Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 2.4: Belonging

Sierra becomes the immediate focus of this week’s episode as we flash back in to her past. Apparently she is a starving Australian artist named Priya. Nolan, the man interested in her, is a Rossum executive and rather important scientist in the doll program.

It goes to the point that the art show Nolan puts on seems to be an elaborate hoax produced by Rossum. Unfortunately she doesn’t show a hint of interest which leads to her new role as Sierra. He continues to manipulate her now that he can easily seduce her whenever he pleases. And that’s just the set-up.

Topher quickly uncovers the reason for Sierra’s distress, but it only comes to bring out how big of rat bastards Rossum as a whole actually are. We also learn why this effects the normally calm Topher so much: he believed he was helping Priya when he turned her in to Sierra.

Topher goes in to business for himself and imprints Priya with her own memory. The imprint doesn’t do anything to break down her relationship with Victor which is another interesting statement on how poor the doll-making process actually seems to be.

Nolan and Priya fight until Priya stabs the sick bastard to death. Topher, and then Boyd show up after the death and go to work disposing of the corpse by dissolving it in the bathtub. Boyd is nothing if not disturbingly professional.

Boyd also seems to be in business for himself as he also learns of Echo’s own memory issues. It’s good to see Boyd actually get to be the smart character he was for most of the first season. He goes as far as to leave Echo a security badge.

Interesting note: this episode was directed by actor turned director Jonathan “Commander William Riker” Frakes. Good to see him working on some genre television again.

“Belonging” proved to be one of the best episodes of this series so far.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 2.2: Instinct

Topher opens the show with a chat about the human brain to Ballard. Must say I am a big fan though of “The brain is kind of like Van Halen, if you just pull out one piece and keep replacing it, it just degenerates.”. As we see Echo, the ability that Topher talks about becomes clear, as she breast feeds a child she thinks is her own.

Echo begins to think her husband is up to no good, when in reality he is a greaving husband trying to cope with the loss of his wife & child by using her.

The senator continues to investigate Rossum, but his evidence isn’t solid. But his lady-friend (wife?) does return from an rang doorbell with a stack of files for him.

Adele pays a visit to the former November, and she seems a little standoffish. Adele insists that Melanie come in for a check-up and she realizes Adele will not take no for an answer.

Echo is acting overly paranoid at her current assignment. She calls her friend Kelly (actually Sierra) worried that her husband wants her dead. But when Kelly arrives so does the black van she saw outside. They take Kelly for her treatment and she just grows more paranoid.

She escapes the house and uses “Kelly”s car to make her escape. The father freaks out because Echo disappeared with his son. She finds a pair of police officers on the street and reports the situation as a potential crime. At the precinct, they take the baby away and Ballard (acting as an FBI agent) drags her away.

Back at the Dollhouse, Madeline gets a clean bill of health. After the check-up, Ballard returns with Echo who knocks Madeline to the side.

After Madeline and Ballard have a chat, Echo finally goes in for treatment. But the treatment doesn’t quite take. She decks Topher.

Senator Perrin learns the true status of the Dollhouse. And they apparently have a name to trace.

Echo tries to escape, but her mind does not retain any knowledge. The glandular situation mentioned at the beginning of the show has seriously affected Echo’s mental state. She wants the baby back, without any knowledge of who the baby is.

Echo breaks in to the house and retrieves the baby and a knife. Dad explains the situation to a confused Echo who has enough sense left to understand. She quietly leaves the house and returns to the park.

She and Ballard discuss the situation. We really begin to get in to the situation that gives Echo agony. Ballard offers her an out, but she reiterates that she “doesn’t want to go back to sleep” just as our episode ends.

We get a decidedly different episode of Dollhouse this week. While not as solidly built as last week’s show, we do get a few good character bits with Madeline and Echo. We learn more about Alexis Denisof’s crusading senator character, but we still see very little to differentiate his quest from Ballard’s last season. But the ability to not have to rely on easy answers and the season’s worth of narrative drive the show has to build upon, clearly seems to have set this season up to be much more capable of building an ongoing storyline.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 2.1: Vows

We open the new season back in the present day. Echo is put in to a project where she is married.

Dr. Saunders is playing games with Topher’s mind, even as Langdon and Claire seem to be deepening their relationship. But the doc has plenty of issues to deal with since the revelation of her own status as an active.

Ballard’s mixed feelings about his new situation are obvious as Echo continues from wedding day in to wedding night. But the mission is apparently Ballard’s idea, as her new husband is an arms dealer. Her new self thinks she is an FBI agent as well, active on an undercover mission.

While back for treatment, Echo has an echo (for lack of a better word) of a previous mission alongside Whiskey. But even in her numbed state, Echo seems to be gaining deductive reasoning.

Alexis Denisof (of Angel fame) makes his debut as Senator Daniel Perrin, a crusading statesman on a mission to expose malpractice by the Rossum Corporation.

Dr. Saunders hits on Topher back at the house (where he apparently sleeps in the server room). In the process, we actually get a look in to Topher’s head as something more than a morally ambiguous nerd.

Martin attacks Echo in his house and accuses her of being someone else. But the head injury also causes her to have flashes again. She is doing rather well, until the flashes cause her to lose her identity mid-speech.

