Recap & Review: Dollhouse, Season 2 Episode 2: Instinct

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RECAP:

The episode opens with Ballard sneaking around the treatment room. He’s just kind of wandering, looking at the chair and the controls. As he sits in the chair, Topher enters. He sees Paul sitting in the chair, and asks him if HE wants a treatment. Ballard says he’s just tired, and he can’t sleep. Topher comments that the life of a handler is exhausting and best left to others (i.e. not Topher.) He also tells Paul to “leave the tech to the grownups.”

Yes, the egotistic Topher is back. They begin talking about Echo’s latest assignment, and Topher is amazed at what he was able to accomplish this time. He says he’s figured out how to make the brain change the body at a glandular level. He tells Ballard to imagine the possibilities. He could program the brain to fight cancer, to not have a gag reflex when eating sea urchin—anything is possible now. He doesn’t want to label himself a genius, but Paul is free to do so. Paul asks Topher if he could change him too, but Topher reminds him that he can only program a wiped brain. He uses a classic line to explain things to Paul:

“The mind is like Van Halen. If you just pull out one piece and keep replacing it, it just degrades.”

Paul comments that he doesn’t get it. Topher doesn’t expect him to. He’s back to being the “I’m better and smarter than you” Topher.

The scene shifts to Echo, waking up next to her latest “client”. She quietly gets up and sneaks down the hall, being careful not to wake her man. We see her open the door to another room. It’s a nursery, and Echo reaches into a crib and picks up a baby. Apparently, the glandular-level changes involve lactation, as Echo begins to breast feed the baby while singing him a lullaby. The credits roll.

We return to Echo in bed again, this time alone. She is awakened by the sounds of a crying baby. She retrieves the baby, and takes him down to the kitchen, calling for Nate (the client) all the while. He comes out of his office and locks the door behind him. He seems indifferent to both Echo and the baby. Echo asks him to hold the baby while she makes coffee, but he just hems and haws. He reminds Echo that he doesn’t do that. She hands off the baby anyway, and Nate holds him at arms length. Echo asks Nate if he will be home for dinner, and he replies in the negative. He tells her not to wait up as he leaves. Echo watches him through the window and notices a black van in the drive.

Flash to Echo and the baby walking in the park with a girlfriend, who just so happens to be “played” by Sierra. They begin discussing Nate and his apparent lack of interest in the baby. Sierra (Kelly) reminds Echo (Emily) that Nate has always been a workaholic. Echo responds that it’s more than that. She says when she hands Nate the baby, it’s like she’s handing him a live grenade. She tells Sierra how much she loves that baby, but she says she doesn’t think Nate even likes him. She wonders why Nate was in such a hurry to have a child. She tells Sierra that she thinks maybe Nate’s doing something illegal and that they’re being watched. She tells Sierra that there’s a black van parked outside every day. Sierra tries to reassure Echo, and tells her that she just needs a good night’s sleep. She tells Echo to make Nate take Jack for a while so that Echo can rest up.

Echo returns home and decides to rifle Nate’s office, trying to find evidence of what is distracting his attention from his wife and baby. Flash to Nate returning home to a dark house. He calls for Emily. She confronts him with some pictures she found in his office of him and another woman, (obviously, the baby’s real mother.) She recognizes one scene as the place Nate took HER for their honeymoon. She asks him if he’s having an affair, and demands to know who the other woman is. Nate confesses the pictures are of someone he knew and loved before he met Emily. He says the woman died, it was very painful, and in some ways, he’ll never be over it. He apologizes for not telling Emily, and admits it was a mistake. Echo apologizes for rifling his office, rather than talking to Nate about her suspicions.

Flash to Echo in bed, waking up. It’s still dark. As she walks down the hall, she hears Nate on the phone with some unknown party (the Dollhouse). She overhears him saying that they promised something they could not deliver, and it’s just not working. He says he’s calling it off, and that they need to get “rid of her.” A look of panic crosses Echo’s face as she hears Nate say he’ll “get rid of the baby.” Cut to commercial.

