Since the beginning of Season Two, the town of Jericho has sat at a crossroads, witnessing conflicts on both a local and national scale. As the season draws to a close, it's become clear that in the long run, the troubles of the townsfolk are very small potatoes compared to the crisis facing America as a whole. That doesn't make our heroes' plight any less upsetting.

(Note - By now CBS has announced that there will be no Season Three. I will be saving all discussion of this tragic development for the Episode Seven review, however.)

Major Beck brings out the hammer as soon as Episode Six opens. Having identified the various players in the Goetz killing, Beck's men fan out across Jericho in a failed attempt to take them into custody. By now his targets have gone into hiding, but Stanley is tearing himself apart over the murder. In order to prevent Stanley from falling on his sword, Jake hands himself over to Beck and offers his head in exchange for pardoning the other Rangers. Beck refuses and has him dragged away to a secret location. There Beck reveals that he has virtually all the information he needs, having captured and interrogated New Bern's Russell. All he wants is Stanley's location. Jake has no intention of giving it to him, leading Beck to subject him to the kind of interrogation tactics Congress might not approve of (before it was blown up).

Hawkins has his own problems, as Chavez calls and encourages him to bring the bomb to Texas as soon as possible. The Texans have been receptive, but without the cold, hard proof of that bomb, their plan is sure to fail. Of course, Hawkins actually getting the bomb from Kansas to Texas without being detected by one of many military checkpoints will be about as easy as walking into a drugstore and buying plutonium. Hawkins' best answer is to steal a J&R jeep, identification and civilian uniform, as J&R employees practically get a free pass in the western United States. It might be easier transporting the bomb to a secure location provided by "John Smith" so he can get the bomb, but Hawkins has absolutely no enthusiasm for that idea. He leads Smith to think that he'll consider it, then promptly gets into his vehicle and heads for the Lone Star State.

He leaves behind a town under the gun. With the Rangers and Emily in hiding, and no one giving them up, Beck declares the town an insurgent stronghold. In Episode One he brought necessities like electricity back. To bend the town to his will he takes it away the night of Jake's capture. With the one hand he gaveth, and now with the other he taketh away. But Jake correctly predicts that the town has learned to deal with deprivations, and in fact soldiers trade shots with vandals who fling Molotov cocktails at the J&R main office. To make matters worse for the major, Jake refuses to break. Unable to sleep under harsh lights, Jake retreats into visions of his late grandfather, who encourages him to hold fast and keep the "revolution" alive. Meanwhile Beck's biggest source of support, Heather, turns on him and accuses him of becoming someone she no longer recognizes.

Vulnerable, Beck then makes a double mistake. He fetches Gail Green to convince Jake to submit, and then he fails to monitor their conversation personally. The lone guard fails to realize that Gail is quietly promising Jake that Eric and the Rangers are looking for him. Even blindfolded going to and from Jake's location, Gail is able to use her ears and her nose to give the Rangers the clues they need to find him. Jake's captors are unable to stop the Rangers' superior numbers from getting him the hell out of there. Infuriated, Beck destroys a window with his helmet - tellingly, the same helmet in which he keeps a photograph of his missing wife.

Hawkins' plans aren't faring any better. Somehow Smith knows that Hawkins is heading south toward Texas, and his last attempts to get Hawkins to turn around, including an odd appeal to Hawkins' chance to go down in history, are rebuffed. Smith turns on him, anonymously informing Beck that Sarah Mason is dead and that Robert Hawkins is his man. Stunned at yet another deception, Beck sends a detachment led by a helicopter gunship to Hawkins' exact location. Hawkins has no hope of eluding his pursuers, but he crashes his car off-road and is able to flee on foot. The bomb, however, falls into Beck's clutches.