Martin brings Roma/Echo with him on the arms trade. Ballard uses Echo’s flashes and channels her previous fight with him (from last season). Suddenly an expert martial artist, she takes out Clar’s men Jet Li-style. She goes as far as leaping on Clar’s car and using his own explosive to stop his escape.

Saunders leaves for greener passages, while Sierra and Victor still seem to have a connection. Meanwhile, Echo speaks with Ballard. She admits to being aware of all her past selves. Ballard tells her that Caroline is the real her, but Echo seeks to find away to save all her past lives. And so Ballard goes from being the dollhouse’s enemy from the outside to being Echo’s handler... and maybe an even greater threat from the inside.

Dollhouse 1.13: Epitaph One

Before we get to the review of the first episode of Dollhouse season 2 this weekend, we need to take a look at the missing episode “Epitaph One”.

Ten years in a future, the world is a disaster. We seem to be following a small group of survivors as they try to escape a bunch of crazy people turned monsters called butchers. They stumble from one underground hiding hole to another and as we open, we stumble upon the Dollhouse.


Apparently, somehow just about everyone has been wiped in to some kind of killing machine. They implant a wiped man in their band, apparently with one of Adele’s memory. We follow that with a look at Topher’s first day on the job.

In 2019, the little girl goes to the bathroom while her escort stops to use a well-needed shower. She of course lets her guard down and gets knocked down by her own flashlight.

Our next flashback comes post episode 1.12, with Ballard as her agent. But Echo somehow maintains her own intelligence post-implant.

In the past/present, Boyd and Dr. Saunders discuss Langdon’s leaving of the facility.

In the future, we find Whiskey/Claire acting more than a little crazy. She asks them if they are looking for Safe Haven, which is apparently another legend in the post-mindwipe-land.

We learn that Mr. Ambrose, a higher-up at Rossum, has changed the rules of actives. He has imprinted himself to Victor’s mind, apparently permanently.

In the future, Iris murders Griff, the group’s leader, and plants the gun on her brain-wiped “dad”.

In the past-present, Adele resurrects Dominic in to the mind-wiped world of the future. They find that Caroline has the answers. Sierra and Victor have a heart to heart in the past (in their real identities).

In the future, Zone is stupid enough to give the kid a gun. They learn Iris is an imprint. But Zone already knew because of the birthmark tattoo.

In the past, the group at the Dollhouse seem to have gained an almost religious furor in the post-mess world. Topher has went quite insane. He explains a way to make pre-programmed warriors through a phone call and realizes he had already done it. Caroline and Ballard arrive minutes later.

As a kid, Caroline agrees to lead the survivors to Safe Haven. Whiskey stays behind even as the butchers arrive on a mad rampage. They escape up the elevator shaft while Whiskey turns on some kind of gas failsafe. The episode ends with Zone, Mag, and the new Caroline setting out for Safehaven from Adele’s office.

An interesting episode to say the least, with Felicia Day and Zack Ward putting on excellent performances as Mag and Zone. With this not being the final episode as planned and only a DVD extra, it will now be interesting to see what it will mean for season 2 of Dollhouse. Joss says Felicia Day will be back next season though, so I suppose we will have to wait and see. As I think about, I personally wonder if the future narrative may not prove a far more fulfilling story to tell in the long run. We will see as things get kicking tomorrow with “Vows”.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.12: Omega

Topher begins to act suspiciously in the aftermath of the fight.

Alpha flashes between multiple personalities as he and his Southern trash girlfriend Echo are apparently on a crime spree.

We flashback to a few years before, to the previous imprints of slightly crazy folks (I assume the imprint that Echo has now). They were the ultimate fantasy of some guy named Lars, but the female active wasn’t Echo at all... it was the good doctor Claire Saunders. We look at the perverse torture they put the customer through, before they are taken out, and Alpha and Whiskey are brought home.

Back in the present, they explain that Ballard brought Alpha back in to the facility. Ballard makes a deal with the Dollhouse to get a terrorist threat that Alpha called in canceled. Ballard tries to use his connection with the FBI agent to get a full scale raid, but his old rival Graham instead just empties the outside are of all agents.

Alpha has built his own chair in his own home and he took Echo’s previous imprints to go along with it.

We flashback to the previous Dr. Saunders as he treats Whiskey. He acts with an uncanny similarity to the current Dr. Saunders. They watch as Caroline is shown the grand tour of the facility and given the five year spiel again.

The woman Echo and Alpha kidnapped is strapped to Alpha’s chair. They make out as Alpha imprints his victim with another memory.

The flashbacks continue as we watch Alpha’s obsession with Echo grow deeper.

And in the present, Alpha imprints his victim with the mind of the original Caroline. Alpha proceeds to mentally torture the new Caroline and Echo’s current imprint.

In flashback mode, Alpha cuts down Whiskey because he hears her handler say she’s the number one doll. They take him in to the treatment room. He attacks his handler who damages the device. He kills his handler by driving thumbs in to the man’s brains, and murders the original Doctor Saunders as his first victim.

Alpha composites Echo as Caroline is forced to watch. The new Echo, who Alpha calls Omega, gets up and instead of killing Caroline takes out Alpha with a pipe.

Carl William Craft was Alpha’s original identity. He was a criminal: a kidnapper, an attempted murderer, a potential sociopath.

Alpha talks to the new Echo. He declares them gods, or at least supermen. As Echo talks to Caroline, Alpha attacks again and the two fight it out.

Ballard and Boyd visit Craft’s previous victim... a victim he slashed just as Alpha does. Echo and Caroline decide to put her mind back in Echo’s mind. But Echo kills the new Caroline and threatens to destroy the wedge.

He forces Echo in to the chair. He promises to imprint her with her own memory, kill her, and then imprints other Carolines and kill them too. But Echo calls his mindgame and chances him out of the industrial pit (the same one he was at with Whiskey) and goes skyward.

Ballard and Boyd arrive in time to get shot at by Alpha, even as Echo is still following him. He throws her imprint away and she climbs out on a bar to go get it. It falls, but Ballard retrieves it. Alpha uses the time to escape.

Claire Saunders realizes that she is in fact Whiskey. She has a brief, vindictive meeting with Topher about it, even going so far as to ask him why he made her hate him so much. Interesting little play between the two.

Ballard makes a deal with DeWitt in exchange for November’s (or rather Madeline Costley’s) freedom from the company. Topher resets Echo back to her blank slate, while Claire stops Victor to give him one of the original Dr. Saunders’ candies.

We end with Echo going to bed and she whispers the name “Caroline”.

A check at IMDB shows this isn’t actually our finale though, as come mid-summer (my birthday of July 28 to be exact) we have at least one more episode of the show: “Epitaph One”. These reviews will be back this summer to cover it. In the mean time, we can all sit and see if Joss’ new vision returns for next season.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.10 Haunted and 1.11 Briar Rose

We have a Dollhouse two-fer as I skip back to cover Haunted followed by last week’s Briar Rose! Then I will be back within the next day with a look at Omega!

Echo wakes up in the body of an older woman named Margaret, who decided to use a doll to finish off the issues of her estate. But her main goal is to solve her own murder. Definitely a unique use of a doll.

Topher has a special project that apparently involves turning Sierra in to his ultimate game playing buddy. Really?

Ballard tries his best to have a romantic dinner with Mellie despite his knowledge of her dual identity. And wants to run a DNA test apparently. Woops, no just prints. They looked in to various aliases of November, only to have the files disappear instantly.

Son tries to make out with “mother” which ends in dry heaves. They are playing this one for all they can.

Margaret-Echo-Julia works her way through the list of suspects, but she cannot quite grasp any potential murderers.

Wild, crazy sex between Ballard and Mellie. I was hoping we might get out of this holding pattern.

Someone is stalking Echo-Margaret in the dark stall. It’s her son Nicholas, who recognizes her as Margaret. He knows about the Dollhouse, but only the New York branch.

The husband finds out his new horse was juiced and gets angry as mother and son watch on. The son helps Margaret escape, and the husband chases them down. Nicky gets her to write a note about how her husband murdered her, but she begins suspicious as she writes the note. Nicky pulls out the drugs and plots to poison her again.

The two men fight, and Jack laments the loss of his wife as he bleeds out in the bed.

She writes a different, posthumous will for the rest of the family.

An interesting episode, although it seems a little late in the season to really be useful to the ongoing storyline. It feels like a holding pattern episode yet again, in a show that I feel has had a few too many of them.

Briar Rose opens with a living body in a trash bin and a disturbed young lady listening to a story. Which is apparently why we are here.

Okay, so we are imprinting the future best possible scenario of the kid on Echo and using her to help the child as a test.

Mellie is suicidally despondent before her handler retrieves her. And Ballard follows her right straight to the Dollhouse. That was easy, wasn’t it?

They bring Victor back with Dominic’s imprint and he freaks out. (Victor does an amazing Dominic impersonation by the way.) But why wouldn’t they tweak Dominic’s brain just a bit like they do with other imprints?

Ballard goes to meet Stephen Keppler, the environmental expert that helped design the Dollhouse (who is played by Alan (Wash) Tudyk of Firefly). He is a crazed environmentalist with a lot of pot in his apartment. Ballard forces him to take him out and open the Dollhouse.

Dominic admits the drive isn’t from the NSA, but from Alpha. Someone killed a person near the Tuscon dollhouse, but it may or may not be Alpha’s work.

Ballard and Keppler are doing a bad comedy act with their break-in at the Dollhouse. Obviously there is more to Keppler tahn we are letting on. They find themselves in the same space where Sierra was raped by her handler.

Nice cut to Susan, the kid, as we show how Ballard is Briar Rose’s Sleeping Beauty.

Sierra is a forensics expert sent to investigate the slashed body.

They sneak in to the Dollhouse and Ballard immediately tases Topher and heads in to his lab. Topher’s computer is too secure to access however. Keppler is strangely more interested in investigating now, all though still a paranoid. Ballard sees Victor and realizes Lubov was a fiction as well.

Keppler starts opening security to release dolls while Ballard checks them one by one. After a brief glance of November and his decision to leave her behind, he finds Echo.

But Boyd stops him with a gun to his head. Boyd and Ballard fight, breaking through Victor’s bed. Echo flashes back to their preivious fight and turns on Ballard. Boyd and Ballard start fighting again. Keppler systematically removes all security as the two men fight.

