Writer: Tracy Bellomo
Grade: A-
It became clear that the opening scene was a dream as soon as I got a good look at Echo’s outfit. I know the Dolls get a lot of glorified hooker assignments, but Echo in skanky clothes plus shirtless Paul = obvious dream, even before the making out began.
I found the interaction between Topher and Claire at the meeting interesting—we know he likes her, but he didn’t let that stop him from disagreeing with her, and he didn’t allow her to belittle him without comment. And wow is it ever obvious how little she likes him!
Also interesting was the fact that each Doll’s theory about the Dollhouse mirrored his or her real life backstory. Sierra thought they were the prey of a “deranged millionaire serial killer,” Echo thought they were lab rats, Victor picked up on the military stuff, and Mellie thought “Maybe something bad happened to us and they’re helping us heal.” I wonder how Mike’s alien theory mirrors his past…
Saunders’ “I’m not your friend in here” speech to Caroline seemed strange to me after the reveal, but I kept thinking about it, and it started to make sense. She had to reinforce the idea that something shady was going on in order to push Caroline forward, and she couldn’t “help” Caroline because Caroline had to believe that she was single-handedly saving everyone.
I wish that Saunders had said that Victor is infatuated with Sierra rather than “in love” with her. I don’t see how these two vapid Dolls have had enough in-depth personal interaction for him to be in love—his opinion of her can’t possibly go beyond “pretty” and “nice.”
Still, whatever my problems with that scenario, Enver Gjokaj is easily one of the strongest actors on the show, exhibiting more range than the star. When we saw him waiting for Sierra before bed, it hit me how incredibly, endearingly well he plays the innocent doll state. We’ve also seen Lubov the Russian mobster, the NSA agent, and now the “real” Victor, all of which were distinctly different people rather than mildly varied flavors of the same thing (ala Dushku). He’s such a pleasure to watch and is in my opinion the MVP of the show.
I found the science in this episode a bit odd (which is becoming pretty common with this show). I have a hard time believing that Saunders could figure out each Doll’s “needs,” that the Dolls could be programmed in such a way as to fulfill those needs, or that the specific emotion of closure could be isolated and used as a trigger (“happiness” I could understand because it’s usually tied to an endorphin rush and could therefore be monitored, but “closure” seems like a pretty nebulous emotion to try to keep track of chemically).
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