Bionic Woman, episode 8 "Do Not Disburb"

If this is the end, some of us will really miss Jaime "Our Lady of the Darkness" Sommers and her cohorts

Following Bionic Woman has reminded me of one reason in particular that I've come to really appreciate the five-night Spanish-language telenovelas. They may get moved from prime time to daytime if they're not popular enough. And they can be lengthened or shortened a few weeks. But once they start, they run until they come to an end. Stories need an end. But even for the less popular ones, fans still get to see the story through to an actual end.

But with typical American once-per-week, 22-weeks-per-year shows the writers have to guess whether they will have a half season, a whole season, or several years to finish the story.

Isn't there an urban legend about this? Jaime ices down a dead body in the hotel room

Episode 8 seemed as though the writers wrote it to keep the longer story line going. But it also had elements that could serve as a kind of finale. It opened with a wake for the recently-deceased Antonio - in a bar, of all places! It was a relatively light-hearted wake, though Jaime was all gloomy. The best moment was when Ruth the stiff staff psychiatrists casually mentions that she once slept with Antonio. (I guess he was into women after all!) But the scene could also serve as a wake for the show if it doesn't get renewed. Also, the final scene lets us think that Jaime will eventually be able to share her secret with Bex at some point. Presumably before her current anthrocyte-limited life-span expires.

The episodic plot itself was a bit light. Jaime and Bex go on vacation in Montana. Jaime has a simple suitcase delivery to make while she's there. But as Jaime herself offers when Jonas tells her about it, "a suitcase is never just a suitcase". Sure enough, the assassin turns out to be a junkie who manages to kill himself in his hotel room from an overdose. In a refreshing departure from the "super-spy" mode, Jonas winds up having to improvise to get the hit done, with Jaime finally getting the duty. The target is a nuclear scientist about to give important technical information to North Korea. Jaime screws up the assassination attempt because she can't bring herself to do it but Jonas makes a deal with the scientist in which Jaime saves his life with a few bionic feats, including ripping off a couple of car doors. See also the Houston Chronicle blogger Catrina Corley's more detailed recap (not yet posted as of this writing).

Jaime and Bex: A good team, and hopefully we'll see lots more of them

The metaplot elements included Jaime's continuing ambivalence about her role as a bionic spy, including a suggestion in the early part of the show that she could wind up going the Bionic Sarah riot to being a rogue bionic-erine. (??)

Also, Jaime and Bex sitting in bed watching Hiro on Heroes jump around and yell about one of his triumphs was a cute touch.

I don't think this show will really get a fair chance creatively unless they get renewed for a full season. That way, they can work some of the intriguing long-term plots lines they've laid down. And they can also make use of cliffhanger episodes now and then.

This episode also showed once again how important the Becca character is to ground Jaime's character in something like normal everyday reality.

A wake for Antonio, but hopefully not for the show

It's apparently not looking so good at the moment in the ratings for the 21st century Bionic Woman. Michael Ausiello of TV Guide Online is estimating the chances of the show being continued as touch-and-go, although I'm interpreting. TV magazine writers seem to like to say as little as possible. But he leaves the impression that no decision will be made until after the writers strike is settled.

Episode 8 is the last one in the can for now. One thing working for the show is that even though overall ratings aren't stellar, NBC has been struggling in 3rd place, last I heard. So NBC may not be willing to flush a series with this much potential. Moving it to Monday night with Heroes would seem to be an advisable move.

Quote of the week, Ruth on Antonio: "I slept with him once. It was amazing."

Joshua Green also blogs about this episode as his TV Guide blog.

Tags: bionic woman, lucy hale, michelle ryan, miguel ferrer

Bionic Woman, episode 6: "The List"

Jaime Summers: creature of the darkness

As I said in a brief initial post on this episode, this episode showed that the cast of characters can make a decent stand-alone episode but still build on the longer meta-plot.

(Warning! Plot spoilers!) The episodic plot of "The List" had to do with Jaime and Tom, with whom she's reunited from the previous episode, trying to buy a list that has the names of a hundred or so US intelligence operatives (and/or Berkut Cult members). They go to Paris, Tom gets captured by the bad guys, Jaime eventually rescues him and does some bionic stunts. So far, Tom seems unaware of her superpowers, although when she kicked down the locked metal door of a wine vault that probably should have been a clue.