The doctor takes Victor back to her lab and Keppler appears to slash up his face. Because, of course, Keppler is Alpha. Saw that one coming a mile away. He plays mindgames with the doctor as Boyd takes Ballard to see DeWitt. They discuss Boyd’s fate, while Alpha has the doctor call to Echo.

And Keppler was a vic in Tucson, replaced by Alpha. Alpha imprints Echo as the episode ends and we play up the Sleeping Beauty aspects again as they leave.

Not exactly the way I thought we would get to Alpha, but beautifully put together episode by Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson. My Buffy fandon (and I am sure a lot of Buffy fans got it as well) makes me immediately suspicious of simple plots, as does the fact that Tudyk was a Firefly star. But even though Alpha was no surprise to me, this will still a spot on episode. This is exactly what the show has built to, and it is carried out perfectly here. On to “Omega” shortly!

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.9: A Spy in the House of Love

All apologies for the lateness of this post... real life has me backed up on just about all my non-Heroes television viewing, and I actually forgot for awhile that I had this episode to watch. Too bad, as it is one of the best so far.

We open with a shot at the end of the story where a lot of electricity and a gunshot come from Topher’s office. From there we start the flashback...

Right to Eliza Dushku in dominatrix gear. I love you, Joss Whedon. Dominic is being left in charge; that could be trouble or so I would assume.

Boyd and Topher discuss the possibility of a spy, as Topher has found a chip in the system that alters implants. In the aftermath, Echo volunteers to help, showing she knows how the process works.

We again flashback to Mellie’s imprint. We move on in the story with Mellie again visiting Ballard’s apartment. Mellie shows that she is actually November and that Mellie has been designed as a spy against him. The spy reveals that he needs to find out why the dollhouse exists before he can understand it completely.

We return from commercial with Sierra’s imprint. She takes the place of an Asian woman who really does not look that similar. She breaks in to a facility under Dominic’s orders to find a chip. She gets it, but she gets cornered as the segment ends.

Victor is next, as he goes on a lonely hearts engagement as Roger. After visiting an older lady though, he moves on to meet with DeWitt, who is apparently the real client. After getting rid of the phone, the two have a fencing match that leads to sex. Later, Victor awakens to a weeping DeWitt, but we still don’t know why.

We move on to an imprinted Echo. She interrogates Topher, Echo, Ivy the assistant, and the doctor. But Sierra returns, and apparently Ivy is the spy. But Echo says the true spy is Dominic. He reveals himself by attacking her. They have a bit of a kung fu battle, before Echo takes him out. Echo takes Dominic to meet DeWitt. He reveals that his mission with the NSA was to keep the Dollhouse from imploding on itself.

So, we actaully take a big step forward this week, as we learn what exactly the attic is. And even in his eventual demise (mentally anyway), Dominic takes a bit of solace in the fact that eventually, Echo will bring them all down just as he predicted. Dominic has one last attempt at breaking free, even manages to shoot DeWitt in the side, but in the end he gets “sent to the attic”, and his memory left on another imprint disc.

We end with Boyd becoming the new head of security, and the declaration that Echo may not need all that much protection anymore. And we meet Travis, her new handler. But even as she takes the imprint, her eyes stray back to Boyd....

Wow, so different this week. I could have done without the odd narrative format, but otherwise this is easily the best non-Joss scripted episode so far. I am still not sure I buy Dominic as the man funneling Ballard information (why would he do that?), but we put things together to move the show forward more than we have in most of the show’s episodes. Hopefully, we can wrap up the current saga fairly well as we wind the show down over the next three (and possibly last) episodes.

Super-Powered TV: Heroes 3.22: Turn & Face the Strange

Been busy watching and reviewing Wrestlemania, but I am still on track with a very early Wednesday morning update! Ha, I am finally getting ahead of schedule on this thing! Anyway, on to tonight’s episode.

Hiro and Ando are having their own problems with a baby that doesn’t want to go the same direction they are. Ando finds that he has to make an odd gremlin face in order to keep the baby happy and allow them to continue towards Washington.

At Building 26, Noah receives a visit from Sandra. So she knows where their base is but otherwise it’s a secret? Noah knows that the body isn’t really Sylar, and will take any risk to prove it. Like Parkman with Danko, Sylar wants his own revenge on Noah. But Sandra serves him with the divorce papers, and Noah doesn’t know how to respond. It is a lie though, as this Sandra is really Sylar. The signature on the divorce paper gives away Sylar’s shape shifting secret. But he thinks that the first Sandra is Sylar. But a phone call from Lyle saves her life before he can shoot. But it just serves to push his wife farther away from him. Noah, sans glasses, visits Danko’s office with a couple files. He implies he isn’t Noah, but instead Sylar. Danko walks right in to a trap, and Noah draws on him. Danko tells Noah the supposed secret identity of Sylar, but it is instead an innocent man, an innocent man that Noah killed. Noah is left on the run, just like the other heroes. After he leaves, the corpse recovers and transforms back in to Sylar.

