Dollhouse

(S02E04) It’s somewhat ironic that upon news that Dollhouse is going on something of a hiatus and will likely not be back next year that it delivers one of the best episodes of its run. Co-written by Joss’ brother Jed (and it wouldn’t surprise me if he wrote the music to the episode as well) and Maurissa Tancharoen (both of Doctor Horrible fame), we got the backstory of Sierra and received a major view of how dark the underbelly of the Dollhouse really is.

In another surprise, they redid the graphics for the opening credits and they’re better. Does anybody else make up lyrics while listening to the theme or is it just me? If so, what are your lyrics? Mine begins with "This is the Dollhouse. We’re in the Dollhouse. This is the Dollhouse song."

As an added bonus, the episode was directed by Commander Riker. Neat!

We now know who the man was that Sierra visited and hit last season when she was given her original personality. Today, she finishes the job.

Nolan was using a lot of Dollhouse resources just to seduce Priya. He better be a huge asset to Rossum, because otherwise he’s misogynistic and just plain nuts. Like so many of you, I cheered when he was stabbed to death by Priya. Given Boyd’s ability to quickly hide the body of a wealthy man, I can guess the circumstances that led to him becoming an employee in the first place.

We’re now seeing the beginnings of the story leading to Epitaph One. Topher is actually growing a conscience. It’s the start of him becoming a gibbering idiot from guilt. Echo is gaining a personality and likely learning how to fight the imprints. And Sierra and Victor, the Artist and the Soldier, share a love that goes beyond imprinting.

Those comments from Adelle’s boss make me very interested in her backstory. It’s unlikely to happen, but I hope we get to see some of it before the series is canned. The characters are finally becoming multi-dimensional and interesting. Assuming the quality level remains the same, the truth is that the series took too long to get this good. The Friday night slot probably didn’t help. No matter what the DVR numbers say, without November sweeps this series is toast.

We know from last season that Victor was a soldier in his previous life (thus the flashback). At first, I thought they were setting him up to kill Nolan.

We didn’t see even a glimpse of Ballard this episode, unless I blinked and missed it. Given that Madeleine/November returns next episode, he’ll likely be putting in an appearance given the nature of their relationship.

More importantly, there is the introduction of Summer Glau and hopefully Ray Wise will appear somewhere down the line. Good things are happening to this series. In the (likely) event of its cancellation, I’m sure Joss will have something planned to have it go out on a high note.