Dollhouse S02 E01 – Dolls are people too

Previously: We jumped into the future and things were bad, guys. Real bad.
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Vows

Marines: Imprint room. Echo is in the chair and Paul is nearby A smarmy handler, who I probably just think is smarmy because he kind of looks like the guy who raped Sierra (S: He also wiggles his brows around all creepy-like when he talks), tells Echo she’s got a big day. She gives the appropriate blank reaction and gets lowered for the imprint. Paul is worried about Echo glitching, as we’re back in the regular timeline, probably soon after the Omega stuff. Topher is his usual, “nothing can go wrong! It’ll be great!” self, and it’s weird to have Paul being the voice of, “you sure?” and not Dominic or Boyd. Where’s Boyd?

Sweeney: “WHERE’S BOYD?” INDEED. “Needs More Boyd” is a general note I have for most of always.

Mari: Topher is mid-boast about nothing happening without him knowing when his computer screen blinks. A black and white movie comes on and Topher looks at it and says, “Saunders.” I was confused and thought maybe the actress was Amy Acker? But then way later, it dawned on me that he’s saying “Saunders!” with an implied fist shake, like she’s the one messing with him. I think. (S: Correct. But dolls running around filling in for actors and actresses would also be fantastic.) Topher decides he needs a nap and I think what I need is a nap too, but I will bravely continue recapping. (S: Your perseverance is impressive. I took 3 naps before making this comment.)

BOYD! He’s, of course, telling Adelle what a bad idea Echo’s latest engagement is. Adelle reminds him that he isn’t Echo’s handler anymore, just head of security, like somehow “head of security” wouldn’t be the one to tell her when an engagement is a bad idea. Victor is walking toward them and Adelle stops him to check out his scars, which are healing nicely. She’s tenderly touching his face as she keeps telling Boyd that they made a deal with Paul, and they either honor it, Paul exposes them, or Adelle orders Boyd to do something extreme. She wants option A. Victor says, “you’re touching my face,” and Adelle seems to realize she’s just petting him now. She hardens and tells him to move along.

The exposition keeps rolling, with Boyd pointing out that Paul probably isn’t suddenly #teamDollhouse and keeping him around is probably dangerous and stupid. Adelle seems to know this, but wants to keep him around anyway. She asks Boyd why he’s so opposed to this engagement. He says he thought he’d seen everything after one client (“Tempura Joe”) but this engagement? He calls it sick.

Stephanie: On Paul, what exactly is his job at the Dollhouse now anyway? Did we ever find out or is he just hanging out for funsies?

Sweeney: I assumed it was just being Echo’s handler?

Mari: Nope. As it stands, he’s using the Dollhouse to be the fake FBI, which we’ll see shortly. I suppose he negotiated this in exchange for not telling everyone about the Dollhouse. Why they wouldn’t just send him to the attic, that I can’t answer.

Cut to Echo walking down the aisle.

Steph: Her groom is Lee “Apollo” Adama, another one of Paul’s old Battlestar Galactica pals. 

Mari: As the officiant starts, we cut to the LA-LA-LA-LA-LA.

Topher wakes up from his nap in the server room. Out in his office proper, Ivy says she’s been busy backing up their files. Topher makes weird comments about the autumn rush and temperatures plummeting. Ivy is all, “…whut?” and Sierra with an imprint that wears way too much pink interrupts them. Ivy calls the imprint Sierra and that doesn’t cause any confusion so this is weird. Whoever!Sierra asks if maybe Topher can be the one to give her a treatment (a la “Topher can give me a treatment all night long!”), but he just woke up from a nap so he needs caffeine. Ivy handles Whoever!Sierra who also appears to racist against Asians (Ivy gives her the best, “OH. GIRL.” look) and also into bondage? I don’t even know what’s happening in this imprint.

Steph: Me neither but I lol’d at her racism. Don’t look in the mirror, girl. 

Sweeney: It was an amusing little touch, given the total disconnect between the personalities and the bodies.

