Bionic Woman

If last week’s episode (”Sisterhood”) was two steps forward, then “Face Off” is one step back. It seems to be a throw back to trajectory of the series before the producer shuffle late this summer, another necessary set up episode that we must muddle through in order to enjoy the rest of the season. Well, that is my hope anyway … that the show is pulling a Sarah Corvus, doing what is necessary at the moment to survive, to get the audience through to the next moment which will hopefully be more fun.

The opening sequence was frustrating to say the least. Disjointed and badly edited, right away the opening sequence lets us know that this is another episode that was cobbled together to get us through some important back story elements without advancing the fun of the show.

We see Jaime running up to a car that is parked behind the seemingly endless dark alleys and empty warehouses that populate SanFranVancouver, ripping open the door and finding … Becca inside, straddling some random guy. Jaime and Becca have another fight about trust where they compare the sins of spying v. lying, and then Jaime heads off to the Burket’s tech support department to see if they can fix her broken toe. There is cute conversation with the tech guy, who does manage to fix her toe, and then Jonas yells at Jaime about how she owes him $27k for the digit. Does he really expect her to pay that back, or is he going to withhold her paycheck? Or was he simply reminding her that she needs to be more careful. There is a definite theme in the new Bionic Woman, that being bionic does not make you invincible, which makes me wonder how long it will be before Jaime is really hurt.

It seems that this episode will see Jaime going on a field trip to South America to deal with a terrorist hostage situation. Her cover is that she and Antonio Pope are girlfriend and boyfriend, which is another sign that this will not be a good episode because the idea of those two together is just … ick.

Luckily the inevitable scenes where they have to fake being a couple by acting cute and/or making out were not inflicted on the audience. Instead the two are almost instantly in South America, where they have one conversation while sitting in a car before they are at yet another unmarked warehouse. The idea is that they are to rescue a scientist there, and as the episode progresses we learn that Will Anthros has been working with the terrorists to sell all of Jaime’s bionic specs to the highest bidder … the scientist may or may not have been in on the profit side of the deal, we don’t know. The more we learn about Will the more I hate him, and really, really hope the guy is actually dead.

The warehouse scenes are actually pretty cool. Jaime uses her bionics to help them break in, and then there is a very cool fight scene which I am sure Ryan will highlight in the fight of the week so I will let you watch the clip instead of describing it to you. Then the episode shifts again, as Jaime rebels against Antonio over his desire to kill the rescued scientist and leaves Antonio in the warehouse full of terrorists to die. Antonio does not die, however, but lives to have his butt chewed by Jonas and a few bones broken by Jaime later in the episode. Unfortunately, it seems he survived that fight too. For fans who are counting, and/or secretly hoping Jaime or Sarah eventually kills Jonas, this is episode three of the supposed five episode story arc for Isaiah Washington. Only two more to go!

But back to Jaime, who saves the life of the rescued scientist at least a couple more times as they escape the warehouse and find shelter in an old store that looks a lot like the old store where she and Vivian took shelter in “Paradise.” It turns out that the flash drive in his possession is the biggest flash drive in the world, because it holds “everything there is to know about bionics” including the specs for Jaime and her implants.

The scientist claims he is a freelancer for the CIA, of sorts, while he does a spontaneous operation to get a bullet out of Jaime. which allows us to learn that Jaime is now vulnerable to two things: tequila and foreign objects that get lodged into her body, the former because hangovers are funny and the latter because her body has been programmed to absorb foreign objects and there is a danger that her body could move the bullet into a major organ. We also learn that the anthracites do not keep her from going into shock, and she is a prototype with a lot of glitches … and she is only expected to last five years before her biotechnology shuts down. Apparently this is what is happening to Sarah Corvus, as Jaime gets the same hand tremors that Sarah has been suffering from the past few episodes.

Then we come to the most frustrating moment of the episode: Jaime hears Antonio Pope coming towards their hiding place, and hides the scientist so that Antonio won’t kill him. And like an idiot, she also tells him to hang on to the flash drive. No Jaime no! Is there anybody watching who did not predict the guy would be gone, along with the flash drive, when Jaime got through kicking Antonio’s butt? Gone, along with the hope of prolonging her life and saving Sarah Corvus’ life as well. Good job, Jaime.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we see a lot of Sarah Corvus. She allowed herself to be captured at a Starbuck-style poker game, and is lying strapped on a table as Jonas tries to convince her he has the power to save her if she will tell him where to find Anthony Anthros. There are some very nice moments with Jae and Sarah, as he tries to help find a way to cure here and perhaps cure their broken relationship as well. Eventually Sarah uses Jae has a hostage to escape, and then she is back where she started … drinking in a bar, hair feathered like a predatory bird, fierce yet sad at the same time.

Jaime ends the episode back where she started as well, fighting with a surly and self-righteous Becca. Becca does not like Jaime’s lies, but she still loves Jaime, and the show ends with the two sisters forging a temporary truce in their kitchen.

Bionic Woman, Face Off, Jaime Sommers, Sarah Corvus, Jae, Antonio Pope, Starbuck, Isaiah Washington