As devastating as the murder of Bonnie Richmond was to her older brother Stanley and his fiancee Mimi, as tragic as it must be for the citizens of Jericho, the ripple effect of her death, especially when combined with some particularly bad timing, could very well affect the entire nation. (All three parts of it.)

When Sheriff Jake arrives at the scene of the crime, it doesn’t take a crossover with the cast of CSI (although that might help the ratings) for people to notice the bullet casings and the Humvee tracks and conclude that Ravenwood is responsible. Jake goes directly to Major Beck, but unsurprisingly, Goetz has already come and gone with his own claim that three of his men were murdered after he went up there to "talk". Beck doesn’t have time to decide who’s lying, though, because he’s about to lead a major detachment to New Bern after the latest reports of unrest there. He expects (naively) that no one will try anything until he gets back.

Even if Jake and the Jericho Rangers (sounds like a rock band) were willing to sit on their hands and trust in the Major’s military justice (and that’s assuming he has authority over J&R’s chief administrator), Goetz himself is moving too. He’s acquired Mimi’s ledger and destroyed the offending pages, but the unpleasant discovery that surviving witness Mimi is in surgery leads him to mobilize the entire Ravenwood contingent and descent upon the Medical Center. Apparently he wants to ask some questions.

Considering his definition of "talk", it’s probably the best for Mimi that the hospital is packed with Rangers. Jake himself points a gun at Goetz’s nose and warns him to stay out. Unwilling to provoke a major firefight with an entrenched opponent, Goetz plays underhanded as usual. One of the Rangers is forced to lay down his weapon when he discovers his wife is a "guest" of Ravenwood.

Goetz’ next move, however, is a major mistake. Having learned that Darcy Hawkins is one of the civilians inside the hospital, Goetz thinks to make Robert his next hostage. He sends two Ravenwood mercenaries to Hawkins’ house, which proves to be at least one mercenary too few. Hawkins kills one, takes the other prisoner, and then gains access to the hospital through a back door by killing the two thugs guarding it.

Having accidentally invited a trained spy and assassin to join his enemies, Goetz once again attempts to outflank the Rangers by exploiting his inside man. Fred, who we last saw in Episode Four ratting Dale out to Ravenwood to keep J&R from squeezing his farm out of business, has a direct line to Goetz in his pocket. Firmly under Goetz’ thumb, Fred frees the imprisoned Ravenwood soldier and unleashes him on the hospital. In doing so, though, he lets the others know that a traitor is in their midst. Having seen Fred act suspiciously twice, Emily fingers him to Jake. Once he and Robert recapture their missing foe, all the pieces are in place for their counterattack.

In the midst of all this gunfire and backstabbing, there’s a genuinely emotional tragedy taking place. Eric sits with a crushed Stanley as he sits vigil at the side of his sister’s corpse. He encourages Stanley not to blame himself like he blamed himself for April’s death, but Stanley assures him that he knows exactly who to blame. Maybe Goetz shouldn’t be trying to get inside so badly. Once alone with Bonnie, however, Stanley engages in a one-sided conversation with her in sign language, thanking her for her heroic saving of Mimi and assuring her of his love. Only then does he return to Mimi, who is stable and awake after surgery. Darcy, impressed into nursing duty tonight, is forced to break the news of Bonnie’s death, devastating Mimi.

Mimi is equally upset by the notion that this is somehow her fault, but Stanley quickly absolves her of her guilt. She gets her own chance to strike back at Goetz, however. When Jake and Hawkins want to know how they incurred Ravenwood’s wrath, Mimi explains about the embezzlement. Even with the ledger gone, she can still reconstruct the theft from internal J&R files, and she turns to Trish for help. Meanwhile Hawkins puts further pressure on J&R employee "John Smith", demanding that he transmit Trish’s proof of Goetz’ guilt to J&R headquarters.

Meanwhile, Fred is put in a situation by Jake where he can let Ravenwood into the hospital without a shot being fired. By the time Goetz and his men access the hospital, however, they find everyone gone. Deputy Jimmy smashed a hole through an exterior wall, enabling access to a neighboring retail store. Ravenwood quickly goes in "pursuit" – and we discover that the Rangers haven’t left at all, retreating to a hiding place while Goetz finds their "escape route". Jake sends Jericho’s newest outcast home, but Fred reveals that Goetz has summoned dozens of Ravenwood reinforcements to help with the "insurgency".

