Dollhouse 1x08
Apr. 3rd, 2009 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockThis is the third episode in a row that is consistently entertaining, interesting, and provocative. While not as good as episode 7, it's better than episode 6, and leaps and bounds better than episodes 1-5. Now that we seem to be off the Misson Of The Week pattern (for the moment) we're seeing more freedom in storytelling in terms of what the basic concept can be stretched to include. This episode also did the most important thing, the thing this show has failed to do right up until tonight: it gave characterization to the actives, and thus made us care about them.
Now that we (the audience) have glimpsed these insights, I think it will be easier to feel connected to the characters in future episodes. The irony is that now I'm more interested in Sierra, Victor, and November than I ever have been in Echo (although I think Eliza Dushku did her best tonight that she has so far.)
Characters-
I have to admit: I was completely won over by Victor and Sierra. Although Victor isn't my type, so I'm not crushing on him, there's something so earnest about the actor's face that I can't help but sympathize with those big brown eyes. God, I hope they don't Wash him in two seasons. HE IS NOT A LEAF ON THE WIND OKAY. And Sierra...I like that she's just as independent and forthright as Echo, but in a different way. I hope that DeWitt and the others have the economy of mind to never contract her out to Nolan (the man who put her in the Dollhouse) again, or the entire point of this "closure" exercise will be negated.
I had a theory last episode that Caroline's flaw--the reason she was capture or coerced instead of killed or successful--was naivete. DeWitte basically implied as much in tonight's episode. She thought Rossum was dealing in animals, but it was dealing in people. When she challenged them, she was unprepared for the scope and enormity of their power. That's why in episode 7's flashbacks her concern for the experimental animals seemed so laughably out of touch. She fought them, but she was unprepared, and she lost. Caroline--the Caroline that lived before she was captured by Rossum and coerced into the Dollhouse--is dead. Even if she could regain her memories, she'd never know if they were truly hers. From this point on, we have to hope that Echo can do what Caroline wasn't strong enough to do.
November's story was sad, and I wonder what else happened that drove her to the point of being coerced into the Dollhouse.
Topher finally got told off by Caroline, which I was grateful for, because that guy gets on my nerves so much. I wish I could completely believe that we aren't supposed to like him at all--but I think we're supposed to like him a little despite ourselves, and that makes me ill to think about. That's just Koolaid I can't drink.
Plot-
Narratively, the episode began and ended with Ballard. I liked the symmetry that his Dream!Caroline said she needed him and then the real Caroline sends him a message with the same request: we need help, save us, I found you now you find me. Stuff is way too weird for me to feel anything romantic for the two of them: they don't even *know* each other; Ballard's living in a hero fantasy that casts Caroline as a soft "Mellie" type instead of the hard survivor she really is; Echo has no concept of Ballard's existence much less any genuine attraction to him; and that dream sequence was deliberately uncomfortable.
Small note: I liked that Dream!Mellie kept asking "How did they know we were close?" because from their perspective, that was the right question, and it led to Ballard searching their apartments (although it took me a minute to find out what he was doing.)
Heroism-
There were some interesting dynamics in how Victor and Ballard's characterizations were written this episode, if you analyze them as the two primary "good" male characters of the episode, then you can look at it as a discussion of male heroism. Ballard dreamed about Caroline asking him for help, but he didn't actually help her in the dream--in fact, no sooner did he give in to his attraction (touch what he desired) than she became dead to him. Out of his reach. One way to read that: sex/ male sexuality will not "fix" her, Caroline does not need a romantic hero. Caroline needs an ally. Beside that we see November/Mellie, the person Ballard failed to be a hero for in life, not just in the dream. I'm a bit of a character sadist so I can't wait to see how much it fucks him up to realize that Mellie was an active too.
