Note to self, look up character names so you get them right and spell them right. No need to be totally lazy.

Dollhouse 1x06 Man on the Street

Go live in your real world. If you ever did.

We open up on a local news report on the urban legend known as the Dollhouse. A reporter type is walking the streets of Los Angeles, asking people he meets what they think about the whole deal. Interviewee #1 is a sketchy looking dude in front of a convenience store, looking all paranoid. He believes.

Reporter states that the rumors started surfacing in the late '80s for anyone who ends up trying to put a time line on the Dollverse. I don't know if that corresponds to any scientific discoveries of our world or not; probably not important.

Interviewee #2 is a black woman who believes in this new form of slavery and that it can't be voluntary. "Only one reason that someone would volunteer to be a slave; if they is one already." Interviewee #3 is a lower class white woman with an apron and name tag. Not sure if she believes, but she wants to sign up to party with the rich and famous.

The reporter is saying, "Like every good fairy tale, the story grows more intricate and more devisive every decade," as we move out of the tv and into the FBI office where Agent Ballard is running the news story along with the cult footage from last week and the Caroline yearbook footage. He's in Agent Tanaka's office, I think, looking over his files for the kidnapping case from Ghost. Sheppard's been showing up in so many things I watch lately that I had some cognitive dissonance of my own for a second there, trying to remember who he is on this show. 

They trash talk for a bit, Tanaka makes a crass joke about Caroline and hand cream that made me think of Of Mice and Men, then the tussle and Ballard roughs him up and tosses him out. This is the first mention of Ballard being particularly obsessed with Caroline.

In the DH, Echo and Victor are eating together, and Sierra pointedly doesn't join them. Victor goes to invite her over, touches her shoulder, and she screams loudly as if terrified. If that's not creepy enough, cut to her in a gyno chair with Doc. No way this is going to be good. Doc asks about Victor and Sierra says he likes to pretend they're married. Sierra's had sex as a Doll. Ew. And I called the perp right away on this one, but still was very interesting how it played out because it could have gone several ways.

Hearn is all agro about not wanting Victor abusing Sierra, and links him to Alpha, all very realistically played. Boyd and Doc discuss Victor; apparently she or Topher told Boyd about the man reaction, or maybe there was a memo. Hearn didn't seem to know about it until right then though. Doc: "There's a difference between being attracted to someone and hurting them." Yeah, that's more about love than attraction right? And this seems to comment on the Dollhouse in some indirect way and on the case of the week and Ballard, but it's subtle and I'm not sure all that it means yet. Anyway, Echo has been following some of this from the door and offers up that Sierra has been crying at night in the sleep pods. Echo's the Barbie with the glasses and lab coat that came about after the '70s.

Ballard is talking his one friend in the FBI into doing some warrantless searches of an Internet mogul who has a connection to the DH. He's had a break in the case from following the money trail. The DH hedge fund in this case is called Mayfair. I don't know if it's significant that that's the name of an area of London in Westminster or not. Maybe that's Madam's thing. Q-Field and Redwing were the companies linked to the Internet guy, Joel Minor, creator of Bouncy the Rat. (I'm very sorry there's no made-up Internet page of Bouncy. Missed opportunity there.)

Anyway, Ballard has "liked this guy for a while." "You ever thought of asking him out?" No, but maybe champagne and strawberries could enter the picture at some point? Ballard convinces the other agent to help him out using the patented Helo-puppy eyes. He thinks this is his way in since they'll have buried Caroline where he can't find her. Dude, their opinion of your talents is not that high.

Ballard is now at home, eating Chinese take-out with his neighbor (Mellie, who I was calling Ellie) and talking over the case with her because he has no one else to talk to who doesn't think he's nuts. They're getting closer and it's nice. They also talk about her old boyfriend. She makes the second observation about how obsessed he is with Caroline.

Joel Minor is Patton Oswalt! He's awesome in this role. He's waiting in front of a nice house in the suburbs as Rebecca (Echo!) drives up. Ballard's taking out the cute Asian security guard as they meet up. He enters the house and follows the voices to the kitchen. And sees the not so buried Caroline. Wha?! Credits.

Interviewee #4 is an old Jewish? guy wafting poetic about Ida Lupino. He thinks if DH exists, all veterans should be able to have a night with Ida. I don't think he gets how it works. It's not L.A. Confidential's "modeling" agency. Interviewee #5 is a female office worker type who gets giggly at the idea of hiring a man to -- well, she's not going to tell you what for.

Ballard gets over being gobsmacked and tries to tell Rebecca her name is Caroline. She's, of course, playing this in character and thinks her husband did something illegal. "You didn't just break in to impress me?" "It's porn, isn't it?" "My husband does porn." "Is this a porn man?" It's pretty hilarious. Those who think the show isn't funny, take note. Then Ballard's tasered and down, then he's back up and takes out three security guys. He's the energizer bunny of badasses. While he's fighting, Boyd sneaks in and grabs Echo for her treatment. Then Ballard settles down to talk to Minor in this empty house that looks like a dollhouse.

This conversation is brilliant but I won't copy it word for word. We get Minor's story, his very cogent take on reality and the need for fantasy, and his instant understanding of Ballard's focus on Caroline. Obsession mention number three and it's starting to hit home with Ballard. Minor plays out the scene he wanted to enact with his wife when he finally hit it big, but she got killed just before she could find out and he could give her everything he always wanted to give. He thinks Ballard wants to play out the rescue scenario, or the hurt/comfort scenario so prevalent in fan fiction, which is what the Dollhouse is, fan fiction brought to life. Create your own character, be your own Mary Sue, all for real. I just got that connection. That is awesome. And these two actors were both so good here. Wow.

Back at DH, Doc and Topher are questioning Victor about Sierra. He thinks she's beautiful and different, and she makes him feel better. Boyd is talking to Bicks, a fill-in handler for Victor (I wonder what's up with the regular guy). Bicks is freaking out that he's going to be in trouble or he's worried about Victor maybe. But he gives Boyd the clues he needs to put it all together. He talks about how everything is taped and the Dolls couldn't be getting it on without it being seen. And he asks why, when the Dolls are smiling all the time, Sierra only cries at night. Means and opportunity right there. Then they talk about how the Dolls are all broken. That's not what Boyd told Echo after the vault job.

