Intriguing second ep. The A-story goes into full-on suspense-thriller mode, with plenty of shocks and reversals, some of them easy to see coming (indeed, some as homages to filmic jump-scares), others not. The B-story throws out a whole heap of plot background and arc development into the mix. The balance between the ongoing plot and the episode-of-the-week stuff is signalled – the ongoing elements are already stronger than I expected them to be. The moral/ethical issues to do with the Dollhouse are squarely in the foreground but aren’t interrogated at all, I think because they don’t need to be – the viewer can be expected to be interrogating them anyway, so the show doesn’t need to spend time on it.
I really liked this episode, even with its cheesy moments. The show is demonstrating that it can sustain its initial premise, but that it is going someplace else anyway. I stand by my initial call of a five-episode intro and then things start to switch up; word on the nets this week has been that episode 6, written by Joss, is the turning point, so I might be right on the money there.
This show has potential. Worth sticking with to the turn, anywise. I’m digging it.