Ringer: If You Ever Want a French Lesson... (1.3)

This didn't have the most auspicious of openings, with Bridget using her own bizarre logic to assume that Andrew hired the hit on her, since he owns the same holiday-snap that the hitman had on his person. Was this another sign of 'Ringer: Contrivance is thy middle name?' Luckily I stuck around for longer than the opening couple of minutes, since If You Ever Want a French Lesson was undoubtedly the strongest episode so far. Gone were the annoying Hitchcock throwbacks and bland characterization, instead we got a doozy of awesomeness.

The one major success here is that Bridget finally became pro-active. While Sarah Michelle Gellar has become overly reliant on walking into every room looking confused, she managed to infuse Bridget with some form of backbone and spark. I loved that the writers allowed her not to cave to the cleaner guy's demands and picked up the cellphone from the park bench. I loved that she got herself some leverage in this situation, and seemed to prove that she wasn't going to take any more shit. I thought Bridget was the weak link in the previous two episodes, but they're already shaking things up and doing interesting work with her character, which is great.

This was the first script by a non-EP writer, and Hank Chilton has experience with trashy soap operas after his years on Nip/Tuck. Here's to hoping he'll steer the show in a positive direction, since he seems to have a handle on the tone. One of the most intriguing moments this week was during Bridget's trip to Siobhan's lawyer. It added another level of intrigue as Bridget discovered that Siobhan had implied abuse had occurred in her marriage, and once again we're left stumbling around trying to work out whether Andrew is a bad guy, or if Siobhan is a master manipulator. Or maybe both. Sarah did her finest work so far in that scene, too.

Elsewhere, I'm glad we saw Siobhan outside of her routine 'Paris coda sequence'. I'm guessing she's pursuing that guy for a reason? That final scene was pretty affecting, too. She's clearly in love with Henry, and that silent phone call implied that she's maybe stuck in something that reaches above her, as if she's not the one pulling all the strings.

Ringer is constantly balancing a dozen separate plot strands at once, and this episode was by far the most successful at that so far. I'm enjoying the characterization for our two twin protagonists, as well as Andrew and his mega-bitch business partner Olivia. After two flat episodes, this was a step in the right direction... B+

Credits
Guest stars Tara Summers (Gemma Butler); Justin Bruening (Tyler Barrett); Michelle Stafford (Peggy Lewis); Loren Lester (Aubrey Zimmerman); Zahn McClarnon (Bodaway Macawi); Noah Watts (Daniel Eknath); Jaime Murray (Olivia Charles)
Writer Hank Chilton Director Allan Arkush