Joss Whedon’s newest project premiered last week with Dollhouse Season 1 Episode 1. It got decent ratings considering Fox stuck it in the deathslot behind a show it’s given up on, and then from there it went to #1 on iTunes (currently still in the top 10). A promising, albeit not stellar, start.
Eliza Dushku stars as Echo, a doll who has her personality wiped out on a regular basis so that she can be assigned a new one based on the company’s needs. Last week, she was assigned to the part of Eleanor and had to save a little girl who had been kidnapped. She was given asthma, nearsightedness, and a troubled past, all of which she needed to overcome to save the day.
The dolls hear an alarm that’s obviously something going wrong. They’re told to just go to bed and not worry. The Dollhouse is on red alert looking for Alpha.
Adelle is meeting with a client, Richard Connell, who’s looking for a girl. He’ll get one, as long as he’s willing to pay. He is assigned Echo. They go through the rapids, then rock climbing.
Agent Ballard’s still on the Dollhouse’s trail. He’s investigating the kidnapping, which doesn’t add up. Davina told him a pretty lady came to save her. That should narrow it down.
Connell is now teaching Echo how to hunt with a bow, which apparently involves a lot more touching than might be expected. She see something, aims, and shoots… then they’re in bed. Play time’s over, though. He instructs her to stop talking now and start running. He’ll give her a 5 minute head start.
This episode is apparently now heading into part flashback, part not flashback. Presumably the parts prior to Echo’s current assignment are the flashback part, but it’s a little wonky to follow.
Boyd Langton shows up at the Dollhouse. He is being assigned to Echo, since he’s standing in the remains of her previous handler. He wants to see one of the victims, who was killed within 8 seconds with almost surgical expertise. The concern is that it was Alpha, who was programmed to do this, but that programming was supposed to be erased. He killed everybody else in the area, but not Echo for some reason.
Echo’s running, and her 5 minutes are up.
Ballard obtains Lubov’s number, which he will always have, and asks him what he knows about Dollhouse. He’s not getting an answer just yet but expects one.
Someone has left a photo for Ballard in an unmarked envelope. It’s a picture of Echo that merely says Caroline on the back.
Connell starts firing on Echo. This is probably the moderate risk Adelle was concerned about.
Boyd’s out in the woods with another guy in a van. A cop wants to know what they’re doing in that restricted area. Boyd pretends to be a news reporter, and he’s got a reporter’s badge to go along with that story. The cop seems satisfied with this story… until he shoots the guy with Boyd.
Alpha’s victims didn’t put up a fight. They wouldn’t know how because they’re not imprinted to do so.
Boyd ends up with a gun pointed at his head as well, but it looks like he can take care of himself, and he gains the upperhand on his attacker.
Adelle is unconcerned about Ballard, but Laurence wants him neutralized.
Echo makes her way to an abandoned house. Upon opening a door, a body falls on her. She grabs his walkie talkie and asks for help. Connell is on the other end, and he wants to see whether she can prove she deserves to live by escaping him. Grabbing the random canteen in an abandoned building was probably not the best idea, since she’s now starting to cough because of it.
Topher is going to imprint Echo so that she trusts Boyd, no matter what and without hesitation.
Connell lets Echo know she’s not going to die. Just get a spin on things.
Boyd wants answers from his captive. He wants to know how many men are between him and the girl. He doesn’t seem to know much, so Boyd keeps shooting random body parts until he gives up some information about how he was just hired over the phone.
After falling in the water, Echo wakes up and sees Connell. The chase is on again.
According to the FBI database, there is no Caroline.
Boyd has managed to find Echo. She doesn’t know him, but she knows that everything will be alright due to her preconditioned response to him telling her it will be. Then he gets shot with an arrow.
When they’re trying to escape through the woods, Boyd tells Echo everything is going to be alright, but this time she doesn’t listen. Connell will stop… if he’s dead. However, Echo doesn’t have the right input to go after him. She insists, so he gives her his gun to go back and take care of business.
Now it’s time for him to play her game. She wants him to drop his weapon, but he wants to keep playing. So she shoots him. His bleeding arm isn’t stopping him. When he catches up to her, he’s got a question: is this the best date ever or what? He wants to call it a draw, but she seems to be taking issue with the fact that he poisoned her and tried to shoot her with arrows. Still, they count to three and drop their weapons, before picking them right back up and shooting. It then turns into a fist fight. As he’s choking her, she stabs him in the neck with the arrow on the ground. He’s quite impressed until he dies.
Echo returns to Boyd, and a team of men come get them.
Adelle wants to know how it was missed that Connell is a psycopath. He doesn’t exist, and everything’s been fabricated.
The man Boyd left behind is dead. Though the wounds he inflicted were non-fatal, someone else chopped him up with surgical slashes and a 10 inch blade. Dr. Saunders says it’s not Alpha because he’s dead. Boyd’s not so sure he believes they weren’t lied to about that, but whoever it was, everything leads back to Echo.
If it were up to Laurence, he’d put Echo in the attic, or the ground. It’s not like it matters what he says to her because she doesn’t know anything but what they imprint her to know.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Dollhouse Season 1 Episode 3 Stage Fright, which airs Friday at 9/8c on Fox.
