Recap: As a plane lands at the Ojai air base, we hear Oscar's voice announcing the arrival of Major John Cross and his young daughter, then orders whoever he's talking to ensure that the two report to Jaime's classroom asap. Jaime is giving some after-school help to a hapless student named Artie, who's irritating her by rocking on his chair...which is uneven 'cause one leg is shorter than the other three. She tells him to stop rocking, then remarks on what an exercise in futility it was asking the useless janitor to fix the chair. She dismisses Artie when Oscar arrives to tell her he's at the base to look over the new guided missile system...and that he wants her to take an overnight wilderness survival training course, which is apparently standard professional development for all OSI agents. Jaime's like, "Sure, whatever" as she uses her bionic abilities to try to even out Artie's chair. Oscar tells her he wants her to meet a prospective student who might be getting enrolled at the base school, then tells her the story about how Major John Cross married a stunning Vietnamese woman during the Vietnam war, had a daughter, and was told they both perished during a mortar attack. Turns out the daughter survived, but was MIA for a few years after she accidentally got placed in an orphanage...and when her name appeared on a list of war orphans, Oscar arranged for her to be brought to the United States so she could be reunited with her father. John Cross enters the classroom with his daughter and introduces her as Kim. Jaime says hi...but when Kim just stares back at her mutely, John explains that she hasn't spoken since the day her mother was killed. Oscar tells Jaime that John will be teaching the wilderness training course he wants her to take...and when John says he'll need someone to watch Kim overnight, Oscar suggests they saddle the kid with Mama and Papa Austin. Oscar, Jaime, and Kim amble out of the classroom to work on those arrangements, while John stays behind to make a phone call. He tells whoever he's talking to that he's stuck doing wilderness training, but will try to ditch his trainee before dark so he can sneak over to the air base and steal the OSI's missile guidance system. That evening, John hides in the bushes near the air base and spies on OSI personnel as they wheel the giant missile into a hangar. Mama Austin forbids Kim to touch a cherished decorative plate she has on display in her living room 'cause apparently the fugly thing's been in her family for generations...then gives her Jaime's scrapbook (!) to amuse herself with 'cause she has zero ideas on how to entertain a sullen, mute child. She and Papa Austin then beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen to do the dishes. Kim flips through the scrapbook and sees a photo of Colonel Steve Austin which reminds her of her own father in uniform...and this leads to a pretend flashback of the trauma she suffered during the mortar attack in Vietnam. She picks up a black marker and scribbles over Steve's face. Haha!
Oscar drops by Jaime’s apartment to deliver a large file on John Cross he wants her to read, then gives her some background info: John was carrying out a covert mission when the South Vietnamese army collapsed. He had left his wife and daughter in a village that was supposed to be protected by the U.S. army - but sadly it was targeted by the Viet Cong, and Mrs. Cross got blown up and died in Kim's arms...and the kid was so traumatized she hasn't spoken since. Oscar says he's not completely sure if John's head is screwed on straight, so he wants Jaime to study him during the wilderness training and tell him if she thinks his behavior is, in any way, squirrelly. Jaime says she hates the idea of spying on a soldier and would rather focus her attention on helping Kim regain the power of speech...and Oscar wryly says she'll get her chance at that, then warns her that Kim was "an unholy terror" during her time at the orphanage. Mama Austin tells Kim it's time for bed, then stiffly tells her that she and Papa Austin are glad she's here and that they hope she likes hanging with them. The camera then pans over to the living room table, and it looks like Mama Austin's decorative plate is missing from its display stand. Oh no! Jaime and John arrive at the wilderness training site by helicopter, and he gives her her first instruction: her only tools for survival are whatever she has in her pockets. As they hike through the wooded area, he remarks that she's in pretty good shape...then says their first task will be to gather branches to build a shelter. He hands her some twine to aid in building a lean-to, then tells her to try starting a fire without matches. He rushes off to collect more brush and assures her he'll be back soon. Mama Austin is dusting the living room when she notices that her decorative plate is missing. She calls Papa Austin over so that he too can stare dumbfoundedly at the empty display stand and wonder why in blazes a mute child would want to steal a plate. Jaime starts a fire by bionically rubbing two sticks together. John, meanwhile, is jogging in the woods while having a flashback of his wife in Vietnam when he assured her he'd be back soon. He scrunches his face into a troubled expression. By the time John returns to the makeshift camp, Jaime has built a lean-to and is chillaxing in front of the fire. John looks surprised and remarks how odd it is that Oscar thought she needed survival training when she's clearly capable of fending for herself. He hands her some of kind edible stick she can chew on for sustenance, then says he's going to take off and do some "scouting". As he races off, Jaime murmurs that she has the distinct feeling she's being ditched, so she gets up to follow him. John radios someone to tell him that he'll acquire the OSI missile guidance system tonight and asks that a chopper be ready to pick up him and Kim in the morning. Jaime tracks John to a nearby road and watches him attempt to hitchhike. She bionically jogs ahead of him and seats herself on the side of the road so she can be all like, "Busted!" He stares at her in shock and asks her what she's doing here, pretends that hitchhiking was what he meant by scouting...then acknowledges that the jig is up. He admits that, yep, he was planning to leave her alone in the woods, not least 'cause he figured she was in good enough shape to make it back to civilization without his help. After that awkwardness, the two amble along the road together and chat about Kim. He laments how much she hates him since the trauma of her mother's death, then says he heard she had cried out for him during the mortar attack. And ever since that day, she's been a disturbed, angry, mute child.
