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Are you still watching Dollhouse, the very darkly themed Whedon show starring Eliza Dushku as Echo, the brain-wiped human tabula rasa-slave? The last time we saw Echo, she was kidnapped by Alpha, the escaped Active, who then zapped all the personalities she'd been programmed with before all at once into her. The idea was to make her his Omega. As we know, he didn't succeed. Omega killed him and chose to return to her blank state.
Our dubious Knight-in-Shining-Armor didn't quite rescue Echo either. In fact, he took the gray road, agreeing to work "with" the Dollhouse PTB in exchange for...I'm not sure what...and Melon'sDecember's freedom.
The first episode of Season Two started in a confusing manner for me. Ballard seemed to be using the Dollhouse to trap a bad guy (illegal weapons dealer) who he hadn't succeeded to catch during his FBI days. Echo was programmed as his "partner" who had lured the bad guy into marrying her.
This indicated that some time had passed since last season's finale, right, because it takes time for a bad guy to decide to marry some beautiful woman and have a big wedding. Right? If so, then I have the problem of Ballard actually doing unto Echo what he professed to abhor all last season--using her for sex (and other things) without permission. Granted, the sex wasn't with him, but with the weapons dealer, but heck, that's splitting hair.
Sure, he seemed uncomfortable about it and there were some funny moments spliced into the usual gratuitous shots of Echo naked under a male, like the insertion of Ballard doing some push-ups while the bad guy was on top of Echo doing some...umm...push-downs, heh. And yeah, in the end, Echo got the bad guy, with Ballard coming to the rescue when she was in danger, but what is Whedon doing with Ballard's character? He's no longer someone we root for.
Echo's story hasn't grown much, except her telling Ballard at the end that she knows about the "others" inside her. I'm not sure what she meant when she said she was going to look for these personalities. What was the point? Ballard knew they were just composites of people that Topher created. I suppose we could interpret that as part of the Caroline "got to save things/people/causes" personality waking up, but I thought last year's little hints were stronger than this premiere's memory lapses/flashbacks.
The most interesting subplot was Dr. Saunders, who had found out that she was a doll called Whiskey, reprogrammed because of her facial scars. Wow, a tortured angsty doll?! So are we to surmise that a doll who had been given her personality for too long will become that personality? What does that say about the mind? Dr. Saunders rejected her old "life," and was afraid that they would kill her (the Dr. Saunders personality), yet there were some sparks of that Whiskey wickedness showing. She tortured Topher with a zealousness that was totally unlike her Dr. Saunders kind demeanor; she was quite menacing toward Echo, looking at the razor and then taking the lollipop for herself (instead of the usual giving the lollipop to the doll after examination). In the end, she ran away, going into the "real" world. The doll wants to be real.
And what about Topher, our evil geeky smart-mouth genius? Turns out he had a human side, giving his reasons to reprogram Whiskey the way he did. He didn't want Whiskey as Dr. Saunders to be his "yes" sidekick. He wanted someone who would question him, so he gave her a dislike of himself, even his smell. Topher is very strange indeed. Yet, he made perfect sense. Best line: "I didn't make you hate me. You chose to do that." So again, there is the idea being tossed out that a programmed doll could "grow" as a person.
The friction between Boyd and Ballard is delicious. I can't wait to see them at odds even more as the season continues, especially now that Ballard had become Echo's handler. Boyd not gonna like that, no sirree.
That last bit was damning too. Ballard is now part of the Dollhouse, whether he had any good ulterior motive, or not. So who is left to save our Dolls?
(Almost must add--Viktor and Sierra holding hands in the end = glad to see them reconnecting).
So, what are your thoughts?
2 comments:
I was totally with you wondering what he was thinking but then this week that moment with echo on the bench seemed to make it more ok at least for me. Do you still think he is a sellout?
I still think he hasn't redeemed himself yet but I have to rewatch the episode to be sure. Brighthouse had a meltdown in my region and many channels were "frozen" (pic but no movement or sound) on and off. It was very frustrating.
I do think that Echo's compositing isn't going to be good for Adelle.
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