Minor is finishing up his story and Ballard unbends enough to have a strawberry but no champagne. Ballard listens to the story and appreciates what Minor lost, but he's not buying the good guy angle. He talks about how the house is empty, just like he thinks the fantasy is. The upshot is a sideways argument in favor of the DH that sneaks up on you. For a moment you wonder who is the good guy and bad guy here, or if either one fits either role. Is it a matter of what fantasy is better or less selfish? What part does reality play in all of this? By the way, I loved Helo muchly, but it wasn't until DH that Tahmoh began to totally OWN me. He's brilliant and beautiful and I love this character. And for some reason I'm getting a Harrison Ford in Blade Runner vibe off him this week that just makes it more intense. Okay, no more gushing.

Minor convinces Ballard that the cops are coming for him as the crazed trespasser, not innocent property owner guy. Ballard leaves with this: "This is all going to come apart. You might not be punished and I might not be alive, but this house will fall." Like Usher. Which is a story about a girl who was buried alive and who eventually broke out of her tomb. Great.

Minor replies, "First hurdle in my business is that people will not accept the change that has already happened." "Go live in your real world. If you ever did." Much food for thought. 

Interviewee #6 is a hot California blonde. She says that if you could figure out the perfect person you needed, who signed on to help you, it could be okay. "I think that could be, maybe, beautiful." Interviewee #7 is a young woman on an old bike who says it's human trafficking, end of story. Repulsive.

Boyd is in the sleeping area, mapping out the camera dead zones that Victor would have no way of knowing about. He figures it all out and sets a trap by pulling in Victor and Bicks. Victor is so sad. He says he did something bad but no one will tell him what it is. Innocence. Echo asks Boyd where he's going. Hearn is all, "Why don't you go paint something?" (Which she does at the end of the show.) Boyd says he's protecting Sierra.

Ballard is at his apartment with Mellie, getting patched up. Yes, it's a shirtless scene. He had me with his face. Says he would have been able to write the great American arrest report if he hadn't been surprised by Caroline. He remembers his talk with Minor about there being no real girl in his life and he's obsessed by fantasy Caroline. Then he kisses Mellie. Is it for real? Is it proving a point? Does he like her? All three? She doesn't think it's real because she's not all Hollywood model perfect body girl. They agree to just be neighborly neighbors.

At bedtime, Sierra peels off from the rest of the group to enter the dead zone, where mothereffing Hearn is there, using his handler unconditional trust implant to abuse her. Evil son of a bitch! But Boyd not only catches him, he punches him through a pane of glass! Yes!! He's protecting more than just Echo now. And this is showing that there's levels of exploitation involved in all of this, and different people in the organization are involved at these different levels. Anyway, Madam is not happy he didn't let her in on the plan, but happy he figured it out. She gives him a bonus he doesn't ask for, I think not as what she needs to do as boss, but what she needs to do as a person.

Boyd exits and Madam and Mr.D move on to the Ballard sitch. They have a camera in his place, and they start watching it at exactly the point we left them.  Mr.D thinks that the situation is out of control and is wondering if Madam has an exit strategy for when all of this stuff blows up in her face. She's not packing yet, and decides to send Echo out after Ballard. It seems like an assassination thing, but from what we learn later, they don't want him dead, probably because at least they know him and have him covered. They just want to mess him up a bit and show them they are taking an interest and don't play around. 

Interviewee #8 is a genial redneck standing next to his wife, talking about how it might be cool for some guys to be able to do it once with a guy and have it forgotten. Wife is trying to keep smiling. Man on the street is very Springer.

Topher is putting together a persona for Echo. I like the visuals they used of different brain centers melding together into one. It's a nice and simple conceptual way to touch on the much more complicated blending he's doing. He sends his assistant Ivy out for food instead of giving her any chance to help him with the actual work. Ah, life as an intern. He finishes and goes to upload the file and is interrupted by Boyd. Spoiler alert, this is where someone comes in and changes one of Topher's parameters. So is it an accident of timing and opportunity, or is Boyd involved? He could be the man inside, but that would necessitate there being more than one. Ivy is the obvious suspect. Last time she was around I wondered if she was working with Alpha, but this is supposed to be different. Or it could be someone else entirely. And for all we know, there could be other sleepers involved who don't know what's happening. It's a puzzler.

Anyhow, Topher lies to Boyd about Echo's assignment. They obviously don't think that Boyd will be down for the job, which makes sense whether it's assassination or what it actually is. Topher goes back into the lab to imprint Echo and says to her, "Ready to play?" Which references Hearn's game with Sierra and highlights the parallels and different levels again.

Madam interrogates Hearn and is visibly amused when Mr.D causes him some pain. Hearn says, "You put her under some fat old emir. It makes it better because she thinks she's in love for all of a day? We're in the business of using people." Madam: "You understand less about this business than you think." Then she sends out Mr.D and tells Hearn he'll get out of this without going to the attic if he kills Mellie for her. Interesting that the handlers also get sent to the attic, not just the Dolls.

Mellie and Ballard did it! They have sweet post-coital talk that's not annoying, then she tells him that what he's doing is important, and he asks her to look over the case file. I love that while he is playing the stereotypical obsessed with the case to the exclusion of all else detective riff, he's still a nice guy. It's very noir, but also he seems real. Driven, but not completely out of touch or something. I don't know; just love him.

Ballard goes for Chinese, splitting the two of them up when we know badness is coming. Cool shot of Echo reflected in the round glass of the restaurant kitchen door. Alice is through the looking glass. Ballard sees her and goes to the kitchen. She pistol whips him to the ground and does a nice power pose.

Interviewee #9 is a male office worker type. He believes. If you don't think they're controlling you, "Don't worry about it. Just sit back and wait for them to tell you what to buy."

Finally, less typing. So much happens in these episodes. Ballard and Echo have a kickass, very realistic and painful as all hell looking fight that includes another glass door getting smashed. Is this season 1 Smallville? They end up in the alley behind the restaurant. He finally gets the upper hand and she goes all don't hit poor me on him. He lets his guard down and she head butts him to the ground. Then it gets good. Gooder?

