Bionic Woman

One of the funnier moments of last night’s Bionic Woman was Ruth’s spontaneous confession and deadpan comment at Antonio Pope’s funeral:

"I slept with him once … it was amazing."

Unfortunately that humorous admission comes at the price of ruining our hopes that Ruth Truewell is a lesbian.  Or at least makes it less likely.

The show has flirted with the idea that Ruth is a lesbian since the beginning, giving her a haircut that After Ellen has dubbed a classic lesbian cut and even having a character ask her if she was a lesbian at one point in one of the early episodes.  Unfortunately seems like it was all just a tease.

The show certainly would be a lot more fun if it was true, but last night’s deadpan confessional seems to indicate that Ruth is just your standard repressed shrink.  I suppose she could be covering, or perhaps she found Antonio’s squinting too hot to handle (although that seems unlikely). 

Ruth is still a hidden gem on the show no matter what her sexual orientation, but it would be nice to think Bionic Woman had the guts to acknowledge what most of their remaining viewers were already thinking.

Earlier I asked if the mysterious and all around Berkut Group wonder woman, Ruth Truewell, played by the talented Molly Price was a lesbian.

I wondered this after we were introduced to Truewell in episode 1.01.  I guess the writers thought it would be fun to tease the audience with the same question when they literally had another character ask outright in episode 1.03, “Sisterhood”.

It seems I am not the only one who thinks BW should introduce one of the characters as outright gay.  Via GayWired:

Oh come on. For a show about a butch dressing bartender who gets a second lease on life when a secret government agency hijacks her body, makes her bionic and sends her to do battle with a rogue bionic woman with a fierce blonde bob and bulging biceps, Bionic Woman is seriously missing the queer quotient. Maybe Isaiah Washington ixnayed any reference to homosexuality, but seeing as how his character supposedly ends his limited run this week, the opportunity is there to up the gay factor. Perhaps Jamie Sommers (Michelle Ryan) and Sarah Corvus (Katee Sackhoff) could take their rivalry to the next level. At the very least, give us some wet wife beaters—and more of Katee’s slicked back hair. Totally hot stuff!

Roco at Bionic Blog takes up the same topic.

Now that Washington will be leaving the show, Truewell, or another character should be identified as an out gay person.  However, let me go on the record and offer unsolicited advice to the writers:  DO NOT WRITE A BECCA SOMMERS EXPERIMENTS WITH LESBIANISM PLOT LINE.  It would be stupid and Lucy Hale has not proved herself capable of handling this kind of scene or plot line. 

So, Gay it Up, Bionic Woman!

Bionic Woman episode 1.03 - “Sisterhood” raised a question that I have wondered since watching the pre-air pilot back in July:  Is Molly Price’s character, Ruth Truewell a lesbian?

I certainly hope so!  How fantastic to have a strong smart character that happens to be a lesbian on a prime-time show.  We don’t know that much information about Truewell yet, except she is smart, efficient and can multi-task like crazy.  So far we have seen her perform psych exams, impersonate a federal agent, and make a bomb on the fly.  After making the mistake of hiring serial bigot Isaiah Washington, NBC could make great strides with the gay community having one of the main Bionic Woman characters be an out lesbian.  Many at AfterEllen.com think Molly Price makes a great role model and compares her character to Mariska Hargitay’s Det. Benson on Law & Order:  SVU. 

Bionic Woman is turning into a great show and this possibility makes it even more interesting for me.  Of course, it is NBC, so I won’t hold my breath.

Ruth Truewell is one of the most intriguing characters in the Bionic Woman pilot. The NBC website, however, contains no biographical information for this character. Instead, the website only shows the biography of Molly Price, the woman who plays her. This is interesting given the vital role that Ruth plays in Jamie’s first few days as the Bionic Woman.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW

Ruth’s role at the Berkut Group is unclear, but she seems to be well-respected and involved in the mental evaluation of Jamie (and perhaps other employees as well). As the pilot progresses, it is Ruth’s assessment that Jamie is well-grounded and mentally strong that leads the other members of the Berkut Group to begin to see Jamie as a potential asset instead of a potentially disastrous liability.

It is Ruth who sides with Will, Jamie’s boyfriend, and convinces Burket chief Jonas Bledsoe to let Jamie escape. It is Ruth who convinces Jae that she could take a different path than the lethal one chosen by an unstable Sarah Corvus. And it is Ruth who chooses to treat Jamie as a woman instead of as a machine. It will be very interesting to see, as the series progresses, how the relationship between these two characters develops … and what more we can learn about the mysterious Ruth Truewell.

Ruth Truewell, Bionic Woman, Molly Price, Berkut Group, Jonas Bledsoe, Sarah Corvus