Dollhouse got off to an inauspicious start last week. The reviews have been decidedly mixed and the ratings for the premiere have been less than sparkling. I found several things to like about the show, but questions remains. How will Dollhouse keep itself from being a show about custom made hookers? When will we see more of Whedon’s true style? Is this show already DOA?

Dollhouse kicks off with some flash back action. One of the active’s code named “Alpha” escapes and kills all the other actives except Echo. Its clear that Alpha is the naked man who figured out Echo’s identity last episode. Throughout the episode, we got several flashbacks of the aftermath of Alpha’s escape. Alpha has made himself into a composite of all the badasses in the Dollhouse and seems to be unstoppable.

There is a new client at the Dollhouse, hiring Echo as his companion for a trip to the great outdoors. The client is played by Matt Keeslar known to nerds as the star of ABC family’s The Middleman. The rugged outdoorsman and Echo are rock climbing, bow hunting in the wilderness and having sex in a tent. Not particularly interesting until we finally discover the real purpose of the trip. He wants to hunt Echo. He gives her a head start, and his psychotic hunt begins.

Echo’s handler Agent Boyd is parked in the woods waiting and monitoring her. While waiting he’s approached by a man dressed as a forest ranger.  The fake ranger is working for the psychotic hunter and holds Boyd hostage to give his boss a chance to kill Echo undisturbed. Boyd’s overpowers his assailant and begins to try to track Echo and the hunter.

I have to admit that I really like agent Boyd. He’s played well by Harry Lennix and is believable as the show’s voice of reason. His character is integral for the show to work, I think Whedon chose well with Lennix.
While running from the hunter, Echo is drugged making her even more weak. The drugs cause Echo to have visions of herself before the Dollhouse and of Alpha‘s killing spree. The cracks in her psyche seem to be what much of the future of the series will hold. Although I know something like that has to happen to give the series momentum, I pray they we won’t be walking down the same awful path that My Own Worst Enemy did.

After Boyd gets free, he tracks down Echo for extraction. Unfortunately, the hunter is close behind and he wounds Boyd. Echo and Boyd continue to run, now with Boyd bleeding all over the pines. Echo realizes that the only way to escape their hunter is to go after him rather than run. Its a silly but satisfying reversal. Now armed, a new game between them starts. After a few scrapes, Echo and the hunter end up in a standoff. Echo gets the better of him and stabs him in the neck with one of his arrows. Shaken and exhausted, she returns to the injured Boyd and safety. Back at the Dollhouse, the group tries to figure out how a psychotic got past their screening process. Alpha is behind the psycho hunter as well.

The thrust of the show is beginning to show. Certainly there will be moments where we get titillated by the actives acting like custom hookers, but it looks like there will be some more depth. The idea of a perfect insane killer running loose looking for a way to destroy the Dollhouse will at least give the show a shadowy bogey man. That might be the missing piece to a pretty good piece of Sci-Fi.