The Bionic Woman (1976): Episode 8 Review

Re-emerging memories put Jaime on a journey of self-doubt in The Bionic Woman episode 8, as questions arise concerning the history of her family. 

Delivering all of this exposition, one of the suits continues to say that she can’t possibly be going to Ojai, not after all this time, before asking: “what happens if she tells the Sommers girl that she’s her mother?” Well, says the other suit, then we’d just have to kill ‘em both. 

We then join Jaime (Lindsay Wagner), who’s at this moment asleep. I don’t relive memories whilst sleeping, myself, but Jaime currently is, and we get to drop in all her cloudy recollections. I suppose it would be a bit disappointing if we just had to sit here, watching Jaime sleep, and miss out on all of these conveniently-occuring, mother-related memories. But then the telephone rings – why do characters often put the telephone by their beds? – and the person on the other end informs Jaime that her parents’ graves were, last night, vandalised. 

Jaime visits the graveyard, but the stones belonging to a James and an Ann Sommers, who died on the same day, seem to be in a good, not-vandalised condition. Jaime’s childhood dog, Puzzles, then suddenly appears, and someone sitting inside of a car, a short way off, who Jaime thinks might be her mother, drives away upon being spotted. 

Jaime heads home and tells Helen (Martha Scott) about all of this, which gets them into a bit of a tiff. Helen’s worried, and wants to call Oscar (Richard Anderson), knowing that Jaime’s had trouble like this before (see: The Six Million Dollar Man series 2 episode 20). But Jaime is adamant of what she saw, asking Helen that if she can’t trust her own senses, what does that make her? 

It ought to be a little upsetting, watching two characters we’ve never seen trade ill words be at odds with each other. But there’s me, the cheeky devil, sitting on the sofa, thinking: “now this is the good stuff”. Characters with different perspectives? Characters acting a little more like real people? Yes, please. For it goes a short way to disrupting the world they inhabit – this so-far perfect world, that always seems so free of consequence.

The Bionic Woman episode 8 then continues to be, for a little while, absolutely my sort of thing: hazy memories, chasing after possible hallucinations, a car that’s always driving away, and Jaime revisiting meaningful locations – her childhood home, the graveyard. I’m dead keen for some mystery that doesn’t pertain to an imminent criminal threat, or a scheming villain, and the first ten minutes or so of this one delivers an alternative that I was really into, via an atmosphere, and with some imagery, not felt (or seen) by myself during the seven episodes previous. 

But Helen calls Oscar anyway, and he soon turns up at Jaime’s, holding a dossier on her parents. Across the coffee table, Oscar then informs Jaime that her mother was a top-level United States secret agent. It’s pretty bad timing to drop that sort of bomb I’d say, Oscar, but he’s thinking is that if Jaime’s second life-saving operation did somehow erase this information from her mind (see: The Six Million Dollar Man series 3 episode 1), reminding her of it might dispel any mystery, and put her at ease. Safe to say – it doesn’t, and the paranoia only thickens. Is her mother alive, or is Jaime losing it? And if her mother has indeed resurfaced, has Jaime ever really known her? 

If these two characters didn’t then meet so soon, and if there wasn’t this other plot bubbling up, The Bionic Woman episode 8 would be near perfect. I’d be lining up hyperboles right now like the queue outside of Thorpe Park (in that they’d be long, and probably a bit boring). Because for me, that first mystery – are Jaime’s memories genuine, or is she experiencing a malfunction of the mind? – is so much more compelling than the second – is this woman Jaime’s mother, or is she a washed-up body double; a leftover from Cold War espionage? 

But even after that starting plotline is sidelined, episode 8 remains a standout. Not only because that atmosphere I previously tried to describe still peeks through (now utilised to emphasise this suddenly-appearing Cold War background), but because here is that drama, and that character focus, that first drew me to The Bionic Woman. There’s a moment where Jaime’s showing off, acting like a kid in front of this new person, bittersweet for we’re certain it won’t last. And the whole thing ends in a bit of a heartbreaker. It’s really an episode to make you feel something, if you can believe it. 

Unfortunately, the disappointment comes next. Knowing that The Bionic Woman can reach these sorts of heights, but opts for the tried and tested, episodic, “who’s to be the bad guy this week?” formula, is a real downer. For I don’t think I’ve ever seen something take a super-powered character and treat them quite like this episode does (or how Jaime Sommers’ first appearances did) – to take this kind of character and put them in a more grounded, human story. 

And I’m sure you can cite a whole plethora of X-Men comics, and movies like Thelma (2017) to debate with me. But what I’m trying to write is that I wish The Bionic Woman had more episodes like this: a ‘70s American drama about a woman who lives in Ojai, and just so happens to be made of the same stuff Steve Austin is. Because I think that would’ve only made the show all the more original, which perhaps would’ve then made its legacy all the stronger.

Episode 8 of The Bionic Woman is now available to watch on digital and on demand.