Along-side Ballard we have the Dolls. Victor wanted to help Sierra, and he acted as her "hero" in the traditional sense of standing between her and danger, and acting as one of the two group leaders (the other being Echo/Caroline, who was daring where Victor was conservative). They did a nice job of giving him vaguely militant characteristics so that we could believe him as a leader in a tabula rasa situation. But I felt like his desire to protect Sierra was cast deliberately separate from Ballard's urge to rescue Caroline. Ballard's dream to be Caroline's hero is, at the base, all about Ballard: about who he wants to become, not about what Caroline needs. In Victor's case there was sexual attraction just as Ballard had, but Victor's seemed far more about supporting Sierra for Sierra's sake. We don't even see pieces of his previous life, because he spends his day in the sun helping Sierra confront her demon instead of pursuing whatever brought him to the Dollhouse. I like the fantasy version of the heroic knight vs. the realistic version (whose knightly act isn't to slay the demon, merely to guide Sierra to the demon so she can confront him herself.) And I liked that his "need" was about romantic love while needs of the women--Echo, November, Sierra--were not.
I especially liked how Echo's heroism--and she is the only female "heroic" character at this point--is not just focused on one person, but is grander and wider in its ambition. She doesn't need to fixate on one face as a reason to pursue, she went back for all the others. But I especially loved that she went back for Tango, another female character. This show would have been amazing if Ballard had been a female FBI agent, and it had been about women saving women. But now Ballard's on the fringes, unable to save anyone, and if anything this is clearly going to be about Echo saving herself, not Ballard saving her. So please, please make this a show about women saving other women!
Ships-
I like the gentle innocence of the Sierra and Victor's attraction, and I especially liked their promise to finish "this" in the future. As someone else said in a discussion, their relationship is totally an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind kind of thing, where they will be drawn to each other over and over again. It's more in-character at this point for Victor and Sierra to get the kind of "happy ending" that Ballard wants with fantasy!Caroline, than for Ballard and Caroline to get it. Especially if Caroline's true purpose in being in the Dollhouse is to find her lost lover...who might or might not be Alpha. This is a theory I'm really liking so far, btw.
I liked Ballard and Mellie, and I believe he genuinely cared for her, but I can't help but feel the milk has soured on Mellie's end. If they ever meet again, and if she knows him at all, I don't know if she'd want to go back to the relationship they had before, if it were even possible. She has bigger problems with her personal life than worrying about him anymore.
Over all, I'm looking forward to next week! And I'm finally starting to picture this as a long-term project, as something I could watch and enjoy in future seasons.
Now that we (the audience) have glimpsed these insights, I think it will be easier to feel connected to the characters in future episodes. The irony is that now I'm more interested in Sierra, Victor, and November than I ever have been in Echo (although I think Eliza Dushku did her best tonight that she has so far.)
Characters-
I have to admit: I was completely won over by Victor and Sierra. Although Victor isn't my type, so I'm not crushing on him, there's something so earnest about the actor's face that I can't help but sympathize with those big brown eyes. God, I hope they don't Wash him in two seasons. HE IS NOT A LEAF ON THE WIND OKAY. And Sierra...I like that she's just as independent and forthright as Echo, but in a different way. I hope that DeWitt and the others have the economy of mind to never contract her out to Nolan (the man who put her in the Dollhouse) again, or the entire point of this "closure" exercise will be negated.
I had a theory last episode that Caroline's flaw--the reason she was capture or coerced instead of killed or successful--was naivete. DeWitte basically implied as much in tonight's episode. She thought Rossum was dealing in animals, but it was dealing in people. When she challenged them, she was unprepared for the scope and enormity of their power. That's why in episode 7's flashbacks her concern for the experimental animals seemed so laughably out of touch. She fought them, but she was unprepared, and she lost. Caroline--the Caroline that lived before she was captured by Rossum and coerced into the Dollhouse--is dead. Even if she could regain her memories, she'd never know if they were truly hers. From this point on, we have to hope that Echo can do what Caroline wasn't strong enough to do.
November's story was sad, and I wonder what else happened that drove her to the point of being coerced into the Dollhouse.
Topher finally got told off by Caroline, which I was grateful for, because that guy gets on my nerves so much. I wish I could completely believe that we aren't supposed to like him at all--but I think we're supposed to like him a little despite ourselves, and that makes me ill to think about. That's just Koolaid I can't drink.
Plot-
Narratively, the episode began and ended with Ballard. I liked the symmetry that his Dream!Caroline said she needed him and then the real Caroline sends him a message with the same request: we need help, save us, I found you now you find me. Stuff is way too weird for me to feel anything romantic for the two of them: they don't even *know* each other; Ballard's living in a hero fantasy that casts Caroline as a soft "Mellie" type instead of the hard survivor she really is; Echo has no concept of Ballard's existence much less any genuine attraction to him; and that dream sequence was deliberately uncomfortable.
