Dollhouse – Give them what they need

It was a strange week down at the Dollhouse, where things were not necessarily what they seemed to be. And that’s a good thing. Despite a couple of nagging questions, that we will get to later, this was an important episode in two respects. First, it gave us some more back story for the actives, something that has been sorely lacking. In doing so, it also answered one of the ongoing complaints about the show. The idea that if every week something goes wrong, how could the Dollhouse stay in business.

Let’s start with the glitch part of that and work to the more complicated bits later. It was a thought that crossed my mind early on as well, but I had kind of dismissed it based on a numbers thing. Yes, from what we saw, operation of the Dollhouse was a bumbling affair. But then, we are only seeing a small fraction of the operation. As we saw with Echo leading the other dolls outside, there are a lot of them. If those missions are going off without a hitch, it at least gives some credence to the idea that the operation isn’t a complete failure. More fuel was added to the fire as Echo, Sierra, November, and Victor were even mentioned as the most troubling cases.

So, with that out of the way, let’s get to the great escape. It was pretty clear from the get go that the fearsome foursome weren’t actually escaping. It was just too easy. That didn’t take anything away from the episode though, because I was completely puzzled by what the endgame was for the Dollhouse. The ultimate explanation, that the actives needed these experiences to close open loops that were causing the glitches, was great. I’m right on board with that idea.

Although, I’m not quite as on board with the execution of it. With Echo and November, it works. Echo finally beat Rossum and saved everyone. The end. November got the closure she needed with her daughter. OK. But would you call Sierra’s little excursion ‘closure’? Rather than closure, it seemed like another kick to the mental crotch, as Nolan (Vincent Ventresca) got away with it all over again. I don’t think “I know what you did” really passes for healing that particular ill. And that same problem exists with Victor. If what he needed was to save Sierra, after he couldn’t do anything about Hearn, did the scene with Nolan really do it? It’s a good idea, but Nolan should have gone out a window to make it really work.

While we’re on the subject of Nolan… as if we didn’t have enough evidence that the people that run the Dollhouse are monsters. How Echo ended up as an active is still up for debate, as we still haven’t been given the full story. I took it as a far cry away from volunteering, but there is still the grey area that perhaps she didn’t leave herself any other option. Not a lot of grey area with Sierra, or rather, Priya. She was kidnapped and forced into this. The buck stops there, right? It’s left unclear whether or not Adelle knew about how she came to them, but given what we’ve seen, I have to think she was involved.

And it really means that nothing she says, or any of them really, can be trusted. So, as she goes on to Caroline about how everyone is a volunteer, or Topher protests that, “We’re good people,” it all rings awfully hollow. They’re all horrible people. Unless… they are working to bring down the Dollhouse. That’s the out that is still available for Boyd and Saunders. It’s interesting what they’ve done with Boyd. The way he relates to Echo, and wants to protect her, makes you really want to like him. But at the end of the day, he does keep bringing her back. More troubling though, was that last scene with Saunders where they talked about Sierra. Given his reaction to Hearn abusing her, how is Nolan any different? It was OK to abuse her before she became an active? His lack of reaction was troubling.

I still like Saunders as the person on the inside, and the fact that she was the brains behind the escape experiment can still work with that. If the glitches in these four actives were getting to the point that she really thought they could be sent to the attic (and they really need to define that to make it all the more menacing), ‘fixing’ them would be her best course. It keeps the actives safe, and earns her all that much more trust with the company. Of course, the troubling bit is that if it worked, all the progress the actives have made has now been wiped out.

All things considered, I’d still call it another very good episode. Despite some gripes about how some of it played out, the show has now found its footing and is moving along very well. The simple test for any show comes when you see the preview for next week. If your reaction is, “I’m looking forward to that.” then they are doing something right. Dollhouse certainly succeeds in that regard.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Apr 04, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT