Meet Jane Doe

Dollhouse Episode Review

In which Paul and Echo figure things out. And Topher should probably not be giving Adelle that much lip.

What Happened

In a Doll state, Echo wanders around trying to find enough food to survive. When she impulsively shoplifts, another woman is caught up in her arrest and taken away. Echo, meanwhile, taps into one of her personalities and kicks enough butt to escape.

A few months later, we see the new order of things. Echo has teamed up with Ballard to figure out her next step. Adelle has been demoted - and is so not happy about it. And Topher is working on a top secret project for Rossum utilizing his remote wipe technology.

Suspecting that his work is just one piece of the puzzle, Topher confides in Adelle that he's been dragging his feet. The device that Rossum really wants - which Topher just happens to have drawn out plans for - would allow for remote wipes and imprints of anyone. Anywhere. Without the need for Active architecture to be installed first.

Now able to access her personalities at will, Echo and Ballard have been training together over the summer. Her last test is to use her knowledge to free the woman imprisoned because of her. It works - eventually - so Echo and Ballard call Boyd. They are ready to come back to the Dollhouse.

Where Adelle has just handed Topher's research over to Rossum in exchange for regaining control of her House.

The Good

Seeing Echo "in the wild" building her own identity. It was nice that they took that time. The explanation of how her integration works or doesn't work is necessary to set up her future actions and abilities.

The Bad

There is an awful lot of time spent on Echo's little friend.

She's interesting in theory, as part of Echo's journey, but so much as a real person. It's kind of like a cut-rate Pretender episode over here.

The Cliche

Cops. Corrupt cops. Corrupt Southern cops. Corrupt racist Southern cops.

Not to diminish the world's problems with either corruption or racism. But seriously? We need to put this one to rest.

And also the workout that is a stand-in for sex? I'm too busy rolling my eyes to enjoy the shirtlessness. That's just wrong.

What Did I Think?

It's a necessary episode to set up how Echo will work now. I wish we could have seen Echo contacting Ballard, but their scenes together had a good mix of exposition and character.

The thing I'm doing now with this show is playing with ideas about where they had to slice back the story to fit the fact that cancellation was immeninent. It's easy to imagine "The Left Hand" as a season finale, with "Meet Jane Doe" picking up again after a summer break.