Mari: Topher is grabbing a drink and he asks Ivy how many  more Actives they’ll have today. Ivy calls back that the Jonas Brothers are in town. A Jonas Brothers joke, you guys. Anyway, Topher opens the cabinet and it’s full of GIANT RATS. He screams and I was going to write, “like a pansy” but it’s actually less of a scream than I’d give. (S: Huh. But they’re cute!) I’ll amend: He screams like a Mari and climbs over the rail as he tells Ivy to hurry up and grab them. She scrambles after them as Topher calls down to Dr. Saunders.

Topher: Is this your idea of a joke?
Dr. Saunders: You designed me, Mr. Brink. I guess it must be your idea of a joke. 

Hahaha. I really like the creepy music that’s playing and how Dr. Saunders is framed in this scene.

Sweeney: Sassy, unhinged Dr. Saunders is amazing to watch. Painful, but amazing.

Mari: Topher says she has to stop messing with him, but she can’t help herself. Maybe his work isn’t up to par. Topher insists his work is fine, and if she’s losing it, it’s her own fault. “Are you sure?” Dr. Saunders asks. “I know what I know,” Topher says. FEELS. FEELS FOR THE FUTURE.

Steph: I love this, but if Dr. Saunders has been giving Topher tons of trouble, why doesn’t he fix her up with a treatment? Not that I approve, but if they’re going to have a doctor doll around, it’s probably a good idea if she goes back to not knowing she’s programmed. 

Sweeney: I agree that it’s a little weird, but I also get the sense – particularly from the rest of this episode – that Topher couldn’t quite bring himself to do that.

Mari: Excellent point. Also makes me wonder how many people know that Dr. Saunders knows.

She tells Topher to put the rats back in the maze before one of them bites him.

Steph: There go those metaphors again. I missed you metaphor friends. 

Mari: Boyd walks in and Dr. Saunders snaps into her more regular personality. She thinks he wants to talk about Echo (damn, Boyd. Get you a new subject) but he’s actually here about Victor. Apparently whatever very expensive surgery Adelle authorized for him is working; his scars are nearly gone. Boyd makes it suuuuper awkward when he points out that no one paid for Dr. Saunders’ expensive surgery.

 

 

If she didn’t have her scars, she’d be just like the Dolls. Adelle might remember that she was more lucrative when she was one. Boyd starts to say that Adelle wouldn’t. Claire (I just changed it. It’s shorter than Dr. Saunders. Of course, this explanation isn’t.) protests that Adelle most certainly would at the same time that Boyd clarifies: he wouldn’t allow it. What if Adelle went over his head? Boyd: I’m very tall.

Claire points out that before either of them knew that she was an Active, Boyd didn’t care much for her. She asks what this is now. Pity? Curiosity? Deviant excitement? I just want to quote everything they are saying.

Boyd: You seem to be having a hard time.
Claire: My entire existence was constructed by a sociopath in a sweater vest. What do you suggest I do?

Point: Dr. Saunders.

Sweeney: We’ve been warned that we won’t be seeing so much of her this season, which is a total bummer because this whole premise of knowing you’ve been constructed like this and choosing to live with it is all very intense and a thing I would like to see more of.

Mari: Boyd suggests they have dinner together so she can get out of that place for a while. Claire says she doesn’t leave. She doesn’t like people or crowds and probably every single Snark Lady is like, “yes, preach.” (S: I don’t remember going into the dollhouse to have my brain scanned for an imprint.) (S: BUT YOU’RE PROBABLY A DOLL ANYWAY SO WHATEVER.) She also has issues with open space, sunlight, noise, and pets. She pointedly says that for some reason, she was built that way. Boyd hits her with some #deep truths, saying that all the people he knows are poorly constructed. At some point, it all becomes excuses, however. Claire asks Boyd what his is.

We cut (probably significantly) to Echo, cutting the cake with her new husband. Someone in attendance at the wedding answers his cell phone (rude) and tells whoever is one the other line that the shipment is only delayed a day. He looks over to the bride and groom and says Mr. Klar is busy today. We get another flash of happy marriage times before we cut to black.

After a not!break, Roma!Echo and Klar are dancing. We spend a real long time watching them dance and be cute, or whatever. A mention of the wedding night cuts us over to Paul who is running surveillance. He looks rough. It reminds me of that one time Seth wouldn’t shower because maybe Summer was having sex. We watch Klar undressing Roma!Echo intercut with scenes of Paul brooding and napping and probably brooding while napping, because that seems like the kind of A+ brood game he brings to the table.

