Recap: Ghost, Episode 1, Season 1

Joss Whedon did not intend Ghost to be the opener of Dollhouse. An unaired pilot is available for viewing on the DVD set. I watched both Ghost and the original pilot, in succession. What follows is my recap of Ghost. Stay tuned for a recap of the unaired pilot.

Ghost is the first episode of Dollhouse that aired, replacing the original pilot. It opens with De Witt and Caroline talking, discussing Caroline's decision to "volunteer" to be a Doll. We then see Echo in action, on a motorcycle, racing with a rather hot guy. They end up at a party, where they dance and laugh. She wanders away and meets Boyd, who tells her it's time for a treatment, and she accompanies him to a van, all the while raving about how she thinks she's met "the one". She meets Topher, and gets into the chair for her treatment. We see a montage of backward flowing memories, all the way back to the crib. A docile Echo sits up and asks "Did I fall asleep?" Topher responds "For a little while."

Echo meets with Dr. Saunders, and comments that she hurt her leg, but doesn't remember how. When asked if she's concerned that she doesn't remember, Echo replies "Should I be?" While waiting for a masseuse, Echo wanders back to Topher's office, where she sees a blonde woman in the chair. Echo expresses concern because the woman is seemingly in pain. Topher tells Echo it's because it's the woman's "first time". What appear to be acupuncture needles connected to a computer protrude from throughout the blonde's veins.

Cut to a scene of a Latino man talking to his daughter on the phone from his limo. As soon as he hangs up, kidnappers burst in and put the little girl in a body bag. We later see this man meeting with DeWitt. We find out he is a "frequent client", and "although they are not robots", she's sure one of their actives can successfully negotiate with the kidnappers. Echo is programmed to be a near-sighted, asthmatic, super-hostage negotiator. The client is surprised they sent a beautiful woman for the job, rather than a fatherly, Edward James Almos type. He laughs when "Miss Pitt" assures him she has been doing this her whole life. He probes her for details about her imprint, and Echo reveals her persona was kidnapped as a child, and not given back.

Echo assumes control of the negotiations, and is very convincing in her role. She sets up the trade, arranging to meet at a dock in order to exchange the money for the girl. All is going swimmingly until Echo comes face-to-face with the lead kidnapper and collapses on the dock. The kidnapper is the same one who kidnapped the person from whom Echo's imprint was made. "Stop them from getting on the boat," Echo gasps. But in the ensuing melee, the client is shot, and the bad guys get away with both the money and the kid.

Boyd extracts Echo, and they head back toward the Dollhouse. Her Miss Pitt persona is bothered by seeing the ghost from her past, and it makes her want to rush in and save the kid even more. She keeps trying to put the pieces together. As they arrive at the Dollhouse, Boyd rushes in to convince DeWitt that Echo can still save the day, but only if she is not wiped. DeWitt acquiesces. Echo knows where the kidnappers are, and heads out with Dominic in a helicopter to save the day. She faces her ghost and rescues the kid. Sierra, imprinted as some sort of commando, bursts in with machine guns blaring, and takes out the kidnappers. They recover both the loot and the child, the client recovers, and everybody is happy. Sierra and Echo are wiped, and head to the communal showers. The dolls then retire for the night in their pods.

A side plot introduces Ballard. He is shown being chewed out and laughed at by his superiors because of his "Dollhouse" assignment. He has hosed several other major investigations, including that of the Russian human smugglers, the Borodines, trying to prove this "thing" exists, making a fool of himself along the way. He has embarrassed a senator, and the only legal activity he was involved in was his divorce. While they are chewing him out, Ballard is thinking of a bout in a boxing ring. He is getting his butt kicked badly, and is apparently down. His bosses ask him if he can "back off" of this dollhouse investigation. Ballard’s daydream shifts to him getting angry and coming back to kick his opponent’s butt. "I can back off" he says to his superiors, as he visualizes himself knocking his opponent out.

Ballard is sitting in a bar. He eavesdrops as this guy named Lubov comes in, hearing Lubov mention the Borodines. Lubov is evidentially connected to these Borodines, a Russian mob involved with human smuggling. Ballard is convinced the Borodines are somehow linked to the Dollhouse. He later follows Lubov into the Men's room, and pulls a gun on Lubov while he is at the urinal. "Say dollhouse", Ballard says while holding the gun to Lubov's head. Ballard sees this Lubov guy as a key to getting the information he needs.

The episode ends with DeWitt saying how happy she was that this (the kidnapping) was contained, while looking at a file. "How are we going to contain this?" She exclaims, as she opens the folder to reveal it says "Alpha". Cut to someone watching a video of Caroline in college, while stuffing a picture of Caroline in an envelope and addressing it to Ballard.

I liked this episode. However, I found it really dark in comparison to the unaired pilot. Ghost seemed to focus more on the darker side of the Dollhouse, and did not nearly emphasize DeWitt’s altruistic goals for her actives nearly as well as did the original pilot.

My next post will recap the unaired pilot. Read the recaps and comment on which you think makes a better introduction to the series. If you haven’t seen the original pilot, I urge you to get a hold of the DVD set and watch it. If you’re lucky enough to live in the UK, I understand you’ll get a chance to see it on SyFy. Those of us in the US will have to get hold of the DVD set. In my opinion, it is well worth the ~$40 to see the original pilot and Epitaph One (which I will be recapping soon.)