Luckily, that won’t be the case. Preston Beckman, head honcho of scheduling at Fox, said: “We’re going to run all the episodes. We’re not saying we’re happy with those numbers, or accept them, but we don’t have to overreact. During [November] sweeps we might have to jack up the numbers a little [with other programming], but we plan on completing the order for this show.”

Hmm. “Completing the order for this show” does seem to suggest that a full-length second season probably isn’t on the cards, and that the show will draw to a close after just 26 episodes. Even Joss Whedon himself seems slightly resigned to the fact that they may have to wrap up the show shortly:

“We’ll definitely have closure, but will leave some doors open,” said Whedon, who’s currently shooting the eighth episode. “When we got our first numbers, which were bad, the first thing [Fox president of entertainment] Kevin Reilly said was, ‘You’ll have all 13,’ which was great. They’re not going to pull the rug out from under us.”

Still, at least this does mean that the writers have an opportunity to resolve some issues. I’m going to try and stay optimistic, but I think Dollhouse fans may have to begin preparing themselves for bad news.

I’d been eagerly anticipating the return of Dollhouse, but it was only when I sat down to watch the episode that I felt a slight pang of nerves. The last half of the first season was fantastic; ditching the standalone episodes and delving deeper into the grim realities of the Dollhouse, alongside the development of the non-Dushku cast members, was the making of the show. They’d finally found their feet, and then blew me off mine with the spectacular “Epitaph One”. My trepidation came from the fear that Joss et al may have forgotten those lessons over the summer break and reverted to Echo-as-hostage-negotiator mediocrity.

Thankfully they didn’t; though the story picks up 3 months on from last seasons “Omega” the writing style is just as sharp, with the second season premiere both written and directed by Joss Whedon. Whilst the A-plot of the episode was a relatively straightforward affair, with Echo sent to seduce/marry/dig dirt on an arms dealer, the real meat of the episode was all based in the Dollhouse.

The most fascinating development in this first episode was the exploration of the relationship between Topher and Saunders, the latter now painfully aware that she is in reality an Active imprinted with the expertise of the former Dollhouse doctor who fell prey to Alpha. Whilst Saunders was never the bubbliest character, and rightly so, it seems that she’s taken a turn for the worse over the last few months and is now taking some sick satisfaction in psychologically torturing Topher, playing with his mind just as he played with hers. Saunders tactics are a little more varied than imprinting, however; feeding footage onto Topher’s consoles and hiding rats in his cupboards is more her style.

Perhaps the strongest scene in the episode comes when a bitter, confused Saunders tries to play into her own self-image as a Doll by trying to be Topher’s sexual plaything. This is the real tragedy of Saunders’ character; she knows she isn’t a real person, so she’s swinging wildly between different personas (of her own volition). After all, they’re just as real as each other. Topher fights off her advances, insisting that she’s better than that, and seems deeply upset and disturbed at how Whisky is turning out.

You almost get the impression that the Saunders persona was an imprint that Topher was particularly proud of; he explains unlike other Actives, who are designed to be relatively predictable and thus reliable for engagements, he deliberately made Saunders different. She’s crammed full of variables and unpredictability in order to be a dissenting voice to Topher, to ensure that the Actives are receiving the best possible care. Saunders is quite possibly the most human imprint we’ve seen on the show (with the exception of real people such as Dominic) and, unfortunately for her, her choices are her own. Topher suggests that Adelle may be willing to restore Whisky’s original personality, but of course, even that is unacceptable to Saunders; as much as she hates what she is, she’s very much aware that she is simply a parasite inhabiting a body, and restoring that body’s personality would mean her death. We can also maybe infer that on some deeply subconscious level Saunders refused to have her scars removed because she knew she would be sent back into service as a Doll. It’s become increasingly clear why long-term engagements are avoided by the Dollhouse. Now that Saunders is fully self-aware she’s facing massive self-doubt and guilt over her existence, which is to be expected from someone who presumably has a very strong set of medical ethics.

