“The Left Hand”

The Left Hand was far more disjointed then it’s predecessor but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. In someways the open disjointed ending leads to more anticipation if anything. It begins where the previous episode left off with Echo at the mercy of Bennett while Parrin is ready to be wiped.

Meanwhile Adelle and Topher fly cross country to retrieve Echo and run into a roadblock. So who’s left running the Dollhouse in L.A.? Well there’s Boyd of course but more importantly and the best part of the episode…Victor.

Programmed as Topher himself.

And Enver Gjokaj outdoes himself. He has proven himself to be quite the underrated superstar throughout the run of the show. His previous attempt at playing another character, Laurence Dominic ,was a rousing success but nothing like this. Enver just gets Fran Kranz’s mannerisms and voice patterns down completely. The best part of the episode happens when the two of them are communicating with each other or in the same room.

It actually made everything else about the epsiode seem secondary.

Bennet and Topher’s interactions though were a close second. Granted, I’m a huge Topher Brink fan so my opinion might definitely be skewed.

In a game of whodunnit truly, Adelle and Topher play cat and mouse to get both Echo and a brainscan of Perrin to stop Rossum from doing what they will with him.

Bennet stands in their way as she reveals that she has a past with Caroline (not Echo), and that’s why her left arm is unusable. She let’s Echo and Perrin escape in a plot that is revealed without fanfare so she can distance program Parrin to kill Echo. To cover her trail and finish her plan, she and Topher work on switching his disruptor into a more localized disruptor. Topher uses this to nab Perrin’s mindscan and send back to himself…er. Victor…

When Topher discovers Bennet’s true plan, he knocks her out and is able to cut the worm out bringing Perrin back down to doll status but not before he kills his handler who had caught up to them.

At the end we wonder where Perrin will go but he goes on to do exactly what he was programmed to. Exonerate Rossum at the Senate hearings, sentencing Madeline to a mental asylum. We don’t know exactly why as they don’t spell it out. Is this a part of a bigger plan for Echo or did Perrin simply give up and get reprogrammed because he couldn’t stand the pain?

Overall the episode was speedy and as I mentioned a bit disjointed but highly entertaining.

B

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