Screen capture of “The Left Hand” ©20th Century Fox
Season 2, Episode 5: The Public Eye
“A former active once made a passing reference to us in his blog,” said DeWitt in this new installment of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. “That was his last entry.”
As this contains slight spoilers, let’s hope I fare better. In the first episode aired of this two-episode time slot on Dec. 4, they revealed that one of the people in the senator-wife partnership introduced in the previous episodes was a doll. Very tricky. I don’t think I would’ve seen that coming if I hadn’t unknowingly tuned in during the last half of an episode that was actually episode 2 in a two-episode time slot! (Just FYI, Dollhouse starts at 7pm central time this Friday [Dec. 11] as well and will be two hours.)
The long-awaited Summer Glau also finally appeared in her excellent role as a doll brainwasher who mirrors Topher (Fran Kranz) in her character of Bennett, except with even less humanity, which is novel considering that Topher referred to dolls in this episode as not being “real people” like him.
Glau conveys this character with a level of weirdness that even surpasses Dr. Saunders’ (Amy Acker) character—which is pretty weird—and with craziness reminiscent of her performance as the brilliant but unbalanced River in the movie Serenity, the topper on the Firefly series.
Madeline (better known as the doll November/Mellie from Season 1) also makes an appearance in this episode, with the goal to bring down the dollhouse by talking to the press about her time there. But it makes you wonder why the dollhouse allowed her to be aware of her connection to them. Couldn’t they have just wiped that from her memory as well? They took everything else, but I do admit that it does make for an interesting turn.
Season 2, Episode 6: The Left Hand
Victor (Enver Gjokaj) portraying Topher’s character was one of the most convincing performances on this show that there has been, aside from Victor humorously portraying the horny school girl Kiki in an earlier episode. He’s even modified his voice and mannerisms to match Topher’s exactly. That topped off with the sweater vest was a close to perfect reflection.
The nerdy love and admiration taking place between the Bennett and Topher characters was also priceless, and even though her intentions turned out to be malicious, I still hope that they continue that storyline.
The twist ending in this episode puzzled me. The Dollhouse isn’t taken down, and it’s the character plotting for the entire season to uncover them that lies unblinkingly that “There is no Dollhouse.” Not sure what Joss is doing but I’m certain it’s brilliant and will unfold and amaze.
Season 2, Episode 7: Meet Jane Doe
I’m not really sure what training to get a woman out of jail has to do with learning to break out of the Dollhouse so I suspect that this is just a filler episode, though it obviously has its highlights like Topher continuing to obsess over his crush on the seemingly evil Bennett.
Also, who really threatens to call the police over trying to use food stamps? Sure, they may not accept them but you’d think that they would just politely decline and apologize about their policy. Plus having a woman clapped in prison for 3 months because someone else handed her stolen bread seems a little over the top, as did all the prison scenes.
Plus if Echo is the best than why has she totally messed-up every mission she’s ever had? Sure it would be less interesting if they always went exactly to plan but they should go to plan sometimes. Though she always pulls it off in the end, they always go terribly wrong. Wouldn’t that make her the worst instead of the best? And she basically failed this training session. Wouldn’t that mean she needs more training?
Season 2, Episode 8: A Love Supreme
This was a much better episode than the previous (and a great episode period) especially since Alpha returns, in a lounge-singer-like suit that he still somehow managers to pull off. And someone gets blown up, though I was a little sad about who (and a little grossed out). But Alpha’s “Who doesn’t love a pun?” line after having the guy repeat to the onlookers how he would describe his time with Echo, was a blast.
They don’t bother to show us how Alpha got into the Dollhouse this time, which is actually alright with me since the interest about him breaking in last time revolved around the fact that you had no idea he was Alpha. This time they skip that detail, and get to the really interesting stuff like him trying to take out Ballard, for daring not to sleep with Echo, apparently. Best exchange between Alpha and Ballard:
“For months you shared the same room. You never slept with her. You could have but you didn’t. If that’s not love…are you gay?”
“No.”
“Then it’s love.”
Who knows? Alpha’s crazy. And kinda awesome. So I won’t give anymore spoilers.
Unfortunately it does sound as if this will be the last season of the Dollhouse, and I think that’s very regrettable, but hope that Fox will have a twist ending of its own after the inevitably brilliant closer of this series airs.
For more options, like to view the episodes reviewed above or to watch the 15-second “Dollhouse Simplified” recap, see this link.
I don’t entirely agree with your review of episode 7. It seemed to have some pretty major plot development, so I wouldn’t classify it as a filler episode (such as Echo honing her abilities at switching from one persona to another, Echo and Ballard working together, and DeWitt handing over Topher’s blueprints to recover her position in the Dollhouse). Also, I don’t think the foreign girl was sent to jail simply because she ran with stolen goods–I think her being an illegal immigrant factored into it, as well. However, I *do* agree that this was one of their weaker episodes, and I had a few problems of my own with it. For instance, I was a little confused when the foreign girl started speaking English for the rest of the episode, after Echo lost her ability to speak Spanish. When did she learn English? If they explained that within the episode, I must have missed it. Also, I thought that the sexualized fight/training scene between Echo and Ballard was a bit ridiculous.
I also don’t think that I enjoyed episode 8 as much as you did. Unfortnuately, I seem to end up disappointed by all of the episodes with Alpha in them–although I really like Alan Tudyk. Like you, I noticed that they didn’t explain how Alpha got into the Dollhouse. However, I thought that they should have. Because I would assume that the Dollhouse would have really beefed up security since the last time he broke in–especially since they were expecting him this time, they brought a millionaire there with the purpose of keeping him safe from Alpha, and they’ve made it abundantly clear on that show that the people who run the Dollhouse are incredibly wealthy with cutting-edge technology. I understand that Alpha is an evil (somewhat crazy) genius, but surely they should have a decent enough security system and enough guards on staff to be able to keep him out, or at least notice him coming in. And once again, he just walks off when he’s done!! They don’t have security personnel who could be chasing him?! Not credible.
DeWitt seems to be hitting new lows, as a character. I hated her throughout season 1, but it seemed as though she was becoming nicer in the first few episodes of this season. Now she’s back-stabbing Topher, torturing Echo, and basically selling out anyone for her own good.
Also, do you think that they’re leading the plot in the same direction as the unaired final episode of season 1? After watching that unaired episode, I kind of wondered whether they were going to keep moving that way or if they would choose a different path. But after DeWitt handed off Topher’s blueprints for more advanced and evil Dollhouse technology, and with Echo and Ballard secretly working together, it seems like they’re building up to that same conclusion. Personally, I’m okay with that, as I kind of liked that episode (although I wanted Victor and Sierra to still be together . . .)
Yes DeWitt disappointed me. I guess she’s evil after all! I was beginning to think she was an actual person and not evil. Apparently not. Also I have read that they have every intention of leading to Epitaph. They may just not get all the way there with the show’s unfortunate cancellation but they should be able to set it up pretty well. Plus I’m still in denial. Sure Fox has canceled Family Guy, Futurama, and Arrested Development in the past (idiots) but maybe just maybe they’ll wise up this time?