“Does a shoe sale at Bergdorf’s constitute an emergency?”
-Bridget
The second episode of “Ringer” most definitely continued the soapiness of the pilot. Which I don’t really think is a bad thing. I like a good soapy drama in my TV line-up. That’s what I liked about “Grey’s Anatomy” before it went too far with the melodrama. A positive change from the pilot is that this episode was somewhat slower paced. The pilot had to do a lot of work setting up a rather complicated premise. Now that work is done, the story can linger a bit, and we can get to know the characters a little better. I felt like I could really settle in and enjoy the twists and turns. No, “Ringer” is not great television or television-as-art by any means, but it is good fun. And I think that’s what the creative team is going for. “Ringer” is meant to entertain, and it definitely does that well. Especially since they cut back on those damn mirrors!
The episode opens with Bridget still at the new loft, trying to deal with the aftermath of killing her attacker. She wraps up the body and tries to figure out what the heck she’s going to do with it. She’s still trying to clean the place up when Gemma walks in. Gemma is really upset about the hole in the wall (from when Bridget and the attacker crashed through it), and she vows to fire the contractor who has been working on the renovations, thinking that the contractor is somehow responsible. After she gets over being pissed about the mess, Gemma mentions that she confronted the nanny about whether or not she’s been having an affair with Henry. It turns out that the nanny is a lesbian. So Bridget’s “the nanny did it” attempt to cover Siobhan’s tracks isn’t going to work well. Bridget shoos Gemma out of the apartment because she doesn’t want Gemma to find the body.
Back at home, Bridget starts to pack up her stuff. She wants to skip town before the body is discovered. Unfortunately for Bridget, Andrew interrupts. He’s panicking because he hasn’t been able to get in contact with Juliet all evening. The next morning, Bridget does indeed run into Juliet, who is very hung over. This makes Bridget flash back to a time when she was very drunk herself and needed to call Siobhan for a ride home. She offers to help Juliet, but Juliet doesn’t want anything to do with her. Probably because the real Siobhan never tried to open up to her. Meanwhile, Andrew is at work talking to his business partner, Olivia. Who happens to be played by Jaime Murray, who also plays H.G. Wells on “Warehouse 13.” And I need to take this opportunity to say that the in-the-works spinoff with H.G. Wells as a steampunk Sherlock Holmes with “Torchwood’s” Ianto as her Watson needs to happen yesterday, pretty much. Anyway, Andrew and Olivia talk about this upcoming event they’re having to try and recruit more investors to their company.
Bridget’s back at the loft, still trying to clean things up, and she manages to get a quick call in to Malcolm, her sponsor out in Wyoming. He wants to meet with her somewhere between New York and Wyoming. Bridget’s about to leave the loft to start packing when there’s a knock on the door from her FBI handler, Victor. She answers the door, but acting as Siobhan, she blows him off pretty quickly. This turned out to be sort of a bad idea. Because “Siobhan’ is being evasive, he enlists the help of the local FBI office in investigating the Martins in general, including Siobhan. Meanwhile, across town, Gemma decides to confront Henry about her suspicion that he’s having an affair. He denies it up and down, but Gemma shows him a hotel key that was found in his dry cleaning.
Bridget goes to the bank and tries to withdraw some money from Siobhan’s account. The ATM doesn’t work for her because she doesn’t know Siobhan’s PIN, and when he tries to talk to the teller, her account seems to be flagged. The bank manager is only too happy to help her out, though, saying she should have gone to him immediately. He says there isn’t a ton of money in her checking account, but there should be plenty in the emergency account she recently set up. Bridget asks if a shoe sale constitutes an emergency, and I think that this is the first time in the series that Sarah Michelle Gellar has shown that “Buffy” spark.
Andrew calls Bridget to say that the original location where the potential investor cocktail party was going to be held fell through, and he had the great idea to have the party at the new loft, instead. Bridget tries to convince him it’s a bad idea, but Andrew says it’s too late. The event planning staff is already there and setting things up. Bridget panics, because it would definitely not be good if one of the event planners found a dead body in the loft. She distracts the workers by treating them to lunch at the food truck outside, and she hides the body in a decorative trunk that has been brought in for the party. When she gets home, she runs into Juliet again and tries to have a heart-to-heart with her about alcohol and drug abuse, but Juliet’s not buying it.
Now it’s time for the big, important cocktail party. Bridget and Andrew are actually having a nice, civil conversation when they’re interrupted by Olivia. Bridget then proceeds to have separate conversations with both Gemma and Henry, but her conversation with Henry is cut short when she sees blood seeping from the corner of the trunk where she hid the body. She’s desperately trying to clean it up and hide it when Victor shows up at the party. They talk outside, and it turns out that he’s (rightfully) suspicious of how “Siobhan” doesn’t usually allow people in the loft, except for this one occasion. The conversation ends when Gemma causes a scene with Olivia by the door to the apartment building. I think she’s trying to accuse Olivia of stealing Andrew and/or Henry. Bridget uses the distraction as an excuse to throw Victor out.
Andrew and Olivia are giving a big speech to think all the potential investors for coming to the party, and a phone starts to ring. Bridget is terrified to discover that the ringing is coming from the trunk with the body in it. She quickly offers to take care of the problem and blames it on the contractors. She reaches in and grabs the cell phone, and a mysterious guy creepily watches as she does it. At the end of the party, just to reinforce how mean/evil she is, Olivia accuses “Siobhan” of getting pregnant just to try and hold on to Andrew. Thankfully, Andrew has a different view. He thanks Bridget for being on his side at the party and he asks her not to “go away” again (aka go back to being the cold bitch Siobhan has become).
Later that night, Bridget again tries to sneak out of the Martin house, and this time she’s stopped by Juliet, who is in a pretty bad state. She’s spending some quality time in the bathroom after taking a pill she shouldn’t have at a party. Bridget, again remembering the time Siobhan helped her out when she was really wasted, stops to help Juliet. She cradles her by the toilet and tells her it will be okay. And Andrew sees this from the doorway. Guess he figures “Siobhan’s” material instincts are finally kicking in or something. Poor Malcolm is out in the parking garage on his way to meet up with Bridget when a car driven by the crime lord Bridget set free pulls up. Malcolm is saved by one of his students stopping him to ask about a paper. Guess the crime lord doesn’t want witnesses, because he drives off.
Near the end of the episode, we finally see the real, present-day Siobhan again. She’s in Paris, and she’s really, really pissed that her emergency bank account was closed. She wants something done about Bridget immediately. I’m left wondering why she’s so extremely cold and horrid. It must be whatever event drove Bridget and Siobhan apart in the first place, probably involving a kid. Bridget’s got more immediate problems than Siobhan’s anger from across the Atlantic, though. She goes back to the loft to finally get rid of the body once and for all, but she finds the trunk empty.
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