Dollhouse: Briar Rose

Dollhouse really kicks into high gear this week, and though there’s only one or two episodes left until the show joins Whedon’s Firefly in the great abyss of prematurely cancelled tv, at least it’s going out in style.

We open with Echo reading the story of Briar Rose (a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty) to a group of kids in an orphanage. One of them-Susan-starts trashing the story until she has a big whoppin’ meltdown about Briar Rose being a helpless victim and waiting for the prince to come save her. It’s okay, it’s not one of my favorite stories either. We learn later through Topher that the girl’s mother overdosed when she was only six and the mother’s degenerate scumbag pimp boyfriend put her into service. But where does Echo come in?

Well, Echo has been imprinted with the girl’s background and personality, with a couple of minor details changed. But Echo has been able to work through her traumatic past, so she’s there to help Susan do the same. It’s basically like getting help from an older version of yourself who has dropped in to visit, like with Bruce Willis in The Kid. I never got a grasp as to who Echo’s client was in this episode. Obviously it wasn’t Susan. Who would know about the secret Dollhouse and pay to have an Active come in and try to play shrink for a young girl? It doesn’t really matter, because the episode isn’t about Echo’s engagement. The whole situation just exists to play up the allegorical components of the show. Sleeping Beauty= Echo/Caroline (“Did I fall asleep?”) and Ballard is the Prince trying to break into the castle to rescue her.

And speaking of Ballard, we first see him packing up his apartment while Millie whines and pleads for him not to go. I don’t care if she is a Doll, she was so pathetic and obnoxious in this scene I was hoping Ballard would headbutt her, or that I could magically leap into the tv screen and do it myself. Luckily, though she keeps pleading for him not to leave, Ballard is unfazed. But why did he just now decide to leave, all of a sudden? Because: as soon as he walks out, he waits for Millie. Millie goes out on an overpass and looks like she might jump, but she’s met by her handler, who loads her into a van and takes her back to the Dollhouse for a treatment. And Ballard is right behind him. Bingo! All this complicated, labyrinthine investigating and all it took in the end was a simple tail job.

Ballard knows where the Dollhouse is, so he goes back to the FBI and uses his friend’s computer to investigate the building. The building is a dead end, but Ballard knows that it’s a decoy. The real one is underground. He pulls up the records of the building’s construction and sees that a specialist in low-power, self-sustaining systems was hired. Ballard knows this guy must have designed the underground Dollhouse, so he’s the key. Who is this man?

Turns out, he is none other than Alan Tudyk, a fact that will make Firefly fans squeal with delight. And let me tell you, Tudyk delivers one of the funniest and most charismatic performances I’ve seen on tv lately. He’s truly hilarious. Ballard comes after him at his apartment and forces him to come help him break into the Dollhouse. After all, if you’re trying to break into a secret stronghold that isn’t supposed to exist, who better to guide you than the dude that designed it?

From then on, we get the best fight sequence yet-and like I’ve written before, Dollhouse does some amazing fights-between Langton and Ballard, and Alpha is finally revealed. Whenever there’s a big twist in something, there are always people who are going to say they called it a mile away. It makes them sound smarter. So I’m sure people will say that here too, but let me just say that I didn’t see it coming and when it happened, I happily squealed like a little girl. I don’t want to say anymore so as not to ruin anything for anybody. Watch!

Season 1, Episode 11: Briar Rose (originally aired May 1, 2009)

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Fridays at 9/8C on Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro