Last week’s Dollhouse was a vast improvement over the premiere episode. The psychotic hunter and more backstory on the rouge badass code named “Alpha” was satisfying and fast paced. I was very encouraged by it. Dollhouse though as a whole seems better suited as a self contained narrative than as a series. I’m certainly not the first or only person to wonder about this on the internet, but I have to second it.

Dollhouse brings back the titillation this week by taking Echo onto the stage as a backup dancer for a pop star with a dangerous stalker. The star doesn’t want another bodyguard, but the threats are so much that her manager hires the Dollhouse to create a perfect stealth bodyguard. The show serves up half naked bodies left and right to keep the audience from zoning out on the lame music and dancing. The Dollhouse also adds another active, Sierra, into the mix posing as a contest winner.

About halfway through the episode Echo figures out that the real psycho here is the pop star herself. She’s not only been encouraging the stalker, but seems to welcome his approaching murder attempt. After barley escaping a bullet, the pop star gives us a lame speech about the pressures of stardom. I found it boring and it made the story grind to a halt.

During the boring soliloquy, the stalker kidnapped Sierra. Back at the Dollhouse we find that the kidnapping was their plan too. The Dollhouse soldiers are coming to extract Sierra after intentionally drawing the stalker away from the pop star. We also have to suffer through the false drama of the kidnapper getting stereotypically crazy and Sierra’s terrified mind games. Again, it seems like they’re trying to add some depth, but it comes off as hollow.

In the last segment of the show the whole mess comes together. The dollhouse goons bust into the stalkers hideout but he’s already left. Echo’s underlying programing, the defense of other actives, seems to overtake the new. She smacked the pop star with a chair wrestling style and called the stalker for an exchange. Echo is better than we imagine because she fools everyone, stopping the stalker and saving the pop star without any help. Her newfound problem solving ability unnerves everyone at the Dollhouse. Clearly, her specialness is being noticed.

The Dollhouse has been a step ahead of the hapless Agent Bower’s, his one source on the Dollhouse is one of their actives. The plant pulls him into an ambushed and he’s shot in a warehouse. Though he survived, he’s just as lost and clueless about the Dollhouse as when he began. Now lying in a hospital shot and dismayed, its hard to imagine how he’ll pull his weak story line back on track.

Despite the attempt to layer some intrigue into the final sequence, Dollhouse seemed to take a step backward. Agent Bowers was once again a huge waste of time, Alpha was nowhere to be found and we got served up not one but two overwrought monologues that slowed the pace painfully. I hope next week sees less lame stalker and more butt kicking semi nude people.