Wow. Wow. Wow.
If you haven’t watched “Man on the Street”, the sixth episode of the Dollhouse, don’t read another word. This episode is available on Hulu and itunes for those in the US (and through less legal means for those outside), go watch it and then come back. You really don’t want to be spoiled.
Where was I? Oh yeah – Wow.
I’m sure I’ve talked before about the strength of serial storytelling – of the depth that can be explored by developing characters over time. Man on the Street had all the elements of great TV. It had zippy plot twists, ((Since I’m not going to talk about it in my main review, I want to say that I don’t think there’s an insider in the dollhouse. I think the parameter that was supposed to be an insider, was in fact the dollhouse giving Paul Ballard what he needs – their specialty.)) people we care about, and something to say, and all three elements fitted together organically and didn’t feel forced. If the sixth episode of Dollhouse is this powerful, I can only imagine how strong the show will be in its second season (please let there be a second season. I really love this show).
In an episode this densely layered, I’m not going to try and talk about everything. I just want to look at three of the key ideas this episodes, the nature of the dolls, rape and love.
There’s only one reason someone would volunteer to be a slave is that they is one already
Like many other people, I was worried about how the actives would play as characters, if they’re just blank states then why would you care about them? I had no idea how quickly and how deeply I’d come to care about the actives. When Ballard called the actives “zombies” in his conversation with Joel Myner, I got mad at him for being so very wrong. Whatever Sierra, Echo, Victor (and now November) are, they’re not Zombies. Ballard has the same idea about actives as Boyd did in the flashbacks of The Target. After only six episodes I find any character who denies the humanity of the actives instantly less likable.
There are people who have asked who you’re supposed to root for in this show, and I don’t really understand the question. You root for the actives. Each episode makes it clearer that the mindwipes don’t take away their humanity, and whatever is taken away from them their capacity for friendship and love is still beautiful.
While my empathy and support for actives in their inert state only increased this week, what really changed was my attitude towards the imprints. Although I’ve enjoyed some of the imprints, and sad when we weren’t going to see Lubov any more, I’ve never really thought about how I thought about them. They would be there and then they’d be gone, and they were not why I was watching the show.
But with Mellie as a doll I think about the imprints differently. I don’t know how Joss Whedon and Miracle Laure did it, but she’s like Willow on steroids, in terms of being the character that every female viewer (and I’m sure a few male ones) identify with instantly. ((One of the thing I’m undecided on is Mellie’s whole “I know I’m not the gold standard in LA”, which is clearly a reference to the fact that she’s larger than tiny. On the one hand (unfortunately) it’s realistic. Women say and think all sorts of derogatory things about their bodies, and I’ve heard people just as close as Mellie to society’s vision of ideal say just as fucked up things. But it bothers me in a number of ways. First, by making Mellie’s body the only one which is discussed critically that reinforces the idea that the other female active’s bodies are normal and hers is ‘other’. Second, I found the scene reinforcing a kind of faux-body-diversity – “Don’t hate yourself it’s OK to be a size 12 (or 8 in the US)”. And third (and I mean this as no insult to Miracle Laurie who is doing an amazing job) it reminds me that the casting call asked for someone ‘heavy’, and I wonder if those who produced and cast dollhouse really think Mellie is heavy. But I get why that line is in there, and what it’s doing for Paul and Mellie’s relationship – and it does the job.))
Even knowing that she’s an active I’m still on her side, and I still care for her. For example, I’m worried because the catalyst for Paul kissing Mellie was clearly his conversation with Joel Myner. ((* I thought this scene was very well done (despite the cliche of the insightful one off character). I particularly like that they covered the messed up nature of Paul Ballard’s quest for Echo. I hope they don’t lose that note later in the season (not least because it would make Mellie sad).
On that note, I’m wondering about the scene at the beginning between Paul and the bad FBI Agent/Badger/lawyer dude president (depending on which show you’re watching). First time I watched it I didn’t like it at all: “I am a manly man, who will prove his man-ness by beating up other men who insult the woman I love.” But the more I think about it, the more I think that it was underscoring the points that Joel Myner’s was making about the ridiculousness of Ballard’s position.)) Because he was trying to prove that he wasn’t obsessed with Caroline, he was on one level thinking of her while kissing Mellie. I’m sure this is going to end up making her sad, and I don’t want her to be sad, even though she is on some levels not real. I think this show is so much deeper and more interesting when we care for the imprints as well as the actives. And I’m still untangling the many ways I do think Mellie is real.
There’s a difference between being attracted to someone and hurting them
I was going to say that this was the most honest portrayal of rape that I’ve ever seen on television, but decided that would be damning with faint praise. This episode portrayed sexual abuse in a way that was powerful, unflinching and real.
I had been anxious, ever since I saw the preview,that they were going to show Victor raping Sierra. It would have been a deal-breaker for me, I think, if Dollhouse portrayed rape as something inherent in a man. I was very glad when I was sure they weren’t telling that story.
Instead the story they did tell was about institutional rape. It wasn’t just Claire Saunders perspective, the show made it clear that rape isn’t about sex, it’s about power. ((Not to go on a huge tangent, but I want to acknowledge while that idea is an important feminist concept, I don’t think it’s the only truth there is. Rape is sometimes about sex, both for perpetrators and survivors, and I think it’s important not ignore that reality. In particular to say “rape is entirely different from sex” ignores the way that many of the ways that we’re socialised to think about sex involve pressure and non-consent. None of this takes away from the importance of making it clear that rape is about power. But once we’ve got that idea across I think it’d be useful to talk about the way rape is about sex (or sex can be about rape).)) Institutional rape isn’t discussed nearly as much as it should, and I really appreciated the stark, unequivocal stand the show took. And while the situation in the dollhouse is different from institutional rape as it exists, nothing about the writing, directing or acting ((The scene where Sierra is walking along the corridor is so powerful. If I was going to rave about the acting I would be here all day, but Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Miracle Laurie (Mellie), Enver Gjokaj (Victor) and Olivia Wililams (DeWitt) all excelled in this episode. I am also more and more convinced with Eliza Dushku’s many personalities. I felt like Rebecca was unlike anything I’d seen before.)) was trying to make that distinction. Instead I felt they were emphasising the similarities between this and what actually exists. The scene between Sierra and the Handler, reminded me of passages from Louise Nicholas’s autobiography. ((For those relatively new to the blog, Louise Nicholas was a New Zealand woman who was raped by police officers, one of whom went on to become an assistant commissioner of the New Zealand police))
The conversation between DeWitt and the handler was as powerful as it was disturbing. The handler’s answer to Dewitt’s “Did it make it better that she didn’t struggle?” made the audience sit with the reality of abuse. And by having the Handler place blame on the institution they left space for the view that abuse is impossible to eliminate in situations with these power imbalances (which is my view). The Handler wasn’t portrayed as an inscrutable monster, but a person, with a point of view, who had done monstrous things. That conversation depicted both the horror, and the normality of sexual abuse.
The attack on Mellie is terribly painful to watch, even when you know the outcome. But it wasn’t eroticised, and it wasn’t glamorised, even though she’s only wearing a shirt.
There were a lot of subtler notes in the show that I really valued. The only reason Sierra’s rape was acknowledged was because she has friends. Because Victor noticed that she was behaving differently, and Echo remembered her cries. The scene where Topher and Claire were interrogating Victor drew an explicit connection between Topher’s objectification of women and his indifference towards rape.
This episode hit so many feminist ideas about rape, without seeming didactic. I think it’s hard to tell a story about rape without being feminist. The problem is that most of the time rape is portrayed on television they’re not telling stories about rape, they’re using rape to tell some other sort of story. ((See I was being really restrained and didn’t even mention Spike.)) One of the most exciting things about the concept of the dollhouse is it’s ability to look at such realities head on. I’m really glad they’re taking that challenge seriously.
“How does Sierra make you feel?”
“Better”
I would argue that, despite how much this episode had to say about rape, it was actually about love. The strength of love stood out in this episode even more as it was contrasted with the degradation of abuse. Victor was brilliant in every scene. But the ending with him and Sierra was beautiful. And, as I’ve said, like Adelle I value Mellie’s love for Paul Ballard, programmed or not.
The interviews were clearly all supposed to be true on some level. But the one I had the hardest time with was the young woman who thought maybe it would be OK. I thought she was just being a hippy; I didn’t think I could sympathise with a client. But in the end, I think maybe I got there. In the end Echo’s desire for things to be finished was beautiful.
Yes. Yes yes yes.
As I was watching it, I was thinking, Maia at Alas will be happy with this. This is rape within a political/systemic/institutional context. This is rape legitimized by the system. The system creates the conditions that allow rape to occur/make rape inevitable and I thought the conversation between DeWitt and Sierra’s handler was expertly written to highlight this.
I felt like this episode at long last began to pose some of the big ethical & political questions that this show’s premise has always promised.
I agree with you 100% on the brilliance of the Mellie material.
“Since I’m not going to talk about it in my main review, I want to say that I don’t think there’s an insider in the dollhouse. I think the parameter that was supposed to be an insider, was in fact the dollhouse giving Paul Ballard what he needs – their speciality. (back)”
Yes, I believe this is entirely possible and was surprised to see so many reviewers elsewhere taking the “mole” thing at face value. At the same time, I do like the idea that the Dollhouse is much more deeply embedded in the State and systems of power than a single aberrant corporation, it makes the series’ message a great deal more powerful, I believe, so I hope this part of Echo’s message to Ballard is based in truth.
If there is a mole, I feel like it would have to be DeWitt (I do think there’s a lot more going in with her than we’ve yet to see, irregardless of this mole business) or blond security dude (forgetting his name) to be dramatically interesting. Boyd or Dr. Amy Acker (I really do need to start memorizing character names a bit better) would be too easy. Plus despite her disgruntlement, I get the sense Acker’s character is incredibly complacent. She reminds me of that girl in high school with the non-conformist clothing who wrote badass political quotes all over her jeans with a pen, but when you approached her to invite her to help you, say, start an activist group or something, she was all, “Ummm. no. Good luck with that.”
And third (and I mean this as no insult to Miracle Laurie who is doing an amazing job) it reminds me that the casting call asked for someone ‘heavy’, and I wonder if those who produced and cast dollhouse really think Mellie is heavy.
Yeah, I think they do. She is Hollywood-fat, which is SO unbelievably screwed up, but I have no trouble believing that people who are marinating in that culture, and whose work involves seeing (and appraising) hundreds upon hundreds of very thin women, would look at Miracle Laurie and genuinely see a “heavy” woman. However, they get points for writing her as attractive — and Ballard as unquestionably thinking so — instead of letting her “heaviness” be an obstacle that keeps Ballard from noticing the love interest right in front of him. It’s pathetic and infuriating that noticing Miracle Laurie is a stone fox should be something praiseworthy, but in this context? It kind of is.
My first thought when I saw her was, “It’s Amber Benson redux” — a woman whose body is significantly smaller than the actual average, yet noticeably larger than the Hollywood average, which means the internet will never freakin’ stop talking about how “fat” she is or isn’t. So I read her moment of self-deprecation as an acknowledgment of that (not to mention a realistic depiction of body shame even among women who are very close to the ideal) — and I really, REALLY hope that means they intend to move on and never mention it again. I loved that Ballard’s response was, “You’re gorgeous,” and it was totally said in a “What the hell?” way, not a “There, there” way. I loved that the doubts she expressed about him after they got it on were related to how she (or her imprint, anyway) had been hurt in the past and/or his apparent obsession with Caroline, not whether he was actually attracted to her body — because obviously, that wasn’t a problem. I thought the whole issue was handled quite well — i.e., it was presented as a complete non-issue, so the internet haters can just piss off — all things considered.
Dang, I should just go write a post about this. And yet, I’m not done commenting yet.
None of this takes away from the importance of making it clear that rape is about power. But once we’ve got that idea across I think it’d be useful to talk about the way rape is about sex (or sex can be about rape).
At an event for Yes Means Yes a couple of months ago, Jaclyn Friedman made what I think is a perfect distinction here. Someone brought up the “rape is not about sex” thing, and she said her take is that rape is not sex, but it is indeed about sex. It may be primarily about power and dominance, and it’s an experience that’s entirely distinct from consensual sex, but it is still sexual violence. When we say it’s not about sex, full stop, we put really frustrating limits on how we’re allowed to talk about it as feminists and/or survivors.
Yes yes yes . . . not to mention, that what she said wasn’t specifically, “god, I’m so fat,” but rather, “I know I’m not the gold standard in LA,” which carries a different meaning. In a way, what she was saying was, “I know I’m Hollywood fat,” which is kind of awesome, if you view it as a meta-comentary on the idea that she is unattractive.
That having been said, if they’d have had another scene with her carrying a platter of lasagna, I would have punched my screen. “See? She woos men with food! Because she’s fat!” Arghblarghrawr. Still, that was previous episodes, not this (awesome, amazing) one, so I’m cutting them some slack.
—Myca
There were 2 things about this episode that didn’t sit entirely well with me.
One was the Mellie character, up until this last episode (in my mind at least) she was the most annoying character and least consequential to the ongoing plot. Then in ep.6 all of a sudden she’s this really awesome, normal person (I’m talking before the reveal that she’s a doll) and no longer seems to have this romcom-ish puppy dog crush on Ballard even though she still likes him.
The other one was the rape and further allusions of sexual violence. I admit that in this episode it was treated so much better than in the past, but seeing it week after week, and usually in ways that don’t seem to take it seriously, is really getting to me.
