“Spy in the House of Love”

Dollhouse continues to gain traction. I expected a downturn or at least a slowdown but the show took a spin and instead brought us deeper in. One thing about this show is it tends to introduce shockers that a viewer would expect to drag out over an arc perhaps even over a season or two only to have it addressed immediately. It leaves a sense of unpredictability and tension that works for the show.

This episode was well done narratively by going non-linear. We see a few storylines mixed and matched and in some case overlap rewarding viewers with different angles at sequences.

The most surprising storyline was Adele’s. We finally see the human side of Adele. It seems that, unbeknownst to anyone else, she is Miss Lonelyhearts, the frequent customer of Victor. We don’t know much about Roger (Victor’s imprint), whether it is someone from Adele’s past, or simply a fantasy man. It is someone that she can be herself with. She can be romantic and trusting as she lets off steam from her stressful position. At the end of the episode, she decides that she is getting dangerously too close to the situation and has Topher box the Roger character, never to be used again.

The Agent Ballard tale makes it to a different level, when November becomes the next agent of the mole to reveal herself to Paul. Of course given their relationship, this one is a lot harder to take. Her message is almost lost as Ballard is so in shock. He realizes that Mellie/November’s job is to keep him under watch and report his progress back to the Dollhouse. When Mellie snaps back to being Mellie, Paul does do a good job of playing along given what he just had learned. One thing is for certain – this relationship will be interesting to watch as we move forward.

The main tale of the episode though is the discovery of a spy in the Dollhouse. Now the way it is done is artful. Given the leadup we’ve had we naturally assume that this spy is the mole who has been feeding Ballard information but by the end we’re not so sure. In fact the non-linear tale actually serves to make it just muddy enough that we just don’t know. Mellie tells Paul about the person inside being caught…but that hadn’t happened yet.

Then again, due to the overlap, it could be claimed that it had been. Confused? I was too…but not enough to not be entertained.

Dominic assails Topher for allowing the spy to have compromised the Dollhouse to begin with. After working out that the spy came from the NSA, Dominic and Topher work Sierra up to be a super spy herself so she can break in and steal the records that will help them discover the agent. This trail leads to Topher’s assistant, Ivy.

Luckily, Echo shows even more signs of initiative and surprise of surprises…she asks to be imprinted. She asks to be imprinted as a superspy herself and Topher agrees. Echo is able to discover that Topher’s assistant is a patsie and that surprise! Dominic is our NSA man. A little kung fu later and Echo brings him in to be wiped and put in the attic.

Topher reveals to Adele about Echo’s initiative and she speculates that it was Echo further protecting herself as she had memories of Dominic’s attempts on her life. It leaves you wondering how deep Echo is? And how much she retains.

Overall another slam bang job that furthers the show nicely as we begin hurtling towards the end of season one.

A-

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