Recap: Dollhouse 202, "Instinct"

We open on the Chair, empty. Ballard is staring at it, fascinated. He sits down experimentally. It's actually good to see this kind of morbid fascination from someone-- you'd almost think it would be more widespread, although I guess part of everyone's arc is getting inured to this kind of empathy for the Dolls.

Topher catches Ballard and sarcastically offers him a treatment. Ballard jumps up and lies that he was just resting-- he mentions that he hasn't been sleeping. Topher notices that Ballard flipped some switches and treats him to some smarmy sarcasm about leaving the tech to the grownups. Ballard mentions that Echo's new engagement is weird for him, and Topher acknowledges that the "other protocol" opens up whole new worlds for them. When Ballard asks why, Topher explains that he used the chair to change neurons, which then made sweeping changes on a glandular level. This, he says, could mean he could eventually program the brain to, for instance, fight cancer, or be telekinetic, or not to have that gag reflex when eating sea urchin.

Okay, two points. (A): I'm not sure I follow the logic from glandular changes to telekinesis. (B): Topher talking about programming away the gag reflex gives me shivers, regardless of the presence of sea urchins.

Topher, however, is quite impressed with himself and says that, while he doesn't want to use the word "genius", he'd be fine if Ballard wanted to.

Ballard looks skeptical, though, and has other concerns. "You could do that to me?" he asks.

"Not until you're wiped," Topher expositions. "The human brain is like Van Halen. If you just pull out one part and replace it, it degenerates."

Ballard says he doesn't really understand, and Topher makes his sarcastic face and says, "But it's cute that you're trying." Then he says, without apparent irony, "Good talk!" which I guess, for him, it totally was. As Ballard leaves, Topher tells him to tell Echo that "we're all very proud."

Echo, meanwhile, is in bed with a guy. She gets up and puts on her robe. Eerie music plays as she sneaks into the hall. She walks into a nursery where a baby is gurgling quietly in his crib. "I thought I heard you," says Echo. She picks him up, sits down, and lowers the strap on her teddy to let him breastfeed as she sings a lullaby.

So, that's what Topher meant by "the other protocol".

After the credits, it's morning, and Echo is carrying the baby to the kitchen. She calls out for the guy, whose name is Nate, as she makes coffee. Nate pops suddenly out of his office, and then does his very best to set a record in the "acting nervous and distant" category. He holds the baby (Jack) at arm's length and puts him down as fast as possible. He rushes off to work, stopping to check that the office is locked before he heads out and tells Echo not to wait up.

As he pulls out, Echo notices one of the Dollhouse vans down the street. (Drop this in the Dollhouse suggestion box: Add "ignores the big sinister black vans" to the baseline programming.)

Later, Echo is walking with the baby and Sierra in the park. She's complaining about Nate's behavior to Sierra, and Sierra says she should make him get involved. Echo says he does fine on all the non-emotional stuff: he does laundry and buys diapers and reads all the books. He's just distant. Echo thinks he's having an affair. Sierra tries to soothe her, saying that she's suffering from lack of sleep and hormones. Echo brings up the van and wonders if Nate's into something illegal, and Sierra decides Echo really, really needs a night off and advises her to take a break for the evening.

"I'd go completely crazy without you," says Echo.
"That's what I'm here for," says Sierra existentially. The Dollhouse will send someone in alone to infiltrate the NSA, or seduce a troublesome FBI agent, or be blind and in a cult, but suburban motherhood? Gonna need backup for emotional support.

Echo thanks Sierra for her help and says she's going to give Nate his space and let him deal with things.

Cut to Echo picking the lock to Nate's office. (An ironic segue! If that were part of the Joss Whedon Drinking Game, any single disc of a DVD set could give you ethanol poisoning.) Echo babbles soothingly to the baby as she goes through the desk drawers.

When Nate comes home, the house is dark. Echo is sitting at the kitchen table with pictures of Nate with another woman spread out in front of her. "Who is she?" she asks.

