Before this point in the series, anyone watching Dollhouse for the first time might still be concerned about the series' potential and its direction. The first five episodes, like many fledgling TV shows, follow the "mission-of-the-week" formula that allows new viewers to grasp the basics of the show without seeing it from the beginning. However, with the sixth episode "Man on the Street", everyone from critics to Joss Whedon himself insist that this was the turning point of Dollhouse - when the audience was first given a true glimpse into the mythos and the motives of those in the Dollhouse.
For example, up until this point, how much the real world was aware of the Dollhouse has been kept purposefully unclear. Whedon uses the format of a man-on-the-street news reporter (hence the title) covering a story on the Dollhouse to give us a sense of the average person in the Dollhouse world. The conclusion is clear: every person interviewed has some prior knowledge of the Dollhouse. Yet while some correctly believe in its actual existence, the majority dismiss the idea as urban legend. A shocking number of people also admit that if presented the opportunity, they might want to volunteer themselves as a Doll, seeing it as a way of escaping life's difficulties with no strings attached.
The key mission statements of the Dollhouse are 1) the Dolls' engagements fulfill the needs of people who need help or comfort, making the deed justifiable and 2) that the Dolls are perfectly safe in a blissful state that continues uninterrupted between engagements. Yet this episode will show through the experiences of Echo and Sierra how neither of these statements hold true, nor will they for the rest of the series.
Next week, I will address the culmination of Agent Paul Ballard's quest to uncover the Dollhouse when he finally catches a Dollhouse client in the act and gets to meet Echo, the woman he knows as Caroline.
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