RINGER Recap: ‘If You Ever Want a French Lesson…’

Last week, I was almost ready to give up on RINGER. Many of you disagreed with me, but I thought the characters were frustrating, the pacing was slow, and the storylines were more than over-the-top.

Well, while the storylines haven’t changed that much, I found myself enjoying this week’s episode so much more. I was actually surprised when the episode finished…and was wanting more.

But I’ll have to do with going over the details of last night’s episode, so let’s get started, shall we?

First of all, we learn that Juliet has gone to Miami to be with her mother. I kind of hate the spoiled yet misunderstood stepdaughter plot, so I’m not too sad to see her go. But she probably won’t be gone for too long (the CW has to have one sexed-up teen per show, right?), but I can deal with it as long as she brings Jason Dohring back with her.

Bridget calls Malcolm, who apparently lives in that creepy parking deck at the community college. He stays down there for a pretty long time as he’s talking to her (how does he get such good service down there?), so, of course, nothing good is going to come of this.

Bridget has the mystery phone from the hitman and is trying to figure out more about it. She drops the phone, and as she goes to pick it up, she notices a picture of Siobhan and Andrew on a shelf. She realizes that it is the same picture the hitman had with him to identify Siobhan, so Bridget comes to the conclusion that Andrew must have set up the hit. Malcolm, being the voice of reason, says that she needs to get proof and find a connection between the phone and Andrew.

As Malcolm hangs up and finally makes his way out of the parking deck, he gets knocked out by someone. When he wakes up, he’s in the back room of a strip club (I’m guessing the one Bridget used to work at), and we see Macawi, the murderer who is after Bridget.

As for Victor, he’s still in NYC trying to find Bridget (he has to be the worst FBI agent ever). His underling from last week tells Victor he can’t get a warrant to the loft, which doesn’t make Victor very happy. Victor thinks Siobhan is harboring Bridget, and he says he’s not going to leave until she leads him to Bridget.

Siobhan’s still in Paris, and for the first time, we actually see her before the last minute of the episode. She’s at a bar, where she meets a really cute guy named Tyler Berry. She introduces herself as Cora Farrell, and the two go back to her hotel room for some fun and games.

Bridget goes to this creepy building where Andrew tells her he has a surprise for her, and when she can’t get in, she notices a shadowy man approaching her and a car blocking her from the other direction. Luckily, Gemma opens the door to let Bridget in, and it turns out that this is not a hit but a gift: Bridget gets to choose a dress from a fashion line to wear to “Swan Lake” that evening (even though Andrew hates the ballet)!

As the girls are having fun, the men meet to discuss business. Henry is pulling his investment from Andrew’s company, claiming that his editors are not progressing with his book, so he is going to publish it himself. Andrew’s not thrilled with this, but being the nice guy he is, he agrees to it.

Now back to the fun stuff. Gemma and Bridget are talking about their husbands (what else would they talk about?) Gemma tells Bridget to appreciate what Andrew is doing for her and to stop questioning him like she always does. Bridget picks up on this and asks if she questions Andrew a lot, to which Gemma says yes and that Siobhan and Andrew used to fight a lot.

As Bridget, Gemma and the designer head out to lunch, the mystery phone rings. The caller asks for Siobhan and tells Bridget (who he thinks is Siobhan) that she dropped her scarf. She did (gasp!), which means he’s watching her. He says she has something of his and that she needs to put the phone on the bench and walk away. Of course, she doesn’t do this.

Back at Andrew’s office, Olivia tells Andrew that while he may be fine with Henry withdrawing his investment, she’s not. Apparently, Gemma’s dad is a millionaire, and that investment was their connection to getting money out of Gemma’s old man. Andrew said he tried getting money from Gemma’s dad before and “it was a disaster.” Olivia mischievously says that she will take care of it.

