Summer Glau on Dollhouse!

Beware, there be Spoilers!


Dollhouse returned last night for a two hour "event." Which is pretty much the schedule it's going to have all December, as Fox rushes to get rid of another Joss Whedon show as quickly as possible to make room for more of the senseless drivel that comprises most television shows. But at least Joss Whedon got pretty advanced notice that the show would be cancelled, and at least it got to its second season (unlike Firefly). I'm guessing that the remaining episodes will be thematically rich, as Joss and Eliza try to shove all of their ideas for what they wanted to explore in before the (series) finale.

Still wondering where Whiskey/Dr. Saunders (played by the wonderful Amy Acker) is, but I've read that she will be back. For that matter, Sierra/Priya (Dichen Lachman) was also absent for both episodes. But, as the title of my post indicates, we got Summer Glau as the D.C. Dollhouse's version of Topher (the character's name is Bennet Halverson). Bennet's an interesting character, but I'm not quite sure what to think of her. She seems more "evil" than Topher (who is just amoral; well, mostly), but she also got royally screwed by Caroline, which is how she got her dead arm. They didn't go into this backstory much, as we really only saw the imprinted memory that she gave Echo of her laying on the ground, pinned (by her arm, obviously) by a large concrete pillar. Seems like she was working some sort of job with Caroline (not Echo?!), and that Caroline left her there. Seems a bit out of character for Caroline. I'm sure there's more to this story, so I expect to see Summer Glau return (speaking of which, Alan Tudyk, another Firefly veteran, will return next week as Alpha!).

Perhaps my favorite part of these two episodes (technically only the second episode) was when Topher imprinted Viktor (Enver Gjokaj) with his own personality (so that when Topher went to D.C., he could leave "himself" behind). I was extremely impressed with Enver's acting here, as he played Topher perfectly (just as well as Fran Kranz). I've liked Enver throughout the series, but this was definitely the highlight (even better than when he accidentally got imprinted with Echo's imprint, Kiki!). It's something that you really just have to see.

And finally, there's the Senator Perrin (Alexis Denisof) storyline. The fact that he's a doll and his wife is his handler was certainly an unexpected twist. It's also an interesting concept that they didn't wipe his original personality, but rather improved it to create the perfect politician to use as a tool for Rossum. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that Rossum would need allies in politics to ensure that laws get passed, allowing them to do whatever else they plan on doing. However, I see a flaw in this plan. They have one Senator that's a doll (that we know of). Obviously, some stuff hinted at in Epitaph One (last season's dystopian future season finale) would require some pretty major laws to make legal. I'm a little skeptical that proposed laws could be spun in such a way as to make them seem like a good idea to the majority of Senators and Representatives. There's only so much one person (even a person so "improved" by Rossum) could do. Given the political controversy over something like stem cells, the technology employed by the Dollhouses (which is shown to be under the radar of most politicians) wouldn't stand a chance at being legalized. But yes, it's a show and some suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy it. And regardless, it allows Joss to tell some good stories.