Dollhouse Episode 9

I know, I know, you're just dying to hear my take on the latest Joss Whedon show :-).

Okay, this was an awesome yet odd episode overall. There were several horrifying revelations that really changed the way we and the characters view their reality. First. we finally met Ms. Lonely Hearts and it wasn't some old crone getting the services of Viktor/Roger--it was, Holy Kamolly, Adele! Yikes.

Intriguing as this was, there were things that made me scratch my head. I gathered that this was meant to show the dark side of Adele and yet, we were also meant to see her vulnerable side, with a bit of her past snuck in there. I suspected that she recreated an old lover out of Viktor, Continental accent and all. But in essence, she's not much different from Sierra's ex-handler who raped her, right? She acted as if that act was such a crime and killed that bastard, but what about herself? Her using Viktor, even with imprintment, was really no different from Sierra's ex-handler, who used her imprinted trust of him.

But the fencing scene and the conversations in bed are making Adele a very rounded bad guy. Her decision to give up her make-believe Roger also signaled her realization that the real world around her was in danger; her most trusted man himself a fake. That was one cool thematic use of nothing black and white about this show, even for the bad guys.

Second, the Mellie of the Melons reveal to Ballard. Oh, man. Poor, poor Ballard. Nice juxtaposition too, that he found that HIS reality was also not quite what it seemed. The woman he had slept with was a doll and now, we the audience are also questioning the dilemma of whether his future sexing of her would be rape. He couldn't tell Mellie because her kill trigger would be activated and yet he also couldn't change the relationship too drastically because that would make the Dollhouse suspicious. Like I said, poor Ballard.

Third, Dominic's reveal as the NSA mole. That was quite a surprise punch for me. Never saw that happening. So we now know that the NSA was trying to control the technology from spreading and our perception of Dominic as Really Bad Guy also changed; in the overall pic, he had a mission to stop the Dollhouse technology from spreading to terrorist countries, etc.

But he was caught by...ECHO/spyhunter who I'm sure was now truly composited (if that's a word). She controlled the whole situation from the getgo--getting Topher to imprint her ("did I just lose an argument to a Doll?" best quote of the night), then asking questions from each of the people who had control of her and showing some kind of insight of their inner workings, and then that classic Faith-inspired fight at the end with Dominic (awesome use of glass table, hee).

We now see the reality of the Attic. I was a bit disappointed about that, just a bunch of wires to torture? What made the Dolls any different from an Atticked Doll? I'm imagining the Atticked Dolls lying comatose somewhere. What point would that serve if that was true? They just sit in the Attic for decades? Plot hole there for me.

Another confusing element is the number of spies against the Dollhouse running around inside and around the place. We have Alpha. We have Alpha's insider. We have the NSA insider. We have Ballard. And maybe we have more. Here's the best I could understand what was happening:

1) Last week Echo's destruction of electrical components gave Topher some problems with his imprintment equipment.

2) They imprinted Mellie before the discovery of whatever that thing was that was NSA technology, hence they knew it was NSA, in the chair.

3) Dominic, the NSA undercover op, pretended to be angry and then had Sierra imprinted with Sydney Bristow's brain ;-) so she could run an Alias-like operation at NSA. Of course, this was a set-up and that's why no one could recognize that Sierra looked nothing like the Asian girl she was pretending to be :-). Sierra/SydneyBristow was supposed to steal something that would reveal the identity of the NSA mole. We already know that Dominic had set up Ivy as the mole.

4) Meanwhile, imprinted Mellie revealed stuff to Ballard. Her words pointed to ANOTHER agent, who wanted Ballard to find out why and not where. I'm saying this because Dominic was pretty damn sure he was protected, yet here, Mellie, who had no idea what was happening at the Dollhouse, said their inside agent had been compromised. I'm thinking maybe Ivy is a mole too, but not for NSA.

5) Back at the Dollhouse, we get the Dominic reveal and Ivy is saved from the Attic.

6) Adele atticked Dominic. Their conversation was very revealing (ahem) too--he was working to stop the technology from improving and he could see that Alpha was just the beginning of what could be done to the human mind. He could see it happening to Echo. Of course, that didn't make him any less the bastard he was for trying to off Echo.

7) So, in the end, one mole caught, Alpha still on the loose, and his inside Mole might not have been compromised yet.

Last few thoughts: Adele as Wonder Woman with the Bullet hole was pretty cool ;-). Also, Topher's and Dr. Saunders' motivation for being the Dollhouse were interesting. Boyd was as mysterious as ever and yes, I think he could be a mole too. Echo's final re-imprintment to trust a new handler--her trigger words were said with her eyes on Boyd and not on her handler. Wonder what that means?

Whew. I know, I think too much about a TV show. Joss does that to me. //bow

Your thoughts?

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