Dollhouse: Stage Fright

by Sonia Aurora

This week, Eliza sings! Plus, friendships are forged.

Echo and Sierra, who was absent last week, have a small bonding moment at the Dollhouse, which proves important later. As far as who Echo is this week, she’s brought in by Dewitt’s friend, Biz, to act as Jordan, backup singer and secret bodyguard to his client Rayna, a  low-grade Beyonce-like singer, after a couple of accidents have plagued her on stage. The last faux pas claimed a backup dancer who caught on fire via a mis-aimed pyrotechnic burst (pan the crowd, zero in on stalker psycho killer, qu’est que c’est). The twist is Echo’s persona is struggling singer on the outside, but with an “instinct” to protect Rayna no matter what.

I think Joss enjoys having his actors be forced to sing, and Eliza absolutely holds her own in her audition. Echo’s Jordan is spunky, with a vague Brooklyn accent, and a toughie. Not much in terms of range for Eliza as an actress, I don’t think, but in terms of Echo, some things are going to prove very interesting.

Meanwhile Red Herring Young Russian Mobster (whose name is Ludov) tries breaking into Ballard’s apartment and gets caught by the neighbor across the hall who’s crushing on our FBI guy. I’m immediately on edge because as any fan of Joss Whedon knows, anyone is subject to die (Shoot, he killed Buffy at least twice and she was the namesake!) Whew, she’s safe, as he just gives her a card and lets her know he needs to meet Ballard on Friday and not to come by his office cause his bosses get mad.

Meanwhile, Echo and Rayna are BFF bonding, even though Rayna is the brattiest diva-in-training, having a “someone is eating a mint!” meltdown among other annoying, cloying habits. Topher is teasing Dr. Saunders burgeoning friendship with “Boyd” Langdon, and their concern about Echo going out on a potentially dangerous mission. Sierra is backup…but not badass; she plays Audra, Rayna’s Number 1 fan, and she does the giddy schoolgirl twitchy thing great, especially in contrast to the badassness of her first assignment from episode one. (My sister thinks she shows more range than Eliza does; I think there is still more to Eliza than she’s being given credit for).

Anyway, Ballard and the Russian Ludov connect at a penthouse party balcony and (in one of the funniest exchanges) engage in small talk:

Ballard (blandly): “Wow, look at the view.”

Russian: “Yeah look at all the pretty lights, the people look like ants and you can see my house from here.”

The Russian is agitated at Ballard’s insistence he knows anything about the Dollhouse, he’s a “Dead end”, and Ballard gets even more moody and maudlin about how the “technology exists” yadda yadda. I’m starting to get annoyed at why he has such a vested interest in this whole mission. It’s obvious he got dropped into this assignment for the standard cliché bad-apple-in-the-Bureau TV reasons, but his dimensions need to start unfolding beyond the two, because I’m starting to get annoyed and even his hotness will start to bug me, especially since I’m steadily loving Topher and his geeky conceit.

In an interesting twist, Ludov expresses wishing the Dollhouse existed so that it could wipe all his memories away and he could be “Doris Freakin’ Day.” This is only an interesting twist in that a few scenes later, Topher’s active is done with his erase of “Victor” and IT’S THE RUSSIAN! Did. NOT. Expect. THAT. So, he’s no red herring or dead end at all, really.

Back in Divaland, Stalker Psycho manages to get in the catacombs of the club Rayna is performing in with crutches that he’s now reassembling into a gun. Rayna and Echo go to a party, Rayna goes egotistical on manager Biz because Sierra is there in her personal VIP space, and Echo’s dormant bodyguard assignment springs to life when she overreacts to a photographer reaching for his camera, not a gun.

Meanwhile, Ludov/Victor/Russian calls Ballard with some third hand info that Dollhouse might be at the Devonshire Hotel, but instead it’s an ambush by three Russians. Even though he gets shot, he brings the three down. Superhumanly, almost. It’s here where my annoyance subsides to the potential intrigue that Ballard is a Replicant – could he an Active and not know it? Could someone have commissioned an Active from the Dollhouse to actually take it down? Even though Dominic has expressed that Ballard’s a threat, I still am going to entertain this idea until it’s squashed.

Echo in Rayna’s dressing room realizes that not only has Rayna been communicating with Stalker Psycho but that he’s left her a message that tonight is the night for her last goodbye. Echo thwarts the assassination, only to further learn that Rayna wants to be “set free”, that the burden of the life that she’s been manufactured to live sucks, and blah blah blah. I honestly tune out because Rayna grates me so much I want to reach into the TV and scratch her eyes out. She inspires me to pain her, not sympathize, and while I overall loved the episode I hated her; the actress was extremely affective if that was the point, and I think, to a certain, degree, that was the intention, but, ugh. I relish that Echo calls her weak and she gets fired, and I even more love her retort when Rayna grabs her: “You can fire me, but bitch, don’t you think you can take me.”

Ballard’s in an ambulance going into d-fib in the middle of all this. Again, that lump in my throat that he could be offed, but I have faith especially since I feel we still need to know more about him first.
Rayna, in her self involvement, doesn’t realize she’s dealing with an insane person. An insane person who kidnaps Sierra, as she is not Rayna’s #1 fan (he is), and says she’ll die unless they make an exchange – Sierra for Rayna. Biz realizes that Rayna’s been buddying up her psycho stalker and smacks her (yay!) and Echo confronts Rayna that she will give herself in and help this girl, but Rayna ignores that, wallowing in her obligation as diva, and Echo knocks her out with a chair (double yay!).

The Dominic cavalry descends on Stalker Psycho’s apartment, but Echo’s already left a message for the nut that she’s willing to swap Rayna for Sierra; Dominic goes ballistic on Topher since Echo’s gone “off task” – she is no longer protecting Rayna. Langdon watches as Echo, with a bound Rayna, faces off with Stalker Psycho and Sierra for the exchange, explaining how she doesn’t care if Rayna dies cause she wanted to die. Now Rayna’s all crying and blubbery and Echo flings her off the railing (it’s ok, she was tied up to not drop and die). She beats up the crazy man, saves Sierra, and makes Rayna realize how important life is, all without Langdon’s intervention. Sierra and Echo have a cute bonding moment before their handlers whisk them away for their treatment (and just as an aside, Joe Hern, Sierra’s handler, has major Jerk potential).

Dominic is still in angry mode, yelling at DeWitt that Echo should be sent to the attic (I’m really looking forward to seeing the attic, as I envision it as a scary sci-fi place where bodies hang in plastic bags hung from the ceiling, dangling in a weird white light-and-fog). DeWitt defends Echo, as she not only had control of the situation, but she actually did come at the problem rationally – Rayna was the threat to herself and Echo managed to – by literally dangling death in her face – squash any further attempts of Rayna’s harm to herself.

Langdon and Dr. Saunders muse that Echo has the ability to think a problem through enough that she can approach it in a different way, that she is special in that she isn’t pigeon-holed by the persona she’s coded with, she isn’t as vacant as others as a doll. In fact, when she and Sierra pass each other at the end, Sierra wants to go to Echo, but Echo shakes her head, to warn her off that its not OK to do that, and it shows even further development from last week’s “Shoulder to the Wheel” gesture that, while Echo may no longer be Caroline (who she was before the Dollhouse), she is still shaping into someone, something, far greater than just anyone in that place. She may not be self-aware, but she is aware.

Oh, and Ballard’s ok and recovering in the hospital.

Again, I am enjoying this show more and more. There are kinks, for sure, but as with any new show it’s not going to be perfect. The fun is that you can suppose a lot and delight when you’re right or even more so when its unexpected (like the Russian as Active). Next week looks even more awesome as somehow, in the middle of an Engagement, Echo gets remotely wiped. Now we’ll really see how she’s shaping as blank slate, and all the things you can’t really erase.

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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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