Overall I think it’s better than most of the shows out there (at least the ones you don’t need cable for), but I’m still kind of meh on the series. Won’t stop me from watching though, at least for now.
Oh, and I also loved how directly the entire episode was about rape and addressing different sorts of rape and questioning the hard cases. Saying, “yes, sure, we can all agree about Hern and Sierra . . . but what about Joel and Echo? Even though he’s sad and sympathetic, that doesn’t make it not rape. She’s only interested in him under brainwashing, and that’s nonconsensual. Okay. Agreed? Good. Now what about Paul and Mellie?”
Christ, what an episode.
—Myca
Oh, guess I should mention that the problem I had with Mellie is not her now being an interesting character, but that there was no in between for ep. 1-5 Mellie and ep. 6 Mellie. She just completely changed personalities with no explanation.
Oh, and as Hern was coming for Mellie, I paused the show, turned to my fiancee, and said, “If they women in refrigerators her, that’s it. I’m done with this show. Fucking Joss Whedon.”
They didn’t. They most emphatically didn’t. I forgive you, Joss. We cheered.
It was like Whedon’s mission statement for Buffy, about how what he wanted was a show in which the monster chases the scared cheerleader into an alley, where she then kicks its ass, only it was even more effective, due to the differences in how we perceived Buffy versus Mellie. Just really really well done.
Plus, I’m a sucker for love stories, so I hope that Victor and Sierra end up together and Paul and Mellie end up together.
—Myca
@Myca,
I had the same fear, especially with DeWitt making the comment to Hern about how Mellie would struggle (unlike Sierra). I was like, WTF, did she just tell Hern to go out and rape her? AAAARGGGGGGHHHHH.
“Oh, and I also loved how directly the entire episode was about rape and addressing different sorts of rape and questioning the hard cases. Saying, “yes, sure, we can all agree about Hern and Sierra . . . but what about Joel and Echo? Even though he’s sad and sympathetic, that doesn’t make it not rape. She’s only interested in him under brainwashing, and that’s nonconsensual. Okay. Agreed? Good. Now what about Paul and Mellie?””
Yes!!
“Oh, and as Hern was coming for Mellie, I paused the show, turned to my fiancee, and said, “If they women in refrigerators her, that’s it. I’m done with this show. Fucking Joss Whedon.”
They didn’t. They most emphatically didn’t. I forgive you, Joss. We cheered.
It was like Whedon’s mission statement for Buffy, about how what he wanted was a show in which the monster chases the scared cheerleader into an alley, where she then kicks its ass, only it was even more effective, due to the differences in how we perceived Buffy versus Mellie. Just really really well done.”
I had a very similar reaction… don’t let her be victimized, don’t let her be victimized, yay! she’s not a victim… but wait… that means she’s a doll, which… wait… totally exploited, right? and then I loved the way that made me critical of my own reaction to her ass-kicking in this very layered, complex way. and also begin to reconceptualize what a doll is and what being a doll means and esp my relationship to the imprints, as maia highlighted. so good.
You know I’ll settle for everyone getting their agency back. Also, Mellie’s an Active.
CALLED IT!
Mellie drives me crazy. Because no, she’s not fat by objective standards, but clearly she’s “fat” in the sense of bigger than everyone else, and she’s pathetic. I’m sorry, but pathetic in exactly the way “the fat girl” is pathetic. Not taking no for an answer. Hanging around hoping for attention. Giving way more attention than is reciprocated. Always being around, never having a date. Geez Pete, give her a gay friend so the stereotype is complete!
I suppose there’s a meta level where it’s all a critique of the Dollhouse or of Topher; they only program stereotypes, but I don’t buy it.
And Ballard telling all the confidential information about his case to a neighbor? That’s stupider than all the other stupid agent where did they train you stuff he does.
Way better episode than the first five. Way better. And yay for Dushku FINALLY not going all Faith. But it still has a row to hoe in my opinion.
Interestingly enough, my male friend watching the show didn’t get the weight reference since he perceives Mellie as “skinny.”
But I have to agree with some of the commentators: based on the rest of the casting, the producers really do think that, at least by Hollywood standards, a size 8 is “heavy.” The other women on the show are all size 2 at most. Which says a lot right there. I am, however, happy that at least the Dollhouse has recognized that not everyone fantasizes about being with a size 0 or size 2 woman.
