Dollhouse: Caroline's A Victim

This week's Dollhouse, entitled "Echoes" was quite good. Not mind-bending amazingly good like "Man on the Street" was, but very good. Let's get started.

This week, we had a very Lost-like format to the episode. We see Echo returning to the University, while we watch flashbacks of Caroline in the events that led up to her becoming an active. The weekly plot was that a drug capable of loss of impulse control has been released at a local campus. The person who enlists the Dollhouse has deep ties to it's beginning it seems. More on that later. The theory is that since the actives have man-made mental blocks in, that the drug shouldn't effect them. That plan, of course, is no good. Each active remembers things that have happened to them in various forms. Sierra begins to remember her recent rapes while in her blank state. Victor is flashing back to him being a soldier in possibly Iraq. What we don't know, in this situation, is if it's before he became an active or if he was on an assignment. I'm betting on the former. November/Mellie is remembering her recent assault and comes rather close to saying her trigger phrase herself.

Echo, while on a repeat engagement, sees the news about the drugs and her programming triggers her to act. She feels compelled to act on the situation and doesn't know why. She is rembering her actions back before she was an active.

Let's focus on the Dollhouse mythological aspects. We find out that Echo's real name is Caroline Ferrell. Leading up to her becoming an active we see that she was involved in an animal rights group. She plans a break-in to the Rossum Building on the Freemont campus. When her and her boyfriend make their way in, they find out that the Rossum corporation is not only experimenting on animals, but that there are human fetuses that are being used for their testing.

It seems that the Rossum Corporation has ties into the Dollhouse. Their CEO, Clive Ambrose, speaks with DeWitt rather personally. She later says in her drug-induced state that their jobs may be connected in some form. (That she could have had his, and vice-versa). It looks like Rossum will certainly resurface during the course of the show.

We also see more of that conversation that started out the season premier. We find out that DeWitt offered Caroline "her life in exchange for her life" and that she seems to be under a five year contract. At the end of the episode, Sam (who released the drug on the campus) is offered the same deal. It will be interesting to see if we find out what other reward they offered Caroline for her cooperation.

Other things that happened.
Mellie/November leaves Ballard and comes to the Dollhouse
DeWitt says that Caroline is "getting back" to her through Echo
We see the first return customer so far (and he's tied to a bed)

The Big Questions:
1. What connection does Rossum have to Dollhouse?
2. It seems November is out of Ballard's life right now, so what will he be up to?
3. What happened between the Rossum building incident and Caroline becoming an active?
4. What kind of research was Rossum doing?

In other news: Topher in his underwear = Thumbs up.