The Beginning of the End

[ This review covers Season Two, Episodes Five and Six of Dollhouse, entitled The Public Eye and The Left Hand, both of which originally aired on Friday, December 4, 2009 ]

Finally, after more than a month off the air, Dollhouse returned with two all-new episodes. It’s true that the show’s been canceled and that after January 22, it will cease to exist, but I don’t care. It isn’t like that’s going to stop me from watching, because it didn’t. And I’m so glad about that because these two episodes of Dollhouse were right up there among the series’ best episodes ever.

So let’s start with part one, “The Public Eye,” which was a fantastic episode mainly for the jaw-dropping twist alone. I never ever saw it coming, especially with the set-up making me think otherwise, so once it came, I literally exclaimed out loud “No way!” What I loved was that, following this twist, both the Senator and Echo were thrown into a completely crazy scenario that nobody ever would have expected, and it was so interesting to see how they reacted.

It was also interesting to see just how screwed up the Rossum corporation is when it comes to their dollhouses. While I’ll admit that their plan is a pretty genius one, it makes Dollhouse present a very tough choice to their viewers. In a rare case, Dollhouse is having you root for the bad guys. You want the people of the LA Dollhouse to win, yet at the same time you want Echo to be successful in helping to bring that very same dollhouse down, yet at the same time you want to slap Melanie/Millie/November for exposing that dollhouse. It’s all very complicated, and while I’m sure not everyone felt that way, I know that I did, and it is what makes watching Dollhouse so much fun. It’s challenging to the mind and really makes you think, while at the same time presenting a lot of action and fun. My favorite quote of the whole episode? “You just woke up a lot of people. And they all think you are a bitch.” Classic. I loved it.

Another thing that made “The Public Eye” so great? Summer freakin’ Glau. I love her. She’s so tiny and adorable, yet so versatile and amazing. Seeing her here on Dollhouse was just so awesome and it almost makes me want to jump up and go buy Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles just because she was a series regular on that series. Almost. She plays quirky and creepy so well (which probably doesn’t sound like a compliment, but trust me, it is) and part of what I love about her character on Dollhouse is that she gets to talk. On Firefly, Summer’s River never really got to talk all that much, and when she did, it usually didn’t make much sense (obviously, we’re not counting the series finale, “Objects in Space”). But on Dollhouse, Summer gets to talk! And I’m finding that very exciting…

Now onto part two, “The Left Hand.” This episode took everything from the previous episode and threw it even more out of whack. It was, in a word, awesome. My heart was literally pounding throughout the entire episode because of the tension. One of the things I’m loving about Dollhouse this season is that it is working real-life implications into the show’s architecture, exploring what something like this would really do to society. (This was briefly explored in season one with “Epitaph One,” but season two has had more of a focus on it.) With the storyline involving Senator Perrin, Dollhouse has put a fantasy situation into the real world and it makes for crazy good television. The absolute highlight of the episode, however, was no doubt Enver Gjokaj’s Victor imprinted with Fran Kranz’s Topher. It was spot-on. I even thought for a moment that maybe Gjokaj’s voice had been looped with Kranz’s because it was so dead on. It was absolute hilarity and further cements the fact that now that Dollhouse is canceled, Gjokaj needs a series of his own.

It is also going to be really interesting to see what happens to both Echo and Melanie/November. At the end of this episode, they were both left in such uncertain places, especially Echo, who is out in the world in doll state. Who knows what Summer Glau’s character has done to Melanie, but I can only hope we haven’t seen the last of either of them. And despite the huge upset at the Senate hearing, I’m betting we haven’t seen the last of Alexis Denisof yet either. Everybody has said that Dollhouse has let loose and will be going out with a bang, and it is good to see that that is holding true. I’ll be so sad when Dollhouse leaves the airways for the last time next month, but for now I’m going to cherish these fantastic episodes we’ve been getting. Because that’s truly what they’ve been: fantastic.

Next week on Dollhouse: Meet Jane Doe – After her entanglements with Senator Perrin and the D.C. Dollhouse, Echo escapes and finds herself struggling to live within the world at large, even as her multiple personality imprints threaten to consume her. Topher discovers the dangers of the Rossum Corporation’s scientific experiments that could have a devastating impact on the future, and DeWitt engages in a power struggle with Harding. A Love Supreme – When Echo’s previous romantic engagements begin to surface as murder victims one by one, the Dollhouse fears that Alpha may have returned with his murderous obsession with Echo to seek his revenge. DeWitt begins to grow increasingly suspicious of Ballard as he seeks allies in Langton and Topher, both of whom are struggling with their own growing moral dilemmas within the Dollhouse. But nothing can prepare any of them when the Actives seemingly turn on their handlers, leaving one member of the Dollhouse permanently mind-wiped.

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