As the show returns, we see a caption telling us we’re at Senator Perrin’s house in Alexandria, Virginia. He’s talking to Cindy, asking her if she thinks the Press Conference was a mistake. He says they have anecdotal evidence proving Rossum Corp is involved in performing illegal experiments. They have a file full of financial data, and Cindy comments that they could prove some sort of money laundering. Perrin replies he’s not interested in proving that. As a doorbell rings, he comments that Rossum crossed a line. He posits that they must be leaning on folks to keep them quiet. Cindy returns from answering the door. She says there was no one there, only a file.

Flash to Adele, visiting Madeline/November. Madeline tells Adele she is now happily living the life of the idle rich. She says she feels like she should travel or something, but somehow, she just wants to stay close to home. She says she can’t get over the irrational fear that if she says the wrong thing, men in a black van will appear and take her away. Adele reminds November that her obligation to the Dollhouse is over. She’s only there because November has not returned to the Dollhouse for her diagnostic, and that she must do so, and very soon. November accuses Adele of being afraid of November outing the Dollhouse. She asks Adele why she was let out of her contract early. Adele says she can’t discuss that and reiterates that November must come back for a checkup.

Back to Echo/Emily, Jack, and Nate. They’re at home, and Echo is obviously flustered. She tells Nate she’s taking the baby for a walk, and that they’ll be right back. Nate notes she’s holding her car keys. Echo says they’re going to the park. Nate tells her he took her car to the shop, and that the car seat is there. She can’t drive anywhere today. He wants to cook her and the baby breakfast. Echo says she’s not hungry. She asks why Nate is not at work. Nate tells Echo he’ll take the baby for a while, and that she should take a nap. Echo is suspicious. She says she needs to feed the baby and takes him upstairs. There, she calls Kelly and tells her she needs her to come pick them up. She says she thinks Nate is trying to kill them. Echo watches out the window for Kelly to arrive. She sees Kelly’s car pull up, only to be intercepted by the men in the black van. She panics as she sees the men lead Kelly into the van. She takes the baby and hides as Ballard comes through the front door. Ballard tells Nate to let Echo see him first so that things don’t get out of hand, as Echo’s acting paranoid, and she has the baby with her. Ballard knocks on the nursery door, asking Emily if she wants a treatment. He opens the door to find a tape in the crib, playing sounds of Emily comforting the baby. He sees a rope ladder hanging out the window. Echo took the baby and ran, leaving the tape as a fake out. Cut to commercial.

We return to Adele meeting with Nate. Nate is angry because their active took his baby and ran off.

“Your zombie took my Jack, and you’re sitting there, drinking tea?” Nate accuses.

Adele reminds Nate that it’s Echo’s baby in Echo’s mind. She says Echo feels as if she carried that baby for nine months, delivered him, and nursed him. Jack is Echo’s baby at a cellular level. She reminds Nate that the Dollhouse gave him exactly what he asked for—someone to bond with the baby because Nate could not. Echo did just that—bonded with the baby. She tells Nate that babies need love so that they grow up feeling loved and don’t turn out to be sociopaths. Nate asks what happens when a baby is kidnapped by a sociopath. He thinks this whole plan was a mistake. Adele reminds him that his next plan was to put the baby up for adoption. He tells her to “just find him.” Adele reminds him that they know exactly where Echo and the baby are, and they’re retrieving him as they speak.

Cut to Echo, walking with the baby down a street. She glimpses a black van and panics, turning to walk the other way. She comes upon a couple of cops and asks them to help her. She tells the officers that she’s being followed, and that someone is trying to take her baby. She tells them her husband is trying to kill her. They tell her to come with them, and that she’s safe now. They take her to the police station where she tells her story to an investigator, admitting that she knows she sounds crazy. The investigator tells her she did the right thing by coming to the police. She asks what will happen next. The investigator tells her they’ll bring Nate in for questioning and get her a restraining order. She looks up and sees Nate, entering the station with Ballard. They are talking to the Captain. The investigator tells Echo to stay put while she sees what is going down. Echo follows and confronts Nate. Nate is telling the captain that that’s his baby, but that’s NOT his wife. The investigator tells Echo the other man (Ballard) is with the FBI and wants to talk to her. Echo tells them to stay away from her. Nate grabs the baby, and Ballard grabs Echo. She fights Ballard as he drags her away, all the while screaming for her baby. Cut to commercial.

