Dollhouse 2x01 Review: I Think, Therefore I Am

“Vows”
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
 
The Story
For Echo’s current engagement, she’s...engaged! Specifically, she’s getting married. To an arms dealer, because Paul is the client, and she’s his partner, and they’re taking this guy down. Also, Dr. Saunders is taking her existential crisis out on Topher. The arms dealer gets pictures of his wife with his old FBI enemy Paul Ballard, so he confronts her. She almost manages to convince him she’s legit, but then she starts glitching with memories from other personalities, which blows it. Her handler doesn’t notice anything’s wrong, but Paul does. He goes to get her out, and he cleverly punches her until she dons the assassin personality from “Man on the Street,” because that girl has the skills to fight her way out of this. Also there’s a senator whose policies could be trouble for the Dollhouse. Saunders thinks Topher wanted her to fall in love with him, so she expedites the process by climbing into his cot with him. He freaks out and explains that he designed her to be a whole person who would see things he missed, because he felt responsible for Alpha. Boyd wants to go out with her, but she’s still struggling with her personhood. She goes outside for the first time. Paul becomes Echo’s new handler.
 
Yay, I got my Saunders-centric episode! I liked her side of the story much more than the Echo/Paul side, but that side wasn’t boring either. S2 is already starting off far more character-centric than S1 was, which is a huge improvement.
 
Things I Liked

• The bored, uninterested way Echo says “with my life” about trusting her handler who she doesn’t like
• Victor’s scars are mostly gone yay!
• “You’re touching my face.”
• “Ah, tempura Joe. Such a lonely soul.”
• Who the crap imprinted the very Asian Sierra with a weird uptight British personality?
• Saunders trolling Topher
• “I know what I know.” Awwwww that line is so ominous/sad in context.
• “What if she went over your head?” “I’m very tall.”

• “My entire existence was constructed by a sociopath in a sweater-vest. What do you suggest I do?”
• Paul’s notes about his and Agent Echo’s backstory as partners

• ALEXIS DENISOF...with an American accent. Weird.
• Topher’s reaction to Saunders trying to feel him up. “That is the minority vote.” Wow, another erection joke I don’t hate.
• “Roma” screwing up her perfect acting because she briefly came over all Eleanor Penn.
• “You have a better plan?” “No, but I do have a much worse one.”
• Ballard deliberately triggering Echo’s assassin personality to get out of the situation. Genius!
• Victor/Sierra! Heeeeeeeee SO CUTE.
• I haven’t mentioned how much I love the Dollhouse set yet. It’s gorgeous.

 
Things I Didn’t

• Adelle’s haircut
• RATS IN THE CUPBOARD
• Cutting back and forth between Echo’s fake wedding night and Paul by himself. I’d care more if I shipped it. As it is, it makes me roll my eyes.
• Echo having memories of an engagement she had together with Whiskey while Saunders is examining her. More eye rolling.

 
The Characters
Wow, Topher keeps his cot in the mainframe room? Weird. I love his rationale behind Dr. Saunders. He needed a foil. Someone who would see what he’d miss. He’s even impressed that she came to hate him.
 
It would suck to be Saunders. In the same way it would suck to be Dawn Summers, almost. You’re a construct! You’re not real! It’s even worse than for Dawn, because even though the first 14 years of Dawn’s life didn’t happen, she was real after that. Saunders is just an artificial overlay on top of someone she doesn’t even know. But she went outside! Maybe she can take control of who she is after all. Except that she’s going to be empty Whisky in the abandoned Dollhouse ten years later, so I guess not.
 
So Paul is in a huge moral crisis. He doesn’t have the power to take down the Dollhouse, but is it okay to use it for good things in the meantime?
 
Overall Rating
4/5