Dollhouse 1.7
Mar. 28th, 2009 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreLike the pilot, this episode gave me a very “manga” feeling. It creates a certain bias with me.
I’ll get what I didn’t like out of the way first:
#1: Topher’s bulge. OMG TOPHER’S BULGE REPEATED SHOTS MAKE IT STOP! BLEACH MY EYES! BLEACH MY BRAIN! DO IT NOW NOW MAKE IT STOP!!!
#2: Sierra’s flashback focusing on the rape. Yes yes, we just did that. MAKE IT GO AWAY! I would have rather seen more of the other flashback. I wonder if it was an imprint, or her real past.
#3: Surprisingly, the hallucinations plot. I thought I would, but while there were some moments, like Dominic apologizing for trying to kill Echo and November almost activating ninja!Mellie, it was mostly a less interesting “Band Candy.” And “Band Candy” at least had teen!Giles/Joyce and their having car hood sex that could later be used to scar Buffy for eternity.
#4: He’s a black scholarship kid with a sick mother (and was there a broken home, too?) so of course he killed his best friend and let the drug loose and betrayed Echo for money. MAKE THE BAD STEREOTYPES GO AWAY. And I was hoping he’d end up kinda Gunn-like…
#5: The rapist of the week. Thwarted or otherwise. I was starting to hope we wouldn’t have to have one, but no. Not only do we have one, but he’s apparently into bondage and wants a meek “good” girl as his partner? I think I was less icked by “HI! I get girlfriends so I can hunt them like animals!” and “My tragic sob story makes my being a serial rapist sympathetic!”
The rest:
They really were trying to make sure we never forgot the words “Rossum Corporation,” weren’t they? Also, between Adelle’s saying she believed in what they were doing and Caroline’s boyfriend talking about babies and the entire imprinting concept, I have decided that the organization’s goal is clone armies. Don’t try to convince me otherwise.
And even though I’m 99.9% certain someone else has been cast as Alpha, I can’t help but half-hope that it’s somehow Caroline’s boyfriend.
Given that both Caroline and Sam were recruited pretty much for finding the secret lab, I wonder how many Dolls are also Dolls because they learned something they shouldn’t, instead of being desperate, like we’ve been led to believe. I wonder if Sam (Whiket? Tango? X-Ray? Omega?) will join Echo, Victor and Sierra’s playgroup, or if Echo will be warding him off with glares.
Did it crack anyone else up that Victor was essentially imprinted with Agent Helo? Also, Sierra should wear her hair up like that more. It suits her features.
I’m wondering how much of November’s breakdown was the drug, how much was glitching, and which bits were November and which were Mellie. Also, did they not think it was weird that the message from Adelle was on Agent Helo’s answering machine? Anyway, it looks like Mellie is going away for a while, but I wonder if November is too. And the fact that the cameras Adelle was watching in the last episode were planted in Agent Helo’s apartment seem to indicate against Mellie being programmed to love him, or at least it not being a complete given.
Speaking of Doll names, there really is a Foxtrot! If Foxtrot is a female redhead, I might have Gargoyles flashbacks. Maybe 5 people will get that. Now to meet Foxtrot, Tango, and Whiskey…
I realized watching this that, just like they’ve been imprinted to trust their handlers, the Dolls have probably been imprinted to trust Topher, too, so that they’ll happily go into his machine. Also, he was way too giddy when he was talking about how drugs affect people. I really wish Joss wasn’t using so many Xander/Wash cues with him, and would just stivk with Warren 2.0.
Hmm…the like/dislike representation here isn’t quite representative of my like/dislike regarding the show. While it could have been better, it’s definitely better than previous episodes.
In conclusion: I demand clones. (As far as we know, clones have nothing to do with the episode itself. I still demand them.)
I’ll get what I didn’t like out of the way first:
#1: Topher’s bulge. OMG TOPHER’S BULGE REPEATED SHOTS MAKE IT STOP! BLEACH MY EYES! BLEACH MY BRAIN! DO IT NOW NOW MAKE IT STOP!!!
#2: Sierra’s flashback focusing on the rape. Yes yes, we just did that. MAKE IT GO AWAY! I would have rather seen more of the other flashback. I wonder if it was an imprint, or her real past.
