"Dollhouse": "The Public Eye" Trivia Quiz

Answer: November

Her real name is Madeline Costley, and she signed up with the Dollhouse after the death of her small daughter. As the Doll code-named November, she was a sleeper agent keeping an eye on Paul Ballard, then an FBI agent; when he joined the Dollhouse, he arranged for her to be released from her contract two years early.

But she doesn't seem happy now: "They preyed on me when I was at my weakest and forced me -- and forced me to do things, things I never would have believed until Senator Perrin showed me evidence." Later, we find out what it is that bothers her especially: that she was used to kill a man (in Season 1's "Man on the Street").

Answer: By doing nothing

After being scolded by Harding for releasing Madeline early, Adelle asks him what she should do. His response: "[Proceed] by doing nothing. Rossum already has a plan in place to deal with Madeline." He doesn't share what that plan is, but Adelle believes that Madeline is in grave danger -- and that her House may be sacrificed to save the other Dollhouses.

Answer: The Senator's wife is a Doll.

"She's not right," the blank Echo says when she sees footage of Cindy Perrin (Stacey Scowley). On screen, the Senator is telling an interviewer, "I couldn't let her get away. She's perfect. It's like they made her just for me." Now that's suggestive to a Dollhouse-trained ear!

Ballard soon finds that Cindy's past has been subtly and cleverly forged. "Cindy Perrin is a Doll?" Adelle muses. "Harding was being modest when he said they had a plan in place." But if Cindy is a Doll, she may be a sleeper -- and Madeline's in worse danger than we thought.

Answer: Knock out any Doll in a 50-foot radius

It's a small device, about the size and shape of a soda can, based on some technology from the rogue Doll Alpha. Topher demonstrates it on a Doll named Kilo: its loud humming doesn't harm normal people, but anyone with a Dollhouse neural architecture is stricken with a headache, a nosebleed, and a sudden loss of consciousness. Ballard is chagrined to learn that it will affect Madeline: she may no longer be a Doll, but her mind still has a Dollhouse shape.

Answer: Echo, scantily clad and holding a video camera

Daniel Perrin is a happily married man, and he immediately identifies Echo -- now with the personality of Bree, a giggly prostitute -- as part of an effort to discredit him by causing a scandal. She even says she has a message for him: "Back off!"

Slowly he comes to a realization: "Rossum sent you." Now that he knows she's a Doll, he wants to keep her close: not only is she evidence, but he hopes some of his wife's neurology contacts can help her. They leave the hotel room at his insistence, and head to the safe house where Cindy is keeping Madeline company.

Answer: Senator Perrin is a Doll.

Ballard is there because he's worried about Madeline, the former November: he believes she's in danger if she testifies against the Dollhouse, and thinks she's being used. But she knows that he knew her when she was a Doll, and she doesn't trust him a bit. When Cindy Perrin intervenes, Ballard uses Topher's device to drop any Dolls within fifty feet. To his astonishment, Cindy doesn't fall -- but, outside where he's just arrived with Echo/Bree, the Senator does. What on Earth is going on here?

Slowly, our Dollhouse pieces things together. The Senator really was born Daniel Perrin, part of an illustrious political family, but he was not a high achiever. The Rossum Corporation wanted a pet Senator, so they made him a Doll -- a "perfect" version of himself.

"He was selected for his pedigree," Adelle realizes.

Topher completes her thought: "But his ambition -- somebody else gave that to him."

Answer: "Remind me why I love you so much."

"Remind me why I love you so much," Cindy (the handler) asks her senator husband -- at the end of a phone call, or before a big press conference, or when they reunite after an absence.

"I'm your white knight," he replies, unaware that he's been programmed not only to say his line but also to find it comforting.

"And I'm your beautiful damsel," she says.

"Ever after," he says, ending the scripted fairy-tale moment.

Answer: The witness talks him out of it.

The confrontation between Ballard and Madeline -- who was once programmed as Mellie, the neighbor he fell in love with -- is a poignant one. Ballard still cares for Mellie, deeply; Madeline distrusts him, suspecting that he used her as a fantasy.

Ballard, worried for her safety, tries to persuade her: "They want you to testify against them. It's a trick! Mellie, if you do this, it would be a mistake."

Says Madeline, quietly, "I'm not Mellie."

"I know that," he admits.

"You said you'd freed me," she continues. When someone's free, they get to make mistakes. Am I free?" And she turns and goes into the airport. After a moment, Ballard walks away.

Answer: From the names of Greek gods

Bennett Halverson (Summer Glau), DC's equivalent of Topher, mentions three of her Dolls by name: Athena, Aphrodite, and Hades (who, we are told, has a "long-term [engagement] with the closeted councilman"). This Dollhouse looks different, too, with an atmosphere that's more "stately home" than "contemporary spa." Like Topher, Bennett is a bit neurotic, but her verbal tics are neither self-effacing nor charming; her assistant seems terrified of her.

Answer: With hostility

Echo has been strapped down to a table so that Bennett can study her personality imprint, but Bennett doesn't seem to be thinking about dispassionate inquiry. She recognizes Echo as "Caroline" (her original, pre-Dollhouse personality), although Echo doesn't recognize her. "You always promised you'd come back to me," Bennett says, her face twisted up with hate. "Let's play." She flips a switch and the table's neural link activates; Echo writhes in pain.

This must be some grudge.