Josh: No Ordinary Family: Episode Six (review)

'NO ORDINARY VISITORS'
JIM: Jim's self restraint is tested when his overbearing in-laws unexpectedly come to visit the Powells, forcing the family to not use their powers. So, Jim struggles to keep his mouth closed when Steph's father constantly degrades him. Meanwhile, Jim is sneaking out of the house during the night, assissted by George, to investigate the spike of home invasions in Pacific Bay. The police have no leads on who is part of the invasions but with Daphne's help Jim draws up a portrait of the gang-leader whose face was burnt by the son of the victimised family. Eventually, the news get hold of the image and the attacker sees his own face, making him go out to finish off the boy. But, just in time Jim saves the teenager - Trent, as the criminal fires shots. Finally, because of Jim's suspicous actions during the night, Allan (Steph's dad) wrongly accuses Jim of cheating on his wife but all is resolved when Jim tries to explain about the Powells' powers and the in-laws believe Jim is doing charity work. Jim is also finally accepted by Allan to of married the latter's daughter.

STEPHANIE: Steph is unable to use her powers of super speed when her parents come over, as she tries to persuaude her mother - Barbara that she has changed and she isn't always busy. Barbara soon becomes suspicous as she finds lots of trainers and snack bars in the master bedroom but Steph says the shoes are for the poor and Jim says the bars are for him. She is also unable to do any of her work at Global Tech but stil has chance to invite Katie to a disastrous dinner where Allan and Barbara explain their suspicions. The episode ends seeing Barbara tell her daughter that she wished she had been like her daughter when she was her age. This makes Steph happy.

JJ: Allan sees his grandson still as an idiot who he can take advantage of and get money off when the pair play pool. This frustrates JJ who is also being forced to keep his powers a secret but then Jim, also annoyed, allows JJ to use his super-brain. This gets JJ to beat his grandfather, win quite bit of money as well as Allan's beloved car. But JJ cannot drive this for two years, yet he has a car ready and waiting and his grandparents realise he is cleverer than they thought.

DAPHNE: Daphne discovers that when she touches another's skin she can not just hear their thoughts but see them too. This allows her to see the attacker who invaded the victimised family's home by touching Trent. But, after she helps the police by giving them a description of the criminal, Trent is tracked down and is just saved by Jim. Afterwards, she checks with Trent what happened and as she expected he denies anyone was involved with his escape. To end the episode, Daphne gets JJ's new car until he is legal to drive it.

Overall, one of the less strong episodes because of the lack of proper drama, filled with uncessary humour. Yes, I liked the idea of the Powells hiding their powers from the grandparents but a lot of the storyline wasn't needed. I was hopeful for a darker, more high octane episode after witnessing the opening minutes but I was disappointed when the exciting plot was nearly forgotten and used as an add-along. Also, the absence of the story-arc returns to annoy me, I think it's superb and yet ABC fail to show it in the episodes successing the pilot. Otherwise, it was an alright episode but not one of the best at all, I'm disappointed with Ali Adler's script here considering the other great installments he's wrote. Maybe Marc Guggenheim's 'No Ordinary Mobster' next week will make up for this week.
Thanks, Josh.