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| Sunday, March 1, 2009 01:51 PM |
| On the Viewer - Dollhouse (Episode 3 - "Stage Fright") |
 by Fëanor |
Ugh. I don't know if I can deal with this faux pop music. I can't decide if it's too authentic, or not authentic enough... Pretty lame stage she's on, too.
Wow! Girl on fire. That'll kill a concert. Hmm, both Terminator and Dollhouse involved women being burned alive this week. What gives? Ah, and there's a creepy guy in the crowd who is no doubt responsible for the burning. Man, Dollhouse has a lot of creepy guys in it.
Sierra: "Friends help each other out." It's disturbing listening to the actives when they're in their tabula rasa state.
Dr. Saunders tells Boyd he shouldn't have taken that arrow out last episode; it caused a lot of damage. He says, "I'll remember that next time I'm being bow hunted." Heh.
Saunders goes on to say, "But you're healing nicely," in a really creepy, "I'm coming onto you" kind of way. Ah! Does every relationship in this show have to be so twisted? I guess that's just the Whedon touch at work!
Saunders continues to come onto Boyd. He says, "You know you can call me Boyd," and she responds, "Is there a reason I'd want to?" He continues to mostly ignore this, however, and just pushes to get himself certified to go back on duty so he can continue to protect Echo from the mysterious Alpha-like enemy who's after her. Boyd really does care for Echo, the poor bastard.
It turns out Agent Ballard has at least one reason to be lucky he has a pathetic, stalkery neighbor; she stops the Russian dude he's been hassling from breaking into his place!
Russian dude tells the neighbor he knows Paul; that he's "old friend from navy." When that doesn't look like it's going to fly, he corrects himself: "Friend from, uh, Old Navy. I did retail before. He would, uh, buy slacks." Ha! She sees right through him, but he sees right through her, immediately grasping the form of her weird relationship with Paul.
Turns out Miss DeWitt is old buddies with the manager of the pop star from the opening scene. Also, DeWitt has a no sunglasses rule? What's that about? Maybe she doesn't like not being able to see people's eyes?
DeWitt to manager: "I can have the twins freed up in a day or so if you need to unwind." Eeewww.
Hey, Philly got a mention! Admittedly, in connection with a murder attempt, but still.
Manager: "Rayna's had stalkers ever since she was singing for the mouse." Heh. Nice reference. Rayna is meant to be a Britney Spears type, obviously.
Okay, this is interesting and different: Echo's personality and backstory is that of an aspiring singer, but buried in her subconscious is the need to protect Raina at all costs, along with the ability to do so. She's got layers this time!
Ugh. The singing and the dancing. It's tough to handle. Also, is Rayna coming onto Echo?
What is with the biting the finger gesture, Eliza?
Does Topher have a figure of a naughty young anime woman on his desk? If he does, that is a nice touch, and compliments his character quite well.
Topher gets excited considering the possibility that Echo's engagement with Rayna might turn romantic. He also senses a possible relationship brewing between Saunders and Boyd, and says, "You're gonna get married and have scowly babies." Heh.
An excuse to have Eliza Dushku stand around in her bra. Yay! And now, an excuse to get her topless! Double yay!
Rayna has a diva freak-out about somebody eating a mint, then takes Echo with her in the limo to the venue. It seems pretty clear that Rayna is not aware of Echo's true identity and purpose, so it's interesting (and lucky!) that she's latched onto her.
Heh. I like the way Russian dude shoos people away from his meeting with Ballard by just saying, "Naaah!"
Ballard gives us the old, "People are bad and always use technology and science to do bad things" argument. Pretty tired and lame.
Heh. Boyd's getting all nervous and fatherly about Echo's upcoming performance. It's cute. A little weird, but also cute.
Woah! Huge revelation! Russian dude is an active! I definitely did not see that coming. I'm guessing what this means is that the Dollhouse became aware of Ballard's investigation into their work and deliberately planted information that would lead him to this Russian guy, and Russian guy's job was to stonewall him and keep him from actually learning anything real. Wow. Interesting stuff.
