• Dollhouse E1S7
• "Echoes"
• Written by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain

For this installment, I've decided to liveblog. I didn't like the episode the first time I viewed it, but after an interesting email from DWH and his observations, I thought I'd give it a second try. I don't plan on using this format often, but there was so much that happened and the larger themes presented, for the most part, didn't interest me, so here it goes. 

==

"Echoes" opens with Echo being offered the job of "Active." We learn that she gives up five years of life to be an Active. The Dollhouse is funded by - you guessed it - a corporation, although I don't get the sense that it's the typical Hollywood "evil" corporation ... yet. I'm reminded of The Council from Buffy.  Next thing we know, we're following a couple of attractive college students in a lab. They find their friend Owen sitting on the floor speaking nonsense. He busts open a jar and then goes all 28 Days Later, only instead of biting the kids, he just starts bashing his head into a window. They fall to the floor and start laughing.  Now a suit is talking to Marissa - he's showing her a vial of antifreeze ('cept it's not) and explains he needs an army of Actives to reign in what Owen has unleashed. Basically, Owen unleashed a powerful hallucinatory drug that, you guessed it, affects the "hippocalamus," which since I barely passed VertZo I think may or may not be in the brain or in Africa. 

Cut to Adelle talking with a Corporate Type. He is explaining what has been unleashed. "One vial is enough to take out the entire student body." Wow.  He wants Actives because the drug affect inhibitors, and Actives don't have any. When watching this on the first time, I was growing bored fast by all the psuedo-chem-brain talk, and the second time around is no different.  Now Echo is back playing "Alice," - riding a fast bike, wearing lacey over the knee socks, and a short skirt. She's on a prostitution mission, just like the Pilot.

Now back to Mellie and Agent Boring. I cannot quit staring at her boobs - I'm sorry, but Mellie's rack has replaced Jennifer Love Hewitt's gravity-defying boobs as my favorite unseen breasts of all time. And she's really pretty, to boot - it's too bad she's stuck in every scene with Ballard. She's upset that Ballard is still going to pursue the Dollhouse even though he's been suspended - she asks him to drop it, and he won't do it.  Cut to the college, martial music and three black vans (we are on high cliche alert this ep, another reason I hated it on first viewing).

The Actives and Dominic invade. Sierra is hot as usual, playing a white-lab-coat scientist, and judging by the coat's length, she has quite the tenure.  Now Echo has her John tied up and she's going to film him/them apparently. And now, the plot is set in motion. Echo sees the story of the kid going nuts at the school, and breaks her assignment explaining that "I have to go there." We get flashbacks to her past. 

Theme song.

I must admit that when Eliza Dushku is the third-hottest actress on a television show, someone is doing something right. In each of his shows, Whedon has a knack for finding stone-cold hotties. Whedon is a total dork both in look and in manner, and as a fellow dork, I applaud his abuse of production power when it comes to finding the hottest actresses available to populate his shows.

==

A few years ago. 

Echo - pre-active - is in bed asking her lover to go to an anti-war demonstration.  Cut to Mellie getting a treatment. This is the first time we've seen her do that. Eliza Dushku, I note, gets another Producer credit.  The corporation by the way is the Rossum Corporation, presumably a pharmaceutical company.

Its CEO is Clive Ambrose, the third-richest man in America.  Cut to the college and EchoAlice on the motorcycle (dangerously wearing a very short skirt, I'd add). She encounters Victor and the other Actives working the case. She's trying to explain why she's there, but pre-Active Echo and Active Echo are conflicting. Langton gets a call from Adelle and is informed that Echo has just wandered into an engagement. He is then approached by a really creepy looking girl who probably likes EMO bands. She tells him "there are mansions in your eyes" and she's got some nice ink on her right arm. She is obviously on the wonder drug. 

Echo is taken to the infirmary, where Sierra tries to giver her a shot while the other students are having hippie freakouts. Now she's telling the guy who found the kid in the lab that she has to get into Rossum Lab. She tells him she's going to break into the lab, and he's onboard. Many things are not as they seem. The dude's name is Sam. EMO girl freaks out and is crying, and is potato sacked to an unnamed location. 

Now Sam and Echo make an easy escape from the infirmary. Langton confronts her, asking if she wants a treatment. "No," she says, and he and Sam walk off. Langton is hysterically affected by the drugs, and this - the flipping of roles regarding Actives and their Watchers/Programmers/Handlers, as DWH noted to me - is the best part of the episode. "Wow," says, "I didn't maintain control of that situation." 

==

More about The Rossum Corporation. Pre-Active Echo and her decidedly non-hippie yet uber-Leftist friends are talking about Evil Corporations (Where is Eric Cartman when we need him?). I would note, though, that Whedon's political themes are usually upside-down from what viewers would think or expect, and the naivety of the Leftists and their discussion works for me as a nice encapsulation of how stupid most college students seem to be when sitting around a table talking about corporations.