Steph: Good god, Paul. Please get some hobbies. You are the creepiest. 

Mari: The next morning, Roma!Echo visits a shop and lets herself into a back room. Paul is in there and she greets him amicably as, “partner.” Through small talk, we learn that Roma!Echo is the inside woman and their plan is to deliver Klar to the FBI and fade away. Roma!Echo calls Paul on his awkwardness, you know because she had sex, and basically tells him to get over it. They are having trouble finding out what Klar is planning next, but Roma!Echo is confident. Her handler walks in and says it’s time for a treatment. Paul starts to protest but SmarmaHandler says the long term imprints are tricky and they need to take her in to check the wiring and the plumbing. (Stop.) (S: He is the worst. Please make him go away forever.) Paul says he wants Echo back ASAP and SmarmaHandler levels him with a, “you’re the client.”

Back at the Dollhouse, Claire is examining Echo. When Claire penetrates her–

–it triggers a memory? In the memory, Echo and Whiskey are all dressed up, at a party and caressing each other lovingly. In the present, Claire declares that Echo has a clean bill of health. Echo calls her Whiskey and Claire wonders if someone told her to say that. Echo simply says doesn’t remember the rest. My heart breaks for Claire as she talks about Alpha cutting up her face so Echo could be the best. Also, kudos to Amy Acker who is playing Claire with shades more sarcasm and creepiness right now.

Sweeney: AMY ACKER IS THE BEST.

Mari: WTF. WESLEY WYNDHAM PRYCE IS GIVING A PRESS CONFERENCE. (S: MY ONE TRUE LOVE.) I never notice the guest starring credits so SURPRISE TO ME! (S: I DIDN’T CATCH THAT EITHER. OMG.) He’s using his native accent. (S: I don’t like it.) (S: Same. Stop it, Wesley.) What’s even happening? I don’t know! Let’s watch: Wesley is giving a conference about how terrible Rossum is for holding back medical advancements. Think about that line of thinking in terms of what we saw in Epitaph One. This moment here, plus the interactions we saw between Claire and Boyd are why a peak into the future can be brilliant.

Sweeney: Indeed. I still find the finale a little underwhelming in the context of the last season, but I’m digging the way it set things up for this season.

Mari: We cut to Adelle’s office. She’s worried. Meanwhile, Boyd can tell Wesley comes from money and recently took up this cause, all from his impressive suit. He’s that good y’all! Adelle wonders who told Wesley about them and like magic, Paul enters. Boyd asks if he’s ever talked to Wesley. Paul turns the question around. They are framed squarely against each other with Adelle, sitting between them in the background. All I can focus on is how much yumminess is in one shot.

Steph: Hey Charmed, this is how you do delicious men who don’t look like the same weirdo Ken doll.

Mari: Adelle dismisses Boyd and Paul tells her that she should suspect Boyd, not him, because he knows why he’s here. He can’t beat them, so he’s kind of joined them and is using their resources to take down a gunrunner the FBI can’t touch. Adelle corrects that Echo married the guy, and they are no closer to taking him down. Adelle wants Paul to consider becoming Echo’s handler. Paul says he doesn’t work for them and Adelle snarks that he’s working for the good of man kind by listening to Echo have sex.

 

Adelle notes that Paul never asks about November AKA Madeline BKA Mellie. Adelle assumed that when Paul used his leverage to let her go, it was because he really cared for her. Now she thinks he was just done with Mellie, but not with Echo. Adelle keeps working her angle, all about how special Echo is and how she should have a handler who really cares for her.

Rude Wedding Guest is handed a bunch of photos. We cut to Klar answering his call, but saying that whatever business they have can wait until the morning. Roma!Echo walks in with a bunch of shopping bags. They get flirty again and we cut back to Rude, who of course has pictures of Roma!Echo standing suspiciously close to Paul.

Topher is taking a good looking nap in the server room again. From behind him, a hand travels across his abdomen and then south.

