In the premiere episode of Dollhouse on Friday, Eliza Dushku‘s character raced a motorcycle, danced til dawn and then wore a gray suit and glasses while foiling a kidnapping plot.
Here’s the gist, if you’re new to the concept: Eliza Dushku plays Echo, an “active” whose mind has been erased. She can have personalities (and memories) programmed into her, and rich people pay a company to have Echo do their bidding. Her mind is “wiped” after each “engagement,” and she’s not supposed to remember anything. In the pilot, she’s a feisty plaything for some guy’s birthday party — hence the motorcycles and the dancing — but her next gig is as a kidnapping “expert.” As the clip shows, while she negotiated with the kidnappers, she also realized that she had been kidnapped as a child, by the man she was facing. Well, Echo wasn’t kidnapped — the woman whose personality she was programmed with was. Complicated, but intriguing. Though Whedon is known for tough, ass-kicking female characters (Buffy, Serenity), this episode was a little light on the whupass. Still, the idea of one person, one actress taking on several different personas — kind of Quantum Leap, kind of Alias — is always interesting, and from what we’ve seen over at io9, Dushku will surely be kicking and gunning down baddies very soon. What sucks about this show is that Fox stuck it on Friday nights. Boo. Clip above.
Related: Dollhouse’s Sexuality Is Creepy On Purpose
We’ve Seen 3 Episodes Of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse!