Ringer -- The Finale

It's been a strange year. Three Friday the 13th's before the year 2013 occurs. But as crazy as the year has been, I don't think it's crazy enough for Ringer to be renewed for a new season.

At the top of the hour a body was found and they pretty much say it's Malcolm Ward. Not only is he really dead, he is most sincerely dead. Not that The Bridge even noticed he was gone. She was like a kid with Malcolm, who is the bestest thing until you meet a more shinier new friend, Andrew. He lost his sobriety for her and ultimately he lost his life. RIP Malcolm, you were a good man. You just got touched by The Bridge and it cost you your life.

The Bridge dreams of her wedding to Andrew. Bodaway shows up and she wakes up. You know, I feel really dumb because every time the show talked about Bodaway Macawi, I thought they were talking about two different people. I'm like, but didn't Bodaway kill the stripper? Who's this Macawi dude? Did they gang bang the stripper? Both those names sound like last names. I mean who would name their kid Bodaway.

Anyway, The Bridget goes to a NA meeting and vows to tell her family the truth. Only when she gets home Victor's ex-partner, Jimmy, is waiting for her. Turns out he escaped from jail and reveals to The Bridge that The Shiv paid him to scare The Bridge into running straight to her and wants a big pay-off. If she doesn't pony-up, he'll tell BM [in nursing home vernacular that stands for Bowel Movement and looking at Bodaway Macawi engenders the same feeling as looking at a piece of poop, so hence force I'll make things easy and just call him BM.] she's really The Bridge pretending to be The Shiv, and the irony of that statement is rather funny when you think about it.

Jimmy doesn't get a chance to spend his blood money as BM corners him in his hotel. Jimmy says that The Bridge is pretending to be The Shiv so all is good in the hood. BM replies, "Tell me something I don't know," and sends him down the river Styx. Yep, another one bites the dust.

The Bridge tries to tell Andrew the truth and chickens out. Then she sees on the boob tube that Jimmy boy is dead and figures BM is in town. She calls Vic, who has been reinstated in his job if he stays away from BM, so he basically tells her he can't help her.

Henry wants to move to Chicago and he wants The Shiv to give up her vendetta against The Bridge. He's regained custody of his kids. Yep, you know the old if a witness who gives a statement to the police that you killed someone dies you get off the hook thing. Still rolling my eyes over that one. So he wants to move to Chicago to be closer to his family. She agrees and even gives him access to all the money she stole from Andrew so he can put a down payment on a house. It's at that point she finds an envelope and discovers Henry had a paternity test done on the babies. He asks her what the results were and she lies that he's the father. In fact, Andrew is the real father, as she's suspected for some time. And I'm like rolling my eyes. The Tool gets enough brains to have the babies tested then believes what she tells him? Only The Tool was testing The Shiv and already knows the real results. Because she lied he's decided to punish her by taking away all the money she stole from Andrew. So, in this case, The Shiv turns out to be the tool that got used. There was never a house in Chicago, The Tool lied to get access to her money so he could clean her out. Then he tells her he doesn't love her anymore and kicks her to the curb.

Tim, who isn't acting like a man that just lost custody of his grandkids to his no-good son-in-law, has saved Andrews bacon by buying out Martin-Charles. He also wants to do one more favor for Andrew. Tell him that he's married to a cheating slut. Andrew storms home as The Bridge is having a party to celebrate her and Andrew's upcoming wedding, to tell her their marriage is over, as he announces to everyone there that The Bridge had an affair with Henry.

Having no choice, The Bridge finally tells Andrew the truth. She's not The Shiv, she's The Bridge. Andrew doesn't take that news well. He also proves he has a brain as well as a nice head of hair by declaring The Shiv would never kill herself. Of course, she wouldn't. She loves herself too much to do something like that. The upshot is Andrew kicks The Bridge out. Juliet doesn't take the news any better as she and Andrew decide to go to the beach on vacation.

Meanwhile The Shiv sneaks into Andrew's apartment to steal anything that isn't nailed down since her loverboy has left her penniless with two babies to care for. It's just her luck BM shows up and thinks she's The Bridge. Yep, The Shiv isn't having a very good day. She holds BM off long enough until The Bridge shows up and kills him. Victor arrives on the scene admitting he hopped on the plane after talking with her. Of course, The Bridge doesn't admit to him she's really The Bridge. She wonders who BM had been trying to kill when she arrived.

As a beaten up Shiv looks at her twin girls she vows she has to get her old like back somehow. BTW, I don't remember what she plans to name those poor babies, but I was like, "Isn't it bad enough they have to have you for a mother, why pin those kind of monikers on those kids."

Meanwhile Solomon [The Bridge's new Malcolm] pieced together some video from when The Shiv killed herself and found proof she set the whole thing up. The Bridge finally knows The Shiv is alive. When she drops by Henry's he informs her The Shiv knew someone wanted to kill her, so she wanted The Bridge to die for her.

Strangely enough the hour wasn't very suspenseful. There wasn't any real pay-off either. Yes, The Bridge learned The Shiv was alive, but they never came face-to-face for a confrontation. And it was disappointing Victor, who sacrificed so much to try and save her miserable life, and still he doesn't know that she's The Bridge not The Shiv.

As a post-mortem thought, it's sad that this show could have been good. It had a good cast. But the writing was just horrible. As was the pacing. I actually regret not seeing the upcoming triangle, which actually sounded like it would have been interesting. Andrew is in love with The Bridge but The Shiv just gave birth to his twin daughters and she wants her old life back. Maybe if the show could have had wrapped up the BM thing and have The Bridge reveal to Andrew who she was halfway through the season then go into the triangle between Andrew and the two sisters maybe the show would have a chance at renewal. Instead the show was filled with all these side stories that were just filler and went nowhere.

It is a shame things turned out the way they did. The show had all the right ingredients, it just had the wrong writers for this type of show.