Spoilers. Tim Minear's "True Believer" offers a neat look at what the Dollhouse's "actives" could achieve in the real world, when Echo's (Eliza Dushku) assigned to infiltrate a religious cult, posing as a blind girl called Esther who received a vision of the group's leader, ex-con Jonas Sparrow (Brian Bloom)...We learn that the Dollhouse scientists, primarily imprinter Topher (Fran Kranz) and Dr. Saunders (Amy Acker), have advanced technology that can temporarily blind Echo, install a video-camera behind her eyeball and feed real-time footage to a police taskforce -- who have 48-hours to snoop into Sparrow's clique, after one of its members apparently scrawled "SAVE ME" on the back of a shopping list when getting supplies from a local store.
One big problem with Dollhouse's premise is coming up with reasons that millionaires/VIP's would require an "active" over a regular person with the same skills and knowledge. If nothing else, "True Believer" gives us solid reasons why you'd send Echo into its situation: she won't crack under questioning, because she truly believes she's Esther; her pupils won't even dilate when Sparrow shines a light in her eyes to test her story; and she's invaluable as a remote camera for the cops, who hope to spot incriminating evidence that can authorize a search.Unfortunately, there's not much else that makes this episode stand out from the crowd. The Esther persona is about as engaging as Echo's tabula rasa state (although Dushku makes a convincing blind person), it's never made particularly clear what's so terrible about this cult (perhaps intentionally, when the cops are shown to be prejudiced), and the excellent teaser (with a group of cult members shopping and singing in unison, to the frustration of an intolerant local) is unfortunately the episode's highlight.
The cult itself was poorly explained and underdeveloped. We got no sense of the group's daily lives or belief system. They were just stereotypical Amish-like Bible-bashers, with the fashion sense of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village cast -- a similarity augmented by the prominence of a blind woman in both stories. Just when Echo had been accepted by the cult and might therefore get some answers, or at least sense of why Sparrow's such a villain (beyond the fact he has an arsenal of hidden weapons), the show started to hit its climax and dissolved into burning buildings, the "miracle" of Esther regaining her sight, and armed cops pouring through the perimeter fence.
Subplots were also fairly weak, unfortunately; Topher and Saunders amusingly notice "active" Victor (Enver Gjokaj) gets "man reactions" whenever he takes a communal shower with Sierra (Dichen Lachman), proving their mind-wipes don't erase sexual desire; and Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) is still stuck in his bland storyline, constantly one-step behind finding the Dollhouse and Catherine/Echo. Here, he's given the video-tape his smitten neighbour took receipt of from the man loitering outside his apartment last week, and later spots Catherine/Echo on the news in her Esther guise.Ballard's still stuck on the sidelines chasing shadows, really -- arriving too late to find any trace of Echo amongst the cult's smoking debris. It might help if he was personally connected to Catherine, too (as I incorrectly assumed might be the case in episode 1), but right now he's just a stern agent that nobody believes, being led a merry dance. But surely there must be a superior who is allowing Ballard to spend his days investigating a myth, using federal resources? I'd also like to see him get a disbelieving partner to bounce ideas off and eventually convince.
Still, despite its faults, Minear's script unfolded in an agreeable way and Dushku was very appealing in blind-mode (until the miracle/malfunction restored her vision, the ability to read complex scripture, and her impertinence: "move your ass!") Creator Joss Whedon has stated that episode 6 is where Dollhouse starts to achieve its potential, but it would be wrong to write-off the previous five episodes as misfiring duds. It may not be an instant classic, but I'm of the opinion that even the "bad" episodes of Dollhouse have contained something to savour, and audiences clearly have high expectations of the man behind Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Too high, perhaps.
13 March 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writer: Tim Minear
Director: Allan Kroeker
Cast: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Olivia Williams (Adelle), Fran Kranz (Topher), Harry J. Lennix (Boyd), Enver Gjokaj (Victor), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Amy Acker (Dr. Claire Saunders), Miracle Laurie (Mellie), Brian Bloom (Jonas Sparrow), Aisha Hinds (Loomis), Rebecca Field (Kris), Angus Sutherland (Lilya), Mark Totty (Agent Lilly), Sam Hennings (Senator Boxbaum), Brad Hunt (Jesse Dillard) & David Alpay (Seth)
