Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder
Directed by Stuart Gillard
Let me first say that it was the smart move to bring Siobhan back to New York at the end of this episode. The writers recognized that part of the plot just wasn’t working and since she was doing virtually nothing in Paris anyway, it might be interesting to see what kind of havoc she can create on this side of the pond. There are still messy parts of this series present (basically everything besides the A-plot), but that main plot is getting clearer and juicier than it has been since the pilot. All there is left to do is tie the subplots involving Agent Machado and Juliet to Siobhan’s long con and the series can finally get going.
Though Andrew and Bridget have real chemistry, I am still of the mind that it’s very icky to be kissing (and this episode confirms they are doing more than that) your sister’s husband. Now that we know Siobhan is back in town, it will be a complete shock to her system that Bridget has gone that far in relations with her husband. One wonders what she might do once she finds this out. If this episode is any indication, Siobhan might push even harder to milk Andrew for everything he’s got.
Charlie forces Siobhan into a corner by moving to kill Gemma instead of keeping her silent like Siobhan instructed. She flies to New York, and gets there just after Charlie kills Gemma. She then shoots him, and frames it to look like it was a murder-suicide. It’s diabolical, and a jolt of action in an otherwise dull manipulation plot. Siobhan was too late to save her friend, but she made Gemma’s murder work within her plan, whatever it is. Her motives still aren’t very clear (and are dependent on a lot of contrivances to work), but she is now an active member of the main plot.
I’m going to miss Gemma, simply because she was the only one in Siobhan’s circle who knew about the secret switcheroo and the show seemed unable to know what to do with that. Her death will no doubt shake Henry to the core, and with Bridget-as-Siobhan rejecting him, could drive him further into oblivion. This ties to what Siobhan is doing with her baby, using it to keep Tyler under her finger in Paris. If Henry ever finds Siobhan alive and passing off his baby as someone else’s, he’s going to be very unhappy with the situation. Ringer didn’t need to show all of this in such a convoluted manner, but it’s better connected than some of the previous episodes have presented as such.
The other subplots were much weaker than expected. Agent Machado investigates yet another lead to Bodaway from a now-dead informant (Amber Benson) that reveals little. He does meet Jimmy, the crooked cop who helped Bridget run away into her current situation so there’s some connection to the main plot in a way. The writers need to find a way to get Machado to do more on this series than questioning people.
That plot was better than Juliet’s odd crush on her teacher, though. Mr. Carpenter has no dimension to his character thus far so the rape accusation seems to come from nowhere. Juliet is so messed up emotionally that I would question the validity of her claim until there’s concrete proof that it actually happened. It could be legitimate or it could be a desperate plea for attention. Either way, it’s awkwardly integrated into this episode.
“Ringer” needs more episodes like this one. The show needs to embrace a campy, soap opera-like tone, perhaps even veering into the outlandish. Parts of it are still mind-numbingly boring (probably because they take the events so seriously) and there are moments where you could see a spark being lit. Sarah Michelle Gellar seemed to relish playing the bad girl here, and the material was there to match her abilities this time. When she’s playing Bridget, it often looked like she was just playing the bored, rich housewife, and that doesn’t help the show at all. The characters being active instead of passive should give “Ringer” more life going forward. We can only hope the writers can follow through on that.
Grade: 7/10
