Dollhouse - A Spy in the House of Love
Apr. 11th, 2009 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDollhouse has been building lately, and I'm finding myself hoping it does get picked up for at least a second season. [ETA: Am tempted to tell you to forget this entry and read this instead: http://fresne.livejournal.com/152895.html?style=mine#cutid4 -
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fresne's take on Dollhouse more than my own. ]
Like Lost this week, Dollhouse played with perception, and how what we think we see or know, may not be true. [I haven't watched Sarah Connor Chronicles yet, because it has gotten really bleak and I'm trying to avoid things like that at the moment. House was bad enough. I was sobbing during this week's House, and last week's Sarah Connor just depressed me. Not shows you want to watch after you've lost your best friend.]
When this week's Dollhouse episode began, I found myself thinking, okay not another one of these - rewind episodes. I've lost count of how many tv shows have done the old "Twelve Hours earlier" or "Six Hours Earlier". It's headache inducing if done poorly, trippy if done well. Here it was, thankfully, done well. Also the always tricky muliple perspective tactic - we start with Echo...follow her for a bit, then rewind and go to November, follow her, then rewind and go to Sierra, follow her, then rewind again and go to Victor - follow him and finally back to Echo and real time. Another tactic that if done poorly gives the viewer a migraine, but if done well is rather cool.
Whatever happens to Dollhouse? Andrew Chambliss - the writer of this episode is someone I going to keep an eye on. So for that matter are Olivia Williams (Adelle), whomever is playing Sierra and whomever is playing Victor.
Here, Chambliss kept all his balls in the air and did not drop a single one. As did the three actors I mentioned above, who made the episode believable.
The episode starts with a conversation between Echo and her handler, Boyd Langton. Echo has just returned from an engagement in which she portrayed a dominatrix. She's telling Boyd that there's nothing wrong with it - and that it is all about trust. The ability to trust someone enough to give yourself over to them completely, to surrender. Boyd counters with how dangerous that could be. Echo states she trusted Boyd, if she hadn't she would never have gotten into the van and that turned out well, didn't it? Boyd, with a wry smile, states, has it? Should she have gotten in the van?
In a latter conversation, also with Echo, Boyd tells her that his view of the Dollhouse is that they are either killers or pimps depending on the engagement.
Adelle Dewitt has a different take - she sees the Dollhouse as aiding deluded and somewhat lonely souls, helping people. We, she tells, Laurence Dominic, have not hurt anyone. We've only helped.
Topher and Ivy see the Dollhouse as an opportunity to expand on their neurological and scientific research.
Saunders like DeWitt, sees the Dollhouse as a way of helping people, although it is unclear to what degree she truly believes that.
Then we have the four actives/dolls' storylines. We got a bit more information on them last week, with Doctor Saunder's experiment to provide them each with a sense of closure. In Awakening, we discovered that Victor needed a resolution regarding a romantic entanglement, he had to feel he had helped and protected someone he cared about. This goes back to his origin or what he may be trying to forget - the death of the woman he was trying to save before he got blown up in the flashback sequence we saw in Echoes. It is also, as Doctor Saunders has warned, brought to the forefront of his brain by repeated engagements with the same imprint. A Miss Lonelyhearts scenario, where Victor portrays the suave and dashing Roger. (As an aside, whoever is playing the role of Victor is brilliant. That actor has managed to change himself each time he jumps into a new role, and he does it with sublety. I just wish the other actors playing the dolls were as proficient, outside of the actress portraying Sierra, I don't think any of them are.) Roger confesses in an exchange with ECho and their handlers, that he actually cares for and loves Katherine, it's not just an assignment for him. His handler scoffs and states she'd rather have the dominatrix, and Echo whips her - stating don't scoff at love.
What at first seems like your typical run of the mill old lady and younger lover fantasy sequence, turns into something else entirely. Victor/Roger it turns out is actually seeing Adelle De Witt, except he knows her as Katherine. And the fantasy scenario is Adelle's, Adelle has set it up for herself. Answering a question - I'd harbored since the series began, if you had a set-up like the Dollhouse at your disposal, what would you do? In the episode Man on the Street - we get a variety of answers. Here we find out what Adelle would do and how Adelle justifies what she is doing to herself. But, Adelle is bright and not a complete monster, she is questioning her actions. As we see in the sequence with Roger, whom she clearly loves but realizes she can't have. She tells him as much - we can't have this. It can't be.
It's a fascinating exchange. Roger fantasizes about being one of Adelle/Katherine's clients. How if he were to make the perfect woman - it would be her. He'd want two - one for the shop and one to take home with him. To be with always. But, he states, she is perfect as she is and he wouldn't want anything else. A doll or fake, would not be real, would not be her. Adelle stares up at the ceiling. It's funny, she says, the first date it's all about hiding your flaws, hoping the other person doesn't see them. Then when you are together - it's about hiding your disappoint. And finally when you are married, it is about hiding your sins. Relationships can never really work.
Later, when she finally says goodbye to Roger. Both Saunders and Topher look at Adelle with concern, thinking she's upset about losing Dominic. Saunder's says you've lost someone. And Adelle states looking at Victor/Roger, not something I can live without. When Topher asks why Miss Lonelyhearts finally but Roger on the shelf - did she get swept off her feet by someone else, Adelle retorts - nothing quite so dramatic. She just came to her senses and realized she could no longer afford the indiscretion.
One wonders to what degree if any the indiscretion has affected or influenced Victor? And, it also makes one wonder about the degree to which we are culpable in our manipulations of others to fulfill our own fantasies? Is she really helping the poor deluded souls, or hurting those volunteers such as Victor that she is pimping out to them?
Switch to November/Mellie - who has been sent back to spy on Agent Ballard. Ballard discovers via an implant by the mole/spy that Mellie is not who she appears to be. She is a doll that has been set-up to spy on him. Mellie tells him who she is, what to be wary of, and to not allow Mellie to know that he knows who she is, because she is also a sleeper agent - capable of killing him with the turn of a phrase. Then, with little warning, November becomes Mellie again, and Ballard must lie to her.
Topher meanwhile has discovered that someone has been tampering with his imprints. There's a chip in his system that makes it possible for his imprints to be comprised. If he creates a "cheerleader" for example, someone else could create a killer cheerleader, just with a few tweaks. He goes to Boyd first, who suggests that he might want to talk to Adelle and Dominic. Dominic enlists the help of Sierra - she'll be imprinted with the ability to sneak into NSA, steal the file with the name of the spy, and come back to the Dollhouse. Echo watching the whole thing on the periphery, and clearly not a fan of Dominic's, suggests to Topher that he imprint her with the ability to investigate and weed out the spy internally. Topher taken aback by her suggestion, complies. Sierra determines that the spy is Ivy - an obvious choice, whom I'd discounted early on. But, Echo disagrees and targets Dominic.
Dominic actually makes sense if you think about it. From the get-go, Dominic was attempting to either comprise or change aspects of the Dollhouse, and was to a degree disagreeing with Adelle's authority. He saw Echo as a threat and kept threatening to put her in the attic along with anyone else who met with his disapproval. Also, there is a bit in Echoes, where Dominic is wryly amused by Topher programming Victor to be from NSA. The very organization that Dominic is spying for.
It turns out that the NSA is not interested in shutting down the Dollhouse, like Ballard is, or even compromising it, but rather taking it over for its own ends. As DeWitt states you want the Dollhouse for your own illicit purposes. This answers question number 2 - if technology exists to wipe memories and build new ones - then why hasn't some agency within the government turned it into a weapon? Apparently they are trying to, but global private interests have kept them on the outside.
I'm not sure what Dominic was planning on doing with Ballard. He states he'd kept Ballard from finding the Dollhouse, but that would have happened regardless. If anything he's given Ballard another means of finding the Dollhouse - via November. All he has to do is research and follow Mellie. So, this begs the question, is Dominic the only spy? Is he the inside mole? And if he is, did he really know what the agenda was? I'm guessing he probably was the inside mole, but did not know the messages that were being sent to Ballard - asking Ballard to determine what the Dollhouse's true purpose was, what it's underlying intent was - that sounds like something the government or NSA would be worried or curious about. And not necessarily something the NSA would trust Dominic with. Although I'm not certain about that.
Dominic's statement to Echo is chilling. He tells her that she will be erased before he is, but the reason he is smiling is that she will eventually erase all of them and they won't even see it coming. Everyone gets their's in the end, Dominic states. Perhaps he's right. Dewitt states to Topher, after he tells her how Echo helped them and that Echo had figured it, that no, they should not erase her, that she was evolving and they should permit her to continue to evolve. She'd saved the Dollhouse this round. And they had no idea how she could help them in the future. Apparently, Topher cautioned, Doctor Saunders test did not resolve whatever issues still exist within Echo.
The irony of Echo's existence is she has become the lab rat that she was attempting to save. She's now the experiment that she'd gotten her boyfriend killed trying to stop. One wonders what would happen if she ever figured that out.
What surprised me here - is the misogynistic bad guy in the first few episodes turns out to be the mole, the person attempting to gain info on the Dollhouse. The one who is sending messages about Caroline and the Dollhouse to Ballard, or so we are lead to believe. While Adelle, is still very much in control of the House. A former scientist who grew organs from stem cells to fight cancer. Adelle has a history of doing controversial science to save lives and help people. Ethical quandries. Because stem cell research is from embroyos and to some the equivalent of butchering the unborn. (I don't agree with that point of view, but many people do see it that way.) The Dollhouse similarily is using human test subjects to experiment with memory and fantasy scenarios, as well as operate as a bit of an escort service for the rich and self-involved. I've yet to see the Dollhouse function in the manner that Adelle DeWitt insists that it is. Sending someone out on a fantasy date is not exactly altruistic so much as prostitution, which last I checked is illegal in most places. Also even if the individual actives initially 'volunteered' to play these roles and are being 'paid' for them, it still feels a bit like prostitution with a touch of human trafficking thrown in.
Yet, DeWitt, struggle as she might with the moral quandries, remains stubborn in her view that it is all for the greater good. Her counter-part is Boyd Langton, the former cop, who does not see the Dollhouse in quite so charitable a light. Which makes one wonder why he is there? He makes no sense. The Dollhouse and everything it stands for seems counter to his moral core. So it is understandable that Topher would initially assume Boyd is the spy. Which makes me wonder if Boyd isn't working for another agency, then why has he agreed to join the Dollhouse? And how does he sleep at night?
**ETA: Other items brought to mind after readingfrense's post on this week's Dollhouse. Ballard/Mellie is an inversion of Adelle/Victor. Ballard discovering the moral quandry he's in, one that is not of his own choosing. He's trapped in the web. And then we have Echo/Boyd - where Boyd is forced, much like Adelle and Ballard to give up something or someone he loves. In different ways. Boyd must watch as another is imprinted to be trusted by Echo, and watches as she questions him regarding it. Of the three, Echo seems to be the only one aware of the trade-off, November and Victor are not and remain oblivious. To tell them would be dangerous.
The scientists behind the couch - or hiding in the lab, afraid of the world outside, afraid of the a world that is not controlled and safe. Adelle's fantasy with Victor is safe, controlled. He is everything she wants. He does what she wants. He is unpredictable. Her relationship with Dominic is unsafe, he is unpredicatable. She trusted him and went off with Victor and almost lost the Dollhouse as a result.
Finally the attic - where thoughts are left unnuttered, just hitting the tip of the tongue but can never be expressed, the synapses never quite connect. You are erased, but as Caroline states in the first episode of the series, the thing about clean slates, is there is always an echo left behind. In the attic, the echo is but a ghost or shadow. Even the metaphor of an attic, where we put the broken toys and dolls, dusty memories, and faded photo albums that we know we must throw away but can't quite bear to part with. So we place them in storage, forgotten but not forgotten instead.
Lots of twists and turns in this episode. Also, this is one of the few science fiction shows on at the moment or that Whedon has done, that actually has a multi-racial diverse cast. I think it is yet another sign that times have changed - for the better in that regard.
Wish I didn't have to wait two weeks for the next episode. Apparently Fox wants to burn off the remaining Prison Break episodes. Which looks like my Friday night tv schedule is going to be freed up for a bit. I find Prison Break unwatchable.
I liked
fresne's take on Dollhouse more than my own. ] Like Lost this week, Dollhouse played with perception, and how what we think we see or know, may not be true. [I haven't watched Sarah Connor Chronicles yet, because it has gotten really bleak and I'm trying to avoid things like that at the moment. House was bad enough. I was sobbing during this week's House, and last week's Sarah Connor just depressed me. Not shows you want to watch after you've lost your best friend.]
