EPISODE REVIEW: Dollhouse: “Meet Jane Doe” (Season 2, Episode 7)

Last week, as you’ll recall, a whole heapin’ hell of a lot of stuff went down because Fox is burning off episodes of this show two at a time in the Friday Night Death Slot, in the midst of the Christmas Doldrums when everyone is on the road or vacation or shopping like crazy or driving around looking at the lights, or doing whatever the hell it is that people do this time of year, rather than watching TV. (My wife, for instance, is in the Christmas play at church rather than watching TV. I, for instance, am watching my wife in the Christmas play at church, rather than watching TV. My inlaws are in town to watch me watching my wife in the Christmas play at church.) Bottom line: They killed the show with eight expensive episodes still in the can and they need to amortize their losses, however the show was bleeding ratings, so they’re burning it off at a time when no one’s paying attention to what they broadcast, so they figured it couldn’t do any harm.

So the bottom line is a bunch of stuff happened last week, but the pertinent bits are this: Echo met someone who knew - and hated - Caroline *and* Echo escaped from the DC Dollhouse while in her weird, not-entirely-convincing, not-entirely-defined half-doll state.

PLAY BY PLAY

Back in LA, Topher is talking about how Bennett “Went all Cylon” on him, and mentions that they’re trying to track Echo, but with no luck. He’s clearly still got a crush on Bennett, though he’s obviously scared of her, too. Boyd thinks Echo is probably hitchhiking, since there’s no record of her traveling by more conventional means. Meanwhile, we see Echo eating out of garbage cans in Texas. She shoplifts food from a grocery store to give to a starving illegal that the rednecks in the store refuse to help, then they get hassled by some local redneck cops. They capture the illegal girl, but Echo kicks ass and takes names, though really she doesn’t seem all that interested in the names, truth be told.

After the credits, it’s three months later, and Echo - cleaned up and not acting like a doll at all - is working as a nurse in a hospital in that same town in Texas. The normal girl who gives shots to inmates in the prison is out sick, so Echo gets the job. Once in the jail, the Illegal girl is sent to see her. She speaks no English, and has clearly been beaten. Knowing the guards speak no Spanish, she informs the girl (in Spanish) that she’s gonna’ help her escape, and tells her to take a pill just before lunch tomorrow. The girl agrees, and is hauled off.

Back in LA, the dollhouse has had a lot of changes in that three-month jumpcut. Remember how I wondered what consequences would come out of Adel’s actions? A lot, it seems. Firstly, Adel is no longer in charge of the LA house. Rather, she’s been busted to scheduling. The house is now in charge of Keith Carradine, whom we met last week. He’s sort of a wad: He’s given the house far, far more dolls than it’s ever had before - at least four times the old numbers - and he’s renting them out for risky and abusive clients, one of whom is an unrepentant sadist. He’s opening a new dollhouse in Dubai, and wants a whole bunch of the best dolls shipped out there for the gala opening. He’s got Topher working on R&D, and is allowing Topher to use our primary cast of dolls in long-term imprinting as doctors.

In Texas, Echo goes home to her ratty apartment, and is attacked by someone, who’s ass she quickly kicks. Turns out it’s Paul. Turns out he attacks her every night, it’s one of those Kato/Inspector Clouseau things. Eh. Anyway, Paul tracked Echo down, and has been living with her for three months, helping her gain control over her newfound ability to switch between *all* her personalities at will. They’re training to rescue the Illegal Immigrant girl as a precursor to re-infiltrating the dollhouse, figuring if they can’t get a girl out of prison, they certainly can’t hope to get a whole bunch of prisoners out of doll-slavery. It seems a bit belabored to me, as far as logic goes, but there it is.

Back in LA, Topher demonstrates his Instant Doll Deactivation Gun, and everyone is sore impressed. Boyd