The Ringer Season 1 Episode 6 recap

The good part of missing an Episode of Ringer is that they give you a really thorough recap of what you missed.   The bad part is that you have to wonder if the plot reveals felt subtler when they weren’t in a highlight reel.   Also, I missed the first time that Bridget tells someone she isn’t Siobhan.  

Anyway, when Andrew and Bridge arrive home to find Juliette having had a big party and a pic of Siobhan with ‘WHORE’ scrawled across it, the game is on.   But I do have to wonder who these Richie-rich families are that people know to draw these family dynamics from.  

So Gemma’s still missing, and Bridge is still trying to find her.   Gemma doesn’t seem far, though – she’s at home (?) looking at old videos that clearly show her husband and Siobhan are dirty cheaters.     Seems to me that a girl like Gemma would have always speculated that her husband was cheating anyway, no?    She races out of the room when she sees a birthmark or something on Siobhan’s wrist…

Okay.  Now we’re getting going.   If this is happening it means that Gemma will and can eventually become an ally, and they can fight this whole mystery together.  In fact, after Siobhan has a heart-to-heart about Juliette’s drug use with Andrew, it looks like everyone might be on her side.

Gemma believes her, but has no interest in being a part of her life.   I can’t believe that Bridget is as completely straight-ahead as she’s making herself out to be.   If she can fix Siobhan’s life, she could live inside it quite comfortably, couldn’t she?  Bridget was going to meetings and all, but she didn’t get to where she was pre-boat-dump by being considerate and thoughtful all of the time.     She spends a lot of time looking frustrated, but she’s not really doing anything just yet.   

As for Gemma’s “gamechanger”?  The fact that she did, in fact, choose Bridget, at least momentarily?   I mean, putting aside for a second the idea that Henry was the love of her life, which seems really cheesy,  they seem ill-suited to begin with and she doesn’t seem to love him any more than he did her; she’s psychotically insisting that Bridget sleep with her husband and alienating herself still further?  Doesn’t a woman like Gemma need an actual, real friend?  I mean, without being coy, we all know the answer…

I also have to ask about the degree to which they are addressing Bridget’s ongoing struggles with drugs and painting Narcotics Anonymous.  I think it’s brave and interesting and anyone else we’ve seen on TV with an ongoing addiction has been a man.   So is it having the desired effect?   Do you have new ideas about who an addict can be, what they look like, what their struggles are?   I really, really appreciate that they haven’t dropped the ball here, that they didn’t get through the pilot and drop the struggles Bridget has all together.  

Then of course, as much as I think Andrew is a poncy, head-in-the-sand father who is probably mad he didn’t get cast as Prince Charles somewhere along the way,  he does seem to love crazy Siobhan.   He seems like he’s doing the right thing from moment to moment.   I guess we’ll wait to see what the hell he thought he was doing in the x number of years their marriage was deteriorating…

Anyway, Juliette is exhausting and then some, and also simplistic.   A broken teen just loves her mommy.   Bridget is pretty upstandingly moral and I can’t wait for her to do something real.   Gemma is unhinged, generally speaking.   But overall, I have enough invested in these people to see who’s going to crack next.

Like I mean, Bridge’s poor sponsor is back on the juice!  And Gemma – oh, honey.   If you loved a man who killed you, I feel sorrier for your bad judgment than anything…