I’m finding more connections with the disability world the more episodes I watch. Not only did Whedon have a blind character (who wasn’t ridiculous and steretypical in the usual TV depiction of people with disabilities), but this episode resonated deeply. Most rapes of people with disabilities (developmental, physical, etc) are done by caregivers. The dependence of the actives in the Dollhouse is much like the dependence of disabled upon their caregivers, as rife for abuse and sexual assault and as likely for others not to notice. Or care, because the actives/disabled (especially severely disabled) aren’t real people, are they? Once you’re instituionalized, you lose your free will, independence and right to self-determination. Even when you live “independently” in the community, you’re not quite as much a person with rights as able-bodied people are and I thnink I’ll stop now before I write a treatise on rights vs. privileges, agencies having the power toi hijack your life at their whim and…
It’s actually quite chilling, the way Whedon zeroes right in on it.
There were two “playing with tropes, then yanking the rug out” moments in this episode. First, as discussed, Mellie was being set up for the Woman in Refrigerator trope. And I really thought that’s where they were going with it; despite the fact that I, like many viewers, had speculated that Mellie was a Doll, this episode succeeded in convincing me that she wasn’t. Beautifully done.
The other trope was “the fat rich loser who has to pay for sex,” which was undone both by the guy’s personality and presence once we knew him — clearly he isn’t someone who couldn’t get a date — and by Mellie describing him as “cute.”
The problem is, since Joss hasn’t ever shown a positive fat character on any of his shows (he rarely shows fat characters at all — on Buffy, both of the fat characters I can recall were evil), and since the only other time we’ve seen fat men on “Dollhouse” is when they were paying for sex, for me the playing with the trope rings a little shallow. He’s playing with the trope for this one episode — but he still treats the trope as if it’s true. There are plenty of female Joss characters, both on Dollhouse and in his other shows, who aren’t women in refrigerators. There aren’t any fat male characters on Dollhouse who don’t pay for sex.
Good point Amp. You just made me want to go back and re (over?) analyze one aspect of the cult/blindness episode. The only overweight person in the cult that I remember (please correct me if I’m wrong) was the one woman who was the first to try to leave when preacher guy started to burn the building down around them. Looking back at it now, it seems to have tones of 1)all these people work hard so of course none of them are fat, and 2) the fat girl was the first to falter, of course she didn’t have the commitment to their cause.
Although I’d agree with Amp’s general complaint, this seems to be a pretty bad example of it. “First to flee a building set aflame by a religious fanatic?” Sign me up.
—Myca
Ha, true. I stand corrected but I still wonder if there was perhaps any subliminal thinking on the the creators part in that aspect.
This was also the episode for me that made this an interesting show. Before, I was watching out of hope. Now I’m eager to tune in next week.
But the real reason I commented was to second Ali. Mellie was not “the character that every female viewer (and I’m sure a few male ones) identify with instantly.” I saw her as being meant for the Willow/Kaylee/Fred/Kitty Pryde role as soon as she appeared, but she has always annoyed the beejeebies out of me. The low self-esteem, the flowery jumper, the shy little smile and the profferred food…ugh. Sure, Willow had a crush on Xander, but she wasn’t making him passive-aggressive cookies. Sure, Kaylee wanted Simon to wake up, but she wasn’t acting like a doormat in the meantime.
It’s true that this episode Mellie stood up for herself a little and made me dislike her a little less (and of course, watching her performance in future, I’ll know it’s artificial), but I just wanted to point out as a female viewer, I did not identify with her.
I see Mellie’s subtly changing character as the Dollhouse programmers slowly altering her personality as they get a better grasp of what Ballard likes.
* * *
I have to admit, I totally forgot about the cult member. Within that context — cult members — I thought she was actually a very positive character, in that she seemed likable and genuinely caring, and did think that they should run away from fire. So I have to disagree with you, Ali — I’d count her as an exception.
Still waiting for a fat man on dollhouse who isn’t paying for sex, though.
I’ve been waiting all week for your review. This was one helluva episode and this show has finally sucked me in.
Some thoughts – I found the internet mogual less sympathetic than The Handler, because the Handler made no effort to cover up the kind of man he is – a rapist. The internet mogual on the other hand gives a sob story about his dead wife to justify his actions. He’s not a rapist, just a lonely man pining away for the woman he loves. The problem with that equasion is that HE IS A RAPIST! My husband and I debated this character, as my husband agreed he was a rapist, but was clearly suppose to be a very sympatheic character. This exchange led to an interesting discussion about how men and women don’t necessarily view these things the same way and some talk about how men assume that their worldview is universal.
Oh, and I was sure Mellie was an active from episode one, so this was no shocker to me. However, I had assumed she was an active under the control of the Alpha and not the Dollouse proper, so I was wrong there.
And does anyone have any guesses as to who reprogrammed Echo before she confronted Paul? I think it’s Topher’s assistant (don’t remember her name). I suspect that she’s up to more than fetching his lunch for him.
Last note – finally an episode worthy of our beloved “Grr Arrgh!” monster!!!!!
Lene, I like your comments a lot. I was thinking something very similar this morning. The way the dolls are subject to this institution and then thought of as “helpless” is very similar to our way of dealing with institutionalized disabled folks.
This comment thread made me realize the “fat” girl pathetically pining after someone is something of a Whedon trope. We have the “heavy” Mellie, “zaftig” Kaylee, and Willow, who was skinny on the series proper, but was originally portrayed by a bigger actress on the pilot.
yeah, I guess I should have put more than 2 seconds thought into my second point ;)
That’s why I warned ahead of time it was possible over-analysis, yeah that’s it.
Rose has a point, Maia — I’ve been waiting for your review too! :-P
Rose, I don’t think there is a mole who programmed Echo. I think that the Dollhouse programmed Echo to tell Ballard that because they’re screwing with his head; also because they didn’t want him to fight his expulsion from the FBI; and also because they want to be able to control him.
Really, it’s just the same fake-out they’ve already done with the fake mole. This is how the Dollhouse controls Ballard. Plus, they now have him feeding whatever case info he finds to Millie.
Thank so much for your comments everyone. I really enjoyed writing this review, but it was hard (it’s much easier to review things that annoy me, than find hundreds of psynonyms for awesome)
See I had a different take on the woman in the cult. It seems to me that every single time Joss has an actually fat women in one of his shows (as opposed to the not-skinny ones such as Tara, Kaylee and Mellie, who are on their way to being earth goddesses), it’s been a sign for being working class (lunch lady in Earshot, Nurse in Anne and trailer girl in Chosen, I don’t know Angel well enough to add examples from there).
Amp – have there even been any actually fat man who pay for sex in Dollhouse besides Joel? Or just invisible fat men who pay for sex (the handler’s reference in this episode and Echo’s comment in the second?)
Kate Harding – I can see that, and agree that the wording was important. But, my second and first concern still stand. Although I think given that she was portrayed as desperate in two episodes, I think it probably was important to establish that he was attracted to her. Although all the chatter i’ve seen on the internet, even the non-feminist parts, is about how very, very beautiful she is. So I don’t think it actually needed doing for that reasons.
Felicity – sorry for universalising. She was annoying me too, although partly because I could see myself in her (although if I was going to offer someone left-overs that weren’t left over I’d have the smarts to take some out first). But now I’m all about her.
More on Mellie – while there was a difference between the last episodes and the last I think that was possibly explainable just by the fact that we were seeing her do more than provide dishes of food. I don’t see her as incompatible, just seeing what she’d be like if he actually talked back to her.
Lene – I think that’s a really interesting point when combined with how clearly we’re supposed to see the dolls humanity, and see the wrongness of those who don’t. I wonder if that metaphor will be explored more overtly, or just sit there.
Myca – I’m such a Victor/Sierra shipper too. And Paul/Mellie, even though it has to end in tears, and she’s going to have to disappear, I still want it to work out for them. Even though previously I’ve thought of any sex with actives as rape (and clearly the person who Mellie was is being raped by the dollhouse by sending her on this engagement, but at the same time I believe in Mellie so much, I want things to work out for her, as well as the person she was).
What Lene said. I have worked in facilities for adults with severe mental illnesses. There is an extreme degree of vulnerability. There is also a lot of projection: on several occasions I have seen staff people who seem to be attracted to a client label the client as “sexually inappropriate” for the crime, as far as I can tell, of making them feel attracted. Because the client has no power in the system, and because it is assumed that the vector of attraction can only go from the disabled to the non-disabled, never the other way, such labels are generally not questioned. The situation is rife for a blame the victim mentality. The staff members in such situations have such power to determine what is real and what is not real, I think sometimes they forget that their lies are not facts.
Moreover, every sexist notion that staff members have can get inflicted in the most explicit ways on the clients. Don’t get me started on the client who was a transvestite and had no discernible mental illness until spending a few decades in mental health facilities where he was punished every time he put on women’s clothing.
re Mellie:
To be honest, I did identify Mellie as an atypical body type (I wouldn’t say fat), and while I agree that she’s really not out of the mainstream for real people (except maybe by being on the skinny side), she seems to me to be out of the mainstream for women in tv and movies who a) get the hunky guy and b) demonstrate physical prowess.
