Episode 7 - Meet Jane Doe
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Echo makes her way to Texas and seeks Ballard’s help in avoiding Adelle. She begins planning on how to break an innocent Hispanic woman out of prison. With some help from Boyd they use this as a trial run for when they break people out of the Dollhouse. Meanwhile Harding begins to undercut Adelle’s authority and goes straight to Topher with new tech ideas. Armed with greater resources Topher develops the technology for a remote wipe. But he realises that it is part of a device designed to imprint anyone, regardless of whether they are dolls. Adelle uses this information to make Harding think she is playing ball and regain control of “her” house.
The Good: This is a good episode. It feels like the story which the show needed to tell from the start. The really interesting part is Echo moving away from Caroline and becoming her own person. Finally we have a reason to care about her, to feel sympathy and to see her evolution in terms of standard character development.
The “Three Months Later” idea is a good one on a claustrophobic show like Dollhouse. It allows Echo, Adelle and Topher to instantly change their demeanours but in an easily understandable way. For Echo it allows her to start talking like a normal person rather than a confused doll. And unlike Caroline, who had a certain preachy quality to her, Echo seems totally sympathetic. She is fighting the voices inside her head as well as the forces of Rossum searching for her.
She had already begun to develop an identity separate from Caroline and talk about how she didn’t want to die (206). But now, thanks to the memories which Bennett gave her she has found a reason to wonder whether Caroline deserves her body back or not. What would be wonderful to explore is how self serving that argument could become. After all, if Caroline were less than admirable, perhaps Echo could find the justification she needed to go on living. I loved the fact that this brought her into conflict with Ballard. He stands as the only character who has never been happy with the Dollhouse on any level. He came on board to rescue Caroline, not Echo. He is being put in a difficult position but ultimately would chose to return the body to its original owner.
The most enjoyable aspect of the episode was Echo’s attraction to Ballard. In Epitaph One we saw Caroline working with him and non-committal on their romantic status. However Echo knew she could trust him and wanted to express her affection for him, as her own choice. But Paul, was wary on two levels. One because, again, it’s not really her body to play with but also because he knows she is a composite of different desires and that her choices are being influenced by her imprints. Again it made her look sympathetic for being pitied or treated as a “freak” and him look sympathetic for doing the right thing despite clearly having feelings for her.
The actual rescue of Galena was what you would expect. A solid escape story utilising Echo’s many imprints and some decent action sequences.
Back at the Dollhouse we see many of the developments which Epitaph One showed us. We meet Mr Ambrose and get to see Harding aggressively pursuing plans to expand operations. Topher does indeed help design the device which will lead to his dormant guilt overwhelming him into insanity. Adelle loses control of the Dollhouse and decides to aid Harding in the short term to regain control of “her” house. It was certainly a pleasing development to see her completely sceptical of Echo’s return with Ballard in tow. It looked far too convenient and so she seemed smart for knowing that something else was going on. The tease of splitting up Victor and Sierra was a nice touch to keep their stories involved in all the developments.
The Bad: The “only” downside to all this is the rush. I just feel that if the show were going to survive for four seasons or so, all of these developments would mean so much more.
Adelle’s seemingly bizarre decision to turn over Topher’s designs to Harding felt like a rushed move. We know that Adelle is only doing it in order to regain control before she once more plots to stop Rossum from destroying free will. But such a sudden turn to the dark side couldn’t help but feel like it was rushed and devoid of the drama which might have come if we didn’t know it was only a temporary move on her part.
The twists and turns of people’s allegiances and knowledge was also a bit of a pain, as it was in the previous episode. Ballard appears to be deceiving Echo but then we see she knew she was going back with Boyd. Does Boyd know that she and Paul plan to free the other actives? If so we haven’t seen the moment where his conscience turned him to their side. Similarly Topher appears to be enjoying his teacher’s pet role before claiming he was just playing along to find out what Rossum are up to. Before of course Adelle turns to the dark side in order to get Harding out of her way. It feels like these twists could have taken half a season if only the show had that long to play with.
Echo begins to go down the same path as Alpha as she tries to access the different skill sets she has been imprinted with. If each of those season one personalities had been memorable and distinct, then this could have been really fun to watch. But sadly those personas were part of a formula which didn’t work so well and Eliza Dushku wasn’t able to make them look distinct from one another either. So her escape from jail was more paint by numbers drama than an enjoyable jaunt down memory lane.
Finally it’s worth pointing out how familiar the Echo-Ballard romance is to Angel and Buffy. Not that romance stories can’t look alike but from the same producer there is something too familiar about Ballard playing the frustrated eunuch fretting over the consequences of giving in to Echo the Vampire Slayer. Their semi-naked training scene certainly felt more cliché than sexual tension.
The Unknown: What does Boyd know about Paul and Echo’s plan? What is their plan? How much was Topher just playing along? How much is Adelle playing along now? How close are we to the events of Epitaph One?
Best Moment: Echo and Paul at the dinner table. Their situation really is a cleverly written ethical dilemma. And that sense that Echo will die when Caroline resumes control of her body generates the genuine sympathy which Echo has lacked all along.
Epilogue: A very enjoyable if rushed story.
Feedback
Add your comments on this episode below. They may be included in the weekly podcasts.
)