When this week's Dollhouse episode began, I found myself thinking, okay not another one of these - rewind episodes. I've lost count of how many tv shows have done the old "Twelve Hours earlier" or "Six Hours Earlier". It's headache inducing if done poorly, trippy if done well. Here it was, thankfully, done well. Also the always tricky muliple perspective tactic - we start with Echo...follow her for a bit, then rewind and go to November, follow her, then rewind and go to Sierra, follow her, then rewind again and go to Victor - follow him and finally back to Echo and real time. Another tactic that if done poorly gives the viewer a migraine, but if done well is rather cool.
Whatever happens to Dollhouse? Andrew Chambliss - the writer of this episode is someone I going to keep an eye on. So for that matter are Olivia Williams (Adelle), whomever is playing Sierra and whomever is playing Victor.
Here, Chambliss kept all his balls in the air and did not drop a single one. As did the three actors I mentioned above, who made the episode believable.
The episode starts with a conversation between Echo and her handler, Boyd Langton. Echo has just returned from an engagement in which she portrayed a dominatrix. She's telling Boyd that there's nothing wrong with it - and that it is all about trust. The ability to trust someone enough to give yourself over to them completely, to surrender. Boyd counters with how dangerous that could be. Echo states she trusted Boyd, if she hadn't she would never have gotten into the van and that turned out well, didn't it? Boyd, with a wry smile, states, has it? Should she have gotten in the van?
In a latter conversation, also with Echo, Boyd tells her that his view of the Dollhouse is that they are either killers or pimps depending on the engagement.
Adelle Dewitt has a different take - she sees the Dollhouse as aiding deluded and somewhat lonely souls, helping people. We, she tells, Laurence Dominic, have not hurt anyone. We've only helped.
Topher and Ivy see the Dollhouse as an opportunity to expand on their neurological and scientific research.
Saunders like DeWitt, sees the Dollhouse as a way of helping people, although it is unclear to what degree she truly believes that.
Then we have the four actives/dolls' storylines. We got a bit more information on them last week, with Doctor Saunder's experiment to provide them each with a sense of closure. In Awakening, we discovered that Victor needed a resolution regarding a romantic entanglement, he had to feel he had helped and protected someone he cared about. This goes back to his origin or what he may be trying to forget - the death of the woman he was trying to save before he got blown up in the flashback sequence we saw in Echoes. It is also, as Doctor Saunders has warned, brought to the forefront of his brain by repeated engagements with the same imprint. A Miss Lonelyhearts scenario, where Victor portrays the suave and dashing Roger. (As an aside, whoever is playing the role of Victor is brilliant. That actor has managed to change himself each time he jumps into a new role, and he does it with sublety. I just wish the other actors playing the dolls were as proficient, outside of the actress portraying Sierra, I don't think any of them are.) Roger confesses in an exchange with ECho and their handlers, that he actually cares for and loves Katherine, it's not just an assignment for him. His handler scoffs and states she'd rather have the dominatrix, and Echo whips her - stating don't scoff at love.
What at first seems like your typical run of the mill old lady and younger lover fantasy sequence, turns into something else entirely. Victor/Roger it turns out is actually seeing Adelle De Witt, except he knows her as Katherine. And the fantasy scenario is Adelle's, Adelle has set it up for herself. Answering a question - I'd harbored since the series began, if you had a set-up like the Dollhouse at your disposal, what would you do? In the episode Man on the Street - we get a variety of answers. Here we find out what Adelle would do and how Adelle justifies what she is doing to herself. But, Adelle is bright and not a complete monster, she is questioning her actions. As we see in the sequence with Roger, whom she clearly loves but realizes she can't have. She tells him as much - we can't have this. It can't be.
It's a fascinating exchange. Roger fantasizes about being one of Adelle/Katherine's clients. How if he were to make the perfect woman - it would be her. He'd want two - one for the shop and one to take home with him. To be with always. But, he states, she is perfect as she is and he wouldn't want anything else. A doll or fake, would not be real, would not be her. Adelle stares up at the ceiling. It's funny, she says, the first date it's all about hiding your flaws, hoping the other person doesn't see them. Then when you are together - it's about hiding your disappoint. And finally when you are married, it is about hiding your sins. Relationships can never really work.
Later, when she finally says goodbye to Roger. Both Saunders and Topher look at Adelle with concern, thinking she's upset about losing Dominic. Saunder's says you've lost someone. And Adelle states looking at Victor/Roger, not something I can live without. When Topher asks why Miss Lonelyhearts finally but Roger on the shelf - did she get swept off her feet by someone else, Adelle retorts - nothing quite so dramatic. She just came to her senses and realized she could no longer afford the indiscretion.
One wonders to what degree if any the indiscretion has affected or influenced Victor? And, it also makes one wonder about the degree to which we are culpable in our manipulations of others to fulfill our own fantasies? Is she really helping the poor deluded souls, or hurting those volunteers such as Victor that she is pimping out to them?
Switch to November/Mellie - who has been sent back to spy on Agent Ballard. Ballard discovers via an implant by the mole/spy that Mellie is not who she appears to be. She is a doll that has been set-up to spy on him. Mellie tells him who she is, what to be wary of, and to not allow Mellie to know that he knows who she is, because she is also a sleeper agent - capable of killing him with the turn of a phrase. Then, with little warning, November becomes Mellie again, and Ballard must lie to her.
Topher meanwhile has discovered that someone has been tampering with his imprints. There's a chip in his system that makes it possible for his imprints to be comprised. If he creates a "cheerleader" for example, someone else could create a killer cheerleader, just with a few tweaks. He goes to Boyd first, who suggests that he might want to talk to Adelle and Dominic. Dominic enlists the help of Sierra - she'll be imprinted with the ability to sneak into NSA, steal the file with the name of the spy, and come back to the Dollhouse. Echo watching the whole thing on the periphery, and clearly not a fan of Dominic's, suggests to Topher that he imprint her with the ability to investigate and weed out the spy internally. Topher taken aback by her suggestion, complies. Sierra determines that the spy is Ivy - an obvious choice, whom I'd discounted early on. But, Echo disagrees and targets Dominic.
Dominic actually makes sense if you think about it. From the get-go, Dominic was attempting to either comprise or change aspects of the Dollhouse, and was to a degree disagreeing with Adelle's authority. He saw Echo as a threat and kept threatening to put her in the attic along with anyone else who met with his disapproval. Also, there is a bit in Echoes, where Dominic is wryly amused by Topher programming Victor to be from NSA. The very organization that Dominic is spying for.
It turns out that the NSA is not interested in shutting down the Dollhouse, like Ballard is, or even compromising it, but rather taking it over for its own ends. As DeWitt states you want the Dollhouse for your own illicit purposes. This answers question number 2 - if technology exists to wipe memories and build new ones - then why hasn't some agency within the government turned it into a weapon? Apparently they are trying to, but global private interests have kept them on the outside.
I'm not sure what Dominic was planning on doing with Ballard. He states he'd kept Ballard from finding the Dollhouse, but that would have happened regardless. If anything he's given Ballard another means of finding the Dollhouse - via November. All he has to do is research and follow Mellie. So, this begs the question, is Dominic the only spy? Is he the inside mole? And if he is, did he really know what the agenda was? I'm guessing he probably was the inside mole, but did not know the messages that were being sent to Ballard - asking Ballard to determine what the Dollhouse's true purpose was, what it's underlying intent was - that sounds like something the government or NSA would be worried or curious about. And not necessarily something the NSA would trust Dominic with. Although I'm not certain about that.
Dominic's statement to Echo is chilling. He tells her that she will be erased before he is, but the reason he is smiling is that she will eventually erase all of them and they won't even see it coming. Everyone gets their's in the end, Dominic states. Perhaps he's right. Dewitt states to Topher, after he tells her how Echo helped them and that Echo had figured it, that no, they should not erase her, that she was evolving and they should permit her to continue to evolve. She'd saved the Dollhouse this round. And they had no idea how she could help them in the future. Apparently, Topher cautioned, Doctor Saunders test did not resolve whatever issues still exist within Echo.
The irony of Echo's existence is she has become the lab rat that she was attempting to save. She's now the experiment that she'd gotten her boyfriend killed trying to stop. One wonders what would happen if she ever figured that out.
