Writers: Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen
Grade: B+
What a strange episode.
The engagement part of the story was pretty awful for a lot of reasons. As far as Rayna is concerned, they definitely hired someone who can sing and dance, but I'm not convinced they hired someone who can act. If we were supposed to like and sympathize with Rayna, it didn’t work for me. She was fucking annoying, and the storyline was heavy-handed. Suicidal pop stars are generally not smart and self-aware enough to know and admit they're suicidal. On the whole, this girl was definitely dumb, so the self-awareness felt really phony. It also makes no sense that she'd be bitter enough about her fans to think they'd love to see her die, yet still care enough about what they think to be upset that she disappointed them.
Still, even though the engagement itself was pretty abysmal, it was also oddly interesting due to what it revealed about the Dolls.
Something's definitely up with Sierra—she got dizzy on the treadmill at the beginning of the episode, and again during the engagement. (And I wasn't impressed with the actress in the series premiere, but she was good here. She did dorkily charming well.)
Echo thinking beyond the engagement parameters was quite interesting. Adelle is somewhat correct that Echo saved Rayna from herself, but I'm guessing the "friends help each other out" comment we heard twice, once directed at Sierra, had something to do with it, too. Echo was hardwired to save Rayna, but she's also wired to help her "friend" Sierra. It may even relate back to her witnessing Sierra's initial wipe, and Topher telling her Sierra would be her "new friend." The headshake at the end seems to tie into both their burgeoning friendship and Echo's overall specialness in being able to hang onto certain things in spite of the wiping process.
Outside of the engagement, a few other interesting things happened plot-wise. The interaction between Lubov and Mellie was intriguing, considering that Mellie seems likely to be a Doll and we just found out that Lubov is also Victor the Doll. Mellie is probably living across the hall from Ballard either to keep an eye on him or, depending on how strange and convoluted the seasonal arc is, protect him. She certainly seems protective... It seems very strange that Mellie, who is presumably a Doll, would keep Lubov, another Doll, from breaking into Ballard's apartment, so we've got two Dolls acting at cross purposes? And how did Mellie find out Ballard was shot?
Also, on a more negative note, I can already see Whedon setting Mellie up to "turn evil," so to speak. We meet her as Ballard's sweet neighbor with a big honking crush on him, and just when they're about to embark on a lovely new relationship, Mellie gets taken away and given a completely different, and much less sweet, imprint. I hope I’m wrong.
Ballard's poetic speech about how it's human nature to "destroy, manipulate, control" was a little too melodramatic, and I also found myself wishing they'd breathe a little more life into the guy. I really don't have a problem with Tahmoh Penikett, since a) I like him on BSG and b) he's not the one in charge of the scripts, but all Ballard does is mope, give melodramatic ideological speeches, and fall for stupid traps that almost get him killed. I’ve been watching the first season of The Wire, and while Jimmy McNulty was very serious about his job, he still had a healthy sense of humor and let himself have some fun. I think Ballard needs a similar balance.
The characters on Joss's shows are always expressive and charismatic, even the tortured ones, so this guy just feels "off" to me so far. I do remember Tahmoh saying he held back a bit in the first few episodes because he wasn't sure what Joss had in mind for him, so maybe this is only temporary...
Also, I can see Paul Ballard's story of having lost someone to the Dollhouse—hence being so sure it exists—coming from miles away. And again, I hope I’m wrong.
I like Topher against my better judgment. He's a prick, but he's also charismatic, as any good villain should be. The way he stood up to Laurence was surprisingly clever and not particularly cowardly. Topher might be an ass, but I'd root for him over Laurence any day. I'm still working out the character relationships on the show, but it seems like Topher might have a bit of a thing for Dr. Saunders... his seemingly gleeful taunt about Claire and Boyd having "scowly babies" came off a bit like overcompensating to mask his jealousy.
Other Stuff
-Lubov/Viktor probably set Paul up with the hotel basement tip, but hey, he did tell Paul "watch your back" at the end of their phone call, so it's not his fault if Ballard didn't listen...
-I have to wonder where Rayna's "No. 1 Fan" shopped, and what kind of income the guy was pulling in. I mean, he was able to disguise a sniper rifle as a pair of crutches. That's like fucking spy equipment, so how did he get his hands on it?
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