Twisty Dollhouse Returns

After a six-week hiatus, Fox has brought Dollhouse back to finish its death march toward the great network television cancellation abyss. Fox is determined to dump these remaining episodes as quickly as possible, hence their decision to air them two at a time during the Friday night TV dead zone. I can’t say I’m really going to miss Dollhouse, because it never quite gelled for me, but these two episodes were very cleverly plotted and entertaining and boasted a tremendous amount of action, certainly more than any other show on TV right now.

One of the reasons why these two worked so well was because they weren’t stand alone episodes but serial, with events building and building upon events and driving the narrative with a propulsive force. This is what they should have been doing the whole time, and from interviews I’ve skimmed with Joss Whedon, it seems that Fox is to blame once again. It’s the old adage of too many chefs in the kitchen. Fox bought the concept for Dollhouse but in truth they were always uncomfortable with the sexual issues and moral thematics that were critical to the concept. I do believe it’s a distinct possibility that Joss Whedon has learned his lesson now and will never work with a major network again. Cable and internet seem to be much more viable options for him.

But as for the show, everything revolves around Senator Perrin and his quest to bring down Rossum and, therefore, the Dollhouse. Perrin is a threat (or an ally, for us) that was introduced earlier in the season. No one seemed to know where he was getting his information from or where he came from or what his agenda was. I thought for a bit that maybe Ballard had recruited him somehow, but as we learn, that wasn’t the case.

The threat becomes greater than ever for the Dollhouse when Perrin reveals in a press conference that he has a witness who can testify to the horrors and existence of the Dollhouse: Millie. Millie was released early from her Dollhouse contract thanks to Ballard agreeing to come work for them, and Adelle checked on her earlier in the season to make sure she was happy and adjusting to her life post-Dollhouse. Adelle is shocked to see Millie turning on the Dollhouse and thinks there is more to the story. She is motivated to find out exactly what due to the fact that Rossum is trying to blame the whole thing on her.

It has always been hinted at in the show that there is more than one Dollhouse branch, but we never got a look at one of them until now. The other big branch is in D.C. (Adelle’s is in L.A.), and through some investigation, Adelle and Ballard discover that Rossum has sold out its  L.A. branch and wants them to take the fall for them. Obviously, Perrin is key in all of this, and his ultra-supportive wife Cindy is always at his side. But maybe Cindy is a little too supportive. Adelle and Ballard put it together that Cindy’s whole biography and personal details have been fabricated. Naturally, they assume that she is a doll that Rossum set up to win Perrin’s heart years ago so that they would have dirt on him. Imagine the public fallout: Perrin is the guy who has been accusing Rossum of having the Dollhouse for years when he in fact is married to a doll. Solid deterrent right? It is, except Cindy isn’t a doll…Perrin is!

What? Perrin is a doll who was programmed to bring the Dollhouse down by the Dollhouse itself? What kind of self-destructive nonsense is that? Well as you would imagine, it is a little more complicated. It turns out that Perrin is actually a doll/human hybrid. Perrin is a real person and his family did have an extensive history in politics, but Perrin was essentially a screw-up with no ambition. So Rossum made him into a better version of himself, with Cindy as his handler.

Adelle decides to go to D.C. to get Echo back (that’s a long story) and try to tap into what they are doing and figure it out. She brings Topher with her to work his technological magic. But then who is going to run the L.A. Dollhouse while they are gone? Topher had a great solution for that: he programmed one of the dolls with his personality. Essentially, Topher cloned himself using Victor. One of the highlights of the episode is seeing Enver Gjokaj nail playing Topher. He gets everything right—the awkward cadence, the movements, the mannerisms, the twisted sense of humor. He does it as well as John Travolta and Nicolas Cage did it in Face/Off (remember when John Travolta actually made good movies?).

The other highlight of the episode is the appearance of Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles veteran Summer Glau. She plays Bennett, Topher’s equivalent at the D.C. branch. She’s twisted and creepy and more than a little nutty, plus she harbors a deep, longtime grudge for Echo, the reason why you get only a glimpse at. Bennett is sort of a combination of the personalities of River Tam and Cameron, Glau’s roles on Firefly and Terminator, respectively. There are a lot of twists and loose ends that need to be addressed in this episode. It moves at a breakneck pace and broadens the scope of the typical Dollhouse episode. It gets into national conspiracy territory and invokes Alan Pakula’s classic 70s thriller The Parallax View. It’s a very solid two hours of entertainment and offers a good way to pass the time on a cold rainy day (which it almost always is this time of year in Boston where I write from).

Season 2, Episode 5 & 6: The Public Eye & The Left Hand (originally aired December 4, 2009)

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Fridays at 9/8C on Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro