Recap: Dollhouse 110, "Haunted"

We open on town council of Preppyville: four guys in pastel polos around a table and a woman on a horse. The woman tells one of the men, apparently her husband, that she's taking the horse for a ride around the park. The men are drinking Long Island Iced Teas and avoiding playing tennis. The horse comes back, sans rider. One of the minor preppies asks, "Jack, where's Margaret?"

Echo wakes up in the chair, and Adelle is waiting. Echo recognizes her (and calls her "Addy") and says she looks terrible. Adelle, looking grim, says, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. You're dead."

And, wow, the credits already. So far the show has been making use of its extended run time by putting in some seriously long cold opens-- "Gray Hour" ran almost 12 minutes before the credits. This was much more of a traditional teaser. Jane Espenson, who is awesome, is writing this one, and it's her first, so there might be some differences from the usual.

After the credits, Boyd comes into Topher's office, and Topher teases him a bit about his promotion. ("You were no fun before as Echo's handler, now you can be twice as no fun as head of security.") They comment on how the Dollhouse is mostly idle since the Dominic incident, then Boyd fishes, not terribly subtly, for information on Echo's mission. He's disturbed when he hears that she's hosting a dead woman. Topher says it's a special friend of Adelle's-- but not a special friend. (Here he has a hilariously ambiguous hand gesture.) Boyd worries some more about the implications of life after death.

As he's about to leave, Topher stops him and says he needs Boyd to assign him an Active for an annual diagnostic. Boyd says Sierra has been idle the longest, so Topher can use her. (If the Dollhouse has been shuttered since the Dominic incident, how has Sierra been idle the longest? She had an engagement that day. Ahem. Probably too much continuity nitpicking.)

In the Fortress, Adelle is serving lunch to Margaret!Echo. Margaret is saying it's stunning, which I guess it would be. She figures out that her memories only go back to her most recent scan, about a month ago, so she doesn't remember dying, which she sees as a plus. She checks out her borrowed boobs and congratulates Addy on her work. Then she wonders if being young always felt this good. "I seem to recall it being rather nice," Adelle says archly, "I wonder why we gave it up."

Adelle reminds Margaret that the arrangement is only temporary, and Margaret lays out her plans. She wants to go to her funeral. Adelle contemplates hearing what the world really thought of you and doesn't seem very happy with the prospect. Then Margaret finishes, with a dramatic head tilt, "I thought maybe I'd solve my murder."

And that's an act break. If she keeps using them at this pace, Jane's going to run out. She has manage to land them on good lines, though.

Adelle accompanies Margaret!Echo to her funeral. Outside, before it starts, Margaret explains why she thinks she was murdered. The autopsy said massive heart attack, but she was young and in perfect health. Also, she was incredibly rich. She tells a story about a nanny who put ground glass in her snack tray as a child, intending to catch it and be a hero. She snuck a cookie and spent weeks in the hospital. Then she says that, while she always said she'd be late for her own funeral, she didn't mean it, and they go inside.

Once there, Margaret introduces Adelle to her friends and family: Nicolas and Jocelyn, her children, in the front. Her brother William, who she hasn't seen in ages, stupefyingly drunk. Her young husband, Jack, whose presence made her a vastly less frequent customer at the Dollhouse. The scene is pretty exposition-heavy, leavened by Adelle's reaction shots, and Margaret's closing line: "I was a lucky woman... until recently."

Back in the Dollhouse, lights flash in the Chair Room as Topher runs his diagnostic on Sierra. He pulls the last switch, then looks at Sierra expectantly. She sits up, then grins when she sees Topher. "Tell me you got SpeedForce 3," she says. "And the bonus maps!" he says. He also says he's invented a new version of Battleship that has real explosions. They break out beer, order pizza, and flop on the couch to play video games.

Meanwhile, Paul and Mellie are having an awkward dinner. Mellie asks if he's okay, and he's sullen and snappish but says he's fine, and she's adorable. Mellie moves to clear the dishes but Paul jumps in, because he has an ulterior motive. He slips Mellie's wine glass into a bag and hides it.

At the McDuck Mansion, Echo is playing Margaret playing Julia with Margaret's family. The cover story is that they met in Morocco and stayed in touch. Julia says Margaret would gush about her loved ones, and the family is skeptical-- there's a bunch of chatter, but the upshot is that they don't remember Margaret as a bundle of warmth. It goes on in this vein for a while, with the family acting unconcerned and "Julia" sticking up for Margaret as best she could. It comes out that Nick, Jocelyn, and Uncle Bill are splitting the money three ways, while Jack was left with just the horses, which they interpret as a smackdown. Julia!Margaret!Echo says that she thinks it was a gesture of trust-- the horses were her most treasured possessions and she wanted to tell him she knew he wasn't in it for the money. Nick tells her, "I know we're being terribly shocking, and you're charmingly loyal. You may be here to mourn, but the rest of us just live here." The shock of this makes Margaret want to head outside for some air.