In the meta-plot, we get Jaime and Tom hooked up as a couple, and the chemistry is still there. Joshua Green at the TV Guide blog on the show calls Bionic Woman "the most revamped show of the fall". But that's not so terribly evident for those of us who aren't up on the details of who was planning to do what with it. The basic cast of regulars seems to be in place. But Isaiah Washington's Antonio was absent in "The List", and I've heard he's being taken off the cast. So it's probably him who Jaime "can't protect" in the preview of episode 7. Which is okay by me. He's the only one of the major cast so far that was a real stiff, even when he had decent lines like, "The last time you listened to your gut about a guy, he had your limbs replaced."

Jonas: I can never read anything in my office; maybe the lighting has something to do with it

Nathan the techie provided quite a bit of comic relief. He had a good exchange with Ruth in which he rattles off what he's doing in tech-speak, and Ruth says, "You realize that spies don't really - talk - that way."

He responds earnestly, "I know. It blows. I'm just - trying to bring back the cool."

This episode set up a pattern with Tom and Jaime where she's resentful that he's not showing her enough attention and he's trying to be protective of her. Which is an ironic twist in this one, since she's the one with the superpowers. Or, at least, if he has any we haven't heard about them yet. At one point, he's about to bust into the room where the bad guys are and insists on going alone without Jaime. She snaps, "Okay, so now I'm your trophy spy."

The embassy party scene was a lot like Alias; Sidney used to do gigs like that all the time. The difference with Jaime is that there's always the possibility that her bionic arm will fall off or something.

The most interesting piece that may have longer implications for the meta-plot is a complicated set of references to men and women calling each other. It begins at the first, where Jaime is complaining cryptically but bitterly to Becca that Tom hasn't called her for eight days after their "incredible, meaningful night". Jaime explains to Becca that Becca should not call her current crush Brennan, because that's against one of the rules in the conservative dating book for women, The Rules.

Becca chides Jaime for going by such a retrograde set of advice, but she doesn't call Brennan to invite him over for Quintin Tarrentino movie night, which she's hosting at the apartment while Jaime's off in Paris beating up enemy spies. But it still calls attention to the fact that it's peculiar that Jaime, who's scarcely conventional what with her bionic limbs and eye and ear and her clandestine career with the Berkut Scientists Cult, is embracing a stereotypically conventional approach to dating.

They continue the theme throughout, with Becca as usual providing a kind of parallel version of Jaime. Jaime gets Jonas to call Tom in as her partner on the Paris job. But she refuses, saying, "I don't call guys." Later he alibis himself in the hotel elevator by saying, (I think!) "I was in Afghanistan, that's why I didn't call." But Jaime's not buying it.

Tom to Jaime: I don't like taking dames on a mission

Then when Tom gets captured, Jaime apparently on her own initiative calls his cell phone. And even though he's tied up in a chair with a gun to his head, he says, "I can't believe you called me." To which she responds, "Shut up."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Becca's target guy Brennan shows up for movie night with some blond bimbo on his arm, which doesn't really make Becca happy. So she gets drunk and/or stoned and goes out for a drive and immediately gets busted by the cops. So she calls Jonas, who she's never met before, for help. (She's calling the guy this time; which Jaime actually told her to do.) Jonas then bails her out and apparently manages to have all charge dropped. So she and Jonas bond as his tries to play firm but understanding daddy with her.

At the end, after breaking procedures (including calling Tom in captivity) and losing about $4 million of the Cult's money, Jaime reverts back to her The Rules persona and tells Tom he has only one more chance to get this right. there's also a call from Ruth to Jonas. Jaime also continued to have issues with her cell phone; with all that bionic stuff in her head, you'd think the Berkut Cult could communicate with her without a cell phone! In fact, Nathan was communicating with her without a phone in the cafe scene; maybe only he could do it.

In the final scene in Paris, Jaime asks Jonas if Becca called him. He said no. So that means Jaime thinks Becca didn't call even the guy (Jonas) that she said it was okay to call. After Jaime gives him the "one more chance" lecture, Tom says, "I'll call you" as she walks away, leaving him to ponder in indecipherable ways of the female heart.

