RINGER Recap: ‘What We Have Is Worth the Pain’

Hallelujah! After months of not having any clue as to what’s going on during RINGER, Tuesday’s episode finally gave us an idea of what Siobhan is up to.

Does it mean I like show or characters any better? Not really, but the show took a step it’s been needing to take for a long time, so … progress?

The hour begins with Henry telling Siobhan that Tyler is dead and the coveted flash drive is missing. We see a flashback to Andrew and Siobhan fighting about the Ponzi scheme. Andrew tells Siobhan that she’s dealing with matters she doesn’t understand and threatens to kill her. Ain’t love grand?

Siobhan recorded Andrew’s threat, which was the recording we saw her playing to Henry a few weeks ago. She tell Henry that she’s convinced Andrew and Olivia killed Tyler.

Speak of the devils, Andrew and Olivia determine the data on the flash drive is fake. They think it may be a decoy and try to figure out who would know more about it. They dismiss Malcolm (which makes me think they didn’t kill him), when Olivia suggests Siobhan. Andrew doesn’t think she knows anything, but Olivia points out that Siobhan has tried to make contact with Tyler on a few occasions. Olivia then warns Andrew that he better deal with Siobhan “severely.” So dumb.

Bridget calls Malcolm but can’t get in touch with him. She also can’t find the cellphone of the hit man, which she put in one of her boots. Andrew comes into the apartment, creepily asking her what she’s looking for. She says nothing, and he tells her that she’s way in over her head if she thought she and Tyler were going to turn him in. Bridget says they weren’t planning to turn Andrew in and insists she doesn’t have the flash drive.

She walks out of the apartment and gets into Solomon’s limo, where she tells him the phone is missing. She adds that it was her only insurance policy, so a now that it’s gone, a hit man could still come after her. I don’t really care about this – I honestly didn’t even remember the phone until my roommate thankfully did – but I was so glad to see Solomon. He’s the only smart one on RINGER, sadly.

In Rock Springs, Wyo., Victor sits outside of Bodaway’s strip club and watches as the murderer makes out with someone. I’m not even joking. Bodaway eventually goes over to Victor, and Victor says he’s just taking one last look at the strip club because with Malcolm’s testimony, Bodaway is going down.

Is Victor not the dumbest cop ever? First of all, Malcolm’s not even there yet. Secondly, Bodaway is known for killing witnesses – what makes Victor think this isn’t just going to motivate Bodaway to hurt Malcolm more? Maybe Victor wants Malcolm off of this show as much as I do?

Well, it turns out Victor’s bragging is all for naught because guess what? Malcolm doesn’t show up to meet Victor at the airport! Surprise, surprise.

Solomon and Bridget go looking for Malcolm to make sure he’s alive and all that. Luckily, Bridget remembers Malcolm’s stalking tendencies and how he put a GPS on their phones. They follow the GPS to a creepy, vacant warehouse. As Solomon goes down some creepy stairs to look for Malcolm (Seriously? He’s not worth it), some guy comes up behind Bridget and begins to choke her.

Solomon rushes back up the stairs and starts to incessantly beat up the guy, who turns out to be a random druggie looking for money. They leave the guy and keep looking for Malcolm as though that was no big deal, and they see a lot more drug users and homeless people living there. Did anyone else ask where all of these people came from? The warehouse was literally silent before that guy attacked Bridget.

They find Malcolm’s phone in the building, but Malcolm’s not there. They decide to go to Malcolm’s hotel to see what they can find. You’d think that would have been the first step on this journey, but oh well.

Victor is looking for Malcolm, too, and the detectives discover that Malcolm hasn’t used his ATM or credit card – meaning he’s “off the grid.” Do police really say this? It’s like how doctors never say, “STAT!” Victor finds out that Malcolm’s last place of employment was Martin&Charles, so he goes there to investigate.

Victor interviews Olivia and Andrew, but they don’t tell him much except they had to fire him after he was caught for accessing private files. They add that they haven’t seen him since he was fired, which is a lie because Andrew went to Malcolm’s hotel room before he disappeared. (Remember his creepy face? It was still funny!)

The detective then goes to Malcolm’s hotel and tries to get the security discs. The guy at the front desk says they’re missing and that a British guy had asked for them earlier that day, too. Uh oh – this doesn’t look good for Andrew.

It turns out Solomon and Bridget took the tapes when they stopped by Malcolm’s hotel. They watch them and discover Andrew was the last person (or so we think) to see Malcolm, leading them to believe Malcolm may be dead. It’s weird how Bridget doesn’t seem too terribly sad about this, especially since Malcolm is her closest friend. Oh well, she has Solomon now!

