Spoilers: Echo, Victor + Smith Episode 2 Details
A few weeks ago casting slides containing spoilers for the new Dollhouse pilot hit the Interwebs. Charlie Jane Anders over at Io9.com has yet more spoilery delights from episode 2 of Joss Whedon’s new FOX TV series. Read on if you’re a spoiler addict:
We have a long noir-ish scene where Ballard tries to get information from an undercover agent, Keene — and we don’t realize until later that Keene is really Victor, one of the Dollhouse’s “Actives.” He’s just been programmed to think he’s an undercover FBI agent, to throw Ballard off the scent. When that doesn’t work, and Ballard gets hold of a photo of Echo, Keene/Victor feeds him some information that leads him to a meeting with Echo herself.
Echo tells Ballard she’s looking for her missing sister, and she needs Ballard’s help. Ballard seems to buy it at first, but it’s too good to be true, an actual lead in his stalled case after so long. He’s all like, We’re a team now, and they share a tender moment — until Ballard pulls a gun on her and accuses her of telling him what he wants to hear.
Then Echo gets the gun away from him and puts two bullets in his chest, and we realize she hasn’t just been programmed to think she’s looking for a missing sister. She hasn’t even just been programmed to deal with Ballard. She’s been programmed to be a psychopath, which she proves later by trying to go into the hospital and finish Ballard off.
The more I think about it, the more Whedon’s decision to make a prequel episode seems like a decent idea. Personally I like a challenge, TV that makes you think and guess and second guess, but I reckon some viewers may need more of a gateway into this whole double-triple(?)-programming-deprogramming malarkey.
*I should point out that agent Ballard is actually now agent “Smith”. Ballard was the original name for Tahmoh Penikett’s character before it got changed for reasons unknown. Although maybe Joss is a big Matrix fan?
You can read more episode 2 spoilers here
Source: Charlie Jane Anders @ Io9.com
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The information at the bottom of this article is incorrect. Tahmoh’s character was originally named Paul Smith and is now Paul Ballard. He says this explicitly in the DragonCon discussion.
That said, thank you for all the effort of putting up this site and gathering all this information. It is definitely appreciated.
Hi Grailwolf. Sorry but I think you’ve got it mixed up - his name was originally going to be Ballard, but it was changed to Smith. Tahmoh himself makes reference to this in this video : -)
No worries on the site - it’s a bit of an experiment really. I loved the premise and only hope that the show justifies it’s potential. I’m glad you find it useful and thanks for posting - let me know if I’m wrong on the Smith thing and I’ll duley correct my mistake.