Love appears to be the best spanner to throw into the Rossum Corporation's infernal machine; first through renegade Alpha's obsession with Echo (Eliza Dushku) and now with Victor (Enver Gjokaj) and Sierra's (Dichen Lachman) childlike adoration. "Stop-Loss" was another great episode from the show, which appears to be surfing a wave of quality I'm hoping won't be cut short by a wipe-out...Victor's contract as a doll expires, so his true identity of traumatized Gulf War vet Anthony Ceccoli is reinstated by Topher (Fran Kranz) and he's returned home with a plausible alibi for his five-year absence, sans the stress disorder that assumedly compelled him to signup as an active. However, it appears that Rossum aren't so willing to let Victor return to a normal life, as it's revealed they have a secret army comprised of former-actives who agree to be part of project "Mind Whisper" – a new technology that allows every recruited member to be linked to a group consciousness, essentially creating a hive-mind militia. Once Boyd (Harry Lennix) and Topher realize Victor's been recruited by these men, Boyd goes out into the field with Echo to try and recapture him, going against the orders of DeWitt (Olivia Williams), who has sided with her sinister employers but drinking herself into a stupor most days over the guilt.
"Stop-Loss" was an exciting and interesting instalment, giving us another angle on exactly what the Dollhouse-like technology could achieve. I wasn't that convinced Anthony would agree to be a part of this project, particularly as they went about it in a rather extreme way (breaking into his home to kidnap him), and it was unfortunate that we never got to understand exactly what Rossum plan to do with their group-army, but everything else about this episode worked very well. I often criticize Dushku on this show, but she was certainly in more comfortable territory playing a macho GI Jane-type, required to demonstrate all the martial arts and gun training she's acquired since her Buffy days, so it's easy to buy into Echo when she's being a ball-breaker with a single-minded purpose.
I've also enjoyed the odd romance between Victor and Sierra since the early days of the show, so seeing this continue was the main selling point of "Stop-Loss" for me. Anthony and Priya (Sierra's true self) have a love that can transcend mind-wiping technology, so watching Echo use their bond to break the spell Anthony was under worked very nicely. I would have liked more of a spark between Gjokaj and Lachman when they were reunited, if I'm honest, but admittedly there wasn't much quiet time between them, and both were playing characters who haven't "really" been properly introduced. To them, they just have a peculiar affinity for each other, so I can let it pass.The episode ended on a moment many critics of the show's internal logic have been calling for, too: DeWitt finally flipped once she realized Boyd went behind her back, working against Rossum with the help of Echo and Sierra, so she had her head of security arrested and all three dolls sent to the infamous "Attic". As its name suggests, it appears to be a place where the bodies of mind-erased dolls are stored in shallow containers full of blue gel, shrink-wrapped like prized toys for an indefinite period...
"The Attic" picked up the story immediately, and took some huge steps forward in terms of the show's mythology, while keeping us entertained with a Matrix-like storyline. Echo, Sierra and Vincent are now in The Attic, which is revealed to be a virtual reality platform where every active's mind is kept in a state of chemically-induced fear, essentially bringing their nightmares to vivid life. This never-ending terror can only be stopped if an active achieves brain-death through the sheer mental exhaustion.
Echo's torment is to be eternally stuck in a dream where she escapes from Attic captivity, only to watch her friends Sierra and Vincent gunned down while fleeing, before the situation resets and repeats. She also meets another resident of The Attic, former-head of security Mr. Dominic (Reed Diamond), and the pair decide to work together in an effort to escape this infernal mindscape – particularly as a muscled phantom known as "Arcane" appears to be hunting down the Attic's residents. They soon realize that every Dollhouse Attic around the world is interconnected (quite a flaw, that), so they can travel between different people's constructed nightmares (including a Japanese businessman with no legs), and eventually hook-up with Anthony/Victor (trapped in an unwinnable military campaign) and Priya/Sierra (forever having sex with Victor, before he turns into the rapist she killed in "Belonging".)The general premise behind "The Attic" was certainly nothing new to science-fiction, so I was slightly disappointed that Joss Whedon didn't cook up something more distinctive. However, it was breathlessly entertaining, imaginatively directed, and eventually tightened into quite a revelatory package. The boogieman "Arcane" was revealed to be geeky programmer Clyde Randolph (Adam Godley), one half of Rossum's founders who was sent to The Attic back in '93 when he realized his colleagues were planning to use his technology for amoral purposes. His bespoke "nightmare" has been to run simulations into where his technology will ultimately lead humanity, and it seems that every permutation leads to the end of civilization (as seen in "Epitaph One").
Working together, the Attic prisoners devised a way to break free of their virtual world, by killing Echo (it's okay, she's "special" so she can take it) so that she'd awaken in the real-world and be able to break everyone else out when they likewise flatline. There was even a very nice redemptive twist involving Olivia, when it was revealed that she actually sent Echo to The Attic on purpose so she could uncover the truth about Rossum's plans and mount a breakout. A minor subplot also had Topher installing "active architecture" onto the healthy areas of Ballard's scarred brain, effectively turning him into a doll imprinted with his own personality.Overall, both episodes were another double-whammy for a show that's really kicked things up several gears in December. Another hiatus is upon us until mid-January, but we'll return with a final batch of episodes where the entire Dollhouse staff are now allied to takedown the Rossum Corporation. Will the dystopia of "Epitaph One" come to pass, inescapably? Or will Joss Whedon allow things to end on a triumphant note? I somehow doubt it. You can't "un-invent" technology like this – you can only hope to control it.
17 December 2009
Fox, 8/7c
written by: Andrew Chambliss (2.9) & Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon (2.10) directed by: Félix Enríquez Alcalá (2.9) & John Cassaday (2.10) starring: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Harry Lennix (Boyd Langton), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Enver Gjokaj (Victor/Anthony Ceccoli), Dichen Lachman (Sierra/Priya Tsetsang), Liza Lapira (Ivy), Michael King (Hagan) / Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Adam Godley (Clyde Randolph), Tzi Ma (Matsu), Billy Snow (Restored Active), Keir Thirus (Myers) & Vincent Ventresca (Nolan Kinnard)
