Dollhouse – Briar Rose
I know this episode was supposed to be big and exciting and special. But honestly, I thought it was only so-so. It sort of embodies many of the things that initially made me skeptical about the show, and some of the worries I’ve had even after I decided that they knew what they were doing.
Namely, it was a bunch of stuff happening that didn’t make sense and had no rhyme or reason that the audience could determine. Why does Alpha want into the Dollhouse? Who is he? Why is the Dollhouse security so mediocre that they don’t notice Ballard tailing them? Or that he was wandering around for an extended period of time inside the Dollhouse? You have access to the finest technology in the world and you can’t get a working security system? Why did Alpha kill that guy and take him to Tucson? How exactly was he supposed to know that Ballard was coming to find him at that exact moment? What did Ballard contribute to the whole operation anyway – was he just a distraction? Because frankly Alpha is pretty impressive and I have a feeling would be able to have gotten ahold of Echo previously if he had wanted.
In addition to the ‘what is the motivation for these actions’ questions, there was another issue that I just can’t get over. WTF was the point of the endless fight scene interspersed with random dialogue? In what world does it make sense for Boyd to keep yammering at this guy? At every point up til now he’s demonstrated a no-nonsense attitude. Now, in the middle of a bunch of dolls he’s going to start yammering with an intruder?
I guess I can imagine that there’s some grand plan they have going on with Ballard. But at the point that he’s broken in, presumably it’s time to use the element of surprise to knock him out or incapacitate him.
It’s actually a problem I always had with Buffy. It never made sense to have these loooong fight scenes when they made it abundantly clear that kicking a vampire never did any damage. You have a stake. Use it. But for that show it was a lot easier to just ignore that particular silliness because they clearly weren’t ever that interested in creating a perfect sense of versimilitude. If we can accept people getting killed by vampires all the time and no one ever noticing, we can accept that people banter while they fight. It’s panache, not a plot hole.
Dollhouse, though, despite its fantastical elements, clearly wants to generate a sense of realism. Which was totally shattered by this episode, when I spent most of the time wanting to yell at basically every character “why are you doing what you are doing?!?!?!“
Other complaints: Eliza Dushku playing yet another Faith-clone. The Briar Rose theme was heavy-handed and irritating. Ballard is making less and less sense as a character. If they want to portray him as obsessive about Caroline/Echo, that’s fine, but they really need to drop some hints at some point to explain WHY he’s so crazy.
So those were the negatives.
Positives: Alan Tudyk was GREAT as Alpha. I like the idea of giving someone a “best possible future” as their own counselor. Amy Acker was fantastic as a terrified Dr. Saunders. Enver Gjokaj was great in a very limited role as the mind of Dominic – it felt real. I’m still anticipating that the whole Alpha situation may turn out to include exciting revelations. One thought: it’s been revealed that Topher occasionally imprints…basically himself…one dolls. Given the way Alpha was acting, is there any doubt that he was one such subject at a prior time?
Yeah, actually most of the best parts of this episode were the Alpha lines. But that alone does not make a good episode.
At this point, there’s a very real chance they’ve only got one episode left and it’s already a bit late for answering at least SOME of the big questions, rather than adding new layers of complexity.
UPDATE: Nice reviews from Hazel and Maia which I mostly agree with.