What surprised me here - is the misogynistic bad guy in the first few episodes turns out to be the mole, the person attempting to gain info on the Dollhouse. The one who is sending messages about Caroline and the Dollhouse to Ballard, or so we are lead to believe. While Adelle, is still very much in control of the House. A former scientist who grew organs from stem cells to fight cancer. Adelle has a history of doing controversial science to save lives and help people. Ethical quandries. Because stem cell research is from embroyos and to some the equivalent of butchering the unborn. (I don't agree with that point of view, but many people do see it that way.) The Dollhouse similarily is using human test subjects to experiment with memory and fantasy scenarios, as well as operate as a bit of an escort service for the rich and self-involved. I've yet to see the Dollhouse function in the manner that Adelle DeWitt insists that it is. Sending someone out on a fantasy date is not exactly altruistic so much as prostitution, which last I checked is illegal in most places. Also even if the individual actives initially 'volunteered' to play these roles and are being 'paid' for them, it still feels a bit like prostitution with a touch of human trafficking thrown in.
Yet, DeWitt, struggle as she might with the moral quandries, remains stubborn in her view that it is all for the greater good. Her counter-part is Boyd Langton, the former cop, who does not see the Dollhouse in quite so charitable a light. Which makes one wonder why he is there? He makes no sense. The Dollhouse and everything it stands for seems counter to his moral core. So it is understandable that Topher would initially assume Boyd is the spy. Which makes me wonder if Boyd isn't working for another agency, then why has he agreed to join the Dollhouse? And how does he sleep at night?
**ETA: Other items brought to mind after reading
frense's post on this week's Dollhouse. Ballard/Mellie is an inversion of Adelle/Victor. Ballard discovering the moral quandry he's in, one that is not of his own choosing. He's trapped in the web. And then we have Echo/Boyd - where Boyd is forced, much like Adelle and Ballard to give up something or someone he loves. In different ways. Boyd must watch as another is imprinted to be trusted by Echo, and watches as she questions him regarding it. Of the three, Echo seems to be the only one aware of the trade-off, November and Victor are not and remain oblivious. To tell them would be dangerous. The scientists behind the couch - or hiding in the lab, afraid of the world outside, afraid of the a world that is not controlled and safe. Adelle's fantasy with Victor is safe, controlled. He is everything she wants. He does what she wants. He is unpredictable. Her relationship with Dominic is unsafe, he is unpredicatable. She trusted him and went off with Victor and almost lost the Dollhouse as a result.
Finally the attic - where thoughts are left unnuttered, just hitting the tip of the tongue but can never be expressed, the synapses never quite connect. You are erased, but as Caroline states in the first episode of the series, the thing about clean slates, is there is always an echo left behind. In the attic, the echo is but a ghost or shadow. Even the metaphor of an attic, where we put the broken toys and dolls, dusty memories, and faded photo albums that we know we must throw away but can't quite bear to part with. So we place them in storage, forgotten but not forgotten instead.
Lots of twists and turns in this episode. Also, this is one of the few science fiction shows on at the moment or that Whedon has done, that actually has a multi-racial diverse cast. I think it is yet another sign that times have changed - for the better in that regard.
Wish I didn't have to wait two weeks for the next episode. Apparently Fox wants to burn off the remaining Prison Break episodes. Which looks like my Friday night tv schedule is going to be freed up for a bit. I find Prison Break unwatchable.
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Date: 2009-04-11 06:04 pm (UTC)This episode was so interesting on so many levels! Someone else was following the pain (how Adelle can reveal her pain at Dominic's betrayal in front of Victor/Roger, but hides every hint of pain from the gun shot wound from all her employees at the Dollhouse).
I myself found my interest drawn to the trust: with the dominatrix saying it is about trust, and we find betrayals and trust issues come up over and over again... until the end when Echo is being programmed to give her trust to a new handler.
Anyway, thank you so much for reviewing this! I find your insights always mean a lot to me, and I appreciate you sharing them. I hope you will see T:SCC's finale soon... I didn't find it so much depressing as surprising and kind of disturbing, yet strangely satisfying....
But I REALLY agree about last Monday's House! I found that kind of devastating (luckily it has been a long time since my sister's suicide or it would have been unwatchable), but also well done.... And I have to say that I'm kind of thrilled that Kal Penn is going to work at the White House! How cool is that?!