Dollhouse

I really don’t know where to start. I just finished watching the episode and I’m still trying to process what I just saw. The episode was confusing, but I think that might have been the intent. If you want something to make your brain spin, you should definitely get the DVD and watch this.

The year is 2019 and we see an armed team making their way across a broken Los Angeles. Along with them are a man and his young daughter. The whole place is totally messed up, i.e., destroyed buildings, fires and what appears to be people running all over the place. The scene goes very fast, so it’s kind of hard to figure out what is going on. I’ll try to boil down the premise from the entire episode. There are "butchers" in the city and I’m guessing the whole world that are attracted to "tech" and basically go berserk and kill people. There are "actuals" which are people that haven’t been "printed." It’s a classic doomsday scenario.

The team makes it’s way down a shaft to our favorite dollhouse which is completely deserted though still function for the most part. They find the chair and it is different than the one used on the surface whatever that means (it doesn’t make people go crazy?). They decide to stick the old guy Mr. Miller into the chair. Thus begins a series of flashbacks in separate intervals. I’m not entirely sure whether they were played in chronological order though I’m pretty sure they were.

The first flashback shows the beginning of the dollhouse with Adelle introducing the concept to a new client. The next shows Topher first arriving at the dollhouse. According to DeWitt, the previous record for imprinting was a whopping 2 hours. Topher says he can do it in 5 minutes. We also see Mr. Dominic already being pissed at the genius.

One of the women, Lynn takes the little girl to the bathroom and sees a shower with hot water. She begins taking a shower but then is bludgeoned by a flashlight. We go back to our gunmen and they continue loading Mr. Miller with memories. This time, we see Echo being imprinted with a Russian girl, and Ballard as her handler. They go into the elevator where Caroline is actually still there, but she can also speak Russian. I thought that was awesome and I really hope the show goes in this direction in later seasons. Echo/Caroline is also having headaches which I’m guessing is a byproduct of the imprinting not fully working.

After the girl alerts the team, the go totally paranoid and sweep the dollhouse. It cuts to another memory and it is of Boyd and Dr. Saunders. Boyd is injured but is attempting to escape the dollhouse. They hug and Saunders says she wishes they had more time. Did shippers every see this one?

The team engrave the girl’s name into her back. The engravings are called birthmarks and are used to distinguish actuals with imprints. Dr. Saunders is in the middle of the dollhouse and they see her. After confronting her, she reveals her name to be Whiskey and that she has always been there. She claims to know the way to "safe haven," and points to the cabinet of memories. They ask her where food is and she tells them the kitchen.

The next flashback is the most confusing and after watching it again, I’m still not clear on what happened. We see Victor eating in what I assume is the kitchen. Topher and DeWitt are there and we learn Victor is Mr. Ambrose, the fat guy that owns Rostrum. Apparently he had arrived on a hard drive and the company is now providing "upgrades." They are now providing clients the choice to change bodies, as Adelle puts it, "giving away our actives." She surprisingly is quite opposed to it even though the price is a 9 figure sum.

It was kind of expected the little girl was disturbed, but then see actually shoots one of the guys, and puts the gun in Mr. Miller’s hand. Everyone shows up and Whiskey injects a memory into herself to help find safe haven. We see Mr. Dominic in a new body confronting Adelle. I assume at this point, the world has gone to hell, and he is yelling about everything wrong. She reveals that Caroline has the cure.

They shoot Mr. Miller and load up Whiskey again. Now Victor and Sierra both seem to have their original minds. Victor reveals a stash of original imprints in case something happens to them. Whiskey finds the tapes as the final guy teaches the girl how to shoot a gun. She takes the gun and tries to shoot him, but it isn’t loaded. He grabs her and shoves her into the chair showing another memory.

Everyone is praying as Adelle looks on. Dr. Saunders requests her, so she can sedate Topher. He is in a little hole surrounded by books ranting about how he could have sent a robocall to a city instructing them to kill anyone else that didn’t pick up the call. The conservation is quite long, but I found it the most disturbing flashback. Eventually, DeWitt acts as his surrogate mother as descends into oblivion. At the same time, someone is trying to break in through an oddly, well constructed wall. Caroline and Ballard come through the hole with information to get to a compound which later becomes safe haven.

They finally find the Caroline imprint and put it into the girl. We learn why Whiskey is still there and all messed up. The butchers come through the ceiling and the team tries to escape. They climb up an elevator shaft while Whiskey stays behind releasing a poisonous gas to kill the butchers and herself, saving the rest of them. Everyone continues climbing up out of the dollhouse and the episode ends.

I hope you understand what happened from my synopsis. Large doses of Felicia Day and Amy Acker made the episode really cool. This episode makes me really excited for the rest of the series even though the science behind it seems cheesier than ever. I can understand why Fox never aired it (thought they probably should have). I doubt the casual viewer would get the episode or continue watching it, but for the avid viewer, I think it was great.

Score: 9.5/10