"The Dollhouse is real." This was not an assassination attempt! They just sent Echo to get him off the case. "We have a person inside," who corrupted the imprint behind Topher's back. And she says it's not the person who sent the tapes, Alpha, but this imprint parameter is their first communication. She won't tell Ballard where the DH is, but says he's doing it all wrong. "There are over 20 Dollhouses." And he had no idea. Of course, it just occurred to me that this could all be a lie, and Madam is playing a loopier game with Ballard than we know, but that seems stretching it a bit too far. 

Anyway, "The Dollhouse deals in fantasy; that is their business, but that is not their purpose." Eeee. "What is?" "We need you to find out." Oh my god! "You have to let the Dollhouse win; make them back off. You have to trust me," she says, handing him the gun. And then, as a cop runs up, making him shoot the cop and ruining his career. That's just ballsy.

"They don't want to kill you, but they will protect the information." "They don't want you dead, but anyone else..." Which leads him directly to Mellie, knowing she's in danger, which is what the DH wants him to know right? What does that mean about what the inside man knows? Who knows Hearn's mission? Or is that a guess? And what does it mean that his mission is different than we think? OMFG.

So now we get just the creepiest scene of sexual predator Hearn breaking in and attacking Mellie, who's just in a Paul's shirt and underwear, to a classical music score as Ballard is running back to his apartment, dialing on his phone. Disturbing as hell. They struggle, and Hearn has her on the ground and is throttling her when Madam, watching on the vid tap, calls and leaves a message on the machine. "There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is green." Bam! Sleeper made Active! Damn! I had forgotten that I had wondered if she was a Doll by this point. She beats the crap out of Hearn and kills him. Yes! Then Madam switches her off with a yellow flower, she becomes Mellie again and freaks out as Ballard finally gets there.

Dude, a sleeper Active! So she's Doll, programmed to be Mellie, the neighbor with a crush on Ballard, with a secret imprint of assassin? Totally parallels Echo's assassin Active with a secret imprint of double agent. Totally awesome. This episode made me love her character so much more than I thought I could when she was so pathetically making "leftover" lasagne for Ballard. That's Joss. Make you love them, then give them hell.

Interviewee #10 is a college professor type. "Imagine this technology being used on you. Everything you believe, gone, Everyone you love, strangers, maybe enemies. Every part of you that makes you more than a walking cluster of neurons dissolved at someone else's whim. If that technology exists, it will be used, it will be abused, it'll be global and we will be over as a species. We will cease to matter. I don't know. Maybe we should." Bummer, dude.

Then a sad scene of Paul turning in his badge with no talking, only music. Did I mention the scoring this week has been legen-wait for it-dary? Don't know if this is score or the beginning of the end song. Somehow Tahmoh still conveys that he's not out of the fight, even as he does the head high walk out with some degree of false humility.

Mr.D tells Madam that Ballard is suspended. And apparently Hearn is thought to be a Russian so that they make it all seem to be about the Borodin fued. Neatly done. He congratulates her on her winning hand, and she claims to have played a bad hand well. They're going to do a diagnostic on Mellie to make sure she's okay. I wonder what her name is, this girl programmed to love Ballard? Madam is adamant that they contact the other DHs to warn against handler abuse, which I would have thought would have occurred to somebody before now, given the circumstances they operate under are pretty much what Hearn claimed. Madam seems sad for Sierra, saying Topher's been helping her. "Ignorance in this case truly is bliss." Madam identifies with this particular crime, which is interesting, and reflects the levels again. What is she in this for?

Sierra and Victor have a nice moment of bonding over a picture book, watched by Madam and Mr.D and Boyd and Doc, as always. Madam approaches Echo as she's painting a picture of a house with a man and woman in front of it. Rebecca and Joel Minor? She says it's not finished. The picture? Madam: "You'd like it to be finished?" Then we cut to Minor's fantasy finally being played out with no words, while the beautiful Sweet Dream by Greg Laswell plays. The music is killing me. Minor gets his ghost closure and the show ends on their hands entwined together, pulling out with the memory wipe graphics. This is so dense.

Just a ton of thought-provoking stuff about what the DH is really about, whether what they do is good or bad or neither, what the whole crux of the show means, along with an awesome bunch of plot twists and an ever-deepening mystery. Does TV get any better than this?

Feeling better today, so I'm going to recap episode 6 of Dollhouse. I will come back to 5 soon; I just can't not do last night's episode. It was utterly brilliant.

Dollhouse 1x04 Gray Hour

I'm not broken.

We open in a really remote mountain cabin where Echo is acting as a midwife to a couple who I assume have reason not to bring in a real one. I'm trying not to imagine the many colorful scenarios that could lay behind this because it's a short teaser-like scene. After a lame lesbian joke we get to what's significant. Echo says, "All this scary painful stuff you won't even remember." "I want to forget. I want to forget." Amen, sister. But seriously, part of the point of all this is that we all do sometimes want to forget. How high a price are we willing to pay to forget who we are?

The baby pops out and then we go into the memory wipe, flashing through images of the baby and the mother wanting to forget, accompanied by that lovely, gross noise. Echo completes her treatment routines.

In the cafeteria, Echo's eating what looks like a stuffed yellow bell pepper. Yum. Sierra joins her at the table at Echo's invitation and they exchange bland small talk. Sierra says at one point, "I try to be my best." That's what the Echo in Jenny's drug hallucination said that led her to the arrow she crammed in his neck. I think it must be part of the Dollhouse philosophy, along with exercise and eating right and massage and tai chi, because it's doubtful Sierra heard it from Echo. That's interesting.

"Are you your best," Echo asks. "I'm not sure how to know that." "I think if you always try, that's best. Right?" she asks as the camera pans to Victor, also at their table. "Every day is a chance to be better," he replies. Yeah, all that sounds like meditation affirmations or something. But they are talking together socially, even if they're parroting what they've been told. That's interesting too. At least they're not talking about the weather, so they go beyond my small talk capabilities.