Napping Topher is slowly roused from his sleep but jumps up quickly when he’s awake enough to realize that Claire is next to him. Claire continues to get all up in his space, trying to seduce him. Topher says no way (calling his erection a “minority vote” which is the best thing), but Claire insists that this must be the end game for him, to program someone to hate him so that it’s a challenge to win her love. Claire says she gets it and she loves him. She’s on top of him for a moment, where it seems to get the best of Topher, but then he pushes her off. Claire smacks him and starts ranting about Topher being her lord. Why should she fight his “divine plan?” Topher snaps at her: Because you’re better than that. Because you are better than me. 

Finally an explanation: Dr. Saunders was dead and Whiskey was temporarily out of service. Adelle tasked Topher with finding a new doctor, someone who would be committed to the cause and kind to the Actives. Claire asks why Topher didn’t just stop there. Topher says he needed a whole person. If Dr. Saunders were assigned to agree with him always, they would miss something and people would get hurt. Claire doesn’t believe he cares about people and Topher yells back, “you don’t know me. That’s the contract. You don’t know me and I don’t know you. Not fully, not ever.” Topher made Claire so that she’d question him and fight for her beliefs. She wasn’t programmed to hate Topher; she chose to. Claire’s face falls and she slides down the wall and cries. She asks how she’s supposed to live when she knows that every thought she has comes from someone she can’t abide. Topher, not helping his case much, clarifies that she was never really going to sleep with him, right? Claire replies that she can’t stand the smell of him. He programmed her that way, and I mean, he may not have made her hate him, but making him perpetually smelly to her was pretty much the same thing.

Sweeney: SO MUCH MINDFUCK AND FEELS GOING ON HERE.

Mari: Topher asks why Claire didn’t find out who she really was. He says it’s possible that Adelle would give her back her original personality, since she earned it. Claire is afraid to die. She knows she’s a fake person (?!) in another person’s body (??!!) but she’s afraid of giving it up. She calls herself a series of excuses. Topher gently says that she’s human and the ever brilliant Internet highlighted this moment for us all:

ALL IN AN EPISODE WITH WESLEY IN IT.

Brilliant freaking scene.

Steph: If this entire episode was just this one scene it would be my favorite episode. 

Sweeney: +1

Mari: Roma!Echo wakes up to find herself alone in bed. She calls out for Klar, and getting no response, decides to do some ill-advised snooping. In her defense, she can’t hear the  NO GIRL, THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA RIGHT NOW soundtrack. Sure enough, Klar is behind her, watching. He lets himself into the study and Roma!Echo pretends that she was just snooping because he won’t tell her where they are going for their honeymoon. He’s clearly not buying and we know this because he slams her head into a desk. The impact makes a few imprints flash through her head. Klar grabs her by the hair and repeats the “lawfully wedded husband” portion of their vows at her. He yell/asks who she is and she tearfully says she’s totally Roma!

Klar stands and presents her with the photographic proof of her standing suspiciously close to Paul Ballard. Roma!Echo says she’s never seen him. The picture is photoshopped or that random, strangely handsome man asked her for the time to stage the photo. Roma!Echo turns this around on Klar for jumping to conclusions and being a wife beater. Now, he’s all, “oh, what? No, sorry baby. I hadn’t thought about the photoshop thing,” or whatever. She’s winning him back and she says she is and will always be… Mrs. Eleanor Penn. Echo looks confused by her own words. “Wait,” she says. “Who did they make me this time?”

Steph: This was a surprisingly good performance from Eliza Dushku. I can’t tell if she’s improving as the show goes on or if I’m getting used to her. 

Sweeney: I had the same thought, but I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and go with improving. I imagine working on a show like this would have that effect. (Granted, it would be ideal if she’d done the improving before the show, but whatever.)

Mari: We take what we can get!

After a not!break, lots of dark SUVs pull into a hangar. Echo is in the back seat of one of them and Klar is showing her a briefcase of little bombs. Klar segues from bombs to loving Roma and says that he never lied to her about anything that mattered. That’s what jerks who lie a lot say about their own lying.

Paul is watching from a nearby hangar. He calls Topher’s phone and asks to speak to Topher, so Topher pretends to get Topher. (S: Cutest.) All while Topher watches Claire drink from a flask. Anyway, the point is that the SmarmaHandler said that Echo spiked about two hours ago. SmarmaHandler thought it was a sex-spike but Topher clearly sees that it was a panic-spike. He wants to call off the engagement, but Paul is afraid Klar will kill Echo if they call it in. Thankfully, Paul has a terrible plan!

Said terrible plan involves just walking right into the hangar and saying, “let her go.” Klar hits Paul over the head with a gun all, “no.” Klar goes on a rant about how lame Paul is, giving Echo plenty of time to start glitching. She slips into a southern accent, then a vicodin popping mother personality (?) (S: I thought it was Adelle’s Dead Friend of Existential Crises.) (M: GOOD CALL.) and Paul gets close to her, saying that the pressure has started to make her crack. He smacks her a few times, yelling at her to REMEMBER and all of Klar’s men apparently let all this happen because they can’t pass up watching some woman beating? IDK. Echo remembers her fight with Paul in the Chinese restaurant and she starts beating on Paul. The good news is that this is a universal beat down, so she also takes out all of the bad guys, save for Klar who runs for the car. Paul isn’t able to stop him, so he calls out to Echo.

Echo runs after the reversing car and launches herself onto the hood. She hangs on for dear life until she is able to activate one of the little bombs she swiped at some point and tosses it in the car with Klar. She jumps off the hood, he jumps out of the car and the car explodes. Echo stands and quickly disarms Klar with a head butt. Paul jogs up behind them and Echo gives us a terrible, “honeymoon’s over” to take us into the last not!break.

Sweeney: That this plan worked makes no sense whatsoever.

Mari: That’s half the story of Paul’s career. The other half is just, “of course this plan didn’t work.”

Echo is being lowered into the chair while Adelle congratulates Paul for catching his man. She also gives a little, “good job catching what Echo’s handler missed ahem ahem.” It seems they don’t know that Echo had another composite event, ’cause Paul’s blaming it on a concussion.

Boyd lets himself into Claire’s office and there is note on her desk. “I am running out… of excuses.” We cut to her driving around LA.

Topher is alone in the server room having feelings.

Sierra and Victor come across each other. She touches his healing scars gently. They hold hands and walk off together.

Steph: Why is their chemistry so good? They are only ever on screen together for 2 seconds at a time. 

Mari: Behind them, Echo sits alone. Paul approaches her and apologizes for not being his best.

He’s having a hard time trying to decide what the right thing to do is. He knows she doesn’t remember. She cuts him off because she does remember. Sometimes she’s other people and then she comes back here, but she can still feel them in her head. She is all of them, but none of them are her. She asks Paul if he knows what’s real. He does: Caroline. Echo wants to find her, wants to find all of Dolls. She grabs Paul’s hand and asks if he’ll help. He promises he will. No matter what. Their hands transition us back to the imprinting chair. Paul is running through the handler script. Echo is saying her portion of the script in a softer voice and with a lot of eyebrows so we know it’s REAL.

At first, I wasn’t enjoying the whole Roma subplot at all, and actually groaned when we went back there after the Topher/Claire scene. It really came alive, though, in the last quarter of the episode. It may have been the slowest piece of the ongoing puzzle, as we started getting hints of this all the way back in episode 1, but here it is: Echo is broken. Or at least, not operating as intended. She’s all of these pieces together and I like that this episode took the time to put us on this page. Echo is a true character now, if that makes sense. She’s not simply a void, a doll state shell, you know? And I think that flash of Victor and Sierra reminds us that’s true for them as well.

That all acknowledged, the stars of the episode were Acker and Kranz. I loved their exchange because it gave us back story, it gave us reasoning to Topher’s thinking, but didn’t really ANSWER the major mind game questions. Topher programmed Claire, but she’s still making choices. She’s evolving. She’s not just an imprint and she wasn’t the moment she was put in Whiskey’s body, you know? Claire even has a sense of self-preservation and it just complicates the entire matter more.

Steph: +1 to everything. I have nothing else to add other than I’d happily watch an entire season dedicated to exploring the complex relationship between Claire and Topher. 

Sweeney: Agreed on all counts. Acker and Kranz absolutely killed it. Phenomenal.

Mari: Great season opener and I just got sad thinking about how few episodes of this amazing thing we have left. That’s premature, but I like to get my FEELS on early.

 

Next time on Dollhouse: Echo is imprinted as a mother so expect maternal instincts stuff in S02 E02 – Instinct.