Dollhouse – Hey now, that’s looking better

After what has been a rocky opening to the season, the Dollhouse crew managed to put their best foot forward this week. The remote mind-wipe, teased in the promos, furthered the mystery of Alpha, while giving Sierra a chance to shine. And it also led to some pretty interesting goings on back at Dollhouse HQ. Kicking around the internet, I’ve seen a lot of people that suggested “Target” would have served as a better pilot. I’d now take that a step further and say that “Gray Hour” would have been an even better choice. Mostly, for one reason. Finally we have Echo on an engagement that actually makes sense for the Dollhouse.

It’s easily been my biggest complaint with the series. They haven’t done a very good job selling the idea of just what the Dollhouse is, and what it does. The hostage negotiator was iffy to start. The human target is kind of off the table because it turns out that there were other machinations behind the scenes where that client was concerned. And then the security guard? You have to ask, “Why would anyone come to the Dollhouse for a negotiator, or what is actually a pretty standard security detail?” And yes, you can toss midwife right in there as well, because seriously, WTF?

Think about it. This is an outfit that has it’s own military, complete with helicopters and the ability to retask satellites. The prices have to be astronomical. Turtle isn’t stopping by for a $100 rub and tug. I get the dilemma, because it’s pretty clear what the clientele for the actual Dollhouse would be after, and it’s a hard sell on network TV. Sex. And not the giggly cute girl that rides motorcycles and is the love of your life sex. No, the creepy ass twisted sex the likes of which you would only see on the personal hard drive of that weird guy at work. And if you work with me and my mug just jumped in your head, what the hell? How you gonna play a brother like that?

Of course, the other solid option for going to the Dollhouse is high end crime. If you’re going after multi-million dollar pieces of art, then a safe-cracker built to order sounds like a solid investment. So, once we got away from the midwife shenanigans, I was finally fully on board with an engagement. And, possibly more importantly, Eliza Dushku’s role in it.

Aside from the ridiculous hooker boots (comfortable shoes? try some Keds) and the invisible safe cracking resin, I really liked the heist. Even though the remote wipe had been blown in the previews, it still came as a bit of a shock when it happened, and the fallout from it was done very well. Echo’s conversation with Scott (Andrew Bowen) about the paintings offered an interesting way to look at what is happening to Echo, and Caroline.

As good as all that was though, the best part of the episode was actually back at HQ. And that is part of why I would suggest anyone just starting the show begin here. It offered a much better look at both Topher and Adelle, and because of the ‘six pilots’ structure, also contained all the exposition necessary to get up to speed. There was some solid confirmation that Adelle does answer to some Senior Partners, if you will. And we also saw her flat out lie to the client Diakos, (Tony Amendola – Bra’Tac!). Really, no one except the client knows what the engagement is? Not the guy programming the active? Or the guy in the surveillance van, jacked into the satellites? We also learned that Adelle doesn’t have a problem with taking out an active. Although, it was telling that she already suspects that Boyd wouldn’t be up to the job.

Meanwhile, I think this is the first time that we really saw just who Topher is supposed to be. The dialogue was better, and he seems much more comfortable now. I especially liked the delivery of his line to Boyd about the actives. “They’re a little bit bison.” He’s also just a bit insecure. At the first sign of trouble, he made it clear, repeatedly, that it was not his fault. And then proceeded to fret about the possibility that there could be someone better than him out there. That entire bit was helped by the appearance of Ivy (Liza Lapira – NCIS).

And then there’s Sierra. It was such a cool idea to give Echo and Sierra the same imprint. And, I dare say, the Diechen-Taffy was even better than the Eliza-Taffy. I actually bought in to the Sierra character from the get go, when she crashed through the door in the pilot. But after seeing her interaction with Adelle at HQ, I’m patiently looking forward to an episode that puts her mission in the forefront.

One last thing worth noting was the continuation of the Ballard/Victor story. Although, really, I’m not getting much out of Ballard up to now. His character is being hampered by the six pilot idea, so there is something of a spinning wheels effect in play. I suspect that all to change dramatically once the show gets into gear.

All things considered, this was a great step for the series. It’s taken four episodes, but now I feel like the show has made the jump from watching it because it’s supposed to get good, to watching it because it actually is good. Next week, Tim Minear tackles Waco.

Update: The ratings are in, and despite this being one of the better episodes, they are down for the fourth straight week. Early results for “Gray Hour” have it at just 3.5 million viewers with a 1.5 demo.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Mar 07, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT