Wonder Woman (1975) episode 9 serves as a particular example of the show’s procedural, easy-watching, daytime-telly nature.
“Sometimes I wish I was like Wonder Woman.” – Etta Candy
Wonder Woman (1975) episode 9 (“The Last of the Two Dollar Bills”) begins with an enemy submarine being sunk somewhere off the east-American coast. The U.S. war department receives news of this whilst also finding out, from a spy they have stationed in Berlin, that a dangerous Nazi agent named Wotan (James Olson) is currently entering the country. Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner), clever bloke that he is, suspects there may be some unreported survivors of the sub-sinking, and that perhaps Wotan is one of them.
Steve and Diana Prince (Lynda Carter) accordingly head out on a mission to investigate the entire east coast of America. Luckily, the beach that the two first come across is the same which a dinghy of sunk-sub-surviving Nazis is at that moment about to land on, and (he really is good this Major Trevor) Wotan is there and all. Unfortunately, the dangerous Nazi agent manages to escape being captured on the beach, but it would be a very short episode if he didn’t.
Despite now seeming to be stranded in America, Wotan finds a handy off-screen method for frequently travelling back and forth between Berlin and Washington throughout Wonder Woman episode 9, and it’s during these moments back in Germany that his current plan is revealed. When in Washington, Wotan poses as a street photographer, taking snaps of people outside the Bureau of Printing and Engraving (where dollars are pressed). He sends these photos back to Nazi HQ, spies are selected that best resemble the people pictured, and two of them are then ultimately chosen to undergo surgery that will make them physically identical to some of the Americans photographed.
The idea here is that these spies will parachute into Canada, travel to Washington, commandeer the lives of the two Americans they now look like, settle into their new positions in and around the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, then steal the engraving plates used to print two dollar bills. They’ll take the plates back home, rustle up a whole load of fake notes, introduce them to U.S. circulation, and crash the American wartime economy.
Frankly, the whole concept of surgically duplicating people struck me as being a bit ‘body snatchers’, and makes the whole ‘being a Nazi spy’ even more ridiculous than it ordinarily is, especially when you consider that Wotan seems to be getting on just fine, and the only thing he’s done to alter his appearance is glue on some fake facial hair.
But, when this plot isn’t taking up all the airtime, Wonder Woman episode 9 also features a few short, but very welcome character moments for Wonder Woman (that may have been even more appreciated nearer the start of the show). For example: our protagonist almost blows her cover as Diana Prince when reading a book on American slang, and not knowing who Thomas Jefferson is, but embraces her foreignness when out-of-disguise to take advantage of an opportunity to learn how money is made (exciting!). And, more materially, Wonder Woman’s detachable skirt makes a fleeting return appearance (after not being seen since episode 1), and is paired with a neck-to-floor sized stars-and-stripes cape (which, before this episode, I had only seen on the series poster).
Also, I begrudgingly note that the stage direction for Lynda Carter to look longingly at Lyle Waggoner is dialled up a few notches in this episode too – which is enough to make any decent, pining lesbian feel a little nauseous.
Without these small snatches of focus on Diana Prince/Wonder Woman however, Wonder Woman episode 9 would otherwise be another run-of-the-mill fifty minutes that takes a little story from reality, a little from the comic books, and filters it down into a lightly cute, easily digestible, low-budget episode of daylight television.
Episode of Wonder Woman (1975) is now available to watch on digital and on demand.