There really are insurgents in Jericho, but they’re not townsfolk. They’re from New Bern. In Season One Russell was a longtime friend of Heather who struck a deal with Skylar and her salt mine in an attempt to avert Constantino’s invasion. By Season Two he’s a changed man, forced to work with the New Bern strongman against the greater threat of Major Beck and his suffocating curfews and checkpoints.

By the next morning, the Rangers have staked out the road where Goetz is to meet up with his reinforcements. You might think they’ll be outnumbered, but Jake and Hawkins know what Goetz doesn’t. It’s not help he’s receiving, but a pink slip. Trish arrives with one of her bosses, informing Goetz and his men that they’ve been fired, and taking their firearms. Alone and without transportation, the self-employed thugs are easy pickings for Jake’s ambush – no wait, Russell’s ambush? Jake doesn’t know where those New Bern gunmen came from, but he focuses on capturing Goetz, who sensibly surrenders when he sees he’s outgunned. Jake and Russell argue over who Goetz belongs to, but a Solomon-like answer is reached – while no one is paying attention, Stanley arrives and puts a bullet in Goetz’ brain. And then he vomits.

The final indignity for Goetz is when Major Beck arrives at New Bern and discovers that his corpse has been strung up above city limits. And he’s not happy. Neither is Hawkins, who predicts a draconian reaction to this frontier justice from Cheyenne. Or J&R. Same difference. Smith has already confirmed that the Cheyenne government is littered with current and former J&R employees in positions of power, including President Tomarchio himself. Which also makes Ravenwood little different from Cheyenne’s own personal Gestapo.

Valente has been the lightning rod figure upon whom all suspicion has been focused, but he’s not a monstrous opportunist, destroying one government to take control of another. He’s just one cog of a monstrous conspiracy trying to cover its ass with one hand, and remake America in its own image with the other.

This really isn’t about saving the town any more. This is about saving America.

1. It doesn’t take a CIA veteran to realize that Ravenwood is lying to Hawkins when they arrive at his house. They claim Darcy is being held hostage inside the hospital. Then they want him to convince her to get herself out of a bad situation. So is she free to leave or not? A patently absurd story that people dumber than Hawkins would have seen through.

2. Emily gets a rare chance to add something to the storyline. Her relationship with Jake has been one of many casualties of the shortened season. Jake is simply too busy with Jericho and Hawkins to have much of a social life with her.

3. I realize it was a tense situation, but could Jake and his men really fail to notice Stanley arrive on the scene when Goetz was their prisoner? Goetz just murdered his sister, and tried to do the same to his fiancee TWICE. Why else was Stanley there but to exact vengeance? Personally, I realize that Goetz’ death was going to escalate the conflict with Cheyenne sooner than Jake or Hawkins would like, but Goetz was a monster, and most fans like me must have taken a savage joy in seeing him die. Stanley also averted a possible shootout between the Rangers and New Bern. It was probably the best outcome available to them.

4. The episode title is genius. We automatically associate "termination" with death, but the real meaning behind the title was Goetz’ firing. Clever. And it tells you more than anything about Cheyenne and J&R that wholesale murder was acceptable from Ravenwood employees, but stealing money? One strike and you’re out.

5. I have a bad feeling that we won’t be seeing the Stanley/Mimi wedding any time soon. Especially if there’s no Season Three. Could there be no better reason for renewal?

6. According to reports, Allison and Samuel Hawkins will return in Episode Six, "Sedition", as will Gail Green.

7. It’s difficult to feel sympathy for the people of New Bern, since they’re the ones guilty of attempting to invade Jericho and commandeer its resources. Yet it seems as if the show may be asking us to do just that. I can certainly understand their hatred for Goetz and Ravenwood, that’s no mystery. But Constantino is a warmonger and a murderer. Heather accurately makes the point that the people of New Bern lose their moral standing by getting behind this man. Russell would do well to remember that Constantino doesn’t just have a bounty on her head because she’s working with Beck. It’s because she’s a witness to his duplicity, not to mention she was nearly murdered on his orders. They seemed to be setting Russell up in Season One to be a decent alternative to Constantino's politics of hatred. I hope it’s not too late for him. Regardless of what happens with Cheyenne and the bomb, we can’t have two American towns within the same county hating each other like Shiites and Sunnis in Baghdad do.

8. The woman next to me during this episode became emotional more than once. It was an incredibly powerful episode, more so than when Johnston, or even April, died in Season One. It breaks my heart that more people are watching reruns of Law & Order: SVU.
 
The next two episodes?  Well, I would imagine they're turning the action up to 11.