Face Off wasn’t as good as Sisterhood, but it had enough to keep me entertained. I did, however, find the episode to be disjointed and at times I failed to believe aspects of the storyline.

This week, I’ve broken my views down in to what I felt worked and didn’t work:

What worked:

-Jaime’s reaction to Becca ‘making out’ - This was actually a believable scene and it allowed us to see Jaime using her bionic installations for personal use - much to the displeasure of Jonas.

-Jaime and Nathan. I’m fast becoming a Nathan fan! I like his quips and the way he and Jaime interact. He SO wants her, but it does cross my mind as to whether he likes ‘Jaime’ or the technology that is inside of her. After all, he is a tech-freak.

-Sarah being carted away, ala Hannibal Lecter, as she makes small talk with Jaime as if she didn’t threaten to kill Becca the week earlier (or whatever the timescale currently is in this show). Funny stuff!

-Finding out about Jaime’s “5 year” bionic lifespan was a good device. Kinda knew it was coming seeing as we found out about Sarah’s the week before, but it was a good move. Just a shame we didn’t focus more on this potentially interesting theme.

-Fight scene between Jaime and Antonio (although I would like to know how Antonio escaped from ‘bad guy hideout’ in the first place..)

-The idea that Will Anthros was working outside of the Burket Group. As Jonas said: “I don’t think we knew Will as well as he thought”. Basically, Will is getting more and more interesting since his ‘death’! Was he selling bionics to the highest bidder, just like his father before him?

What Didn’t Work:

-Sarah’s escape. Fair enough they explained the ease of her capture by her admitting to Jae that she ‘wanted’ to get caught, but her escape was far to ‘easy’ and rather disappointing.

-Sarah and Burket interrogation. Apart from the line where Sarah admits to Ruth that’s she’s “crazy” and where she references “Mr. Ed”, I found the interaction between Burket (Jonas, Ruth, Jae) and Sarah, unbelievable. It needed more tension and better dialogue. A missed opportunity for some real character development methinks!

-Jaime’s decision making. OK, she saved the CIA guy, but why did she give him the flash file? Would she REALLY trust him enough to do that? Maybe I’m being picky, but that just made no sense…she previously didn’t strike me as stupid.

-Fan bending. I know what they were trying to do here (i.e. give Jaime something ‘cool’ to do), but what was the purpose of that fan other than to give Jaime something ‘cool’ to do, lol!? Also, would the fan really continue to work afterwards, and stop every single bullet that the bad guys fired? Perhaps it’s a super fan..

-The scene were she did her bionic leaps as the bad guys fired bullets at her was cool (it certainly looked cool in the trailers), but wasn’t it a bit convenient that she just happened to get shot and land in the exact spot where she would have ended up had she followed Mr. CIA man (which would’ve been the logical thing to do anyway!)?

-So Will, who works for a top secret agency, leaves all of his data on Jaime’s bionics on one flash file? Maybe limiting the data to one source is not such a bad idea, but the whole plot device about the CIA man getting caught just seemed so random!

All in all this was quite a mixed bag, however something kept me interested. Whether it’s the promise of things to come, the hope that Mark Sheppard might grace the episode with his presence or the faith that they will finally start driving home the powerful themes..whatever it was, I still enjoyed it enough to watch the episode in full. However it has to get better than this, I’m used to quality shows and demand that ‘BW’ doesn’t waste this opportunity to give us themes which no other show currently can. Come on guys, don’t waste this chance!

Best character: Antonio Pope - not great in this episode but he gives us that ‘curveball’ intensity and makes me laugh when he ‘tries’ to face off again Jaime..like duh, she’s bionic, dude! He must like getting kicked through walls!

Best Actor: Michelle Ryan (OK, Jaime was dumb in this episode, but I thought Michelle gave the best performance. Wasn’t feeling Katee this time, perhaps it’s down to her script?).

Best moment: The Antonio/Jaime fight (Incidentally is THIS why it was called ‘Face Off’? I can’t think of any other reason…except maybe for the capture of Sarah. But that was hardly a face off..more a passing glance!). Anyway, the fight sequence still rocked!

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Best Quote:

Ruth: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”

Sarah: “..If Mr. Ed wont drink, you grab him by the mane and hold him under…he’ll swallow”

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Worst Quote

Jonas (to Jae) “You want to help her..help her help herself”.

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Main Episode Theme: Trust, trust and trust..did I say TRUST?

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Overall Episode Rating: 7/10

*Coming soon: “Face Off” Episode Investigations

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