CreepyChris agrees that it's interesting. He's been noticing the three of them eat together at the same table every day. He tells Boyd that they're not remembering each other, they're just grouping, flocking, herding and other animal things. This goes "deeper than memory, into instinctual survival patterns." "They're not bison, Topher." "They're a little bit bison." Heh.

Madam is hitting up a client for more money for special circumstances. She's telling him that of course it's all confidential, and only the computers know the details of your arrangement. Total BS. I want to see one of the clients at the "confessional," inputting the details of his wishes, with the entire Dollhouse staff listening to it as they prep.

Before he can comment, Madam's phone rings. It's obviously one of her bosses, a senior partner, if you will. And we don't hear his end but he's calling about Ballard, seeing if the Victor operation is going smoothly. She's not as cool with her boss as with a client, but tries to reassure him that Ballard needs closure, which is something the DH is good at. He hangs up on her before she's done. Classic.

The client is up for the extra money, saying this is not for him but a gift. And the audience heads blindly into the mission with the Active, not knowing what the mission is. Which is cute considering that that's the way it's supposed to be for everyone but the Active. And good because we spend the next several minutes assessing and reassessing the job as it turns from one thing into another and another. It's kind of awesome.

Echo is Taffy, dressed like a slut--I mean, escort-type girl. She's primping in the mirror, it seems, adjusting the bra just right and sticking lipstick in her high-heeled, leather boots. "Blue skies," she says when she's satisfied. Then she struts out to make out enthusiastically with one dude while another two watch or try not to alternately. They talk about how his uncle hired her to entertain at his bachelor party. Just to keep them straight in my head, I'll give them spoilery nicknames. The "bachelor" is Bomber. So he must be the guy getting the Active as a gift, right? The other two are Prof and Tech Guy.

All this is happening in a fancy hotel where they like people to be slightly tasteful in public, so a security guy asks them to stop being tacky and go up to their suite with some free champagne. They giggle and head up. Cut to Taffy with a cut lip and disordered clothing, running down the hall and calling for help. So did the client call for some rape fantasy or did something go wrong again? Bomber and Tech Guy weave out after her, in no big hurry, shirts hanging open (thank you). Taffy finds that same security guard and he says he'll help her.

The guard takes her through the kitchen and into his secure office and closes the door behind him. So scenario number 3 passes through my mind. Maybe he's the client and has a rescue fantasy and rest was just set-up. Or he's a pervy jerk who's going to try and work this to his advantage. (I would have scowly babies too if I ever had them.) It turns out that it's hotel policy to hush up these unpleasant incidents -- brrrr -- by paying off the victim and getting her to sign a release. Taffy just wants out of there, but he's offering $10,000. She wavers, declines, then knocks the guy out cold. Whoa!

She's sticks in an earpiece and says she's in. Her "assailants" are on the way to her now. It was all a set-up; none of it about prostitution at all. Well done, show.

Credits.

We're back and in the middle of a kickass heist movie. Taffy's the team leader calling the shots. Tech Guy's a worrier. He worries that she didn't kill the guard, but Taffy half throttles him and says she learned the hard way not to second guess a client because she likes to get paid. She exposits to us all about the Gray Hour, when the security is down next door so they'll be able to break in unnoticed. Prof asks a stupid question and she replies, "That's 6 seconds we can't get back." It's all snappy and fun. Bomber blows their way through the wall to a vault door in the next building.

Taffy is the safe cracker, and she starts making love to the vault door while the others wonder why if she's all that they've never heard of her. She's all, you've heard of Bonnie and Clyde and they're dead. "When this is over, feel free to forget I exist." She goes down on the vault door and it opens up for her. Wouldn't you?

They're in a storage facility for controversial, counterfeit, or stolen works of art. Prof is there for the I.D. Bomber asks, "What are we taking out of here, huh?" "The Parthenon." "Isn't that kinda big?" Ha.

Now we're at Ballard's house. He comes in favoring his bullet wound, carrying the Alpha envelope (he must take that everywhere with him) and some prescription drugs. He finally notices he's not alone and pulls his gun on Victor, who's freaking out that he's a marked man for talking to the FBI. He wants protection; Ballard wants to know why he set him up to die. Victor says it was a tip from a man with a Georgian accent. "Russia, Georgia, not Sweethome." Ballard puts down his gun all, it's Alabama dumbass. Victor begs for witness protection, and Ballard tells him to stay here and he'll see what he can do. 

Back in the vault, they're actually looking for a missing Elgin marble, not the whole Parthenon. Tech Guy's acting like an ass, all worrying about the guards and getting in Taffy's grill. Bomber's trying to get into Taffy's pants, and the Prof decides to steal the marble for himself. As he's running for it, he stabs Tech Guy with a sword and closes the vault door behind him. Oops.

Taffy calls Boyd to set him on Prof. Boyd says he'll finish the job. Then the call is interrupted by a burst of static, and Taffy drops the phone and her face goes blank. "Did I fall asleep?" Uh-oh.

CreepyChris is talking to one of his assistants/trainees/grad students? (Ivy) about some dumb errand he wants her to run when they see Echo's vitals implode. He freaks and tries to call her but she's not answering.

Echo is sitting in the vault mumbling "should I go now" over and over and underwhelming her fellow thieves. Bomb guys turns from charming to asshole in 5 seconds flat, slapping her in his frustration. Meanwhile, outside the building, Boyd takes back the art and shoots Prof in the leg to keep him from taking off.

CreepyChris explains the problem to Madam and Mr.D. She chides him for trying to call an Active in the field without her permission -- focus Madam. They replay the phone call and figure out what happened. Echo's been remote wiped, and CreepyChris can't fix it or do that himself. He's big into the "it's not my fault" of it. He compares the wipe to birth, saying it's traumatic when it's not happening in the comfort of the Dollhouse. "Right now Echo is experiencing extreme sensory overload, and that could lead to a coma state, or it could turn her into Carrie at the prom. Either way we have to help her. She can't help herself." Aww. Okay, from here on out I'll call him Topher, and he's no longer my favorite character to hate. I think I'll switch to Mr.D.

