Echo (episode)

This article is about the original pilot. For the eponymous character see Echo.

"Echo" is the original pilot of Dollhouse, which was was written and directed by Joss Whedon. Produced in April/May 2008, "Echo" contained the first footage of Dollhouse ever to be released to public. "Echo" was the first episode written and shot, but it was pushed back by Whedon to become the second episode because of "a few clarity issues for some viewers" and "some slight issues with tone". By October 2008, "Echo" disappeared from official episode listings, since it has been used for parts in other episodes of Season 1. It is therefore not considered canonical or part of the first season, but it was, however, included as a special feature on the Dollhouse Season One DVD..

Synopsis

When FBI Agent Paul Ballard gets ahold of a picture showing Echo, Adelle's operation is in danger of being exposed. She sends Echo and Victor to get rid of Agent Ballard. In the meantime, Echo, Victor and Sierra show signs of bonding during lunch, although they should not remember each other after a wipe.

Plot

The episode opens with the director of the L.A. Dollhouse Adelle DeWitt explaining the concept of Actives to a client. Meanwhile, three of Active Echo's engagements are shown: in one, she arranged an illegal transaction in Mexico, in another, she came to a wedding with the fiancée's ex-boyfriend in an effort to make her jealous. In her third and most recent engagement, a pro-bono affair organized by the Dollhouse's physician Dr. Saunders, she helped a drug addict get rid of her sketchy boyfriend and then spent three days by her side in a hospital.

At a rooftop party, FBI agent Paul Ballard finds his Russian informant Anton Lubov and quizzes him about the Dollhouse and its link to girls trafficked by the Russian mafia family Lubov works for. Lubov is adamant he knows nothing and does not believe the Dollhouse is real, and suggests the Dollhouse case is a wild goose chase the FBI has intentionally put Paul on because of his incompetence. Paul disagrees.

Another Active, Sierra, comes back from her engagement with a wound on her forehead which Dr. Saunders treats. Later she joins Echo for lunch, along with their friend Victor, who turns out to be none other than Lubov. Meanwhile, the Dollhouse's programmer Topher calls Echo's handler Boyd Langton, alarmed, to tell him that Echo, Sierra, and Victor eat together every day at the same table despite being regularly wiped: they're grouping instinctively, like a herd. Boyd's remark that Actives aren't bison leads to a conversation about ethics and morals of their jobs, which weigh heavily on Boyd but don't matter at all to Topher. He blames Boyd's sentimentality on his conversations with Dr. Saunders, while Boyd simply says he is tired after spending three days in a van.

At the FBI, Paul finds an envelope with no return address containing the picture of Echo, along with her real name: Caroline. He asks his colleague Loomis to match her in the database, which Loomis only agrees to do if he adopts or helps adopt one of her dogs. Their database query is immediately reported to the Dollhouse. Adelle and chief of security Laurence Dominic realize Paul somehow got a picture of Echo after his meeting with Victor, who was supposed to throw him off, and decide to launch another engagement to learn what he knows, agreeing that killing him would be the last resort.

Again imprinted with the "Lubov" persona, Victor calls Paul and guides him to the basement of the Devonshire Hotel. However, instead of trafficked girls, all Paul finds there is Echo, imprinted as "Shauna Vickers," who tells him she is looking for her missing sister, having spent eight months with no news and lost all hope in law enforcement. Paul tells "Shauna" he has a picture of her, which seemingly intrigues her, and invites her to his place.

In an effort to know more about the dolls' grouping, Topher sneaks into Dr. Saunders' office and quietly takes Echo's file, only to be surprised by Saunders who reminds him he has full access to them. Topher worries that Echo might be stretched too thin because of the latest pro-bono engagement, while Saunders praises the positive physiological effects such engagements have on dolls. Topher, however, is against improving dolls and reminds Saunders she has a reason to be against it too, referring to her facial scars, before leaving without Echo's file. Later he calls Boyd, who is sitting in a van outside Paul's house, to complain about Saunders. When Boyd asks him why he doesn't like her, he tells him she is creepy and he doesn't understand why she refuses to do something about her scars. Boyd replies that she keeps them to remember Alpha, and that it woudn't be bad for Topher to keep him in mind as well.

At Paul's, "Shauna" tells him the story of her sister who seems to have been abducted and brainwashed by the Dollhouse. While looking around the apartment, she immediately guesses Paul is recently divorced. Appearing distressed over her sister's fate, she asks Paul to tell her what he knows. He tells her that he knows the science is real and that a big corporation is behind it, and allows her to look at his files. Paul admits to "Shauna" this case has cost him his marriage and his feeling of self-worth, before suddenly noting how she tells him everything he wants to hear and pulling out a gun. After pretending to be shocked, "Shauna" attacks Paul, takes his gun and, after he asks her if she is Caroline, shoots him twice. Boyd rushes in and sees Paul on the ground with Echo coldly gathering his files. Shocked, he calls Topher and asks why he was unaware of Echo's authorization to kill Paul in case she got made, to which Topher replies those were the orders he received.