The next morning, Hawkins has a final phone conversation with Smith. By now Hawkins has reached a horrifying conclusion - the only possible means through which Hawkins could have been tracked was through the bomb itself, which means Smith was somehow connected to the explosions. His worst fear is confirmed as Smith bluntly confesses to being the mastermind of the twenty-three nuclear attacks on American soil. Smith appears to see himself as a fanatical patriot who became disgusted with the corruption of the American government and its incestuous relationship with J&R and other big corporations, and used his knowledge of the J&R report to arrange his own personal holocaust. Enraged and horrified, Hawkins sneers that Smith did a poor job of achieving his objectives since the new Cheyenne government practically is J&R now. Smith acknowledges this, but this is precisely why he wants the bomb. Cheyenne makes the perfect target for his final bomb. Which means one million more Americans will die - one of whom is Jericho's Mayor Anderson. All he has to do is steal the bomb, which we see is helpfully being transported to the very city Smith is going to level.

Like I said, Jericho could have bigger problems.

1. When the gunship is attempting to plaster Hawkins' car with bullets, I found myself thinking of the film Broken Arrow, when John Travolta said, "Would you mind not shooting at the thermonuclear weapons?"

2. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be mystified or not by the connection between Cheyenne, John Smith, and the initial nuclear attacks. Clearly John Smith was, at the very least, involved in the bombings. Clearly Cheyenne is attempting to cover up the domestic origins of the bombs and the J&R Report through Project Boxcar. Now, beyond that, we've been working under the assumption that Cheyenne, especially Thomas Valente, were involved in the bombings themselves. Valente seemed so intent on getting his hands on that last bomb. It now appears, however, that Valente's machinations have all been a part of Project Boxcar. John Smith has expressed nothing but hatred for J&R and the Cheyenne government, and it seems unlikely that he's in league with them.

That being said, it seems awfully strange that Smith's actions have only seemed to benefit the people he claims to despise. J&R has become more powerful, not less, since the first attacks, and Hawkins fears that Smith's next attack will give the western government the opportunity it needs to turn the country into a full dictatorship. Either Smith combines lethal ruthlessness with complete cluelessness, or the writers are withholding information from us. My fiancee still claims that Smith and Valente were originally in cahoots, but have since then parted ways.

3. It was only a few weeks ago that Stanley and Mimi were the starring "cute couple" of the show while Jake and Emily sort of floated on the fringes. How life has changed for this romantic duo. In a short space of time Bonnie was murdered, Mimi survived a bullet of her own, and Stanley was consumed with regret even as he pulled the trigger and ended Goetz's life. It pains my heart to see that these two won't be the same for a while. At least Mimi was able to go to Stanley in his time of need and be there for him.

4. Before the season began, Pamela Reed claimed her character's role was being reduced because she was too old for the show. Yet it seems you can just as easily be too young for the show. Allison and Samuel Hawkins finally returned in Episode Six, but their role was negligible at best. Dale, Skylar, and Bonnie all have been recurring characters at best. The stars of this season have been actors in their thirties and forties.

5. It's one thing to wage war against Afghans. It's quite another for Beck to do so against Americans who are not his enemy. Evidently Episode Seven is going to be partly about the decision Beck faces. Does he bury his dark suspicions about his bosses and follow orders like a good Nazi officer, or does he listen to his "good angel" Heather and find a better way? This episode, as much as any other, showcases what Esai Morales has brought to Season Two. But then, this episode showcases everything great about this show. The emotional bedrock of Stanley and Mimi's relationship, the determined professionalism of Hawkins, the resilience of Jake, the refusal of ordinary Americans to quit.

6. Judging by the previews, in Episode Seven Hawkins will call upon Jake's pilot skills to get them to Cheyenne ASAP. How ironic that, in the space of an episode, Cheyenne has suddenly become what Hawkins needs to save.

I thought the Season One finale was great. Jericho versus New Bern. I think this next one is going to be the really memorable one, though. I think it's appropriate that the finale be all about the ultimate partnership, Jake Green and Robert Hawkins.