The Bionic Woman (Part II)

"The Bionic Woman" was a story consisting of two episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man. This particular episode concluded the story, and was the final episode produced in the series' second season.

1 Summary
2 Quotes
3 Trivia
4 Nitpicks
5 Scenes Deleted on the Universal DVDs
6 North American home video release
7 Novelization

[edit] Summary

Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers are happily preparing for their forthcoming wedding when Oscar Goldman visits them in Ojai and insists that they must both go on a dangerous mission to retrieve another stolen printing plate from criminal Joseph Rona. Steve and Jaime are lucky to escape with their lives when Jaime starts to reject her Bionics during the mission. Upon their return to Ojai Jaime's condition deteriorates further. Dr Rudy Wells discovers that Jaime has a blood clot on her brain and is in grave danger. Tragically, despite the best efforts of Rudy and his team Jaime dies during surgery to remove the clot leaving Steve heartbroken.

[edit] Quotes

Jaime: Steve... something that Oscar said back there kinda set me thinking...

Steve: What's that?

Jaime: Well, about how... uh... my Blue Cross didn't cover bionic reconstruction. Now, who's footing that bill?

Steve: Uncle Sam.

Jaime: Well, that's what I thought, but... uh... what exactly is it that Uncle Sam expects in return?

Steve: Well, I guess he wants you to be part of the team.

Jaime: How many people are on the team?

Steve: Well, Oscar's the head coach, and, so far, I'm the only player.

Jaime: I guess the stakes are pretty high then, huh?

Steve: Yeah... very high.

Jaime: C'mon, I'll race you back to the ranch, lazybones.

Steve: What about the horses?

Jaime: Well, I'll race them too.

Steve: All right, you asked for it.

Steve: Now Jaime's going to be my wife, and I'm not gonna let you run her life like... like...

Oscar: Like we agreed?

Steve: What?

Oscar: I told you it was gonna be like this, pal. I agreed to make Jaime bionic - with strings attached, remember?

Steve: I know, Oscar, but...

Oscar: I came through for you, pal. How 'bout you backin' me up now?

Steve: Oscar, I know what I said, but I can't let her do it. Can't you see? I can't!

Oscar: We made an agreement.

Steve: Oscar, I... look I'd do anything in the world for you... for Washington. But I can't let Jaime get into that kind of danger!

Oscar: You gave me your word.

Steve: Oscar don't you understand? I can't...

Jaime: Gentlemen... I'm sorry, but I couldn't help overhearing your conversation. The... uh... bionic ear you both gave me.

Steve: Jaime...

Jaime: Steve, Oscar and Rudy made me bionic. They saved my life; now I'm going to return that favor.

Steve: You haven't had enough time to get used to the bionics.

Jaime: I perform very well under pressure! And you know I've been up against some very stiff competition.

Steve: Jaime, this is no tennis match! You hit a ball into this net and you'll get your head blown off!

Jaime: Well, then, I'll just have to aim high and serve nothing but aces.

Steve: No deal, Jaime.

Jaime: You can't speak for me. And you can't change the obligation I feel to Oscar and Rudy and the government for making me whole again. I gotta pay my own way.

[edit] Trivia

While this story is famed for the debut of Jaime Sommers, it also marks the return of Steve's mother, Helen Elgin and introduces Jim Elgin — Steve's step-father. This particular episode is especially important to the development of Helen — who would later be a recurring guest star on The Bionic Woman — because it establishes her as one of the few (recurring) civilians to know of the existence of bionics. Helen accidentally witnesses Jaime and Steve running and leaping in a field near Steve's new ranch. Instead of trying to lie to his mother, he immediately tells her the true extent of the crash and subsequent surgery that made him bionic. She thereafter deduces that Jaime must be bionic, and remarks that they are literally "made for each other". This episode fails to establish, however, whether Helen told Jim of their son's true nature (although, Jim is aware of Bionics in a later appearance ("Welcome Home, Jaime"). It also doesn't include a scene in which Steve tells Oscar or Rudy that he's revealed bionics to his mother.
The episode's hard ending, portraying the death of Jaime Sommers, was intended to be the firm finish of the character. However, public outcry over the late spring of 1975 forced the producers to change their minds. They thus worked over the summer hiatus to find a way to plausibly reverse the ending of this episode for the next-produced episode of the series, "The Return of the Bionic Woman".
Helen and Jim's status as legal guardians of the teenaged Jaime is not established in this episode. Nor is the death of both of Jaime's parents. Despite several discussions of Jaime and Steve's childhood, both developments would have to wait until "Jaime's Mother". However, both are hinted at by the fact that Jaime selects Jim as the man who'll give her away.
Allan Oppenheimer plays Rudy Wells in this two-parter. In the sequel, "The Return of the Bionic Woman", he's played by Martin E. Brooks. Perhaps in an effort to match the two Rudy Wells, Brooks is noticibly older (and balder) in "Return" than in subsequent appearances in The Bionic Woman.
The foundation for Steve's self-sacrifice of Jaime in "The Return of the Bionic Woman", as well as the rest of the run of both series and the subsequent telemovies, is laid in this story. Steve makes a deal with Oscar for Jaime's bionic operation in which he promises to put Jaime's utility to the OSI above his personal feelings. He swears in Part I that he won't interfere with OSI requests to use Jaime on high risk missions. When he breaks that promise in this episode by forcefully refusing to allow Jaime to go on her first mission, Oscar says, "I told you it was going to be like this, pal. I agreed to make Jaime bionic — with strings attached, remember? . . . I came through for you, pal. How 'bout you backin' me up now?" Steve relents because Jaime effectively holds up Steve's end of the bargain. The practical effect of this "deal" would be a delay in their wedding of almost two decades.
Oscar's initial solution to Jaime's bionic rejection is to suggest to Rudy that her bionics be "adjusted to normal strength". This refers to the procedure performed on Barney Hiller in "The Seven Million Dollar Man".
As the final production of season 2, this episode is further significant for bringing the Siegel/Cramer era to an end.

[edit] Nitpicks

Steve and Jaime make their escape from the estate of Joseph Wrona by jumping from the window. In the scene that shows them land on the ground, the shadow of the ledge that the actors jump from is visible against the bush in the background. Additionally, the shadow of Lee Majors as he jumps from the ledge is also visible.

[edit] Scenes Deleted on the Universal DVDs

Guest star credits, as well as two short scenes of Steve and Jaime running, have been deleted from the beginning of Part II.

[edit] North American home video release

"The Bionic Woman" two-parter has the distinction of being, as of 2008, two of the only episodes of either series to be officially released to home video in North America. In the early 1980s, Universal put out a VHS tape entitled The Bionic Woman which, while apparently intended to tie in with the spin-off series, actually contained the two Six Million Dollar Man episodes. This tape is long out of print. Although numerous announcements and rumors have been heard over the years, issues over licensing and other rights continue to prevent any further release of Six Million Dollar Man or Bionic Woman episodes to the home video market in North America, although Universal has announced it will release episodes of the 2007 version of Bionic Woman to DVD in March 2008.

[edit] Novelization

Although not directly credited, plot elements from this episode were incorporated into the Bionic Woman novelization Welcome Home, Jaime by Eileen Lottman (published in the UK under the title Double Identity and credited to "Maud Willis").

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Category: Six Million Dollar Man episodes