The Set Up
The second half of the December two hour Dollhouse Event started where we left off with Bennett (guest star Summer Glau) screwing with Echo/Caroline’s brain. Bennett then Imprints a memory of Bennett’s into Echo’s peripheral for her to remember again and again what Caroline supposedly did to her. Echo screams as the memories are Implanted.
Mission: Possible, Just Seductively Persuasive
Meanwhile, Perrin (guest star Alexis Denisof) pleads with Cindy (guest star Stacey Scowley) to not wipe him again, but Cindy doesn’t listen and instead vents how much she hates being Perrin’s wife and that she can’t stand his touch as well as everything in between.
Adele and Topher are on their way to the D.C. Dollhouse to pick up Echo and Topher is excited, while Adele feels as if she is watching over an eight-year old. Their mission is to get a map of Perrin’s brain so they can do what they have do back in L.A. When they get there, they meet up with Stewart Lipman (special guest star Ray Wise), the head of the D.C. Dollhouse and Adele’s equal. He doesn’t want to give Echo back immediately, because she got involved in top mission and there are certain “protocols” to be followed before she can be released. Adele demands that Topher gets to see Echo to make sure she isn’t damaged. Lipman accepts, but wonders who is over the L.A. Dollhouse while they are there. Topher declares they have the best man on the job.
That best man? Topher/Victor
Topher 2.0/Victor whines to Boyd about being afraid that he will not be sufficient enough to complete the task at hand, which is to upload Perrin’s brain map from the D.C. office through a link Topher will set up. Topher 2.0 also thinks that Bennett is too smart for his own good and thinks that Topher will melt in her hands. Boyd tells Topher 2.0 to calm down and just wait for Topher 1.0 to call. Enver Gjokaj hit this performance out of the frakking ballpark and he deserves some type of award. I would be heavily shocked if he doesn’t get picked up for some show next season.
Bennett gets a call that Topher is on his way to the Imprint Room, which sends Bennett into prep and crimp mode as she adjusts her hair, clothes and demeanor to welcome Topher. She also injects Echo with a sedative before meeting Topher at the elevator. He doesn’t realize that he is talking to Bennett when he asks to speak to the woman. The exchange between them is so weird and awkward, which I guess is what geek attraction entails. When Topher finds out that Bennett is Bennett he praises her and then bluntly asks what happened to her arm. She tells him that is is dead from the shoulder down. They babble and fawn over each other some more and you can’t help but to smile at geek love. When Topher asks for Echo, Bennett says she won’t get her since Echo interfered with a big Rossum project, but she lets him see her anyway.
Lipman berates Adele for coming for something she can’t have and that she is pretty naive if she thinks that Harding will back her in anything. Adele then resorts to the seduction of a praying mantis and gets Lipman to release Echo in exchange for her releasing his balls. Literally.
In the lab, Bennett mentions the Disrupter by name, which throws Topher off, because he never told her its name. Topher then tries to use the thing on Bennett, because he felt that Bennett was like Whiskey/Dr. Saunders. Lipman calls Bennett to release Echo and while she does that Topher makes the connection to the L.A. Dollhouse and has Topher 2.0/Victor to link the two Dollhouse computers together. He then raves to “himself” about how “fine” Bennett is. Wow…
Project Runaway
Perrin awakes and tries to get Echo to snap out of her catatonic state, but Echo is experiencing what happened to Bennett, which includes Bennett being trapped under a slab of marble, begging someone to not leave her. Perrin takes Echo and walks out the room. All this is seen by Bennett, who says, “Goodbye, Caroline” before ramming her head into a monitor! CRAZY!
Bennett stumbles back into the lab and tells Topher that Echo smashed her head into the monitor and that she took Perrin. Topher calls the upper heads.
On the streets of L.A., Echo and Perrin walk the streets. Echo holds her arms as if she has some memories left from Bennett’s Imprint. She reveals that Caroline left Bennett to die for the sake of a mission. Echo also lets Perrin know that they have GPS tags in the back of their necks and that they need to cut them out. They stop at a restaurant and do just that.
