Dollhouse: Meet Jane Doe

"You are the coldest bitch on this planet!"

And this is where it all starts to look a bit rushed: three months have passed, just like that. There are only seven episodes left to wrap up the whole series, thanks to Fox and their stupidity. I suppose Rupert Murdoch has much worse things to answer for, but the premature cancellation of Dollhouse has to go on the list somewhere.

Not that it isn't incredibly exciting to watch, of course. If we look at the series as it is, not how it could have been if given more time, then it has never been more exciting or addictive. But wouldn't it have been nice to see Echo slowly falling in love with Ballard, or Adelle slowly being undermined by Rossum? This episode alone could have happened over the course of a whole season.

Regardless, it's clear that never again on Dollhouse will there be such a thing as a status quo. Echo and Ballard have been training and plotting Rossum's downfall for done time. Echo proves herself worthy on her mission, and they return to the L.A. Dollhouse (one of 23 worldwide, we learn), to bide their time before they strike. Interestingly, Langton joins them.

Echo has now developed a sense of self, but is able to adopt any of her imprints at will. She is, it seems, an evolved being, a homo superior if sorts, to a far greater extent than Alpha ever was. She has fallen in love with Ballard, but he's far too much of a gentleman to sleep with her. He's right, of course; I think most men would recoil from the idea of sex with someone in Echo's situation; the whole thought feels far too rapey for comfort. 

Meanwhile, De Witt is no longer running the Dollhouse, and moral standards have slipped accordingly. There is even talk of selling Sierra to the Dollhouse in Dubai, something which comes close to calling this what it is: slavery. 

Terrifyingly, Topher has come up with a portable device that can imprint anyone, Active or not. And we just know it will be used eventually, like Chekhov's gun, and humanity will be enslaved by a corporation. Interesting metaphor...

He confides in Adelle, who has always been a mother figure to him and, shockingly, she betrays his secret and reveals the technology to Harding, thus regaining control of the Dollhouse. Is she just looking after number one, or is there an agenda at work?

Oh, and are prisons in America really as shockingly inhumane as this?