In the vault, Bomber is trying to get through to Taffy, not realizing she's no longer in there. He gets her to say that she's Taffy and can get them out. "I try to be my best." Tech Guy says, "Taffy's gone, man. She's not coming back."

Cut to Sierra in the chair already dressed in leather. Taffy 2.0 is up and running.

Echo is looking around at the art while Tech Guy bleeds and Bomber runs around trying to figure out what to do. Looking at a Picasso or Picasso-like painting, she says, "This one's broken." Tech guy laughs, "Yeah? Look who's talking." Echo feels her face. "On the inside," he clarifies. Echo says, "She makes me feel funny." Tech Guy has stopped worrying and gotten philosophical instead. He talks to her about art. "That's what art's for, to show us who we are. This one is saying how we start off whole, and somewhere along the line the pieces start to slide. We get broken." Bomber is not into that idea. "You can either get broken, or you can be the one doing the breaking."

Taffy 2.0 is upset her Parthenon job went to someone else, but she learned early on not to second guess a client, so fine. But she finishes with a disgruntled, "But I learned how to lap dance." Ha! Madam and Mr.D are good at playing to the Active personas as real people. They start to strategize.

Meanwhile, Topher is still freaking out about the remote wipe. Ivy is wearing flower-patterned, lacy nylons, high heels, and a party dress under her lab coat. What's with that? She listens as Topher rants about the artistry of the wipe. "This isn't a lone gunman. This is a conspiracy." Talking about the level of detail and breaking through their firewalls, etc. It made me wonder if Ivy was going to be the inside man or something, but then I'm naturally suspicious.

Boyd is watching over Prof and waiting for Taffy when Topher calls to see if Echo was acting okay earlier. Boyd wasn't told what was happening. He calls Madam to bitch about it, and she says there's nothing he can do but prepare for an unhappy outcome. Yeah, I'm sure he'll get right on that. Or...he'll go interrogate Prof for ways into the vault. Which is at least as good as Taffy 2.0's plan of calling Echo when Echo ain't taking no calls. But there's no time for anything else.

Echo sits with Tech Guy looking at a landscape painting of mountains. "I like sky." "Yeah, the blue kind. You mentioned." Ha again. Echo doesn't remember her name. "When I'm there, my name is something else." Tech Guy now goes beyond philosophical to nihilistic. He has a suicide kit because he doesn't want to go to prison. Prison is "a place with no sky." "When bad guys get caught, we don't get to see sky." The Dollhouse is full of light, but is there sky? I don't think they can see outside. Echo asks, "Am I a bad guy?" "You're a talking cucumber." Echo doesn't like that. Bomber doesn't like Tech Guy's way out. He takes his needle away and rescinds the no kill order, arming for a fight.

Topher talks about a programmer in Tokyo, Takahashi, who wants his job. But he's a hack. "Only one person I know who could achieve a remote wipe. And he's dead." Okay, why on earth would they give Alpha the knowledge of the imprinting process? Seriously.

Taffy 2.0 is trying to call Echo because she wants to talk her through some complicated way of opening the vault door without setting off the alarms, but Echo is not answering and the Gray Hour is over. Echo says, "I don't like this room anymore. Where are the better rooms?" Echo outside the Dollhouse is hilarious. That line reading was perfect.

She finally finds her phone and answers it. They've still got some time as all the security stuff goes online one at a time, so Taffy 2.0 talks her through her plan. It turns out that the cleavage adjusting and lipstick in the boot thing were less lascivious than it seemed earlier. She was stashing tools of the trade on her person for emergencies. I don't understand the whole trick with the door, but the upshot is that Echo followed directions very well, but no longer had the hands of a safecracker so it didn't work. Alarms go off, lights go off, and it all turns a pretty blue in the vault. Bomber kills the phone in frustration.

Back in the Dollhouse, Taffy 2.0 goes for her treatment. C'est la vie. Mr.D's going to put Boyd on standby in case he needs to take Echo out before she's captured, but Madam tells him to send somebody else, thinking that Boyd won't be able to do it. Topher asks about Echo as Sierra comes in with Mr.D, not even changing clothes before getting back on the chair. That confused me at first, but I guess it's to ward off any cognitive dissonance she would get if she "woke up" in different clothing than she was wearing when she went in.

Tech Guy is giving Echo pointers on how to avoid being shot by the guards, but Bomber sticks a gun in her hand and tells her to shoot the bad guys, be broken or do the breaking, etc. She's all, so we're not the bad guys? Poor Echo, it's all very confusing. When the door opens, Bomber decides to have her start shooting first, so the guards can aim at her while he shoots them I suppose, so he threatens to shoot her if she doesn't start firing.

Echo sees the suicide needle on the floor nearby, grabs it, and shoves it in his neck, just like Jenny did with the arrow to the Middleman, when she was trying to be her best. He falls out in the open and starts shooting, and the guards outside the door shoot back. Echo goes right back to Tech Guy to try to help him. He throws a smoke grenade type thing and tells her to run for it. Aww.

Boyd's on the way to the hotel security office. Echo comes out of the vault supporting Tech Guy. "He's broken. Can we fix him?" Aww. "I'm not broken," she says to Boyd. He agrees, "No, you're not."

Back with Ballard. His place is in West Hollywood, where "two guys in an idling car isn't news" he informs a worried Victor. Turns out though, that Ballard didn't find a new identity for him, he actually dropped a dime on him all over town. (I just realized I've been calling him Victor forever, and his persona has always been Anton Lubov. Oh, well. Retroactive spoiler alert.) Ballard's upping the stakes. He tells Anton that he can get a lot of information from a dead body, like whether it was killed by Russians or not. He either suspects he's being played by Victor or by Victor's bosses, or he's just in a pissy mood, I don't know for sure.

Victor is feeling betrayed. "Put on your mean face, act tough, but you'll care, Agent Ballard. That's your problem." And he's out.

