DollhouseStage Fright
Original Air Date: Feb 27, 2009
Angelique – Associate Staff Writer
angelique@thetwocentscorp.com
Since Langdon was shot in the woods and is still recovering, Echo can only be used for easy tasks... especially since Dr. Saunders hasn’t cleared her. So Echo is sent in as a background singer for a pop star named Rayna. The only problem: Echo’s subconscious task is to protect Rayna with her life.
Continue Reading...
[photo: FOX]
Posts
Since Langdon was shot in the woods and is still recovering, Echo can only be used for easy tasks... especially since Dr. Saunders hasn’t cleared her. So Echo is sent in as a background singer for a pop star named Rayna. The only problem: Echo’s subconscious task is to protect Rayna with her life.
ReplyDeleteRayna is one of those super star singers, like Britney Spears and Beyonce. But she is on the verge of breaking under the pressure to be what the fans want her to be, to be exactly the way the world thinks she is. At Rayna’s last show, one of her dancers got wounded when some fireworks went off unexpectantly in the exact spot where Rayna would have been if it weren’t for a last minute choreography change. Rayna has also been receiving death threats in her fanmail... a crazy fan wants to kill her.
The Dollhouse is called to protect Rayna. Her manager, who knows Ms. DeWitt from previous Dollhouse dealings, wants someone who would be willing to take a bullet to save Rayna’s life. He shows Ms. DeWitt some letters that Rayna receives from fans. He also says that Rayna has had fans since she started singing for the mouse (another reference to Britney Spears?).
Echo’s new character is Jordan, a struggling singer who might get her break if she gets a spot in Rayna’s entourage as a background singer. The manager knows that if he tells Rayna he thinks Jordan is trouble, Rayna will probably hire her. Besides that, Echo is actually a good singer and performs one of Rayna’s favorite songs for her audition. Rayna hires her on the spot.
Dr. Saunders is annoyed (to say the least) when she finds out that Echo has been sent on a high risk mission. She had flagged Echo for romantic arrangements only. She asks Topher if he even reads her files. He figures that it doesn’t matter since Echo’s last mission was meant to be purely romantic and it turned out dangerous anyway. He figures that since he has sent her on a dangerous mission, it might turn romantic. Right?
Right before the show is about to start, Jordan points out a unsecured blind spot to Rayna’s bodyguard. Too bad the crazy fan is already inside the building. Sierra, another Doll, is sent in as a backup for Echo. Her character is Audra, her number one fan who won an online video contest.
Meanwhile Agent Ballard is still trying to get dirt from his informant, Victor. He calls to tell him about an old abandoned hotel. Ballard goes there alone on a wild goose chase, hoping to find out something about the Dollhouse. But upon arrival at the hotel, he is ambushed by four men. Ballard turns out to be some sort of super-agent, because even though he gets beaten down and shot in the stomach, he is able to fight off the four men and call an ambulance. Victor, the informant, turns out to be a Doll himself.
Jordan finds out that Rayna has been communicating with the crazy fan since before the death treats started, and that Rayna is going on stage no matter what happens... even if it means that she will be shot. To provoke her ‘number one fan,’ she calls Audra out on the stage, infuriating the crazy fan. Jordan runs out on the stage and tries to find the guy with one of the stage lights. A couple of shots are fired, but no one is hit. Rayna is mad at Jordan for stopping the show and Jordan thinks Rayna has lost her mind. Rayna fires her. When Jordan picks up her belongings, she overhears that Audra has been kidnapped. Despite what has been said between her and Rayna she is still programmed to protect her.
Ms. DeWitt is informed of Sierra’s kidnapping and that Echo is still performing her primary task. Mr. Dominic, the head of security, is afraid that the turn of events might expose The Dollhouse. He thinks Echo is a liability.
Jordan tries to talk to Rayna, tries to reason with her, but Rayna is not about to change her mind. She still wants to die on stage by the hands of this crazy fan because the people who are there that night will still talk about it when they are eighty years old. She wants to be a legend.
Dollhouse security break into the apartment of the crazy fan and find a message on his answering machine from Jordan: she wants to trade Rayna with Audra at the original place where Rayna’s death was supposed to happen. Langdon realizes that there is no way that he can get there in time. He gets into position ready to shoot the crazy fan, but Ms. DeWitt tells him to hold back. Since they are standing on the ledges above the stage, Jordan threatens to drop Rayna down stating that she doesn’t care if she lives or dies since Rayna doesn’t seem to care about it either. Eventually she does drop Rayna, who falls a couple of meters until the rope around her arms stops her from hitting the ground. That is when the fan enrages and tries to assault Jordan, who knocks him out before pulling Rayna back up.
Rayna, for the first time, realizes that she does feel and that she doesn’t want to die at all. Ms. DeWitt tells Mr. Dominic she thinks that Jordan was in control during the mission that she protected Rayna from the one who wanted to kill her even if it turned out to be Rayna herself. She also prevented Rayna from ever making a mistake like that again in the future. She believes that Echo knows what she was doing. Mr. Dominic is not at all convinced.
In the last scene, Echo walks by Sierra in the Dollhouse, shakes her head no, and continues walking past. Something in Tophers’ brilliant erase program definitely isn’t working as it should be.
The question now really is how long can they act as if they don’t know what goes on in the facility. How long can they continue to act as if their memories have been erased especially now that not only Echo is showing the flaw but Sierra too. And what really went on when Alpha snapped, what happened to cause that? They said that Echo is a liability and that they can’t control her. Ms. DeWit is convinced that Echo was in control of the situation the whole time even if they weren’t in control of her, and she is convinced that Echo does exactly what she is supposed to do. According to Mr. Dominic, Echo should be send to the attic. Is that where they put all of their failed experiments? I mean, if they meant that they would kill her off, they would probably say basement instead of attic. Or do they mean send her to jail where she really belongs? We still have no idea what it is that Echo did to be placed in a facility like this one.
What are your two cents on the episode? Do you agree with me or do you have a different point of view? Is this a show you will continue to watch? Leave your comments in the section below...
Somebody please tell me that this show got better after the premier episode. I have like 3 or 4 more eps on my DVR that I've been avoiding because I was bored to tears by the first episode of "Dullhouse."
ReplyDeleteI'm sticking with it. I get that the show isn't for everyone but I enjoy it a lot. I think the girl who plays Sierra is really standing out on this series.
ReplyDeleteEcho shaking her head at Sierra was interesting. I'm curious to see what happens with that.