It’s such a shame that Amy Acker will only be appearing in 3 episodes this season (as she’s busy playing a regular character on another show). Saunders was always an interesting supporting character in the first season but since we’ve learned the truth about her she’s become absolutely compelling; fingers crossed she can make more appearances further down the line. And hey, at least we know she won’t be killed off any time soon, considering she’s still haunting the Dollhouse in ten years time…

So, as one former Angel cast-member begins to disappear from the show, another emerges. Alexis Denisof made his first appearance as Senator Perrin in this episode, vowing to investigate the Rossum Corporation (the head honchos behind the Dollhouse) for withholding medical innovations from the public. Whilst his appearance was only brief, it was intriguing; whose side is Perrin on? Could he be connected to the anti-Dollhouse movement that imprinted Echo and November last season? Adelle seems to think someone tipped him off, with Boyd and Ballard each pointing the figure at the other; their rivalry could be an interesting development this season, with former handler Boyd seemingly still strongly connected to Echo and new handler Ballard still demonstrating his obsessive attachment to her.

Ballard’s relationship with Echo does yield results, however, with Echo finally gaining a basic understanding of what the Dollhouse is; the conclusion to the episode features Echo telling Ballard that she remembers being made into “many people” but that none of them are really her. Ballard vows to help her rediscover Caroline, whatever it takes.

A very strong start to the season has left me very optimistic, even though the less than stellar ratings are a minor cause for concern. What did you make of the episode? Rate it below!

You can find all the info over at the EW. Enjoy!

You can also get the scoop on the latest True Blood casting by reading on…

Tony winner Denis O’Hare will join the cast as a regular in Season 3 as the vampire King of Mississippi, who we’ll see having some “interesting” interactions with Queen Sophie-Anne of Louisiana, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Whilst Wood won’t be a regular, it seems we’ll nevertheless be seeing a lot more of the vampire hierarchy, which can only be a good thing.

We open where we left off last week, with Bill arriving at the palace of the vampire queen of Louisiana, one Sophie-Anne, played with relish by Evan Rachel Wood. Sophie-Anne is happily feeding from the femoral artery of a young woman, leading Bill to ask “Is this a bad time?”. Sophie-Anne’s response is a razor-sharp example of both vampire psychology and Alan Ball’s writing as she licks the blood from her chops and breathlessly drawls “A bad time? There’s no such thing as bad. Or time, for that matter.”

After the titles we pick up on another cliffhanger from last week, with Jessica feasting on zombie-eyed Maxine in front of a horrified Hoyt; he rushes to his mother’s aid and leads her to safety, crying, and telling Jessica that he should have listened to Bill’s warnings about getting involved with a young vampire.

Back at Sophie-Anne’s place Bill has approached the vampire queen for information on maenads, trying to determine how to deal with Maryann. In between flicking through early copies of Vogue and applying make-up, Sophie-Anne explains how everything that exists imagined itself into existence.

“Well, think about it. You’re a wild young girl who’s married to some jerk who treats you like property and is also fucking some 14 year old boy. And along comes this religion which encourages you to get hammered, run naked through the woods, have sex with whoever, whatever, and it’s all part of getting closer to God? (…) So you’re fucking everybody in the dirt; why not kill something and eat it raw? Hey, you’re super-extra-pious and there’s nothing you can’t do, and each time you do it just brings you one step closer to the divine. (…) Never underestimate the power of blind faith. It manifests in ways that bend the laws of physics, or break them entirely.”

Whilst this theory of evolution through imagination may be just Sophie-Anne’s philosophy, I think it’s a particularly intriguing one. Not only does it provide a potential history for Maryann but it also opens the door for absolutely any kind of supernatural nasties to appear on True Blood; if the writers can imagine it and convince the viewers, then it becomes real. This grounding of the supernatural in scientific terms (Sophie-Anne even confirms that evolution created the vampire, and they started out the same as humans) with just a hint of the magical about it precludes any religious or demonic interpretations of the show. Vampires, humans, shifters, werewolves… they’re all just animals. Which, in my eyes at least, is very true to what the show is.

