The Attic

Dollhouse Episode Review

In which we see the attic. And man is it creepy.

What Happened

Echo works the dream sequence for a bit before figuring out that she's in the Attic. Attacked a spooky black creature, Echo gets unexpected help from Dominic, the ex-security head who was a NSA mole. He explains that the creature is called Arcane. It uses peoples' fears to travel from mind to mind, killing them from within.

Pulled into another person head while following Arcane, Echo learns that Rossum's mainframe is vulnerable - from a little Japanese man with no legs. Arcane appears shortly after Dominic does. When the Japanese man is killed, his brain begins to shut down, forcing Echo and Dominic to move on.

While this is going on, Adelle wants Topher to figure out how to resurrect Ballard. She orders him to put the Active architecture into Ballard's head. When Topher wakes Paul up and they have to explain what happened to him, he is very upset by the news that he is technically now a Doll.

Echo and Dominic land in Anthony's head and free him from his repeating loop. Finding Priya, they set a trap for Arcane and knock him into the clear. Arcane turns into a little man named Clyde. His worst nightmare is a world driven mad by the Dollhouse technology. Clyde sputters bits of information like, "everyone in the Attics are the mainframe." Rossum is using them as human computer processors, so he went around trying to reduce the number of CPUs.

Clyde explains that he was one of the two original founders of Rossum. They built the imprint technology and tested it on Clyde in 1993. Clyde's partner fried Clyde's brain, then downloaded Clyde 2.0 into another body and put Clyde in the Attic. His loop has being running scenarios on the Tech - all but 3% include the end of civilization. They need to identify Clyde's partner, but the only clue is that he may have once met with Caroline.

Echo gets herself shot, hoping to wake up disengaged. Priya insists on going with her and Anthony follows. Dominic and Clyde remain behind to help out from the inside.

Back in the real world, Echo tells Adelle that her plan worked. They have the information they need to bring Rossum down.

Now all they need is Caroline.

What We Learned

• Safe to say, Boyd does not want a blankie.
• It's a sport analogy.
• Darth Vadar kills lieutenants. Not stormtroopers.
• I think we can all safely say that this isn't real.
• Never ruin the Highlander vibe.
• Topher doesn't buckle. Occasionally, he swash buckles.
• All the Attics are connected.

What Did I Think?

Now we get to the meat of the matter. (Not the cannibal suishi meat, thank you. Did I need that image in my head. No. I did not.) Again, it's sci-fi and probably wouldn't hold up to strict scrutiny, but Rossum's plans have a certain synergy that is carrying everything along.