Summary and spoilers
Echo is still loose and free, wandering about, attempting to eat apples from a dumpster in Texas. She needs money to buy food but doesn’t know how to get any. When she steals some food to help a starving Hispanic woman, a cop tries to arrest her. He gets a beating for his trouble. The Hispanic woman is arrested.
DeWitt keeps asking Boyd to find Ballard and Echo, but this exchange always seems to be taking place in DeWitt’s office. I think Boyd needs to look outside the Dollhouse, maybe get out into the world and start exploring America state by state.
Flash-forward three months later, and Echo is working as a nurse in a hospital, using knowledge gained from the many personalities she has housed. She has infiltrated the prison as part of her job, and is now treating Galena, the Hispanic woman who was jailed for stealing food. Galena is getting beaten in prison, and Echo plans to find out who is doing it.
Surprisingly, Echo is living with Ballard. Their idea of fun is to have Ballard hide and try to attack Echo. It’s all part of a training plan to re-enter the Dollhouse (and, I assume, liberate the dolls). Ballard is all business, but Echo is attracted to him, and isn’t afraid to tell him about it – and to make her move. The circle of intrigue is completed by the inside man – Boyd – who is also in on the plan. Of course, now Boyd’s nesting at the Dollhouse makes more sense: an inside man has to stay inside. The entire plan could crash if it not done expediently, as Echo’s headaches are increasing; she is deteriorating.
DeWitt, meanwhile, has been demoted to a more basic role of ‘doll pimp’. She is no longer in control of her house and can no longer protect the Dolls.
Echo has an impressive plan to break Galena out of the hospital. She injects her with an agent to slow her heartbeat dramatically, then blames the guards beatings for her death. Echo agrees to ‘dispose’ of the body at the hospital. The plan goes awry when it takes too long to get out and Galena resurrects. Echo then has to call on all of her embedded knowledge to beat up guards and pick a lock with the underwire from her bra. Ballard shows up to ensure that the women get away cleanly.
Topher has created a device that can remotely treat an active from with 50 yards. In his spare time, he has figured out Rossum’s bigger plan: to create a technology that can remotely program anyone – even if they do not have the Doll architecture. (You may recall that we had a glimpse of this future in Epitaph One). Topher has figured out how to do it. He shows the plans to DeWitt. She makes him promise never to show the plans to anyone. Then she steals them and gives them to Harding. She does it to get her house back – and it works.
Comments
Olivia Williams (Adele DeWitt) is strikingly effective in this episode. I love the way she played the role of the demoted one – and the way she immediately snapped back into ‘power bitch’ mode when the opportunity presented itself. It was a nice touch that while she was demoted, her posture drooped, her shoulders sagged, and she wore a pale shade of lipstick – but when she was back in control, she strutted like a Queen, and her signature lip gloss was back in place.
Ballard and Echo are back in the Dollhouse, and there is about to be a battle for control between DeWitt and Echo. It starts immediately, with DeWitt denying Echo her necessary treatment, and instead putting her in isolation to see how much more she can take.
Memorable Moments
After Echo propositions Ballard, in the next scene, Ballard removes his shirt and walks up to her – and they start fight training!
Dollhouse Quotes
Ballard: The Dollhouse made you fall in love over and over – you told me that.
Echo: They also made me aggressively sexual, and phenomenally creative in bed.
Ballard: Now that’s just cruel.
Harding: Well…this is a great occasion. Shall we celebrate?
DeWitt: There’s no smoking in my office.
Topher: You are the coldest bitch on this planet.
DeWitt: [slaps Topher] That is the last time you will ever speak to me like that – or at all until you are spoken to.
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