Title / Air Date: Do Not Disturb/ 28th November 2007
Writer: Jason Smilovic
Director: Gwyneth Horder-Payton

Summary:— After the death of a close friend Jonas suggests Jaime takes a vacation. She and Becca go to a health spa, but a relaxing weekend turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a hired killer.

Guest stars:
Michael Brock: Nick
Brent O'Connor: Valet Parker/Matt
Ben Cotton: Javier
Julia Keilty: Hotel Desk Lady
Jonathan Kralt: Dreadlock Dude
Juno Ruddell: Spa Therapist
Sherry Klassen: Gift Shop Clerk
Justin Sain: Bodyguard #1
Brian Markinson: Vincent Aldridge
Gerald Paetz: Bodyguard #3

Re-occurring characters/plot points: Nathan reveals he is bullied by his older brother and sports a black-eye to prove it. He asks Jae to teach him some self-defense moves.

Best line of dialogue.....

Misc facts: This was the last episode filmed prior to the start of the Writer's Strike at the start of November

Reviews:
Bionic Woman: "Do Not Disturb" by Eric Goldman @ IGN.com

US, November 29, 2007 - With the writers strike causing production to shut down, this might have been the last Bionic Woman ever. Unfortunately, the apathy both myself and many others feel over that is a testament to the fact that this show just never found its footing. We've never been given a strong definition of who Jaime Sommers is, what motivates her, or a strong idea of what her relationships were like with those around her.

Those problems were right on the surface as this episode began, as Jaime and her fellow Berkut members mourned the loss of Antonio Pope. We were told more than once that Pope was a friend to Jaime, but the last episode's clumsy attempts hardly did the job needed to convince us of that. I would have loved to see Jaime have a flashback set to "Time of Your Life" showing all the good times she and Pope had… you know, like when he attacked her out of nowhere to help her "unleash the animal", or when she disobeyed and fought him in the midst of a mission? At least we had a genuinely funny moment in the midst of this unearned heartache, as Ruth blurted out "I slept with him once. It was amazing," as everyone reminisced about Pope.

In fact, the rest of this episode ended up as one of the better and most entertaining ones the series has delivered. There was perhaps a bit too convoluted of a set up, with Jaime and Becca going to a spa resort where Jaime made a drop off to an operative of Jonas'. That operative turned out to be a drug addict who overdosed and died before completing his mission, which was to assassinate a dangerous man staying at the same resort. Wouldn't you know it but the target, Vincent, was the same person who's teenage son Nick was flirting with Becca. This actually ended up as a rather clever little situation, as Jaime and Vincent served as chaperones to the kids, with Jaime having to process what she knew about the man, who was selling nuclear technology to the North Koreans.

This episode was written by one of the show's executive producer Jason Smilovic, whose previous series, including Karen Sisco and Kidnapped, were much more refined out of the gate than this one, and notably didn't have nearly as much turbulence behind the scenes. Smilovic seemed to be having fun with the majority of this episode, and there were enjoyable bits throughout. This included Jaime effortlessly (and as efficiently as possible) taking out a group of thugs blocking her way in a restaurant, and some other good bionic-powered moments, such as her punching a man off a motorcycle coming at her.

It was also a strong episode for Jonas, as Miguel Ferrer was given (and of course nailed) some amusing dialogue, including his character freaking out the geeky Nathan by deadpanning that he wanted him on a mission to help take out the bad guy, only to assure him he was just kidding. And when Jonas walked up to the seemingly friendly valet and shot him, then briskly turned around, explained he knew the man wasn't who he claimed to be and walked off, it was pretty damn bad ass. Oh, and it was pretty funny having the drug addict/assassin have to recite the entire opening narration to The A-Team to prove who he was to Jaime. Perhaps that was Jonas' idea?

As with a couple of other episodes of Bionic Woman you could see glimmers of where this show could work here, if it had better cohesion and less confusion from the get go. But it really hasn't had a chance, given its revolving door of producers. Maybe the latest showrunner Jason Cahill (a former Sopranos writer producer) could have done something with it given time, but the writers strike is stopping us from finding out.

Remember when Sarah Corvus was collaborating with Anthros, the creator of the bionic technology? Remember all the information Jaime was gaining that her late fiance had been a bad guy? Remember how Jaime discovered she only had five years to live? There's been no follow up to any of that, and certainly no emotional weight to it. Jaime hardly acts like someone who has found out she's got a time limit on her life, that's for sure.

You could feel the constant changing hands behind the scenes on this series from the get go, because there was such a lack of clarity. Michelle Ryan has taken a lot of flack for her sometimes shaky performance, but given how undefined her character has been this entire time, I hardly blame her. And if the episode "The Education of Jaime Sommers" proved anything, it was that seriously, she should have been allowed to use her real British accent.

Right now, Bionic Woman's future is very uncertain. It hasn't been outright cancelled, but NBC hasn't ordered a full season for the show either, while they have for Chuck and Life. The ratings have fallen dramatically since the premiere and if the strike ended tomorrow, the network would have to think long and hard on whether it was worth putting more money and time into a series that needs a ton of work to become something worth the audience's investment.

I'm doubtful they'll decide to continue on. If they do, I'll continue to check out where the show goes out of curiosity on whether Cahill and Smilovic could finally get it in the right direction. But if it doesn't come back, I won't be mourning Bionic Woman either, because after eight episodes, it has yet to earn that sort of involvement.

FAN REVIEW

With Jaime clearly upset by Pope's death Jonas arranges for her and Becca to have a short weekend break at a heath spa but company business soon gets in the way.

And so the first - and possibly only - series of Bionic Woman comes to a premature end, not with a bang but with a whimper. Do Not Disturb is by no means a bad episode but it is lightweight stuff and a touch predictable in places (Becca falling for the bad guy's son is straight out of the cliché textbook)

What saves the episode is the light playful rapport between Michelle Ryan and Lucy Kate Hale, working together much better here than ever before. The angsty chip-on-her-shoulder Becca never really worked for me, and what we see here is far more believable - the girls love for and trust in her elder sister is evident throughout the episode.

Jonas also seems to have softened over the past few weeks, but it is to Miguel Ferrer's credit that no matter how much of the character's humanity we see he still remains an austere authority figure when the situation demands. There's obviously something about the Sommers girls that reminds Jonas of what he lost/ gave up for the Berkert Corporation and, should the series somehow survive, I would hope to see that side of the character explored more fully.

The other supporting character's fare less well in this episode, Molly Price relegated to just one (albeit funny) cameo at Antonio's wake. There's also a potentially interesting sub-plot with Nathan that is cut prematurely short.

Finally it's nice to see that the producers have begun to address some of the more obvious mistakes of earlier episodes, not least the problem of how Jaime communicates with Nathan while out in the field.

3.5/5