Recap: Late at night on a shipyard, two grizzled salvage workers (Dean and Jake) are blow-torching their way through the bulkhead of a decommissioned ship called the Handerson. Inside, they find a fully intact human skeleton - ack! - and Dean's like, "Yep, he was right where he said it would be." The two remove the skeleton, but don't notice the dog tags that scatter to the ground. Oscar drops by Jaime's apartment for a solemn fireside chat. He shows her the dog tags that a shipyard salvage worker found, which belonged to his older brother Sam. Jaime's all, "Wha-a? I didn't know you had a brother!" and Oscar tells her he disappeared during the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that ever since that fateful day the Navy has written him off as a traitorous thief. He explains that Sam was involved in military intelligence work, and that he (Oscar) joined the OSI mostly so he could get the appropriate clearance to read Sam's file. Sadly, it's merely reopened old wounds while the same haunting questions remain unanswered. He tells Jaime that Sam had been carrying a briefcase with 250K, which he had received from his commanding officer and was supposed to pass along to an OSI double agent at 8:00am the morning of December 7, 1941. Of course, no one knew that Japanese bombers were on their way at that very moment...and we get a black and white flashback of Sam boarding the Handerson carrying his bag o' cash. He had barely stepped onto the deck when the Japanese planes appeared overhead and attacked...and once the smoke had cleared, both Sam and the cash mysteriously disappeared. The Navy classified him as MIA, and rumors soon circulated that he used the Pearl Harbor attack as a diversion to abscond with the money. Oscar is emphatic that his brother was not a thief, and says he's newly re-interested in the matter now that his dog tags have surfaced. He grimly says the Navy has zero interest in reopening the investigation 'cause they consider Sam a problem of the past, which brings him to the favor he came to ask. Jaime tells him she'd looooove to use her bionics for something other than stupid OSI missions and house cleaning...or, for that matter, speed cooking, lion taming, and Night Demon impersonating. Oscar looks touched and says, "Thanks, babe" and says he figured she'd be agreeable so he went ahead and arranged for her to start work as a salvage worker on the Handerson. That was predictably presumptuous of him. Jaime arrives at the shipyard decked out in a hard hat and overalls and carrying a lunch pail. The grizzled salvage workers give her an appreciative once-over and whistle as she does her best to ignore her new hostile work environment and reports for duty with Dean and Jake. She chirps, "I'm your new hand!" and Dean shoots her the stink-eye and curses whatever fool signed off on hiring a female to do salvage work. He asks her what skills she has...and she's forced to admit that she doesn't actually possess skills in any kind of trade, but insists that she's really really strong and even offers to give them a demonstration of her superhuman top secret bionic strength...and why not, 'cause that cat has been out of the bag for nearly two seasons now. Dean introduces Jaime to her burly co-worker, a friendly simpleton named Bobby, and assigns her the task of stacking heavy steel plates onto a pallet. Bobby furrows his brow and tells Dean the steel plates are much too heavy for a lady to be lifting...and Dean's like, "No duh" and says he's merely going through the motions of assigning Jaime - aka, an uppity woman who came to the shipyard looking to do man's work - a task he's sure she's going to fail at. Dean tells her that all of the steel plates have to be stacked on the pallet by noon or she'll be out of a job. After he stomps off, Jaime thanks Bobby for sticking up for her, and the oaf shakes his head and says he doesn't think it's right for a lady, especially one who's "so skinny and stuff", to be laboring in a shipyard. Jaime thanks him for his misplaced chivalry and says she heard that one of the workers had found a set of dog tags on the dock, and Bobby confirms that and points toward a bridge and says they were found over there. He then tells her to pretend as though she's working, and he'll stop by later and stack the steel plates on the pallet so she doesn't get fired. After he lumbers off, Jaime bionically stacks the steel plates onto the pallet, then heads toward the bridge so she can start snooping around. A few minutes later, Bobby returns and sees the steel plates neatly stacked on the pallet, but with Jaime nowhere to be seen. He scrunches his big face confusedly. Jaime finds the bulkhead that Dean and Jake had blow-torched their way through. She finds a bullet lodged on the inside of the hull - just as Bobby appears and suspiciously asks what she's doing and who she works for. She breezily retorts, "The same people you work for" ... and he seems satisfied enough with that answer and asks her if she'd like to