We come back to November, back at the Dollhouse for her diagnostic, and back in that familiar treatment chair. Topher is having her repeat sequences of words and numbers. He asks her how she’s feeling—any headaches, dizziness, nightmares, déjà vu? November answers no. November says “I’m not broken?” Topher gives her a clean bill of health—no glitching, no memory remnants. He comments that they should put her in a recruiting DVD. He also asks her if she wants any additional enhancements, like ventriloquism. November declines.

Just then, Ballard drags Echo in, kicking and screaming, demanding that they give her her baby back. They throw her in the chair as she screams for help. She tries to run, but security catches her and knocks her out. Topher is not happy. He reminds them that he cannot wipe Echo while she’s unconscious. Security drags her back to the treatment room.

November is on her way out, and she meets Ballard in the hallway. He asks November what she’s doing there, and she replies that she just came in for a diagnostic, and that “it was intense.” Paul notices that she’s bleeding. November comments she remembers Paul. He was there when she was signing the paperwork.

Paul takes her to see a male doctor. (I guess Claire has already been replaced? Or they have an alternate?) He assures November that no one took anyone’s baby—Echo is an active just like she used to be. November responds that it was real for Echo. She asks if she was ever like that. Paul says he’s new and wouldn’t know. November assures Paul that Echo will be okay. She’ll forget everything—no more pain or grief. November shares that she had a daughter. Her daughter had a cold, only it wasn’t a cold. It was cancer. Within 6 months, her daughter was dead, and her world fell apart. She was completely alone and non-functional, and then, she met Adele. Adele told her she didn’t have to suffer. She could go to sleep for 5 years and wake up without pain. Paul asks her if she’s happy now. November replies “I’m not sad.”

Cut to Echo in the chair. She’s begging Topher to help her. He says he will, and he gives her a treatment. We see the montage of backwards memories. Topher wipes Echo, or so he thinks. As he parrots the familiar script to Echo, she cold cocks him, saying “shall I go now?” Cut to commercial.

We come back to Senator Perrin and Cindy, looking at some records, ostensibly what was in the file they received in the earlier scene. They contain wiretap transcripts. Perrin says they document more than mere medical malfeasance and ethics violations—they seem to document prostitution and human trafficking, maybe even murder. He says he read about it when Mom was sick. Perrin says something about Rossum having had the means to help his mom, but they refused. (It’s obviously personal for Perrin.) Cindy wants to unify all of the data and find proof that will bring Rossum down. Perrin says they have something better than proof. They have a name.

Cut to Echo in a car. She seems baffled. She can’t remember how to get it to start. “Go, please,” she says. She finally turns the key and gets behind the wheel.

Cut to Adele yelling at Topher. Topher is nursing a bloody nose, insisting that he wiped Echo. “I remember wiping her, and then my face exploded.” Paul says GPS has her going back for the baby. Topher reiterates to Adele that he wiped Echo. Adele asks if it’s another composite event, and Paul replies that he thinks they’re looking at a genius. They changed her at a glandular level, so that the body was too strong for the mind. Topher acknowledges that maybe the maternal instinct is too strong for a normal wipe. “I outplayed myself,” he brags, “like in chess.” Ballard admonished Topher that he didn’t think it through. Topher acquiesces that maybe lactation was “a bridge too far.” Adele sends Ballard after Echo.

Flash to Nate and the baby. He’s caring for Jack, and they finally seem to be bonding. He puts Jack in bed and goes down to fix a bottle. He’s mixing formula when lightning flashes, and he thinks he sees something outside. The phone rings, and he drops the bottle. It’s Adele. She tells him it’s imperative that he take the baby and leave the house IMMEDIATELY. She tells him Echo is on her way back, and that they’ve dispatched a team to intercept her. But they must get out. The phone goes dead. Nate races to the nursery, only to find an empty crib. He races around the house, looking for the baby. He enters the living room and encounters Echo—baby in one hand, huge knife in the other. “Mommy’s home,” she says as we cut to commercial.

