Emily voice their opposition to his plan. Jake finally changes his mind just in time to stop Eric from completing the suicide mission, and he accepts Beck’s tin badge.

The military’s arrival creates problems of his own for Hawkins. Beck has orders to locate Sarah Mason, who Valente still believes has murdered Hawkins’ family and taken the bomb. Sooner or later, though, Hawkins is going to be discovered, and he lies low at the Greens’ hunting cabin. In the meantime, Darcy does the opposite of hide out, becoming an administrative employee at military headquarters and gaining access to all sorts of useful information. She also leads the mysterious soldier Chavez right to Hawkins, but Chavez turns out to be one of Hawkins’ undercover associates. He reveals that one other survivor is embedded in Cheyenne, WY, the new seat of government giving orders to Beck’s detachment.

Or at least, one of two. This series always dishes out news of the outside world in dribs and drabs, but the information we learn in this episode falls under both intriguing – what is this "Hudson River Virus" that’s been contained east of the Mississippi? – and enlightening – there’s a second government formed from the old administration based in Columbus, OH, which ironically is the city Hawkins’ bomb was destined for. The news media being pumped into Jericho television sets trumpets the Cheyenne government and its "heroic" President Tomarchio, but they also claim that Iran and North Korea were responsible for the bombings, which we know to be false. Chavez confirms that and explains that the Mississippi River divides the nation between the West, which supports Cheyenne, and the East, which supports Columbus. Cheyenne is stronger, however, and it could swallow the country whole if the undecided state of Texas allies with them. The existence of Hawkins’ bomb, however, could expose a cover-up and turn the tide in Columbus’ favor.

In the middle of all these drums of war, there’s room for romance to continue flourishing. While we see some interaction between Jake and Emily (not to mention Jake’s overjoyed reaction to see Heather alive and well), the star couple of the day is Stanley and Mimi. Following in the wake of Major Beck is the Jennings & Rall corporation, which has agreed to pay Stanley’s tax debts and give him ownership of the land in exchange for a share of his crops. Mimi reads the contract more closely than he does, and discovers that Stanley could conceivably be paying J&R for years to settle tax debts that Cheyenne doesn’t even intend to collect. Mimi steamrolls through J&R and gets Stanley a fair deal, further establishing how well the two complement each other. Oh yeah, and she proposes. And he accepts. And then later he proposes back, because he’s got the ring. And she accepts. Damn, they’re cute.

And now, a few personal observations:

1. Despite what I said earlier about the show’s "youth movement", it was immediately noticeable that the only members of the cast absent from this episode were its youngest characters – Dale, Skylar, Bonnie, and the Hawkins kids. So was Gail Green, who Jake claims is in seclusion at the ranch. Got that one out of the soap opera playbook, Carol Barbee?
   
2. When Esai Morales joined the cast of NYPD Blue several years ago as Lt. Rodriguez, he was an immediate strong addition to a powerful cast. I can already see the same impact here. Afghanistan veteran Major Beck commands authority, respect, and decisiveness. He's given Jake a source of a new clash of wills, now that Jake and Hawkins have joined sides. He’s also working for Valente’s side, but it seems clear that he’s the kind of man who will disobey orders if he feels strongly enough about something.
   
3. The news media available to Jericho residents is clearly in Cheyenne’s back pocket. They’ve already begun burnishing President Tomarchio’s reputation as a savior, while they promote Cheyenne’s claims that the "axis of evil" was responsible for the attacks. Jennings & Rall is no better. They appear to be the corporate arm of the Cheyenne government, willing to use underhanded tactics for their own profit. If Ravenwood is the fictional version of Blackwater, then J&R already looks like Halliburton.
    
4. President Tomarchio will be played by George Newbern. That’s right. Newbern. You can’t make this stuff up.
   
5. Jake and Beck’s struggle was very symbolic of justice vs. vengeance, order vs. lawlessness, son vs. lawman. Jake’s need for revenge, while understandable, is also self-destructive. The vendettas between Jericho and New Bern are highly reminiscent of ethnic and religious hatreds in nations like Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. And we’ve seen how that has worked out in those parts of the world. The sooner both sides can move forward, the better. Unfortunately, you doubt that will happen any time soon.

Episode One was dramatic, exciting, and fascinating, all things we came to expect from Season One. Hopefully we can expect ratings to go with it.

A couple things unrelated to the episode:

1. I will be posting these recaps after each episode. I will try to get them published as soon after the episode as possible.
   
2. I decided a long time ago that "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads was "the Jericho song", particularly when it comes to Jake and Hawkins. So don’t be surprised if you see that song quoted again in the future.
   
3. I can’t say this any better myself, so the following is a verbatim quote from producer Karim Zreik.

          "It's a discussion we have amongst ourselves all the time. Because we know our fans are on the internet, and we've made a concerted effort from day one to provide internet content for those fans. Now how do you get those new fans" Let's say there's two or three million viewers who have never seen the show, they don't go on the internet – how do we get them" Fortunately for us we have a dedicated group of fans – the Jericho Rangers, that can help us do that. Through the internet, through email, or just through word of mouth, and that's how we have to do it. CBS has a lot of shows to promote this coming season, and we'll get our share of commercials, but we also have to do our part and we have from day one. You'll start seeing new videos put on CBS.com of the table read that we did from the first episode or our cast and crew saying thank you to all the fans. That's all up there now, and there's more coming up building up to our premiere night."

There’s a lot more where that came from, and you can see it at IGN.com and at the link below.