Dollhouse: Season 1 Episode 2 Review and Comments
Episode 2 of Dollhouse Season 1 is titled The Target. A seemingly adventurous affluent playboy hired the Dollhouse for a wilderness date with a girl who won’t bore him. Echo was then imprinted with the traits of a risk-taking and fast-learning sensual woman who craved the outdoors. It turned out that the assignment was a ploy by the mysterious Alpha to isolate Echo with a psychopathic assassin (the fake playboy) so that she can be killed.
The Target introduced Alpha. Although still largely unidentified, he used to be a doll who killed many other dolls and staff, including Echo’s previous handler, and then broke out of the Dollhouse. For some reason, Echo to lived through the massacre. Was it because he needed her alive at the time or did he just not have enough time to kill her before the Dollhouse guards were on him? In any case, Alpha went through great lengths to kill Echo in episode 2.
Furthermore, we learned that it was Alpha who gave Dr. Claire Saunders her scar and that the surviving staff, including Dr. Saunders, were told that Alpha was eventually killed.
Meanwhile, Paul Ballard, the FBI agent assigned to investigate the existence of the Dollhouse, caught the attention of Adelle DeWitt and Laurence Dominic, the high officials of the operation. Seemingly shaping up to be a major character, Laurence Dominic was considering assassinating Paul Ballard, a federal agent, in order to protect the Dollhouse. He was also becoming very suspicious of Echo and had a brief, but unpleasant, encounter with her towards the end.
Additionally, Boyd Langdon proved his worth. We know now that he’s not a simple pushover. He’s tough and resilient. Perhaps that’s why he was assigned as the handler of the most popular doll.
But questions continue for Boyd: is he just there for the money or is he gonna start investigating the link, if any, between Alpha and Echo? From what I recall, he’s either an ex-cop or ex-military. If he’s an ex-cop, then investigating should be second nature to him. And he’ll want to know what he might be up against whenever Echo goes on assignments. Boyd Langdon could very well be the character who’ll discover the identity of Alpha.
And lastly, Echo raised new questions about her. She continued to retain imprints under certain condition and regain her own memory.
Is she simply the imperfect doll or is Topher’s programming system flawed in the first place? The only other doll that may have the same condition is Alpha, but more information is needed about him.
When it comes to Echo as a character, I’m still lukewarm. But the storyline, with the introduction of Alpha, just got significantly better. This episode is 5 out of 5 because of it’s importance in the storyline.
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The author is a web producer and writes freelance on various topics such as “geeky” interests in cool Marvel statues and career tips on game and art design.
Source: http://articles.netboxie.com
