...and then Echo's back in the Dollhouse, apparently already having had her treatment. As we see a bunch of Dolls showering communally (with at least two guys in the mix, lest it seem from the description so far like all the Dolls are female) as we hear Laurence spinning the positives of how the mission ended up, and even though Gabriel survived it sounds like they're keeping the eight million for themselves. They've got to be really happy with Echo that she jacked the ransom from five, then. Adelle is still not pleased about the near miss, though, and hands Laurence a folder as she asks how they're going to contain this. He opens it, and the first page reads "Alpha"...

...and then the Dolls, in unison, are getting into beds sunken below the floor in one of the Dollhouse's rooms. A closeup on Echo gives way to a video of Caroline from college -- she's graduating and recording her thoughts for the yearbook. No offense to her personally, but I don't think the ruminations of most twenty-two-year olds are worth keeping for posterity, unless you're planning to roast them in the future. Whoever is watching the video (he's male) puts a picture of Echo in an envelope with Ballard's name on it, and as Caroline repeats the comment from the beginning about taking her place in the world, we see the guy's well-muscled back, and then pull away to see two bloody corpses, one male and one female. In the Dollhouse, the lids on the beds (...yeesh, that's creepy) slide closed, and that's all she wrote for the pilot. It's got issues, but I liked it better on second viewing, and the fact that the second half moved along nicely and tensely, for the most part, is a good sign. I hear next week's supposed to be fun, too. See you then!

John Ramos is a writer and producer living in Los Angeles. You can reach him at couchbaron@gmail.com.

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