Echo confronts Nate about taking away her baby. He apologizes and tries to placate her. She says she loves her baby and doesn’t want to give him back. It’s HER baby. Babies need their mothers. He tells her she’s not his mother. He says he knows she loves him, but he doesn’t belong to her. When he says he’s afraid she’s going to hurt the baby, she lunges at him with the knife. He asks her if she remembers that they turned her into somebody else. He tells her she’s not real, that he had her programmed to love Jack. When his wife Karen died in childbirth, he couldn’t handle it. He blamed the baby. He needed a surrogate until he was ready to care for Jack himself. He apologizes for putting Echo through hell. Echo asks if she can be his Mommy, and Nate says no. Karen is a part of Jack—Echo is not. Jack is all Nate has left of Karen. He begs Echo not to hurt the baby. Echo is confused. She reluctantly hands the baby back to Nate and drops the knife. Ballard arrives just then, and she leaves with him.

Flash to a park. Echo is sitting in the darkness. Paul asks her if she is okay. Echo says: “I had a baby. I don’t have him anymore. I feel sad. Paul says he’s sorry. Echo says: “All of these things that happen to me, I feel them.” Paul tells her he knows that she remembers everything. She corrects him: “Not remember…feel.”

Echo continues: “I was married. I felt love and pain and fear. It’s not pretend for me. They made me love my little boy, and they took him away. They make it so real. Every time, they make it so real. Why do they do that?”

Paul tells Echo he knows she wants to help him bring down the Dollhouse, but he can do it on his own. He’ll save them all, with or without her help. He assures her “I can tell Topher what is going on with you, and he can fix it. You won’t have to feel sad any more.”

Echo replies: “Feeling nothing would be worse. That would be like before…asleep. I’m awake now. I don’t want to go back to sleep.” The credits roll.

ANALYSIS:

I liked this episode, although it was much more plot-driven than last week’s. The focus was back to Echo, as an active on assignment. Topher was back to being the holier-than-thou genius. Boyd, Victor, Ivy and Dr. Saunders were noticeably absent. (We did learn there is another doctor on staff--whether or not he’s an active too is yet to be seen.) But despite the plot-focused nature, we did get to learn more about several things relevant to the big picture.

First, this episode featured the return of Madeline/November. We got to see the perspective of life after the Dollhouse from a former active. November really felt as if the Dollhouse had saved her life. Being an active erased her pain and suffering. She awoke several years later, and she was no longer sad. Her experience allowed her to move on with her life, to become a part of the “idle rich”. November seemed to be at peace, grateful for what the Dollhouse had done. And her chance meeting with Ballard helped him to develop as well. Despite the fact they met while another active was freaking out, November seemed to be curious, rather than disturbed by the scene. She could tell Paul cared about Echo, and reassured him that Echo would be fine, and probably better off, having experienced life as a doll. Paul seemed to take their conversation to heart. I think for the first time, he realized the Dollhouse was not black and white, but rather, had many shades of grey. It was as if he had an epiphany—not everyone is being held there against his or her will. Not every active was being used for nefarious purposes. To some, the Dollhouse was salvation, something that allowed one to interrupt the dysfunction for a while, and then return to the living as a healed, capable being.

This was more apparent later in his interactions with Echo. Paul was beginning to see the dolls as people, rather than just empty shells. He began to realize how real each assignment was for the active, that they really became the people they were programmed to be, and they weren’t just pretending. Before, he kind of viewed the wiped dolls as nothing but empty shells. He acknowledged how the Dollhouse took folks’ personalities, but never really realized the depth that existed in the personalities they assumed. Somehow, Paul has managed to find the person within each of the dolls.

