Bionic Woman

After two slow set up episodes, Bionic Woman has finally come online. The third episode, “Sisterhood,” is witty, action-packed, and a hell of a lot of fun. Like Jaime’s bionic training, the show has been ramping up and this week we started to see what it is capable of … and it was good.

I liked the sister parallels with Jaime and Sarah Corvus, and the whole theme of female relationships throughout the episode. From the conversation about $170 jeans in the opener to the fight in the mani/pedi salon, it episode took stereotypically girly moments and turned them into something funny or sinister. The Horrible Heaven plot line never really took off, but it still provided a nice contrast for the rest of the women in the episode. Here is the spoiled little rich girl who can buy all of the $170 jeans she wants, and yet on her best day she will never look half as heavenly as the Sommers girls (or Sarah Corvus).

Even Jaime’s “I’m going to call Hillary Clinton!” line worked with this theme, as Hillary and Jaime are both women caught in the horrible vise of double standards that often tightens around women with superior abilities. Be tough, be smart … but not too tough and not too smart, and don’t forget to make sure your hair looks good too!

As for the end of the episode, with Sarah calmly threatening Jaime with her hands around Becca’s neck … wow. With Sarah looking down at Becca, almost with curiosity, as Jaime pleads with Sarah to remember her humanity. Jaime knows she can’t trust the Burket Group and Sarah is right about Will, but she also has to deal with the current state of her reality and she is unwilling to risk Becca just to find out the truth. That is what separates Sarah from Jaime, the connection with others and the willingness to make compromises for their safety.

And it is thrilling that the show is deviating from the episode information that was released before the premiere and going in a direction that is a lot more interesting. It seems Will really is dead, which saves us from those boring plot lines of him skulking around his father’s compound trying to manipulate Jaime into coming and rescuing him. Some of the original spoiled elements are still there, but it seems as if episodes are being combined and new elements are being added each week … and all of these efforts are combining to make a better Bionic Woman.

If what we are seeing on screen is any indication, the turnover with the producers this summer was great for the show, because Bionic Woman is turning into an hour of television that is a hell of a lot of fun.

Bionic Woman, Jaime Sommers, Sarah Corvus, Sisterhood