||SPOILERS|| There's a brilliant idea behind "Haunted" that held my attention for awhile, before its inherent problems became all too obvious. Here, a wealthy middle-aged woman called Margaret (Brenda Bakke1) is killed while riding her horse -- but, having long suspected someone might murder her, she's had a series of expensive brain-scans at the Dollhouse. This allows her personality and memories to be imprinted onto Echo (Eliza Dushku) shortly after her passing, allowing "Margaret" to attend her own funeral and solve her own murder...
Like I said, it's a really compelling idea, and another example of how Dollhouse's premise can be stretched into interesting territory. Sadly, once the novelty of the situation ticked some obvious boxes (Margaret/Echo getting to see what her family really thought of her, etc.), the episode had to somehow make us care about a half-dozen characters we've only just met. And it didn't manage it; despite the fact three writers had a hand in crafting this tricky episode. To her credit, I thought Dushku did a decent job at altering her poise and mannerisms to play an older, posh woman... but then, as the episode developed, she seemed to just lapse into playing a quieter version of herself...The murder mystery itself wasn't particularly compelling given the potential for a fun Cluedo-style romp, although a final twist over the killer's identity was effective enough. You had to suspend your disbelief a great deal, though, as Echo gains access to the family by pretending she's an old friend of Margaret's called Julia (that Margaret kept mentioning before she died, to facilitate her own infiltration after death.) That was plausible enough, but I didn't believe the family would allow "Julia" (who's still a total stranger to them) to stay over after the funeral and pry into their lives to the extent she did. Still, without that concession, it would have been impossible to pull off this story.
The subplots weren't too good, either, which didn't help the episode at large. Topher (Fran Kranz) was given permission to run an annual "diagnostic test" which amounted to him imprinting Sierra (Dichen Lachman) as the ultimate best friend. The pair spent the whole episode playing video-games, throwing ball to each other, and sprinting around the Dollhouse playing laser-tag. All pretty forgettable, and only there to underline how lonely Topher is.
Slightly little better was the continuing storyline for Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), who has to keep up appearances with his neighbour and girlfriend Mellie (Miracle Laurie), now that he knows she's a doll sent to spy on him. So, he's keeping his work life tight-lipped and acting distant (which is beginning to frustrate Mellie), and later beats himself up when he gives in and has passionate sex with a woman he knows is essentially a slave. At work, Ballard gets his colleague to run Mellie's fingerprints through the FBI database, and appears to discover she's actually a criminal of some description, before the record is mysteriously wiped as they watch. Still, at least now someone at the Bureau actually believes him.Overall; great idea, poor execution. I can understand the difficulty in making us care about characters in a one-off story, but it's something the likes of Quantum Leap pulled off nearly every week. Still, I guess that show always had the same character (Sam Beckett) dropped into different lives, and seeing him struggle to cope was part of the fun. In Dollhouse, Echo is primed to slot into people's lives with no such problem (unless there's another "glitch"), so we have to try and see her as someone entangled in a real life. And this episode didn't manage to make Margaret's life, or afterlife, particularly interesting. The idea that Margaret/Echo would refuse to be wiped/killed at the end of the mission was more intriguing to me than discovering who actually killed her, but "Haunted" only had time to reference that possibility before brushing it under the carpet.
24 April 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writers: Jane Espenson, Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon
Director: Elodie Keene
Cast: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Olivia Williams (DeWitt), Fran Franz (Topher), Harry J. Lennix (Boyd), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Ian Anthony Dale (Jack Dunston), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Miracle Laurie (Mellie), Enver Gjokaj (Victor), Brenda Bakke (Margaret Bashford), Jordan Bridges (Nicolas Bashford, Gregg Henry (William Bashford) & Rhea Seehorn (Jocelyn Bashford)
1. Yes, an unrecognizable Brenda Bakke! The leggy hottie in Hot Shots: Part Deux and the delectable Ms. Coombs in American Gothic is now playing a crinkled, snooty mom! God, I feel old.
