Bionic Woman: The List

Bionic Woman continues to struggle to find its footing, with a fairly fun episode that suffers from some rather glaring inconsistencies and continuity problems. While Jaime and Tom have some great chemistry together, complete with snappy dialogue and some nicely orchestrated action scenes, the show seems to be uncertain what to do with the other characters.

After the last episode with Jaime in college and not seeing, talking to or worrying about Becca the entire time, with "The List" Becca's back in the story (while Pope is now oddly absent). Jaime set it up so that Becca would call Jonas in case of an emergency this time (whereas last week she just left her sister alone without anyones support and hoped she didn't call and hear her British accent?). While it's a nice twist that Jonas bailed Becca out this episode and didn't tell Jaime about it, it would be better if the show was consistent in its portrayal of Becca and Jaime's relationship.

Nathan talking to Jaime is another element that seems to be portrayed inconsistently. In this episode, he was able to quickly tell her -- somehow -- that the black wire is the one to cut to disable the bomb on Tom's waist. But last episode they were only able to talk on the phone, as Jaime bionic-jumped from roof to roof, and Nathan actually complained that she didn't have a Bluetooth headset. If they've set up some way for Nathan to get messages to Jaime without talking to her, that's great, but it'd be nice if the audience could see that, instead of Nathan just talking and Jaime magically hearing him.

The sequence in Paris at the end seemed to be a complete failing in continuity, as the team packs up and Jonas is there. Wait -- wasn't Jonas in San Francisco, bailing out Becca and driving her home just about an hour ago? Jaime called him, saying they need $8 million in less than an hour to get the list and, right after he hung up, he picked up Becca. So after he had a chat with her on the ride home, he then flew out to Paris? So at least 12 hours later (providing time for Jonas to fly out there), Jaime, Ruth and Nathan are just finally leaving the abandoned warehouse in Paris with Jonas already there and Tom just arriving (and saying, "You saved my life today"). It doesn't make any sense, and feels like sloppy writing, where they wanted a scene with Jonas and Jaime but forgot they would need to do it over the phone.

Overall, though, the fun, well-written parts of the episode outweigh the poorly conceived, inconsistent moments. Nathan is a decent comic relief, Jaime seems to be becoming more confident and capable in her bionic skills, and the Berkut Group is effectively being set up as a super-secret organization that can get things done when the CIA or anyone else isn't able to. The inconsistencies and discrepancies in the series so far can likely be attributed to all the behind-the scenes turmoil, rotating out writers, producers and showrunners. The potential is still there for this to be a very cool show if the same person or people keep running it for more than an episode or two at a time.