In another twist, Bridget finds the business card for a divorce lawyer in Siobhan’s purse. Bridget does some investigating and goes to the lawyer’s office. The lawyer tells Bridget that the last time she (Siobhan) was there, she was upset and wanted to alter her prenup. He mentions that Siobhan and Andrew had been fighting (and it hadn’t gotten physical — yet), and Siobhan seemed scared of Andrew.

He also reveals that Andrew had another property he was trying to hide from Siobhan so as to cheat her out of its worth. But before Bridget can get to this property, she runs into Andrew at their apartment. He found out that she went to the divorce lawyer and tells her that she can go to “Swan Lake” with Gemma.

At the strip club, Macawi is playing back a message Bridget left for Malcolm. It’s the message where she tells him she’s ready to leave with him, but Malcolm insists that he doesn’t know what she’s talking about or where she is. He adds that Macawi should just let her go, since her running away has led to Macawi’s freedom, but Macawi says he doesn’t like loose ends. Along with Malcolm’s phone, Macawi finds his sobriety chip. To get Malcolm to talk, Macawi injects him with something and eerily says, “Enjoy your trip.” Poor Malcolm!

At Andrew and Olivia’s office, Olivia has lured Gemma there under false pretenses. Olivia happens to mention that Henry has pulled the investment. Since Gemma and Henry’s marriage isn’t exactly peachy, Gemma didn’t know about this. It seems that Gemma controls the purse strings, so she refuses to pull the investment. Henry later confronts Andrew and is not too happy about the situation. Not only has his lover turned his back on him (along with his child), but he has no control over the money. Guy’s having a bad week.

Bridget decides that since someone is after Siobhan and she’s getting creepy phone messages, the best place to go is the abandoned building Andrew is hiding from her. Bridget finds out that, as Andrew told her earlier when he found her snooping through his file on the building, the building is worthless and has had an asbestos problem. Before she can get too relieved that Andrew wasn’t lying, though, the creepy guy from Bridget’s party shows up and says that he wants the phone. Bridget is able to run away, even though she’s not able to find out who the guy works for.

Bridget then calls Victor and asks to meet with him. When they meet, she’s not exactly chatty, which frustrates Victor. He tells her that he knows Siobhan withdrew money from the bank, is having an affair and has missed some dance lessons (which she never does, apparently). Seriously, Victor? Just stop and think for a minute, and you’ll figure it out.

Bridget walks away from him and receives a phone call on the mystery phone from the creepy guy. He tells her that she has no idea who or what she’s dealing with, but she tells him that she can go to the FBI at any moment with the phone, so she’s got some insurance. Side note: Does this phone have the best battery life or what?

While picking up Gemma for the ballet, Bridget notices the picture of Siobhan and Andrew at Gemma’s place. It turns out that the picture was their holiday card, so anyone could have sent it to the hitman. Bridget flakes out on Gemma and shows up at Andrew’s office. She explains that she had thought about getting a divorce when they were fighting, but since things had been better between them, she went back to the lawyer to call it off. She adds that she’s going to trust him from now on, and in a really sweet moment, she says that his gift was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her. Andrew forgives her and asks if they can be completely honest with each other from now on. Since Bridget can’t come out and say, “Okay, I’m Bridget and Siobhan’s dead,” this promise doesn’t exactly start off on the right foot. Oh well! They’re cute together, but, seriously, is he ever going to make a move on her? They are married, after all. Siobhan must have really emasculated him somehow in order to make him so afraid of even touching her.

Speaking of Siobhan, she and Tyler are making out when she begins to feels nauseous. She kicks him out, and after taking a pregnancy test, she finds out she’s pregnant. She calls Henry (who we now know is probably the father), but she doesn’t say anything.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for next week. I think we can assume that Siobhan has not hired someone to kill Bridget since the creepy guy calls Bridget “Siobhan.” I also don’t think it’s Andrew. Could it be Olivia? Gemma’s mysterious dad (he apparently has the money to hire a hitman)? Elevator lady? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

What did you think of RINGER? Are you just as excited for next week as I am?