Dollhouse - 1x11 - "Briar Rose"
May. 2nd, 2009 02:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlock1. I kinda ship it.
2. "Whiskey!"
3. I'm happy to say that the WTF?!Surprise value has at last eclipsed the WTF?!Ick value for me.
- Ballard is not very likeable to me right now. I could say that I get why he's making these practical decisions about Caroline and Melly, but the fact that he's making them is so arbitrary and cold, that I can't really sympathize with him at all. It's like the series is trying to showcase how ridiculous it is for him to be the hero when he arbitrarily picks Caroline to save instead of trying to save the woman whom he's had friggin sex with, who is absolutely as much a slave as Caroline. Especially since he has no guarantee that they can't flip an "attack/kill" switch on Echo just as easily as Melly/November. Why should we see him in a heroic light at all, if his heroism is so naive and his devotion so shallowly decided?
- "The apples were monitored!" Heeeheheee. It's good to have the humor in there! Now we just need some more of it. This show is so daaaaaark.
- At first I thought they turned their environmental designer into their first subject Alpha, but turns out he just murdered the designer and took is place. Interestingly, Alpha seemed to maintain character past the point it was necessary for Ballard; maybe he enjoys getting into character, or maybe some leftover of his time as a doll means that once he takes on an impersonation it's difficult to snap out of it. He lingers until the last moment.
- I'm ridiculously happy that Alan Tudyk is Alpha because that means he gets to stay on for more episodes and he isn't the nerdy drug guy who gets killed off immediately. On a separate note, I like that the "prince" who gets all the credit at the end is Alpha, instead of Ballard. Even if he's CRAYZAY and not Charming at all.
- I don't think the imprint Alpha gave Echo was Caroline's personality, or at least, not a complete one. There's clearly more going on here. And I'd also like to add that while Alpha may desire to bring down the Dollhouse and help Caroline's mission, he's clearly CRAYZAY violent and that means he won't be Caroline's hero for very long. Still, I'm shipping them in a BadLoveWTF kinda way right now. Because that was kinda twisted hot.
- The girl Susan said she let 4 chances to escape go by her. I believe Echo/Caroline will do the same, at least once or twice. In fact, we may have seen the first missed opportunity tonight.
- There's a LOT more going on with Dominic. (How creepy was his wake-up scene, btw?) Dominic looked at Dr. Saunders and shouted "Whiskey!" which confirms in my mind that she was a doll. Clearly Dominic was around long enough to know that, to see what Alpha did. So Alpha cut up and murdered several of the dolls, including Whiskey. He probably murdered the original Dr. Saunders. The Dollhouse takes one of their "damaged" dolls and imprints her with Dr. Saunder's personality. I'd been expecting almost exactly this. Listening to Alpha's interrogation of her, asking her how they met... he met the real Dr. Saunders, not the woman whose face he cut. This woman, this body, never examined him.
ETA: At first my brain was all "Ha! I called that!"...but in my excitement over having guessed correctly and in the revelations of Alpha's face, I forgot the most interesting thing about the Dr.Saunders/Whiskey revelation, which isn't at all to do with Alpha: "Why would Dominic call out to Whiskey? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?" What is it about Whiskey/Saunders that would compel Dominic to appeal to her? Were they involved? Was he once her handler? ...oh my gosh. I bet he was Whiskey's handler!
- Victor!
- I wonder if Alpha adjusted the CO2 levels in the pods to be high enough to kill the dolls instead of just putting them to sleep?
- I wonder if the set really *is* designed to match "Feng Shui up the wazoo"?
- I'm annoyed we've gone ANOTHER episode without meeting Echo's new handler! This show needs more diversity in the cast, and for a second in episode 9 we saw a cute Asian guy as her new handler...but that was the last we've seen.
That's all for now. Many revelations. I don't see how anyone's supposed to be able to write fanfic for this series, though. How can you characterize people when you have no idea who is who or why or how?
2. "Whiskey!"