Solomon suggests “Siobhan” go to the police, but she says she can’t. Solomon asks if it’s because she’s Bridget, not Siobhan. Finally! Solomon was smart enough to think it was weird for Bridget to keep asking him about her past, and his suspicions were confirmed after she didn’t get car sick (and Siobhan would), he made a few phone calls and got her fingerprints. Solomon seriously puts Victor to shame. Bridget is initially worried that Solomon will reveal her identity, but he assures her he won’t because without “Siobhan,” he doesn’t get any money.

Anyway, Siobhan is back from Paris and unexpectedly shows up at Henry’s place. Henry finds out she slept with Tyler and wants her to leave until she tells him the truth about everything. She finally reveals that Bridget killed her son, so she set her up to die.

It turns out Siobhan had been ignoring Bridget’s letters until she hired a P.I. and learned that a hit man was following her. At that point, she made her plan and contacted Bridget. Bridget was reluctant to leave at first, so Siobhan paid a cop (Jimmy) to scare her into running. She then had Bridget take her place, hoping the hit man would kill her and she could have more time to figure out what Andrew was up to.

Henry reasonably asks why she didn’t go to the police, but Siobhan says that Andrew has too much money and too many lawyers for that to work. She adds that Bridget deserves to die, even saying her twin was responsible for Gemma’s death — Let’s be honest: no one deserves to die for that — to get Henry on her side. Siobhan says that all she wants is to be happy with Henry, and after all she’s been through, she deserves it.

Juliet meets up with Tessa, who is bruised but out of the hospital, at some café to … I’m not really sure. Catch up? Talk about that whole false rape accusation thing? Whatever it is, Juliet is super rude because she keeps getting distracted by an online conversation she’s having with some guy she met earlier that day. Juliet wants to show off her new man, so she shows Tessa a picture. It turns out to be the guy who beat her up, and they’re both reasonably freaked out.

Juliet goes to Catherine’s apartment to tell her mom they’re in danger and need to leave. Catherine reveals that she paid the guy to scare Tessa, not hurt her, so she only paid him half of what he was owed. Catherine adds that he must have gone after Juliet to get back at her, so they need to be careful. Juliet’s not happy, though, and storms off after saying that she wishes Siobhan were her mom.

In a weird twist, Siobhan goes to Andrew’s office, pretending to be Bridget. She accuses him of killing Tyler and says that she doesn’t like or love him anymore. She adds that he and Olivia are criminals who deserve to be in jail. When Siobhan returns to Henry’s place, she says that if Andrew doesn’t want to kill Bridget now, he never will. What a nice sister.

Olivia overhears Siobhan’s speech, so she plans to get out of town before Siobhan goes to the authorities. As she’s leaving, she calls someone on the phone, saying that there’s nothing this mysterious person can do to help her. Hmm, I have no idea who Olivia was talking to, but I’m thinking maybe it’s no one we’ve met before.

At the end of the episode, Bridget finally gets a text from Malcolm (What’s with all of the texting on this show? Are they trying to appeal to the young, “hip” audience?) that says he got a new phone, is in trouble and wants to meet at the loft.

Bridget and Solomon go to the loft, but Malcolm’s not there. However, Andrew is, telling Bridget that Juliet told him where she was. Instead of killing her, Andrew tells Bridget that he wouldn’t hurt her because he loves her and would do anything for her.

It turns out he wasn’t lying because a gunman comes out of nowhere and shoots at them.

Victor happens to be outside of the loft, investigating it after he found out Tyler, a Martin&Charles employ, was killed for having incriminating evidence about Andrew. He rushes in to find that the gunman has run off after Solomon shot back at him, and Andrew has been shot after jumping in front of a bullet aimed at Bridget. At least Solomon’s still alive!

Other observations:

• Juliet’s speech about how they need Siobhan was so dumb and cheesy. It felt as though the writers were just trying to give her something to do. Plus, she didn’t know the title of SAY ANYTHING… Idiot.
• Bodaway following Victor’s car was hilarious. It seems that no one can do an intimidating face on this show that won’t make me laugh.
• I’m not sure how I feel about Andrew being shot. I would’ve cared about two episodes or so ago, but I’m ambivalent now. His character has become too inconsistent (Is he evil? Sweet and loving?) that it’s annoying me. I don’t think he will die, but I’d give RINGER major brownie points if they had the nerve to kill him.
• Where is Malcolm? Do I really care?
• The big point of the night is that Siobhan really does seem to hate Bridget, and this scheme wasn’t to save her sister from Bodaway. I initially thought I would like the plot if it turned out this way, but I’m not so sure now. Will the show always be about Siobhan trying to get revenge? (If so, the writers really need to take pointers from REVENGE) That will get boring. Also, I’m not exactly sure who’s side I’m on. Siobhan obviously seems crazy, but it seems as though we are supposed to sympathize with her. Finally, are we now supposed to be against Bridget?

Did you enjoy this week’s episode? How do you feel about Siobhan? Let us know!