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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2-6. The Left Hand.

THE PLOT

Echo is held captive in a Rossum lab, presided over by Bennett (Summer Glau), a brilliant but unstable scientist.  Bennett has a personal grudge against Echo - or rather, against Caroline - and tortures her mercilessly before imprinting her with a particularly vicious memory. But Adelle has no intention of letting Rossum claim Echo. She has set up a meeting with a Rossum executive (Ray Wise), while directing Topher to meet with Bennett. Adelle uses her particular blend of directness and feminine wiles to get Echo released, while Topher uses his own technical wizardry to figure out what Bennett's been up to.

But Bennett's grudge leads to an unpredictable turn. Soon, Echo and Senator Perrin (Alexis Denisof) are on the run, with Rossum's finest in pursuit. And there's one final twist to Bennett's revenge, one which could turn everyone's plans upside-down!


CHARACTERS

Echo: Before she became an Active, Caroline apparently got into this Rossum lab, sometime after her first foray into Rossum. She was friends with Bennett, whom she probably used to get into the lab. Something Bad happened, resulting in Bennett's arm getting pinned, and Caroline was rather callous about leaving the other girl to her fate rather than trying to help her. In the present, Echo has pretty much become fully aware, as she pushes Perrin to use his position to expose Rossum while at the same time making her own escape. The episode ends with Echo on the loose, with no way for the Dollhouse to track her - a situation that presents a lot of interesting possibilities...

The Ice Queen: Adelle may have been out-manipulated by Harding and Rossum, but she's still a formidable woman. With manipulation no longer an option, when presented with a weak-willed Rossum executive (Ray Wise), she opts for brute force. She's quite skillful at it, and the only reason she doesn't get everything she wants out of the exchange is Bennett's personal baggage taking her off-script.

The Genius: This episode gives us a double-dose of Topher. There's Fran Kranz's usual, entertaining performance, as Topher goes out into the field. His nervous fidgeting in Adelle's limousine is quite funny, as he alternates between behaving like a small child with ADD and admitting, with nice vulnerability, that he is "outside (his) comfort zone" when out of his lab. His attraction to Bennett (Summer Glau) is convincing, and I enjoyed every moment Kranz and Glau shared on-screen. We also get Victor-as-Topher, Topher having duplicated himself in order to work on the problem both in his lab and in person. Scenes in which Topher literally talks to himself are hilarious, as Enver Gjokaj does a fantastic job of imitating Kranz's mannerisms.

THOUGHTS

As a resolution to the cliffhanger posed by The Public Eye, The Left Hand does its job well. It's entertaining, particularly when Topher is center-stage (in either guise), and it moves the plot that little bit closer to the future we saw in Epitaph One.

Really, that's becoming one of the great strenghts of Season Two, now that the season's properly underway. Having seen the future, there is a sense of steadily approaching doom over all of the proceedings. With each new step, from Topher's well-intentioned inventions to Rossum's manipulations, the possible paths for the characters to turn away from disaster are steadily closing down. Now each episode closes off another opportunity to prevent the future, turning a maze of possibilities steadily into a one-way tunnel... one that's heading for a collision with an oncoming train.

The Left Hand is not as strong an episode as The Public Eye, however. It's less compelling, with less of the sense of a thriller hanging over it. It gets where it needs to go, and it's a fun journey to take. But even the ominous note struck by the ending doesn't have the same gut punch to it as the revealtions in the previous episode did. It's a good episode, make no mistake, and yet another episode that leaves me anticipating what's going to come next.  But it just lacks that certain extra "something" that the strongest episodes have, limiting my score to a solid and enjoyable:

Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: The Public Eye
Next Episode: Meet Jane Doe

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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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1-8. Needs.

THE PLOT

The drug the Actives were exposed to has caused problems. They are having memory glitches, going off-mission, and showing signs of memory even in their wiped states. Adelle has decided drastic measures are needed to stop these problems from building into the creation of another Alpha, and she authorizes Topher to experiment with the drug treatment that keeps them without memory.

The next morning, the five Actives in Echo's sleeping hub wake up. They don't remember anything, but they are themselves again, personalities intact. When one of their number draws attention to himself and is taken away, the other four realize how important it is that they are not noticed. They need to escape. Now.

Up in the head office, Adelle DeWitt and Laurence Dominic watch and study their every move. "Like rats in a maze..."


CHARACTERS

"Echo": The series opened with the frightened but defiant Caroline talking about how she wanted to "make a difference." Even with no memory, once Caroline gets a look at what the Dollhouse is, she decides to head back in.  After she sees one of the blank young Actives taken out in a prostitute's getup, and another coming back as a soldier, she determines that the house is a "people factory," and decides that she can't just run away. She has to "try to make a difference."

Victor: The confident leadership skills his imprint displayed in the previous episode? Those appear to actually be part of Victor's own personality. He takes charge almost immediately. He also recognizes that the names the Actives are called by are codes. Given the brief flash of his memories we saw in Echoes, I'm guessing Victor comes from the military. As was the case in the previous episode, Enver Gjokaj seems to really enjoy getting this strong material.

The Genius: Topher is not someone who's generally out of control within his own office. This episode sees the experiment get out of control, allowing Fran Kranz to show a different side to Topher's character: fear. He is very good in the scene in which Echo holds him at gunpoint, demanding answers from him.

