episode #12 - Mirror Image

episode #12 of 1st season / Air Date: 5/19/76 written by James D. Parriott Directed by Alan J. Levi

Like the previous Fly Jaime, this episode copies a Six Million Dollar Man episode, Look Alike. In this case, a double of Jaime infiltrates OSI while Jaime is on vacation in the Bahamas. The double, a woman named Lisa who had plastic surgery, plans to steal some vital secrets for her bosses and then kill Oscar with a lethal dart. Jaime has her own troubles, meanwhile: one of the bad guys (Herbert Jefferson Jr.) tracks her down there and tries to eliminate her by dumping her in the middle of the ocean in a wooden crate. Jaime's bionics save her but it's telling that this incident scares her - unlike, say, it would Steve Austin. This then follows the plot of Look Alike, with Jaime turning the tables on the villains, pretending to be Lisa.
I have to say, this version of the hero's double is better than the 6MDM one; for one thing, Austin's double was taken out of the game early, thereby reducing the suspense. In the Bionic Woman version, the double manages to escape OSI and then it's a question of which version of Jaime will prevail. The story here sets up a few entertaining moments and it's one of the least boring Bionic Woman episodes, keeping the audience on their toes. I mean, if you're going to do one of those 'double' episodes, may as well do it to its full potential. This even has the climactic guessing game of which Jaime is real, mirroring a similar set-up in the Star Trek TOS episode, Whom Gods Destroy. Jaime's double, Lisa, would return in the 2nd season's Deadly Ringer 2-parter. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

Bionic Trivia: two guest veterans from The Six Million Dollar Man series return here as different characters; Don Porter plays the boss villain; he'd appeared in Population Zero, the very first 6MDM episode aired; Terry Kiser, the #2 bad guy, had appeared in Love Song for Tanya