Season 1, Episode 1:
Ghost
The designers of Dollhouse make millions as they continually reprogram Echo and the other actives to satisfy their clients' every pleasure or problem.
Echo is hired as a negociator when a businessman's daughter is kidnapped, but her imprinted personality's past causes problems. Meanwhile FBI Agent Paul Ballard's search for the Dollhouse leads him to a Russian informant named Anton Lubov.
Tropes
- Bag of Kidnapping: Played somewhat more realistically- Devina is choloformed, then zipped up in a body bag.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Lubov appears among the actives going into their sleeping pods at the end of the episode (granted, he's only seen from behind).
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl / Tsundere: The client at the start of the episode seems to have requested Echo be this.
- Rape as Drama: Implied with Eleanor Penn's backstory.
- Room Full of Crazy: Alpha's room at the end of the episode.
- Shout-Out: Topher tells Boyd, "Imprint's gone, the new moon has made her a virgin again," which is a reference to Tennessee Williams' play Camino Real, which features a gypsy prostitute who believes every moonrise makes her a virgin.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Topher also quotes Hamlet ("There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.").
- Slow-Motion Drop: As Echo's memories are wiped, her fingers loosen and the necklace her client gave her falls to the floor.
