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.