Ringer, S1E1 — Pilot

Double Nickel Motel. Place looks reeeeal fancy, like the places Mulder and Scully would stay at while they were on a case. Machado parks his black government-issue sedan — rather poorly — in front of the motel, and he and Bridget get out. There’s a guy in plainclothes waiting out front for them. Bridget gives him her coffee. Apparently if I’d kept watching Lost instead of giving up on it sometime in the third season, I’d recognize this guy as Richard Alpert. His name on this show is Jimmy, though. You can see Jimmy’s badge clipped onto his belt when he stands up and thanks Bridget for the coffee.

Machado tells Bridget that he’ll pick her up at 7:30 the next morning. Bridget pouts and says, “We’re not having a sleepover?” The line and her mannerisms in delivering it are so Buffy that I’m once again distracted. Machado smiles a little and tells her if she needs anything… “I know, Jimmy’s got my back,” Bridget finishes. She smiles, but it doesn’t look very genuine.

Machado encourages her that all she has to do is get up on the stand and tell the judge what she saw — as a witness to the crime, she has done nothing wrong. “It’ll be over before you know it.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Bridget replies grimly, perhaps picturing a quick death at the hands of whoever she’s testifying against. Machado assures her she’ll be protected, but as the music gets dramatic, Bridget says, “You don’t get it.” Sigh. Well, at least she didn’t totally go for that giant movie/TV cliché line, “You just don’t get it, do you?” She says that if “Bodaway” wants her dead, no one can protect her. Okay, two things: one, that’s a heck of a name for the bad guy. I had to look it up on IMDb to make sure I got it right. Two, I must remind myself, just because Buffy could totally protect herself from any mobster doesn’t mean I should yell that at my TV screen, since it’s not relevant for this show. Ahem. Oh, a third thing: if this guy is as badass and dangerous as he’s supposed to be, why is Bridget being guarded by one single police officer outside her motel room?

Even SMG can't find something decent at on TV these days.

Later on that night, Bridget is channel-surfing. She doesn’t want to hear the news reports about tomorrow’s trial, but there’s nothing much else on. We learn that Bodaway Macawi (seriously, what a name!) is being indicted for the dismemberment killing of a stripper named Shaylene Briggs. Then Bridget turns off the TV and paces over to the window, where we see that Jimmy is standing in the middle of the parking lot outside her window with a severed hand in his pocket — oh, whoops, sorry, the lighting was bad, it’s just his hip holster with a gun in it. I swear my Buffy expectations are making this weird. And why the heck is her guard standing in the parking lot? Isn’t that kind of conspicuous?

Anyway. Next morning. Machado drives up and sees that Jimmy’s chair has been knocked over and that the door to the motel is open. He immediately gets out his gun and calls for both Jimmy and Bridget. No answer. Inside, we see that Jimmy is handcuffed to the towel bar in the bathroom, with a bloody bruise on his forehead and duct tape on his mouth. He looks less than happy with these circumstances, so we can assume there was nothing voluntary about it. When Machado takes off the tape, Jimmy spits, “The crazy bitch took my gun!” One wonders how Bridget managed to overpower this guy and steal his gun, but perhaps we shall find out in the future.