Dollhouse
Episode Three: Stage Fright
The third episode of Dollhouse, “Stage
Fright,” is another stand-alone Echo engagement, and is often
considered to be the weakest link of the short-lived series. Although
the plot is indeed generic and more in line with an “After School
Special” than what one would consider “quality television,”
the edges of the episode still continue to intrigue while the show itself
exhibits signs of the series’ potential.
In an early
scene, for example, Echo and another active, Sierra, are on treadmills.
When Sierra disembarks, she feels dizzy and loses her balance. Echo
steps in and catches her because, as she suggests, they are friends
and she didn’t want Sierra to get hurt. “Friends help each
other out,” Sierra remarks. The blank Echo smiles in agreement,
but there is a knowing understanding in her eyes. Although seemingly
inconsequential at the time, the comment actually plays a significant
role as the episode develops.
Boyd Langton
and Dr. Claire Saunders also show signs of bonding. “You know
you can call me Boyd,” he tells her at one point, to which she
replies, “Is there a reason I’d want to?” Langton
suggests that they share a common link of being the only two people
who can protect Echo, especially since they both believe Alpha is still
alive. Later, Topher Brink catches on to the bonding when Saunders indeed
calls Echo’s handler by his first name.
“What
are you guys, buddies now?” he rhetorically asks. “Of course
you are. You both disapprove of everything.” It is an interesting
observation, relating concern for an active with disapproval of the
entire organization. For Topher the two concepts are indistinguishable,
and both his words and actions tend to regulate the Dollhouse to a giant
science experiment that is void of moral judgment. Langton and Saunders,
on the other hand, are apparently able to justify working for the Dollhouse
by showing compassion towards its inhabitants, with their morally-grey
disapproval centered on a perceived lack of concern more than anything
else.
The continuing
saga of FBI Agent Paul Ballard, meanwhile, maintains its snail-like
pace as he meets with the newest member of a Russian human trafficking
ring he believes is linked to the Dollhouse. Not only does the Russian—whom
Ballard is trying to turn into an informant—insist there is no
such thing as the Dollhouse, he also questions the agent’s abilities.
“What you got is the nicest version of fired the FBI has,”
he tells Ballard. “See, you don’t know me, but I checked
you out plenty. You don’t close. The Van Dynes, the Illinois Gun
Club. The Bureau takes pity and gives you the one job you can’t
blow because it doesn’t exist.”
Despite
this supposed reputation, the little we have seen of Ballard still suggests
he is an above-average investigator. The Crestejo kidnapping from the
pilot episode is a perfect example. Although not his case, Ballard still
shows an interest—to the irritation of the agent actually assigned—because
he considers Crestejo to be a potential Dollhouse client, and notices
inconsistencies in the official version of events that other agents
missed. He may not be able to “close” and actually catch
the bad guys, but Paul Ballard appears quite adept at putting the pieces
of a puzzle together to form an accurate picture of any given situation.
In the
previous episode, Adelle DeWitt told Laurence Dominic that she did not
consider Ballard to be a threat, but her head of security disagreed.
“I know his type,” he retorted. “A guy like this,
something gets under his skin, he’s not going to let go until
it gets scratched down.” For whatever reason, the Dollhouse has
gotten under Paul Ballard’s skin. Maybe he sees his investigation
as a form of professional redemption, maybe it’s personal therapy
for a failed marriage, maybe he even sees himself as a white knight
trying to protect the innocent. Or maybe he just understands the moral
consequences surrounding such an organization.
“We
split the atom, we make a bomb,” he explains when his Russian
informant suggests that even if the technology did exist, it didn’t
mean it was being used on people. “We come up with anything new
the first thing we do is destroy, manipulate, control. It’s human
nature.”
While Ballard
continues to display a metaphysical understanding of mankind’s
existence, he proves less capable of knowing when he is being played.
His Russian informant, it turns out, is actually an active from the
Dollhouse named Victor who has been sent to deflect the FBI agent’s
investigation. He leads Ballard to the basement of an abandoned building
where real members of the Russian trafficking ring wait in ambush. Ballard
survives the attack but is shot in the process.
In terms
of Echo’s actual engagement, it involves a female pop star named
Rayna who has been receiving death threats as well as actual attempts
on her life. A flash-pot with a double charge sets a dancer on fire
at one concert, for instance, while a lighting rig comes loose during
another. Rayna’s manager approaches the Dollhouse and secretly
hires Echo, not as a bodyguard but as a background singer that is capable
of bonding with (and thus staying physically close to) Rayna. Unbeknownst
to even Echo, however, the active has also been imprinted to protect
the star instinctually. Sierra, meanwhile, is sent in as backup, posing
as the Australian winner of an online “Biggest Fan” contest.
There is
plenty of metaphor in “Stage Fright.” For instance, Rayna
starts her concerts inside a cage. When Echo discovers that the singer
is aware that an attempt is going to be made on her life, Rayna says
while in the cage, “I just want to be free.” And at one
point she ironically asks Echo, “What did they do, grow you in
a lab?” As the conversation continues, the pop singer clarifies
the statement. “I gotta be happy. I gotta be grateful. I gotta
be rebellious, but just enough to give me creds so people know I’m
not a factory girl. But I am. I don’t exist. I’m not a real
person. I’m everybody’s fantasy. No, you weren’t grown
in a lab but I was.” Apparently identity can be manufactured and
sold in the real world just as easily as it can in an illegal organization
that programs people and sells their services to the highest bidder.
Echo eventually
discovers that Rayna has been communicating with her would-be assailant.
“He’s my number one fan,” Rayna tells her. It turns
out the pop star is also a willing accomplice in that she wants to die
as a way to truly achieve the elusive freedom she desires. Despite being
unable to stop Rayna from going onstage, Echo is still able to spot
the deranged fan at the last second and prevent him from shooting the
singer. In the aftermath confusion, the Dollhouse’s secondary
protocol goes into affect—unable to kill his target, the stalker
kidnaps the pop star’s other “number one fan” instead,
and threatens to kill Sierra unless Rayna meets with him.
A furious
Rayna fires Echo because of her interference, but the active still has
the imprinted instinct of needing to protect the pop star. Or does she?
When Echo says, “I have to help her,” she is looking at
a video still of hostage Sierra. Furthermore, Echo can’t comprehend
Rayna’s unwillingness to get personally involved with Sierra’s
situation even though she’s in a position to do so. “Friends
help each other out,” after all. So despite the Dollhouse’s
plan to catch the bad guy using Sierra as bait, Echo embarks on her
own rescue mission by kidnapping Rayna and arranging a swap with the
stalker. Faced with actual death, however, the singer has a change of
heart and reconsiders her actions, allowing Echo to save both Sierra
from her captor as well as Rayna from herself.
Mr. Dominic’s
anti-Echo demeanor is again evident in “Stage Fright” as
he later tells Adelle DeWitt that “we can’t control her”
and “she went off mission.” The Dollhouse boss, however,
has a different spin on things. “I believe she did quite the opposite,”
DeWitt responds. “She stopped the person who wanted Rayna dead,
it just happened to be Rayna herself. And by quite literally dangling
the threat of death in front of her, she prevented Rayna from ever being
a danger to herself in the future. Echo took the mission parameter…”
“…
and did even better,” Boyd Langton continues, finishing DeWitt’s
sentence as the scene switches to him and Dr. Saunders. “She seems
to have the ability to think outside of the pieces that we give her
and then create…” Now it’s Saunders turn to complete
the thought: “Create a new approach to the problem.” Although
not as extreme as Mr. Dominic’s viewpoint, Dr. Saunders is still
more cautious about the development than Langton. When the handler comments
that Echo “really is special,” for instance, Saunders replies,
“Special isn’t always a good thing here,” an obvious
reference to Alpha. She also cryptically adds, “Echo wasn’t
always the best.”
The episode
ends in a similar fashion to the preceding one, with another slight
indication that Eliza Dushku’s character is more “aware”
than everyone believes. As a wiped Echo walks through the Dollhouse,
she notices Langton and Saunders on the floor above her, as well as
other personnel below. Sierra walks towards her, ready to greet her
friend, but Echo shakes her head no—an indication that Sierra
should keep walking. Echo may indeed be special, but apparently she
wants to keep that fact a secret for the time being.
Anthony
Letizia (January 4, 2010)