Echo goes back in the chair, unremembering everything that happened after the remote wipe. It seems painful. Madam is telling Mr.D that "Michaelangelo believed his sculptures already existed inside the marble, waiting to be formed." Then she tells him to hand over the art and Prof to the client right away. Topher reports that Echo is fresh as a daisy or whatever, no memory of what happened in the vault. He says it had to be Alpha right? She has him sign a paper to up his security clearance and agrees. He's using the "gifts we gave him." Again, I'm intrigued. Did he move beyond regular Active to some sort of Dollhouse employee? 

In the Dollhouse, Echo walks, swims, and sits on the bottom of the pool in solitude for a while as Sia sings "I Go to Sleep." She showers, exchanges smiles with Sierra, and looks at herself through a misty mirror. She traces over it a few lines that seem to shape the cubist face she saw before that was broken, then quickly wipes it out.

More, more, more.

Dollhouse 1x03 Stage Fright

Were you raised in a lab?

We begin with a woman in the dark, haloed with a spotlight on her head, behind bars.  Then some poppy music begins, Superstar by Kimberly Cole, sung by Jaime Lee Kirchner who plays Rayna Reynolds.  Rayna steps out of the cage and puts on a show.  They went whole hog with the choreography and all.

Then one of the backup singers gets set on fire from the stage flash pot pyrotechnics and the show stops.  As everyone freaks, we pan over to the Crazed Fan who obviously did it.  So this week won't be a mystery story, I guess.

In the House, Sierra and Echo are both running on treadmills (if running on treadmills made me look the way they do, I'd totally do it).  They have a moment after the workout where Sierra gets the dizzies and Echo steadies her. "I didn't want you to get hurt."  "Friends help each other out."  "Yes, they do."  There's a trainer in the background watching them, someone always is, and Echo seems to notice.  A sense that they're doing something wrong over the scene.  Seriously, what does the blank slate consist of?  I don't know that children think things like friends help each other out; they're generally way too selfish and have to be taught those ideas.

We next visit Boyd and Dr. Saunders as she mildly tells him off for yanking out a broadhead arrow.  He wants to be certified so Echo doesn't get stuck with anyone else on assignment.  She seems to care about her patients, and her and Boyd bond a bit over Echo being in danger from Alpha.  Doc says, "Do keep a close eye.  Someone else is watching."  Boyd replies, "Someone always is." Seems to me they're talking about the Dollhouse authorities more than Alpha with that.

Cutiepie Victor in a hoodie goes to Ballard's place and freaks out his neighbor, although anyone in the world would look more menacing in a hoodie than him. The two people in Paul's life meet, and we're left to wonder if either is what they seem.  Good line delivery on a good line:  I'm an old friend from Navy, er, friend from Old Navy.  I did retail before...he would buy slacks.  Awesome.  Jed and Marissa have some really good dialogue throughout.  Anyway, he leaves Ballard a message to come talk, not at work.

Madam is cheek kissing friends with Rayna's business manager, Biz.  Great name.  He tells her that Rayna's had a couple strange accidents and needs protection, but her stalker seems to get by regular bodyguards.  So he wants a Doll to be her friend and undercover protector.  He brought a few fan letters and a really disturbing pop-up box with Rayna's face all over it.  If I make one for Joss would I be his number one fan?  Anyway, thanks to the burning woman incident, the entourage does have an opening for a backup singer.

Cut to Echo, or Jordan actually, singing a spiritual-like song about freedom for her audition that Rayna likes.  Biz's doing, no doubt.  He also plays reverse psychology, saying exactly what he needs to say to get Rayna to hire Jordan. She joins Jordan in a duet and it's really pretty. Jordan's cutely excited to get the gig.

Credits.

CreepyChris is doing whatever he does as Doc Saunders storms in waving a report about Echo.  "I had her flagged for romantic or altruistic engagements only.  Does anybody read this?"  Okay, I want to know what the altruistic engagements are.  In fact, I want the company handbook.  CC brags some about his imprint on Echo.  It's a combo of persona (struggling singer getting her first break) and parameter (must protect Rayna at all times).  The persona is what she knows; the parameter is unconscious.  Okay, it is kind of fascinating, even if he's still creepy.  He notices that Doc Saunders is less formal about Boyd and wonders if they're buddies now.  "Of course you are. You both disapprove of everything.  You're gonna get married and have scowly babies." Heh. Then Sierra comes in with her lamo handler, Hearn.  She's going in as backup.

At rehearsal Jordan's getting fitted for costumes and learning her lines, mostly oohs and ahhs according to the other backup singers.  She asks if Rayna is diva or deevah.  "She's the real deal. She's earning it." Lot of stuff this week about reality versus persona.  Then Rayna has a mini tantrum and Biz takes her off to something else.  She takes Jordan with her.  So the plan is working to make her a non-bodyguard bodyguard.

At a pool party on top of a downtown building, Ballard catches up with Victor -- he said not to come to his work, dude! And they have a good conversation.  Victor is an interesting character who seems to have a lot going on under the surface of immigrant punk playboy who's working for the Borodins.  (And, spoiler alert, he gets even more interesting pretty soon.)  He tells Ballard he thinks Dollhouse is a myth.  "I've heard this song; it's not my favorite."  Cute.  And Victor brags that he looked up Ballard and found out he was a loser.  This line I don't get: Nicest version of Fired the BI has.  I get the initial play, but not how it makes sense.  Anyway, he mentions Van Dynes and Illinois Gun Club as cases that Ballard supposedly screwed up.  He's on the Dollhouse beat because it's a lie and he can't mess it up.  Given what we do see about Ballard in this episode and others, I think he has a reality versus perception thing going on with him too.

He's also delightfully cynical.  When Victor says the technology that made a monkey tango isn't going to be used to wipe out people's personalities and give them new ones, Ballard disagrees. "We come up with anything new, the first thing we do is destroy, manipulate, control. It's human nature." I think he could have scowly babies too.  Victor seems to agree, and to me he seems to like Ballard.  At least, the two have a good chemistry together. But even before the big reveal, we don't know how much of what Victor is doing is for real.  He does say he wishes Dollhouse were real. "I could sign up. Wipe all of my terrible burdens away...I start over, I want to be Doris freaking Day." So adorable.

