“True Believer” might have me being a believer in this show.

The Dollhouse has a major client in a US Senator.  He needs help getting inside a Yearning for Zion like religious cult compound.  He enlists the help of Miss DeWitt and her organization to insert a sleeper agent into the community; and agent with a very special ability:  Her sight is transmitted to federal agents.

The problem is, it renders her blind.

A group of singing, smiling cultist arrive by white bus to pick up some supplies from the local five and dime and a mechanic tries to pick a fight with one of them.  They keep smiling and eventually the sheriff comes in to restore the peace.  However, the store keeps looks at the back of the shopping list they gave him and on the back is written “save me.”

Echo becomes Esther Carpenter, a blind hitchhiker who has traveled across the country to be part of Jonas Sparrow and his clan.  Topher and Dr. Illyria have rigged a special transmitter that’s usually meant to help blind people see to transmit whatever Echo sees to the ATF agents trying to get enough cause to serve a warrant to the compound.  The technology is dodgy and the Doc says a sneeze could cause brain damage, but Adelle says it’s worth the risk.  Miss DeWitt also clashes with Dollhouse Security Laurence Dominic.  He thinks Echo is a liability and that DeWitt keeps sending her because she likes her.  There are seeds of dissent being planted as this isn’t the first time these two have clashed.  It’s more than Dominic being careful.  He doesn’t like the Dolls and most of all he doesn’t like Echo.

So Echo is dropped off by Boyd and enters the compound, makes some dogmatic remarks about Sparrow talking to her and is welcomed into the community, but Jonas is not completely convinced.  He and his second in command take Esther to a dark room, shine a light in her eyes, point a gun at her face until they’re sure she’s blind.  They welcome her aboard and while they’re falling for her ruse, her eyes are relaying a night vision spectacle of weapons and ammunition.  How she’s able to see in night vision mode is beyond us.

Boyd becomes part of the ATF group waiting for the time to make their move.  He and the lead agent, Lilly, clash as the agent thinks Boyd and his sleeper agent are a nuisance, especially when Boyd later wants to extract his “inside man” before the raid.

FBI Agent Ballard is also still on his quest for Caroline/Echo.  He has a friend in the bureau run a facial recognition match for the missing girl that turns up nothing.  He asks his cute and obviously smitten neighbor if she could bring him his pain meds for his gunshot wound.  She does and also gives him an envelope with his name on it and a CD.  The CD is a video of Caroline, the one we’ve seen repeated of her at school apparently taken by her mom.  Handwriting on the envelope was from the same guy.

Back at Dollhouse HQ, our intrepid genius catches a glance of the shower security camera and notices that Victor has, what he calls, a Man Reaction.  Dr. Scarface is concerned so she and Topher check all the security tapes and after some uncomfortable genital arousal documentation determine that Victor likes Sierra.  He’s been on a gigolo engagement eight times and this is likely the reaction.

Back in Not Comically Awkward Land, Echo and the FLDS clan are in a prayer service where they’re blessing Sister Esther and enfolding her into their flock when the ATF trip a wire and send the flood lights on.  Jonas freaks and slaps Esther, knocking out her closed optical nerve broadcast, but also returns her sight.  It’s a miracle!  So Jonas, in a pique of messianic fervor, sends his lieutenant out to set the meeting hall on fire.  If they’re faithful, they’ll all survive.  Echo reads from Daniel 3:25 the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were thrown into a fire but did not burn.  The smoke thickens, Jonas slaps Echo again for her impudence (I half expected her to go blind again) but then she clocks him with a large candle stick and tells the faithful to move their asses.

Boyd does some investigating and finds out the Agent Lilly was the one who wrote “save me” on the shopping list in order to get their window for invasion.  He asks again to get his agent out but the Lilly denies him.  As the fires burn and the cultists are fleeing into the hands of the ATF, Lilly notices Boyd is not around.  Esther has safely removed everyone but Jonas levels a gun at her and just when you think she’s toast, an person in ATF gear guns Jonas down.  He removes the gas mask and it’s Laurence Dominic.  Ah, the twist.  Then he smacks Esther in the head with his rifle and leaves.  However, Boyd comes in later and Esther recognizes him.  He pulls her out as the lead agent is telling news reporters that there were no more survivors.

Agent Ballard watches a news report covering the cult situation and sees Esther/Echo/Caroline in the footage, so he high tails it to Arizona.  There he meets with Agent Lilly who is likely dealing with the fallout of another botched ATF raid.  Ballard tries to find where the cultists are being debriefed and Lilly gives him some interbureau red tape dodge and leaves him standing next to a burned out building.

Laurence Dominic gets a dressing down by Adelle and now has even more reason to act against the slowly emerging actives.  Echo is wiped and Dr. Saunders asks how her vision is.  She says it’s fine.  Then she sees a brow-beaten Dominic and says, “I can see just fine.”

It was hard to sort this episode out.  The main story line was topical and atypical of what Echo normally does.  It was almost enjoyable.  She wasn’t a gun wielding whore, she was more of a tool.  She was being used without her knowledge and while that took time away from her wearing miniskirts or leather and beating people up, it allowed other characters to shine a little. We saw a lot of Dr. Saunders and her never healing scars as well as a few one off characters (Jonas and his crew, Agent Lilly) who really brought some depth to the performance.

Little things like the technology used to see what Echo sees made me feel like I was watching Fringe.  Optical relays are actually being used to interpret signals from the optic nerve and reroute them electronically to the visual cortex of the brain to help blind people see, but even the most recent advances have proven only partially successful and when it is it’s blurry shapes and blobs of light, it’s nothing like the HD clarity with which Echo was transmitting to the ATF.  Also, that it took surgery to blind her into becoming a video camera, but a slap to restore her sight was just lazy.  It’s the old trick where someone bumps their head and loses their memory and bumps it again to get it back.

And while we can all agree that the Agent Ballard story is far more interesting, it’s going really slow.  He got a small crack in the case this time around, but this may be the biggest he gets for a while.  I’m sure the trail will be going cold for Paul and we’ll have to root for him anew to unearth Caroline’s trail, or for him to sleep with his neighbor, whichever comes first.

What got me this time was the silly, almost juvenile story of Victor and his erection.  (Sorry kids, it’s a fact of life.)  We know that Echo and Sierra and Victor group together.  We know that the imprints are not being completely wiped.  Do we really need a fifth grade sex education side story to reiterate that point?  I don’t mind the gratuity, what I mind is the puerile attempt at pushing that story forward.  It couldn’t be flirting during tai-chi or touching hands at lunch or Victor possibly getting jealous when Sierra talks to another male Doll?  It has to be wood?  Really?

Okay then.  As long as we know where we stand.

Three and a half creepy doll heads.  Overall not bad, but it was submarined by a few glaringly bad choices.