There was also a shadow-play with Becca on the idea of "The List". She tells Jonas in the car that she's frustrated at not being privvy to "Jaime's list of secrets". In her opening scene with Becca she refers to The Rules book as having "a list of rules".

Only the eye shadow knows: the right (bionic) eye is bigger than the other - but is it just make-up or some other trick?

Although it's Michelle Ryan's portrayal of Jaime that's the absolutely critical pillar of the shoe, I would say Becca is the second-most-indispensable character. It not only grounds Jaime the super-heroine to have domestic responsibilities as a single mom to her sister. Becca acts as a shadow character to Jaime, just as Bionic Sarah is another kind of shadow-reflection of Jaime's character.

So, is it too much of a reach to think that the fact that Becca's decision not to call Brennan didn't work out the way she wanted - he showed up with another girl - is a hint of how Jaime's reserve may complicate her relationship to Tom. I mean, given her distinctly traumatic relationship to Dr. Will, I can understand Jaime being cautious. But The Rules?

Becca's run-in with the law reminds us that there's a family history of juvenile delinquency, all at about Becca's age. Becca is some kind of computer hacker, a plot line they need to start developing but is under a court order over it. Jaime has a mysterious sealed juvenile court file, which I'm guessing has something to do with Becca's strange comment to Jaime in the first episode about their father, "You think you remember but you don't." Ethan (the father we haven't met yet) also had a bit of a j.d. record, according to the Web site.

This episode was lighter than the first five, with a lot more humorous and endearing moments.

But this episode continued with the "dark" theme that is the basis of the meta-plot. The opening scene with the failed buy attempt was very dark; it even had a cigar-smoking man, presumably Victor the bad guy, recalling the famous Cigarette-Smoking Man of X-Files. The hospital scene at the Berkut Cult compound, a good part of the initial scene with Jaime and Becca and the requisite scene in Jonas' office were all dark. I wonder if Jonas may also have a bionic eye. How else could he read anything in an office that's always that dark?

Paris, by contrast, was very bright. It is supposed to be the City of Lights, right? But the final scene when Jaime runs down Victor the bad guy was a very dark one. Also, the back-office scenes of the Cult team and the CIA were also on the dark side.

Even the wire that Jaime pulled was the right one in the scene where she disarmed the bomb strapped to Tom was black. Jaime's bionic self may be on the side of the angels. But she's a creature of the dark.

Tidbits or clues? I caught at least three explicit movie references in this episode: The Breakfast Club, Breathless and Reservoir Dogs. When Tom asks her in the elevator, "You're in the game, too, right?", The Game could also be a movie reference. We also got a new character in this episode, Alexis Vandermeer of the CIA, who we could see again.

Best line of the episode: Jaime after she and Tom check into the hotel room in Paris, "Well, since we're a married couple, we should just watch TV and not have sex."

Tags: bionic woman, lucy hale, mark shepard, michelle ryan, miguel ferrer, molly price

Bionic blogging

"Boo!" A skeptical and newly bionicized Jaime Sommers confronts cult leader Jonas through a two-way mirror (my favorite scene of the opening episode)

I f I can blog The War, I can blog The Bionic Woman, too, I guess. The latter is certainly more entertaining.

Basic plot: Girl meets boy. Girl tells boy she's pregnant. Big semi rams car with girl and boy inside. Boy replaces girl's legs, one arm, an eye and an ear with bionic stuff that gives her superpowers. Boy turns out to be part of some secret CIA or scientists' cult or something. Boy helps girl escape secret lab. Girl fights nasty bionic blond girl. Boy's father escapes maximum security prison 1000 feet below the earth. Girl agrees to work with secret scientists' cult.

Gee, Dr. Will, that's nice that you're going to Paris and oh, by the way, I'm pregnant with your baby: Jaime knew how to shake things up even before being bionicized

As I recall, the old Bionic Woman series from 100 years ago had a woman with mechanical stuff implanted in her body and she worked for the government and did goody-two-shoes missions for them. The 2000s version is starting off as a lot like Alias. (Not that star Michelle Ryan is up to Jennifer Garner standards yet but that's a whole different story.)

The first episode sprinkled mysterious clues all around, no doubt with a few red herrings in the mix.

