The Black Guy in Jericho....

...Clearly knows more about whats going on then he is telling.

He had the push pins and map just waiting to be used in his secret
room, he knew all about the fallout and how to deal with it, he hide
the morse code message from everyone and when he told his wife that she
knows better then to ask him questions I am guessing he is either black
ops (or ex black ops) or is somehow or another highly place in the
government.

Any thoughts?

cloud dreamer...

Why is everyone so amazed that a man has a map and push pins????

Heck, even I have a map of the US in my secret room. And I'm not american.

shawn...

Yeah, I'm not that amazed at that. I am confused as to why he is
hiding the information he got from the Morse code. It would just show
that they are mostly going to be on their own for quite some time
which seems to be valuable information for the town to have. I'm not
sure what advantage he gains by hiding the information.

Patty Winter (patty1...

Staving off total public panic as long as possible? Sure, maybe he

Mark Nobles...

I really *hate* this cliche. The public saw the second plane crash into
the WTC on live TV while trying to learn about the first crash. No one
panicked. In fact, the reaction was quite the opposite of panic. It's
just a cheap way to create fake suspense. The fact is, the more people
know, the less likely they are to panic. I say this as a survivor of
the evacuation of Houston last year for Rita. Another time when nobody
panicked, everyone just did what they could.

DJensen...

Even within the show itself, look how they panicked when they didn't
know what was happening, and how they reacted when they decided Atlanta
had also been hit.

Richard Evans...

You're comparing a fictional show to real life counterexamples?

DJensen...

No, I'm pointing out the inconsistency in the prevent-panic argument
within the context of the show itself. They panicked when they didn't
know what was happening, but when they knew what to expect and what to
do (the fallout situation) they calmed down and got to it.

Mark Nobles...

Buying groceries and filling your car with gas are not panicking. They
are just the things you need to do as last minute preparation for
whatever. Flee or fight. Panic involves doing useless tasks instead of
preparing.

DJensen...

They weren't "buying groceries" and "filling [their] cars with gas",
they were on the verge of rioting before the guy with the megaphone
started yelling. Panic doesn't require doing useless tasks, it just
requires going about things irrationally and hastefully. The rush to
the pumps and grocery stores is an example of the every-man-for-himself
irrational approach, and it was plain as day on the screen it was about
to escalate into physical violence between the guys at the head of the
line. None of them knew what had happened or what to expect, and
instead of organizing and rationing, they panicked. Compare the actions
of the townsfolk with the actions of Hawkins and the boy (the only one
who had the foresight to put food in the iceboxes when the power died).

Letting my imagination run away for a moment, I'd say Hawkins (and his
family) are in Jericho because he knew what was coming and where they
could be safe (relatively, keeping in mind that the show was shot in
California, and set in the US so flyovers will watch). He was probably
search for that Morse broadcast from the start, so keeping the list a
secret or lying about finding a signal wasn't a spur of the moment
thing, it was part of a larger plan.

should at least tell the mayor, but he just got the information and
is still absorbing it. It makes sense to me that he would want to
think for a while about how and to whom to reveal it.

Unless he was somehow involved in what happened but then why is he in
the small town of Jericho?

Patty Winter (patty1...

I don't see why his actions imply any involvement in or advance
knowledge of what happened. Maybe he does know more than he got
from the shortwave broadcasts, but we haven't seen proof of that.
As others have said, simply having a map of the U.S. and some
push pins is not compelling evidence.