Nate tries to deflect, but finally he tells Echo that he was in love with the woman in the pictures, but she died before he met Echo. He says he's not really over it, and he should have told her. "It was a mistake," he says. "This was all a terrible mistake."

Echo seems to accept the explanation, and Nate offers to take Jack tonight so she can sleep. He hugs her and says, "Things will be better in the morning," he says, while staring creepily into space behind her.

Echo wakes up in the middle of the night again and heads to the nursery, where Nate is hissing angrily into the phone. "You promised me something you didn't deliver," he says. "This is not working. Get rid of her. I'll get rid of the baby."

We come back from the break to Senator Wyndam-Pryce's house. (The title card tells us his actual name is Daniel Perrin.) He's at the computer, wondering out loud to his wife whether he jumped the gun on the press conference calling Rossum out. He says he was hoping that other witnesses would come forward, but everyone is scared. He also says that his source at the NSA dried up-- which I assume is supposed to refer to Dominic. His wife comes in and looks over his shoulder, pointing out that, with the financial records he has, he could probably prove money laundering. In response, he tries to take off her robe. She tells him to focus.

The doorbell rings and the wife goes to answer it. The Senator says he doesn't want to get them for money laundering, and he knows they're hiding something worse. He's just in the middle of musing that Rossum has the power to really lean on people when he realizes his wife hasn't come back yet. He calls out, but she comes back with some folders and says there wasn't anyone at the door.

There's another door, and someone is at it. (Ironic segue! Drink.) Adelle is paying Madeleine, formerly November, a visit. Adelle compliments the apartment. "Thanks," says Madeleine. "I stripped most of it back to the original." Heh.

They chit-chat a bit-- Maddy is living off her contract money instead of working. Adelle suggests she travel a bit, and is asking about her love life when Maddy cuts her off. She says she's worried that if she says the wrong thing, men in black vans will drag her off.

So, this is the first time we've really seen Madeleine in character, and she's definitely not Mellie. Where Mellie was warm and gave everything away, there's detachment here, and something sharp behind it. Great acting from Miracle, I think.

Adelle assures her that her obligation to the Dollhouse is complete, but she wants her to come in for a diagnostic. "I'm worried about you," she says. Maddy suggests that Adelle's actually worried that she'll expose the Dollhouse. "The two worries aren't mutually exclusive," she says as she sips tea.

Maddy asks if this has anything to do with the fact that she got out early, and asks what happened. Adelle won't tell her and insists on the diagnostic again. "I won't take no for an answer," she says.

"No," says Maddy, "I don't believe you will."

I'm having a hard time believing that the Dollhouse doesn't have layers of contingency plans for Dolls who live out their contracts. I'm going to assume that we just haven't seen them yet and Adelle prefers to keep things friendly if she can.

Back at the House of Baby, Echo is trying to sneak out with Jack in tow. Nate catches them at the door and she lies awkwardly about where she's going. Turns out she can't go, anyway, because Nate has helpfully had the car taken to the shop. He's taken the day off and made breakfast, which must makes Echo more nervous. She insists that it's time to feed Jack, and Nate tells her to take a nap afterwards.

Once Echo is upstairs, she calls Sierra and asks her to come get her. Sierra says she'll be right over, but then Echo watches from the window as the Dollhouse van pulls up to intercept Sierra and she gets in. She panics and starts checking exits, but the Toy Soldiers have them covered. She heads back upstairs as Ballard comes in the front door.

Ballard tells the others that Echo is paranoid and has the baby with her, so he wants her to see him first. They follow the sound of the baby gurgling up to the nursery. (Side note: Jack does nothing but gurgle, no matter what's going on around him. Echo has adopted the world's quietest and best-tempered baby.) Ballard offers Echo a treatment through the door, but nothing happens, because she has left the baby monitor in the crib and gone out the window using a fire escape ladder. Echo drives off in, I'm guessing, Sierra's car.

Next, Nate is in the Fortress, filing a complaint with Adelle. "Your zombie took my Jack, and you're sitting here drinking tea!" he says.

Adelle assures him Echo won't hurt Jack. "She loves him. She's his mother."
"Are you listening to yourself?" asks Nate.
"This is not someone playing make-believe," says Adelle. She explains Echo remembers planning for Jack, carrying him for nine months, and giving birth to him.
"I paid you a lot of money, and you send a crazy kidnapping chick to my house. What did I pay you for?" asks Nate.
"A mother," says Adelle sharply. "You could have hired a nanny, or a babysitter, but you wanted someone to bond deeply with the child, because you couldn't yourself. Which is, of course, understandable..."

Nate says that this was a terrible idea, but Adelle says it's very important that a child feels loved early on-- that they are "imprinted" with a sense that the world is safe. "A child that is unloved grows up to be... well, a sociopath, most likely," she says.

Ouch. I guess Adelle is in sales-pitch mode here, but that seems rather uncharacteristically inconsiderate of her. Plenty of people have crappy childhoods-- way worse than a successful but emotionally distant single father-- and manage to grow up as good people. (Not to mention the fact that Adelle and everyone in her employ wander very close to the line of sociopathy, don't they?)

Anyway, Adelle also says that they know exactly where Echo is and they are retrieving her as they speak.

Echo is apparently at the bank, where, she helpfully explains to the baby, she plans to take out as much of Nate's money as possible and then road trip. She spots the Dollhouse van and turns away from the bank, walking nervously down the street as fast as possible. She spots a cop car and runs up to it, begging for help. She tells them about the van and that her husband is trying to kill her. The van is no longer in sight, which made me think that they were going to treat her like a crazy lady, but the police, to their credit, take her seriously and bring her in.

In the station, Echo makes a statement to a sympathetic officer. The officer says that some guys just can't handle the stress of having a kid, and they snap.

"He didn't snap," says Echo. "He just... went away. The person I love isn't there anymore and there's a stranger there." Ladies and gentlemen, we've set the bar for this season's Irony Per Line record. (Still has a way to go before beating the exchanges between Adelle and Roger!Victor from last season.)

Through the interview room window, Echo sees Nate and Ballard come in and start talking to the captain. (Ballard flashes a badge-- presumably a Dollhouse-issued fake.) The case officer tells Echo to wait while she goes to sort things out, but Echo storms out of the room and confronts Nate.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" asks the captain.
"Positive. That's my baby, but that is not my wife," says Nate, and it turns out in this case that the truth is a pretty good cover story.

There's a quick struggle as someone takes Jack's carrier seat from Echo, which, naturally, causes her to freak out. Ballard tries to calm her, which would usually work, but she keeps struggling and screaming and begging as he and a uniformed officer drag her away.

That was actually really kind of raw and intense, which I think is one of the purposes of this episode-- to re-emphasize the potential cruelty of the Dollhouse program. (Also, maybe it's mining the whole mother-and-baby thing for emotion, but I think I have to credit my feelings during that scene to Eliza's acting, which doesn't stand out all that often but deserves some credit when she earns it.)

Back at the Dollhouse, November is in the Chair, which is glowing pink while Topher runs the diagnostic. She's saying a string of numbers at first, and to avoid getting drawn into any Lost-esque conspiracy theories I'm going to say that she'd just been asked to count backwards from one hundred by sevens. Topher cuts her off, has her repeat some random words, and asks about headaches, dizziness, nightmares, and deja vu. He says he hasn't found any phantom files, asks her what the words were again. ("Boat, cucumber, wire" in case they're not actually random.) He gives her a clean bill of health and says they should put her in the recruiting DVD.

(Madeleine has a definite retro look to her-- both this pink skirt suit and the grey dress she was wearing for tea with Adelle look like updated versions of 60s outfits.)

On her way out, he offers to throw in some additional enhancements. ("Sweet apps," he calls them.) "Any interest in ventriloquism?"

Maddy turns him down and goes to leave when Ballard drags Echo in, still kicking and begging for help. Ballard wrestles her into the chair. Topher is freaked out, and asks if he offered her a treatment. "That's a great idea, Topher!" says Ballard sarcastically.

