Dollhouse 1.07 "Echoes" review

NB: This review was originally printed in the Spoiler Zone in issue 184 of SFX and is reflective of our assessment of the show at the time of viewing.

Written by: Elizabeth Craft, Sarah Fain

Directed by: James A Contner

Rating:

THE ONE WHERE
A vial of an experimental memory drug is stolen from the Rossum Building at Echo's old university, where a student also commits suicide. Several Actives - excluding Echo, who's on a romantic engagement - are sent out to investigate but Echo sees a news broadcast about the suicide. It triggers memories for her and she goes off-mission to save someone she barely remembers...

VERDICT
It's a little surprising to get so much of Caroline's back story filled in just halfway through the first season, but it's not unwelcome, and it's handled well enough that it doesn't feel like an exposition dump. The whole episode is a peculiar balancing act between the comical and the perilous, the main criticism being that, aside from the suicide scene at the beginning and the Actives' initial glitching, it never feels like there's much peril.

CHARACTER
Caroline was an animal rights activist who was caught breaking into the Rossum Building, which is how she ended up becoming a Doll. Her boyfriend was also shot during the incident.

FEATURED MUSIC
The music Boyd plays on the piano is an excerpt from Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor.

LMAO
Everyone says weird stuff when they're being affected by the drug but the scenes with Adelle and Topher are by far the funniest, and the most watchable. I wish I could quote everything they say!

BEST LINES
Topher: "You know what I like? Brown sauce. What's it made of? Science doesn't know!"
Adelle: "It's made of brown."
Topher: "Brown... mined from the earth by the hardscrabble brown miners of North Brownderton."
Adelle: "Oh, my God! I find lentils completely incomprehensible."

Leah Holmes