Episode 2 - The Target
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Echo is hired by rich thrill-seeker Richard Connell who takes her out hunting before she realises that she is his true prey. Boyd is attacked in his surveillance van but subdues the attacker. He tries to help Echo but Connell shoots him with an arrow. Echo eventually Connell though she is haunted along the way by memories both of when she was Caroline and of being in the Dollhouse. It turns out that escaped Active Alpha hired Connell to test Echo in some way. He also sends a photo of her to Agent Ballard who continues his lonely search for the Dollhouse. We also flashback to when Boyd joined the Dollhouse with Alpha having slaughtered his predecessor, several other Actives and cut up Dr Saunders’ face.
The Good: A much improved effort in this follow up episode, but the show is far from fully formed.
Echo still can’t be a compelling central character because she as yet has no personality. But the mysterious Alpha provides the clue as to how Echo can become more than just another Active. His “Composite Event” implies that, as Echo begins to do here, he was able to access some of the personalities which had been imprinted on his mind, with disastrous results. The show’s main story will doubtless become Echo’s own gradual assimilation of memories and a personality of her own. Hence the final moment of the episode where she mimics Connell’s salute was particularly fitting.
So instead the focus of characterisation falls onto her handler Boyd Langdon. Tough as nails with a heart of gold might be too dismissive a statement but generally sums up his story here. We see him join the Dollhouse just after Alpha ran riot and that certainly explains his intensely serious outlook on his job. This episode cleverly mirrors Echo’s established post-engagement routine from the pilot to show us the change in Langdon’s attitude to Echo. From initially disinterested in her fabricated emotional attachment to her “dates”, we saw in the pilot that he has come to appreciate and care for her.
The question of why the Actives trust their handlers and seem eager to return for their “Treatments” is answered well. Topher shines as an actor in those scenes as he tries to explain how Echo will soon trust Langdon implicitly. Even more touching than Langdon and Echo holding hands is the way she curls up in his arms once she has killed Connell. There are two sides to that moment. For him, he has come to care personally (despite claiming not to the man he shoots in the leg) for this deeply vulnerable girl and he takes seriously the fact that she trusts him with her life. Where as for her, he is a pillar of stability in her deeply confusing world. “Is this real?” she asks him with genuine fear but she has to trust something and clings to him even if she doesn’t know why she trusts him.
The Connell date is a pretty entertaining backdrop to learn more about Echo, Boyd and the Dollhouse. The twist that he is going to hunt her (see Best Moment) is quite a surprise and the hunt provides the necessary action and tension to keep the episode moving.
The flashbacks to Alpha’s rampage are more interesting though as they begin to provide clues as to the history of the Dollhouse. Most shocking was the seemingly cold reaction of Adelle and others to Dr Saunders whose face was so brutally scarred by Alpha (see The Unknown). But Topher showed some guilt over what Alpha did (thanks to his work imprinting personalities) and implied that similar bloodbaths had occurred when the Actives had more than just childlike brains.
More good continuity was provided by Agent Ballard showing up at the outhouse where the kidnappers held the girl in the pilot. It’s an encouraging sign that Dollhouse isn’t going to be a formula show, where each engagement is forgotten next week. There was also the nice touch that Echo talked about her brothers while in character, again reminding us of the real person whose personality she has been imprinted with.
A few other nice touches were…Laurence Dominic the callous head of security. Although his attitude seems a little generically mean and headstrong (suggesting they murder Ballard just in case), I am willing to believe there is more depth there. His disgust at Echo exposes us to how dehumanised the Actives have become, not just in the eyes of many of their clients but by the man who is charged with protecting them. Meanwhile on the other end of the scale we get a classic Whedon tactic as Ballard tactfully turns down the advances of his nervous neighbour. It establishes Ballard as both a desirable hero figure and a nice guy (in the classic Angel, Captain Reynolds mould). The revelation that Adelle and Laurence lied about killing Alpha was a nice touch too, establishing them as dishonest but also logically wanting to keep their employees as reassured as possible about their work.
The Bad: It’s too soon to be harsh about Dollhouse but certain worrying signs are lurking around.
The motives of those running the Dollhouse (and working there) will have to be explored. Why exactly are they pimping out Actives as essentially prostitutes? Is it just to raise the necessary funds to do the good work they claim to be doing? Obviously I’m not expecting Adelle or her employers motives to be laid bare in the second episode. But some reassurance over Langdon’s motivations would be nice. Does he believe ultimately Echo is doing good work (like the hostage negotiation) which justifies the prostitution? It would be nice to make that clear so that his moral dilemmas were brought into sharper focus.
Similarly, a few too many people seem to know about the Dollhouse. There’s a danger that the show could creep into Buffy season three finale territory where so many people become aware of the existence of things that they shouldn’t, that it becomes hard to suspend your disbelief. Not only does every cop Ballard interacts with seem to know what the Dollhouse is but Langdon (an ex-police man) walks in saying “So the stories are true, programmable people made to order.” If so many people have such an accurate picture of this supposedly fictitious place then it becomes difficult to understand why no one has uncovered it yet. Particularly when helicopters and teams of armed men race across the countryside to rescue Langdon and Echo. It’s one of those things to keep an eye on as the series unfolds.
The final twist that Alpha had hired Connell is an interesting one. It seems that Whedon is taking no chances with Dollhouse being accused of going slowly and is building an arc plot immediately to drive the story forward. But the result for the viewer is that we have barely seen Echo on a “normal” engagement yet. Both her detailed engagements have gone horribly wrong and involved loads of bloodshed. That may help hook viewers but it also sets the bar pretty high for how crazy her engagements can be in the future. One also has to question who exactly Connell was and what Alpha did to him to put him up to this extreme “date.”
It’s far too early to discuss Echo’s acting performance yet when she is asked to portray different characters. But her lack of a real personality still makes it difficult to get too affectionate toward her. She shows resilience and determination here but it isn’t Echo who shows those qualities. Eliza Dushku hasn’t yet been asked to portray an extreme or unique character which might tell us if she can make Echo’s engagements interesting purely through her acting skills.
The show does come across as pretty dark and lacking in much of the traditional Whedon humour. All the fun lines come from Topher and as he has the weight of mass murder on his shoulders here. So it’s difficult to see him being able to carry the comedy alone.
The Unknown: What happened to Alpha to cause his rampage? Why did he kill some, scar some and spare Echo? What is his interest in her now? Why is he “testing” her by allowing Connell to hunt her? Was there something more to his line “prove you’re not just an echo?” Why is helping Ballard uncover the Dollhouse? What happened when the Actives had “ninja skills” (as it were) as their “default” setting? Why isn’t anyone more sympathetic to Dr Saunders? Can she not get plastic surgery to repair her face? Who are Adelle’s “employers” who are so very rich? What is “The Attic” of the Dollhouse?
Best Moment: Richard teaches Echo how to shoot his bow and arrow. As he is about to kiss her she points out a deer which has wandered into view. He gives instructions as she prepares to shoot it. Quick jump cut to them in bed celebrating her successful shot. With the pillow talk in full swing Richard gets up and tells her she should get going. She is of course confused until he says “You need to stop talking now and start running. I’ll give you a five minute head start (he picks up his bow) and then I’m coming after you.” It’s a really nice twist and doesn’t seem ridiculous because his earlier conversation with Adelle had tipped us off that something unusual was going to happen on the “date.”
Epilogue: I gather this wasn’t the original second episode of the show and one wonders what Whedon could do without the pressure of pleasing FOX. But this is now the second episode and it’s a decent improvement from the stumbling pilot. As usual Whedon has his hand firmly on the tiller as the plot strands begin to move into place. The hunt story is entertaining enough and Langdon provides the human interest well. Plenty of work still to be done though.
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