Fallout (Jericho episode)

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Jericho episode
“Fallout”

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 2
Guest star(s)	Alicia Coppola, Darby Stanchfield, Bob Stephenson, Richard Speight Jr., Beth Grant, Vic Polizos, Clare Carey, Jonno Roberts, Aaron Hendry, Candace Bailey, Kristen Rodriguez, Jeff De Serrano, Todd Giebenhain, April D. Parker, Sterling Ardrey, Geffri Maya Hightower, Chris Foreman, Julia Flint, Musashi Alexander^[1]
Writer(s)	Stephen Chbosky
Director	Jon Turteltaub
Production no.
Original airdate	September 27, 2006
Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Pilot"	"Four Horsemen"

Opening Morse code
`·--- · ·-· ·· -·-· ···· --- ··-· ·- ·-·· ·-·· ---`
Translation
“JERICHO FALLO”

"Fallout" is the second episode of season one of the fictional CBS drama Jericho. It received a rating of 11.47 million viewers.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Fallout shelters
3 Morse code
4 References

[edit] Plot synopsis

The residents of Jericho are threatened by an incoming rainstorm carrying radioactive fallout that will reach the town in two hours. They take cover in their houses and the town's two fallout shelters. Meanwhile, Emily, her SUV having broken down the previous night, flags down a police cruiser being driven by two sheriff's deputies, from whom she learns about the nuclear explosion in Denver, Colorado. She agrees to help them find a place to get some gas. Emily is unaware that the deputies are really two escaped prisoners—probably from the crashed prison bus—who have stashed the real officers in the trunk. Their overall demeanor and the fact that one has a prominent tattoo on his neck do unsettle her.

As the shelter underneath the town hall fills up, Jake is forced to quickly prepare the dilapidated shelter underneath the medical center for other survivors. When a ventilation fan there malfunctions, he decides to move the survivors to an abandoned salt mine. Elsewhere, his brother Eric Green flexes his leadership muscle to convince everyone at Mary's bar, many of them out-of-towners, to head to the shelters while Dale, mourning the death of his mother in Atlanta, Georgia, takes refuge with Skylar, a girl who fears that her parents in New York City may have been killed as well.

Robert Hawkins, who originally warned the town of the incoming fallout-laden storm, discloses that he had been a police officer in St. Louis, Missouri and had learned about the effects of radioactive fallout during homeland security training after the September 11, 2001, attacks. He finds a weak signal broadcasting Morse code over the radio and transcribes the message, which visibly disturbs him, though he tells a passing Gail that he could not get the radio to work. Gail finds her husband unconscious on the floor of his office. It isn't immediately apparent what has happened to him.

Emily finds herself with the prisoners at the Richmond farm, where they wait for Bonnie Richmond's brother, Stanley, to return to unlock the fuel pump. Emily soon discovers who the prisoners are and calls for help on their police radio. After getting a group of survivors settled in the abandoned mine and sealing the opening with explosives, Jake races to rescue Emily just as the prisoners come out of the house to confront her. Jake shoots the prisoners dead, and then he, Emily, Bonnie, and the freed deputies find shelter in the farm's storm cellar just as the storm hits.

At the end of the episode, Hawkins is alone with a map of the United States. He takes five push pins from drawer and places them on the following cities: Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; and San Diego, California. He is shown picking up at least three more pins, but it is not revealed what cities they represent.

[edit] Fallout shelters

The town of Jericho has two primary large-capacity fallout shelters: one under the town hall, the other under the hospital. Mayor Green suggests that people with storm cellars use them because the large fallout shelters could not hold the entire town's population.

There is an abandoned salt mine outside of the town. A mine is arguably a man-made cave, which is an acceptable alternative to a basement or other constructed underground shelter facility.

[edit] Morse code

The first Morse code message that Hawkins picks up on the ham radio is "DELTA CODE DELTA 2 MINUTE WARNING". The second message is "SCORE REMAINS SCORELESS". Hawkins receives a third message in Morse code that viewers cannot hear, but Hawkins transcribes it and is later seen reading it while he pins the cities on the map. It is presumed that the message was a list of cities thought to have been attacked.