REVIEW: Dollhouse flourishes; Episode 6 solid
NOTE: This review is meant for those Dollhouse fans who watched Episode 6, “Man On the Street,” Friday night on Fox. If you have not seen the sixth episode, read at your own spoiler risk.
If this is the vision Joss Whedon had all along, I salute him. The sixth episode of Dollhouse delivers in a big way. For the first time all season, the show brings its awesome backstory to the forefront as Agent Paul Ballard and Echo come face to face, or more accurately fist to fist in “Man On the Street.”
Patton Oswalt is brilliant as dot-com billionaire Joel Mynor, whose yearly gift to himself catches the attention of Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett.) Ballard used bank account discrepancies to piece together that Mynor is a Dollhouse client. He shows up to catch Mynor in the act and stumbles across Echo (Eliza Dushku) in the process. Ballard beats the shit out of Mynor’s bodyguards, but Echo escapes with Boyd Langton (Harry Lennix) during the process, so Ballard questions Mynor instead.
The writing in these scenes is superb. (Thanks Joss!) You begin to understand why some people would use the Dollhouse instead of a brothel. One of the problems that plagued early Dollhouse episodes dealt with believability. It’s hard to believe that people would buy Actives for some of the mundane tasks we’ve seen these dolls do. No one seriously believes a wealthy family would spend money to have Echo serve as a midwife. But with Mynor, we not only believe he would spend the money on Echo, we empathize with his decision to do so.
Unlike some of the others we’ve seen, Mynor is not really buying an Active for sex — – he’s paying to live out a memory with his dead wife that life cruelly robbed him of. Touching stuff, but for Agent Ballard, all this did was serve as a warning to the Dollhouse elite that he was getting way too close.
It apparently is time to shut him up.
Back at the Dollhouse, drama is unfolding there, too, with the rape of Sierra (Dichen Lachman.) Due to Victor’s man-reactions from earlier episodes, he’s the prime suspect, but Langton quickly realizes that something doesn’t add up. This is the one big problem I had with the episode. It seemed all too convenient to have an entire little area of the Dollhouse compound where there was a black spot in the security camera coverage. If they even have cameras in the bathrooms and showers, it seems highly unlikely they wouldn’t have a camera in that room where Sierra was raped.
That point being said, I liked the way Langton used Victor as bait to catch the handler in the act, and Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) finally showed a little compassion for the dolls as she sends the handler to his death.
That’s when this “Man On the Street” episode really gets good. Suit up Echo. It’s time for your close up with Agent Ballard.
I absolutely loved the fight scene between Echo and Ballard. The kitchen setting was a good idea, and the fight was reminiscent of the Bourne movies, as Ballard used whatever he could find to defend himself from Echo’s onslaught. As far as Dollhouse action sequences go, this was the best of the series so far, easily outpacing anything since Episode 2.
At the end of the fight, Echo has Ballard face down on the pavement with a gun pointing at his head. That’s when Dollhouse takes another one of Joss Whedon’s famous twists and turns. Echo tells Ballard that the Dollhouse is real but that a friend on the inside changed her programming at the last second to keep him alive. And there isn’t just one Dollhouse — there are dozens all over the world.
Ballard doesn’t have time to argue though because Echo also tells him his neighbor and new love interest, Mellie (Miracle Laurie,) is in serious danger. Only DeWitt knows that Mellie isn’t in as much trouble as Ballard thinks she’s in. DeWitt sent the man who raped Sierra on his final mission — to kill Mellie — but it turns out Mellie is an Active, as well. After a call from DeWitt, Mellie briefly turns into a killer and disposes of Sierra’s old handler with one well placed kick. It’s just a shame that DeWitt had to turn her back into the hysterical Mellie. I know I definitely prefer her as badass Active, November. (Or dead quite honestly.)
Dollhouse has definitely had its bumps starting out, more than likely due to the meddling of Fox, but if the last two episodes are any indication, the show is now on firm footing and continues to impress from week to week. Perhaps there is some symbolism in the final few lines from this week’s episode:
“You played a good hand, ma’am.”
“I played a very bad hand very well. There is a distinction.”
Yes there is, Joss. Yes there is.
The Good: Bourne-inspired hand-to-hand combat between Echo and Agent Ballard!
The Bad: The nasty little rape episode back at the Dollhouse
The Ugly: Airing this great, season-turning show during the middle of March Madness.
ActiveDollhouse Grade: A
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Hi I really like to read the review you give the show and I REALLY HOPE you read my little comment.
Im trying to remember right. Boyd was looking at the video camera where there was a black spot right next to the door right? (I’m gonna be asking right because even though you can’t answer right now, I gotta do it.) Well the person raping Sierra came from a room on the other side of the door where Boyd was probably in relation to the one on the other side of the Rape. That’s what helped not to ruin it for me. Two rooms probably similar in layout meaning that the video cameras were probably in the similar layout as well.
BESIDES I’m sure there are plenty of blind spots in all of the cameras of the whole building. But since he was raping her he needed to find a secretive spot. It wasn’t ruined for me because I figured everything has flaws and if you wanna rape in a high security building, you gotta plan these things out so you don’t get caught. You made it sound like the rape and blind spot were just coincidence but I think it was planned out before he did it.
THANKS FOR THE REVIEW AND THANKS FOR READING MY INPUT!!!
“Echo tells Langton that the Dollhouse is real”
I’m pretty sure you meant ‘Ballard,’ seeing as Langton already knew… and if he didn’t, then man, he must be the worst Handler ever!
Anywho, awesome episode. It’s a shame the viewers dropped from last week but it was to be expected, especially with it going head to head with BSG’s series finale.
Looking forward to the next episodes!
Thanks Blue! Where’s a copyeditor when you need one!
Rebecca, if this was the offices where I work, I would agree with you. I’m sure we have a ton of little black holes in our security cameras. But this is the DOLLHOUSE. I mean they even have security tapes of the dolls showering together since their little mind-wiped fantasy fulfillers are worth so much money. I just thought it was a little too convenient plot-wise to have a black spot there in the hallway and no camera at all in that room when there are cameras EVERYWHERE else.
I still gave it an “A” though
ok, heres what i think:alpha is ballard, except ballard is not aware that he is alpha because alpha is his alter ego because alpha is in love withcaroline as wekll as ballard. as for mellie i had no idea she was a doll, but i dont think that she knows she is one, maybe when they say the phrase she becomes a doll, and i happen to love her with ballard and i bet anyone that mellie and echo are gonna fight(thanks to alpha) oh and i think it was boyd who stole the disk
I agree with Rebecca - as I understood the blind spot is just on the very edge of the room, and the blind spot on the other side of the door would just be on the very edge of that room. Of course the showers etc. have cameras, you wouldn’t leave an entire large area unmonitored like that, but I don’t think the room Sierra was raped in didn’t have cameras - just a tiny slice of it that’s not quite on the radar. It’s like any security system where you walk from one camera onto the next but there might be a tiny gap in between. There would probably be other places that aren’t monitored as well, maybe DeWitt’s office, maybe Topher’s lab (is whoever changed Echo’s programming on tape?) - after all, is whoever’s watching the security tapes all the time privy to knowing what goes on in those places? Who knows what that other room is?
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