I live in the LA area, so maybe I’m infected by the body image standards of my region. When I went from being a size 6 to a size 10, I noticed that I had fallen out of the ideal category. Plenty of clothing stores were happy to remind me of that fact on a regular basis. It felt good to me to see Mellie with Paul and even better to see November show the same physical abilities as Echo. I never saw Mellie as being the desperate clingy gal, but to the degree that she was so, it seems like she was at a bit of a disadvantage in that she was likely programed not to seek out more responsive romantic interests. She was kinda desperate by default.
I also appreciate how Mellie plays with my feelings about dolls and the dollhouse, in that I now find myself emotionally allied to an imprint and feel defensive of her, whereas before I have only sympathized with the inactive dolls and always felt defensive of them and their original personalities. In a sense, I’ve been suckered into sympathizing with a construct that is being used as a tool to explicitly victimize a stranger. Because her real personality is a stranger to me, even though that personality is the initial victim, I find myself emotionally allied against her in a way, because I like Mellie and want to see her continue to exist. Though there is always the possibility that the Mellie we see is mostly a real personality that just has a subconscious imprint vulnerable to a specific trigger.
It reminds me of how equally victimized the imprinted personalities are, since they get essentially murdered by the dollhouse on a regular basis whenever a doll is wiped.
It occurs to me after reading all these comments that my impressions of Mellie are shaped by the fact that this was the first episode I watched. I just hadn’t gotten around to watching yet, and when this one popped up on Hulu, I watched it instead of going back to ep 1. (I’ve since watched the first 5.) I probably would have been a lot more bothered by Mellie as the Hollywoodfat girl who lives alone yet makes two lasagnas at a time and is constantly trying to hang around a hot guy who doesn’t notice her, if I hadn’t known she would eventually end up getting “neighborly” with said hot guy.
And Maia, I’m absolutely with you on the first two points. But I guess I have two different categories of appreciation for non-negative representations of fat/Hollywoodfat people on screen. 1) Hey, that was an unequivocally positive representation! Cool! (Pretty much never happens.) 2) Hey, you had a lot of opportunities to disappoint and/or infuriate me there, and you didn’t take most of them! Cool! (Occasionally happens, and that’s how I’d class this episode.)
Amp, I totally didn’t register the fat men are only on the show to pay for sex thing. Really glad you pointed that out.
While I loved this episode what with all its many layers & turns and general goodness (Yay! Finally a fantastic episode), it made me realize that there are some seemingly insurmountable problems for the series.
I’ll start off with the surface stuff. The acting. Eliza Dushku is just not that good. While she’s satisfactory a lot of the time, when she’s paired with a good actor (like the guy who played Joel) her deficiencies become glaring. I thought the best acting she’s done in Dollhouse so far was as voicemail in delivering the message to Ballard. That’s just not good. I am hopeful, though, that the writers will soon realize her limitations and tailor her part to what she does well. If not, the series has kind of a low ceiling as long as Echo is central. If Echo is just a walking plot point it can go beyond that low ceiling.
Then there is the ridiculous complexity of how Dollhouse deals with Ballard. Every time they go to the next step of their plans for Ballard, I think, “Sharks with laser beams.” Then I think of Scott Evil saying, “Look, I’ve got a gun in my room. I’ll go get it and we’ll shoot them. BANG! It’ll be fun.” For all the fantasy that Dollhouse is, the extremely complex and likely to fail plan to kill Bond, er, I mean the hero, just doesn’t fit for me. It breaks the flow. It vaporizes my suspension of disbelief. I want to be into the show, not thinking about Dr. Evil’s example of the ridiculousness of Bond villains. Can the writers make Adelle’s plans integrate more smoothly with the flow of the rest of the show? I don’t know, but it isn’t working so far.
But the most difficult thing for me is the FOX factor. We’re really watching two different shows when we watch Dollhouse. One of the shows is full of interesting ideas and story and acting. The other is a slightly better version of Charlie’s Angels. I feel like the hot action adventure women show is at Fox’s behest, though I could certainly be wrong. We had five episodes of mostly Action! Adventure! Cheese! to appease the network with little bits of possibility of interest interspersed. Episode 6 was finally the show hiding under the action show. Does the show continue with the Angels? Or is it able to drop that now and actually be its own thing? Is Fox satisfied that they’ve captured their target audience and can now cater to Whedon fans or will they insist on more action shows? I don’t know that I’ll be able to hang on watching if only 2 shows per season are good. If they go that route, I’ll just wait & watch the 15% of the series that is good on DVD.
There is a fantastic show there, as evidenced by this most recent episode. Will it surface more than rarely? I really hope so.
