Dollhouse: True Believer

Episode 1.05

There's not really that much I really want to say about True Believer, but here's the gist of the episode: Jonas Sparrow has spent a lot of his years in prison and the last time round, he claimed a conversion and now lives just outside of Pleasant, Arizona leading a whole group of other religious believers. The people of Pleasant don't know what goes on inside the compound and so they're not exactly friendly. On their once-a-month trip to get supplies, the locals cause a bit of a ruckus with smiley, sing-y, much-too-happy compound people and when they leave, we see the shopping list has 'save me' written on the back. Hey presto, the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) have finally been granted their tiny window to find out what Sparrow is really doing.

Here's where Echo comes in. Only a true believer will be able to infiltrate the group but they go one step further: Echo has to be blind. Not just pretend-blind, but she'll have an operation that will make her actually blind, and the images that her eyes would otherwise see will be transmitted to the ATF's surveillance cameras. A tad extreme, huh?



True Believer ranks as one of my not-so-favourite episodes because there's not really very much that I love about it. I do have to say, the technology is amazing. Unbelievably scary, but amazing. The part where Echo is getting her vision surgically removed reminds me eerily of a certain scene in Buffy Season 8 The Long Way Home issue #3, I believe ...

Which reminds me of something else that I keep meaning to mention, but keep forgetting. The wipes with all the flashback scenes and television-type-boxy screens? Very very similar to Tru's rewind scenes in Tru Calling where Eliza Dushku just happens to play the title character.

I did like Topher's reference to 'man-reactions': basically, Victor is feeling things that he shouldn't (in the sense that he shouldn't be able to feel anything of the sort at all) for Sierra ... I'm excited for the next Miss Lonely Hearts engagement, the perilous future of Mr Dominic and what's going to be happening between Ballard and Mellie, so I guess those are some reasons to like this episode for.

I'm contemplating watching another episode now ... I shouldn't ...