At the hearing for the testimony, Cindy and an aide prepare Madeline for her testimony. Cindy gets the call about the escape from Lipman and she and her men are dispatched to the restaurant. Cindy finds the two GPS devices and knows that they have a serious task on their hands.
Operation: Kill Echo
Lipman and Adele get news from Topher and Bennett, the new Bobbsey Twins, that they can find Echo and Perrin and single them
out with Topher’s disrupter. Topher only needs Perrin’s brain map to complete the project. Lipman gives Topher the access and the L.A. Dollhouse is in like flint!
Topher marvels over Bennett’s work when it comes to Perrin’s brain model and Topher’s model of Echo’s brain pales in comparison. But when they get to work, neither one of them realizes that they are double crossing each other. Topher does his task, but Bennett sends a hidden assassin message to Perrin’s brain.
Meanwhile at the Perrin compound, Perrin had a flashback to when he ‘met’ Cindy. She coaxes Perrin to run for Senator. The conversation makes you wonder if he was a Doll then or before, because he remembers all of the stuff he did that could tarnish him in an election. When he comes to, Perrin and Echo discuss their previous lives and Perrin says that they created someone who can bring Rossum and the Dollhouse down. He then declares that he has to make it to the hearing so that he can expose Rossum for what they really are.
Back at the D.C. lab, Topher and Bennett press the Disrupter, which sends Perrin into agonizing pain.Topher realizes that something is up, but it’s too late for Echo as Perrin starts bashing her head into the garage door. Echo manages to break free, but Perrin is hot on her trail like a terminator. Bennett might be a robot after all…
Topher gets info from Topher 2.0/Victor that Perrin has been programmed as a sleeper agent and needs to be stopped. Bennett is upset that Topher hacked into her system, and she goes into a tangent on why Caroline must die, which includes leaving her and being a bad person. Topher begs for Bennett to shut down Perrin, but she says it’s for the best. Then Topher knocks her ass out for not complying. And it hurt. Now its down to Topher and Topher 2.0/Victor to save the day.
Cindy and her goons show up at the compound. Echo tries to hide from Perrin, but he finds her and the two fight. She gets away and one of the goons find Perrin, who snaps the goons neck. Echo runs into Cindy, who knocks her out and posts a goon to watch her. Cindy then proceeds to find Perrin. She talks to him as if he is a damn dummy and says that she didn’t mean any of the stuff she said before and that she wants to take him him and all that jazz. Perrin falters for a blink of an eye and then he proceeds to choke the life out of Cindy. Back at the labs, the two Tophers manage to shut Perrin down, but it is to late. Echo takes out the goon watching her and goes after Perrin, but finds him crying over Cindy’s lifeless body. He says he killed her, but Echo claims that they killed her and that they have to go and make the hearing.
The WTF Moments of the Night
Perrin makes it to the hearing, but he’s distraught and Madeline can sense it. Perrin then proceeds the hearing by saying that 1) Cindy’s dead, 2) The Rossum Corporation is a target by lower undermining corporations who sent Perrin on a goose chase and when he found out, they killed Cindy by planting a car bomb, 3) Madeline is delusional and crazy and finally…
“THERE IS NO DOLLHOUSE!”
WHAT. THE. F***??!?!?!?!?!?
He leaves Madeline to dry and then the “FBI” comes for Madeline, but they are really Rossum goons.
Back at the L.A. Dollhouse, Adele finds out that Bennett must have rigged Perrin’s brain patterns to follow through with the plans for world domination and that they are building a President. Think of the horror that can bring! Adele and Boyd continue their search for Ballard and Echo, but writes Madeline off as a lost cause.
At the D.C. Dollhouse, Bennett has Madeline strapped up to the Wipe Chair with the funny looking thing across her eyes, the same contraption that Echo had at the beginning of the episode. She tells Bennett that it isn’t fair what happened to her and that she understands what it means to be alone and that no one should experience that. She then proceeds to zap Madeline.
Out in the streets of Washington, D.C., Echo wanders around free…but lost.
Wow…
Now onto the December 11th two parter! Read “Meet Jane Doe” here.
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