Jaime stops by the Austin house and is alarmed when she sees that Mama Austin's decorative plate has been shattered - nooooooo! - and that Steve's photo has been defaced. Mama Austin is clearly miffed and snarkishly tells Jaime that Kim is a "one girl wave of destruction" ... and that Papa Austin took her horseback riding to distract her from breaking any more of her displayed collectibles. Kim is happily petting her horse when Jaime ambles over and gives her a bucket of feed, then tells her that caring for horses helped her get through the mourning period for her parents when they were killed. She says she'd really really like to be her friend...and by be her friend, she means there are several barn chores she wants her to pitch in with. John breaks into the air base by cutting through a chain link fence and climbing through the hole. Jaime tells Kim to soap the saddle...and when Kim shoots her the stink-eye and refuses, Jaime sternly tells her she had fun riding the horse, but now has to take care of the equipment. Plus, she points out that soaping the saddle is more for the comfort of the horse than it is a favor to her. Kim reluctantly takes the soap and starts half-heartedly rubbing it onto the saddle. John evades the base's patrolman and uses a long rope to quietly climb up to the hangar where the missile guided system is located. He sticks his head into the roof chute and hears Colonel Banning tell Oscar that the missile firing test is scheduled for 10:00am tomorrow. Jaime milks the cow - and uses her bionic fingers to perform the task, which seems unnecessary and also doesn't seem to please the cow - while Kim gets bored of soaping the saddle and sneaks out of the barn. She goes up to Jaime's apartment, finds a large butcher knife, and stares at it demonically. From the roof chute, John uses his rope to lower himself into the building where the guided missile is being stored. Jaime is startled when she realizes that Kim has left the barn, then activates her bionic ear and hears banging noises coming from her apartment. She rushes over and is confronted by Kim brandishing the large knife. She sternly tells the demon spawn to put it down, which Kim eventually does...and Jaime gets irked when she notices that the blade is damaged from all the banging Kim did with it. She uses her bionic fingers to straighten the blade, then hands it to Kim and orders her to put it away...figuring that the badly kept secret of her bionics are safe with this mute child. A bewildered Kim takes the repaired knife and opens the drawer to put it back - but then pauses and shoots Jaime another defiant stink-eye before dropping the contents of the drawer onto the floor. An exasperated Jaime says she's going to refrain from giving her the spanking she deserves, then gives Kim another needless demo of her bionics when she speed-gathers the cutlery and puts it back into the drawer. She then asks Kim to help her set the table...and Kim glares at her while deliberately dropping both plates on the floor, which smash to pieces. Jaime wisely hands her a couple of paper plates and grimaces while pointing at the dining table.
