Dollhouse: Instinct

“The human mind is like Van Halen; every time you remove a part, it degenerates!”

Oh my God. There is soOoOoOoOoO much going on in this episode. The central concept is brilliant as always, and an ingenious development of the idea of the Dollhouse. Echo is hired by a bereaved husband to be mother to his child, but the maternal instinct which was imprinted into her remains real even after being wiped. There is an obvious point here about the power of the maternal instinct, is significant that this should happen to Echo at this point, where wiping is not removing everything.

That’s the plot, and it’s a bloody good one which further develops the core philosophical concepts of the show. But around this are threaded all sorts of things which are clearly going to contribute to the season arc. Adelle is still in contact with November who, although she has now left the Dollhouse, is still receiving aftercare and obviously still has a part to play in the overall arc as she’s still appearing in the series. We also learn more about Senator Daniel Perrin, who lives in a big, big house and really has it in for the Dollhouse: did he hire Dominic? He’s certainly researching Rossum, the company behind the Dollhouse which is receiving rather a strong focus in this new season.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but it appears that Doctor Saunders has left for good. Things are changing. Echo and Ballard are plotting together to bring down the Dollhouse. Already, this season is beginning to feel as though the status quo is no longer stable.