Echo wrenches free and runs out into the Dollhouse, where a team of orderlies in Nehru jackets wrestle her to the ground and shoot a sedative into her arm. Topher complains that he can't wipe her when she's knocked out, and will have to wait until she wakes up.

Once Echo is settled in the chair, Ballard runs into Madeleine, which is awkward. At least, for him. Particularly when Maddy says she remembers him-- but it turns out she's just talking about her last day. He takes her to the doctor's office to see about a cut to her head, where, in the absence of Dr. Saunders, she is seen to by another Nehru-clad orderly.

Ballard explains that no one has actually taken anyone's baby, and that Echo is an Active. "It's all pretend," he says.
"It's real to her," says Maddy. "All that emotion, all that pain." She pauses. "Was I ever like that?"

This makes Ballard flash back to his break-up with her as Mellie. ("Stop being so cruel. Can't you see this is killing me?") But Ballard just says he's new and doesn't really know.

Maddy grabs Ballard's hand and says, "She'll be okay." Ballard looks confused, and Maddy explains that he looked worried about Echo, but "she'll forget. No pain. No grief." A beat. "They did it for me."

She explains about how her daughter died, and she crumbled, alone and unable to function.

"I'm sorry," says Ballard. "I had no idea." He means it.
"How could you?" asks Maddy. "But it all worked out. I met Adelle."
"She came to you," Ballard says flatly. Again, I think one of the goals of this episode is to show the predatory nature of the Dollhouse-- partly to Ballard, mostly to us.

But Maddy doesn't seem to pick up on the edge in his voice. She's satisfied with the deal.
"And you're happy now?" asks Ballard.
"I'm not sad," she shrugs and walks away.

In the chair, Echo begs Topher for help. "You seem like a nice man," she says, which goes to show that the drugs have probably not worn off yet.
Topher says he can help make it all go away, starts the wipe, and then does his part of the script. "Hello, Echo. How are you feeling?"
"Did I fall asleep?" she asks.
"For a little while," says Topher, looking relieved.
Echo drives the palm of her hand into his nose.
"Shall I go now?"

Which seems like a good time for an act break.

We come back to the Perrin household, where the senator is reading through the files. They're wiretap transcripts that describe the Dollhouse's business. "This is prostitution, human trafficking, maybe murder," he says in shock. He says that their technology could have been saving his mother from Alzheimer's, but instead they used it to set up the Dollhouse.

His wife says that, when they started, she thought this would just be another political trophy, but now she really wants him to fight. "We'll find proof," she says.

"We have better than proof," says Senator Wyndam-Pryce. "We have a name." We, the audience, will have to wait to see what name it is, though.

Echo gets into the passenger seat of a car, then looks confused for a second. "Go, please," she says. I assume this is to let us know that we're not dealing with Omega!Echo here. She then leans over and starts the car, which I guess had the keys in it. Boyd should circulate a memo about that.

In the Fortress, Adelle is grilling Topher on what happened. He gets ice from Adelle's minibar for his nose, which I thought was a nice touch. Ballard thinks Echo's going back for the baby. Adelle wants to know if she was really wiped, and Topher says yes. Adelle asks if they're looking at another composite event.

"I don't think so," says Ballard. "I think we're looking at a genius."
"You know," says Topher, "I'm not as okay with you using the term as I thought I'd be."

Ballard doesn't think the wipe reversed the changes on the glandular level.

"Of course," says Topher, "The maternal instinct is the purest-- too strong for a normal wipe." (You know, I like the idea, but they really could have phrased it a little more like "The hormonal changes I invoked weren't reversed by a normal wipe" and a little less like "Her ladyparts are stronger than logic!") "I outplayed myself," Topher says, amused. "Like in chess!"

"Not like in chess," says Ballard. "Like Echo is in trouble and pain because he didn't think it through!"
"Maybe triggering lactation was a bridge too far," says Topher. (I'll take "Lines You Never Thought You'd Say When You Got Into Acting" for $1000, Alex.) "Live and learn, I guess."

Back at Babies 'R' Us, Nate is making an effort with Jack. He changes a diaper and puts him in the crib, then goes downstairs to make a bottle. He's interrupted by a phone call, which makes him spill the bottle. It's Adelle, warning him to get out of the house and take the baby with him. The lights go out like the power's been cut and Nate rushes upstairs, but finds the crib is empty. He comes back downstairs to find Echo, holding the baby in one hand and a chef's knife in the other.

"Mommy's home, " she says.

So, let's get a little meta while we go to commercial. Echo's playing a part we all recognize here-- the horror movie villain, the obsessed woman who's convinced she belongs in your life. Basic Instinct, Swimfan, Single White Female, Obsessed. I won't be ignored, right?

Except here she's right. And the roles are reversed, because she was forced to think she belonged there by everyone else. Where the horror movie stalker is a caricature of a woman trying to fit into a role she's written for herself, Echo is here, in the same situation, because everyone else had written the role for her and forced her into it. As in the pilot, this is a tragedy of trying to sculpt a narrative using real people for characters.

And we're back. Nate is pleading with Echo not to hurt the baby. Echo, using flat Doll diction, says he took away her baby, and asks why. Nate tries to explain, but Echo gets mad and waves the knife. "I want you to go away now."

"I know that you love Jack very much," says Nate. "But he's not yours, and I'm afraid you're going to hurt him." Echo gestures some more with the knife, but Nate pushes on. "Do you remember? They made you into someone else. None of this is real."

Echo seems to recognize this is true. "I'm not real. Do you know who is real?"

"I don't," says Nate. "I'm sorry. I put you through hell. They made you love Jack because I asked them to." He explains that his wife died giving birth to Jack, and he blamed the baby for it. "Can you believe that? I blamed a baby. But I wanted him to be loved, because I couldn't do it."

Nate's moral arc is actually really interesting. He might be the first client who not only ends up regretting that he hired one, but confronts his complicity in their pain head-on. (Well, besides Adelle with Roger!Victor) In the first act, they used his awkwardness and emotional distance to imply that he was the villain, with Echo and the baby as some sort of nefarious plan. But those things end up being character notes, and flaws that he overcomes. That's nicely done.

Anyway, Nate's confession makes Echo look hopeful. "Then, can I be his mommy?"

"I'm sorry," Nate says again. "You can't. Karen is a part of Jack, and he's all I have left of her." He steps forward. "So, you can do what you want to me. But please, don't hurt him."

At that point, Ballard comes through the front door. Echo silently hands the baby to Nate, drops the knife, and walks out.

At the park where she talked with Sierra earlier, Echo sits on a bench in front of the playground. Ballard approaches and asks if she's okay. (It's nice that he seems to talk to her like she's a person. Even Boyd didn't do that-- although I got the feeling he was deliberately trying to distance himself.)

"I had a baby. Now I don't have him anymore. I feel sad," says Echo.
"I'm sorry," says Ballard.
"These things that happened to me-- I feel them," says Echo.
"I know, Echo," says Ballard. "I know you remember everything."
Echo shakes her head. "Not remember. Feel. They made me love my little boy. Then they took him away. They make it so real-- every time, they make it so real. Why do they do that?"

Ballard says it might be too much for her. He says he can work on their project to free her and the other Dolls by himself, and tell Topher what's happening to Echo so he can come up with a wipe that works.

"Feeling nothing would be worse," says Echo. "That would be like before, when I was asleep. I'm awake now. I don't want to go back to sleep."

And that's the other purpose of this episode-- Echo's decision to accept the pain of feeling. (Making, of course, the opposite choice from Madeleine.) Both are related to the repeated motif that the feelings are real to the Dolls-- which gets back to what I was saying about the tragedy of using people as characters.

It's elegantly constructed and probably thematically important. But it wasn't really fun, or mindblowing, or exciting. And the thing I admire most about Joss is his ability to do this stuff while being fun, mindblowing, and exciting.