Written by Manny Coto
Directed by Loni Peristere
Spalding: "Don't leave me."
Coby Rae: "I still promise I'll be your mommy but you can never come back here."
After something of a disappointing first season to this anthology spin-off and an over reliance on the events of Murder House for the first and last episodes, I was hoping this opening episode would be it's own entity. For the most part it was and then the last five minutes happened and a link to Coven became very apparent. A link I assume will factor in the remainder of the season as well.
Kicking off the episode, a young woman named Coby Rae (Kristine Forseth) applied for the role of secretary for a toymaker named Van Wirt (Denis O'Hare). He didn't find Coby qualified for that position but instead had a much more sinister line of work intended for her instead.
Soon Coby found herself trapped in a house with four other women and like them was also forced to dress as human dolls and perform a series of tests. It turned out that the crazy dollmaker killed his adulterous former wife and now wanted a new mother for his son, Otis (Houston Towe), who like his father also had a habit of throwing away his dolls when he tired of them.
While Coby's presence in the house earned the wrath of a fellow captive doll (Abby Corrigan), she seemed to have built a rapport of sorts with Otis and the episode didn't waste too much time in revealing that she had some magic of her own. It might not have been enough to have successfully escaped from the dollmaker's sinister plan but it did attract the right attention.
As Coby found herself trapped in a doll like body forced to served her owner and his son, two unknown witches from a certain Academy rescued both her and Otis while giving Van Wirt and the latter's right hand man their just desserts. As fates went, both of them certainly had it coming.
As for Coby and Otis, now going by the name Spalding, well, they found themselves at the Academy and while I'm not sure if we'll ever learn what happened to Coby, we all mostly know what happened with Spalding as he made a new friend by the name of Myrtle Snow.
- The title credits played into the doll and happy homemaker theme rather well while using the old theme.
- Van Wirt's wife and her lover ended up in the well as did some of the other unfortunate dolls. Coby worn a clown like costume for most of the episode.
- Unlike last season, the marketing hid the link to Coven though many fans did speculate that Denis O'Hare's character would be linked to that specific season.
- Chronology: Mississippi 1961.
Dollhouse has managed to kick this season off to a promising start and with any luck, it's a sign of a more consistent season in terms of writing. For this franchise, writer Manny Coto has been fairly hit and miss but this was definitely one of his stronger efforts and I hope he can match it as he's writing more episodes for the show.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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