Ringer 1.21: "It's Called Improvising, Bitch!"

“That’s not true! You never cared about me or Dad. You only cared about yourself!”
- Juliet

I can’t believe we’ve reached the penultimate episode already. I have to say I thought the developments in “It’s Calling Improvising, Bitch!” were very good and definitely moved the story forward. We pick up right where we ended with the previous episode. Bridget’s been drugged by Catherine and we realize that she’s the one who has been out for Siobhan the whole time. I knew there was something off about Catherine the last few episodes. Anyway, we see Catherine typing a suicide note on Siobhan’s laptop and dumping Bridget in the tub and starting the water. We get a couple flashbacks to see when Catherine’s plot to do in Siobhan started. Apparently eight months earlier, Siobhan told Catherine they were selling the house in Florida and that they were sending Juliet to boarding school. Back in the present, Catherine leaves a note presumably for whoever comes home saying she’s at therapy and heads out.

Meanwhile, Victor is trying to reach “Siobhan” on her cell but obviously she can’t answer. He tries Andrew at work next but he’s not in. Unfortunately, Victor gets intercepted in the parking garage of his hotel by the FBI. They don’t look too happy to see him and the sentiment appears mutual. Catherine is about to make a clean getaway when she realizes her phone (the one Bridget took off the first hit man) is missing. She races back upstairs and frantically searches the apartment for it. We flashback to five and a half months ago and see her on the phone with the guy who she paid to do the deed and she is pissed that it didn’t work. Catherine probably would have found the phone eventually if Andrew hadn’t come home to change his tie and tell Siobhan about Tim Arbogast’s offer to get Martin/Charles out of financial ruin. Catherine’s acting fishy and he thinks she’s keeping him out of his bedroom because she’s going to take a bath in the master suite tub. Lucky for Bridget, water starts pouring out of the tub into the bedroom and Andrew manages to revive her.

Henry and Siobhan are having their own issues. Henry’s petition for supervised visits with his first set of twins has been denied. He again begs Siobhan to keep out of things and let his lawyer do his job. Siobhan says she’s not going to do anything but believe in Henry. Yeah, like that’s true. She couldn’t stop scheming if her life depended on it. Back at the Martin loft, Catherine is starting to rant a bit. She’s printed plane tickets to Mexico for her and Andrew and she gets really angry when both Andrew and Bridget tell her to think of Juliet. She apparently has that angle covered by having Juliet out all day running errands. We get a brief scene that’s probably a flashback to that morning where Catherine tells Juliet to run more errands. Meanwhile, Siobhan is getting three fake passports that will be flagged by INS. See, I knew she was up to no good!

Over at FBI headquarters, Victor gets told in no uncertain terms he’s done. He’s on a flight back to Wyoming in the morning. He does however convince the FBI to pay the Martins a visit to make sure everyone is okay. Back at the apartment, Catherine has Andrew packing for Mexico. She says she’s got to improvise so it’s a little shaky. The whole thing is just ridiculous. And as if things couldn’t get crazier, the FBI guys show up and Andrew and Bridget stage it so everything looks status quo. Andrew almost alerts to danger (code is using a day of the week in a sentence and he writes it on a business card) but decides against it when he sees Catherine holding her gun on “Siobhan”. We next find the real Siobhan paying another visit to Oksana, the maid who ID’s Henry. Things get hinky quickly and it turns out she’s a high price call girl. It’s unclear why she OD’d with her John. But the maid is dead so no more testimony. And Siobhan goes into labor. And since this storyline is relatively minor to the episode, she gets to the hospital and is rushed into surgery. It looks like the twins (a set of girls) are going to be okay and Henry (displaying a modicum of intelligence) asks the doctor to do a paternity test.

And now, back in crazy town, Juliet has the misfortune of coming home. And from there, Catherine gets even more desperate because out comes the duct tape. Juliet tells her mother that she’s a crazy bitch which is true. She needs a pep talk and calls her sort-of partner in crime who turns out to be Olivia. I have to say I didn’t quite see that coming. Not in the way it unfolds anyway. We get an extended flashback where Catherine shows up on Olivia’s doorstep after Andrew threw her out (when she was burning Juliet’s pictures) and they end up making out. I hadn’t realized Olivia was a lesbian. Too bad for Catherine, Olivia isn’t having any of her crazy talk. She thought they were lying low after the second hit attempt failed. She wants no part in any of what’s happening. Juliet manages to snag the cell phone Bridget dropped when she was knocked out and calls Victor. In some slightly cheesy dialogue, Bridget and Andrew not only reveal they’re being held at gunpoint in their apartment by Catherine, but they alert him that Olivia is involved and even get the location out of Catherine. Victor to the rescue!

We enter yet another flashback (there were kind of too many this episode I think. Though it did help explain Olivia and Catherine’s bizarre relationship) where Olivia explains all about the Ponzi scheme and how she’d love to get rid of Siobhan. Catherine reveals the whole hit man agenda and Olivia seems a bit intrigued, saying all she did wrong was not getting the phone. Catherine’s starting to lose it when Olivia doesn’t pick up the phone. Andrew is going to try and make a move by hitting Catherine with a paperweight but Olivia calls back and tells Catherine to come directly to her. We find out that Catherine promised Olivia that Siobhan would be dead soon when Olivia left after the whole Tyler debacle. So Catherine is going to take “Siobhan” with her as a hostage. Too bad Victor’s waiting at the safe house. He manages to apprehend Catherine without anyone else getting hurt. So at least the week before the season finale, they’ve wrapped up some of the storylines. Here’s hoping the finale really delivers.