Jaime Sommers
From The Bionic Wiki
| Played by Lindsay Wagner | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Jaime Sommers | ||
| Job/Title | tennis pro school teacher OSI agent PhD (Psychology) | |
| Family | James Sommers, father Ann Sommers, mother Helen Elgin, legal guardian/mother-in-law Jim Elgin, legal guardian/father-in-law Steve Austin, husband | |
| Appearances | ||
| SMDM | "The Bionic Woman" "The Bionic Woman (Part II)" "The Return of the Bionic Woman" "The Return of the Bionic Woman (Part II)" "Welcome Home, Jaime" "The Secret of Bigfoot" "Love Song for Tanya" "Big Brother" "The Return of Bigfoot" "Kill Oscar (Part II)" | |
| BW | all | |
| Reunion | all | |
- for other uses, see Jaime Sommers (2007)
After a skydiving accident left her broken and near death, a top secret OSI-funded surgery turned the tennis pro into the world's first bionic woman. The procedure left her dead of a brain aneurysm. A miraculous cryogenic surgery, however, restored her to life, but left her without most of her long-term memories. Subsequent treatments gradually lessened her memory loss, while she struggled to map out a new life for herself.
Thinking her bionics would have given her an unfair advantage on the tennis court, Jaime left the sport following her surgeries. She returned to her home town of Ojai, California, and used her college degree in education to become a school teacher at a local military base. But she also insisted upon repaying her debt to the government that saved her life by occasionally going on secret missions that required her unique assets.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Childhood
Born on June 22, 1949, Jaime was raised in Ojai, California by her parents James and Ann Sommers. She had a very active childhood, and often engaged in mischievous behavior. As a little girl, Jaime rode horses, climbed and fell out of trees, and was even caught by her mother hanging from the rafters of the barn at the "old Hanson place." Jaime's mother often encouraged her development, whether through digging up the flowers around her house or hitting tennis balls against the garage door. In elementary school, Jaime met a young boy named Steve Austin. On his first day in the third grade, she dared him to eat one of everything in the cafeteria. (Welcome Home, Jaime) Even though she walked Steve home after he got sick, he still took revenge on her by putting a lizard down her back as she was swinging in the park. Jaime's fourth grade teacher was a very proper Mrs. Langford.
At the age of sixteen, Jaime's parents died in a car accident. Jim and Helen Elgin, stepfather and biological mother of her childhood friend, Steve Austin became Jaime's legal guardians.
[edit] Scrapbook Memories
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[edit] Early Career
She attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology where she majored in education with plans to become a teacher. After college, she became a top-ranked tennis professional and competed at Wimbledon and Forest Hills against the likes of Chris Evert and Billie Jean King. This career was cut short by a parachuting accident with Steve that nearly killed her.
[edit] Bionic surgery and complications
From the site of her accident, she was rushed into an bionic replacement operation, reluctantly authorized by Oscar Goldman at Steve Austin's request. The surgery replaces her right arm and both legs with bionics equivalent to that of Austin's, providing her with superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. Damage to her right ear results in replacement by a bionic ear that allows Sommers to hear sounds from great distances, or through solid surfaces (such as the tumblers of a safe). She is the world's fourth bionic replacement recipient. The cost of the operation is not stated on screen, except that it is implied to have cost less than Austin's. The opening credits for the subsequent spin-off simply indicate that the cost of her surgery is "classified".