Hearing police sirens, Echo and Boyd prepare to head out, but Echo stops when she sees Caroline's picture. Being cut off from their van by police cars, an ambulance, and onlookers, the two take the back door and Boyd asks for an extraction. At the rendezvous point Boyd gets a call: Paul is in the hospital and since Echo's shots didn't touch any of his vital organs, he survived. Despite Boyd's objections Echo jacks a passing car, determined to finish her job.

While following Echo to the hospital, Boyd calls Topher again and asks for a remote wipe, which Topher refuses to do. Meanwhile, Adelle herself gets a call from her higher ups who seemingly order her to abort the engagement.

Having made her way through the hospital without much trouble, Echo suddenly sees the drug addict from her pro-bono engagement from afar and freezes, seemingly remembering her. Boyd catches up to her and tells her the job is complete, even though she didn't kill Paul.

After Echo is wiped, Adelle finds Topher and Boyd in the imprinting room. She informs them Paul will walk in a week and asks how this happened. When Topher tells her he gave Echo the necessary skills, Adelle concludes Echo spared Paul intentionally. She advises them to watch Echo in case she becomes unpredictable.

The dolls go to sleep in their pods. As her pod closes, Echo utters "Caroline".

Engagements

Engagements

Active	Client	Alias	Personality	Mission
Echo	Richard	Unknown	Dream date	Make his ex-girlfriend jealous on her wedding.
	Pro-bono	Unknown	Abuse survivor	Convince Chrissie to clean up and return home
	Unknown	Unknown	Security expert	Private security
	Dollhouse	Shauna Vickers	Recon expert	Find out how much Paul Ballard knows about the Dollhouse.
Victor	Dollhouse	Keene	FBI informant	Get rid of Paul Ballard.

Cast

Main Cast

• Eliza Dushku as Echo
• Harry Lennix as Boyd Langton
• Fran Kranz as Topher Brink
• Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard
• Enver Gjokaj as Victor
• Dichen Lachman as Sierra
• and Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt

Guest Stars

• Amy Acker as Claire Saunders
• Maury Sterling as Eddie
• Raphael Sbarge as Richard
• Reed Diamond as Laurence Dominic
• Stacey Scowley as Bride
• Clayton Rohner as Marc Dreyfuss
• Aisha Hinds as Loomis
• Giovanni Lopes as Thug
• Jenni Fontana as Friend
• Ashley Johnson as Wendy

Background Information

Production

Writing

Whedon pitched Dollhouse to Fox two weeks before the 2007-2008 WGA strike and got a seven-episode order without even having begun to write a pilot episode. After the strike ended, Whedon started working on the scripts, "Echo" being the first episode. The first writer's draft is dated March 7th, 2008. The script is 53 pages long, divided into four acts (14, 15, 13 and 11 pages).

Some of the casting sides for "Echo" leaked on the internet in March 2008. The whole script leaked in December 2008.

Filming

Production began on April 23rd, 2008 with principal photography taking place from May 6th to May, 12th. Reshoots at the behest of Fox were made in June, with four of the seven days of shooting being reshot. These reshoots may be connected to the fact that "Echo" was pushed back to become the second episode of the series instead of the first as originally intended.

Removal

"It was more... in the emphasis and the feel of the show and the way it rolled out. The things that the network clearly wanted to... shooting a new pilot was my idea. Because the network, they were looking for something specific. I thought I delivered it because they were very excited about the script. They weren't as excited about the show so we talked about why and why and why and I figured out what they wanted. (...) They wanted, the first thing I wrote was sort of laying out how that would happen... in the next episode. They were like, "No, we want it to happen in [this] episode so people get it from that." And then, you know, upping the action and deciding to roll out... change certain events that ultimately made it so that I just junked the other pilot. This won't be the second episode because this isn't what the network wants, this isn't the kind of show they want. This is something you could do two years in when everybody's familiar with it and you don't have to explain it. I always hold to the premise that the first six episodes are the first six pilots. You have to be able to come in and just go, "Oh, okay. So that's the premise and here it is delivered in this fashion." And I did get a little turned around. There was times when I was like, wait a minute, are the things that I care about still in the show? [Laughs.] Because some things that I was interested in - the more twisted elements of the human psyche and some of the more quieter aspects of it, kind of got shunned to the side. But I realized, you know, I may have said this before - you don't pitch "Buffy" with "The Body." You earn that. You pitch it with the premise and then you get to all the stuff that you're really doing it for." Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon described this move by being his choice, not the network's: "I sort of go, hmmm, some of it I think maybe they didn’t get, and some of it, you know what, I didn’t deliver on it in the way that I should have." Whedon also said: "I looked at it with a very cold eye, an executive’s eye, and said, 'OK, I know what they want that they don’t have.' I don’t want to gut this [first pilot] episode. I’m proud of this episode. Everybody did a really good job. There are scenes I want to tweak and changes I want to make, but if I go to the network and say, 'I’m going to give you a new first episode,' they will be excited – they didn’t have to ask for it."

