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5.0 out of 5 stars
Blow-by-Blow Review of Instinct, October 3, 2009
This review is from: Dollhouse Season 2 (Amazon Instant Video)
As "Instinct" begins, the viewer is quickly asked to take his suspension of disbelief (in that people's minds can be wiped and replaced), and elevate it further to accept that certain coding in an imprint can affect glandular responses in the imprinted, but then shore it up with the reassurance that an existing mind cannot successfully be altered (the terrific Van Halen analogy). Mind does win over matter, it seems. After this opening scene, the entire first act shows us the reality of Echo's imprint: she is a wife and mother whose husband has suddenly started acting peculiar. Other reviewers have pointed out that this feels like a horror movie and I believe that's exactly how Eliza Dushku wanted to play it.
Alexis Denisof then returns as the politician gunning to take down Rossum, the parent corporation of the Dollhouse. This series tells the story from the point of view of the undying Big Bad and feels already like the Hero will be the one changing each season. Last season's Agent Ballard has been replaced by this season's Senator Perrin. Will Alpha be the show's Racer X once again? As in the previous season, paranoia for us viewers sets in early and I'm wondering if Mrs. Perrin is another Active, maybe Juliet? Perhaps the handler came to the door and gave her misleading information from the Dollhouse; perhaps it was Alpha with legitimate insider info.
We cut to Miracle Laurie reprising her layered role of Madeline/Mellie/November and at first I was disappointed in her sedate delivery. But later in the episode we are given reason to believe that perhaps her emotions have been purposely diminished at her own request. Here, though, we begin to see more of the multiply interpretable dialogue that characterizes a Joss show.
The scene where we return to Echo as Emily Jordan feels like part of a law and order procedural, but that's exactly what Echo thinks is happening. After the break, Mr. Jordan's take on events is jarring as it drives home once more that Emily Jordan is wrong in every way since she isn't real. The explanations are a bit heavy-handed here, but it helps to bring new viewers up to speed. Sandwiching this segment before another scene that includes Emily speaking with a police woman in complete earnest about her troubles keeps the perspectives spinning. The police believe Emily because she is telling the whole truth as she knows it, which sadly has as much to do with reality as the testimony of a dissociative personality.
A brief respite from tension arrives in the form of the amusing diagnostic that Fran Kranz's Topher performs on Madeline. Even here, though, we are given clues about the events that will unfold between the present and Epitaph One. Topher's amusing use of iPhone-popularized "Apps" in an offer for personality enhancement is troubling both if Madeline's personality is whole and he was lying about Van Halen or if November herself is still an Active operating under an imprint. When Ballard busts into the scene, several more important facts are revealed: Dr. Saunders is still gone, Madeline doesn't seem to remember any of her Active time, Ballard now learns of a reasonable circumstance for someone volunteering to become an Active, and Madeline is satisfied that she's not sad. Now I begin to wonder if Madeline will experience a parallel to Echo's memory leaks, except the imprint memories might then be spilling into the mind of a real person instead of a Doll.
Echo's behavior after her wipe totally startled me even though I thought something like that could happen. It's just nice when a show can do that.
Who was Senator Perrin's mother and what happened to her? What name was he given? There's no time to waste in a 13-episode order, so the arc has to move forward constantly even if it can only be done in these disconnected scenes. I kinda hope Alyson Hannigan guest stars as an Active sent to seduce Senator Perrin (since Aly and Alexis are married in real life).
As Echo escapes, the juxtaposition of the ominous soundtrack and her clueless approach to driving made me laugh unexpectedly. Then Topher's dialogue with Ballard starting at his "genius" comment kept the humor going all the way through "...lactation was a bridge too far. Live and learn." Here, though, we reconsider if Matter wins over Mind after all. And if Matter = body, then we have the premise of the whole series recapitulated. Plus, Topher goes too far.
The final Horror movie scene plays out predictably but with the twist that this now mindless Doll is feeling love and possessiveness as a residual effect of the glandular changes from her imprint. In the end, the viewer is corrected along with Ballard in the explanation that Echo retains the feelings rather then the memories of her experiences. And Echo, unlike Madeline, would rather feel sad than nothing at all. In her final words, she provides us with the suggestion that there is a connection between sentience and emotional awareness.
C'mon, this is badass! I am a huge fan of this show!
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