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Echo saves a pop diva from herself, but does she want to be saved?

This week, Dollhouse continues to try to hit the stride that it seems to so desperately want to hit, while at the same time wanting to put the cookie-cutter mentality of the pop music business under the microscope, but it falls a little short on both, but the ep does give us a psuedo-cliffhanger, a mysterious exchange, and one heck of a shock.

The episode begins with pop star Rayna (Jaime Lee Kirchner) doing a Spears/Aguilera-esque song-and-dance number that has echoes of Michael Jackson’s infamous Pepsi commercial accident that happens to one of her back-up singers (For those of you who are not children of the 80’s, Jacko went through some sparklers and his hair caught on fire… something a little worse happens to the poor girl in this ep). We see a very creepy guy in the audience who gives that creepy stalker/psycho vibe giving a half-smile. Her manager (Jim Piddock) goes to DeWitt, saying that his starlet is in danger and she hates security guards, so they need an Active who is willing to protect Rayna without her even knowing she should. Enter Echo, who is given some pretty awesome singing abilities (I was really surprised at how well Eliza could sing) and some attitude, and she gets the replacement back-up singer position. Echo and Rayna connect pretty quickly, and Echo gets a glimpse into the world of a pop diva, and Rayna gets a glimpse of what Echo can do to protect her. Interestingly enough, the Dollhouse decides to double-book this gig, and Sierra (the unusual-looking but still strangely sexy Dichen Lachman) becomes the guise of the winner of Rayna’s Number One Fan Contest. Unfortunately for her, Rayna’s OTHER number one fan (the really creepy Graham Norris, who looks like Jake Gyllenhaal’s scarier, uglier brother) has a different way of showing his affection.

Also, Agent Ballard is still going to his sleazy Russian mob contact Victor (Enver Gjokaj) for more info on Dollhouse, but Victor still has nothing for him. We’re starting to see that Ballard seems to have more of an obsessive interest in Dollhouse, and it’s not just because that’s what he’s assigned to. But Ballard is having his own problem as we discover that with all of his denials, Victor knows MUCH more about the Dollhouse than he’s telling, and Victor sets Ballard up to confront a few Russian mob heavies (or are they?), and he winds up being shot and taken to the hospital after kicking ten shades of crap out of the bad guys.

And we still have the issue of Echo’s engagement, and how far she will go to protect Rayna, which winds up being further than anyone would have guessed. And this presents interesting opportunities for Mr. Dominic to continue whining about what a risk Echo can be because of her erratic behavior during her engagements lately.

The recurrent motif of Echo and the rest of the Actives being nothing more than echoes when they’re not imprinted is obviously what this show is partly about, but honestly, it’s becoming a little tired to have the symbolism so forced. It’s not even really symbolism. It’s lines. There’s a line in this ep about how Rayna herself is little more than an echo, and the psycho hunter in last week’s ep had a similar line. I’m not sure whether it’s the fault of the show’s writers or creators or if it’s Fox and their meddling. Because if you take a look at Fox’s most successful show, American Idol, it’s pretty easy to see which demographic that the network is aiming at, but at the same time, they also have shows like 24 and House and Fringe, which are pretty challenging shows. So I’m not certain if there is really even an argument present there. It may be because this week’s writers, Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon (formerly of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog brilliance) and director David Solomon (who directed eps of Buffy and one of my 3 favorite eps of Firefly, the great “Out of Gas”) had me with such high expectations that I was really hoping that this ep would have a little more of a mythology-increasing vibe rather than it being a goofy and rather dull riff on the Costner/Houston opus “The Bodyguard”. However, one of the most interesting and promising events in this ep was a ‘blink-and-you-missed-it’ moment between the wiped Echo and Sierra at the very end of the episode. There was a gesture that seemed to have a certain amount of significance, but I might be reading too much into it.

When I look at Whedon’s other shows, they set up the Big Bad for each season pretty much from the very first ep. With the pilot of Buffy, it was The Master. With Angel, it was Wolfram and Hart. With Firefly, it was The Alliance. But it took us until the second ep of Dollhouse to get a hint of who it might be, which is the rogue Active known as Alpha. Joss really has a slow burn going on his shows, because he wants the audience to connect to the characters before he really gets into the bad guys. And that’s perfectly understandable, but this show, with it being in such a precarious spot on the TV schedule, needs to step it up as quickly as possible.

For me, with the show Fringe, it was the exact opposite. It set itself up brilliantly and I was sure I was going to be a total addict, but over time, it lost me. In a very recent comment made by Eliza, she says that the show really picks up in the sixth episode. That’s a very dangerous attitude for a new high-concept show. And while I appreciate Joss’ style, six episodes may be a few too many for people who are still trying to jump on. I’m going to keep going, because as I’ve stated any number of times, Joss Whedon and his merry band deserve all the chances they can get. But there is a limit, and I’m hoping that I don’t have to find one.

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