New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 261636" data-attributes="member: 23">Deadly Ringer (Parts I and II) <img src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/705gOFa1ckw/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 772px" /> Firstly, a couple of immediate general thoughts about the series at this point:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The series is completely spoiling me with these multi-parters, meaning a longer story with room for exploration and the exciting “To be continued…” text that makes it feel more serialised and grown up. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">With the possible exception of Biofeedback (which is still pretty blooming great), the run of episodes from The Vega Influence to Deadly Ringer Part II is in my eyes the most consistently outstanding and has produced some gripping and compelling stuff. It seems to be getting better and better. </li> </ol>Deadly Ringer, in many ways, is a sequel not only to Season One’s Mirror Image, but also to the story which came an episode earlier: The Jailing Of Jaime. Once again, Jaime finds herself behind bars with officials who doubt her every word and, after an escape, a fugitive from justice. This two-parter takes the best ingredients from those two episodes and raises the stakes considerably. If you’d told me I needed to watch a sequel to a one-and-done story about Jaime’s evil double Lisa Galloway that spent a great deal of time exploring Lisa’s psyche I’d have been extremely sceptical. But it turns out it’s exactly what I needed. We start off with Jaime’s abduction, and here’s probably my only little nit-pick: Jaime is in her coachhouse doing embroidery, when two men pipe some kind of gas through the front door. They use a pipe about the width of a catheter, which somehow takes effect on Jaime in less than a minute. Then they just stroll in and pick her up, without using any kind of mask or even holding their breath. It’s a minor quibble, which I quickly forgave and forgot once the rest of the story got underway. Once Lisa is freed from prison, and Jaime put in the cell in her place, there’s a great bit of exposition about the stories we’ve missed. Some is verbal, as Lisa tells creepy old Matt Devlin how she’s been paving the way for the substitution by feigning mental illness and insisting that she is, in fact, Jaime Sommers to anyone who’ll listen. A really nice touch that reinforces how trapped Jaime really will be. But there’s also an exciting flashback to Matt’s discovery of adrenalizine, a “plastic compound” that simulates adrenaline and gives the person who chews it superhuman strength. And he escapes from prison using his temporary super strength.  It feels very much like watching a Marvel supervillain origin story. This taps into the secrecy of Jaime and Steve’s bionics. Because the O.S.I. are behind adrenalizine, Matt naturally deduces that this is the secret to the bionic duo’s strength. This thread is great, because it leaves Lisa somewhat in the dark about Jaime’s abilities and limitations, and so there’s a scene in which she’s being put through her paces by Rudy (having taken adrenalizine) and she goes to use her left hand for a strength test until Rudy corrects her, thinking she’s joking. There are also a couple of times when the word bionic is used in relation to her abilities and you can see the confusion on her face since the word means nothing to her. continued...</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?