Small note: I liked that Dream!Mellie kept asking "How did they know we were close?" because from their perspective, that was the right question, and it led to Ballard searching their apartments (although it took me a minute to find out what he was doing.)
Heroism-
There were some interesting dynamics in how Victor and Ballard's characterizations were written this episode, if you analyze them as the two primary "good" male characters of the episode, then you can look at it as a discussion of male heroism. Ballard dreamed about Caroline asking him for help, but he didn't actually help her in the dream--in fact, no sooner did he give in to his attraction (touch what he desired) than she became dead to him. Out of his reach. One way to read that: sex/ male sexuality will not "fix" her, Caroline does not need a romantic hero. Caroline needs an ally. Beside that we see November/Mellie, the person Ballard failed to be a hero for in life, not just in the dream. I'm a bit of a character sadist so I can't wait to see how much it fucks him up to realize that Mellie was an active too.
Along-side Ballard we have the Dolls. Victor wanted to help Sierra, and he acted as her "hero" in the traditional sense of standing between her and danger, and acting as one of the two group leaders (the other being Echo/Caroline, who was daring where Victor was conservative). They did a nice job of giving him vaguely militant characteristics so that we could believe him as a leader in a tabula rasa situation. But I felt like his desire to protect Sierra was cast deliberately separate from Ballard's urge to rescue Caroline. Ballard's dream to be Caroline's hero is, at the base, all about Ballard: about who he wants to become, not about what Caroline needs. In Victor's case there was sexual attraction just as Ballard had, but Victor's seemed far more about supporting Sierra for Sierra's sake. We don't even see pieces of his previous life, because he spends his day in the sun helping Sierra confront her demon instead of pursuing whatever brought him to the Dollhouse. I like the fantasy version of the heroic knight vs. the realistic version (whose knightly act isn't to slay the demon, merely to guide Sierra to the demon so she can confront him herself.) And I liked that his "need" was about romantic love while needs of the women--Echo, November, Sierra--were not.
I especially liked how Echo's heroism--and she is the only female "heroic" character at this point--is not just focused on one person, but is grander and wider in its ambition. She doesn't need to fixate on one face as a reason to pursue, she went back for all the others. But I especially loved that she went back for Tango, another female character. This show would have been amazing if Ballard had been a female FBI agent, and it had been about women saving women. But now Ballard's on the fringes, unable to save anyone, and if anything this is clearly going to be about Echo saving herself, not Ballard saving her. So please, please make this a show about women saving other women!
Ships-
I like the gentle innocence of the Sierra and Victor's attraction, and I especially liked their promise to finish "this" in the future. As someone else said in a discussion, their relationship is totally an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind kind of thing, where they will be drawn to each other over and over again. It's more in-character at this point for Victor and Sierra to get the kind of "happy ending" that Ballard wants with fantasy!Caroline, than for Ballard and Caroline to get it. Especially if Caroline's true purpose in being in the Dollhouse is to find her lost lover...who might or might not be Alpha. This is a theory I'm really liking so far, btw.
I liked Ballard and Mellie, and I believe he genuinely cared for her, but I can't help but feel the milk has soured on Mellie's end. If they ever meet again, and if she knows him at all, I don't know if she'd want to go back to the relationship they had before, if it were even possible. She has bigger problems with her personal life than worrying about him anymore.
Over all, I'm looking forward to next week! And I'm finally starting to picture this as a long-term project, as something I could watch and enjoy in future seasons.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-05 02:32 am (UTC)Oh he's definitely more interested in the science literally to a fault. It's his primary flaw and what currently makes him a villain. But I don't believe he's conscientiously aware that he's choosing technology over humanity. He's definitely character disordered, but I think it's too soon to tell he's a sociopath or just... well, not using his brain.
Boyd, Adelle, and Claire have to justify their purpose as "protecting" the dolls from themselves or the outside world, whereas the most Topher can muster is "they volunteered!" which is much flimsier.
See, I think the only one that gets a pass for using the "protecting" card is Boyd that that's only because I'm convinced that the only reason he's still around is because of his attachment to Echo. Walking away (even for moral reasons) would mean abandoning her and I don't think he can do that. And granted, Boyd isn't exactly an innocent here. He did accept a job with the Dollhouse, which means he had to have been okay with all of this at some point. He's just further along the path of redemption than anyone else at this point and he's role of protector is becoming increasingly parental.
