"Dollhouse"
Directed by: Loni Peristere
Written by: Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk & Manny Coto
After a job interview gone wrong, Coby (Kristine Froseth) finds herself trapped in the eponymous Dollhouse, where toymaker Mr. Van Wirt (Denis O'Hare) is holding a deadly casting for the perfect living doll.
"Dollhouse" contains examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Aurelia is eager to win Van Wirt's competition. She excells at the challenges and actively bullies the other competitors.
- Asshole Victim:
- Aurelia is shot in the head after trying to kill her fellow escapee.
- As they leave the house with Coby and Otis, one of the witches casually sets Van Wirt and his lackey Eustace ablaze.
- Boom, Headshot!: Aurelia meets her end this way.
- The Cameo: A young Myrtle Snow pops up at the end.
- The Cavalry: Shortly after Coby's transformation into a living doll has been completed, two witches appear and pick her up to start her training at Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.
- Connected All Along: It turns out Otis is actually Spalding from Coven and this is how he meets Myrtle.
- Deadly Game: Van Wirt is pitting the dolls against each other in a series of domestic chore competitions. The loser of each round gets struck with a cattle prod and thrown down a well.
- Faux Affably Evil: Mr. Van Wirt is a sophisticated gentleman… who kidnaps women and forces them to act like dolls before killing them if they fail.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Colby had no idea that her strange powers meant she was a witch.
- Lessons in Sophistication: Of the deadly kind, and there isn't actually any teaching going on. The women are expected to set tables and iron shirts and have to rely purely on the education they came in with. Afterwards, Van Wirt cruelly corrects each of them.
- Living Doll Collector: Van Wirt considers dolls to be without sin, so he has assembled abductees of various backgrounds with the goal to find the perfect mother to his son.
- Mind over Matter: Coby impresses Otis with her telekinetic abilities, which she masks as magic tricks to keep herself safe in public.
- Near-Villain Victory: It looks like a Downer Ending of Colby transformed into a doll to be Van Wirt's servant...and then two witches arrive, free her and literally burn Van Wirt and his aid to a crisp.
- Origins Episode: The episode explores the origins of Spalding the butler and his doll fetish.
- Pet the Dog: Pretty much any time Mr. Van Wirt is on screen with Otis, he behaves like a genuinely loving father towards him.
- Sadist: Mr. Van Wirt takes sick pleasure in tossing the women into the same well that he killed his wife in. He also irons Coby's hand to teach her a lesson.
- Secret Test of Character: It turns out Van Wirt has known about the women's escape plan all along, and Coby wins the final round by attempting to save Otis as well, proving to him that she'll be a perfect mother.
- Toy Transmutation: While the competition is still running, the women merely have to wear doll costumes. As a reward for winning, Van Wirt has Coby encased in a plastic doll body that gives her just enough freedom of movement to perform her new duties.
- Wham Line: As they prepare to enter the Academy, Colby says Otis should go by his middle name: Spalding.