John opens up a small panel on the side of the missile, then pulls out the guidance system circuit thingy and pockets it. He replaces it with his military medals, then has a pretend audio flashback about when he spoke to his superiors about the mortar attack that killed his wife and (presumed dead) daughter. He screws the panel door shut, then climbs up the rope to exit through the roof chute. Jaime calls Rudy to discuss Kim's rude turdedness, and Rudy says it's prolly just her way of masking her anger at her father and/or her fear of ever needing him in a time of crisis. John radios his partner in crime to report that he is now in possession of the missile guidance system, and that he and his daughter will be ready to be picked up by helicopter at the Austin ranch at 7:00am for a less-than-subtle getaway. When a thunderstorm hits Ojai, Kim thrashes around in bed while having more pretend flashbacks of the mortar attack. She cries out, "Cha!" then starts weeping, and Jaime's like, "You can speak!" and coos about her breakthrough. She urges Kim to try and squeeze out another word or two, but Kim stubbornly purses her lips together and reverts back to her sullen, mute self. Colonel Banning admonishes the patrolman for smoking while on duty, then glances around and happens to spot a hole in the fence. John arrives at Jaime's apartment...and when Jaime tells him that Kim yelled out cha! in her sleep, John looks momentarily touched and says it's the Vietnamese word for father. He then tells Jaime he needs to wake Kim and get her dressed, pronto. Colonel Banning informs Oscar that the missile guidance system is missing...and that someone shoved a bunch of medals in its place. Oscar looks over the medals and deduces that they can only belong to John Cross. Oscar phones Jaime, finds out that John is with her, then asks her to activate her bionic hearing to see if she can detect the presence of the missile guidance system. Jaime does and hears a buzzing noise coming from John's pocket...and when John figures out that she's onto his thievery, he pulls out a gun and points it at her. When the call is abruptly cut off, Oscar shrieks, "Jaime!" and tells whoever's in earshot that they have to get to the Austin ranch asap! John orders Jaime to put some clothes on Kim, then grumbles about how he entrusted the army with his wife and daughter only to be dismayed by how badly they screwed the pooch on that promise. He smugly adds that he's more than happy to screw over the military by selling the missile guidance system on the black market for a lot of cash so he can start a new life. Jaime chides him for being stuck in the past, and Kim stares fearfully at the gun and grabs onto Jaime 'cause she's afraid her nutty father is going to pull the trigger. John assures Kim that Jaime will be fine, then pulls the two apart. Kim suddenly has another pretend flashback of the Vietnam mortar attack and gets so wigged out that she pulls away from her father and races out of the apartment. Jaime and John rush out after her just in time to see Kim's (much taller) stunt double mount a horse and gallop off.
At 6:50am, John mounts another horse and gallops after Kim...and Jaime bionically jogs after both of them. Lightning spooks Kim's horse, and she falls to the ground, tumbles down a cliff, and gets trapped on a small plateau. She glances around, realized she's trapped, and starts to cry. Oscar and his cavalry are en route to Jaime's, while John's partner in crime appears via helicopter and flies around looking for him. Kim can only bring herself to mouth help me as she gets drenched in the rain, which proves not to be helpful. John's partner in crime spots John on his horse and lands the chopper in front of him. John says he can't leave yet 'cause he needs to find his daughter, but the man says he doesn't give a rat's ass about his mute brat, pulls a gun on him, and demands to know where the missile guidance system is. John pulls the guidance system out of his pocket and uses the movement as a distraction to punch him. He then grabs his gun, shoots at the chopper to render it useless, then climbs back onto his horse so he can continue searching for Kim. Jaime activates her bionic hearing and hears Kim whisper, "Jaime.." and the quiet voice leads her to the spot where Kim tumbled down the cliff. She spots Kim on the plateau and bionically leaps to where she got trapped. A few seconds later, Jaime hears John trot over...so she tells Kim that their only hope for survival is if she calls out to him, then pretends to pass out. Kim silently flaps her lips before finally bringing herself to cry, "Daddy! Help us!" John hears her, spots her and Jaime huddled together on the plateau, then climbs down using his rope and assures Kim that they're all going to be A-OK. Back at Jaime's apartment, John wraps Kim in a cozy warm blanket, while Oscar and Jaime have a solemn discussion about how screwed John's going to be when he's court-martialed. Oscar says he hopes the court will show compassion, then brushes aside the worrisome fate of John Cross and exclaims, "Cocoa!" when Jaime produces four steaming cups of hot chocolate. LOL. A now talkative Kim canoodles with her father and happily tells him he knows he'll come back to her...after serving what'll probably be a long prison sentence for a treasonous type crime he could have either avoided doing altogether, or gotten away with if he hadn't left his medals behind like a damn calling card. Moron. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
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