Mohinder wants to flee, but Parkman is ready to go after Danko once and for all. Matt uses his powers to push Danko towards the person he most cares about. Danko visits a young foreign woman as Matt watches. After Danko leaves, Matt breaks in to her house and tries to force himself to kill her in return for Daphne’s death. Instead he sits down and has a chat with her, and learns she is actually an escort. Parkman tells Elena about Danko’s true life. Parkman still cannot kill her, but Hiro arrives in time to stop Danko from killing Parkman. Hiro introduces Matt to baby Matt, and in the process, gives Parkman something to live for.

Angela and Peter, Claire and Nathan, the compromised Noah, and even Suresh all are pointed towards a place called Coyote Sands. Angela and Peter are the first to arrive, followed shortly by Claire and Nathan. They start digging until Nathan finds a skull with a bullet in its head. But Angela reveals that they have only found the first. As Noah arrives, they uncover more and more skeletons... a mystery that will have to wait until next week and “1961”.

A good episode, coming back from some of the missteps of last week quite well. The shape-shifting nonsense is going to get old really fast, and will almost certainly be a game breaker just like Peter and Hiro’s old abilities. It reminds me a little bit of Dollhouse where you are always left to guess exactly who is real and who isn’t.

Next episode will clearly be another flashback: one that will apparently tell us the true, true, true origin of the powers. That sounds somewhat familiar... I’ll be back then, as volume four of Heroes nears its close.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.8: Needs

We open with Echo paying another visit to Ballard. Echo/Caroline comes on to Ballard, Mellie walks in, and this has to be a dream.

While the higher-ups meet and discuss the situation with the actives, the actives are actively having flashbacks. Not just Echo, but Sierra and Victor as well. And Caroline, not Echo, wakes up in her sleep chamber.

Everyone in the chamber wakes up with their original personalities but without their specific memories. That includes not just Victor and Sierra, but November and another male (Mike). And they are all more than a little confused about the nature of the Dollhouse.

Mike gets caught quickly, and treated. The four of them realize just what kind of danger they are in. But we learn that this is part of Dominic and DeWitt’s plan to test the house’s readiness.

Sierra begins to flashback to memories, but whether they are repressed or implanted, remains unsure. November remembers a daughter.

The others escape, but Echo remains to try to bring down the house. She cuts the power and confronts Topher.

Sierra confronts the man that set her up with the Dollhouse in the first place. He’s apparently a very rich man, that used his power to erase her original self in order to actually get her to have sex with him.

November learns that her beloved Katie, her daughter, is dead. Sierra and Victor realize they love one another. And at gunpoint, Echo forces DeWitt to lead all of the actives out of the facility. But as they leave, Echo drops to the ground. As do all the others. Apparently, their freedom came with a time limit.

Supposedly, this situation would serve to give them closure for their existing traumas. Traumas that were causing the glitches. But whether or not that is really the case remains to be seen.

Oh, and Caroline apparently made a phone call during her attempted escape... to Ballard.

I am actually a little angry at this week’s episode. After last week, this almost feels like a reset for the series. With a show that has as tenuous a series progression as this one, I am not sure if that is the best movie. I guess we will see next episode.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.7: Echoes

Apologies to my regular Dollhouse review readers as when I finally did get time to watch the show, I lost my at home internet connection. But I’m back now, and we have two episodes to cover, so let’s get to it! First up, “Echoes”.

We start with a flashback of Caroline talking to DeWitt, acting as an agent of the Rossum Company.

In the modern day, craziness comes to that same Rossum Building.... a link! Apparently, crazy drug is loose on the campus which could mean trouble.

Echo, as Alice, is meeting her boy-toy from the first episode again. Very odd. Is he asking for her, or is this DeWitt acting very, very strange?

Echo remembers the Rossum building (that she sees on TV) while her boy-toy is tied up. More repressed memories...

Boyd encounters one of the crazies, and Echo/Alice seems to be confused for one of them. The flashbacks continue. Alice and Sam, one of the initial victims, escape custody and move to break in to the facility. They get cut off by Boyd. She says no to a treatment, and Boyd begins showing signs of infection! Y’know, this magic skin-to-skin drug reminds me an awful lot of the disease from the old “Return of Optimus Prime” Transformers cartoons, where everyone in the universe became infected by a crazy disease, and only white-paint coated Optimus could cure them. So obviously what I am saying here is someone needs to break out the white paint. But I digress...

Dominic is also infected and now has a pension for playing with his gun. And apparently, so are DeWitt and Topher. So I guess this establishes who is a doll and who isn’t...

Oh, and Mellie, our test subject is actually infected as well... as the drug causes her memories from her previous activations to return.

DeWitt and Topher realize the original situation was a set-up, a murder. And it appears Sam is the perpetrator. He smothers Echo/Alice with a cloth covered with it.

So, in our flashbacks, Caroline was Dushku’s character from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Really? An animal rights activist? This is how she got involved with this? Anyway, apparently her flashback to Caroline and the death of her significant other Leo allows her to tackle and restrain Sam, long enough for Boyd to lay him out.

The episode ends with a sitdown between DeWitt and Sam... who may just be the newest active.

We are moving now, and I respect that. The status quo of the first few weeks has been thrown by the wayside and the plot and story are racing along... finally. Even with a plot lifted straight from an episode of a cartoon, the show worked well. That’s it for this installment, keep an eye out for a review of episode eight, “Needs” in a few hours.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.6: Man On the Street

Back from a long weekend off and here we are, folks. Episode 6, the game changer.

