Dollhouse: Ghost

By Sonia Aurora

I have to say that no matter what, I want this series to succeed on so many levels. For the obvious reason being that I am a huge Buffy and Joss Whedon fan, but also because I have a hard time investing in a show and having it not fulfill its full creative potential (i.e., Pushing Daisies). But the problem lies in that there is also a high level of expectation for the show, also for those exact same reasons. So I wanted to do my best to approach this show with as clean a slate as possible, but as Caroline, who then becomes Echo, says, “have you ever tried to clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before.”

From the outset, I felt the pilot was a little clunky, trying to hard to create this element of mystery from the cat-and-mouse meeting between Eliza Dushku and Olivia Wilde, whose British accent is trying so desperately to be scholarly and ominous. I had the (good? mis?) fortune of seeing the first part of the pilot at NY Comic Con, and I felt the same way when I came away then, and not so much disappointed but worried. Again, trying so hard to see this show for what it is than for all that it comes from. After the initial “yes, there is an underlying mystery here!” set up scene, Caroline, now as “Active” Echo, is on an ideal weekend -long perfect date with a guy named Matt. What was most refreshing here was to see how happy Eliza was. In all the time I’ve followed her career, since her inception as Faith, I don’t think I’ve seen her crack much of a smile that wasn’t laced with bad girl sneer. This time, she was actually giddy about having “met a guy”. Her handler, Harry Lennix, collects her for her treatment, and as she fondles a heart pendant necklace she’s girly and bouncy and really much like a girl in the innocent blossoming of liking a guy. And from this point her performance, and the heart of the show, also blossoms. Echo gets her “treatment” from Topher, and her memories are erased, going backwards ala Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and also not only erasing the weekend’s memories but some scant ones that we imagine are memories still not fully removed before she became Echo. And then she’s an automaton, doe-like and empty, wandering the halls of the place all like her reside.

Flash to a young girl on the phone, chatting with her dad, who gets kidnapped by three men, one who wears a mask. Dad decides he needs a strong negotiator, not a “Rambo,” and so the Company, or as I like to think of them “They,” this faction Echo works for, are going to help. We can safely assume it will be Echo, but right now she’s getting her knee looked at by Dr. Saunders, immediately fascinating not only by the fact that her face is lined with scars but because she’s played by Amy Acker (Fred from Angel). Soft spoken in not only voice but manner, she quietly asks Echo if it bothers her that she doesn’t remember what fell on her leg. “Should it?” asks Echo placidly, and Dr. Saunders narily bats an eye. Echo then wanders and enters a room where they are creating another Active, and the girl (becoming Sierra) is in pain. Topher explains that it is the girl’s first treatment but she’ll be fine and strong soon enough and then Echo is whisked away…to her next assignment as Eleanor Penn, kidnap facilitator.

We also in the midst of this meet Paul Ballard, FBI, being asked to back away from his investigations of the Russian Mob in relation to the Dollhouse, something his superior believes is a bogus assignment. But Paul knows his superior’s superior thinks the Dollhouse exists and is a big deal, and the back and forth reveals Paul believes that if a place that eradicates not only memories but personalities to stamp new ones in exists then that is just as much murder as it would be to actually kill someone. He’s also further convinced that the Russian Mob’s human trafficking is directly involved with the Dollhouse. Instantly I’m sucked in, as the scope of what the Actives in the Dollhouse are could very well be people brought in against their will, used as some form of barter, especially since they are being used as people that can be made into anyone’s ideal, if the price is paid for it. While it appears from the beginning that Echo came in reluctantly but voluntarily all the same, it can’t be said all of them are like this, and I definitely want to know if Paul is onto something with this connection, even if he seems a little unstable in his subsequent encounter with a flashy young mobster.

Back to Echo, I mean Eleanor, who is prim and smooth, hair in an ultra-tight bun, wire glasses that take care of her actual nearsightedness, and asthma because, apparently, They can do that. The parts of which They collect the person these Actives become are real people, so whoever Eleanor Penn was made up of had imperfect vision and lungs, and now, so does Echo.

Eleanor is no-nonsense. She knows exactly who she’s dealing with and how to play them, and when the kidnappers get on the phone she knows when to hang up and when to listen, how to negotiate and how to cut things off before they get too complicated…until the actual day of the exchange. Apparently Eleanor Penn’s memories come to the surface when she encounters her own childhood abuser. She falls apart, hyperventilating, botching the exchange and getting the client shot, mumbling that you can’t fight a ghost. Lennix, perched in a sniper’s spot, shoots at the kidnappers, 3 of whom get away by boat, and he collects Echo to take her back for her treatment, but she (as Eleanor) knows too much – she knows that the kidnappers won’t let the girl go but will all be killed by the older one, the “ghost” who molested Eleanor, the one who will keep the new little girl until he’s tired of her. Lennix is convinced she is the only one who can find her, but its time to make her bland Echo again. He bursts into Miss DeWitt (Olivia Wilde)’s office to make his case, even if it means compromising their secret company. It breaks down to a semantics debate: “We don’t have a client” (the father whose been shot and might not make it); “We have a mission!” (to find the little girl by the only means they have – Echo as Frankenstein mind-melded Eleanor). And so after a false “omg, they erased her memory!” Eleanor is back on the case, solving it so much as to now get her to the island hideaway the kidnappers are holed up in, calling out her abuser, and saving the girl by getting the other kidnappers to side with her and killing the “ghost.” Eleanor/Echo cradles the girl, about to get away, when bad-ass new Active Sierra bursts in guns blazing, shooting the remaining kidnappers and securing the scene and money. Eleanor’s done good, and everything is all good: Echo and Sierra back to their blank selves; the client is alive and recovering with his daughter, They have their money plus the $8 million ransom, the Dollhouse remains protected…oh, wait, no, there is something wrong, one very big, gnarly snag: seems Alpha, an Active, is loose, and deadly. He sits in a room, naked, watching a video of Echo (as her normal pre-memory wipe self), and 2 dead bodies lying paces away from him. Alpha has a picture of Echo which he places in an envelope marked to Paul Ballard and a “keep looking” message on it. The final image of the show is of Echo settling in to sleep in a coffin-like bed whose covers shuts her and the other Actives from the world even further.

I can understand Joss’ expressed concern about how this would be perceived as almost anti-feminist – I believe one reviewer called it borderline prostitution. Ultimately, that is going to go on if someone pays enough for another person to have a sex slave, especially if there aren’t the consequences of that person actually remembering that having happened. But Echo is right – a slate that’s been written upon, even when cleaned, shows scratches of its former messages. We as the audience are lead to believe that even though Echo is innocent, she is likely to become self-aware, or at least nosy enough to start putting some pieces back together. My guess is that Alpha, who is most likely the first Active, has his cerebral synapses going haywire – I mean, how often can you have your brain messed with before it starts to short circuit?

I’d skimmed through some reviews before seeing the show, and many had one positive, which was also mine: Eliza Dushku. This series has great potential for her to really and finally show her chops as something more than a sex kitten toughie. As for the other characters, the jury is still out. I like Harry Lennix the Handler, because he is not only Echo’s guardian but he genuinely seems to care about her, and at least superficially struggle with what the Dollhouse is and does. I also want to know more about Dr. Saunders – is she an ex-Active? What is up with her beautiful marked face? Topher is that cookie-cutter geeky guy gleeful of his too-much power; I’m hoping he’s fleshed out to not be so annoying, or at least given the reason why he is so. The others also seem carbon-cut out: we have the potentially rogue cop looking for answers in Paul Ballard, the sexy aloof head honcho woman in Adelle DeWitt, and the hard ass other Company guy in Laurence Dominic. The actors are all competent in their roles – I’m just hoping they’ll become more dimensional than the “dolls” they are supervising.

By episode’s end I can admit I’m intrigued enough to see more. Not sucked-in, anxious, “O-M-G, I can’t WAIT for Friday to roll around!” anticipation, but “hmm, let’s see what more they have to offer” kind of wonder. In letting go of the initial expectations I can also hold onto the faith that Joss will be allowed to shape enough of his vision so we can see what we love about his work start to seep through, and then begin to love Echo as her world just as much as we love the crew of Serenity, the Slayer and her Scooby gang, and, yes, even Dr. Horrible and the Evil League of Evil.

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About Sonia Aurora: Aspiring screenwriter and seamstress, Sonia’s dream is to write life-changing films while product-placing her own line of handbags. In 1999, she wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the short film Dr. Lovestrange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug, a satirical homage to Stanley Kubrick set amidst the panic of Y2K (Featured on ifilm.com & Coming Soon to YouTube!). While Sonia waits patiently for the Studios to call, she continues her selfless, humanitarian efforts (think Mother Teresa) through her scripts, short stories and sewing (a true triple-threat!), knowing all the while that someday her efforts will indeed save (or at least mildly tweak) the world. She still struggles with which picture to kiss before bedtime: her boyfriend’s or Bruce Campbell’s. And, in the interest of time, she’d like to start thanking the Academy now.

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