Jordan's doing her unconscious security job while Boyd is waiting for Sierra and Hearn to join the party.  CC tells him he won't like Hearn.  Boyd is nervous for Echo's stage debut.  They gossip about Rayna long enough to get to the point where Topher can say, "You think you know someone," and we see Victor! in the chair.  One of the few spoilers I had was knowing that Gjokaj was cast as a Doll, so I've been wondering how it would play out.  I thought he could be a Doll on assignment, or he could have been recruited later because of Ballard using him to ask questions about it.  And then they just now floated the possibility he would volunteer for it.  It's all great. And now that we know he's been a Doll, we still don't know all there is to know. Is he there strictly to deal with Ballard? Did Madam bait the Borodins? Or was he hired by the Borodins and just happened to get noticed by Ballard and then retasked? Or was he placed among the Russians without their knowledge because of some business between the Dollhouse and them? Who knows? Also, since it seemed that he liked Ballard, was that part of the imprint to forge more of a bond between them or an unforeseen thing? I love this storyline.

Moving on finally. We get quick-moving, intercut scenes of the audience coming to the show, Crazed Fan entering on crutches, Jordan and Rayna all buddy-buddy backstage, Sierra joining them as Rayna's number one fan contest winner from Australia, and Crazed Fan putting together a rifle out of his crutches and leaving it in a high-up room across from the stage.  He must be doing the killing thing later. We don't see this show, just the after party where Rayna and Jordan and Sierra talk about how cool it is to be a star and then Jordan totally tosses a paparazzi dude over a railing. Crazed Fan is in the house and takes note. Sierra's persona, Audra, is kind of geeky, awkward and virginal seeming. Kind of a weird number one fan type for a pop star, but probably just seems that way because it's more realistic.

Victor sends Ballard to an abandoned hotel basement where he heard third-hand that people might have been kept there. Says he only called because Ballard "inspire(s) terrible pity. Watch your back." The warning doesn't do him much good when he's jumped by 3 Russian goons trying to teach him to leave the Borodins alone. When they ask why he wants to mess with them, he's honest. "Actually, I didn't." They try to beat him up, and he's winning against all three until one shoots him. But then he rallies, uses one as a shield against further bullets and beats the crap out of them while wounded.  Badass. Who would win, him or Boyd? As he's passing out he calls 911, not the FBI. Ouch. He really can't count on his compatriots coming fast enough to save him, I guess.

Hearn comes back to the van after a 40 minute coffee break to give Boyd a hard time for trying to figure out who's after Rayna. His idea of being a handler is just watching the Active and pulling her out when the job's done. When Boyd asks about the previous Sierra, Hearn just says, "She got the job done." So I'm guessing death in the LOD. Wonder if that happens a lot.

Now we're back in Rayna's dressing room and about to figure out what's really going on here. Rayna's all excited about the upcoming show being the best night of her life. She gets into an argument with Jordan when Jordan notices she has more letters from Crazed Fan and seems to be corresponding with him. "You want him to shoot you."  "I'm not crazy. I just want to be free," she says as she climbs into her cage and it heads to the stage. Nice twist to have the target conspiring with her assassin.

The concert. Another scene that intercuts with Jordan looking for Biz, Rayna singing, security working the audience, Audra watching from stage right, and Crazed Fan getting into position. Crazed Rayna is singing a song about a stalker who needs to "make your move."  Then she starts talking to the audience about her special fan, taunting him to do it. When it doesn't happen, she ups the stakes by bringing Audra onstage, calling her her number one fan.

Meanwhile, Jordan finds Biz, argues with security, knees one dude in the stomach and hops on stage to shine a spotlight all over. She finds Crazed Fan just in time to blind him so his first shot goes wide, then she tackles Rayna and the second shot misses her too -- possibly hitting another backup singer, it's not clear -- before chaos ensues and regular security makes itself useful.

We quickly check in with Ballard in the ambulance as he's arresting.  Then we're back with Rayna and Jordan, with Rayna all pissy about not giving her fans a finish. Jordan doesn't think her fans want to see her die. "Did they grow you in a lab? You know anything about people? They'd love to see me die." Maybe Ballard could have his scowly babies with her. "I got to be happy; I got to be grateful. I got to be rebellious, but just enough to give me cred so people know I'm not a factory girl. But I am. I don't exist. I'm not a real person. I'm everybody's fantasy." I really like that they tie these assignments in to the main philosophical ideas of the Dollhouse. When you have a character who has no memory and is different every week, you need these consistent questions to draw the audience in and keep them interested. There's almost no throwaway dialogue in any of these episodes. It's very dense.

Rayna talks about how she doesn't feel anything, and it would be a rush of freedom to just suddenly die. Jordan thinks she's either on drugs or needs to be. "You don't like your life, change it." Rayna fires her, and Jordan is happy to go. Persona.

Audra, trying to get back inside, gets grabbed by Crazed Fan. He makes a video or streams one live to Rayna. Jordan sees it when she comes back for her stuff, hears there's trouble, and instinctively goes to find out what's happening. Parameter. 

The last line on the feed: You have my number; call me. Ha. Biz finally gets it and backhands Rayna, like apparently he's wanted to for a long time. I don't really like him, even though he's fairly benign. (I do wonder if we'll ever see the twins he apparently recreates with from the Dollhouse, but I digress.) Jordan tells him that "Getting what you want may not be the best thing for a person." She's working it out in her head, getting to the solution we'll see her implement later. He asks if being fired makes a difference to her in terms of Rayna. "No. I don't know why." And she looks at the video of Sierra. "I have to help her." Her actions from here on out can be read two different ways, or maybe they're an amalgam of both. Does she know which her she's helping?

We catch up with Madam and Mr.D in her office. Apparently this was Sierra's backup function. Mr.D figured she would draw the attention of Crazed Fan away from Rayna. Hearn and a team are just waiting for the order to go in and end this.

While they're waiting, Audra, completely clueless that she's not Audra and she's got backup, is crazy scared. Crazed Fan makes her sing Superstar and joins in, giving us another, less pretty, duet.

Rayna is in front of a mirror in the dark, practicing dance moves for the next show. Jordan tells her that she can help Audra, and that will help her to feel something. And she could be talking about herself, her Echo self, who was happy to help Sierra when she stumbled in the Dollhouse. Who felt something then, in a place where you're not supposed to feel anything. Then Jordan nails Rayna with a metal folding chair and reprises Echo's line: Friends help each other out. And again, she's helping who?

So the DWAT team busts in and finds Audra and Crazed Fan gone, and a message on the answering machine from Jordan, offering to trade Rayna for Audra. Cut to super pissed Mr.D throttling CreepyChris, who gets pissed and says Mr.D's in HIS house and one of them is a genius and one is a security guard. Then he admits that Echo's actions are a bit off.

Up on the catwalk, Jordan and Crazed Fan meet up. Rayna's bound and gagged and Crazed Fan has a gun on Audra. Boyd's looking around down by the stage and hears Rayna scream as Jordan removes her gag. He takes a position on another catwalk and points his gun at the group. Madam won't give the order yet. Jordan does some good Eleanor Penn style negotiating with Crazed Fan and Rayna, breaking their bond and confusing them both, and Rayna makes it clear she's having second thoughts about the whole rush of dying thing. Then Jordan pushes her off the catwalk. She's on a rope and ends up hanging over the stage. Freaks everyone out.

Then Jordan proceeds to kick Crazed Fan's ass, steal his gun, and pistol whip him into unconsciousness. Badass. Then she helps Audra up, and steadies her as she wavers. Rayna's all, "Please don't let me die. I want to live." And Jordan pulls her up.  That was well-staged and unexpected. And Jordan helped both her friends. But she and Audra are the two that walk off together and share a moment. Hearn and Boyd come for them and Hearn's all snotty. "That's all I need, you rubbing off on her." (Too easy, too easy, back away slowly.)

Jordan wants to kick his ass before her treatment, and Boyd seems willing to consider it. He's impressed with her badass self. Not so Mr.D. He thinks Echo's a risk and should be put in the attic. I really don't want to see this attic place. It's going to be like the Wolfram and Hart travel agency basement in Dead End all over again, I just know it. (By that, of course, I mean I really do want to see it.)

Madam doesn't think Echo went off-mission. She stopped the threat against Rayna's life posed by both Crazed Fan and Rayna, so good on her. Boyd is talking with Doc Saunders about the same thing. She "did even better" than the mission parameter. And the mission persona?? He's impressed with her ability to think outside the pieces of identity imprinted on her to create a new approach. She's special. Doc says being special around here is not such a good thing. "Sometimes the best thing to hope for is good enough." Boyd doesn't think Madam would do anything to her best Active, but Doc reminds him that Alpha was the best once too.

Rayna in the dark, haloed with a spotlight on her head, no longer behind bars, is singing about freedom. Jordan's voice takes over the song as Ballard's nosy neighbor tries to see him in the hospital and is stopped by agents at the door. Ballard is lying in the hospital bed looking as blank as a doll, and it's incredibly sad for some reason, considering he survived. The song continues as Echo walks through the Dollhouse. Her eyes are alert, and she watches everything with the same security consciousness her Jordan persona had. She sees Boyd and Doc Saunders watching from above, as someone always is, and passes Hearn talking to two other handler/security types. He shoots her a look. Sierra sees her friend and heads towards her. Echo gives her a firm "no" head shake and Sierra keeps walking. Echo watches the watchers.

Whew. Good episode. I think Echo is not Caroline, but she is someone. And she knows she's being watched. And she has some sense of danger. I can't wait to see how this continues to play out.

Magpie Viewing

Okay, so falling way behind on the idea of recapping Dollhouse.  Life has been intervening with unpleasantness in the form of expensive car trouble, stress-inducing rescheduling, and now a (fairly minor) cold.  But I intend to get back to it soon because I'm enjoying my attempts at this form of writing, and I find that I am an even more insightful viewer when I watch through this lens.

On another note, the end of BSG keeps making me flash on the end of the book Passage by Connie Willis.  And it's creeping me the hell out.  The Galactica is out there in the big black, just slowly dying, lights going out, hull bursting, everything shutting down.  And I don't think I'd feel it so strongly if that book hadn't left its imprint on me but good.  It's so sad and beautiful.

30 Rock this week made me laugh hysterically; funniest it's been for me in weeks.  I'm not a traditional slapstick fan, but if physical comedy ever does strike me as funny, it strikes hard. Like Spaceman and Bear Jenna and the table or Buffy and Spike and the flamethrower in Him.  I don't know why it's so funny, but awesome.

Also, Wicked IS AWESOME!  I remember reading the book when it first came out and being, unlike everyone else, underimpressed.  I suspect I had my own ideas of how the story should go and the author had the gall to do something different; I really don't remember.  Just remember thinking that it was probably a new idea for fiction readers, but for a genre fan it was just okay.

I don't know if I'd see it differently if I reread it.  I know the Musical is its own entity and different from the book.  In any case, I love love love the musical.  I expected I'd enjoy it, but I had no idea how affecting it would be.  I think I have Winnie Holzman to thank for that, and I really need to finish making my way through My So-Called Life.  I just remember, during the last duet between Glinda and Elphaba, thinking that the whole story is really about this incredibly complex friendship between these two women.  And how often is that ever given primacy and importance in stage and screen?  I mean, there's more women protaganists now, but so many times the most important relationships they have are with men, usually romantically.  And it seems to me that a lot of women's friendships are still played more for laughs or as a side story or as proof that there's nothing more "interesting" in that particular character's life than gossiping with girlfriends.  

I don't know; maybe I'm overlooking something or maybe I don't watch enough Lifetime -- that sort of women's drama doesn't appeal -- but it really struck me as amazing that this whole big Broadway hit play was about these two women's stories.  And it was obviously about a lot of other things that I also loved.  The whole people's perception versus individual perception versus truth, how being what people think you are instead of who you are never gets you anywhere, and on and on.  I just wish it were in a format that I could watch over and over without paying a fortune.  I did get the soundtrack and found a copy of the script online, so I'll have to make due with geeking out over that instead.

That's it for my entertainment thoughts of the week, those of any substance anyway.  Guess I'll go rewatch Dollhouse 3 now.