This episode also further developed the concept of Echo as the uber-doll. Echo is continuing to evolve as Echo, leaving the remnants of Caroline behind. Whether it’s what is within herself or the effects of what Alpha did, Echo no longer seems to be able to be completely wiped. Yet it’s not so much the memories that she’s retaining, but rather, the feelings. At first, Echo was asleep during and after each of her assignments. Now, she feels awake, even in her doll state. She is becoming an amalgamation of everything she’s ever felt, rather than everyone she’s ever been. Her savior complex seems to exist at the cellular level, and despite Topher’s best efforts, they cannot wipe THAT away. Whether she’s Caroline, an empty doll, or a programmed active, Echo seems to exist to be good and to do good. Whatever her circumstances, she’s determined to do her best. She is caring and selfless in all situations, and they cannot wipe away her instinct to do what is right. I’m not so sure Caroline was ever as selfless as Echo is.

As Echo is growing more assured, Ballard seems to be getting more confused. As he becomes more and more integrated into the Dollhouse, he is realizing it’s not what he had painted it to be. It’s not all bad. Maybe the Dollhouse is a haven for the actives, rather than a prison. Maybe he needs to save the dolls by looking after their best interests as they fulfill their contracts, rather than just focusing on outing the scheme to the world. Maybe he needs to realize that people’s lives are at stake, and taking care of them while they are inside is just as important as trying to free them. Maybe that empty state can help save a life, rather than just destroying one.

I found the scenes with the senator to be kind of extraneous, not really fitting into the flow of the episode. They were thrown in merely to advance the plot, and to introduce the personal grudge the Senator has against Rossum Corp. We learn he had some prior knowledge or association, and that he hates Rossum because they refused to save his mommy. It was almost inferred that he was fine with what they were doing until they wouldn’t do it for HIS benefit. It seems as if his campaign strategy is really revenge, and Perrin still has a lot of mommy issues he needs to resolve. As literature has shown us, time and again, revenge in the guise of saving the world usually fails. I have a feeling that going up against Rossum will prove to be the senator’s downfall. I wonder what “name” he’ll drag down with him.

I think we’re supposed to think that Paul is the mole that delivered the file on the Dollhouse. But if so, I’m pretty sure that’s a red herring. My money is on Alpha or Boyd, who was noticeably absent in this episode, and who is not off filming some other show. As the other characters develop, Boyd remains an enigma. He’s almost doll-like in maintaining his poker face at all times. I’m still thinking that Boyd is going to be the wild card thrown into this mix.

Finally, we learned that Adele is a woman of her word. Once you’ve completed the obligations of your contract, you’re free to resume a normal life. No one is watching November/Madeline. She did her time, and emerged all the better for doing so. But Adele is still interested in the scientific aspects of her lab rats. She insisted Madeline return, not just to see if she was physically and emotionally okay, but also to study the physiological effects of a doll returning to her former state. Did the programming leave any lingering effects? Adele seemed pleased that Madeline was able to resume a normal life, with no ill effects. She truly cares about her subjects, just as much as she believes in her overall mission in leading the dollhouse. Adele is the maternal figure for everyone in the house, admonishing her children when they misbehave and celebrating when they have success. She remains protective of her subjects, even after they leave her employ. After all, they have become her family as well as her subjects.

I am hoping we continue to see these glimpses of character even in these plot-driven episodes. We’re seeing how Echo is evolving. Now, I hope we see similar evolution in Victor and Sierra. I can’t wait for Saunders to return, and I wonder how creepy she’ll be the next time we see her. Will Ballard’s protective feelings extend to the other dolls, or are they reserved for Echo? How will they bring down the senator? And when will Alpha reemerge? What will happen to Topher’s ego when he realizes Echo is unpredictable, unable to be thoroughly erased? When will Topher begin to see the dolls as more than lab rats (the only type of lab rats that don’t scare the pants right off of him)? How will Echo’s maternal experience effect her next assignment?

The scenes from next week indicate Victor will be back, programmed to be a serial killer. I cannot imagine why they would do this, unless it was somehow related to efforts to curtail the senator. What part will Echo play, and how will this effect her overall evolution? I guess we’ll just have to wait until next week to see how events unfold. I hope you’ll come back here for my thoughts on the episode. And please, add your thoughts to mine in the comments section below. I look forward to watching this season of Dollhouse with you all and hearing what you all think.