spend her lunch hour with him and his kitty Myrtle, who has taken up residence inside the ship. How sweet! He explains that he's always worried that the "animal society people" might try to take Myrtle away from him, and thought that she might be one of them. She assures him she's not remotely interested in separating him from his pet, then shows him the bullet she found lodged in the hull, along with the blow-torched door. Bobby says he has no idea who might have done that, but that Duke might know...then explains that Duke is a grizzled yokel who runs a bar that all the salvage workers flock to after work. Jaime cuddles Myrtle and flirtily invites Bobby to ask her if she'd like to go to Duke's with him after their shift...and when he shyly asks her out, she nods and smiles. As Jaime and Bobby head over to Duke's, he remarks that she probably has lots of guys [besides him] who are real sweet on her. Pretty much in every episode, Bobby. They enter the bar, which looks to be an ultra macho establishment with disheveled men guzzling beer at the bar, while others arm wrestle at tables. Bobby introduces Jaime to Duke, an old man who walks with a pronounced limp...and Duke tells Jaime he heard she's been pulling her weight pretty good on the shipyard. Jaime comes right out and asks him if he has any idea who might have blow-torched a hole in the side of the Handerson and/or dropped a set of dog tags nearby, and Duke looks alarmed and asks her why she wants to know. She tells him she's a collector and nonsensically adds, "I love that stuff" ... and Duke's like, "Uh huh.." and limps over to the far end of the bar, where Dean and Jake are drinking. He tells the two they're going to have to do something to scare Jaime off 'cause she's asking too many questions. Dean sneers that he's not interested in doing anymore favors for him after he and Jake spent an evening blow-torching a hull for the purpose of moving a human skeleton, which...yeech. When Duke snarls,"Get rid of her!" Dean says he'd rather not waste his valuable time scaring her off when he could simply get rid of her for good. Noooooo!! The next morning, Oscar drops by the shipyard in a cab, and Jaime shows him the bullet she found lodged inside the hull. Oscar takes it and says he'll have the OSI lab technicians analyze it for anything that could inch this storyline forward. Jaime meets up with Bobby inside the Handerson, where they have breakfast with Myrtle. He tells her he had fun at Duke's last night, then earnestly adds that Duke is "a real good guy". Jaime asks him if he knows how Duke hurt his leg, and Bobby says the injury happened during the Pearl Harbor attack. Mmm hmm.. Dean and Jake saw into one of the pulley cables in order to orchestrate a fatal "accident" to befall Jaime...and poor Bobby by association. An oblivious Jaime stands on the deck, peppering Bobby with more questions about Duke while Jake operates the crane and dangles a pallet filled with steel plates above their heads. When the cable eventually snaps, Jaime notices the pallet hurtling towards her in time to bionically dive out of the way - but Bobby isn't as lucky, and gets one of his arms pinned under the pallet. Jaime bionically lifts the pallet off of him, then cradles his head in her lap as they wait for medical help to arrive. She assures him he'll be OK, and that she'd be more than happy to feed Myrtle while he's in the hospital. Dean and Jake, meanwhile, scowl at each other for the failure of their murder plot. Jaime calls Oscar and tells him that someone had sawed the cable that snapped, nearly killing her and Bobby...but that all is well 'cause the doctor assured everyone that Bobby is going to be A-OK. Oscar says he can't let her continue at the shipyard if her life is in danger, but she argues that she's really really invested in seeing this favor through. He tells her that the bullet she found was a fragment, and that it had dried blood on it. Late that evening, Jaime breaks into the service entrance of Duke's, then hides behind a curtain in a storage room while she bionically eavesdrops on Duke admonishing Dean and Jake for nearly killing Jaime. Dean shrugs and points out that he gave Jaime a good scare like he wanted - just as Jaime notices the skeletal remains of Sam Goldman [the fuckety fuck is that thing doing there??!!] and shrieks in horror. She dramatically pulls back the curtain and bursts in on the conversation...and when Dean pulls a gun on her, Duke tells him he'll handle this and orders him and Jake to leave. Jaime informs Duke that the human skeleton - which, for some reason, he has on full display for anyone who should happen to stumble into his storage room - is the brother of a good friend of hers, then narrates her half-baked theory about what she assumes happened on that fateful day in 1941...and we get the following black and white reenactment: Duke was a civilian dock worker at the time the war broke out, and was on the Handerson the morning Sam Goldman disappeared. Sam arrives on