Top Five Imprints: Echo (Dollhouse)

Despite her main-character status, Echo isn’t my favorite of the Dolls.  In part, it’s just hard to match up to actors like the chameleonic Enver Gjokaj, but I think it’s also partly plot.  The ongoing story of Echo’s evolution interests me more than her week-to-week engagements, and I definitely like the character better when the show gives me forward momentum on her plot.  Still, there are some definite imprints to like here.  These are my favorites.  (Some spoilers.)

Taffy

I mentioned this imprint when I reviewed my Sierra Top Five, Eliza Dushku’s version is cool as well.  I like the way she’s somehow cavalier and all business, at the same time.  Her blithe, flirty demeanor initially makes some of her team members (she’s a safe cracker) doubt her abilities.  When it’s time to put up or shut up, though, she works her mad skills with unrufflable aplomb.

Rebecca Mynor

Echo’s first outing as Rebecca, the deceased wife of a client reenacting a memory he didn’t get a chance to make, is brief but memorable.  I enjoy it because a) the client clearly wants his wife as she was, with no alterations, and b) it shows how an imprint can veer from the intended fantasy.  When they’re interrupted by Dollhouse-related complications, Rebecca jumps to the conclusion that it’s due to dirty dealings in the client’s sudden wealth.  Specifically, she’s convinced that it’s “porn money” and spends the rest of the engagement bickering with him about it.  Hee!

Alice

This one’s a bit of a cheat, since it’s more about Echo’s development than the imprint.  Alice is 100% fantasy, a naïve (dumb?) “good girl” for the client to corrupt.  She has no agency, real self, or capabilities; she’s just a plaything for a gross rich boy.  However, over her episode, spurred on by some trigger memories and an experimental drug, she becomes capable and autonomous.  There’s a hint of Echo within her, struggling against her limited design. 

Susan

Another brief one.  First, props to Topher for the idea – a pro bono engagement to mentor a troubled child with an idea of her own best possible future.  Susan is a different sort of imprint for Echo, and really, for the show.  She feels well-realized, insightful and empathetic, with the weight of someone who’s crawled back from incredible hardship.  Just a great job all around.

Terry Karens

Echo’s short stint as deranged, woman-abducting serial killer Terry Karens (suffice to say, the whole thing comes about through a colossal mistake) is a good one.  Dushku captures Terry’s manner, simultaneously repressed and unhinged, well, and the entire scenario is really creative.  I love that, despite the wild impossibility, the women Terry has abducted realize that, somehow, Echo is Terry and compartmentalize the whys so they can deal with the immediate threat.