2-12. The Hollow Men.

THE PLOT

After saving Topher's life, Langton reaches the rendezvous point with both the computer genius and Echo in tow. Then all the Los Angeles "conspirators" head off to Tucson, for the final confrontation with the Rossum Corporation and its mysterious leader.  But there's one final twist in store for all of them... a little something to remind them all that no one can truly be trusted!


CHARACTERS

Echo: Caroline is finally made part of Echo's composite, after two years of episodes, and... It's a non-event. Caroline does not appear to become in any way a dominant personality. Echo is exactly who she already was, just with a bit of new information. This is one of several frustrations about an episode that doesn't have time to do character when there's so much plot to get through.

The Security Chief: Langton insists that, even with Echo's mind scrambled, they still need to follow through with the plan to infiltrate Rossum's Tucson headquarters. He uses his knowledge to break himself, Topher, Ballard, and November out of the Rossum cell, allowing them to strike at the corporation from inside the belly of the beast. In private, he admits to Adelle that while he considers the Dollhouse staff as "family," he has never really liked nor respected Ballard and doesn't understand what Adelle saw in him.

The Genius: Topher really can't help himself when it comes to playing with gadgets, can he? In the middle of Rossum's lab, seeing his Apocalypse Weapon being mass produced, he knows with every fiber of his being that the right thing to do is to destroy it. But he also sees that the gadget doesn't work, and he recognizes why. He can fix it in ten minutes and, with no more than a few encouraging words to provide a rationalization for doing so, he honestly can't help himself. He just has to make the toy work, no matter how bad an idea he knows it is.

THOUGHTS

The Hollow Men is to Season Two what Omega was to Season One: The not-quite finale, which nevertheless wraps up most of the arc of this season. The war against Rossum builds to its climax here, as Echo, Adelle, and their group face off against the mysterious Rossum founders. It's all paced at lightning speed, with terrific performances. Harry Lennix, Amy Acker, and Miracle Laurie get the best moments, but everyone gets something to do. We even get a brief return of Enver Gjokaj's Topher impression, which injects a bit of humor into an otherwise all-out suspense episode.

While the pace and performances make this highly watchable, however, The Hollow Men is a disappointment.  In fact, this episode gets worse in my mind the more time I have to think about it. One issue is inevitable: Getting Closer delivered the series' single biggest twist. This episode sees that twist play out, but there simply aren't any surprises on the same level as the one that closed out the previous episode.

I also think it's a bit of a cheat. From the ending of Getting Closer, there were many possible paths to follow. Maybe the Rossum head had lost control of his company (to, say... Harding? Who, after much build-up this season, has barely even been mentioned the past few episodes), and was using Echo to bring things back under control? Maybe the Rossum head actually isn't the villain? Maybe there's some big plan in play?

Well, no. The Rossum head's just crazy. Nothing more to it than that. And as that character is revealed to be a lunatic, this episode becomes vastly less interesting. I know it's hard to wrap all of this plot up in 45 minutes. But there were a lot of pieces on the board that might have been used. Many of those pieces go unused and unmentioned, while the writers - and by the credits, I'd say this one was pretty much written by committee - don't even get the best use out of the pieces they bother to play with.

The Hollow Men is all plot, and I don't mean that in a good way. There's no time for characterization, or to linger on interesting little moments. The long-awaited scene in which Caroline is integrated into Echo comes to pass... and it's meaningless, as Echo remains indistinguishable from who she has been. Why would a moment that the series has been building toward since its first episode get such an absolute lack of acknowledgement? Because there's plot to get through, and no time to do anything save to get through it all.

I'll be interested to see how Epitaph Two ties it all together (if it does). But while The Hollow Men entertains, it leaves the viewer feeling hollow afterward.  Much like a fast food meal, it's reasonably fun to consume - but it suplies virtually no real nourishment.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Getting Closer
Next Episode: Epitaph Two - The Return


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2-11. Getting Closer.

THE PLOT

With the L. A. Dollhouse's conspiracy against Rossum now fully assembled, they decide it is time to reintegrate Caroline with Echo, to find out exactly what secret it was that she learned. There's only one hitch: When Ivy goes into the vault to recover Caroline's wedge, she discovers that it's gone!

There is one, fragile hope to recover Caroline. The wedge that Alpha smashed during his infiltration of Rossum still exists, and Topher believes that Bennett (Summer Glau) is skilled enough to reassemble it. Ballard and Victor make a quick raid on the Washington, D. C. Dollhouse and abduct Bennett. But the real challenge is getting her to agree to effectively resurrect Caroline, the friend who so badly betrayed her!


CHARACTERS

Echo: In flashback, the show fills in the backstory between Caroline and Bennett. We discover that, in between her first escape from Rossum and her imprinting, Caroline successfully infiltrated Rossum's L. A. office. She discovered a file on Bennett, whose brilliance attracted Rossum's attention even as she pursued her neuroscience degree. She befriended the girl, then used her to get inside Rossum's labs to blow them up - the action that led to Bennett's maiming and to Caroline's final capture. In the present, Echo dreads the idea of Caroline's return, fearing that she will cease to exist when the original personality is returned. She confesses to Adelle and to Bennett that she considered taking the wedge and considered letting Bennett go - but she knows after what she witnessed in The Attic that the stakes are just too high.

The Ice Queen: Remains very icy, even though she's now revealed to be on the "right" side. Her responses to Bennett's outrage at being abducted are highly amusing, as Bennett attempts to lodge a complaint against Topher for punching her in the face and Adelle responds by gently reminding her that she has been abducted. She is particularly cool after Langton dispatches the Rossum assassins in her office, taking in the scene calmly and then pronouncing that this finishes off her carpet.

The Security Chief: We discover the nature of the "personal business" that had caused Langton to miss work. He's been housing and protecting Claire (Amy Acker), who has returned to L. A. Langton and Claire are now firmly a couple, as Epitaph One indicated they would be. And by developing Langton's "personal" absences in other episodes, it doesn't even feel too forced. We saw the beginnings of Langton's interest in her, and now we bring her back with the relationship having developed over time, just offscreen. It's not ideal, but given Acker's limited availability for Season Two, it does work.

We also get a reminder of Langton's somewhat disturbing skills. When three Rossum officials come to the Dollhouse to "debrief" Adelle (Rossum-speak for "take a ride"), Langton deals with them ruthlessly and efficiently, and his facial expression barely registers a twitch. Harry Lennix is outstanding throughout, in an episode that finally brings his often nebulously-defined character into sharp focus.

The Genius: Receives a shock that precipitates a brief break from reality - reflecting the behavior of the crazed Topher of Epitaph One. He recovers, probably thanks to having a task to focus on, but the joviality is kicked right out of him. Gets a semi-heroic moment, as he urges Ivy not to linger to help him, but instead to escape. "Don't become me," he hisses to her.

The (Ex-) FBI Agent: We learn what was taken from Paul: His deep connection with Echo. Topher acknowledges this to Echo, telling her that he needed to use the most active parts of Ballard's brain for his rewiring, and that those parts were Echo. She seems to forgive him - and honestly, unless she's massively selfish, surely a Ballard who no longer loves her is at least better than a Ballard who is brain dead - but she is clearly hurt at the change.


THOUGHTS

Tim Minear, a veteran of several Joss Whedon shows and particularly noteworthy as the writer of the best episodes of Firefly and Angel, pens this action-heavy installment. Getting Closer crams probably about three episodes' worth of material into 45 minutes: The return of Claire, the "outing" of the L. A. dollhouse's conspiracy, the kidnapping of Bennett, the unmasking of the Rossum head. There's a lot going on. Fortunately, Minear is a good enough writer to take all these threads and deliver an episode that's fast, lean, and intense without making it feel rushed. He juggles all the balls he's been given, and he doesn't drop any of them.

But with so many balls in the air, he can be forgiven one or two slight wobbles. Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond) is featured again, and this time we get to see both the "new" Dominic and, in flashback, the slickly hateable Dominic of Season One. I particularly enjoyed seeing that version of the character again. However, there's no time to deal with the "new" Dominic, so Minear cuts that plot thread off as cleanly as he can... which unfortunately leaves the arc of one of the series' best recurring characters cut short. Still, it's fun to see the sneering Laurence of the series' beginning again, a reminder that however commendable his actions in The Attic may have been, Laurence Dominic is Not a Nice Man.

Minear does better with the return of Claire. Anyone reading these reviews knows that Claire won me over quickly, and that I found her character arc the most interesting of those on display at the end of Season One/beginning of Season Two. Acker's departure from the bulk of this season meant that Claire's dilemma was never able to receive the attention it was due. But Acker remains splendid, and the way in which she is brought back is effective in keeping the plot consistent with Epitaph One.

The mixing of the present day story with the flashbacks pays off handsomely. We discover the rest of the story of Caroline's harsh abandonment of Bennett, and it casts that scene in a very different light. We also close the episode on a particularly chilling twist - one which makes me re-evaluate some bits from earlier episodes, and also one which makes me wonder exactly what sort of long and twisted game the Rossum heads are playing.

Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: The Attic
Next Episode: The Hollow Men


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2-10. The Attic.

THE PLOT


Echo is in The Attic. This means that she is living a nightmare, repeating a hopeless scenario over and over again. But after a couple of loops, her composite mind notices the pattern, allowing her to break free. She discovers Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond), her old nemesis who was sent to the Attic a year earlier. Dominic has also gained awareness of his situation - probably thanks to some NSA training - and has been fighting off a malevolent shadow that calls itself "Arcane," and which stalks and kills newcomers to The Attic.

Echo and Dominic team up to locate Victor and Sierra, to save them before Arcane can find them. But when they come face to face with Arcane, they learn more than they could have expected: About Rossum, and about the true nature of The Attic. This leads Echo to a desperate gamble, one which may enable her to take down Rossum - if it doesn't kill her first!


CHARACTERS

Echo: At this point, she seems to actively reject "Caroline" as her true identity. When a Rossum security man tells her that all Actives go by their "real names" in the Attic, she snaps back that her real name is Echo. She doesn't trust Dominic, recognizing him as she did even in her pre-aware state of early Season One: The enemy who was constantly trying to destroy her. But her mind is fully formed now, and she can recognize Dominic as something other than just being "bad." They make a good team, and Reed Diamond's performance brings out the best in Eliza Dushku's acting as well.

The Ice Queen: In the space of just a handful of episodes, Adelle has gone from being the person Topher most trusted to being "Darth Vader." Adelle's de-volution from icily pragmatic idealist to being simply cold and hard seems to be complete in this episode. As she wields the power of Rossum - quite literally the power of life and death - over Topher, Ivy, Langton, and finally Ballard, she seems truly, irredeemably cast in the role of "villain." A genuinely surprising end twist puts the new path of her character into a fuller context, while providing a hint of where both she and the show are going from here.

The Security Chief: Langton is as protective of Echo as a father of a daughter. With Echo taken away from him, he begins to skip work, arriving late, drinking. When Adelle confronts him about his feelings for Echo, he snaps at her that she "took her away from (him)!" He seems more inclined to confide in Topher now, less mocking of the idea of Topher as a man with a conscience, even as his trust in Adelle has been shattered.

The (Ex-) FBI Agent: Topher is able to revive Ballard, but only by taking something away from him so that other parts of his brain can fill in for those destroyed by Alpha. I doubt the science of "the wildcat play" would bear close scrutiny - but the idea that Ballard has been restored, but only by taking something unspecified away from him, is an interesting notion. And the warning that "sooner or later, he's going to figure out what's been taken away," is both intriguing and unsettling.


THOUGHTS

A funny thing happened with this particular Joss Whedon show. Joss Whedon ended up being only about an average (possibly even slightly below-par) writer for his own show. Meanwhile, the writing team of Maurissa Tanchauroen and Jed Whedon - his brother and his sister-in-law - announced themselves as the series' very best writers. They rounded off Season One with the magnificent Epitaph One. They wrote Belonging, the second season's only previous great episode. And they possibly top both of those previous achievements with The Attic, an episode which starts off good and then gets better and better and better as it goes.

The Attic is the strangest episode of Dollhouse yet. With most of the episode set inside Rossum's personal "Matrix," we get an episode rife with the logic of dreams and nightmares. A ladder to a roof leads Echo out of a fairy tale tree, which grows out of the Dollhouse's hardwood floor. A malevolent shadows seeks to assassinate dreamers, stalking them from the familiar confines of the Dollhouse to a paper-walled Japanese restaurant, to an Afghani war zone, to a post-apocalyptic hell. The imagery is vivid, sometimes stunning, and the script keeps all of the surreal nightmare tripping within a solid story structure, with the set pieces never getting away from a tightly controlled story. It works, the eerie nightmare aura bringing resonance to revelations about Rossum and the plot arc in such a way that it doesn't just feel like an episode there to "advance the plot" and nothing else (which I found to be the case with Stop-Loss).

The episode also features the welcome return of Reed Diamond's Laurence Dominic. Diamond's performance was a frequent highlight in the first season, and he and Amy Acker have both been sorely missed in Season Two. Here, Dominic is reinvented as a more heroic figure, though he retains enough of an edge not to feel like a completely different character. Diamond continues to exhibit a flair for deadpan comedy, with his reaction to a particularly gruesome discovery in the Japanese nightmare adding a darkly hilarious button to a particularly grisly moment.

The Dollhouse scenes work well, too, with just enough information withheld to make the ending a surprise without it coming completely out of left field. By showing us just a piece of Adelle's frosty interactions with her underlings, we are led to draw one conclusion... but when the truth is unveiled, we saw enough for the pieces to snap into place. Which is the way a twist should work, when it's executed right.


Rating: 10/10.  My favorite episode since Epitaph One.

Previous Episode: Stop-Loss
Next Episode: Getting Closer


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2-9. Stop-Loss.

THE PLOT

Victor's contract has reached its end date. His original personality is restored, and he is sent back to his life as an ex-soldier, supposedly cured of his PTSD. He doesn't stay free for long, though. His first night in the city, his apartment is attacked by a team of soldiers. He fights back, but is quickly subdued... and awakens to find himself face-to-face with an old combat buddy, who tells him that he's being recruited to be a soldier again. Without even thinking about it, Victor asks, "Where do I sign up?"

It turns out to be another Rossum program, one which has recruited several "retired" Actives. It's an experimental military program, one that uses Rossum technology to create a group that thinks as a single unit. The individual is totally absorbed by the group mind. Topher explains that if Victor is not retrieved soon, then he will be lost forever - prompting Echo, Langton, and Sierra to undertake a desperate rescue mission!

CHARACTERS

Echo: Has fully mastered the range of personalities in her head, to the point at which she can simply slip between them without even having to think about it. She makes the mistake of believing that this puts her on an equal (or better) footing to Adelle, and lays down an ultimatum to choose which side she's on. When she describes herself as "scarier" than Adelle, you just know this is a moment of hubris - No matter how many serial killers may float around in her brain, Eliza Dushku will never be able to be scary in the cold, quiet way that Olivia Williams can do, and a part of me was just as happy to see Echo's arrogance in this scene end up blowing up in her face.

The Ice Queen: "Pain reveals who we really are," Adelle snits. If so, it's saying very bad things about who she is right now. Any question as to why Adelle believed Echo was there to kill her in the Epitaph One future is pretty well answered here. She spends the bulk of the episode in a drunken stupor. When Langton tries to shock her back to her old self - much as he attempted to do in Meet Jane Doe - it backfires spectacularly, as what he succeeds in doing is pushing her self-preservation instinct into overdrive. Olivia Williams is splendid, but this Adelle is jarring given the Adelle DeWitt that we saw in the bulk of the series - as recently as four episodes ago! The lack of transition does hurt a character turn that might have been amazingly compelling, had it been allowed to occur over the length of a season rather than a couple of episodes.

The Security Chief: With Adelle no longer in full control, Langton steps up to act as leader. He fills the leadership role very effectively, using Echo's skills to trace Victor and then coordinating the escape. He is quite strong facing down Adelle. His one weakness is that he still has faith in the Adelle that he knew, and can't quite accept that she's changed so much in so short a time.


THOUGHTS

Topher tells us that Victor has been cured of his PTSD. As with November's trauma, I can't help but wonder: How? The five years passes like it's five seconds. Shouldn't they awaken in more or less exactly the same emotional state as before? I suppose it could be argued that Topher meddles with the original personalities somehow - We know that he promised Priya that she would not remember one horrible day. But it still seems a bit sketchy to me, and it's not made any less sketchy when the reawakened Victor shows signs of PTSD on his first night out.

Stop-Loss is an eventful episode, but I can't help but feel that it doesn't quite work as well it should. It may be slightly too eventful, as there is a sense that the pace is more rushed than would be ideal. Certainly, some of the climax with Echo vs. the Super Soldiers, plays out a little too easily. One soldier is even awakened from the group mind, even though he's evidently been part of it for some time. This seems to break the rules of the episode set forth by Topher, for a bit of "effect" that doesn't honestly add much.

There are still some excellent scenes. Anything involving Adelle is good, particularly her scenes opposite Echo and Langton. The ending is outstanding, with a final visual that leaves me wanting to move to the next episode right now. Really, the entire last ten minutes is superb. It's just a shame so much of the pacing feels "off," leaving Stop-Loss as the weakest of an admittedly very strong run of episodes.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: A Love Supreme
Next Episode: The Attic


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2-7. Meet Jane Doe.

THE PLOT

It's been three months since Echo's escape from Rossum, and both she and Paul remain unaccounted for. At the Dollhouse, things have changed - and not for the better. Adelle is no longer in control of the house, Harding (Keith Carradine) having effectively taken over. Harding has given Topher a blank check for extensive research, with no real indication of what the research may be for. Meanwhile, Adelle continues to push Langton to find Echo, "even if it's in a ditch somewhere."

As for Echo, she and Paul have settled into a life on the run. Echo has taken a job as a nurse in a small town in Texas, using the knowledge of one of her old imprints to gain access to the county jail. The jail is run by a particularly cruel sherriff, who along with his guards are abusing Galena (Ana Claudia Talancon), a pretty Spanish-speaking inmate. Echo gains access in order to break the young woman out. But her plan may not take into account her own deteriorating mental state.

CHARACTERS

Echo: Her development now is fully even with the one clip from Epitaph One, with her a full partner with Paul but suffering increasing headaches as a result of the composite memories and personalities. In her confused post-escape state, she got Galena arrested, and now she is making freeing the girl her "training run" to go back into Rossum. The limpse Bennett gave her of Caroline has disturbed her, and she worries that her "real" self is not the person she hoped for.

The Ice Queen: In the wake of Echo's escape and Rossum's increasing ambitions, Adelle is left powerless - something we've never really seen from her before. She has lost control of her own house, and drifts around the halls almost like a ghost, all but flinching in Harding's presence. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to see what happened to take her from the confident Adelle of even the last episode to this cowed version, but I'd guess Harding probably stepped on her hard (metaphorically, if not literally).  erhaps that explains the choice she makes at the end, when she undertakes an act that seems to go against all of the more idealistic shades of the character.

The Security Chief: Langton urges Adelle to take back her house from Harding, and tries to boost her self-confidence to get her to take the chances necessary to do it. When she hesitates, he tells her that "the Adelle (he) knew wouldn't ask" how to do it - She would already know. Though it's a sure bet that Langton likes Adelle a great deal more than he likes Harding, he does a good job of concealing his feelings in Harding's presence, playing the good employee.

The Genius: With Harding elevating Topher to the inner circle and giving Topher anything and everything he needs to advance his research, Topher is the proverbial kid in the candy store. Or at least he seems to be. As we've seen before, Topher really does have more of a moral sense than his surface personality shows, and he's more than smart enough to figure out the shape of a puzzle from a handful of pieces... which leaves him in shock when he figures out the extent of Rossum's true ambitions.

The (Ex-) FBI Agent: Paul finally seems to have what he's been obsessing over. He is sharing an apartment with Echo, and has her complete trust. But while Paul has at times seemed creepily obsessive, he still has moral qualms about taking advantage even when Echo offers herself. To him, it would be wrong to sleep with Echo unless Caroline is present in that body to grant her consent. He sees Echo's deterioration, with the increasing headaches, and worries that if they don't move against Rossum soon, they will miss their chance.

THOUGHTS

I suspect this episode is one of the major points of the season in which the "back nine" not having been picked up becomes visible. I would tend to assume that, had the remaining nine episodes of a 22-episode season been greenlit, there would have been at least a couple of episodes filling in this three-month gap. The script does a good job of giving us the backstory, or at least enough of it for us to make some guesses about what happened in the meantime, but it would have been nice to have seen it. Still, I can suffer one bumpy mid-season transition for the sake of getting a proper ending to the tory - and this episode probably achieves this transition as well as would have been possible.

It's a good episode too, for the most part. Keith Carradine's coldly sinister Harding is always a welcome presence, and this time he gets more than a cameo appearance. Seeing the always collected Adelle reduced to flinching every time he so much as looks at her is very effective shorthand for demonstrating just how formidable he is (though, again - I really wish we could have seen how Harding reduced her to such a point). Really, the Dollhouse scenes are uniformly excellent, with the ending being both effectively shocking and likely representing the point of no return for the future seen in Epitaph One.

The standalone plot, with Echo breaking the girl out of jail, is reasonably entertaining too, and makes good use of both Echo's composite personality and of several of the imprints we've seen in past episodes. Notably referenced are the imprints from Ghost, Gray Hour, and Man on the Street. On the other hand, the sherriff and his deputies are cartoon characters, recycled wholesale from Macon County Jail, and as such are hard to fully take seriously. I can buy a corrupt sherriff. But this sherriff and his deputies have no shades of anything to their characterizations. They're evil, brutish, and stupid: Cartoon baddies designed to make us cheer when Echo unleashes her various imprints on them. The plot is interesting insofar as seeing Echo move through her imprints deliberately, and seeing Echo work on her own initiative toward a goal. But the bad guys make the child molester/kidnapper in Ghost look like a carefully-shaded characterization by comparison.

Still, the episode moves swiftly and represents major developments in the plot. The overall effectiveness is substantially raised by the outstanding scenes involving Harding, Topher, and Adelle. Despite some issues with the standalone plot, a strong episode with a genuinely chilling ending.


Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: The Left Hand
Next Episode: A Love Supreme


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2-5. The Public Eye.

THE PLOT

Senator Perrin (Alexis Denisof) is proceeding with his investigation of Rossum and the Dollhouse. He has found a witness, someone who can testify to the existence of the Los Angeles Dollhouse: Madeline Costley (Miracle Laurie), the woman formerly known as November. After Perrin parades her in front of a press conference, Harding (Keith Carradine) comes to the Dollhouse to upbraid Adelle and to tell her to do nothing - Rossum has the situation in hand.

Neither Adelle nor Ballard much like the sound of that. When they do some research on Perrin, they uncover discrepancies in his wife (Stacey Scowley)'s background, leading them to conclude that she is an Active. A "sleeper," who will doubtless be used to permanently silence Madeline. Topher produces his latest gadget, a device that will take out any Active within a 50-foot radius. But when Ballard arrives on the scene to use the device to retrieve Madeline, he discovers that the situation is far more complex than they had realized...


CHARACTERS

Echo: Recognizes November on the news feed that Topher and Ballard are watching, and wants to help her. This causes her to initially resist when Langton offers her a treatment. Langton actually has to pause to explain that Topher will turn her into someone "who will help November" before she will consent to the treatment. We also discover a bit more about the gap between Carolyn's escape from the Rossum medical center and her enlistment in the Dollhouse. Somewhere in between those two points, she was taken deeper into Rossum, encountering at least one person who seems to be far higher up the Rossum chain than anyone at the L. A. Dollhouse.

Doll of the Week: Bree is an escort, an upscale prostitute who enjoys her job, but isn't particularly troubled at the thought of being used in the blackmail of a U. S. senator. She's not unsympathetic to Perrin when he realizes she is a Doll and expresses a desire to "save" her, seeming content to go along with a potential fantasy... but he does warn him that it may not be wise to introduce his "hooker mistress" to his wife.

The Ice Queen: When Adelle decides to stop Rossum from murdering Madeline, Ballard echoes Harding's words about her going soft. Adelle replies pragmatically, that she wants Madeline silenced just as much as Rossum does - just using less extreme methods. When she discovers enough to guess at Rossum's full game, she finds her interests in direct conflict with her employers' agenda, and coolly announces her intent to stop them.

The (Ex-) FBI Agent: Ballard continues to feel a strong connection with November, whom he can't help but think of as "Mellie." He has saved her once, and very much wants to do so again. When directly confronted with her, he is able to explain himself in a way that seems to satisfy her. However, she is also able to give him pause by pointing out that if she's free, then she's free to "make mistakes," prompting Ballard to let her go - which I suspect will prove to be a major tactical blunder on his part, though the scene works very well emotionally.


THOUGHTS

The Senator Perrin plot finally gets moving, with a few surprises along the way. I figured there would be a twist in the tale, but I genuinely did not see some of the plot turns coming. I was particularly surprised by the ending, which sees a major shift in the tone of the series. The situation in which the episode ends is not one that can be easily reset, and I suspect the show is now building momentum toward the series' final Act.

The episode itself is a good one. Eliza Dushku's performance, both as "Bree" and as the re-awakened Echo, is her best so far this season, and she is matched by a terrific performance by Alexis Denisof. The episode is well-paced, and I suspect this may have been the last real chance for new viewers to "jump aboard" and still follow the plot.

The direction is as polished as you would expect from David Solomon. There's a particularly interesting fight scene, with Echo flashing to fights from earlier in the series and matching shots from those fights in this episode's fight. It really conveys the sense that she's reliving those moments even as she replicates them. There's also a brief, but nicely creepy, performance by Summer Glau, as a character whose story I suspect will prove to be an interesting one.

Rating: 8/10.

Previous Episode: Belonging
Next Episode: The Left Hand



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2-2. Instinct.

THE PLOT

Nate Jordan (Kristoffer Polaha) is a man who has been unable to connect emotionally with his infant son, Jack, after his wife died giving birth to the boy. In desperation, he has turned to the Dollhouse to provide a mother to bond with the boy, as a last resort before putting him up for adoption.

Echo has been imprinted to act as Jack's mother, and Nate's wife. But Nate doesn't do much to play along with the illusion. He continues to be distant with the baby, and all but flinches when she so much as speaks to him. His behavior leads Echo's imprint to be suspicious of a possible affair - and when she overhears him calling the whole thing off, saying he'll "get rid of her... get rid of the baby," she believes she is overhearing a plot to kill her.

Soon, Echo is on the run from Nate. When Ballard and the Dollhouse operatives attempt to intercept her, she believes that they are working with him, possibly as paid assassins!


CHARACTERS

Echo: She apparently doesn't remember past imprints while imprinted, at least not unless something causes a glitch. "Echo" only returns after Topher performs the wipe - which is when Echo's full memories start to return. She confesses to Ballard that she not only remembers all of her imprints, she feels everything the imprints felt. She wonders why the Dollhouse has made it all feel so real. But the pain of these disparate lives is still not enough for her to take Ballard up on his offer to have Topher truly wipe her. She's "awake now," and she doesn't want to "be asleep" again.

Doll of the Week: Emily is a young wife and mother. She loves her husband, and is concerned at his growing distance from her. She is truly devoted to her young son, and when she believes both she and the boy are in danger, she doesn't hesitate to flee.

The (Ex-) FBI Agent: Ballard is acting as Echo's Handler now, but it isn't a role he's comfortable with. The teaser sees him walking around the chair before sitting in it, trying to picture what happens to Echo so very regularly. He is shaken a bit by seeing November again, when she is brought in for an exam, and he doesn't know what to say when the woman she is now - the woman she was before - tells him about what led her to the Dollhouse, and how much better off she is now that she's "not sad" anymore.


THOUGHTS

For the second episode running, we get a very predictable "A" plot. It's a stronger standalone story than Vows offered. It hangs together fairly well, and all of Echo's actions are reasonable given what she has observed. Eliza Dushku gives one of her stronger performances, and is convincingly desperate and emotional when she is fighting for what she believes is her baby. Her final scene, opposite Ballard, is also quite effective, even if it's basically a retread of the tag from Vows.

An irony of this engagement going bad, compared with certain previous ones, is that Echo doesn't "glitch" on the job. The client gives her every reason to be suspicious, and then gives her every reason to run. Even Laurence Dominic would have been hard-pressed to blame this particular "failure" on Echo.

Speaking of Dominic, I'm going out on a limb and guessing that he was Senator Perrin (Alexis Denisof)'s NSA contact. The one Perrin complained had suddenly "gone to ground." If I'm right, it's a very tidy way of linking Season Two's new running arc, with Perrin, to the events of Season One. The material with Perrin has the potential to become quite interesting, though right now the character and his subplot are clearly just there to lay ground for future events.

Ultimately, this was an "OK" episode. It was a diverting enough time-filler, and more engaging than the series' weakest episodes have been. The "A" plot was better than the season premiere's.  It's just too bad there was nothing going on in the background that was half as interesting as the Claire/Topher material from Vows.  Speaking of Claire, I'm very disappointed that there was no follow-up concerning her flight. I'd assume an Active successfully fleeing the Dollhouse would be a top priority across the board, but Adelle doesn't even seem to have noticed.  Throughout the Dollhouse, everything is pretty much "business as usual."

A lot like this episode, come to think of it.


Rating: 5/10.

Previous Episode: Vows
Next Episode: Belle Chose


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0-0. Echo.

Joss Whedon's original vision for the Dollhouse pilot, before FOX intervened. So is this a second case for Whedon of a brilliant pilot being replaced with something watered-down, ala Firefly? Or did the network actually have it right?


THE PLOT

Agent Paul Ballard is investigating the Dollhouse, but he has few leads. His colleagues consider the case a joke. His informant, Victor, tells him that he is certain the Dollhouse does not exist, and urges him to forget it. Then he receives a package in the mail. A photo of a girl, with a name written on the back: Caroline.

When Ballard has one of his few friends run the photo, it immediately raises flags with Adelle DeWitt. Her security chief, Laurence Dominic, urges her to simply dispose of Ballard, but Adelle considers killing him to be a "last resort." She has Echo imprinted, in order to find out what Ballard knows. But when Echo's behavior proves to be less than perfectly predictable, Adelle wonders if the FBI agent is the only person she needs to watch...


CHARACTERS

Echo: We see substantial evidence of Echo retaining things from previous imprints. She clearly recognizes the girl from her "pro bono" job when she goes into the hospital, and she reacts strongly to the name "Caroline." Though imprinted as an assassin, she is a shockingly ineffective one, likely because Caroline's basic makeup is not that of a killer.

Doll of the Week: When her sister disappeared without a trace, "Shauna" came to Los Angeles to search for her. The police had no answers for her, and as far as she could determine weren't even trying to follow up on any leads. Her search for her missing sister brought her into contact with unsavory types, mentions of the "Dollhouse," and finally brought her face-to-face with Paul Ballard... putting her in a perfect position to find out what Ballard knows.

The Handler: Langton displays no real emotional attachment to Echo in this pilot. If anything, he has more of a bond with Topher in this variant, as most of his scenes are opposite Topher. Langton also appears further removed from the loop here. Adelle passes on orders to Topher and Langton, but they are clearly underlings. There is no discussion, no sense that Langton and Topher even could discuss anything with her.

The Ice Queen: Adelle is much harder-edged here than in the broadcast pilot and series. She has no particular bond with or interest in Echo. As far as we can see, Echo is simply another doll to her. Laurence Dominic's harsh pragmatism about both Ballard and Echo? That was apparently given to Dominic in order to soften Adelle. In this pilot, Adelle is quite willing to kill Ballard, and it's indicated that she's willing to do the same to Echo if necessary.  I prefer the series' Adelle, whose idealism is far more interesting, when contrasted against what she actually is involved in, than this more cold-blooded version. But it is interesting to see how just a slight change made such a big difference to the character. Olivia Williams is a splendid actress, of course, and remains outstanding here.

The Genius: Topher, Version 1... is annoying. From his pet names for Langton ("Man-Friend") and Claire ("The Phantom") to his self-consciously Whedonesque style of speaking ("Rules make me feel oogy"), this Topher just makes me want to reach into the screen and punch him in his chirpy little face. That said, Topher's sheer amorality in this pilot is effective. Confronted with the potential wrongness of what they're doing, Topher's response is an emphatic, "I don't care." Unlike in the broadcast pilot, there is no sign that this is anything other than the truth - a character approach that would have made his guilt in Omega and his breakdown in Epitaph One even more powerful than they ultimately proved to be.

The FBI Agent: It explains a lot that Ballard's first really good scene in the series, his thoughtful moment with Victor in which he talks about splitting the atom and making a bomb, was actually scripted and filmed as his introduction. The one-note Ballard of the first two broadcast episodes was filling time until his plot could reach the point at which Whedon had envisioned it beginning. It doesn't make it any less of a shame that Ballard spent two episodes as a painfully hackneyed cliche before finally becoming a character, but at least it explains it.


THOUGHTS

Well, even a broken clock is right twice a day (or once a day, if you're going by military time). While there are elements of Echo that would have been interesting to start with, on the whole I think this is one of those rare cases in which the network got it right. 

In his commentary for Ghost, Whedon admitted one area in which the broadcast pilot was superior to the original. It was stronger, more powerful, to begin the series with Caroline. Just that glimpse of the real Caroline, smart and scared and defiant, made Echo into somebody real. Echo begins with the doll, its lengthy teaser just laying out the series' basic setup, complete with an expository monologue by Adelle. The teaser feels overpacked, with too much cutting between too many elements, and it's there only to lay out the concept.

Ghost managed to convey the same basic information, more tightly and less frenetically, and then even set up its standalone plot as an episode. The teaser for Ghost had my attention from that opening scene, with Caroline and Adelle. The teaser for Echo had me checking my watch - and probably would have done, even if it had been my introduction to the series.

It is interesting to see all the scenes of this pilot that were used, mostly to better effect, throughout the season. The Victor/Ballard scene, and the revelation about Victor, meant more coming a few episodes into the season, because it was one of the first things telling us that "nothing is as it appears." Here, the entire mini-arc of Victor acting as Ballard's informant is squeezed into less than ten minutes' total screentime. It's the same basic subplot, even with the same basic ending, but it doesn't work as well as those scenes being spread out over a longer period.

Lest I sound too negative, I should say that the episode's "plot," with Echo spying on Ballard, largely works. There are some good scenes between Ballard and "Shauna," and an effective twist late in the episode. But too much of this pilot is pure exposition, and there are several scenes that run far too long. Ghost captured my attention instantly. Had Echo remained the pilot, I would have been far less certain about remaining with the series.

An interesting look at what might have been.  But I think Echo is best regarded as a curiosity piece,  a rough draft of a concept that would be more effectively played in Whedon's second try.

Rating: 5/10.


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1-9. A Spy in the House of Love.

THE PLOT

Topher is hard at work repairing the damage done to his chair during Claire's experiment. That is how he discovers the security breach. A device, very small, planted in the chair. It can be used to add an extra parameter to a doll - to send messages to an FBI agent, for example.

Adelle has been called away, leaving Laurence Dominic in charge. Dominic and Topher quickly identify the bug as NSA. Dominic orders Topher to program Sierra with "all (his) best spy parts," and dispatches her to the NSA to discover the identity of the spy. He also makes it clear that he holds Topher responsible for this breach.

That's when Echo wanders into Topher's lab, offering to help. "You make people different," she observes. "You can make me help."


CHARACTERS

"Echo": The teaser sees the wiped Echo observing the strained goings-on at the house. She sees both Sierra and November taken to Topher's lab, she sees one of them put into the chair, she sees both of them come out different. And she puts the pieces together. Her awareness is growing, and by the end of the episode Topher, Adelle, Dominic, and Langton are all fully aware that "she's evolving."

Doll of the Week: Echo's imprint is a counterintelligence operative, a sharp, cold-blooded investigator with "a little bit of Sherlock Holmes" programmed into the mix. She's an expert at reading body language, a skill which leads her straight to the identity of the spy.

The Genius: When Topher is interrogated over his reasons for joining the Dollhouse, he makes it clear that he is excited by the science. He's doing work here that would be beyond the imaginations of his old professors. Topher gets to spend virtually the entire episode in panic mode, which brings out the best in Franz Kranz's performance.

The Ice Queen: We get a glimpse at Adelle's feelings of isolation. While away from the Dollhouse, she talks about the work she used to do before - stem cell research - and indicates that she misses the days when she could actually tell people what she does for a living. When she returns to the house to discover that she has been betrayed, she is merciless in dealing with the spy, sending the infiltrator "to the attic" - from which that infiltrator can still be used any time the NSA needs to be told that everything is fine, before being "put back in (his/her) box."

The FBI Agent: Without his job, without support from Mellie, left entirely to himself... Agent Ballard degenerates into a paranoid shut-in, complete with a conspiracy wall chart. His job has already been taken away from him. Now he loses another anchor, as the agent inside the dollhouse sends him a message in the worst possible way.


THOUGHTS

No real points for guessing who the spy is, but the revelation is still well-done. Plus, we finally learn exactly what "The Attic" is, and why being sent there is such a horrific fate. The nature of "The Attic" also means that the guilty party probably isn't being permanently written out of the show. After all, a doll can be taken out for use at any time.

The structure of the episode nods to Crash, as we see the same period of time through multiple viewpoints. Through the first half, each viewpoint gives us a new snippet of information as we follow each of several imprints through the events of the teaser and just a bit beyond. We see two imprints that precede the discovery, November and Victor, both of whose engagements further running plots and characters. We see Sierra's imprint, ordered by Dominic to allow him to identify the spy. Finally, we see Echo's imprint, volunteered in order to help Topher catch the spy. The strands are brought together effectively, and by starting each strand from a common point (the teaser), we are able to keep track of where we are in the story at all times.

The episode also has one very well-executed action set piece, as Sierra infiltrates the NSA. It's a flashy, fast-paced scene that wouldn't be at all out-of-place in a Bourne/Bond-style action film. A strong centerpiece to yet another very strong episode.


Rating: 9/10.

Previous Episode: Needs
Next Episode: Haunted


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1-3. Stage Fright.

THE PLOT

Rayna (Jaime Lee Kirchner) is a superstar singer managed by a long-time client of Adelle's. She has gained a huge fan following... including one insane stalker. The sabotage of a recent performance seriously injured one of Rayna's back-up singers, leaving the star's manager concerned for her safety.
One visit to the Dollhouse later, and Echo emerges as Rayna's new backup singer. She has been programmed to stay close to the girl and to be instinctively protective of her. When she discovers the true nature of Rayna's relationship with her stalker, though, the parameters of the mission are changed, in a way that's a big worry to Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond).


CHARACTERS

"Echo": She continues to retain something vague after her missions, and it doesn't seem that she's the only girl doing so. She may not recall specific things from engagements, but she has a sense of friendships, and she has a sense that it would be bad for her if those running the house knew that.

Doll of the Week: Jordan is a background singer who has had a reasonable amount of work, but no big break. She is thrilled to get a job on a major tour. She's observant and tough, and grounded enough to have no time for Rayna's self-destructive streak.

The Handler: Langton's protectiveness of Echo takes on a paternal tone. He is not just anxious for her welfare. When she is about to have her first performance, he is genuinely anxious about her doing well, his jitters reminding me (and Topher) of a nervous father. He also appears to have gained a confidante, in the pretty-but-damaged Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker). I haven't really touched on Acker's role in previous reviews, but she's been consistently excellent so far in a role that seems likely to grow more important later.

The FBI Agent: Ballard finally begins to emerge as his own character, rather than just a collection of recycled Bogie cliches. We learn some things about him that cast him in a new light. Chief among them is his track record at the FBI. He apparently doesn't have one. "You can't close," his source Victor (Enver Gjokaj) observes after doing some research on him.  Victor goes on to say that Balllard was assigned the Dollhouse case because he couldn't possibly screw up an investigation into something that doesn't exist. Ballard's reflective side is shown by his explanation of why he's so sure it does exist, musing about how when man split the atom, the first thing done with that breakthrough was to create a bomb. For the first time, Tahmoh Penikett actually reminds me of how good he was on Battlestar Galactica, and this episode gives me some hope that both actor and performance may eventually be that good here.


THOUGHTS

After the first two episodes, I'd have never thought that there would be an episode in which the Ballard story was the strongest element. Stage Fright will hopefully be a turning point for both Ballard and his subplot. Not only does he finally begin emerging as a real character, but a genuinely unexpected twist is thrown in regarding his story strand. It will be interesting to see where the show takes this new development.

As to the standalone plot this week, it's another very traditional one. The superstar with the crazed fan is one of those obligatory stories that every private detective or cop show that survives longer than one season will eventually feature. But it does manage to work a little bit better than last week's Most Dangerous Game riff.  This is partially because it doesn't have two or three other plots competing for the viewer's attention, and partially because writers Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon throw in a couple of unexpected turns. I was genuinely surprised at Rayna's reaction to her murderous stalker, and that kicked the episode up a notch in the late going.


OVERALL

I feared the worst when I realized this was going to be yet another episode with a stock plot, but Stage Fright largely works, and even manages a couple of surprises along the way. The ongoing elements in the background seem ready to be brought forward anytime now, which is promising for the show's development. There's a sense of something simmering slowly to a boil. Stage Fright in itself is only slightly better than adequate television. But what's good here gives me hope that this show is going to get a lot better before too much longer.


Rating: 6/10.

Previous Episode: The Target
Next Episode: Gray Hour


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1-2. The Target.

THE PLOT

Echo's latest persona is designed to be the perfect date for Richard (Matt Keeslar), a wealthy outdoorsman in search of a genuinely adventurous woman with whom he can share a camping trip. A simple enough engagement, which Adelle readily agrees to with an extra fee to cover potential accidents. But once the trip is underway, Richard shows a more ruthless side.

Richard is actually a psychopath, who wants a worthy adversary to hunt. He gives Echo a 5-minute head start and then pursues her with a bow and arrow, determined to kill her. Of course, Echo has Langton watching over her. But Richard appears to have planned for that, too, leaving Echo all alone to face her pursuer.  And there's another player in the mix, one whose presence no one is expecting...


CHARACTERS

"Echo": We continue to see bits of her past coming through the conditioning under stress. This time, she is drugged by The Kinky White Hunter and sees flashes of herself as Caroline, and flashes of Alpha's massacre at the Dollhouse. The combination of drugs and stress breaks down the conditioning enough that she does not instinctively respond to Langton's "trust" phrase. It's fairly obvious that at some point, these flashes will become more lasting, and Caroline's words from the premiere about always being able to see what was on the slate before it was cleaned seem likely to be a signpost for the series' direction.

Doll of the Week: Jenny is a sporty girl. She's athletic and loves the outdoors. She has four brothers, "none of them Democrats," and has no problems with using firearms. Her characterization is slimmer overall than Ellie's was, but the character is adequate to the demands of the plot, and it's a character type that suits Eliza Dushku's acting strengths quite well.

The Handler: Langton was hired after one of the "dolls," a man known as Alpha, had a violent reaction to the treatment and slaughtered several people within the house. It was decided that a more serious security background would help to minimize future risks. Langton regarded his new charge with contempt early on, seeing her as an "empty hat until (the agency puts) a rabbit in it," but quickly connected with her.  Topher's trigger phrases, designed to build trust in Langton from Echo, appeared to also have an impact on Langton.

The FBI Agent: Unfortunately, Agent Ballard continues to seem like someone who's wandered in from another show - a much worse one. We see that he's apparently the only agent in the bureau capable of sharply observing a crime scene. When he goes back to his office, and is of course harassed by his every co-worker with a speaking part, I half-expect the rest of the agents to start eating donuts. The powdered kind. While sipping bad coffee.


THOUGHTS

The Target is much closer to the quality I expected of early Dollhouse than Ghost was. There are several problems, but the biggest one is the main plot. A mere two episodes in, and the show is already pulling out the time-honored Most Dangerous Game riff. Yes, it acknoweldges what it's doing by naming Richard after the original story's author.  But just because you're acknowledging unoriginality, that doesn't somehow absolve your story of unoriginality.  Many series get around to riffing on The Most Dangerous Game - but most of them at least wait a season or two before doing so.

