photo: fox
Dollhouse
Vows
Original Air Date: Sept 25, 2009
Angelique – Associate Staff Writer
angelique@thetwocentscorp.com
Honestly I never expected that there would be a second season, I really believed that Dollhouse would be axed last year. But I was proven wrong when they where renewed and I was really happy to see this show get another chance. The thing is that Dollhouse now has to prove that they are worth the chance they received.
This episodes starts off a couple of months after the events in season 1. The Dollhouse has returned to their usual duties. Paul Ballard is working for the Dollhouse, just as he agreed on when he asked Adele to let November go. Boyd is not happy with the situation, but Adele convinces him that Paul is just doing his job after all Adele has her leverage on Paul with her sick plans. Boyd doesn’t seem convinced and I think that he will keep a close eye on Paul and Echo, since Paul seems so infatuated by her. Echo is back to working as an active and Topher claims that he has fixed her the damage Alpha did to her. He says that she won’t remember a thing except for the imprint that she has been imprinted with when she is on an assignment.
But Topher might be too busy fighting with Dr. Saunders who is having a hard time knowing that she used to be a doll and that ‘Dr. Saunders’ is just a more permanent imprint. She is struggling with her feelings towards the situation and she resolves her anger issues towards Topher by pulling pranks on him. She knows that he hates rodents and when he opens a cabinet in his office at least ten rats come pouring out.
Meanwhile Echo is send on a new assignment, which actually has ties to an open FBI case that Paul handled. Her mission is to get married with a British businessman who is in fact an arms dealer. Echo believes that she is working undercover for the FBI and that she is Paul’s partner. She gets married to the business man and everything goes as planned until her new husband receives a photo of Echo with Ballard. Besides that Echo is caught when she is trying to open the drawer in her husbands drawer. She talks herself out of the tight situation by telling him that she was trying to find out where their honeymoon will take them because she can’t stand secrets. That is when her husband pulls out the photo of her and Paul. He believes that his new wife is cheating on him. The hits to her head cause her to have flashbacks. But nevertheless Echo is able to talk herself out of the situation with her husband by telling him that someone wants to frame her. That Paul asked her for the time and that someone must have made a picture of her. That is until she says something triggers a memory. And she realizes that she has once again been imprinted with a different persona.
Her husband takes her with him to an airport where a private plane is waiting. Paul Ballard follows the car and calls Topher for help he checks some records made during the assignment. And he figures out that Echo spiked about two hours before. Paul knows that if Topher calls it she will be as good as death. He tells Topher that he has a plan, one that might get be much worse. Paul sees that she can’t figure out which persona she is supposed to be at this particular moment because all of them are trying to get out. Paul provokes her intentionally by hitting her and threatening her until she snaps.
Echo then decides to confess to Ballard that she remembers every person she has ever been and wants to find each of the people who gave her the imprints. She realizes that she is all of the imprints but that none of them is her. Ballard tells her that Caroline is the real her. He promises her that she can totally trust him and he becomes her handler to make sure she trusts him. And of course to keep her safe. She on her turn asks Paul if he will help her.
I like the show, I really do and I have been thinking of a way to tell this without sounding too negative but this episode disappointed me. I mean lets face the facts here, I am by no means saying that it was a bad episode but this was a show which was on the brink of getting canceled and if that is the case in my humble opinion you make sure that the next episode rocks. That should get the people who doubted the show to cross the line. But that didn’t happen, this was an average episode there was nothing special about it. It was one of those episodes that would fit right in at the middle of the season, but not as a premiere episode.
But that is just my opinion, maybe you share it maybe you don’t, let me know?
TheTwoCents 