Creepy guy is at the concert, of course, this time on crutches. Does he have a gun hidden in those, perhaps?
Oh, good lord. Sierra has been brought in as backup, posing as the winner of the number one fan contest.
Uh, I thought they were aware of a security problem and were taking steps? Why was creepy guy on crutches able to get backstage so easily? The security is better than that at a normal concert, where they don't expect someone to kill the star!
Yep, gun in the crutches. Called it! Not that that was hard to call or anything, but still...
Wait, he just hid the gun and left? And now the concert's over? That's weird.
Oh, it's hard watching Sierra in "fan mode," as Rayna describes it (which is a more appropriate description than she realizes).
Woah! Echo just seriously jumped a dude. Nice.
I wonder if there's a rival organization that's very similar to the Dollhouse. It would be interesting if the Dollhouse was using the Russian guy to point Ballard at its rival, to get him to take the rival out instead of the Dollhouse. It would also be interesting to see Dollhouse actives fighting it out against actives from some other brainwashing facility. Whedon, if you use this idea, I want a finder's fee or something!
Well, anyway, that's not what turned out to be happening this time. Looks like Russian guy was setting Ballard up to be killed by other members of the Russian mob. But somehow Ballard took them all out, even after being shot himself. Although I kind of doubt another person would be an effective shield when used against bullets fired at point blank range. They'd just go right through the guy and kill you anyway.
Sierra's handler is clearly not as dedicated as Boyd. Also, guess what happened to the previous Sierra? "She got the job done." Huh.
Ah, okay. There's another show in the same venue the next night. Also, Rayna is actually personally communicating with the crazy fan guy! She likes him! My first thought is that she's just addicted to his adulation, but it's more twisted even than that. She wants to die on stage. Echo says, "You're crazy." She responds, as she's being lifted onto the stage in her little faux jail cell, "I'm not crazy. I just want to be free." Wow. I'm not sure there's a person on this show who isn't seriously mentally wounded.
Rayna: "I don't exist. I'm not a real person. I'm everybody's fantasy." Well, that sounds familiar! Also, to Echo: "I know you weren't grown in a lab, but I was." Actually, no, she was grown in a lab. It was just a slightly different lab. "God put this voice in me and forgot to make it mine." A lot of great lines here.
Oh, now this is interesting: creepy guy grabbed Sierra! He's going to get more than he bargained for there. And apparently that was all part of the plan. Also, interesting comment on fanhood: Miss DeWitt asks Dominic if he's a fan of Rayna; if he likes her music. He says he's not sure that has much to do with being a fan, not at this level.
Awesome scene: Echo smacks Rayna in the back of the head with a folding chair and says, "Friends help each other out." She's interpreting her imprint in an interesting way here; to "protect" Rayna, she must hurt Rayna, and force her to do something she doesn't want to do. In fact, she's faking kidnapping her! As Topher puts it, "Wow. That does sound kinda bad."
Echo completely ruled that situation. That was bad-ass.
Now Dominic wants to send Echo to "the Attic," because she's too erratic and too much of a risk. I guess that means he wants to "box" her? But DeWitt and Boyd both understand that Echo actually fulfilled the mission parameters completely. She was just thinking outside the box. She's special; in fact, she's the best. But she wasn't always the best - Alpha was. And, as Saunders points out, being special and being the best isn't so good here.
Woah! There's a mind-blowing little moment at the end of this episode. Sierra and Echo walk past each other, and Sierra looks at Echo as if she wants to say something to her, but Echo shakes her head, glancing at Sierra's handler standing nearby. Do they remember who they are? Are they planning something?
Awesome. Great episode. The singing and dancing sequences I didn't always enjoy, but then, I'm not sure I was supposed to. I also found Ballard's speech about the evils of humanity hard to swallow. But otherwise, a very dramatic, moving, and exciting episode with lots of surprise twists, as well as interesting hints of what's to come. Excellent. |
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