More promising is the introduction of "Alpha." This subplot has potential to become something interesting.  The flashbacks setting up the incident with "Alpha" and Langton's hiring provide the episode's only genuinely good material. It's just a shame the scenes seem inserted into the episode at often random-seeming points. They are good scenes, and in an otherwise weak episode are extremely welcome. They just don't feel like they belong in the same show with the rest of it.

The subplot surrounding FBI Agent Ballard remains the series' worst single element. Ballard's every scene is characterized by endless cliches. This even extends to scenes where Ballard is only discussed. I actively felt sorry for Reed Diamond and Olivia Williams as they struggled gamefully with hoary catch-phrases about how many bones a blind dog might dig up if he keeps digging holes, and so on. The show needs to do something very interesting with Ballard, very fast. Right now, I'm finding myself in agreement with Reed Diamond's Dominic about neutralizing the threat... because while Ballard doesn't seem like much of a threat to the dollhouse thus far, he doe seem like a threat to this series' potential as good entertainment.


OVERALL

As strong as Ghost was, that's about how weak The Target is. A hackneyed standalone story with a cartoon villain is given no real relief by cutaways to the even more hackneyed FBI plot. It's left to the flashbacks to try to salvage some interest out of this episode. Those flashbacks do promise better to come. But I hope there aren't too many more time-wasters on this episode's level before we get there.


Rating: 3/10.

Previous Episode: Ghost
Next Episode: Stage Fright


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1-1. Ghost.

We start with a girl and a name.  It will be interesting to see where we go from here.

THE PLOT

When an industrialist's daughter is kidnapped right out of his home, he is warned not to go the police. He does as told, dismissing the police as "useless anyway." But he does call on other connections. The "Dollhouse" is a part of an unspecified agency, which has procured several girls. This agency uses technology to wipe away their personalities and implant them with new personas - ones specifically tailored to a client's needs. They do the job, and then their persona is erased, wiped clean, "like a slate."

"Echo" (Eliza Dushku) is imprinted to act as an expert in hostage negotiations. When she arrives at the client's home, she lives up to that imprint. She is sharp, confident, and knows exactly how to deal with the missing girl's father, his security chief, and the kidnappers. Until something happens which no one could have been prepared for...


CHARACTERS

"Echo": We start with a girl and a name. Caroline. She's frightened, but trying not to show that too much. She's obviously smart, and equally obviously in over her head. We don't know what happened, we don't even know exactly what kind of trouble she's in other than that it's serious. We know just enough to see that something went wrong in a way she wasn't prepared for, and that her "actions have consequences."

Doll of the Week: Ellie Penn is an experienced hostage negotiator. She is crisp and as confident as she is competent. Her dealings with both the client and the kidnappers are expertly done, and she would be the perfect persona to deal with this situation - but for that one, unforeseen twist. Even then, she is able to play on what she knows of the case to gain a good result and has the chance to face down the ghosts of a past that she never knows isn't actually her own.

The Ice Queen: Probably the best performance in the episode comes from Olivia Williams. As Adelle DeWitt, the apparent head of this agency, she is not unlike a more jaded variation of the Ellie persona. She is very confident, and deals coolly with people ranging from Langton to the client. We are told that she likes to convince herself that her agency is doing good, but she probably doesn't entirely believe that. Williams dominates every scene she's in, even when opposite the excellent Harry Lennix. A particularly strong touch in her performance is the way in which her character smiles - a smile that never reaches her eyes.

The Handler: Harry Lennix is terrific, as always. We get some basics about Langton. He's an ex-cop, and hasn't been with the "Dollhouse" for as long as the more jaded employees. He seems to have a basic code of honor that doesn't necessarily apply to his employers, and which seems likely to end up putting him at odds with them.

The Genius: Topher (Fran Kranz) is the man responsible for wiping the girls and putting together their new personas. The first half of the episode sees him as an almost entirely despicable character. He talks to Echo as if speaking to a very slow child, and has no qualms about the painful treatment given to a new girl or about sending girls on operations that sometimes amount to glorified prostitution. His reaction when he learns something about the background of both this particular case and of the Ellie persona, however, indicates more layers than just "sleaze."

The FBI Agent: Tahmoh Penikett, who was very good in the new Battlestar Galactica, is Paul Ballard, an FBI agent assigned to investigate the "dollhouse." His superiors don't believe it even exists, but somehow his investigation has been shielded by people with influence. He is convinced of its existence, though we don't know what has him convinced since he appears to have no evidence whatsoever.


THOUGHTS

The amount I wrote under "Characters" should indicate that Ghost is a far denser premiere episode than it at first appears. The kidnapping provides a nice, traditional suspense story around which to structure these characters and concepts. But a lot gets packed into the hour. Major characters are established and each are given enough character beats to allow later episodes to flesh them out. A couple of likely ongoing threads are established. The episode even manages to tell a pretty decent standalone story, all without feeling desperately rushed.

The traditional kidnapping story is well-designed to provide a lot of exposition about the "dollhouse" that forms the series' centerpiece. Through the kidnapping plot alone, we learn several important things. We learn that the personas are modeled after real people, that they have pasts which they can remember and which can affect them. We learn that Echo's handlers can monitor her condition at all times. We even see hints of where her conditioning can break down under certain types of stress. It's a lot of information, and none of it feels force-fed, because it all occurs organically within the plot.

Equally interesting is how much information is withheld. We see the scene in which Caroline is presented with the choice to become "Echo." But we aren't told what happened to her, what she did, or how much she knows of what she's agreeing to. We are given a vague idea of what the dollhouse does. But we aren't told exactly what kind of corporation controls it, if it's part of something larger. We don't know if it has government connections, or if it's a purely private venture.

Even within the FBI story, we aren't told exactly why this FBI agent is so certain the dollhouse exists. He must have some kind of connection to it; otherwise, why not simply sit back and enjoy having an assignment to investigate something everyone is convinced doesn't exist? We're given hints and snapshots, and quite a bit of starting information. But a lot is withheld, creating questions, leaving the sense of staring at a puzzle with several pieces missing.


OVERALL

I had been warned that Dollhouse got off to a slow start, and I braced myself for a mediocre first episode. In Ghost, I was surprised to find a very well-crafted premiere. It's not perfect, with the FBI scenes barely feeling like part of the same show as the rest of it. But it's a visually stylish, well-paced hour that does a solid job of presenting the characters and concepts while telling a story in itself. On the whole, I'd say it was rather good. Certainly better than I was expecting.


Rating: 7/10.

Next Episode: The Target

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