Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Dollhouse: “The Target”

In the last episode of this series, Echo played a hostage negotiator who rescues the daughter of a Mexican millionaire from vicious Mexican kidnappers.

In this episode, she is hired to play the wilderness-friendly girlfriend of a young millionaire, only to find out halfway through her mission that said millionaire expects far more from her than a warm snuggle in a shared sleeping bag.

If you're familiar with short stories, you can probably guess where this story is heading the minute the millionaire reveals his last name to be Connell. (As in Richard Connell, the author of a famous short story.) Even if you're not familiar with short stories, you can probably guess what happens since this episode involves one of the most used plots in TV and movie history.

Not a good sign.

Plus we get a brief flashback involving the mysterious Alpha, a former member of the Dollhouse who used to be like Echo but who one day rebelled and killed a number of Dollhouse personnel. No one in this episode is sure of Alpha's current whereabouts. Sure, he's supposed to be dead but no one is quite sure of that. Plus...whoever said that Alpha is necessarily a he? And why did he spare Echo in his murder spree?

We also learn how Echo came to bond with her current handler, a ex-cop who appears to be growing a bit of a conscience as far as Echo is concerned. Unfortunately, the Dollhouse doesn't appear to be an organization in which good consciences are rewarded even though the head people tend to profess humanitarian motives for their work.

And who sent Paul Ballard, the rogue FBI agent, that mysterious video tape we glimpsed in the last episode? The one with a home movie of Echo's graduation in it?

Could it be Alpha? Or Satan?