To take things out of the plot order, Jaime Wells Summers (Michelle Ryan) is a woman with secrets. And she acquires a boatload more of them in the first episode. On the surface, she's a mild-mannered bartender in San Francisco who has custody of her bratty teenaged sister. But there are mysteries. The sister, Becca (Lucy Hale), was dropped off at Jaime's by her father for her to take care of.

A surprise ending to the date: the next thing Jaime knows it's, "Honey, I cut off your legs"

Ethan (Dad Sommers), who we haven't met yet, is some kind of a radical. Jaime makes it sound like he follow around demonstrations and drinks a lot. Extra material at the Web site has an old clipping from 1970 of his participating in a sit-in in Washington to protest the Kent State murders. This would place him in his mid-50s now.

Little sister Becca has her own secrets. We learn in the first few minutes that she's under a court order that forbids her "to be near a computer plugged into a phone line." Actually, Jaime herself has a sealed court file from in 1998 when she was 15 or so. Apparently juvenile delinquency is a family tradition. According to the Web site "dossier", Dad Sommers claims he first got involved in the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) when he was 15. I see a pattern emerging...

Bionic Sarah on a bad hair day: renegade chips in your cerebral cortex will do that to you

Jaime's new bionic stuff includes chips implanted in her cerebral cortex that apparently act as sort of an extra Freudian unconscious, including giving her the coordination and reflexes to do stuff like deflect tossed knives with her hand, dodge bullets and leap from one tall building to another with a single bound.

Her MMPI psych evaluation from sometime earlier in her life is stamped Secret/Classified in the Web site version. "She adapts extremely well to change," it says. Lucky thing. Oh, her bloodstream is now one-eighth "anthrocytes" which apparently heals her wounds about as fast a Wolverine's mutant powers in the X-Men movies. If I'm not mistaken, rival bionic woman Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) breaks several bones in Jaime's hand or arm just before tossing her off the roof but Jaime is fully healed seconds later. More on Bionic Sarah in a minute.

You fell in love with a psycho-killer, and you're calling my girlfriend names? Dr. Will (r) chats with Jae about Jaime's longevity

Jaime's guy is surgeon and professor Will Anthros (Chris Bowers). Dr. Will is the son of Anthony Anthros (Mark Shepard). Old Man Anthros is imprisoned in a super-secret prison 1000 feet below ground. He was involved somehow in bionicizing Bionic Sarah. Dr. Will was involved in the project, too, somehow. Bionic Sarah has a mystery thug boyfriend who has some kind of vague but sinister eastern European accent. Eurothug and someone he calls his brother (who we don't see) kidnap Barbara, the wife of a guard at the super-dungeon name Bobbie, and force him to spring Old Man Anthros, who at the end is walking with Bobby across a snowy mountain in California and evidently planning to do some more secret stuff with Eurothug.

Bionic Sarah was a soldier known in particular for her sharpshooting expertise which we see in action in the opening episode when she shoots Will in the right shoulder from a nearby rooftop. When she was implanted with everything, she lost control and apparently the "kill people" program took over and she killed several people in the Wolf Creek Biotech Facility, where the scientists' cult does its bionic experiments. She was in love with Jae Kim (Will Yun Lee), one of the Wolf Creek team. "Wolf" is a theme for Jae. He tells Will he once had a wolf as a pet and compares Jaime to a wolf as a way of suggesting she be killed. It's not clear if he was really talking about Bionic Sarah.

Sisterhood of the anthrocytes: Bionic Sarah gives Jaime some friendly advice about how to handle her new powers

Jae thought he had killed Bionic Sarah three years ago when she lost control. But she's obviously still around. When Jae discovers this, he goes to the super-dungeon to ask Old Man Anthros how he kept her alive. Old Man Anthros just grumped about how he had been stabbed in the back and didn't respond directly about Bionic Sarah.

It was Bionic Sarah who was driving the semi truck that rammed Dr. Will's car and messed Jaime up. The truck hit the driver's side. There are several possible plot strands that can spin off from this. It actually reminded me a lot of the car crash at the end of Season 4, the next to last, of Alias. One is that after the crash, Bionic Sarah goes to see Eurothug at a dive boarding room. Eurothug is sewing up stitches in his left forearm. He asks here, "The doctor, did you kill him?" And she says it was like a ride at Disneyland, which he took to be a yes. Then they make out. But the next time she comes to the boarding room, Eurothug is gone and there is writing on the wall that says, "You failed me".