the ship with his briefcase...and seconds after he says 'good morning' to Duke, Japanese planes appear overheard and start pumping bullets. Sam hits the deck and drops his briefcase, money flies everywhere, and Duke grabs Sam's gun and shoots him at point blank range. He then hides his body in the bulkhead and makes off with the cash. Duke's like, "Nice try, detective, but that's not how it played out", then offers up his own version of events that we get to see in an alternate reenactment: Sam arrives on the Handerson with his briefcase, says 'good morning' to Duke just as the Japanese planes planes appear overhead and start pumping bullets. Sam is fatally shot while diving towards the safety of the bulkhead, just as Duke notices that the briefcase he was carrying is filled with cash. He grabs the briefcase and makes a run for it, but gets shot in the leg in the process. Before he loses consciousness, he throws the briefcase into a pump hole...and that's the last he remembers. He regained consciousness in the hospital two days later, but by then the Handerson had gone out to sea. He then spent the next thirty-six years of his sad existence waiting for the ship to return so he could reclaim his stolen money. Duke offers Jaime half of the money if she keeps her mouth shut - but before she can indignantly refuse the offer, Dean and Jake, who have been eavesdropping on the conversation, decide they want in on that action. Dean pulls out his gun and orders Duke to accompany him to the ship and show him exactly where the money is stashed...then makes it clear that once they get the cash, he and Jake will be more than happy to sink the ship with Duke and Jaime on it. Bobby sees Jaime climb into a car with Dean, Jake, and Duke and looks sad 'cause he interprets this to mean she's now interested in Dean, which...gross. The four drive over to where the Handerson is docked, board the ship, and climb down a hatch to the lowest level, which is already flooded with a foot of water. Duke gives the exact location as to where he thinks the money is stashed, and Jake uses his blow-torch to open up the wall, causing more water to gush inside the compartment. Elsewhere on the ship, Bobby feeds Myrtle and commiserates to the kitty that he's pretty sure his new gal is sweet on Dean, who somehow fancies himself a ladies man. Myrtle suddenly senses something amiss on the ship and scampers off, urging Bobby to follow. She stands near a stairwell and urgently meows, "Jaime's in trouble!" just as a clanging noise can be heard from the depths below. Bobby tells Myrtle he's going to go check it out. Jake is able to recover the briefcase filled with cash, and he and Dean cackle at each other as they climb back up the stairs, leaving Duke and Jaime to drown. Bobby runs into Dean and Jake and asks them if they know where Jaime is, and Dean smirkingly says she's down below and could probably use his help. Bobby's like, "Can do!" and climbs into the hatch - and Dean locks the door behind him and races off with Jake and the cash. Jaime is dismayed to see that Bobby has somehow gotten mixed up in hers and Duke's plight, but is able to bionically break through the hatch door easily enough. She asks Bobby to help Duke climb up so she can pursue Dean and Jake. Dean and Jake smugly high-five each other about the easy score...and don't notice that Jaime is behind them, yanking a giant nautical rope in their direction. The rope trips them, causing them and the cash to fall overboard. Bobby and Duke run over...and when Duke sees Dean and Jake flailing about in the water amid the soaked money he calls them fools, but then sadly admits that he's the biggest fool of anyone after wasting decades of his life hanging around a grimy dock in the hopes that he could one day re-steal 250K from a dead man. No argument there, Duke. Jaime invites Bobby to attend Sam Goldman's very solemn burial at sea ceremony. At long last, Sam is honored with a military gun salute, and then Oscar is presented with the flag that had been draped over his brother's coffin. As Oscar stares pensively at the sea, Bobby tells Jaime it just dawned on him that the only reason she got the job at the shipyard was to help Oscar solve this decades old mystery. Jaime's like, "Well d'yuh", but assures him it doesn't change the fact that they're still friends. They chat about Duke, who apparently won't face any charges after the authorities agreed that he's been imprisoned enough by his own greed for the last thirty-six years. LOL. The criminal justice system in The Bionic Woman universe continues to be an intriguing puzzlement. Bobby says, "He's free now" ... and Jaime glances over at Oscar, who suddenly looks at peace now that the mystery surrounding the death of the brother no one knew he had has finally been resolved. She quietly replies, "Yeah, I guess he's finally free." Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The Bionic Woman homepage
Recapper: Isabel K. French
Your contributions help keep the site ad-free
|
|