The scene was missing one key element, and that - of course - is a bong/houka with KB smoke clogging the air.  Anyway, Echo is talking about animal rights and states that they should break into the lab and film the tortured monkey.

As a fairly big animal rights person, I'm mixed on this because it always sounds stupid when displayed on TV shows.  Cut to Dominic, who is starting to steal every scene he is in. He starts playing with his gun. He is going mad. Victor notices he's acting quite strange. Now he does a really good freakout.

"I know how to solve problems," he says, and then notes that the gun is "so heavy, it makes my arm tired." He then does a good impression of a user whose Ecstasy has just kicked in. Adelle informs Topher, and more hilarity ensues.  Topher just latched onto Adelle. the drug seems to be spreading to them, even though they're not at the college.

[Reviewing the liveblog, I will note that this is a huge hole in the plot - if someone can explain how it happened, I'll be in your eternal debt. -CBK]

They start tripping, talking about English brown sauce while Adelle is worried she's too British. Admittedly, this is funnier than I remember the first time. Maybe I was on drugs when I watched it, so it didn't make sense.

[Fans of the Buffyverse by this point have noted that "Echoes" is quite similar to "Band Candy," arguably the funniest episode in the show's seven-season run and included, among other things, Giles and Buffy's mother being drugged in a similar manner and having sex while talking about starting a band.]

Cut to Echo and Sam.  They go to Sam's dorm room. Echo can't figure out why she needs to be at the college. Sam shows her a map of the campus, and she notes that they can break into the lab from underneath. 

Cut to Topher, who is on the phone and freaking out. Adelle is, for reasons unknown, jumping on a mini-tramp. This implies that people on psychotropic drugs act reasonably, allow myself to correct myself. Topher is in his underwear, which is also quite funny.  Langton calls in and Adelle takes the phone. He tells her he's "worked it out." In his most serious voice, he tells her to listen: he sets the phone down and begin playing a piece of classical music on a piano that is for some reason in the infirmary.Topher and Adelle love the music. 

Cut to Sam and Echo. As they discuss how to get to the "Lily Foundry" a middle-aged black woman sees Echo and says "Caroline, Caroline Ferrel, I knew that was you." Jackpot.  Turns out, it's a history professor who remembers Echo/Alice/Caroline quite well. Cut back to Adelle.

Now she and Topher are scarfing down junk food, laying on the floor, and talking about metaphysics. Apparently, this wonder drug is the ultimate wonder drug, because it's users exhibit signs of using MDMA, PCP, LSD and KB. Anyway, Adelle knows why Echo went to Fremont - to punish Adelle through Caroline. Interesting meta-awareness. Mellie then glitches and begins remembering things, and drugged Topher explains why. She gets all Manchurian Candidate, and then we cut to commercial. 

==

[I would note that since I accidentally erased my 170 hours of recorded programming on my DVR, I'm having to do this via Hulu - there is a Trojan Condoms commercial on and it is both hysterical and disturbing, and that doesn't even begin to explain the rap that's in it.]

==

Pre-Active Lefty Echo lays out her plans to her Lefty friends. One Lefty friend has a huge rack as well, and is showing quite the amount of cleavage. Maybe Whedon's a breast man?  When I say plans, btw, I mean blueprints and all. Her boyfriend starts getting cold feet, b/c he's a huge Lefty pussy and they're always better in theory than in action. 

Cut to Echo and Sam. They find Lily Foundry and go all Buffy, using an interconnected underground tunnel system to get to the lab. Sam is very calm, very reasonable, so we know something's wrong with him. Sam references Ninjas, which is awesome. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Ninja. Still do, sort of. 

Then - random - Dominic comes out of nowhere and apologizes to Echo for trying to kill her. Quite funny. He asks for her forgiveness, and she forgives him. He references himself in the Third Person, which is also funny. Sierra then shows up and tries to help Dominic. Now the security guard at the lab freaks out (yes, this is disorienting but these characters just keep showing up). 

Now Sam and Echo are running up stairs trying to get to the lab. And then, Sierra freaks. Or glitches. Probably glitches. She grabs a gun and more flashbacks. Sierra being raped. Victor experiencing trauma in a military outfit. The Actives are now glitching while they're Watchers are tripping. 

Cut to Adelle and Topher. They're hoping Mellie harsh is getting mellowed. They seem to have it together more than the others who are tripping, but they are still affected. They help Mellie to the treatment chair and Topher explains that the drug has hit the Actives later and in a completely different manner. In short, the drug is devolving and Topher thinks the tripping stuff is almost done. 

