We first find Echo rummaging through skips for sustenance and unable to pay for food at a convenience store, before she gets arrested with another starving woman border-hopping Mexican immigrant Galena (Ana Claudia Talancon). From there we jump forward in time three months a handy narrative device, if slightly frustrating at times to see a significant change in everybody's lives. Echo is now living with Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), who found her in the interim and has been keeping her a secret from the Dollhouse, who believe he's likewise gone AWOL. Only Boyd (Harry Lennix) is aware of what they're both up to: training Echo to use her multiple-personalities in real world situations, so they can use her abilities to takedown the Dollhouse upon her return -- as a kind of sleeper double-agent. To do this, Echo is currently posing as a nurse and trying to free Galena from a Texan jail and its abusive staff, using her newfound ability to slot into various personalities like shuffling a deck of cards.Over at the Dollhouse, Matthew Harding (Keith Carradine) has taken control of the L.A operative from DeWitt (Olivia Williams) because of recent events, and DeWitt is having a tough time coping with her sudden demotion and a smell of derision that hangs in the air. It doesn't help that Topher (Fran Kranz) has become Harding's eager lapdog, assisting in the development of a remote mind-wipe in the form of a gun so handlers can instantly revert actives to their tabula rasa state at the pull of a trigger. However, Topher has actually realized that the Rossum Corporation are secretly pooling each Dollhouse's minor technical breakthroughs in order to create a new, dangerous form of technology that can imprint anyone with a new personality without them even knowing about it. Yes, the first domino on the way to the dystopian paranoia of "Epitaph One" is about to fall, people...
"Meet Jane Doe" could easily have been a boring standalone episode. It threatened to become just that to begin with, when it felt like we'd be getting an hour of Echo being an immigrant's guardian angel, but thankfully writers Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon and Andrew Chambliss managed to surround that nucleus with a few compelling ideas and Echo's mission was made more interesting than expected. I love the idea of Echo being a fugitive from the Dollhouse, and this episode existed to have each character on the show pick a side: Echo or Rossum. Boyd and Ballard have joined forces to use Echo's unique ability to retain a core "collective personality" to their own advantage, as they assumedly have a plan to destroy the Dollhouse from the inside. Topher is sitting conflicted in the middle; having deduced what Rossum are up to, he (rather confusingly) took it upon himself to create the remote imprinting technology their paymasters covet. And, after sharing his schematic and fears with DeWitt, he's shocked when she decided to steal his plans and deliver them to Harding as a means to earn her job back. And it worked."A Love Supreme" was a more fan-pleasing episode, as it heralded the return of supervillain Alpha (Alan Tudyk), who is again causing problems for the Dollhouse by jealously murdering Echo's former clients who used her for romantic engagements. The fact that Alpha's psychosis finds purpose in his love for Echo (who shares his ability to maintain multiple-personalities, with no side-effects beyond headaches), is one of the show's better ideas. A twisted, unrequited romance between a serial-killer and someone he hopes will become the Bonnie to his Clyde. It's also true that Echo's more interesting as an super-heroine recently, trying to keep her ability a secret from DeWitt -- although this episode eventually exposes her true nature to all.
Also intriguing to see the show admitting that Echo's original identity, Caroline, is a largely unsympathetic and boring character, so now it seems that Echo is happy to fight for her own existence. But I have to wonder if certain developments this year are happening quicker because the writers adjusted timings in the face of the poor ratings. I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally intended to let Echo "go rogue" for much longer than one episode, for example.
A big chunk of "A Love Supreme" involved Boyd and Ballard working together to capture Alpha before he kills again, eventually focusing on his final intended victim -- billionaire entrepreneur Joel Mynor (Patton Oswalt) from season 1's pivotal episode "Man On The Street", who annually meets Echo as an imprint of his dead wife. With Joel taken into custody for his own protection, the episode shifted inside the confines of the Dollhouse as Alpha again managed to evade the supposedly improved security. Interestingly, it turned out Alpha has had Echo and Ballard under surveillance these past few months, and has come to believe that Ballard's the only true competition he has for Echo's heart. So, having caused a building-wide distraction using a self-made doohickey that sends every active into combat mode, Alpha tortures Ballard in Topher's imprinting chair and, after accidentally causing his brain-death, decides to upload Ballard's Id into his own mushrooming brain.
It's remarkable how the quality has skyrocketed since Dollhouse came back from hiatus, with a run of episodes that have proven to be challenging, exciting and entertaining. "A Love Supreme" was a strong episode, although I still don't think Alpha's character is anywhere near as exciting as he deserves to be. As a Swiss Army Knife of personas, he should be a deliriously unhinged and frighteningly complex mix of good and bad characters -- but he's instead the archetypal serial-killer in love with the closest thing he has to a soul mate. While I rather like that angle, I just don't get the sense that Alpha's got dozens of personalities buzzing around inside his head at all times. Tudyk's clearly having fun channeling Heath Ledger's Joker this time (the suit, the knife fetish, the bombs), but Alpha hasn't unnerved me ever since his identity was revealed last season. Sorry, it's just that I can imagine a truly insane and multifaceted monster, and Alpha's just too focused and stereotypical.I'm also having trouble believing that DeWitt, who admits she knows Boyd and Ballard are part of a "cabal" working against her, doesn't just fire them! Or why the Dollhouse building's security continues to have more holes than a pair of fishnets. Still, there was an exciting turn of events in having Ballard stuck in a vegetative state after his face-off with Alpha, who has literally stolen his mind. That sets up a lot of existential possibilities and compelling drama for Echo as she'll inevitably have to rescue Ballard from Alpha's headspace to reunite body and mind.
Overall, this was another fine double-bill of episodes that pushed us further down the path towards the horrendous future glimpsed in "Epitaph One". There are only a handful of episodes left to air now until the end of January, so it will be very interesting to see how Joss Whedon's team manage to wrap-up the show with a note of finality that doesn't feel too rushed or awkward.
11 December 2009
Fox, 8/7c
written by: Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon & Andrew Chambliss (2.7) & Jenny DeArmitt (2.8) directed by: Dwight Little (2.7) & David Straiton (2.8) starring: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Harry Lennix (Boyd Langton), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Keith Carradine (Matthew Harding), Ana Claudia Talancon (Galena), Philip Casnoff (Clive Ambrose), Brett Claywell (Matt), Jonathan Del Arco (Mr. Caviezel), Kevin Linehan (Deputy Merrick), Glenn Morshower (Sheriff Rand), David Lee Smith (Clay Corman) / Patton Oswalt (Joel Myner) & Alan Tudyk (Alpha)
