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Bionic Woman: Paradise Lost

Molly Price

(S01E02)"God you're a douche." - Jaime, to Jonas

Last week I mentioned that Bionic Woman had a lot of Alias in it, and the opening scenes of this second episode solidifies that viewpoint a little bit more, with Jaime's fiancee dead and her friends moving on with their lives ("I'm gonna to be a scumbag lawyer, you guys!") and Jaime stuck at a bartending job and feeling a little lost, a little unfulfilled.

Time to save the world!

But first Jaime has to be convinced. In fact, she pretty not only tells Jonas off after he approaches her, but she gets drunk and starts to have sex with some random dude in the men's room of the bar. Sydney Bristow would never do that! What is this, The Bionic Drunken Whore?

Jaime isn't sure about The Secret Organization (TSO) that saves the world (neither would you if you found out that your fiancé had been keeping a dossier on you two years before you met), but I would say working there has to be better than spending all of her time raising an ungrateful, annoying (and clichéd) younger sister who is caught smoking pot at school. The younger sister says "Maybe I should just move in with dad!" and I said to the TV, "YES, MAYBE YOU SHOULD!" That way the sister would be pushed to "guest star" status and we wouldn't have to see her every week.

Speaking of: Isaiah Washington is a "special guest star," and he meets Jaime at the bookstore (in one of the quickest meetings ever - one minute Jaime is with her friends at lunch and the next scene she's talking with Antonio Pope and his dog). She's reading What Color Is Your Parachute 2008 (nice touch) and the two talk about dogs and life and finding your way. At one point she says "I don't know why I'm telling you this," and I was thinking the same thing (the answer I came up with is "because the script says so").

And if you've seen any show similar to Bionic Woman in the past 10 years you know that Pope is MORE THAN HE SEEMS.

After saving a suicidal woman on a rooftop (how convenient!), Jaime decides she does want to save the world after all, plus she heard that TSO has a great dental plan and 401k. Jonas introduces her to Antonio. Bastard doesn't even really own a dog! We're then treated to a Rocky-like montage of training scenes with Jae, and to tell you the truth, this - OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THE SHOT OF MICHELLE RYAN'S RACK WHEN SHE'S DOING ONE-ARMED PULLUPS?! - scene is actually effective (if predictable). There's even a gadget/tech guy at TSO just like Marshall from Alias that we can expect lighter moments from.

The first assignment is to go to a small town that has been wiped out by an airborne toxin. Jaime and Ruth go to the town to investigate, find military men there but the whole town (201 people) dead. They do find a teen girl alive. She had just come to town to visit her grandmother and...oh, the plot is rather boring, actually. Suffice to say that Jaime beats up a military guy, Pope shows up, and Jonas tells her "welcome" to the team. (Side note: anyone else notice how much Ruth looks a lot like Sarah? Probably just coincidental casting, but I wonder if that could be a plot point...)

We do find out that Sarah and Jae weren't just lovers, they were married (still?). We'll see what happens with that down the road.

This second episode was better than the first, even if the toxin plot felt rushed and the ep was filled with clichés. And I'm still not sure I like Ryan in the lead role. Does anyone else think she's playing the role oddly, half soap opera lame and half way too snarky?

Next week Sarah shows up and the two Bionic Chicks fight again - only this time Sarah might be an ally! Yeah, right, I'm not going to fall for that, NBC promo editors.

What power of Jaime's would you like to have?

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