For everyone else who says that they are "protecting" that really means that they think that Dolls are inferior and lacking the basic human skills that would allow them to fully function, conveniently ignoring the fact that they MADE the Dolls that way (and that it probably isn't even true that they can't function for themselves.)
I swear I wanted to throw things at Adelle (who is, by the way, a textbook sociopath) during her little self-righteous speech about looking protecting the Dolls from their memories. It smacks of condescension and, yes, very much the same argument that actual slaveholders offered for keeping plantation workers in bondage. ("They can't look after themselves. They need the system of slavery to protect them.") That's why when Claire offered the same argument to Boyd, I began to like her less.
The litmus test is the prostitution part of the Dollhouse. If you are honestly concerned with the welfare of the Dolls, you wouldn't allow the Actives to be used sexually. At all. If it's wrong for Sierra's handler to rape her in her Doll state (which everyone in the Dollhouse seems to agree that it is), then it's wrong to put the Actives in situations where they are going to be used sexually. So they can talk all they wanting to protect the Dolls, but in the end, they are actually just protecting their property.
Topher's flimsy "they volunteered" actually hold up better in this regard... but only in that moronic way that far too many guys seem to think that porn industry isn't sexually exploiting because no one is forcing the girls to star in those films. It's the exact same "not sexual exploitation, if they've already agreed to it" bull. It's not a GOOD excuse, but its pretty understandable how a guy like Topher (who I'm betting has watched more than his fair share of porn) would be comfortable with that defense.
Of course, "they volunteered" will only take you so far. Topher only recently had his security clearance upped. I don't think he's realized that these "volunteers" were probably mostly Shanghaied. Possibly Millie/November turned to the Dollhouse to escape the pain of her daughter's death, but I doubt it. I bet we're going to find out that every single Doll was pressured until they gave their consent and even then I highly they were given the full picture complete with the sex part of what would happen to them. Topher will truly prove what he's made of the day that he's faced with facts that will make his "they volunteered" defense fall apart. After that, if he can continue to act the way he does, even knowing the truth, then he really is a sociopath.
Right now I see him as a Warren, but if you're right, he might turn out to be an Andrew type instead.
See I was thinking he was Johnathan, so Andrew is probably right. :-P Though Topher might be actually be the Trio combined.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-05 02:34 am (UTC)I could even, in theory, see the writers making him as morally repulsive as possible (my reaction to him) and then picking him to redeem simply because that would make it the most uncomfortable and inconvenient choice.
Yeah, that's my current thinking... or rather they're setting it up this way just because redeeming Topher, instead of, say, Dr. Claire, would be the unexpected choice. It seems like we're supposed to think that Dr. Claire is more sympathetic and.. well, good, but I'm thinking when push comes to shove, she'll come down on the wrong side without some major intervention, while Topher might just surprise us all.
And just to be clear, I have no idea if I'm right about Topher or not. It's just my current thinking. A couple weeks ago, I thought Ballard and Dr. Claire were on the same page and Topher was just not getting it and would never get it. My feelings about Claire have changed (negatively) since then and my perception of Topher may as well. It's just nice to talk it out with someone, especially when they're coming at the problem from a different angle like you are.
Ballard is an interesting guy, and I like that they're making him a 'noble' guy but one who clearly has dark issues and a damaging past.
In some ways, he reminds me of what Simon Tam must have been like when he was trying to rescue River. Except it's not really clear yet how Ballard even knows Caroline, let alone if they have anything resembling a sibling bond. Even if they aren't actually related, I think I would be more comfortable with Ballard's role of obsessed rescuer if we found out that he and Caroline were at least friends before she disappeared and that's why he's looking for her. Because he knows something bad happened to his friend and nobody's trying to stop it.
It's actually sort of a Joss thing. Everyone expects parents and lovers to go to the ends of the earth for their loved ones, but Joss likes to point out that friends and siblings can be just as devoted (and sometimes even more so). Not everyone gets that. If they did, then Mike & Bryan would have realized that Mai's careless disregard for her two-year old brother was going to be a deal breaker for a lot of big sisters out there.