The surgery is initially successful and, after a period of training and recovery overseen by both Austin and Dr. Rudy Wells (whereas Austin was able to move his right arm and ball his fist immediately upon waking up, Sommers requires more time before maintaining this level of control, which is illustrated when she crushes a tennis ball with her hand and takes her first tentative steps), Goldman gives Jaime her first assignment as an OSI agent, against Austin's objections. But Sommers soon begins to develop symptoms of bionic rejection, which results in erratic behavior and loss of control of her bionics. Ultimately, she is diagnosed with a clot at the base of the brain. The clot prove initially inoperable, and she died on the operating table (The Bionic Woman (Part II)). Thanks to a revolutionary cyrogenic surgery, however, she is held in temporary stasis while Dr. Michael Marchetti removes the clot (Austin is not made aware of this development and proceeds to mourn Jaime until he discovers the truth when he is hospitalized at the bionics facility (The Return of the Bionic Woman). Though the operation restores her life, it destroys some of her brain cells, robbing her of most of her long term memory. Initial visits to Ojai, and time spent with Steve Austin, brings back flashes of memory. These brief flashbacks also manifest the dangerous side effect of uncontrollable headaches. The OSI deems it too dangerous for her to continue association with her past life, and so she is initially assigned to Rudy Wells' Colorado Springs facility. (The Return of the Bionic Woman (Part II)) This period of rehabilitation restores her health to the point that she becomes a full-time OSI field operative, with a Level 6 security clearance.
[edit] Return to Ojai
After a time, she returned to Ojai. Her memory was still sketchy, but thinking about her past no longer caused an association with the pain of her blood clot. She took up residence on land owned by Helen and Jim Elgin, and got a job teaching 7th-9th graders at the Ventura Air Force Base School. (Welcome Home, Jaime (Part II)) While it was certainly work for which she was qualified, it also provided a convenient location from which she could be easily sent on missions for the OSI.
[edit] Later career and marriage
After a few years of active duty with the OSI, Jaime was terrorized by the notion that she would never have a truly free life. Thus, she used her bionics to hide from the government, running away from her Ojai ranch for parts unknown. (On the Run) Sometime after this split with the OSI, she returned to university for advanced degrees. By her 40s, she had come to a kind of rapprochement with the government. She was working again with the OSI, but this time mainly through the offices of Rudy Wells. She had become a specialist in the psychological complications of bionic replacement. During this period she was rarely called upon by Oscar Goldman to return to active espionage duties, but she did sometimes indulge her former direct superior. She also became reacquainted with Steve Austin during this period, and — following an accident which fully restored her memories — remembered the love they had once shared. (Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Bionic Showdown) During this period, Sommers was called upon to help train newly minted bionic people Michael Austin and Kate Mason (in similar fashion to how Austin helped train Jaime after her original surgery) but made the mistake both times of challenging them to races, which the more technologically advanced cyborgs handily won (causing Sommers to complain about this situation after Mason outpaces her her). At the end of Bionic Showdown Sommers and Austin were finally engaged, but by the time of Bionic Ever After?, set several years later, they were still arranging for their wedding. In the days just prior to their wedding, both she and Austin became victims of a computer virus that incapacitated their bionics. Sommers underwent upgrading in order to remove the virus; the results were increased strength and, for reasons not explained on screen, bionic vision similar to that of Austin. (Bionic Ever After?)
[edit] Code Names
[edit] Primary
- Bashful in Sister Jaime, perhaps in deference to the fact that she was reluctant to tell Oscar that she'd lost $750,000 in diamonds — or just that she was posing as a nun.
[edit] Mission Specific
- Frumpy in Jaime and the King. There, she was referring to the fact that she was, compared to other Monte Carlo beachgoers, sternly dressed.
- Speedy in Motorcycle Boogie. This is most likely a reference to the chase in which she had just engaged in for a computer tape.
[edit] Family
[edit] Parents
Jaime's parents, Ann Sommers and James Sommers, died while she was in the latter half of high school.
[edit] Legal guardians
Steve's step-father, Jim Elgin, and mother, Helen Elgin, became Jaime's legal guardians after her parents' death. Ultimately, after they were presumably both dead, they posthumously became her parents-in-law. Though this later relationship was not quite portrayed on screen, Jaime somewhat prematurely referred to Jim as "Dad" after her initial engagement was announced in The Bionic Woman (Part II).
Although Jim's status as guardian had not been explicitly established by the time of this episode, Jim's unusual double-role was highlighted with humor. After Jaime taps him as the one who will give her away, he asks his wife if it's legal for the step-father of the husband to give away the bride. Helen responds it is — "as long as the step-father of the husband isn't the father of the bride".