Then later, she shoots Dr. Will in the shoulder through the window at his apartment while Jaime is standing next to him. But part of reputation is her sharpshooting. The Web has a "Sykes Group" document describing her as an excellent "marksman". So did she really intend to kill Dr. Will?

The connection between Jaime and Bionic Sarah is also a mystery. We don't see her go up to wrecked car. If she had, presumably she would have seen that Dr. Will was almost miraculously unscathed while Jaime was seriously smashed up and then finished him off. If she really intended to kill him. But while on the operating table after the crash, Jaime has a dream of Bionic Sarah in the truck heading toward them. When she recovered a bit, she doodles a picture of Bionic Sarah's face.

Then there's Dr. Will. It seems that he was keeping his work secret from Jaime and only bionicized her because she was about to die. But was she that damaged in the crash? Dr. Will didn't seem to have much trouble doing a major cutting-edge reconstructive/neurological on Jaime right after he survived a major car crash. Later he helps her escape and we see him making pitches to the team to give her time to adapt to the new powers on her own outside the Wolf Creek cult facility. But when she runs to Dr. Will's apartment and he tells her, "We're the only ones who can protect you." But at this point Dr. Will hasn't heard that she's met Bionic Sarah. Who did he think was threatening her besides the Wolf Creek scientists' cult?

Bionic Sarah interrupts a post-lovemaking idyll by shooting Dr. Will in the shoulder - and, yep, that sure looks like the right shoulder to me

The climax of the opening episode is a Buffy-style karate and smash-up battle between Jaime and Bionic Sarah in the rain on a rooftop. Why in the rain, I wondered? I first thought they were going to do a wet t-shirt thing, but they didn't really do that. Anyway, Bionic Sarah comes to visit Jaime at her bar, apparently seeking her out and already aware that Jaime had been bionicized. Jaime seems to vaguely remember her and asks if they've met. Bionic Sarah says, "We met very briefly." But we haven't seen the two meet before. The only hint would be if Bionic Sarah went up to the car wreck. But then wouldn't she have seen that Dr. Will was still alive? She gives Jaime some sisterly advice in the restroom about how to adapt to her sight and hearing superpowers.

Then she goes outside into the alley. Jaime follows her there and is menaced by a lone street punk with a switchblade. Her battle chips fired up and she quickly put him on the ground and was about to cut his throat. Then the scene cuts to Jae in the car watching Jaime go into Dr. Will's apartment. Was the switchblade guy a test?

Right after then, Dr. Will gets shot and Jaime rushes over and has her big battle with Bionic Sarah on the roof. But Sarah actually seemed to be testing her to see just what kind of bionic powers she had. It wasn't clear what he purpose was. In fact, Jaime asks her at one point and she says she doesn't know.

Another interesting bit comes in the fight when Bionic Sarah takes a cigarette break and asks Jaime what bionic parts she has. Bionic Sarah said she had two bionic arms and two bionic legs, plus a bionic eye originally. But she said she (apparently she herself) had added another bionic eye and also some chest parts (bionic boobs?). She discovers in the fight that Jaime has only one bionic arm. But she assumes that Jaime has two bionic eyes and Jaime doesn't correct her.

Another mystery comes in the first conversation between Eurothug and Bionic Sarah. She asks Eurothug if he misses "the way things were". He says he can't remember it, apparently referring to some earlier life. When they start smooching, she asks him, "Do I remind you of her?" and he says something about her skin.

Among the other characters in the Wolf Creek cult is a blond named Ruth Truewell (Molly Price) who looks quite a bit like Bionic Sarah and who seems to have some special connection (not necessarily romantic) to Jae, Bionic Sarah's former boyfriend.

The head guy at Wolf Creek so far seems to be Jonas Bledsoe (Miguel Ferrer), former US Army colonel. At the Web site, we see that he testified about dirty war and biogenetics to Congress on April 11, 2000, saying among other things:

We need to move beyond traditional thinking. We need to envision deadlier ways of killing, not just to implement them, but to protect against them.

