TV Review - Dollhouse (S1, E2)

The Target

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO REMAIN UNSPOILED ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS DURING EACH EPISODE, READ MY OVERALL REVIEW OF THE SHOW, WHICH WILL BE POSTED SOON

The plot thickens! Okay, I understand that “the plot thickens” is going to apply to every episode, but I needed to get it out of my system now, especially because of how the episode ended. I mean, I understand that Echo does the whole “shoulder to the wheel” gesture to show that her doll state is subconsciously remembering things from past engagements, but I am all about the details, and that saying doesn’t go with the conversation it follows. Plus it is just funny because it looks like she is swatting a fly on her shoulder…

Back to the episode as a whole, which was just fun. And eerily reminiscent of a film Eliza Dushku was in numerous years ago called Wrong Turn. Okay, so there aren’t cannibalistic, mutated people due to decades of incest, but there are woods, mountain climbing, a bow and arrows, a cabin that isn’t as safe as you hope it is, a dead cop, etc. Just add a dash of the hunting game from The Pest and the back-story of Boyd joining the dollhouse and you have this episode.

Speaking of the back-story, what is really affective is how the past and the present are edited together to show where the characters were vs. what they have become. Plus, not only are the uncomfortable looks on the Boyd's face as he is getting used to Echo priceless, but we get to see just why Alpha is such a big deal. Also, we get to see Echo tripping out on poison, which caused her to remember thing that she shouldn’t. The thing I like about this is that they kept these from being confused with the flashbacks by making the memories play out like a bout of schizophrenia on Echo’s part.

We also have some new questions to add to the list: Why didn’t Alpha kill Echo? And why is he still obsessed with her now?

Final Grade: A-

PS – is it sad that it took until now (my second run through of the season) to realize that the dolls are given names from the NATO phonetic alphabet? That’s awesome. But there are only so many letters, so do they reuse names? And I want to meet the dolls named Golf, Hotel, Papa, Uniform, Xray, Yankee, and Zulu.

Quote of the Episode: Topher to Boyd - "Relax, mountain man. I’ve been reading the squigglies long enough to discern the diff between excitement and "'Sweet mother, I’m gonna die.'"