An OK episode. Thoughts:
* The idea of using Dollhouse technology to copy whole personalities into other bodies is potentially very interesting. Not only can you use it to grant a pseudo-eternal life (pseudo because a copy of me over there doesn’t really help me with my imminent death over here), you can use it to allow people to (sort-of) be in multiple places at once. The use they made of it in this episode was pretty trivial though, and Adelle’s claim that it was a special, one-time deal struck me as absurd. If they could do this, it would be the Dollhouse’s most popular and lucrative service.
* The murder mystery was kinda meh. Lisa guessed who the real killer was; I didn’t care enough to try. My reaction may have been biased by the fact that I reread Haunting of Hill House this week. I can’t help thinking that it would have been a more interesting choice to make Margaret (the woman inhabiting Echo’s body) into a Shirley Jacksonesque unsentimental misanthrope, the kind of woman who, if she was upset that her relatives didn’t love her, would think about mentally torturing them before pushing them down the stairs.
* Agent Ballard’s guilt trip over his rough sex with Mellie just fell flat for me. I get what they’re trying to do there, and it could work, but so far it doesn’t.
* Topher’s “birthday present,” on the other hand, was the best part of the episode.
I’m looking forward to next week. Alpha! Death! The looming threat of series cancellation! Woo-hoo!