As an entity, the United States has a responsibility to the world. We are a country with international interests and accountability. Our army stands as a united wall of defense against other nation states. But what about those entities that do not play by established rules? We need a new way to protect ourselves, one that may include morally questionable techniques. This freedom can only be accomplished by smaller groups, acting independently of the government. These groups will act ostensibly without the government’s knowledge to create new technologies free from critical censure. The country as a whole will maintain deniability, while still preparing for the future. The Next World War is the Last World War. It will be a global campaign fought with little red buttons, Arctic Silos, fighter jets manned by drones, weather machines, bombs of suitcase and dirty varieties, vastly spreading chemical agents, and other technologies we have yet to identify. The whole thing should take about 15 minutes. We are not prepared. We need a radical over haul of our military and our systems of defense. And we need it yesterday. (my emphasis)

There are a few other little mysteries scattered her and there. Jonas refers at one point to the rest of Jaime's implants coming on line. She could have new powers popping up for years.

We get a glimpse of two female friends of Jaime's, who Becca refers to as "weird friends" when they come to babysit her. As Jaime leaves the apartment heading for her date and fateful wreck, she promises Becca that they will go to double-feature the next night. Double-feature? When was the last time you saw a double-feature advertised? Instead she has a long weekend at the cult compound as gets bionicized.

In Dr. Will's second scene, he mentions to Jaime that Old Man Anthros had planned his life since he was in the womb and Jaime was "the one choice my father didn't make for me". On their pre-wreck date that night, she tells him she's pregnant. He then tells her it has been five months and 14 days since they met.

You threatin' me, punk? Jaime continues her dialogue with Jonas on a dark and stormy night

When Old Man Anthros gets out of the dungeon, he says he hasn't seen the moon for 1023 days. Another family trait to watch, obsessively counting days? That time-frame puts Old Man Anthos' imprisonment at almost exactly the time Bionic Sarah lost it and Jae thought he had killed her.

We hear from Ruth at the cult facility that Jaime is from Horne, Iowa, and was born on February 23, 1983, making her 24 now. Her mother died from cancer. But Ruth didn't mention Dad Sommers at all.

When Jaime tells Becca tells the line about Dad Sommers and his protests and drinking, Becca makes the cryptic comment, "You think you remember but you don't."

When Jaime returns after several days in the cult compound after being reconstructed, Becca confronts her about her cover story which was that she and Will were off skiing. Becca tells her, "Dad used to say don't believe anthing until it's been denied."

Jae tells Dr. Will during a disagreement that Old Man Anthros "seemed normal, too". Dr. Will tells him that "if I'm anything like my father", he (Jae) may have just made a big mistake by confronting him over whether Jaime should be killed. Or did he mean because he compared him to his father in that way? It's not clear whether Dr. Will knows Old Man Anthros is alive.

There's a sub-theme about cigarettes. (Product placement bucks from tobacco companies?) Bionic Sarah smokes and tells Jaime that their anthrocytes in the blood immediately repair any lung damage from cigarettes, saying it's one of the benefits of being a freak. The only other smoker in the episode that I noticed was Eurothug; I wonder if this is going to be a clue that someone may have anthrocytes.

Dr. Will was talking before the wreck about a grant to do some project in Paris and he asked her to come with him. What's up with that?

Also, Dr. Will the guy whose family counts days obsessively moved their date from 8:00 to 8:30. Was he in on the planning of the wreck? Just before the crash, Jaime tells him, "You don't have to do this, you know." And he responds, "I know. So what does that tell you?" Then BANG!!!

The bar where Jaime works looks a lot like P3, the San Francisco bar in Charmed. Will Piper Halliwell turn up as her boss?

Finally: mistake or clue? Bionic Sarah shoots Will in the right shoulder with her high-powered rifle. But when the ambulance is being loaded a few minutes later, apparently with Will but we don't actually see or hear him in the ambulance, we hear a radio call saying they've got a guy who sounds like Will who's been wounded in the left shoulder.

Inquiring minds want to know.

My name is Jaime Sommers, and you'd better be nice to me (with apologies to The Twilight Zone and "Talking Tina")

Tags: bionic woman, chris bowers, , katee sackhoff, lucy hale, mark shepard, michelle ryan, miguel ferrer, molly price, will yun lee