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Echo becomes the sexiest player ever of The Most Dangerous Game!

This week in The Dollhouse, Joss Whedon aka God of Multimedia (TV, film, comic books, webisodes) takes us further into some of the mysteries behind the mysterious goings-on there. Mysteries that are chock-full of slimy executives, two-faced psychopaths, a very fatherly-daughterly kind of bond, and a reveal as to who just might be the inevitable Big Bad.

The episode begins with a flashback to quite a few well-armed men led by Reed Diamond (Journeyman, another of my favorite too-soon cancelled shows) playing the wonderfully douche-y Mr. Dominic, who are sweeping the Dollhouse to try to take down the Active known as Alpha, who apparently resisted the wipe after his last “engagement“. We soon see Dr. Saunders with slash marks on her face, and the naked, bloodied body of Echo surrounded by other dead Actives. Now, we go to the present where a young man, Richard O’Connell (Matt Keeslar) is hiring the Dollhouse for something that at first seems like a fun weekend, but then DeWitt asks for an additional fee for putting an Active in a potentially dangerous situation. Meanwhile, Agent Ballard investigates the scene of the crime that we left at the end of last episode, and a bunch of theories are tossed around between him and fellow agent Tanaka (played by his fellow BSG’r and formerly of Firefly, the wonderful Mark Sheppard). Ballard believes it’s the work of the Dollhouse. Tanaka doesn’t.

As for the engagement, it’s Echo who is chosen to accompany O’Connell. She goes out into the wilderness accompanied by her handler, Boyd Langton. The weekend seems harmless enough at first. There’s some white-water rafting, some hiking, some rock-climbing, some bow-hunting and some sex. After the sexy-time, O’Connell decides that he wants to see if Echo really deserves to keep living or not. Of course, the choice is up to her. He grabs his bow and decides to give her a five-minute head start. Then we go back in time to when Langton was first brought to the Dollhouse to become Echo’s handler. He gets to see Echo’s former handler, who was hacked up with fast and surgically-accurate precision by Alpha. He then connects to Echo for the first time, and a bond begins to develop. Of course, when we snap back to the present, Langton’s in hot water as an assassin kills his partner and is about to kill him, but the ever-resourceful Langton soon gets the upper hand. He fears for Echo because she hasn’t been imprinted with the necessary skills to save herself from the psycho-hunter-boy. In the midst of the cat-and-mousing, Echo is drugged and starts to see herself as she was back when she was just Caroline, a young woman who seems to have her whole life ahead of her. The hunt soon comes to a close when the Active becomes the Handler and the Hunter becomes the Hunted. But the mystery of the hunt is still very mysterious since O’Connell seems to be a complete fake. It may be very possible that someone who knows The Dollhouse and how it works is out to put a big hurt on it. Could it be Alpha? We may soon know. Or depending upon how long Fox decides to ditch this show in favor of crap like American Idol, we may not.

So this week, we get a variation on “The Most Dangerous Game”. Admittedly not the most original story, but a good archetype. And this week’s writing and directing go to Steven S. DeKnight, formerly of Buffy, Angel and Smallville. He’s a very adept genre writer and director and does a really good job with making this ep tight and suspenseful. He also injects more humor than last week with some good exchanges between Ballard and his co-workers, and Langton and Topher. But he also knows how to get down to the nitty-gritty and the gritty is definitely nitty. And the introduction of Tanaka (because Sheppard is just that cool) and Alpha give this ep the boost that was lacking from the pilot. Dushku and Lennix give very solid performances, and they are both seasoned genre vets, so we can expect more good work from them. Sadly, Amy Acker isn’t in this ep a whole lot, but given her not-so-nice history with Alpha, and what I’m sure will be his eventual reveal, I’m hoping to see a lot more of her, because I am madly in love with her.

It’s picking up steam, Joss and Co., so don’t let Fox throw you from the Dollhouse into the Doghouse.

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