I actually really liked the Joel character because I don’t think Whedon does enough to tease out the implications for mortality inherent in the scenarios he presents. Like in Buffy, there was only ever one episode with a character who wants to be a vampire so that he’ll never die. The idea that that might be attractive to someone gets brought up once and never mentioned again. (Part of the reason I don’t think Whedon deals with these issues enough is that I actually think he portrays them well. The episode after Buffy’s mom dies is the best representation of new grief I have ever seen and the one episode of Buffy I will never watch again.)
That’s not to say that Joel isn’t a creepy rapist – he is. But in a world where dolls are an option, some people are going to use them to see their dead loved ones again. (yes, they could have done this with a non-sexual relationship, but I agree with the people upthread who said that the line between Sierra-Echo-November was worth illustrating)
Nah. I’m in a different place with this: Cult members aren’t expected to be sexual, therefore it’s okay for some of them to be fat.
Great review. Astonishing to see an entertainment show taking on these issues head on and still managing to entertain. Yeah, there are niggles about size issues, but the best is the enemy of the good and I for one am cheering for something that gets so much right.
Just trying to tease something out here… I don’t think Paul/Mellie is rape. Dollhouse/Foxtrot (or whatever they call the doll who Mellie is running on. I’m betting we won’t ever see dolls called Golf or Hotel though…) definitely is. However… do we know for sure that Mellie is even a construct. Could be the Dollhouse has done a snatch, installed the kick ass killer sleeper and then wiped the memories of that happening. After all, as the guy at the end said, if the technology exists, it will be used and nothing will be certain thereafter.
I’m pretty sure that Joel isn’t raping the persona of his dead wife. However, he’s certainly raping Echo, or employing the Dollhouse to procure her for him. I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t think that what he’s doing is rape though. Unless Ballard has successfully planted the seed of doubt in him that is.
Oh yes. A theory: DeWitt’s an active and Dominic’s her handler.
An observation on fat sightings – episode six. The woman who observed that the only slaves that volunteer are already slaves is real-world fat. Is her inclusion a meta comment on hollywood-world acceptable body size?
oo oo I just realized I’ll be totally hopped up on (generic) vicodin for the next episode! I bet everything about the dollhouse will make perfect sense to me then!*
Maia, I’m totally hijacking your Dollhouse review for next week ;-)
*Assuming I’m not just drooling onto one of my pillows while my cats watch my bemusedly.
Boyd or Dr. Amy Acker (I really do need to start memorizing character names a bit better) would be too easy.
I thought right after the show that if we believe in a mole, the woman who I think Wikipedia calls Ivy seemed like the most likely candidate. She has low visibility in the Dollhouse yet might actually know how to do this. But I have to agree with Ampersand and disagree with Jake Squid about this episode. I thought during Echo’s fight with Ballard, “I don’t get their plan here. Surely they can just get the fool fired, and killing the conspiracy nut seems like exactly what they want to avoid.” Though I did mean killing him while he worked for the FBI. A good fake suicide now might work better.
Oh, and I also loved how directly the entire episode was about rape and addressing different sorts of rape and questioning the hard cases. Saying, “yes, sure, we can all agree about Hern and Sierra . . . but what about Joel and Echo? Even though he’s sad and sympathetic, that doesn’t make it not rape. She’s only interested in him under brainwashing, and that’s nonconsensual. Okay. Agreed? Good. Now what about Paul and Mellie?”
That seems like a damned good point. In general, I’ve thought for some time that having sex with a prostitute in a situation that involved coercion should legally count as rape, except I also think we should allow a stupidity defense here if it seems truly credible. Even if the series doesn’t go with Piers’ suggestion, Paul and Mellie seem like a textbook case — I have no trouble believing in Ballard’s stupidity.
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“I wonder if those who produced and cast dollhouse really think Mellie is heavy.”
I work in the entertainment industry, and I can say absolutely yes. They really, really do. I was doing a no-budget casting last year, and one of the woman on my team called anyone size 10 and above “plus-sized.”
Sigh.
And, what was also interesting to me was that any actress that came in with experience on her resume was Hollywood thin. They have to be to get the gigs. It’s actually challenging to find female talent in a variety of sizes.
I actually pointed Miracle Laurie out to my boyfriend, because it’s rare to see women her size on TV. I hope Mellie turns out to be a really significant character, because I like her a lot already.
Random note…the Buffy/Whedon tag is missing on this article, so it was a little harder to find again than the other Dollhouse rundowns.
[Fixed! Thanks. –Amp]
When watching this episode, my father wondered aloud why the Dollhouse didn’t send a skinnier girl to seduce Ballard.
Fail?