The Feminum Mystique I & II
Writer: Jimmy Sangster (from a story by Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday)
Director: Herb Wallerstein
Airdate: November 6 & November 8, 1976
Set in: June, 1942

Synopsis:

At Aldrich Field, Virginia Steve surprises Diana with the opportunity to view his test flight of experimental American jet plane, the XPJ-1, which was designed by a man named Peter Knight. Steve introduces the captivated yeoman to Knight, who is modest about his success with the XPJ-1, explaining that RAF engineer Frank Whittle designed the jet's engine, all he did was design the plane. Despite flying an invisible jet herself, Diana is still delighted and amazed by the new technology.

However, the test is interrupted by a group of Nazis. They seize the plane despite the appearance of Wonder Woman, who surprises the Nazis with her skill at deflecting their bullets with her Feminum bracelets. The plane is stolen by the German pilot, Colonel Raidl, but his plans are foiled when Steve transmits a secret code to General Blankenship. The General puts "Code Z' into effect, and the experimental plane's self-destruct is activated. Warned by the plane's instrumentation, Raidl parachutes to safety as the plane explodes.

Meanwhile, on Paradise Island, Queen Hippolyte has decided that her eldest daughter has spent enough time in America, and summons her youngest daughter, Drusilla. Dru is very much like her sister, swift, strong, and clever. But she is also very young, and given to childish pranks. The Princess at first thinks that her mother has heard about her latest exploits in torturing her tutors, but is thrilled when, instead, her mother charges her with travelling to America to bring her elder sister home.

Back at the War Department, Steve asks Diana if she saw Wonder Woman at the airfield, but Diana says she went around the hanger and missed it completely. Diana is terribly upset by the loss of the XPJ-1, but Steve reveals that for security's sake, no one could know about Code Z, not even Peter Knight. That way, the Germans would believe that the explosion was caused by a faulty design, and stop trying to steal the aircraft. Diana realizes that if they had planned a self-destruct, then they must also be planning a second prototype, and Steve confirms her guess. He asks her to arrange for a secret dinner meeting for himself and Peter Knight to discuss the new prototype, and Diana offers to cook them dinner in her apartment. Etta thinks it's terribly romantic, and wishes she could come as well—but Steve reminds Candy that this isn't a date, but a matter of national security.

When Diana arrives home with groceries for dinner, she finds her apartment door open, and hearing a noise in the kitchen, transforms into Wonder Woman only to find her little sister eating ice cream. Diana is overjoyed to see Dru, but dismayed at the Queen's orders to return. Diana tells Dru that it's her sister's job to stay, and witness firsthand the justice of the Allies cause, so that she can explain it to their mother. Dru is excited by the opportunity to stay, and listens carefully as Diana explains her job in the War Department, and the importance of keeping her identity a secret. Intensely curious, Dru questions Diana about life in the world, and men. She finds it impossible to believe Diana would be subservient to a man, following his orders. But Diana explains that by working in the War Department, she can know instantly where she is most needed. And that it gives her the opportunity to stay close to Steve—Major Trevor, whom Dru will meet as he is coming for dinner.

Dru, having exchanged her yellow diaphanous Island gown for a sweater and skirt, joins Steve, Diana and Peter Knight for dinner. Diana apologizes for the last minute addition, but Steve doesn't mind, and Knight is happy to discover he's not "going stag." Drusilla, completely ignorant of American slang, cheerfully relates an anecdote involving her killing a 12 point stag with her crossbow to a stunned Steve and Peter. Diana quickly covers for her sister, explaining that Knight means he's happy to have such a pretty girl for company. Amused, Dru asks Peter if he really thinks he's pretty. When he responds with an affirmative, Dru replies that she thinks he's pretty to, to Diana's dismay and Steve's amusement.