Unfortunately, Sophie-Anne’s history lecture comes at a price, as she insists that Bill spend the day with her rather than returning to Bon Temps. Which actually makes a whole lot of sense, because Bill? You haven’t actually gotten the info you came for yet. You don’t even know how to defeat Maryann yet! After such an interesting scene (with great lines like “I haven’t enjoyed sex with men since the Eisenhower administration”) this exchange between Bill and Sophie-Anne, obviously inserted to try and create some dramatic tension, just makes Bill look at best absent-minded and at worst a complete moron. Maybe all that hair dye is starting to affect him? I can’t be the only person to notice his bizarre maroon-coloured mop suddenly went a lot darker last week.

Rejoice, intervention fans! We’re back in the home of Lafayette where recently de-brainwashed Tara is freaking out and demanding the freedom to go and save Eggs. Presumably because Tara has been so capable in standing up to Maryann before now. Riiiight. While Lettie Mae, Sookie and Lafayette do their best to convince Tara how crazy she’s being (with her cousin even using a pair of purple furry handcuffs to restrain her) Tara unleashes a barrage of bile at each of them in turn. I really hoped that Tara was still mildly under the influence of some maenad mojo to excuse the hate she spews at everyone in this scene but no, turns out she just feels like being an absolute bitch. Lafayette grabs a rifle and takes on guard duty outside, along with Sookie, leaving Tara alone to manipulate Lettie Mae into freeing her. Poor old Lettie Mae. She tricks Lafayette into handing over the rifle then allows Tara to escape in Sookie’s car, but not before firing off a warning shot and triggering Lafeyette’s post-traumatic shock (which, in turn, leads to the particularly odd image of Alexander Skarsgard in a floral blouse.)

Speaking of Eric, he has once again returned to Fangtasia, where Sam has arrived with Arlene’s kids seeking help in dealing with Maryann. It wasn’t until Arlene’s kids popped up that I realised we haven’t seen any children caught up in Maenad Fever. Is it that they’re immune to Maryann’s influence, or are the True Blood producers/HBO a little wary about the potentially very disturbing visage of children engaging in hideous random violence? Either way, Arlene’s kids provide a great scene in Fangtasia as Eric creepily coos over the “miniature humans” and Pam simply expresses absolute disgust, claiming she’ll still be able to smell them for a week.

Sam’s request for help doesn’t fall on deaf ears, however, and Eric has the same bright idea as Bill; turn to Sophie-Anne for advice. Which he does, by flying away. Yes. Flying. He whooshes up into the air, Petrelli-style. While this does come as a little bit of a WTF moment, it does at least explain the glaring plot hole of how Eric travelled so quickly from the Hotel Carmilla to the Fellowship of the Sun a few weeks ago. It does raise the question of whether all vampires can fly, or just those sufficiently old/experienced enough. Guess we’ll find out one day.

While Sam plays babysitter, Jason and Andy leap into action and head to the police station to stock up on weapons before heading towards Sookie’s house to confront Maryann. The pair share a very gung-ho scene in the truck which, to my ears (and sensibilities) I found pretty cringe-worthy. Jason’s line of “This town may be full of crazy rednecks and dumbasses, but they’re still Americans Andy.” feels a leetle jingoistic to me. I expected something to happen which would subvert the flag-waving crotch-grabbery of this scene, but it just never came.

