Bionic Woman

The episode started with the best and worst of Bionic Woman, because it showed Jaime stalking an unknown person who was obviously a mission mark while flirting on the phone with Tom.  It is a familiar pattern for BW: Jaime quipping on the phone before doing something amazing and bionic, but it seemed a bit more jarring since the conversation included the phrase “what are you wearing” instead of the more G rated banter Jaime usually has with Nathan.

Jaime takes out the bad guy, and a few cars, which Isaiah Washington’s Antonio Pope criticizes her for the next day.  “I’m just saying, had you not been distracted you could have taken out the guy with a lot less risk.”  My best friend and I have a saying too … whenever someone starts a phrase with “I’m just saying” they are usually pretty pissed.

But back to the bad guy.  He had a case which Jaime stole after she made him crash his car, and which Jonas revealed contained some awfully large bullets (way too big to be suppositories, for example) made for a special gun with a range of up to two miles.

“Wow,” Jaime says, “Something the world really needs.”

“We developed it,” Jonas replies.

“We Berkut?”

“No, we the United States of America.”

Which is an interesting exchange, given the comparisons between Berkut and controversial government contractor Blackwater.

It turns out that Jonas and Antonio already know the target for the bullets, a corrupt African dictator who is known for torturing his political enemies.  Jaime does not understand why they even care about such a bad man, but Jonas and Antonio reply that they don’t care about him they just care about foreign heads of state being killed on U.S. soil.  Jaime’s confused, and so am I … isn’t Berkut supposed to be focused on high tech threats?  Perhaps the bullets count.

Antonio and Jaime stake out the dictator’s suite.  Antonio gets in a low, rumbling argument with one of the dictator’s bodyguards about his boss’ politics, which seems unprofessional at best and life-threatening as well, before heading out on a balcony and describing to Jaime which sniper positions are most likely.  While they are up there Antonio also lectured Jaime about getting into a relationship with Tom again, once again throwing at her that her relationship with men basically sucks.

“Who is she?” Jaime asks.

“Who?”

“The woman who broke you.”

“Why do women always think it’s a woman?” Antonio laughs.  Hmmm, maybe Ryan was right and Antonio will turn out to be gay after all.

Jaime then goes to an uncomfortable therapy session with Ruth, but besides learning that Jaime feels comfortable enough to tell Ruth she needs to learn how to “rock it a little” we don’t learn anything new.  Cut to dinner with Tom and Becca, which is made more bearable by Jordan Bridges and just how damn cute he is.  Jaime and Tom do a passable job surviving Becca’s 20 Questions routine before Jaime’s phone rings and of course she has to go.  The dictator is arriving, or as Jaime told Becca there is a big timeshare deal going down and the company needs a “heavy hitter.”

Jaime speeds towards the airport, missing the clue that Antonio called to tell her he was landing before Berkut detected it using Nathan’s high tech brain and some high tech aviation software.  When she arrives the sniper is already in place, shots are fired, and Antonio and Jaime recommend to the dictator that leave the country … but the whole scene is really a set up to allow Tom to show up, announce he is the CIA operative on the case, and get super protective of Jaime because she is out in the field without protective gear or a weapon.  For once, Antonio is right when he tells Tom he is way in over his head and he does not even know it.  Although when did Jaime become his official partner and not his training project?  That is new.

Antonio then confesses to Jaime why he is so bitter about love, he lost a woman who was his partner in every sense of the word in a mission in Africa a few years ago.  She was captured and he had to leave her to be tortured or perhaps killed by the terrorists, and if that had not happened already she was definitely killed by the air strike that followed.  Oh but wait, it was all a joke … a calculated joke to piss Jaime off and get her to leave with whatever small piece of evidence she found so Antonio can pocket the real find, the shell of the big bullet, which he had been hiding under his shoe the whole time.

Jaime heads back to Berkut where she has a nice scene with Ruth (Molly Price has an amazing voice), who shows her a tiny tiny plant she added to make Jaime feel comfortable in her office.  If that is “rockin it” for Ruth, then Ruth needs to get out more.  But most of the audience realized that a few episodes ago.  Then Jaime heads home, where a sleepy Becca tells her not to let her self destructive side ruin things with Tom.  Good advice, Becks.  No rest for the weary however, as Nathan wakes her up to give her a lead off the rubber she found on the roof earlier.  He also asks her what she is wearing, but it sounds cute rather than hot … sorry Nathan, but you are no Tom.  Unfortunately for Nathan Jaime hangs up without saying thank you, distracted by the news that Antonio is following up on the lead without her.  Kevin Rankin is still great though.

As Jaime sees two people who seem to be making out and ignores them, before she bionically hears them report that she is leaving the building and appears unarmed.  She attacks them and asks who hired them, and they say “Agent Hastings.”  Hey, we do know Tom’s last name!  Too bad Jaime had to practically break a windpipe to find that out.

Jaime gets to the location Nathan indicated and hears various couples talking in the apartments before hearing Antonio warn someone to “stay away from here” on his cell phone.  From here the episode gets boring for a bit.  Jaime tells tells Jonas she thinks Antonio is working with the sniper, Jonas sets up a sting to catch him, Jaime stupidly tells Tom she does not think she is ready to be his girlfriend?  Say what?

Lots of anxious peering at the race track as the dictator peers at his horses and Antonio peer around for snipers and each other.  Antonio then grabs Jaime, throws her up against a wall, puts a gun to her forehead and asks her what is going.  Jaime spills everything, Antionio feeds her a story about how the assassin is a good person and the two are partners again.  Lots of running follows.

Jaime leaps up a building and saves the dictator, and then runs to get the assassin.  Jaime, Antonio, and the assassin end up in a face off where Antonio gets shot in the stomach.  Next scene is of him riding in an ambulance with Jaime, where he tells her not to let her heart get broken on the job.  Then he dies.

Next scene is of Jaime looking at Antonio’s picture, mourning him more than she did Will Anthros.  Jonas comes by and says “the first time is the worst.”  Jaime goes to Tom’s apartment and she tearfully tells him “I can’t do this, I am not cut out for this,” and then he holds her as she cries.