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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 264267" data-attributes="member: 23">On The Run (continued) The episode’s supporting cast is reliable as ever - if a bit thinner than I’d have liked. Rudy’s as solid as always. There’s no big moment for him, but that’s his strength. He grounds the series. Slightly confusingly, Chris is once again Jaime’s lover and there are even flashbacks to their time at a cabin. As I said, he’s fine, but I haven’t got past viewing him as a bargain basement Steve Austin. There’s no Callahan, but we do have a kind of callback with Sarah the slightly dopey doctor from The Antidote who, bizarrely, is covering for Callahan as receptionist. Obviously we can't have Steve, but the other most notable absences are Helen and Jim Elgin. It seems most untruthful that Jaime would flee without saying goodbye. Even one of them in a cameo would have made the episode just that bit more perfect. I did appreciate the little nods to the original story of The Bionic Woman from SMDM. Here she accidentally bursts a tennis ball she’s holding, just as she did in that first episode (I may be wrong, but I think these give a bookend with the symmetry between the first bionic thing she did then, and the last here). There’s also a Humpty Dumpty sequence as Jaime imagine’s herself falling from a wall while flashing back to the skydiving accident, which references Steve and Jaime reciting the rhyme while testing her bionic hearing. There’s even a nice slow-mo running sequence as iconic as those of early vintage. Considering the absence of her teaching work the last couple of seasons, it’s notable that Jaime’s two key turning points of the episode involve her relating to and connecting with children. She’s deeply affected when a girl she’s tasked to protect looks at her in fear and calls her a “robot lady”, bringing on Jaime’s doubts like a tidal wave. In the latter part of the episode, Jaime - now a lonely fugitive - has a conversation with a boy in a park as she sits on a bench. He views his father differently since an accident took his father’s sight and is struggling to connect with him. Coming from her own place of understanding, Jaime is able to convince the boy to treat his father the same as he did before the accident. As she talks, Jaime breaks into almost hysterical laughter and there’s a sense that she’s found her freedom. It’s at this point that the government agents catch up with her, and - rather than fight or flight - Jaime turns herself in with quiet dignity.Things end with a sense of resolution and compromise, with Jaime returning willingly to the O.S.I. on the condition that she is given time to have a life and teach so that her work with the O.S.I. can mean something. With this comes an implication that Jaime's strength of feeling in this matter has had a profound affect on others in the O.S.I. who have become machines of a different kind to Jaime. In the end what really makes the difference for Jaime and those around her is not her bionics but her humanity and soul. It may not be absolute closure, but it's enough of a key turning point for Jaime (and indeed, Oscar, Chris and high-ups at O.S.I.) to make this an essential and important episode in the history of the series. And not just because it's the final one. It’s a result for Jaime, of course. But it’s also good news for the audience, because the story has directly addressed many concerns about changes or criticism of changes in direction. It’s shone a light on those criticisms and ended with a sense of resolution and hope. It feels as though the journey we’ve taken has been honoured and acknowledged. Which makes it well worth the investment. </blockquote>

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