#3: Surprisingly, the hallucinations plot. I thought I would, but while there were some moments, like Dominic apologizing for trying to kill Echo and November almost activating ninja!Mellie, it was mostly a less interesting “Band Candy.” And “Band Candy” at least had teen!Giles/Joyce and their having car hood sex that could later be used to scar Buffy for eternity.
#4: He’s a black scholarship kid with a sick mother (and was there a broken home, too?) so of course he killed his best friend and let the drug loose and betrayed Echo for money. MAKE THE BAD STEREOTYPES GO AWAY. And I was hoping he’d end up kinda Gunn-like…
#5: The rapist of the week. Thwarted or otherwise. I was starting to hope we wouldn’t have to have one, but no. Not only do we have one, but he’s apparently into bondage and wants a meek “good” girl as his partner? I think I was less icked by “HI! I get girlfriends so I can hunt them like animals!” and “My tragic sob story makes my being a serial rapist sympathetic!”
The rest:
They really were trying to make sure we never forgot the words “Rossum Corporation,” weren’t they? Also, between Adelle’s saying she believed in what they were doing and Caroline’s boyfriend talking about babies and the entire imprinting concept, I have decided that the organization’s goal is clone armies. Don’t try to convince me otherwise.
And even though I’m 99.9% certain someone else has been cast as Alpha, I can’t help but half-hope that it’s somehow Caroline’s boyfriend.
Given that both Caroline and Sam were recruited pretty much for finding the secret lab, I wonder how many Dolls are also Dolls because they learned something they shouldn’t, instead of being desperate, like we’ve been led to believe. I wonder if Sam (Whiket? Tango? X-Ray? Omega?) will join Echo, Victor and Sierra’s playgroup, or if Echo will be warding him off with glares.
Did it crack anyone else up that Victor was essentially imprinted with Agent Helo? Also, Sierra should wear her hair up like that more. It suits her features.
I’m wondering how much of November’s breakdown was the drug, how much was glitching, and which bits were November and which were Mellie. Also, did they not think it was weird that the message from Adelle was on Agent Helo’s answering machine? Anyway, it looks like Mellie is going away for a while, but I wonder if November is too. And the fact that the cameras Adelle was watching in the last episode were planted in Agent Helo’s apartment seem to indicate against Mellie being programmed to love him, or at least it not being a complete given.
Speaking of Doll names, there really is a Foxtrot! If Foxtrot is a female redhead, I might have Gargoyles flashbacks. Maybe 5 people will get that. Now to meet Foxtrot, Tango, and Whiskey…
I realized watching this that, just like they’ve been imprinted to trust their handlers, the Dolls have probably been imprinted to trust Topher, too, so that they’ll happily go into his machine. Also, he was way too giddy when he was talking about how drugs affect people. I really wish Joss wasn’t using so many Xander/Wash cues with him, and would just stivk with Warren 2.0.
Hmm…the like/dislike representation here isn’t quite representative of my like/dislike regarding the show. While it could have been better, it’s definitely better than previous episodes.
In conclusion: I demand clones. (As far as we know, clones have nothing to do with the episode itself. I still demand them.)
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 02:43 am (UTC)The war zone? I thought that was Victor's flashback, although I really wasn't sure either way.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 03:31 am (UTC)I liked this episode more than episode 6, but like you I was a little annoyed that Sierra's flashback was to the rape. I got confused though as to whether the other flashback was actually hers pre-dollhouse or whether it was Victor's because he acted liked he'd been shot, but didn't appear to have been hurt at all which confused me.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 03:32 am (UTC)So, I am 99.9% sure that the name "Rossum Corporation" is a reference to the play Rossum's Universal Robots. Which, you'll be happy to know, is about a worker's revolution by clones[*] who are used as slaves by natural-born humans.
IOW you are totally right about the clone armies.
[*] The titular "robots" are artificial people, not machines. The play's from the 1920s, so the scifi terminology hadn't been set yet.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 03:38 am (UTC)That play does sound familiar.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 09:52 pm (UTC)I enjoy reading your thoughts, however.
On Sam's name, a friend of mine said she thought he might be Mike.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 01:16 am (UTC)THE BULGE WON'T GO AWAY!!!
no subject
Date: 2009-03-29 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-30 04:08 am (UTC)THERE WAS JUST THE ETERNAL SCARRING!