We get a few big hints as we open. After a brief opening that shows us even the man on the street knows a little about the Dollhouse, Ballard traces the case back to his least favorite agent, Tanaka, (the thorn in his side from the first episode) who worked her disappearance. And it seems the other agent knows more than he is letting on. Ballard tracks down his links to the Dollhouse to an internet millionaire named Joel Miner (strangely played by Patton Oswalt).

Someone’s had sex with Sierra. Sounds like an adult nursery rhyme, but it a reason for concern between Langdon, Dr. Claire Sanders, and Sierra’s handler Hearn. But what to do about it remains an area of contention.

Since I’m pretty sure that Ballard isn’s Alpha, I am sure that his neighbor has to be. Why not? Why wouldn&8217;t the Dollhouse, if they know about Ballard, plant agents all around him.

His illegal visit to Miner allows him to meet an unexpected guest: Hi, Echo! See, things are coming together!

Langdon escapes thanks to Miner’s security, but Miner is left with a very angry Ballard.

Hearn’s the real bastard, surprise, surprise. He was presented as not a good person, so of course, he was raping an active.

The Dollhouse sends Echo after Ballard, while Ballard gets more intimate with his neighbor. Ballard goes to get dinner afterward, and runs headlong in to raving mad Echo. We proceed in to one of the longest fight scenes I have ever seen on television. Seriously, I’ve seen Hong Kong action flicks with shorter fight sequences than this one.

Hey, this is bigger than we thought. Echo was reprogrammed specifically to give DeWitt that information. Apparently, DeWitt’s Dollhouse is only one of many different Dollhouses around the country. Ballard finds out Mellie is in trouble from Echo. But a message on Mellie’s answering machine, activates her programming. Yep, saw that one coming. Hearn dies and Mellie doesn’t even know how she did it.

The incident with Echo ends Ballard’s time with the FBI, but not without him having at least one ally in place.

The only major piece still left unaccounted for is Alpha. Spoilers online have already revealed his identity however for anyone who cares. I won’t ruin it for anybody who does not know.

The real question I am beginning to develop with the introduction of different types of programming on the show, and the revelation that there are as many Dollhouses as there are, is who else is an active. Can the world realistically have as many ubergenius neuro-programmers as Topher? Or is Topher just another active? And that just opens up the field for how many other cast members to be the same.

Needless to say, this episode finally brings a lot of the disparate plot points together. If the show runs like usual Joss, that means things will only continue to heat up as we build to the season finale. Let’s hope the show gets a chance to shine all the way through to it.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.5: True Believer

No new Heroes this week, don’t know what’s up with that, but at least I have Dollhouse to review.

The episode opens with some kind of peaceful compound folks who sing a lot and don’t actually speak. They only sing as they move around the city. One of them apparently needs saving, lovely.

Oh, our client is a senator. A senator really concerned about this compound, because it’s an election year. Not buying that any senator would want to get involved in a politically disastrous situation like thus....

Wow, someone actually calls that Echo’s situation is off the rails. Poor Dominic may be an ass, and pretty much guaranteed to die, but at least he calls it like it is.

We are making Echo blind so that she can have a camera in her head. Really, Joss? Really?

Does anyone else find Topher insanely annoying? I pray that when something seriously bad happens on this show, he dies a painful death. Doubt it, but it would be nice.

So is Millie, the girl across the hall, Alpha? I doubt it. I still think it’s Ballard.

Victor has a thing for Sierra. Really, is this necessary? Or is this just proof that this show has a couple too many cast members?

The law enforcement agent is of course crazy and obsessed with his foe. Obsessed so much that he rigged the entire situation so he could have the stand-off. And of course, the crazies in the cult try to burn themselves down. Way to avoid stereotypes, guys.

Where are the children in this cult? What kind of cult doesn’t have children to harm and abuse like the psychopathic predators and child molesters they are? Wouldn’t it be nice if the cultists weren’t a bunch of crazies?

Really, Dominic is going to try and off Echo now? Really? Really? How the hell does this guy get away with a clear flaunting of his own authority.

How is this ATF agent not getting called on his idiotic, anti-climactic behaviors? And why did he stonewall Ballard? If he was really angry at Landgon, why not give him up?

I fear Dollhouse is in danger of going seriously off-track. The Dollhouse seems to have far too many people with far too many agendas for anything as clearly effective as it supposedly is to have succeeded. DeWitt’s leadership seems questionable at best, and her agents have far too many agenda for this venture to ever succeed.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.4: Gray Hour

I am going to drop large amounts of the plot synopsis this week, and instead try to focus on the show as an overall. So consider this a relatively spoiler free zone.

We open the show with Echo serving as a midwife. No reason why, but we will assume it has a purpose. We get in to why Echo, Victor, and Sierra spend so much time together. We also learn that DeWitt has a superior.

More sexy clothes for Echo. I would complain about the blatant attempts at sexualizing the character. But I am a man, and I find Ms. Dushku very, very hot. I mean look at the ad banner I picked out for the show. Shameful of me, but oh so true.

