Monday, February 14, 2011

No Ordinary Family 1.14: "No Ordinary Double Standard"

Sarah has once again been kind enough to blog an episode of "No Ordinary Family" for MTVP. Enjoy her take on "No Ordinary Double Standard."

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“What do you say honey, you want to take down a super villain with me?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
- Jim and Stephanie

The first thing one will notice when watching this episode is that the opening sequence has changed. I’m not sure if I like it or not. In the long run, it probably doesn’t even matter. Anyway, after the new opening, we find Stephanie out to drinks with her friend, Lena. They haven’t seen each other in a while and Lena complains that all they did was talk about her. Stephanie brushes it off and is surprised to hear Lena call Dr. King by his first name. Apparently they are still chummy. As Lena leaves, we see an ominous figure watching who turns into smoke. I guess Smokey finally found a way off the island! Stephanie gets home just in time to tell Jim they had a great time, for Jim to joke about how it would be awkward he went out with her and her single friends, and for Lena to call. Unfortunately, the call doesn’t last long before Lena is attacked. Stephanie races (literally) over to Lena’s house while Jim calls the cops. Jim promises Stephanie he’s going to get the guy that hurt Lena, much to Stephanie’s dismay. She wants to find the jerk herself.

The next morning, we find “Joshua” in the kitchen squeezing orange juice and making pancakes at the same time. I guess telekinesis really does come in handy. Too bad we have another instance of Katie finding information out about “Joshua” that looks bad and Joshua using his abilities to make her forget storyline this week. But for the moment things are happy in Katie-land. Sadly, now we must also venture into mini-Powell land for their plot of the week. J.J. is tutoring Bailey, and she asks him out on a date for Friday night. He’s not the only mini-Powell with a date though. Chris asks Daphne out, too. Things feel pretty good until Jim tells Daphne she can’t go out with Chris but J.J. can go out with Bailey. Talk about double standards (oh wait, we are because that’s the name of the episode). It doesn’t stop Daphne from going out though.

Stephanie arrives at the lab to find that Lena left her a message. She’s been discharged from the hospital. Stephanie then complains to Katie that Jim blew her off when she offered to help with the crimefighting. Katie has the bright idea for Steph to show Jim she can be just as good at solving cases. So Stephanie ends up talking to the only potential witness before Jim (he shows up at the precinct and tells Jim he doesn’t see why he needs to be there again). Later that evening, Stephanie challenges Jim that she’ll solve the case first and that his powers aren’t better than hers. We catch Smokey whisking into a different house as the act break ends. Next we get a scene that reminds me a lot of “No Ordinary Sidekick” with the split between Katie and Stephanie in the lab and Jim and George in the Lair. Both sides are psyching themselves up to solve the crime before the other side. We’ll see how well that works.

Daphne is still not happy that J.J. gets to go on his date, so she tries to prove to him that Bailey is only using him for his brain. She finds out however, that Bailey is actually into J.J. Too bad she reads J.J.’s mind and realizes he still has feelings for Natalie. And too bad for Bailey J.J. admits this on their date. Way to end a potentially fun night, kid. Daphne ends up sneaking out with Chris, and they have a fight when Jim calls and Daphne lies about where she is. The fight doesn’t last long because as Daphne is walking home, a creepy bum tries to get it on with her and Chris comes to her rescue. Well, sort of. It seems Daphne’s powers are increasing because now she can say things and people will do them. So the bum puts away his gun and leaves them alone. Likewise, Daphne gets out of being grounded for going out with Chris by telling Jim she’ll be grounded the next time she sneak out with a boy. I’m not sure why her powers are evolving and everyone else is staying stagnant. Maybe it has something to do with what “Joshua” did to her. After all their powers are quite similar.

Speaking of “Joshua”, he gets a surprise visit at home from Dr. King. It’s much like the times “Joshua” threatened Dr. King before when he was sans powers. Well minus the kind of icky sweaty look he had going. Once again, Dr. King baits “Joshua” with asking what Katie will think if she found out all the horrible things he’s done with his powers. It looks like Dr. King agrees to stay out of “Joshua’s” life but he can’t stay out of Katie’s. She still works for him.

Back in crime-solving land, Jim shows up at Lena’s to get a sketch of the suspect and finds Stephanie there as well. Their competitive side comes out and Stephanie insists on sketching the suspect as well. It doesn’t turn out well. But Katie’s gone ahead and bought the same software Jim uses at the precinct and Stephanie gets to the guy (the valet from the night of the attack) before Jim. Unfortunately, the valet has a rock solid alibi and they’re back to square one. Katie stops by the Lair and plants a device that can hack through George’s firewall so she can follow the intel that he and Jim get.

That night, Stephanie tells Jim she didn’t realize how hard the crime fighting thing was, and she tells Jim she’ll leave it to him. Their conversation is cut short when George and Katie both call reporting a second attack. Steph and Jim make excuses to leave and they end up at the house. Stephanie arrives first and is nearly caught by the intruder when Jim attempts to knock him out. That obviously doesn’t do much when the guy can turn into smoke. Really, can someone please tell me how Smokey got off the island? So Jim and Steph regroup at the Lair with Katie and George and agree to work together. Jim is a little frustrated that his sketch hasn’t turned up anything yet, and George (channeling Hardison from Leverage) tells Jim to not take it out on his computer. Katie is at the lab packing up some things when Dr. King approaches her. He gives her information on “Joshua” that reveals the things he has done with powers while in the employ of Dr. King. Poor Katie. She just can’t catch a break with this.

Jim shows Steph what the sketch search results revealed. It turns out that all the super villains they’ve faced thus far in the series were all inmates at a local penitentiary. And Lena worked there, too. At least we’re getting more progress on the conspiracy front. Smokey shows up at the Powell house and nearly strangles Stephanie in the shower. But he claims he just wants to talk. He reveals that Dr. King was in charge of turning him into Smokey. And now Smokey is going after Dr. King. I have to say I don’t find that upsetting at all. I mean the guy is a giant prick and deserves to get the crap kicked out of him.

Smokey shows up at the lab and attacks Dr. King. We also get a crucial piece of information from Dr. King while he lies through his teeth about why he did what he did to Smokey. Anyone who King turned into a super person can’t hurt Dr. King himself with their powers. Stephanie and Jim get there just in time to stop Smokey from killing Dr. King (he was going to use methods other than his powers). Unfortunately, as Stephanie introduces Dr. King at the banquet honoring him, we get a montage of King looking at the security footage and it is quite clear that Stephanie zoomed in and Jim yanked a container of nitrogen from the wall. So I guess the secret is out. Speaking of secrets, “Joshua” gets home to Katie’s apartment to find Katie once more pissed off at him. He uses his powers; much like Daphne did, to make Katie forget about knowing that he killed people and such. They look pretty happy. As Dr. King gives his speech, we see someone taking out Lena and what looks like Smokey but I can’t be sure. I guess Dr. King is trying to tie up loose ends so Stephanie doesn’t catch on. Leaves things in an interesting place for next week.

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