In the title facility of DOLLHOUSE, where “Actives†have their minds completely wiped so they can be imprinted with various personalities, most of the Dolls have signed up voluntarily, or at least to avoid prison, as in the case of our heroine Caroline/Echo (Eliza Dushku). However, viewers who have been following the series know that the Active known as Sierra (Dichen Lachman) is there as the result of being kidnapped, raped and drugged.
In “Belonging,†we learn the circumstances behind Sierra’s presence at the Dollhouse, as well as the fact that neither Dollhouse administrator Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) nor Topher Brink (Fran Kranz), who programs the Actives, has been aware of the reality of the situation.
In flashbacks, we see that Priya, Sierra’s pre-imprint real name, is an artist selling her wares on Venice Beach until she catches the eye of wealthy doctor Nolan Kinnard (the effectively creepy guest star Vincent Ventresca). In addition to being very persistent, Nolan is a contributor to the Rossum Corporation, which secretly runs the various Dollhouses around the world. When Priya won’t respond to standard seduction, Nolan drugs her with anti-psychotics, which cause psychosis in a “normal†person, and has her delivered to the Dollhouse.
To Adelle and Topher, Priya seems like a poor soul who will actually gain a measure of peace by having her tortured brain wiped so that she can become the Active Sierra. However, a year later, as Sierra has her latest romantic engagement with Nolan, clues provided by Echo (who’s pretending to be a lot less aware than she is) lead Topher to the truth.
For once, the usually amoral Topher is horrified, and so is Adelle when she finds out. However, when Adelle confronts Nolan, it turns out that his clout with the Rossum Corporation vastly outweighs Adelle’s scruples in the matter. Nolan now wants Sierra to be permanently programmed as his wife/lover. Adelle, feeling she has no choice, orders Topher to carry out Nolan’s directive, but Topher instead takes a stand and returns Priya to her original state.
When Nolan tries to first seduce her, then attempts to rape her when he realizes she’s unwilling, Priya stabs him to death. Topher is appalled at this turn of events, and even more appalled when Dollhouse enforcer Boyd (Harry Lennix) enlists Topher’s help in cleaning up the mess in a way that obliterates the evidence (not to mention Nolan’s corpse). Priya allows Topher to return her to being Sierra, begging him not to let her remember the murder should he ever bring her back to herself. Through it all, the one constant is the attraction between Priya/Sierra and Victor (Enver Gjokaj), the male Active whose fondness for Sierra survives every wipe.
“Belonging†comes close to being something we don’t expect of DOLLHOUSE: a standalone episode. True, it really helps to understand the workings of the Dollhouse, not to mention how huge it is for Topher to balk at programming a Doll or Adelle to try to argue with her superiors, but with just a few tweaks and more running time, this could serve nicely as its own feature film. The script by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon is sharp, balancing character development and action, and Jonathan Frakes keeps a good tone of mounting dread.
It’s wonderful to see Lachman’s talents showcased (not to mention hear her speak with her own Australian accent as Priya) and Kranz once again kicks out the jams both comically and dramatically (sometimes simultaneously) as the conflicted Topher, who can hardly bear seeing what his cool experiments do in the real world. Star Dushku gracefully takes a back seat for most of the running time, albeit that there’s a key moment between Echo and Boyd near the end. Ventresca is fine as a man full of surface charm and inner rage, while Keith Carradine is chillingly avuncular as one of Adelle’s bosses.
A few gripes include suspension of disbelief that it really takes Adelle and Topher this long to find out Priya/Sierra’s true back story, and that Adelle really supposes for awhile that she can win an argument with the Rossum Corporation. This kind of problem seems like it would have arisen before and in any event, Adelle isn’t a fool – she knows the kind of people who employ her. It’s great to see Williams get to play icy fury, but given all that has already happened and all that we know, it feels like there should be a little more resignation in her reactions from the start.
Still, “Belonging†is a very good episode, with a tense, engaging tale to tell.
