Dollhouse - Man on the Street 03/20/2009

Last night's 'Dollhouse' episode was good! I am so glad it was good. I kept hearing "Wait for episode 6. Hang on for episode 6."

Episode 6, "Man on the Street" starts with a tv entertainment show doing "man on the street" interviews of local Angelinos, asking them if the believe the Dollhouse exists. We get funny bits of interviews interspersed in the episode.

I enjoyed that the show was less "Doll of the Week" (or as I like to call it "Monster of the Week," hearkening back to the "Buffy"/"Angel" days) and more about the main characters and the house itself. There was the sad bit about the rich Internet mogul who hires a doll once a year on the anniversary of his wife's death. This bit led Agent Ballard to finally see Catherine in person.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Sierra's freaking out and Victor's getting blamed. Langton figures out that it is really Sierra's handler, Hern, taking sexual advantage of her. Scumbag creepy Hern.

We see Ballard getting closer to his neighbor Millie. Like, really close. Yay! When he leaves for Chinese take-out, Hern, as a last chance from the House to not get killed for raping Sierra, is sent to dispose of Millie, whose apartment has been tapped and knows too much from Agent Ballard about the Dollhouse.

So I'm thinking, "No Joss! Don't do it! Do NOT kill off a happy couple! It's your modis operandi and it's getting OLD, Joss!"

Well, yea. He got me good.

Echo's at the Chinese take out place and gets into an all-out knock-down drag out with Agent Ballard. Fantastic fight choreography. Echo gets the gun, points it at Ballard....and then a second imprint kicks in! An imprint that tells Ballard he has a friend on the "inside" of the House who stuck in this imprint to tell him, yes there is a house, and to continue looking into it. Ballard is then framed by Echo for shooting a cop. Echo tells Ballard that he has to look like he's out of the game to the Dollhouse (he gets suspended pending the investigation on the shooting of the cop) but to not give up. The inside person wants Ballard to figure out the deeper reason for the house. Inside person does not know themselves.

When Topher was getting the imprint for Echo ready, he is interrupted by Langton and they take the conversation outside. During this time, someone adds the second imprint. Was Langton in on it? Who was it? Was it Dr. Saunders? Does she even have the technical knowledge to do that? Or was it Topher's cute lab assistant chick? Why would it be her then?

So many questions.

Echo tells Ballard that the house WILL stop any information that had been leaked. Meaning Millie. Ballard races home, calling the apartment on his cell. In his apartment, Hern is beating the heck out of Millie. The phone rings. The machine picks up and it is Ms. Williams, giving some kind of code that flips a switch in Millie.

She's a sleeper agent. WHAT? He got me. I totally thought Joss was killing off a happy couple. But she's a doll? Who isn't? Lord. But it was a good plot twist. It was a great show, FINALLY.

Favorite Quotes:

Points to bed and screeches: "Porn!"

"Moral Spankitude"

To Agent Ballard, "They'll throw the Kindle at you!" (I'd prefer a book, thank you, but the pop culture reference was not lost on me. )