The Bionic Woman (1976): Episode 3 Review

The Bionic Woman episode 3 sees Jaime heading into a warzone disguised as a nurse, at the behest of the OSI, to rescue a U.S. ambassador.

Well, she seems to manage. Besides, Oscar (Richard Anderson) has finally decided that Jaime is totally an OSI agent now, and he’s got an assignment for her. See, there’s a civil war going on down there in the South Americas, and a U.S. ambassador has gotten himself and his wife stuck under some rubble whilst trying to escape. The mission is to go get them, and bring ‘em home. Easy peasy. 

So, disguised as a nurse, via plane, air base, then a helicopter, Jaime arrives in the deep interior of an American jungle – which is likely more just a valley somewhere in California, but that’s okay. 

Actually, in truth, she and a bloke called Starkey (Andy Griffith), who’s there to, kind of, escort Jaime, are shot down in their helicopter by some local fighters, so… not as easy as I made it sound; my bad. 

What ensues from their crash landing, then, is a bit of a race. Jaime and Starkey need to find the ambassador before they themselves are found by the pursuing fighters. All the while, Jaime’s trying to hide her bionic powers from Starkey, whilst also frequently using those same powers to keep them moving along: incident 1) Jamie rips a door from the downed helicopter in order to free an unconscious Starkey; incident 2) Jamie lifts the unconscious Starkey away from the wreckage; incident 3) Jamie one-handedly strangles a snake to death after it hisses (menacingly, I suppose) from a branch above an unsuspecting Starkey; and incident 4) Jamie uses a single foot to move a fallen tree trunk that Starkey’s having much trouble to lift… You get the idea. 

Big picture, the questions are thus: will the pair get to the ambassador in time? Will Jaime be able to free him and his wife from the rubble? Will there be a vehicle for the group to escape in? Will Jaime’s bionic powers be exposed? And does it all work out in the end? I’ll allow you one good guess per each. 

Now, if there was a generalisation to be made about episodes that fill you in on what a whole telly show is about, it might be this: the third episodes will do it. Think about it. The intro’s now over, but the formula isn’t established well enough yet to have fun with. 

So, what The Bionic Woman episode 3 is, perhaps, is the blueprint. Jaime gets called away on a weekend mission, her assigned task is time-sensitive, and she’s expected to withstand some misogyny whilst concealing her superhumanity. But, all ends well, of course. The misogynists reluctantly come around on Jaime after being inevitably saved by that superhumanity that she was attempting to conceal (which, although framed as being the moral of the story, bodes ill for women who don’t have bionic limbs), and the possibility of these witnesses ever going on to yap about the OSI’s miracles is conveniently not addressed. 

I remain hopeful that there’ll be more to The Bionic Woman, but I’m also fairly convinced that there’s to be more episodes just like this one. I am, however, certainly no expert, being only three episodes in, and, if there was ever anything I was going to be wrong about (which is, obviously, rare), the episode-by-episode structure of one ‘70s American telly show is definitely up there for me. Better that than, you know, anything serious. 

Episode 3 of The Bionic Woman is now available to watch on digital and on demand.

The Bionic Woman (1976): Episode 4 Review – Loud And Clear Reviews

There’s no mission for Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman episode 4, but trouble nearer home, involving the school bus driver, keeps her busy.

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