Our plot revolves around a break-in in to a high security building during what is called a gray hour. I am a little confused by this new personality as she apparently feels that two inch heels are “comfy shoes”. We are apparently out to steal previously stolen art. But it is another setup, and somehow Echo’s brain pattern is wiped by a phone message. Which of course brings in Sierra. They implant Sierra with the same programming and set her out to free the others. Sierra tries to help them escape, but Echo can’t really keep up. We then go in to a rather generic standoff/rescue scenario with Langdon.

Victor and the injured Ballard have a less than important heart-to-heart. And theories about Alpha again emerge in the aftermath of Echo’s wipe. And again Echo seems to be having flashbacks of previous events.

Not much happened this week. It’s always a danger of story’s with tight meta-plots, but for a show in edgy water like Dollhouse, we need a little more every week than what Joss and company seem to be giving us. At the current rate, I can’t help but feel their endangering their chances of ever getting to the end of this saga.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.3: Stage Fright

We open with a pop concert where a backup dancer suddenly finds herself on fire. Bodyguards rush the singer offstage.

Sierra seems to come to the fore-front as they bump in to each other.

Victor tries to break in to Ballard’s house, but ends up meeting the neighbor across the hall (from last week).

Ms. DeWitt meets with the singer Raina Russell’s manager, who admits that the attack was pre-meditated, maybe by a stalker. So Echo becomes a back-up singer/dancer named Jordan in order to become Raina’s secret bodyguard.

Dr. Saunders and Topher argue over Echo’s new role, as Saunders has apparently recommended Echo only for low risk missions, but Sierra apparently will be coming along for the ride too.

Gratuitous, half-naked Dushku alert! Jordan ends up getting a ride with Raina, convenient for back-up singer programmed for defense.

Ballard and Victor have a heart to heart about whether or not the Dollhouse exists... a heart to heart that strengthens my sneaking suspicions that one of these two men may also be Alpha. Just throwing that out there.

But it is apparently not Victor... as we learn that he is in fact another doll. A doll designed to throw Ballard off the trail.

Sierra is a plant backstage as her #1 fan contestant, while someone is in the rafters ready to attack Raina. Stalker/killer guy is apparently at the after party as is Audra/Sierra.

Victor returns to give Ballard another tip, and Ballard goes after what is most likely a trap in a dingy basement. He fights off a pair of Russian mobsters only to be shot by another. But he fights his way out quite ably. (Remember he is an MMA fighter as well as an FBI agent.)

In a conversation backstage, Echo/Jordan learns that Rayna is suicidal. she wants the killer fan to kill her. She wants to be “free”

Audra joins Rayna on stage as Jordan warns Biz and security that the assassin is here. Jordan runs on to the stage when the security guard refuses to stop the show. She uses the spotlight to shine on the killer, but he gets off shots anyway.

Meanwhile, Ballard flatlines in the ambulance...

Rayna yells at Jordan backstage, and Rayna’s suicidal fantasies continue. She goes on about how she is not a real person, everyone’s fantasy... how convenient when said to a doll. (Little heavy handed, Mr. Whedon.)

Audra goes backstage and gets picked up by the psycho fan. Psycho sends Rayna a video threatening Audra. Biz realizes that Rayna set up the entire assassination. Crazy man makes Audra sing Rayna’s music.

Jordan confronts Rayna backstage. But Rayna refuses to help now, of course. Go, crazy lady, go! But Jordan goes a little crazy. She knocks Rayna out and sets up a meet between herself and the crazed fan in order to free Audra.

Topher and Lawrence argue about whether or not Echo is off task. It seems Echo’s programming makes her want to fulfill Rayna’s wishes, even if its suicide. But the situation makes Rayna realize she doesn’t want to die. Echo drops Rayna from the rafters, but only a few feet as she is tied to a cord. Echo beats down the fan and goes to retrieve Rayna from her tangle.

DeWitt and Lawrence argue over whether or not Echo was on task. But DeWitt sees the bigger picture: that Echo is able to think on her feet far better than other agents, a realization Boyd also notes. Dr. Saunders notes in turn that her ability might not be quite such a good thing.

Ballard receives a visit from his neighbor across the hall. And the show ends with a strange look between Sierra and Echo, answered by a shake of the head from Echo... a shake like she doesn’t want to draw the attention of Sierra’s handler.

So yeah, we got a new doll this episode. We have Ballard shot and in the hospital, and the first mention of something called “The Attic”. Oh, and I am calling it now: Alpha has two possible identities on this series: either Boyd or Ballard. Maybe I am horribly off base here, but let’s just wait and see.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.2: The Target

So yeah, still not caught up on Heroes quite yet. Apparently my family members like to spend time with me. Crazy, right? Anyway, hope to get the now two episodes I am behind up soon. In the mean time, here’s Dollhouse episode 2 which I am able to conveniently watch without going online.

In a flashback, we learn who Alpha is. He’s a composite, apparently a doll whose memories have recombined. And he is someone out there ... perhaps sending messages to a certain FBI agent?

Echo is purchase, apparently as a perfect personal companion for Richard O’Connell, a very rich man on his vacation.

Ballard pays a visit to the site of the kidnapping from last week. He gets in to a fight with a less than friendly fellow agent. But Ballard does manage to find Echo’s glasses...

Echo kills a deer (without any pretentious “killing animals is bad” message!) and we immediately fall in to bed with her new friend. Then things get weird... Richard sends Echo out of the camp, and prepares to hunt her down!

