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| Saturday, October 3, 2009 03:05 PM |
| On the Viewer - Dollhouse (Season 2, Episode 2 - "Instinct") |
 by Fëanor |
So in the first episode of season 2, they have Echo get married, and now in the second episode they're giving her a baby. Huh.
Why did Ballard turn the treatment chair on and then sit down in it?? That seems like a pretty unhealthy thing to want to do.
Topher's excited that he was able to make a change in the brain that caused physical changes in the body. He's talking about programming people to be able to fight cancer or have telekinesis. Woah.
Topher: "The human mind is like Van Halen - if you pull out one piece and keep replacing it, it just degenerates." LOL.
Hmm. Nate seems really uncomfortable with Echo being around, but also really uncomfortable with the baby. What's the deal here? If he just wanted a nanny, going to the Dollhouse to get one seems a little extreme.
Ah, they've got Sierra playing the role of Echo's best friend.
Echo: "I'm so lucky to have you in my life, Kelly. I'd go completely crazy without you."
Sierra: "That's what I'm here for."
Indeed, that is literally exactly what she's there for!
Ah, I see. Nate's wife died and he replaced her with Echo because he couldn't get over it. So Echo is the woman she thinks Nate's having an affair with! That's just weird.
Nate decides this isn't working and is going to call it off. But he's also going to get rid of the baby?? The hell? Unfortunately, Echo overhears this and takes it the wrong way. I suspect she's now going to go AWOL.
I thought for a second there, when Perrin's wife Cindy went to the door and then disappeared, that she'd been killed by an agent of Rossum's as a warning to Perrin to keep his nose out. Oh Whedon, you and your trickery.
DeWitt goes to see "Mellie" to take her in for a "diagnostic." Is she going to turn November back into an active against her will? Is she going to use her as a bargaining chip with Ballard? Hmm.
Apparently Topher did too good a job making Echo into a mother. Her protective instinct is so strong, she's taken off with the baby!
Nate couldn't bond with his son Jack, and decided the kid needed more than a nanny: he needed a mother. So he ordered one! Apparently when he said he was going to "get rid of the baby," he meant he was going to put Jack up for adoption.
In an ironic reversal, Echo says about Nate: "It's like the person I knew isn't there anymore. He's been replaced by a stranger."
It's a truly brutal scene as they take Jack away from Echo.
Oh boy. The whole thing about them stealing Echo's baby is not going to go down well with Madeleine, given her history.
They've already got a new doctor, and there's been no mention of the disappearance of Whiskey. Hmm.
Madeleine explains about the death of her baby, and how the Dollhouse helped her deal with it. Guess she's okay with all this after all!
Right in the middle of Echo's normal waking-up-from-a-wipe ritual, she just punches Topher in the face and knocks him out. Yeah, I had a feeling we hadn't seen the end of this, and that that wipe wasn't going to work very well.
Perrin knows what Rossum is really doing now, thanks to some files dropped off by his mysterious benefactor. Included in the files is a name for him to investigate - but whose??
Apparently a great deal of Echo's memory has been successfully wiped. It takes her a while to figure out how to start a car!
The glandular changes Topher made to Echo were too deep and too strong. She doesn't remember anything except that she has to have her child back.
Okay, the flashing lightning and the slasher movie camera effects and visual cues are a bit over-the-top.
Nate finally explains it all to Echo. It's actually a very touching scene. The conversation afterwards, between Echo and Ballard, isn't as well done. The dialog is a bit cheesy, and lacking in subtlety.
This episode was an interesting concept, and it was well executed in a lot of ways, but I can't say it's one of my favorites. |
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