Episode 5 - The Public Eye
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Madeline agrees to testify for Senator Perrin against the Rossum corporation. Adelle is suspicious when one of her superiors tells her to let Perrin go ahead with his hearings against them. Suspicious that Perrin’s wife is a doll, Ballard is sent to retrieve her and Madeline from a safe house. Meanwhile Echo poses as an escort to try and blackmail Perrin into backing off. Perrin takes Echo to the safe house and we learn that it is he who is a doll. Ballard escapes and catches up to Madeline but she insists on testifying. Echo and Perrin are taken to the D.C. Dollhouse and meet Bennett Halverson, who knew Caroline.
The Good: If this was a thirty five minute episode, it would have been very solid. But the final seven minutes feel like the start of a new story and so jar slightly with all that has gone before.
It’s ironic that this episode, the beginning of the end for Dollhouse should feel like the first time the show is really sucking viewers into a more traditional relationship. For the first time the story feels like an important part of the arc plot, leads into the next episode and makes all the regular characters function like good guys all pulling together.
The key to all this coming together is making Rossum the common enemy of all our characters. I was very impressed with the way their cunning plan was written. Rossum’s goal was to programme Senator Perrin to attack their involvement with the L.A. Dollhouse. His investigation would expose Adelle and her employees for what they had been doing while also wiping this stain from Rossum’s record. Perrin would then have a huge profile and hero status, allowing him to rewrite laws at Rossum’s whim.
The plan is impressive on several levels. First because it links the story we see here with the one laid out in Epitaph One (113). We know the danger of what they are trying to achieve which makes their plan seem significant. The attack on the L.A. Dollhouse also seems eminently justified! After Alpha, Echo, Ballard, Sierra and Saunders have caused so many problems, Rossum seem sensible for cutting their losses. I’m also of the firm belief that if an organisation is set up to be a “big brother” style outfit, then they ought to be always in control. Seeing Madeline admit to the existence of the Dollhouse made you wonder why they would ever let anyone leave. But to make it all part of their plan restored Rossum to a position of strength and control. Too often in shows like 24, Prison Break and even Lost these grand organisations seem too incompetent to be really threatening. Here Rossum looks so creepy, they didn’t create a doll, they just edited someone’s personality to suit their needs.
With that structure in place there were lots of details to enjoy. I liked that what pushed Madeline to testify was the man she killed (106). She signed on to be a doll, understanding that prostitution was involved, but she didn’t enlist to murder people. It provided a logical excuse. Similarly the revelation that she still had Dollhouse “architecture” in her head was a good reveal. It makes sense from a policy point of view to keep something in her which would allow the Dollhouse to keep an eye on a potentially dangerous witness. But of course it underlies the deception of the business they are in which, understandably, seems to have an effect on Paul Ballard. It was a very nice touch to have him call Madeline, Mellie by accident. It seemed very natural and emotive and made it obvious that he was telling her the truth.
I also liked that Echo was sent to blackmail Perrin and the way it wasn’t explained. Adelle’s plan was to stop his investigation in order to stop Rossum attacking the L.A. Dollhouse. So why not blackmail him with a sex tape? It made sense and it unfolded in more intriguing fashion because we didn’t see Adelle give the order. Once Perrin and Echo began to realise that they were dolls we got to feel that connection to the characters that was missing for so long in Echo’s early missions. Echo remained the confused hero while Perrin took on Dr Saunders’ roll of having to come to terms with the realisation that part of your life is a lie.
They are both captured by the D.C. Dollhouse and now we have a reason to care about both of their wellbeing and are given a hook to tune in next time to see what happens to them.
The Bad: There wasn’t much wrong with the introduction of Bennett Halverson (Summer Glau as the D.C. version of Topher) in itself. But her introduction interrupted the flow of the episode and made it feel like a new one had begun. From the fighting and car chasing we were suddenly in a slow deliberate introduction to a new complicated character. It felt like the episode had come to a halt and was cramming in too much to one story.
The major Topher attempt at humour once more ran into the immorality of the Dollhouse concept. As usual he is treating humans like toys when he turns on his disruptor and causes poor Kilo to suffer a nose bleed and migraine. But then another doll falls down the hard wooden stairs outside, having been in range of the device. As you would expect the joke was filmed and timed to perfection but the reminder of the pain and exploitation ruined the joke.
So wait, Echo can now read someone’s body language off a television screen and assess that they are somehow behaving strangely. That’s a bit of a stretch.
The Unknown: Who is Bennett and what happened to her arm? How does she know Caroline? Where has Ballard gone?
Best Moment: Difficult to chose, lots of good stuff, nothing great. Probably the reveal that Perrin was a doll. It certainly shook things up.
Epilogue: A good start to the story arc which will take us through the rest of the season. The episode structure needed some tweaking though.
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