We return to a flashback to Boyd Langdon’s arrival at the Dollhouse. Langdon meets the injured Dr. Saunders and checks out the corpse of his predecessor (both events that happened during Alpha’s escape).

Ballard receives the package from the end of last week with the picture of Echo... marked Caroline (her previous name). Not mailed in anyway, whoever left it had to have broke in to the FBI facility to do so.

As the hunt for Echo continues, Boyd and his fellow agent attract the attention of a local police officer. He checks out their credentials before pulling out a silenced weapon and killing the other agent. Boyd fights in attempt to free himself inside the van, but his attacker is at least a match for him. They destroy the inside of the vehicle in their struggle before Boyd gets him in a headlock. Boyd chokes the man out.

Echo runs for what appears to be a ranger station but finds no one around. She does hear the sound of a radio somewhere. Instead of finding the radio she finds the corpse of the park ranger killed by Boyd’s close new friend. She steals the radio and calls for help. The only answer comes from Richard.

We flashback yet again to view the handler imprint that makes Echo automatically trustworthy of Boyd.

Richard drugs Echo who in turn has visions of her pre-Echo life. She falls in to the water though and washes away. Meanwhile, Boyd takes a violent interrogation technique on his would-be killer.

Echo wakes up in the midst of the killings by Alpha, only to actually wake-up beside the river. Boyd finds her, but gets struck by an arrow from Richard. He helps Echo through a freak out over her hallucinations.

Best line of the show, when handed a gun, Echo gives us: “Four brothers, none of them Democrats.”

Echo starts to play mind games with Richard in return, grazing him with a bullet. Echo runs again and stops head long in her own face. She turns to find herself face to face with Richard the hunter. After a little bit of pointless CGI, Echo and Richard duke it out. Again Echo sees visions of her past lives as Richard chokes her. The visions lead her eyes to an arrow on the ground which she stabs in to Richard’s throat.

We learn in the aftermath that Richard’s entire identity and background was a lie. Langdon’s attacker turns up dead, and his wounds match those of the attacks by Alpha. And we end with Echo striking her own shoulder, the same sign for “Shoulder to the wheel” taught to her by Richard....

So, yeah, episode two and we have already entered hard in to the meta-plot of the series. Whoever Alpha is, he seems to be a mean bastard, and he seems to want to play games with everyone involved in our little storyline. That coupled with the fact that we seem to be on the way to Echo “compositing” much as he did leads me to believe that this show will only get bloodier...

and hopefully continue to be as good as what we’ve seen so far.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 1.1: Ghost

I will get to each show in turn, but I promised I would get Dollhouse watched for a fellow Joss fan by tonight, so its review comes first. Expect some looks at the two missing episodes of Heroes later this week. On with the show...

So Joss Whedon returns to television with Dollhouse which reunites him with Eliza (Faith) Dushku. The show is a bit high concept: a private organization erases the memories of dozens of individuals and turns them in to programmable agents able to be assigned to missions from the highest bidder. Dushku plays Echo, one of these agents of the Dollhouse.

We open with an interview from before her time as a doll (for lack of a better term). She has done something not right, although what it is remains vague, and she is in trouble. The Dollhouse offers her a way out. We flash to the present, where Echo meets a boy, has a wild weekend, and is promptly made to forget it by her handlers. She returns to the Dollhouse as little more than a slightly confused, docile automaton while the Dollhouse awaits her next assignment.

Meanwhile an FBI agent named Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) has a meeting with his less than happy superiors about the lines he has crossed in search of the elusive Dollhouse. But he knows as well as his superiors that his case won’t be closed... someone higher up wants it solved. He goes after a human trafficker named Victor and sets him up as a potential contact in his hunt for the Dollhouse.

After a brief encounter with a new doll named Sierra (Dichen Lachman), Echo gets her new imprint, that of kidnapping expert Eleanor Penn. Her mission is to help secure the release of a kidnapped girl. But the mission goes bad at the meet, when one of Eleanor’s programmed memories recognizes the face of the man who kidnapped and abused her. Her handler, former cop Boyd Langdon (Harry Lennix), helps her plot the kidnappers means of escape. He also convinces the head of the dollhouse, Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) to refrain from wiping Eleanor’s personality too quickly.

Eleanor tracks down the lost child, convinces the two non-child molesters to let the girl go, and moves to escape with her. The newly minted Sierra arrives to lay waste to all the kidnappers and recover the money.

The show ends with two ominous looks at the future: a folder named Project Alpha handed by DeWitt to her aide Laurence Dominic (Reed Diamond) and a mysterious killer with knowledge about Echo’s past and information for Agent Ballard.

All in all an interesting idea with a weird mix of comic-style super agents and Matrix-like mind programming. I detect a similarity in spirit to Jay Faerber’s comic Gemini and the far more lackluster My Own Worst Enemy but Joss has made sure to design Dollhouse as its own beast. We will have to see if the conspiracy mixed with the hints of something wrong in Echo’s programming (shown tonight as a flash to the view of Sierra’s programming while talking to her client as Eleanor Penn) and the various players can come together to form something memorable or just lackluster. And hope that if the series does carry the same quality as previous Joss shows, that it doesn’t fall in to the same fate as the similary time-slotted Firefly.