It seems everyone is making a beeline to Sookie’s house, as Tara arrives to try and convince Eggs to flee, only to be cornered by Maryann who reveals that Tara is responsible for all of this mess thanks to her Ms. Jeanette sponsored exorcism last season. The young girl that Tara killed was apparently Maryann in another form, and this act brought the maenad to power. At this point I think we all have to just nod and accept this very flimsy-sounding logic as both a nifty callback to something from Season 1 that went largely forgotten as well as a way to make Tara even more integral to this storyline. Maryann swiftly right-hooks Tara back into zombiehood, and she staggers up the stairs with Eggs to presumably perform predictably unspeakable acts.

At Casa de Queenie, Bill has seemingly resigned himself to spending some time in Sophie-Anne’s court and enjoys a quick snack of Latvian and a round of Yahtzee before the Queen finally gets down to details in how to destroy Maryann; which, basically, amounts to letting the maenad do whatever the hell she wants. Since there’s no way to kill Maryann, Sophie-Anne suggests letting her complete her ritual, involving the sacrifice of a supernatural entity. Maenads have apparently been unsuccessfully trying to summon The God Who Comes for thousands of years, tweaking the recipe each time. When it inevitably fails they move on to try something new. Does this raise alarm bells for anyone else when they recall Maryann’s very pleased reaction to Sookie’s supernaturalness last week? Could Maryann believe she’s found that unique new ingredient? Either way Sophie-Anne doesn’t believe it’s an issue, since The God Who Comes doesn’t actually exist. Or her might do. Or just in Maryann’s head. The Queen isn’t exactly clear on this part, but I guess it all goes back to the imagination-evolution theory; if Maryann can convince a whole town that the god is real, could he pop into existence?

Before leaving, Bill has a brief chat with one of Sophie-Anne’s human minions, who turns out to be Sookie’s cousin Hadley. I’m a little confused at this point, to be honest; we’ve never met this character before, right? She’s only been mentioned briefly in passing? I can’t help but feel some content was cut in this episode surrounding Hadley, which is a shame, as I get the feeling the character is going to pop up again. One person who Bill has seen more than enough of lately is Eric, who touches down outside the palace, much to Bill’s frustration and Sophie-Anne’s amusement, who suggests the two of them “really should just fuck each other and get it over with.” The pair share a snarky little bitching session over which of them was the most devious in forcing their blood into Sookie before Bill makes a threat; leave Sookie alone or he’ll expose Eric’s (apparently highly illegal in vampire society) V-peddling operations to the queen.

Another duo heading into the fray are Lafayette and Sookie who, having brained Lettie Mae with a piece of pottery, have arrived at Sookie’s house; Lafayette stays outside to distract Arlene and Terry from their guard duties with drug baggies (always be prepared eh, Lafayette?) while Sookie sneaks inside. After some gentle spooning and saucepan-whacking with everyone’s favourite tree-humping coroner Sookie finally makes it up to the bedroom where Tara and Eggs are smashing up the place to find material for their “nest” which, surely enough, houses a giant egg. Before Sookie can do much about this she’s cornered by Lafayette who, having tried and failed to kill Maryann with a shot to the head (which she simply deflects with the palm of her hand, unwittingly killing Carl) has become the maenads latest zombie minion.

This episode had the curious feel of containing way too much, and also too little. The focus was split between so many characters and scenes that some moments felt very rushed, whilst others felt like filler. Still, it was a nice set-up for next week, which I hope will be sufficiently crazy. True Blood is one of those shows that, thanks to the mix of camp and horror, benefits from being over the top (and quite often the more outlandish the better).

Glau’s character is apparently named Bennett, and will first show up in 2×05. Rumour is that Bennett works for “a” Dollhouse; not necessarily the Los Angeles Dollhouse in which the show is set. Bennett also apparently has a connection to Echo/Caroline as well as another of the Actives.

So, speculation? She may be a Doll who was transferred to another House, but I seem to recall Whedon saying Glau wouldn’t play a Doll (and her name doesn’t fit with the phonetic alphabet style of the Dolls). A former staff member of the LA Houae then? Hmm…

Either way, very exciting news! Glau is great, and hopefully Whedon and Co have crafted out a nice role for her.