Ringer 1.07: "Oh Gawd, There's Two of Them?"

“I had two beers. It’s not like I was doing coke.”
-Juliet

This episode of “Ringer” was a little plodding at first, but boy did it bring the cliffhangers and shocking twists by the end. It was so twisty and shocking that it took all my willpower to switch over to Word and start writing this instead of just diving right into the next episode. These twists made me so sad for Bridget, because it looks like the little life she’s built for herself is going to come crashing down around her very soon. I guess I shouldn’t feel too sad because she basically stole that life from her (seriously evil) twin sister, but Bridget seems to genuinely care about the people in Siobhan’s life and wants to take care of them as best she can. Certainly beats her sister, who only seems interested in murdering all of them. Speaking of, we need some more real Siobhan character development post haste. She’s way to moustache-twirling and pure evil at the moment. There must have been something to turn her to the dark side (most likely involving the little kid from the photograph in the pilot), but without knowing that, her trying to kill multiple people back in NYC just seems silly.

The episode opens showing the crazy media frenzy that has taken place over Gemma’s disappearance. Henry’s being mobbed by photographers and reporters as he tries to get into a car. Over at the Martin apartment, Bridget has been watching the craziness on television. Before Bridget and Andrew can have much of a conversation about it, police arrive at the apartment with Juliet in tow. Juliet’s not in trouble, though. The police want to talk to “Siobhan.” Bridget goes into her dressing room, presumably to collect herself, but she actually makes a phone call from her old cellphone to Siobhan’s cell phone saying she thinks she really messed up. By the time she emerges from the dressing room, the police are saying they want to talk to Andrew too, because Gemma’s last phone call was from him. While this is going on, Juliet is also campaigning to be allowed to stay with a friend in Connecticut for a weekend. Andrew eventually relents.

At the local police precinct, Henry, Andrew, and Bridget are all being questioned about Gemma’s disappearance. Cops show both Henry and Andrew Bridget’s mug shot and ask them to identify the woman in the photo. Surprisingly, both correctly identify her as Bridget Kelly. This was quite the WTF moment, as up until now, we were lead to believe that nobody in Siobhan’s life knew anything about Bridget’s existence. After the opening credits, we get an explanation for this in the form of flashbacks to “Siobhan” (really Bridget) telling both of the guys about Bridget. Between this and the phone message se left herself, it’s obvious that she has some sort of longer game in mind with regards to keeping her new friends and family from being implicated in Gemma’s disappearance. Bridget seems to have all the pieces in place until Victor tells her that Malcolm is missing. This news makes her crack just a little.

Speaking of Malcolm, the crime lord and his minions have him hooded and in a van, presumably somewhere in middle-of-nowhere Wyoming. Malcolm manages to escape from the van by making his captors think he’s more high than he really is. They let their guard down and leave him alone in the van, and he escapes. We see him grab something from a house (presumably his own house in Wyoming), and then we see him at a truck stop. In the truck stop rest room, Malcolm recognizes a pair of boots that he can glimpse from below the stall. The boots belong to one of the crime lord’s minions. The minion tries to attack Malcolm and warns Malcolm that they’re going to keep following him, but Malcolm knocks the minion out and runs off.

Back in New York, Bridget is flashing back to the day she was three months sober. Bridget and Malcolm are celebrating with cake, and things go way too far. As in making out and sex too far. Apparently it’s taboo for NA folks to have romantic relationships with their sponsors. Which makes sense, really. Malcolm says he doesn’t regret it, but it absolutely cannot happen again. He assures her that while they can’t have romantic relationship, he’ll still be there for her whenever she needs him. Pulled back into the present day, Bridget has to listen to Andrew complaining about how she didn’t tell him the truth about having a twin sister sooner. Andrew is really, really pissed about this and believes that the omission could have put the whole family in danger. If only he knew who the really dangerous sister was…

Not feeling like she can really trust anybody else, Bridget meets up with Charlie at the coffee shop. She wants him to use his former cop skills to investigate Gemma’s disappearance more. She tells him that she’s certain the police have the wrong suspect. Charlie agrees to help only after Bridget tells him her “name” (she gives Siobhan’s name). After some digging, Charlie reports back that he hasn’t really been able to find out anything new. He thinks, however, that Gemma’s car might hold clues, and Bridget tells him the car’s location- JFK long term parking. She doesn’t tell him, however, why it’s there. This plot had quite the crazy ending. At the end of the episode, we see Charlie checking out Gemma’s car. He sees some blood inside it, and he makes a phone call. The phone call is to the real Siobhan! We see through a flashback that Charlie attacked Gemma on Siobhan’s orders. How twisted can this show get?

Backtracking a bit, instead of being in Connecticut, Juliet is at a party. Her friend Monica is really drunk, and Juliet is actually being responsible and trying to figure out the safest way to get her home. Juliet is going to hire a car to take them home (the best option, really), but Monica is really freaking out about how her parents will react if she doesn’t bring her car home. Meanwhile, back at home, Bridget and Andrew are having a heart-to-heart about all the lies they’ve told. Andrew is finally starting to get over not knowing Siobhan had a twin. Andrew also admits that at first he wasn’t happy to hear Siobhan was pregnant, but now he’s really happy. They’re in a much better place now, and they start making out when Andrew’s phone rings. It’s Mr. Carpenter (aka Logan from “Veronica Mars”) saying Juliet has been in a car accident. I was wondering what the heck he was doing there. It seemed kind of inappropriate to me. Andrew arrives on the scene and finds out that Juliet tried to drive Monica’s car so the car would be home and Monica wouldn’t get in trouble. Andrew has had it with Juliet’s antics and completely cuts her off from her trust fund. Needless to say, Juliet is pissed at Monica.

Over at the FBI, Victor gets some pretty major information. There has been ATM activity on Malcolm’s debit card, and there is video of him withdrawing cash from an NYC ATM. According to Victor, this means Bridget is probably still in NYC, instead of in Europe like the fake voicemail had said. Elsewhere in NYC, there’s a big swanky party to celebrate the opening of an art pavilion Gemma designed. Bridget and Henry are there and talking. Henry’s not doing well because he’s so upset about Gemma, and he wants to go home, so Bridget puts him in a cab. She turns around from the cab and sees Malcolm. This is such a shock that she faints. She wakes up in the hospital thanks to Malcolm calling an ambulance. Andrew is there, and he is insistent that Bridget have an ultrasound to check on the baby. This can’t possibly end well.