Outside, she recovering and Nick comes out to talk. He says Margaret was a hard woman who wouldn't have wanted sentiment. Julia asks if Margaret was really that hard, and Nick says he always felt pushed and badgered. Julia tries to convince him that Margaret told her how much she cared about him. Since this involves her complimenting him on having grown into a handsome, charming man, Nick takes his chance and kisses Echo. Who is his mom, pretending to be his mom's friend. When she finishes gagging, Nick apologizes for misreading the signals and tries to pin down what went wrong, but Echo runs off as quickly as she can.

She runs into a bedroom, where she finds Jack drinking. They start talking, and she explains about how Margaret viewed leaving him the horses. He realizes she was with the rest of the family, and wants to know if they suspect him of murder, or just gold digging. Julia acts shocked at the suggestion of murder, and Jack sneers that his inheritance was hardly worth killing for.

Finally, at bedtime, Julia!Margaret!Echo is on the phone to Adelle, crying. "I love these people, but I don't like them," she says. She wonders if one of them killed her, and asks Adelle if that makes her paranoid. Adelle points out that Margaret came in for monthly painful brain scans on the suspicion that she would be killed, so paranoia is definitely on the table. "So much anger," says Margaret. "At least when I died the first time I though people loved me. A worthless illusion."

"Illusions aren't worthless," insists Adelle. "They're at the heart of most relationships." And, of course, the Dollhouse business model. As Margaret says she thinks she should have stayed dead, a shadowy figure watches her through the window.

After the act break, Boyd storms in to the Fortress of Dollitude, saying, "Eternal life?" Adelle: "Good adjective, excellent noun." (The "And your point is?" is silent.) Boyd is worried about the implications of offering it as a service. He says that Christianity, and most models of morality, don't exist without the fear of death. Adelle says she doesn't intend to preside over the end of Western civilization, and that it's only temporary. Boyd doesn't think that anyone is going to die on command, but Adelle says she has a new chief of security who handles that sort of thing.

Okay, Jane, we need to talk. You know I love you for Buffy and Firefly and BSG and your blog, but I kind of think you're blowing this one. I mean, I think Boyd is wrong here in a general sense-- morality doesn't fall apart in the absence of death. Recalculated, sure, but not gone. And Christianity really shouldn't be the religion of the post-death cookies of salvation-- when it is, it's usually because something is terribly off-balance on this side of the curtain. But that's beside the point. I disagree with lots of great characters on lots of great shows.

The problem is that Boyd is wrong narratively. He stands in the Fortress and blathers about implications that don't surface. He's talking about the story I want to see-- someone who decides that, since he or she has access to functional immortality, they've transcended morality. They have nothing left to fear. You can have your moral argument in the form of a story. Granted, the Takeshi Kovacs novels got there first, but it would still be good television.

Instead, what we actually get is a paint-by-numbers procedural mystery with a twist of Poor Little Rich Girl. And if there's a moral lesson, it's that the fear of death can be adequately replaced by the fear of Adelle DeWitt. (Which, come to think of it, might be true.)

I'm hoping Boyd's worries have thematic payoff, maybe in the Alpha storyline. Otherwise it's a lot of telling and no showing.

Ahem. Back in the conversation, Adelle tells Boyd that just because he's not Echo's handler anymore doesn't mean he can't help her. Boyd has already taken the liberty-- he looked into the horses and found that one used to be a Derby contender and could be worth a lot of money. He's sent in Victor as a breeder with a curious streak.

At the McDuck's, Jocelyn, the daughter, is crying over a picture of her, Margaret, and Nick. Echo walks by and sees her. Jocelyn apologetically says "God, I'm so emo." Julia says she's not sad to see someone mourning. "You just lost your mother; it's only natural you'd be Elmo." When Jocelyn corrects her to "emo", Julia!Margaret!Echo says indulgently, "That's not a word, sweetie."

Jocelyn complains that Margaret didn't even know her, including never attending one of her photography exhibitions. "You were serious about that?" asks Julia. Then, realizing, "You're right. That was... very bad of her." Jocelyn complains that Margaret would lecture her about being practical, then threw herself at "a tropical cookie." Would that be a chocolate chip and pineapple? Mango oatmeal? Anyway, Jocelyn suspects Jack was sleeping around, and this worries Margaret. Jocelyn suggests she try it herself. "When your ass hits the sheets, you'll know." Then Jocelyn summarizes her relationship with her mother: "It was okay that she never let me in, because she never let anyone in. Then there was Jack... and now there's you." She sniffles. "Whatever."

Ballard is hiding behind the door of Database Lady's office at the FBI. He wants her to run the prints he lifted from Mellie's glass. He says they might belong to a missing person, but DBL knows he thinks it's a Doll. "They're missing people. They just don't know it," says Ballard. DBL hesitates, then runs it. There's a hit, and a hilariously violent-looking mugshot of November. Then there are dozens of hits. Then they all disappear. "What just happened?" asks Ballard. DBL says, "I just started to believe you."


In the Dollhouse, Sierra and Topher are tossing a Nerf football around while Sierra rattles off classic sci-fi flaws like planets with a single ecosystem, human-alien hybrids, and noisy explosions in space. (Which I am taking as a Firefly shoutout.) When she gets to sexy alien chicks, Topher protests that she's just attacking good storytelling. Sierra wants to "play with the sleepies". Plan A is to make them fight and bet on them like gladiators, which Topher nixes. Then she suggests making them act out sketches they write, filming it, and seeing who gets more hits on YouTube, which Topher is tempted by but ultimately rejects. He suggests chess. She suggests a variant. He suggests blind-- and when you lost a piece, you drink. Sierra accepts, saying, "Advantage: me."

At the Poor Little Rich House, Echo finds Jack packing. He says he doesn't belong here anymore. Echo starts trying an awkward seduction, which, given the metaphysical implications, is probably natural. Jack gets mad-- he assumes the family has paid her to scope him out. ("It's sick, what you're doing. Wearing her perfume!" Nice touch.) He marches her out and says to tell the family that he's selling the horses because he can't stand the reminder of Margaret, and that if they're looking for a killer they should look at Uncle Bill, who is riding the next float in the Red Herring Parade.

Margaret thinks Bill came in for the funeral, but Jack says he arrived the day before Margaret died. (Echo doesn't remember because it was after her last scan.) They watch him down the stairs as he eyes vases appraisingly. Jack guesses he wanted to borrow money and Margaret says no.

After the act break, Victor is checking out the horse, and Nick is bitter that Jack is cashing out. Victor is surprised to find the horse might have another year of racing in him, but Nick says it's not for sale.

Inside, Bill asks Echo if she believes in ghosts. He does-- he thinks Margaret is here, and angry. Julia!Margaret!Echo asks why Margaret would be angry, but he apparently just means she wanted more time. He goes through their backstory-- estranged for years, too stubborn to pick up the phone, until he finally showed up on the doorstep last week and they realized they didn't have anything to stay mad about. He says he's the lucky one, and that Jack would be doing better if he had talked to Margaret about his debts. ("Addiction. Not for the faint of heart," he says as he pours another drink.) That's news to Margaret.

In the Dollhouse, Topher is crouched behind a tasteful Asian-inspired sofa, doing a cheesy "In a world..." voiceover. He and Sierra scramble around serene vases and tranquil pools until Sierra decoys Topher with the Nerf football and shoots him in the back. They trade terrible anatomically-themed action hero one-liners like "I told you I'd have your back" and "The quickest way to a man's heart is through his back" until they decide it's going nowhere and start the next round, best of 11.

In Ballard's apartment, he comes home to find Mellie has laid out dinner already. She has a key, but wants to assure him that she's not in there nuzzling his shirts, although his shirts are clearly nuzzleworthy... you get the idea. She babbles, Ballard is grumpy and distant. Finally, she says they have to talk, or rather that she has to talk at him.

"I like being with you," she says, "In fact, I love it. And you say everything is fine, so I'm going to stop asking, even if that means lying next to you when everything's not fine. I'm going to give you what you need. If you want to give back, give back, but it doesn't have to mean anything." Oh, honey. Remember when you developed self-respect and I started liking you? I guess her parameters involve staying close to Ballard.

After the speech, they kiss, and Ballard starts getting a little violent. He pushes her against the wall and they kiss roughly for a while, and then they head for the bedroom where he throws her to the bed and (shock!) takes off his shirt. One thing he's always managed well in this role is projecting much more menace than one would expect from the heroic FBI agent type, and well, this is menacing sex.