3. I'm happy to say that the WTF?!Surprise value has at last eclipsed the WTF?!Ick value for me.
- Ballard is not very likeable to me right now. I could say that I get why he's making these practical decisions about Caroline and Melly, but the fact that he's making them is so arbitrary and cold, that I can't really sympathize with him at all. It's like the series is trying to showcase how ridiculous it is for him to be the hero when he arbitrarily picks Caroline to save instead of trying to save the woman whom he's had friggin sex with, who is absolutely as much a slave as Caroline. Especially since he has no guarantee that they can't flip an "attack/kill" switch on Echo just as easily as Melly/November. Why should we see him in a heroic light at all, if his heroism is so naive and his devotion so shallowly decided?
- "The apples were monitored!" Heeeheheee. It's good to have the humor in there! Now we just need some more of it. This show is so daaaaaark.
- At first I thought they turned their environmental designer into their first subject Alpha, but turns out he just murdered the designer and took is place. Interestingly, Alpha seemed to maintain character past the point it was necessary for Ballard; maybe he enjoys getting into character, or maybe some leftover of his time as a doll means that once he takes on an impersonation it's difficult to snap out of it. He lingers until the last moment.
- I'm ridiculously happy that Alan Tudyk is Alpha because that means he gets to stay on for more episodes and he isn't the nerdy drug guy who gets killed off immediately. On a separate note, I like that the "prince" who gets all the credit at the end is Alpha, instead of Ballard. Even if he's CRAYZAY and not Charming at all.
- I don't think the imprint Alpha gave Echo was Caroline's personality, or at least, not a complete one. There's clearly more going on here. And I'd also like to add that while Alpha may desire to bring down the Dollhouse and help Caroline's mission, he's clearly CRAYZAY violent and that means he won't be Caroline's hero for very long. Still, I'm shipping them in a BadLoveWTF kinda way right now. Because that was kinda twisted hot.
- The girl Susan said she let 4 chances to escape go by her. I believe Echo/Caroline will do the same, at least once or twice. In fact, we may have seen the first missed opportunity tonight.
- There's a LOT more going on with Dominic. (How creepy was his wake-up scene, btw?) Dominic looked at Dr. Saunders and shouted "Whiskey!" which confirms in my mind that she was a doll. Clearly Dominic was around long enough to know that, to see what Alpha did. So Alpha cut up and murdered several of the dolls, including Whiskey. He probably murdered the original Dr. Saunders. The Dollhouse takes one of their "damaged" dolls and imprints her with Dr. Saunder's personality. I'd been expecting almost exactly this. Listening to Alpha's interrogation of her, asking her how they met... he met the real Dr. Saunders, not the woman whose face he cut. This woman, this body, never examined him.
ETA: At first my brain was all "Ha! I called that!"...but in my excitement over having guessed correctly and in the revelations of Alpha's face, I forgot the most interesting thing about the Dr.Saunders/Whiskey revelation, which isn't at all to do with Alpha: "Why would Dominic call out to Whiskey? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THAT?" What is it about Whiskey/Saunders that would compel Dominic to appeal to her? Were they involved? Was he once her handler? ...oh my gosh. I bet he was Whiskey's handler!
- Victor!
- I wonder if Alpha adjusted the CO2 levels in the pods to be high enough to kill the dolls instead of just putting them to sleep?
- I wonder if the set really *is* designed to match "Feng Shui up the wazoo"?
- I'm annoyed we've gone ANOTHER episode without meeting Echo's new handler! This show needs more diversity in the cast, and for a second in episode 9 we saw a cute Asian guy as her new handler...but that was the last we've seen.
That's all for now. Many revelations. I don't see how anyone's supposed to be able to write fanfic for this series, though. How can you characterize people when you have no idea who is who or why or how?
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-03 03:31 pm (UTC)I love Whedon's ability to twist character archetypes and redefine hero roles. Paul Ballard is that perfect blend of hero meets anti-hero, a man with an obvious need to save the girl, be right, be the good guy, even though he's really not. His Echo/Grail quest is a good counterpoint to the Dollhouse mission, and makes sure we don't know who to root for.
If Paul becomes Echo's handler at the end of this season, I don't know what to make of what the next one will be like...