The Ice Queen: Topher still believes all of the Actives are volunteers. It's on that basis that Adelle defends the Dollhouse, that the Actives all volunteered to escape from memories too painful to continue carrying. We do know that Caroline had at least one horribly painful memory, and we learn this is the case for November, too. Adelle desperately wants to believe that she's doing something good. But is she aware of cases like Sierra's, where enough money or power was applied to take someone against her will? It seems inconceivable that she doesn't know, but even one case like that - and you'd have to assume that there would be more than just one - seems to break down her entire defense.

THOUGHTS

Needs isn't really a big plot episode, though I expect at least some of its revelations will be revisited. It is mainly a character episode, one that sheds some light on who the principle Actives were, before they became Actives. We get some key backstory about November and Sierra, we see Victor's true nature. And we get our first sustained, episode-long look at Caroline in action - not Echo, not some random imprint, but Caroline herself. The Actives have been more plot devices than people, with the strongest character material carried by either Ballard or the people running the Dollhouse. This episode allows the Actives to become characters.

Which isn't to say the Dollhouse staff are neglected. Laurence Dominic has recovered from his drug-induced remorse over trying to murder Echo, and he is back to being his usual, cold self, comparing the "dolls" to "pets." Topher and Adelle each get an outstanding scene opposite Caroline. This is also the strongest episode yet for Amy Acker's Claire, who has become probably my favorite secondary character. She is extremely compassionate, absolutely sincere... and yet at the end, it's clear that Langton doesn't trust her. Given the strength of Langton's instincts, and given how sympathetic Claire has been played, I can't help but wonder what twist is in store.

The episode is wonderfully directed by Felix Enriquez Alcala.  It features a strong score, and is closed out by a haunting, thematically-astute song about how they're all there because they "have nowhere else to go." The final image, of the pods closing up again, shutting the "pets" back in their cages, is beautifully timed and photographed. It's visually gorgeous, haunting, and chilling all at the same moment.


Rating: 10/10. My favorite episode to date.

Previous Episode: Echoes
Next Episode: A Spy in the House of Love

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1-6. Man on the Street.

THE PLOT

After casting a surreptitious eye over the money trail from the Crestejo kidnapping, Agent Ballard manages to get a solid lead: Joel Mynor (Patton Oswalt), a pudgy Internet billionaire who manages to turn up at social events with a different "glamorous nobody" on his arm every time. With another likely event coming up, Ballard breaks into Myner's home... and finds himself face-to-face with Echo, who believes herself to be her "client's" wife.

Meanwhile, after Sierra screams when Victor touches her, Dr. Saunders gives her a check-up. She finds evidence that Sierra has been raped. Given the attraction he's demonstrated toward Sierra, Victor is the immediate prime suspect. But Langton isn't sure it's as simple as that.


CHARACTERS

"Echo": Even in her "wiped" state, she seems to take on the leadership role among the trio of herself, Victor, and Sierra. Victor checks with her before acting on his assumption that "Sierra always eats with (them), right?" She is the one who is able to remember that Sierra has been crying at night, and is the one who reports that to Langton and Dr. Saunders. She may be a clean slate, but her reasoning skills are intact.

Doll of the Week: Two dolls. First is Rebecca Mynor, the Internet mogul's loving wife. Second is an apparent assassin. Neither role really has any depth, but I'll mention them for the sake of being complete.

The Ice Queen: An outstanding episode for Olivia Williams. I love the way Adelle reacts to situations without fully reacting. She always stays composed, she's always poised, always "on stage." But there's also just a hint behind the eyes, just a slight pull to her expressions, to let you know when something is seriously bothering her. When the rapist is identified, Adelle faces the man down in chilling form.

The FBI Agent: When Ballard confronts Mynor, you're expecting the upright, if unorthodox, FBI agent to batter the scuzzy client into telling him something. Chances are, you're not expecting the thoughtful conversation that ensues. Joel Mynor's observations indicate that Ballard may not be as purely upright as he thinks he is. This doesn't come across as Hannibal Lecter-style mind games. Mynor's words carry a ring of truth, and are likely to color my perceptions of Ballard from this point out.


THOUGHTS

"They're all broken," Langton says of the dolls. When Mynor tells his story to Ballard, it seems that the dolls aren't the only ones who are "broken" in this arrangement. Mynor has been broken by the tragedy in his past. Mynor sizes up Ballard as a man who's broken in his own way. The entire structure of the Dollhouse is broken by Sierra's rape, a violation that no one can explain... and yet, once Langton finds the explanation, it seems clear enough that in a place such as this, such a violation would inevitably happen, no matter how tight the security.

It was clear throughout Dollhouse's first five episodes that there was a much more interesting series waiting in the wings than the one those episodes represented. All of those episodes, even the weakest of them, provided postcard glimpses of that potential. The Man on the Street finally delivers on those promises.

The real heart of the episode comes early on, in the scene between Mynor and Ballard. It's not only the best scene of the episode, it's the best scene of the series so far. It's already hard to remember how one-dimensional and uninteresting Ballard was in the first couple of episodes. From Stage Fright on, Ballard has become a character with depth, and even a bit of darkness... all of which brings out the best in Tahmoh Penikett, who is finally delivering a performance of the same intensity he displayed in Battlestar Galactica.

The episode offers one ending twist that I saw coming a few episodes back. But that twist is folded within at least one inverted cliche and one new mystery. The Man on the Street is highly successful in that it stands alone as a piece of drama, but opens up avenues for future storylines.


Rating: 10/10.

Previous Episode: True Believer
Next Episode: Echoes

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