Dollhouse

An often grim episode that leapfrogs us forward by a few months and several major plot points along the road toward the Hell shown in ’Epitaph One’

Grade: B-

Stars: Eliza Dushku, Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz, Tahmoh Penikett, Enver Gjokaj, Dichen Lachman, Olivia Williams, Keith Carradine

Writer(s): Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon & Andrew Chambliss

Director: Dwight Little

Release Date: December 11th, 2009

Rating: TV-14

DVD SPOILER: For those who have not picked up the DOLLHOUSE Season One DVD box set yet, here’s something important in the unaired season finale, “Epitaph One.” Flashing forward ten years into the future, the Rossum Corporation’s use of remote technology that can program anyone to be a doll has led to the collapse of civilization. “Meet Jane Doe” gives us the foundation of this future. We know that Echo (Eliza Dushku) has escaped the Dollhouse at the end of the previous episode (“The Left Hand”). Three months later, Echo is living in Texas and working as a nurse, apparently able to access all of her different personalities and skills as they are needed, though she sometimes suffers from headaches that leave her disoriented. We soon see that Echo is working with Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), who is keeping her sharp physically by sparring with her and values her friendship, but refuses her romantic advances, both because he thinks this would complicate things and because he cannot bring himself to trust that Echo actually desires him, as opposed to being spurred on by an old imprint. Echo and Paul plan to break a young immigrant woman out of the local jail as practice for returning to the Los Angeles Dollhouse, with a so-far unspecified motive. L.A. Dollhouse chief of security Boyd (Harry Lennix) is assisting them from within the House.

Back at the Dollhouse, Rossum exec Harding (Keith Carradine) has taken over running the house from Adelle (Olivia Williams), who is bitterly humiliated by her demotion. Harding is buttering up programmer Topher (Fran Kranz), who does in fact like having his ego stoked, but who is surprisingly canny about Rossum’s long-term objectives. Topher has figured out from his experiences with the Washington, D.C. Dollhouse that Rossum is having programmers at each of its twenty-three houses work on different pieces of the puzzle and has therefore been delaying turning over his own bit for fear of what will happen. Topher has, however, worked out that Rossum wants to be able to remotely program members of the general public as Dolls and shows his research to Adelle, believing that she will help him keep his discovery safe. Instead, Adelle turns Topher’s research over to Harding, with the correct assumption that she will be rewarded by regaining control of the L.A. House.

Paul and Boyd bring Echo in, pretending they’ve only just found her. Although the two men are genuinely concerned about Echo’s headaches, Adelle confounds them by saying Echo shouldn’t have a treatment just yet – she wants to see what the headaches are all about. And with that, the episode ends.

There’s a lot of story movement in “Meet Jane Doe,” with double- and triple-crosses in almost every scene. The fight choreography, courtesy of stunt supervisor Mike Massa, is impressive. Carradine is chillingly genial as Harding. Williams mixes together seething rage, enormous apprehension and rueful triumph in sequences that allow her to show off her range; she and Kranz are both stellar as Topher reacts to Adelle’s betrayal and Adelle responds to his shock. Glenn Morshower is solid in a guest turn as a mean-spirited small-town sheriff.

On the downside, we see a fair amount of what seems meant to be unfulfilled longing between Echo and Paul. While the writing is good and the actors work hard at it, the chemistry is simply lacking, so that it’s difficult to be invested in whether they’ll get together or not.

Mostly, “Meet Jane Doe” raises the stakes and moves the arc forward efficiently, but sometimes it’s more expository than engrossing.