Possibly intentionally, we cut to Echo riding a horse. Gleefully. She puts him back in the stable and Nick catches her. He says the horse doesn't like most people. Then he asks, "Did you think I wouldn't recognize my own mother, mother?" Which, as act breaks go, is a good one.

When we come back, Nick and Margaret are sitting on a bench in the stables, talking. Margaret says it's a relief and asks how he knew. Nick says it was lots of things-- the way she moved, her bedtime routine, the horse-- but after the kiss. He knows about the Dollhouse from being a customer, but apparently thinks the Manhattan branch is the only one. He comes clean about his gambling debts-- he says at first he was a little relieved that she dies before she knew, but now he just wants her back. Margaret shares her suspicions about her murder with him, but they're interrupted by Victor talking to Jack about the horse.

Turns out the horse had been drugged, then treated with a masking agent. He could pass for race-ready for the sale, but then he'd wither. "In layman's terms," says Victor, "you just made yourself a four-million-dollar pet." Echo is shocked, and Jack pitches a fit, banging on things with a shovel. Echo lets out a little scream, which leads to Jack looking around. When he finds Nick and Echo, he attacks Nick with the shovel, and Nick responds by jabbing him in the side with one of those hay-hauling hooks.

In the Fortress, Boyd tells Adelle that he ran an analysis and found that the same masking agent was used on the horse and on Margaret. He wants to get involved, but Adelle is firm that he defer to the new handler. Boyd awkwardly asks if she's aware of the "Topher situation". She is. As she sits quietly in the dark, she says that loneliness only leads to detachment, and the people most in need of reaching out are the least capable of it. She says she allows him one diagnostic a year, and we see Sierra serve him birthday cake. "So Topher can make friends," Boyd says.

Echo and Nick run from Jack in to her room and lock the door. As Jack bangs around looking for a way in, Nick suggests a way they can make Jack pay for the murder-- if Echo writes a letter and postdates it, suggesting that she suspects she'd be murdered, with how and when, they could use it as evidence. Echo buys it and starts writing. As she does, she gets to the part about the drugs and the masking agent when she realizes Jack doesn't know about horses. Nick tries to explain for a bit, then gives up and pulls out a syringe. "You never could just let things lie, mother."

When we get back from commercial, Nick is still monologuing. He needed the money for his gambling debts, and drugged the horse in case that was all he got in the inheritance. He pins Echo on the bed and tries to inject her. Jack, at the door, has traded his shovel for a shotgun and blows his way into the room. Jack and Nick fight, and Jack finally knocks Nick out. William comes by to investigate the noise, and Echo sends him to call an ambulance. In the confusion, she burns the letter blaming Jack.

On the bed, Jack says he hopes Margaret didn't know about Nick, as it would have killed her. "It did," says Julia!Margaret!Echo.

The next day, William reads a new handwritten note from Margaret that pins her upcoming death on Nick and rewrites her will, including the phrase, "So that means more for everyone else. Yay!" Jocelyn asks, "Mom wrote this?" Bill goes on to read, "Jocelyn, I know the tone of this document may seem out of character, but I feel wiser and full of warmth in these last days and I have some things to say to each of you." Heh.

In Ballard's apartment, Mellie is tidying while Paul is in the shower. She says, "Pretty crazy last night, right? I mean, I liked it, but not all the time, you know? Not all the time. So, what are you doing today? More hunting for Dollhouse clients?" Ballard is in the shower, looking self-loathing. "I found one," he says.

Julia!Echo!Margaret has one final conversation with her tropical cookie and hands him a letter.

Finally, she's with Adelle in the Mental Hygiene Chair. Adelle is looking about what you'd expect an incredible hardass who is watching her friend die to look like. She asks gently if Margaret was tempted to take Echo's body and run for it. Margaret says maybe a little, but she had her turn and the people she loved are moving on. "Besides," she adds, "I know you. You're too much like me. I wouldn't have gotten as far as the airport." Then, a little hesitant, she asks, "Addy? Will I see my life flash before my eyes?"

"Every single moment," vows Adelle.

Mindwipe.

Okay, I feel like I owe Jane a little something after the mid-recap complaining. I loved the B plots here-- Topher and Ballard's reveals were great. Honestly, I'm quite relieved that Topher spends his one day with a Doll of his own playing laser tag and eating pizza, rather than something orders of magnitude skeevier. But it makes sense, and humanizes him in a pathetic sort of way. And of course puts him in the same position Adelle was in the last episode-- not only the least capable of reaching out to others, but also the least able to indulge in the self-delusion it takes to get what you need from a Doll. And Ballard... wow. Lovely and horrible, and the funhouse mirror version of Topher and Adelle.