Heart of Winter

Infobox Jericho episode
Title = Heart of Winter


Caption = Jake is rescued from the vehicle's grasp by firefighters and EMTs
Series = Jericho
Season = 1
Episode = 14
Airdate = March 7, 2007
Writer = Nancy Won
Director = Steve Gomer
Guests = Alicia Coppola as Mimi Clark, Chris Foreman as James, Ron Bottitta as The Hunter, Christopher Weihl as Roger Hammond, Siena Goines as Sarah Mason, Darby Stanchfield as April Green
Prev = Black Jack
Next = Semper Fidelis
MorseCode = ····-
-·· --- ·-- -·
····-
- ---
--· ---
Translation = 4 DOWN 4 TO GO"Heart of Winter" is the fourteenth episode of season one of the CBS drama "Jericho".

Synopsis

Jake, Stanley, and Mimi go on a hunting trip outside of town in search of food. They stumble upon a trail of people who have died from hypothermia. Judging by the items they carried, the dead refugees were traveling south from North Dakota and South Dakota. Although those states were far from any region of the blasts, they still have no power and the citizens in the northern states are doomed to freezing to death so they attempted to migrate as far south as possible. The beaten trail is almost a hundred yards across. A black truck blocks the road they are traveling on and Jake has Stanley quickly drive away. Immediately the black truck starts following them leading to a high speed chase. The black truck pushes Stanley's truck causing the entire truck to flip over.

Mimi is the first to wake up after the crash. She finds Stanley unconscious and Jake's leg stuck beneath the overturned truck. The black truck approaches the wreckage. Mimi runs off to hide while Jake pretends to play dead. Jake thoughtfully throws some water bottles and a flashlight in Mimi's direction just before the men reach him, but unfortunately he can not reach the gun near him to defend themselves. Four men in ski masks come out of the black truck and take everything from the site that they find, including Jake and Stanley's coats. Stanley finally wakes up but has broken his ankle. Jake starts to shiver without his coat. Their only option is for Mimi to run back to town to get help even though it is many miles and turns away. Stanley stays with Jake and tries to keep him warm and awake but he's getting worse by the second. The snow begins to worsen as Mimi tries to find her way back to town. She sees a car approaching and assuming that it's the same men, she jumps into the field and crouches fearing for her life as she was easily spotted. Two figures run up to Mimi and they happen to be Gail and Johnston who got worried when the group had not yet returned from their hunting trip. They go to where Jake and Stanley are fighting off the cold. Johnston stays with Jake while everyone else goes back to town. While Jake's hypothermia gets worse, he confesses to his father about killing a young girl while he was in Iraq. Eventually a Paramedic and five Fire Fighters arrives on the scene to come to rescue Jake and bring everyone home. While recovering, Jake asks his father to forget about what he said, but Johnston cannot. He reassures him however that he has seen more terrible things happen when he was a U.S. Army Ranger.

Meanwhile Robert and Sarah go to visit to "the old man" in his home only to find a dead body in a secret room. This body was not "the old man". They find most of the electronics in the room inoperable, except a rack of computer electronics that was purposely left for them to find. By looking through one of the hard drives found in the room they find that half of their team has been assassinated. We see a man watching and listening to Robert and Sarah from outside the house just as Robert realizes that they're in a trap and that his family may be also be used as a trap. Just as the man who was watching is about to attack Robert and Sarah, Sarah coaxes Robert to decide that "the Package" must be moved; the onlooker moves away, allowing Robert and Sarah to escape the house unharmed. He goes home to tell Darcy that they will be moving out of Jericho tomorrow.

Emily finds Roger spending a lot of time with the refugees who came to Jericho. One of the refugees tells Emily that it was Roger who led them to town and kept their faith going by talking about her.

As Robert tells Darcy they will be leaving Jericho she finally agrees, understanding that she and the kids are also in danger. But she asks Robert if he will trust her. Finally he agrees, yes he will trust Darcy who then informs him that Sarah is not on his side.

The episode closes with Sarah meeting a man in the alley, who we recognize as the man who was stalking them outside the house. He's asking if she found the package yet and when she says she has not, he demands to know why she is delaying executing Robert. She strikes him, buckles his knee, then breaks his neck, saying "because this one is different".

Morse code

The Morse code message "4 DOWN 4 TO GO" presumably refers to the number of people on Robert and Sarah's team who have died. Three were terminated according to the computer. Victor Miller died in the episode "Walls of Jericho", which leaves two others (besides Robert and Sarah) alive but unaccounted for. In season 2, the remaining members are revealed to be Chavez and Cheung.

References

* [http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/episodes.php?episode=14 Complete episode and synopsis on CBS.com]
* [http://jerichowiki.cbs.com/page/1.14+Heart+of+Winter "Heart of Winter" at CBS.com]