Dollhouse 2x08 Review: What Is Love? (Baby, Don't Hurt Me)

“A Love Supreme”
Written by Jenny DeArmitt
Directed by David Straiton
 
The Story
Alpha is back, and he’s killing all of Echo’s old clients who wanted romantic engagements (specifically, the ones that involved her being in love with them). Once Boyd and Paul realize this when Echo goes out for a repeat engagement with one of those clients, only to find him decomposing in his dining room. Up until then, Echo was in solitary confinement while Adelle waited for either her or Paul to crack and tell the truth about her time outside the Dollhouse. Echo can mentally switch gears between any of the imprints she’s had at will, so she doesn’t even need the chair to pull up the right personality for this engagement. Paul and Boyd and a Dollhouse SWAT team go to intercept Alpha before he can hurt the next guy, but they get there too late, and Alpha blows him up. Joel Minor is the only one left, so they bring him to the Dollhouse to keep him safe. But that was kind of stupid, because Alpha put a virus in Sierra so that it would infect their tech when she returned. Alpha arrives, and he uses the same remote wipe signal he used on Echo to turn all the other dolls into attack zombies. Topher manages to construct one of his remote wipe stun guns to stop them, but not until after Alpha has put Paul in the chair and wiped him. He’s determined to learn what it is about Paul that made Echo love him. Next, he imprints himself with Paul, but the real Paul is brain-dead. Echo is devastated. Alpha flees again, perhaps with a smidge of remorse for the first time.
 
I’m pretty much a fan of any episode with Alpha because Alpha is an awesome villain. Although, as fun as it is to watch his brilliant plans unfold, I kind of wonder if having 48 voices arguing in your head all the time would make it harder to plan things. Like, is everything he does by committee, or is it like Echo where there’s a self-aware Alpha part and he just slots the individual personalities in when they’re useful? Whatever. Since I don’t ship Echo/Paul, I’m not too sad about him getting fried either.
 
Things I Liked

• Alan Tudyk in a waistcoat
  

• “I am obsolete! ...This must be what old people feel like. And Blockbuster.”
• ‘20s hardboiled Sierra
• Alpha’s sense of humor
• Alpha’s terrifying brilliant plan to turn all the actives into attack zombies
• “It’s the manufacturing room! Not the ‘It’s Finished’ room!”
• “He’s ten times the man you are and you’re like forty guys!”
• The Paul imprint fighting through the others to give Echo a window to stop Alpha
• More Greg Laswell!
• Oh hey, Joel Minor survived!
• Rebecca!Echo talking to Joel about his fiancée and essentially giving her blessing on their marriage

 
Things I Didn’t

• I honestly don’t remember if Joel Minor survives this episode. He’d better survive.
• Why are TV writers so obsessed with Freudian psychology when the entire psychology community figured out he was a quack several decades ago? Adelle and Topher should’ve imprinted Victor to be an actual modern psychologist who doesn’t truck with that nonsense. Although admittedly he did make an intriguing point about men being freer about discussing sex because they have external genitalia.
• The way they used Tahmoh’s voice for the Paul imprint in Alpha. What, could Alan Tudyk not give a convincing enough Paul performance on his own? Because using anything but the new body’s faculties kind of goes against the idea that there’s still just the one original soul in each body. It’s weird.

 
The Characters
After Adelle’s treachery, Topher now turns to Boyd and Paul for help instead of her, and they go behind her back to save the day. She may have gotten her job back, but she still has a long way to go before she has their trust.
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5