Colonel Radl, meanwhile, has rendezvoused with a Nazi sympathizer, who sets him up at a Ranger Station where he meets with Peter Knight, who informs him of the XPJ-2. But Radl is more interested in Wonder Woman's bracelets and what the amazing metal can do for the German war effort.

Diana wakes up the next morning to find Dru gone, the curious teen wanting to explore Washington. However, Dru's Amazonian garb makes her an outcast among the American teenagers she witnesses dancing and hanging out at a soda shop. She rings Diana, who gets the afternoon off tot take her little sister shopping. Now properly attired once more, Dru is introduced to General Blankenship, who offers to take her with him to Fort Belvoir while her sister and Major Trevor supervise work on the XPJ-2, and Diana reluctantly agrees.

Knowing Wonder Woman's involvement with Blankenship's office, Radl stages an ambush to kidnap the General to use him as bait to draw out Wonder Woman. However, when the General is kidnapped, it's Drusilla who tries to come to the rescue. Running to a nearby gas station, she tries to telephone the War Department, but the operators won't connect her, and the boy who works at the gas station doesn't understand when she explains the General is in danger. Learning of the nearby ranger station, Dru tries to think what Diana would do. She gets a burst of inspiration, and ducking into some nearby trees, tries to transform the same way her sister does. After a false start, she succeeds, and wearing a red and blue costume similar to her sister's, Wonder Girl runs to the Ranger Station to free the General. However, Radl's men chloroform "Wonder Woman" and abandon the cabin, having gotten what they came for.

When General Blankenship's car is found abandoned, Steve and Diana question the boy at the gas station, and find the ranger station. General Blankenship is found, bound and gagged, but Dru is nowhere to be found. When the General tells them that he heard a fight, Diana guesses that Drusilla tried to rescue the General, and is concerned. In actuality Drusilla is being held prisoner by Radl, who is determined to get the secret of the bullet-proof metal from "Wonder Woman."

Peter Knight is confused by "Wonder Woman"'s youthful appearance (having remembered her as older from the hijacking of the XPJ-1) and is struck by her resemblance to Diana's sister, Dru. However, believing that they have captured the one and only Wonder Woman, Radl uses Knight to test the bracelets. Satisfied, Drusilla is once again chloroformed, her bracelets taken, and Radl plans his next move.

Back at the War Department, Diana is frantic because Dru hasn't contacted her. She has contacted the police and hospitals, and Steve tries to comfort her, asking if it's possible her sister would have gone home. Diana is certain that she wouldn't, and the curious Major asks her where home is. "A long away away," she tells him, and no telephone either. Intrigued, Steve let's the subject drop, and Diana continues to worry.

Peter Knight and Radl scheme to discover the source of the metal, and a "battered" Peter is thrown into the cell with Dru, who unknowingly gives away the secret of Paradise Island's location to Knight, who asks her about her home. When a Nazi transmission is intercepted, Steve confesses to Diana that he is confused as to why the Germans would be ordering up a land attack force where there is no land. She asks him where, and he tells her longitude 30-22 and latitude 64-47. A stunned Diana whispers "Paradise Island!" and quickly tells Steve that he's right, she does think Dru's gone home, and can she take a furlough?

Upon her arrival on the Island, she is concerned that Dru is not there. Seeing an opportunity to train her heir (and perhaps lure her home), the Queen suggests Diana take charge of the situation. Not wishing to alarm the entire population, Diana chooses a small force of warriors to protect the mine. Diana quickly mounts a resistance plan to protect the Feminum and their island, and is surprised when the Queen insists on accompanying her to the far side of the Island where the Feminum is mined. Diana tries to impress upon her mother the danger of the situation, but the Queen is confident that the Nazis are no match for her Amazons.