"Echo" was eventually left out of episode listings by October 2008. On October 26th, Whedon commented on that: "The original pilot was in fact thrown out. Again, at my behest. Once it became clear what paradigm the Network was shooting for, it just didn't fit at all, even after I'd reshot more than half of it (see above re: despair). To get a sense of how completely turned around I was during this process, you should know there was a scene with Eliza and the astonishing Ashley Johnson that I wrote and shot completely differently three different times, with different characters in different places (actually I wrote it closer to eight times), and none of it will ever see air. Which is as it should be (though I'm determined to get Ms. Johnson back in the future)."

Reception

Script

Reviews of the script started showing up by the end of April 2008. Generally praised by critics, the script was particularly applauded for the "change of pace", considering "Echo" has a four-acts structure without a teaser. This being unusual both for TV standards and Joss Whedon - together with the fact that the four acts are almost equal in length - was applauded, as "Whedon doesn’t have to force the drama up into unnatural cliffhanging pre-commercial moments" and "the story has the room to unfold in a natural manner, not trying to hit more artificial breaks".

General reviews called the script "fabulous", "thought provoking", "rad", "super-sexy", and "a beautiful enigma wrapped in a riddle, a gripping conspiracy story for the ages filled with urban legends, memory tampering, and long-buried secrets coming to the fore". The script "builds into a mystery that's as much philosophical as science fiction" and "mixes elements of the conspiracy thriller with what threatens to become a profound meditation on identity".

It was also pointed out that "this could be Whedon's most accessible work to date" and "much more than preaching to the converted".

Episode

First reviews of the episode call it a "solid opener" with "huge potential for fun (...) which people aren't yet aware of -- and heartbreak people aren't expecting".

Notable differences with the show's canon

• One of the Actives' characteristics described by Adelle is their compulsion to return to the Dollhouse after the engagement has been completed. In the show Actives more often than not finish their engagements when their handlers arrive on the scene to offer them treatments.
  • Only two instances of Actives seeking out their handlers to return to the Dollhouse have been shown in the canonical episodes: Echo's first engagement from "Ghost" and, arguably, November in "Briar Rose".
• The imprinting chair has a different design.
• In this pilot Topher is the one who dislikes Dr. Saunders, while in the canonical episodes it's the other way around.
  • Topher's dislike of Saunders and comments on her also seem to indicate that she originally was written as the real resident physician, as opposed to a disfigured Active imprinted as one.
• In this episode the pro-bono engagements are an initiative of Dr. Saunders to improve the Dolls' well-being. While the canonical episodes do feature pro-bono engagements, the motivation behind them seems to be mostly good PR.
  • Also, in this episode Topher is against such engagements, while in "Briar Rose" not only has he come up with one, he is also quite proud of it.
• The Dollhouse tasks Echo with finding out what Ballard knows. In the show, not only do they have a tap in his apartment, they've also sent an imprinted Active to spy on him: Mellie/November.
• In this episode, Topher merely objects to remote wipes because they would leave Actives vulnerable. In the show, as seen in "Gray Hour", Topher considers the procedure unreliable and almost impossible, while the plot of "Belle Chose" involves him attempting a remote wipe and failing.
• Adelle worries Echo is becoming unpredictable and might put the Dollhouse in danger. In the show Dominic is the one who has such concerns.

Reused segments

To quote Joss Whedon, "we cannibalized [this episode] for parts. Most of it's in other episodes". Indeed, footage from the pilot appears in five episodes throughout the first season:

Segment	Reused in	Notes
Echo swims in the pool by herself.	"Gray Hour"
Adelle explains the concept of actives to a client.	"Epitaph One"	Seen in a flashback. While "Echo" uses this lengthy scene to explain the concept of Actives to the audience, the "Epitaph One" version is heavily trimmed down.
Paul meets Lubov at a rooftop party, Lubov can't help, Paul doesn't believe him.	"Stage Fright"	Some lines have been cut, one has been altered. While this scene has originally been written to introduce Paul Ballard to the audience, a different introduction for the character was created for "Ghost."
Sierra joins Echo and Victor for lunch. Topher fears they're grouping.	"Gray Hour"	The dolls' conversation has been trimmed down. The part where Topher wonders if Boyd has been talking to Saunders and the entire second half of their conversation have been cut. Sierra's wound is visible in "Gray Hour" but is never addressed. While this scene has originally been written to reveal Anton Lubov as an Active named Victor, a different scene with this reveal was created for "Stage Fright."
Paul finds an envelope on his desk with a picture of Caroline.	"The Target"	Paul's ensuing conversation with Loomis has not been reused, but a very similar conversation occurs in "True Believer."
Victor/Lubov calls Paul, guides him to the Devonshire Hotel.	"Stage Fright"
The dolls go to sleep, Echo remembers the name "Caroline."	"Omega"	Seems to have been partially reshot or reedited. The first reused shot of Actives walking towards their pods is cut at the beginning in "Omega" to avoid showing Victor's face, which is supposed to be scarred in "Omega."

External links

• "Echo" at TV.com