Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT A Very Buffy Birthday
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.05.2011
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Bridget wants to get away to the Hamptons, alone, to grab her duffel out of the bus station locker and get rid of the evidence of her identity -- like she should have done weeks ago. Andrew, who has flaked out on Shiv on birthdays past, insists on going (to the Hamptons, not the bus station) with her. He even invites Gemma and Henry as a surprise. Henry takes this to mean the affair is back on. It so is not.
What is back on? Agent Machado's investigation. The cops in the Hamptons have been monitoring the bus station security cameras. When they see "Siobhan" retrieve Bridget's bag, they let him know. The Coast Guard is on the case, too. They've found their recording of Bridget's distress call from the day Siobhan disappeared, and turned it over to the FBI. It's hardly comforting that they found the recording weeks later though, huh?
With these new leads bucking up his investigation, Machado, too, retreats to the Hamptons and turns up the heat. He finds Gemma alone, when she is out shopping, and questions her. Gemma didn't even know Shiv had a sister, so she's confused. She's also a little hurt that this friend with whom she has shared so much (even more than she knows -- yeah, I'm looking at you, Henry) never told her that she had a twin. When Gemma confronts "Shiv," Bridget apologizes, explains that the sisters had a falling out years ago, and that they were no longer in each other's lives.
Machado isn't the only one turning up the heat. Andrew throws Bridget a birthday celebration so extravagant, that it surpasses anything Bridget and Shiv could have dreamed of when they were little girls. We get flashbacks to one of their childhood birthdays. Their mom tossed them a little cash, and told them to go get themselves something. They settled on a necklace -- just one -- and shared it. One sister would wear it for a year, and pass it back to the other sister on their next birthday. That all came to an end when they were adults and Shiv got tired of Bridget's dysfunctions, met Andrew and decided to move east.
While Bridget is trying to come to terms with her growing feelings for Andrew and her "loss" of Shiv, Henry makes a heartfelt appeal to "Shiv" to resume their affair. Gemma overhears the whole thing, and tries to zombie her way through the birthday dinner on the beach, but she just can't, and flees the party in tears. When Bridget goes back to the house to find Gemma, she's confronted by Agent Machado and the Coast Guard tape. She admits she met up with "Bridget" and bluffs her way out of the situation. Bridget then tells Machado to leave, and he does, but when she stomps off to find Gemma, he picks up her cell phone and sees she's made calls to Malcolm (who is probably still off in a purple haze somewhere). Dun dun dun.
Meanwhile, in Paris, Siobhan is out of funds and almost kicked out of her hotel, but Tyler rides to the rescue. You can take that both ways. Shiv is really interested in his brief...case. She's looking for information on Andrew's company and since Bridget drained her emergency account, she's more than happy to be a kept woman for the time being, especially since the guy keeping her has the goods she wants. You can take that both ways, too.
Back in the Hamptons: When Bridget finds Gemma, Gemma bitch slaps her, says she's onto the affair between her and Henry, and is going to Andrew. Not knowing what else to do, Bridget comes clean to Gemma. "I'm not who you think I am. I'm not Siobhan. I'm Bridget." Grrr argh.
The soap really bubbles up in this episode. I did not expect Bridget to admit her identity swap to anyone this quickly. From the looks of the previews for next week, it looks like Bridget's admission to Gemma isn't going to guarantee that Gemma will remain silent. Is it next Tuesday yet?
I'll be back with the full weecap, tomorrow. In the meantime, please grade the episode at the top of the page and then join us in the show thread. We have cake and presents!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Welcome back, my fellow soap aficionados. Remember last week, when I said this: "In guilty pleasure TV, a thing happens. You then jeer or cheer it, grab another handful of popcorn [...] and wait for the next thing to happen. When something happens that you were totally sure was going to happen, you get to crow, 'I KNEW IT.' And when you're surprised, you shout, 'OMG, I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING!'" Well, this week, we open with exactly one of those scenes. Bridget returns from shopping. Andrew immediately confronts her about being Bridget rather than Siobhan, noting, "They found your bag in the bus station...." I shout out, "Dream sequence!" My husband and two oldest kids, who have clocked much less time soaking in the suds, give me the hairy eyeball, until the dream is revealed and I am vindicated. I refrain from crowing, 'I KNEW IT," not because I ever mind my own redundancies, but rather, because I like to space them out.
Bridget wakes from her dream with a start, right after Andrew introduces her to dripping wet walking dead Zombie!Shiv. Still shaking from her nightmare, Bridget tells Andrew she wants to get out of the city and go to the Hamptons for a weekend. Andrew reminds her it's her birthday. My friend, Theresa, who wasn't home Tuesday night, sends me a message: "I drove through ... so I missed Buffy's birthday. Did she sleep with anyone and did they then turn evil?" I don't want to spoil her, so I don't explain that it seems that in the Ringer 'verse, evil is a sexually transmitted disease one risks contracting when sleeping with Shiv. Meanwhile, back on the show, Andrew mumbles about making up for last year. Since they're trying to make a fresh start, he'll cut out of work early. They can go together and celebrate on the beach. Bridget needs to get into the locker that just featured so prominently in her dream (oh hi there, "Prophecy Girl") so she says she'll just take the jitney and that way he won't have to rush. Andrew laughs at the very idea of the pampered Shiv taking public transportation and says he'll have their car service run her out.