Meanwhile, Drusilla escapes her captors, and returns to Aldrich Field, where Peter Knight has just introduced his new mechanic—one of Radl's men—to Steve. Steve takes the girl to task for scaring her sister out of her wits. A dismayed Dru informs Steve that she was held captive by Nazis and Peter Knight is dead, and is confused when the Major shows Dru Peter, alive and well (and unmarked by bruises) working on the XPJ-2. Except for taking one morning off, Knight has been on the airbase the entire time Dru claims they were held by Nazis. However, when Dru knows the exact morning Peter was gone, Steve becomes suspicious. She pleads with the Major to believe her, and Steve questions Knight, who is revealed to be the Nazi spy. Realizing that Diana must have had a good reason for returning to Paradise Island, Wonder Girl follows her sister home.

Diana is dismayed when she discovers the sisters she put on watch playing games. But the young Amazons are curious about men, and having lived in peace for so many centuries, do not treat the Nazi threat with any kind of seriousness. However, when Radl and his ground invasion force arrive, Dalma and the other Amazons do put up a decent fight before they and Wonder Woman are rendered unconscious by knock-out gas. Stripped of their bracelets, they are put to work mining Feminum, or else Radl threatens to kill the Queen.

On the Island, Diana and Dru meet up and almost succeed in defeating their captors, when Radl threatens the Queen at gunpoint. However, the Queen will not be used against her daughters and sisters, and succeeds in throwing Radl off balance long enough for Diana to toss her mother one of her Feminum bracelets. Unwilling to risk the old woman using it to deflect his shot, Radl surrenders. He and his men will be drugged, their memories of the island erased, thus protecting the island's secret.

The Queen now has a better understand of her eldest daughter's mission, and allows Diana to return to America and continue to aid the Allies as Wonder Woman. Diana and Dru return in time to keep one of Radl's men from hijacking the XPJ-2 after knocking Steve out cold and donning the Major's flight suit. Wonder Woman takes care of the spy, while Drusilla, as Wonder Girl, rounds up the rest of Radl's men—all the while taking care that Steve and the others never see both Wonder Women. Steve completes the XPJ-2 test flight successfully, and the Major and sister celebrate with ice cream sundaes at a local shop.

Curiouser, and Curiouser...
Writers Barbara Avedon and Barbara Corday would go on to create the long-lived policewoman drama Cagney & Lacey. Carolyn Jones (best known as Morticia Addams) replaces scenary-chewing Cloris Leachman as the Queen. In the pilot, the Queen refers to Diana as her "only begotten child", yet fans are introduced to Princess Drusilla in The Feminum Mystique, including a "new" flashback to the pilot where Drusilla watches Diana twirl and spin and change from her diaphanous gown to the familiar star-spangled costume. Also, while her mother designed Diana's costume specifically, the flashback implies that any Amazon can morph their clothing simply by concentrating and then spinning. In the comics, "Wonder Girl" was Donna Troy, an orphan adopted by Diana and raised on Paradise Island by Queen Hippolyte. Donna first appeared in The Brave and the Bold in the summer of 1965 and twelve years later, was firmly established in the comics as a member of the Teen Titans, a mini-Justice League made of of young side-kicks of popular heroes (Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Wonder Girl).

Applause-worthy: The relationship between Drusilla and Diana is beautifully played and incredibly warm and sweet. The way Peter tricks Drusilla into accidentally revealing the location of Paradise Island by asking her what constellations she can see in the night sky is utterly inspired. Also, the series wisely chose to have Diana and Dru keep Wonder Girl's existence a secret, making sure never to appear together in front of Steve and the General while in America. And the tag, in which Steve teases Diana, and then insists that she is irreplaceable to him—and not just as a secretary—is one of the series sweet romantic moments.

Cringe-worthy: "I don't care what Diana says, I think they're cute!" one bewigged Amazon observes about the Nazis in quite possibly the most offensively inane comment ever uttered on the series. And since when did the ancient Greeks play jacks? The Amazons are unfortunately played as bubble-headed sorority girls, typical of other jiggle-tv-era shows, and retain none of the majesty of the Paradise Island denizens of the pilot.

Episode entry by Yeoman Prince