No Ordinary Family 1-14: No Ordinary Double Standard

This is a hard episode to recap. I feel like something significant happened tonight. But, frankly, I’m a little hesitant to hope that’s the case since they seem to follow up on things so slowly if at all in this show.

So let’s start with the kids. The title, No Ordinary Double Standard, applies to them as much as it does the adults. See, both Daphne and JJ have been asked out on dates by seniors. Jim doesn’t want Daphne to go out with Chris, but he’s fine with JJ going out with Bailey. Daphne defies her dad and goes out with Chris anyway, but when Chris finds out about the restriction, they fight, and Daphne stalks off by herself. When someone tries to rob her, Chris comes roaring in to save the day, but it’s really Daphne who saves the day by using her mind powers to convince the mugger to leave them alone. When she gets home, Daphne also uses it to get herself out of a two week grounding.

This new power might be interesting, depending on how they play it out.

JJ, meanwhile, is trying to talk himself into being excited about doing out with Bailey. Sadly, that doesn’t work and when they start kissing, JJ pulls away and confesses that all he can think about is Natalie, his ex-girlfriend. Naturally, that date ends rather abruptly.

But our main act tonight involved Jim and Stephanie racing to solve a crime. It all started when Stephanie’s friend gets attacked after the two of them have drinks at a restaurant. Stephanie wants in since this case in personal, but Jim doesn’t want her getting hurt. He says he’s better built to handle this kind of thing. So they race to solve the crime. Actually, some of these scenes were funny, especially the scene where Katie goes to the sanctum and plants the devise that lets her and Stephanie get around the firewall. Thanks to tips from their side kicks, Stephanie and Jim both show up at a home the villain is currently robbing, only to find out that he can turn himself into steam and leave at will.

And that’s when all four of the adults start actually working together, although George and Katie are very reluctant to do so. They really get somewhere when the villain breaks into the Powell’s house and demands to know who or what he is from the Powells. It turns out he was a prisoner, and all he remembers is being experimented on by Stephanie’s friend. In fact, that’s why he went to her house – he’s trying to find out what they did to him. He remembers Dr. King being there, and in his feeble memories, it seemed like Dr. King was in charge. So off he goes to the lab with Stephanie and Jim right behind him. Together, they manage to save Dr. King while Dr. King is knocked out. Happy ending all the way around, right?

Well, not quite. Someone is shooting knock out darts (or worse) at Stephanie’s friend and the villain. Meanwhile, Dr. King is reviewing video from his attack and actually seems Stephanie and Jim using their powers. So the secret is finally out of the bag. Question is, will that mean anything in future weeks?

Finally, we had a nice little sub-plot involving Katie and “Joshua.” Dr. King went to Katie with proof about Joshua’s murders. When Katie confronted Joshua with it, he erased her memory about the conversation so they could keep up their happy life. I’m torn because I really do want these two to be happy together, but Joshua is supposed to be a villain, or was at one time. And if he keeps lying, it will come back to get him at some point.

So there you have it, another week with some interesting stuff that could actually bear fruit at some point. But with how slowly they seem to want to move things forward, I’m not going to hold out much hope they’ll really build on what happened this week.

While we wait to see if I’m right or if they prove me wrong, check out some of my Disney reviews.