Casual references to Jim as "my Dad" appeared occasionally in the series, as when she was pulled over by officer Bob Welton and referred to her vehicle as "my Dad's". (Jaime's Shield)
[edit] Spouse
[edit] Step-son
[edit] Friends and Colleagues
[edit] Romantic relationships
(For Steve Austin see "Spouse" above)
- Roger Grette - Roger and Jaime were romantically involved immediately prior to Jaime's pro tennis career. Jaime broke off the relationship in favor of her career, without a word. Years later, while in hiding with Max in The Bionic Dog (Part II), Jaime seeks Roger out. While they do not rekindle their relationship, Roger clearly wants to, and suggests that he take Max, with the ulterior motive of seeing Jaime again. It is unclear if this ever happened.
- David Welsh - David met Jaime in Belgium sometime prior to The Bionic Woman (episode). They began seeing one another, and had a date the night after Jaime encountered Steve Austin in Ojai. At that date, Jaime broke off with David in favor of Steve.
- Michael Marchetti Responsible for saving Jaime's life after her being declared dead from Bionic rejection, Michael proved unable to resist Jaime's infatuation with her doctor. He admits to Steve Austin that he returns her affection and they'll have to let Jaime decide (The Return of the Bionic Woman). Michael and Jaime leave for Colorado Springs together, with a complicated relationship both romantic and professional. When we see them together in The Vega Influence, the relationship seems to have cooled to simple friendship.
- William "Billy" Cole - Billy, like Roger, has an affinity for Max, and as an OSI scientist with clearance, he has knowledge of bionics, despite being ignorant at first of Jaime's status in the program. As the second of Rudy's colleagues to have a romantic connection with Jaime, Billy seemed likely to continue on the show, although he did not. The extent of the relationship is unclear, but they do end Rodeo with an enthusiastic kiss.
- Chris Williams - Chris Williams met Jaime Sommers sometime prior to the events of The Pyramid, and they became romantically involved. The only one of Jaime's men besides Michael and Steve to recur, Chris would appear in several episodes, taking a joint lead in The Antidote with Callahan and Max (Jaime is laid up in the hospital for the duration), and filling the vacuum left by Steve's absence. In the final episode of The Bionic Woman, Jaime and Chris would commit to one another. Sometime thereafter, Chris would be killed on a mission, which Jaime would blame partially on Steve Austin (Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman).
- Casey - While the reporter from The Martians Are Coming, the Martians Are Coming doesn't make the best of the opportunity, Jaime does let him take her to dinner, and it is clearly a date.
- Jed Kimball - Sometime prior to the events of Deadly Music, Jaime met Jed at a Washington party and they hit it off. They drove to Annapolis and had dinner, but did not contiinue seeing each other. Later, they meet while working on the OSI's submarine detection system, and plan another date.
- Tommy Littlehorse - Sometime prior to the events of Out of Body, Jaime meets Tommy Littlehorse and they fall in love. They exchange gifts symbolizing the bonding of their souls. When Tommy survives a near-death experience, it appears their relationship will continue. It is never established what happens to Tommy and his bond with Jaime.
- Sam Sloan - The Chief of Protocol for the City of New York is ill-mannered. Nevertheless, Jaime is charmed by Sam and gets unusually close to him. While she breaks it off, she lets him down easy, making it more about the geography than his unreconstructed chauvinism. While the relationship was brief, for much of Long Live the King subtle cues indicate they are an "item," and their final embrace is passionate.
[edit] bionic
Jaime lost an arm, both legs and an ear.
her arm gives her superhuman strength.
her legs give her superhuman speed, superhuman leaping, and superhuman strength.
Her ear gives her Superhuman hearing
[edit] Trivia
- Jaime's phone number at the coach house is (311) 555-2368. (Jaime's Mother)
- Jaime hates snakes. (Angel of Mercy, Fly Jaime, Doomsday Is Tomorrow (Part II), Once a Thief, African Connection)
