The episode picks up with everyone standing outside Bailey’s watching the missiles fly outbound. Some residents speculate that the United States is launching a retaliation against the perpetrators of the nuclear attack on American cities. The mayor comments that the nearest missile silos are in Wyoming, 100 miles away, and that the missiles may not be American. Hawkins goes home, tells his family to enter the basement, and uses his computer to enter a chat presumably with another member

As dawn breaks, Jake, Eric, Mimi, Stanley, and a deputy are gathered in Mary’s bar. They have been up all night playing cards. During some light conversation, Mimi notes the stillness of the town and how it unsettles her. Jake sympathizes, confessing that it was one reason for his leaving — but the deputy chimes in, offering to reveal the actual reason Jake left. Jake stops him. Confident in her ability to read people, Mimi offers her own speculation of why Jake left — that

A caption states that the episode takes place "4 days after the bombs, 1 day after the fallout has cleared."
The patrons of the bar are watching the weak signal and distorted picture on the satellite television. It plays only a short loop of video showing fires burning and amateur footage of people trying to escape destruction, presumably that of the nuclear attacks. Eric and Jake discuss whether the footage is from the Midwest, as Hawkins watches on, grimly observing that whoe

According to a caption, the episode begins 18 hours after the bombs had exploded. Robert Hawkins is shown donning a yellow NBC suit and gas mask. Stepping out into the rain, he attends to a cache of assault rifles and other supplies, moving a single barrel from a storage unit to a large U-Haul rental truck. The truck bears Kansas license plate KVJ 572.
At the Richmond farm, Stanley finally shows up, to his sister’s relief. He tells Jake about seeing a group of tanks headed west on

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