Cut to Echo and Sam. They enter the lab. Echo says it's different, which is interesting. Sam creepily knows exactly what he's looking for - he goes to a cooler, gets a vial of the drug, and says "Right where I left it." He takes the vial of antifreeze out, pours it onto a cloth, and Echo realizes he "found it really fast." Sam then doses Echo, presumably to date rape her. 

No, not really. But this is a college. 

==

Pre-Active Echo breaking into the lab with her Lefty boyfriend who almost let the door hit his vagina on the way into the lab. Various animals are in cages, and I again think of 28 Days Later, The Scariest Movie I've Ever Seen.  Lefty guy realizes "they're not just experimenting with animals."  He's filming what appear to be human embryos, and although this is a ripe opportunity for me to begin discussing the ethical complications of embryonic stem cell research and abortion, I will not, because I don't want to harsh your mellow. 

Anyway, a security guard catches them and they run.  Cut to Sam and Echo. Sam apologizes. Turns out Sam works for The Number Two Drug Company in the World, and no, it's not named Major League Baseball. Echo tells him he's insane. Sam says nobody's perfect.  Sam explains that the kid who bashed his own brains in wanted to steal the potion, and then he justifies his actions.

A drugged Echo begins chasing Sam, who is still perfectly likeable for some reasons. This is interspersed with Echo and Lefty fleeing down the same hallway. It appears Lefty has been shot. As she gets to the lobby, it is chaos. Echo tackles Sam in the quad wearing said short skirt, and then Echo is trying to save Lefty. Langton knocks Sam the eff out and asks Echo if she wants a treatment. 

"Yes."

==

Joe Torre is shilling for State Farm, btw. 

==

And now, the money-maker. Echo/Caroline is in a hospital bed and Adelle arrives to make her an offer she won't refuse.  Now back to the present. Adelle and Dominic meet in her office. He notes that everything has returned to normal. She offers him a drink. She gives him back his service weapon, er, gun.  Adelle looks at her security monitor. Cut to Mellie and Ballard. Mellie has two suitcases and is apparently leaving on a jet plane and don't know when she'll be back again. Agent Boring tells her he doesn't want to know where she's going. For the sake of my enjoying leering at her, I hope she's not gone for long. 

And now, of course, Sam is in a meeting with Adelle, and she's about to apparently make him an offer he can't refuse either.  She baits Sam with a plan to solve his mother's problems, same five-year contract as Echo. He asks how?  "I'm going to make you an offer." 

==

There are several Buffyverse issues at play here, and the similarities are starting to pile up, some more effectively than others. I didn't plan on incorporating Whedon's masterwork into this, but they are simply too important to ignore. Dollhouse is now seven episodes old, more than halfway through its S1 run of 13 eps, and Whedon and his writers have clearly taken ideas from Buffy and incorporated them into Dollhouse. I have no problem with this as Whedon creates shows I like to watch. However, especially with Echoes, I get the sense that the wonderful pathos and ethos of Buffy are being taken and turned into not much more than bathos in Dollhouse - this view will probably change, but this was an ultimately cynical episode. 

Dollhouse, to me, is a cynical show, whereas Buffy was more romantic. Buffy, as the Slayer, was The Chosen One. In short, she didn't ask for it and didn't agree to it - it was her calling and even though she tried to refuse it, she could not. It was a calling and a noble one: Buffy fought for good, and its enduring cult popularity is because of that. What always drew me to Buffy was it saw Man as a heroic being and most of His actions as ultimately decent, compassionate and heroic. The show had wonderful dialogue and the critical metaphor of "high school is hell," but the show is not a favorite of lovers of literature and philosophy because of its clever dialogue and bitching fight scenes (though they obviously were essential to the show's success). 

With Dollhouse, the more I learn about the operation, the less I like it. It sees Man as power-hungry and absent of compassion. I hope it doesn't turn into a rant against "evil" corporations - but it could go either way at this point.

If The Council's purpose was to fight evil by any means necessary, the metaphor that Rossum appears to make profits by any means necessary is not only a false view of corporations, it is belittling to people who, among other things, work for drug companies and use animals in testing to save human lives. Its timing wasn't the best, but I'm hopeful that the days of demonizing companies that serve a valuable purpose is coming to an end. 

Whereas Buffy had Giles as her Watcher and reported to a mysterious, mystical Council - all free people interacting with each other - Echo and the other Actives are brainwashed, controlled by people who presumably have their best interests at heart, though ultimately answering to a drug company. We have now seen how Echo and Sam were brought into the game - both of them were caught trying to break into the presumably nefarious (depending on your views) Rossum Lab, a place where animal and drug experiments are conducted.

In short, The Rossum Corporation, using The Dollhouse, takes people who tried to wrong it and makes them offers they can't refuse.  The allusion - some viewers will get it, but many won't as the ratings for the show skew young - is to The Godfather, and equating drug companies with The Mafia is not particularly funny or clever to me.  Anyway, rant complete, I now look forward to E8.