Ringer 1.06: "The Poor Kids Do It Every Day"

"You asked for a warrant? Here it is. Spelled your name right and everything."
-Victor

I’ll just come out and say it. This episode of “Ringer” was kind of slow. After all the drama that went down in the last episode, I guess everyone needed time to react to those events. One bright spot of the episode, however, was the introduction of Jason Dohring (Logan from “Veronica Mars”) as a high school English teacher who has the misfortune of teaching Juliet now that she’s transferred to public school. I’m a huge “Veronica Mars” fan, and it’s always nice to see the very talented cast getting work. The episode has me really, really curious about just what happened to Gemma, because in this episode alone, the tables were turned multiple ties and new twists were added. By the end of the episode, we think we know who is responsible for Gemma’s disappearance, but we don’t know for sure if all is as it seems, and we also don’t know Gemma’s current status. I thought she was supposed to be a major character in the show, so I’m rather curious to see where this plot goes.

This episode has a lot of scenes of Bridget just looking broody in general, and the first is right at the beginning of the episode, with Bridget checking on Juliet and sort of tucking her in for the night. Bridget runs into Andrew in the hallway, and Andrew tells her about the call he received from Gemma and how Henry acted really strange when he stopped by their house to check on Gemma. We then go to a quick cut of Henry cleaning up the blood from the wall of his house. We later see Henry leave a car in long term parking at JFK, which makes him look even shadier. Cue What Happened to Gemma Theory 1 of the episode.

Bridget leaves a voice mail for Gemma while Andrew fights with Juliet over what Juliet is going to wear for her first day at public school. He thinks the shorts and tank top she’s wearing are kind of skanky, and Bridget agrees. As do I. Juliet takes Bridget’s advice about making a good first impression to heart and goes to change her clothes. Before she leaves for school, she also gives Bridget the last of her stash of drugs. This triggers another bout of Bridget broodiness, as she struggles to actually dispose of the drugs instead of using them. She shoves the bad in her dresser and calls Charlie for some pseudo-sponsor help. When she hangs up the phone, she gets a call from the doorman that someone from Gemma’s office wants to see her. Gemma’s minion wants to return the keys to the loft since Gemma’s company won’t be working on it anymore. She also mentions that Gemma hasn’t shown up at the office. The minion is not especially concerned, because she might be on site somewhere, but Bridget is concerned.

We then transition to Juliet’s first class at her new school with Logan (I’m just going to keep calling Jason Dohring’s character Logan here until I bother to learn his actual name). Juliet is polite to him when entering class, but things quickly go downhill when another student named Tessa starts harassing Juliet, calling her “Rich Girl” and asking her for $5. Juliet gives Tessa the money, but she gets the upper hand by telling Tessa that the money will probably be able to pay for her family to eat all week. The conflict escalates after class to a major fight out in the hallway. Tessa shoves Juliet into a locker, and Juliet fights back until Logan and some school police officers break it up. Juliet lands in the principal’s office, and thanks to her lengthy disciplinary record from her former school, the principal doesn’t believe her when she says Tessa started the fight. It doesn’t help that Tessa has her classmates under her control, and they all say that Juliet started the fight. The principal has called in Andrew to discuss the matter, and he doesn’t seem to believe Juliet, either. Logan ends up saving the day by telling the principal what actually happened (even though he wasn’t really an eyewitness to the beginning of the fight), and he tells Juliet that she deserves a second chance. Something tells me this won’t end well.

Bridget goes to Henry and Gemma’s house to try and locate Gemma, but only Henry is there, and he’s really upset. He accuses “Siobhan” of being behind Gemma’s disappearance. Apparently, way back when, the real Siobhan had “joked” about having Gemma and Andrew killed so she and Henry could be together. Henry gets a little scary, continually demanding to know what “Siobhan” has done with Gemma. Bridget continues to deny knowing anything about the disappearance, and she is eventually able to leave the house, obviously convinced that Henry is to blame. It doesn’t help that he told her all about the blood on the wall, tossing the cleaning rags in a restaurant dumpster, and leaving Gemma’s car in long term parking. He claims he did it all to protect Siobhan (because he thinks she’s responsible), but it’s not very convincing to Bridget.

Meanwhile, out in Wyoming, Victor has found Malcolm’s car, still abandoned in the parking garage. Still in captivity, Malcolm looks to be about to break. He’s been re-addicted to heroin, and the thugs have denied him the drugs for long enough that he’s experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Victor shows up at the crime lord’s strip club (where Malcolm is being held in the basement), but the thugs won’t let him search there for Malcolm without a warrant. DNA from a cigarette in the parking garage is traced to one of the crime lord’s minions, though, so Victor is able to get his warrant and access to the club. By the time this is accomplished, though, Malcolm is long gone.

Henry shows up at the Martin house in his usual creepy way. He claims he now believes that Bridget isn’t connected to Gemma’s disappearance, but Bridget kicks him out anyway and goes to the coffee shop to meet up with Charlie. Charlie manages to throw out Juliet’s drugs for her. When he tries to connect with Bridget any further, though, Bridget runs off. She calls Henry and says she needs to make sure the police don’t connect Gemma’s disappearance to her in any way. Bridget follows that up by going to the dumpster with the cleaning rags, opening it up to verify the contents, and calling the police tip line. Thanks to Bridget’s tip, Henry is taken in by police for questioning. All of a sudden, though, the police let Henry go free. It’s quickly apparent why. We see Victor get a call from New York, where police have found Bridget’s fingerprints at the dumpster while investigating Gemma’s disappearance.

When Bridget gets home, Andrew sits her down to give her the news about Gemma’s disappearance and how the police now suspect foul play. Bridget manages to fake being surprised and upset pretty well. Soon after that conversation, she gets a phone call from Victor. He wants to know from “Siobhan” why Bridget’s fingerprints are at the crime scene. It turns out Bridget left the fingerprints purposely. I guess she figured that by implicating “Bridget” in Gemma’s disappearance, he would be safe from the police as long as she was “Siobhan.” Bridget isn’t the only sister acting nefariously, though. We quick move to Paris where Siobhan (the real Siobhan) gets a call informing her that the Bridget problem has been “taken care of.”