I’ve been meaning to thank everyone for the nice comments on my Dollhouse reviews. Particularly thanks to Felicity, who said:
For some reason I can barely fathom, Alas’s is the only Dollhouse response I like reading. Perhaps it has the perfect mix of Jossmania and critical analysis for me?
I’m thinking of putting ‘the perfect mix of Jossmania and critical analysis on my CV (resume for Americans).
Another brilliant episode that really is much, much better unspoiled. I have learned how to hide the bulk of the post, so from now on I will include a brief spoiler free ramble at the beginning of each review. Don’t click on unless you’ve watched the episode.
Just before watching the latest episode I was talking with my friend Betsy about the costumes on dollhouse, most notably Alice’s, and what a crazy job being in charge of the wardrobe for the dollhouse organisation would be (‘so for this engagement he wants her to be really naieve and innocent, but a sexual object. What’s your ugliest pair of white stockings look like?’). And then they showed us the dollhouse wardrobe – talk about giving us what we want.
This episode had everything great television needs: it was hilarious, upsetting, character-centred, and thematically unified. Clearly “the dolls wake up” is a great premise for an episode, and that premise was well utilised (“we’re all going to die” from Victor was my favourite line, but it’s not alone in its greatness). But the writers weren’t content just to milk that premise for its jokes about fruit, they took it much further, and much darker.
This episode explored six characters needs: Echo, Victor, Sierra, November, ((After considerable thought I decided to refer to them with their doll names even though we know Echo and Sierra’s actual name. I think the needs that were being explored in this episode were the needs of their doll-selves. I think the people they had been would have needed much more than they got in this episode)), Paul Ballard and Adelle Dewitt. I think it’s very important that this episode extended its exploration of needs beyond the dolls that were being experimented on. Adelle tells Caroline that she signed on to escape her memories. Even though Caroline ran for two years, and was being held captive when she signed (which does away with any idea of meaningful consent). Adelle clearly needs to believe that people volunteer for this, and that they are benefiting from having their memories removed. I have wondered a lot about whether they really let people go at the end of 5 years, and it seems to me that if they don’t, then Adelle must be able to maintain her belief that they do.
Paul Ballard’s needs were complicated, but they certainly make the character more interesting than they were previously. A few episodes ago it would have enraged me, that the only hope we got at the end of this episode was his message from Caroline. A lot about Paul Ballard is both boring and obnoxious – how dare he provide me hope. But I’ve felt much more engaged with the character since Man on the Street acknowledged how creepy his obsession is. I felt that his dream at the beginning took that creepiness to another level (nothing like having making out with a corpse to up the creepiness). The ending wasn’t so much hope as Paul Ballard also getting what he needed, or possibly just what he wanted – at this stage it really isn’t clear.
Of the dolls, November’s needs (and plotline) were least integrated with what we already knew. In fact I think her plotline didn’t make much sense. We had seen Victor, Sierra and Echo grouping, and Echo going off task. Each of these were connected to what they resolved in this episode. But we’d only seen November glitching when she was remembering the trauma of being attacked as Mellie. The idea that she needed to grieve for Katie was not connected with anything we’ve seen of her up to this point. It also wasn’t at all clear to me why November was picked out as one of the four priority cases – she only glitched when directly injected with the drug, and previously her performance had been described as perfect. The writers included November in the dolls who woke up because the audience care about her, but did not do enough work for it to make sense within the story. That made her whole storyline less than satisfying for me (and I’m vocal about my Mellie/November love and desire to know about her). I think it says a lot for my general engagement with the character, and Miracle Laurie’s mad skills that I still felt for her. But the feeling was an abstract one, it wasn’t feel connected with what I knew about her.
Caroline’s needs were neither new or a surprise. I don’t have a lot more to say about them, although the scene with Topher and Dewitt was very satisfying. And the scene where the actives all walk out the tunnel is beautiful.
I hope that Caroline or Echo realises that she can’t save the world be herself. That freedom isn’t won by the actions of one individual fighting alone for others, but everyone fighting collectively for themselves and each other. I’ve no idea if that’s where they’re going with this show. If it wasn’t a Joss show I don’t think I’d even bother to hope that the writers set up Caroline’s acting alone as a limit deliberately. But after Chosen, Jaynestown and The Chain, I don’t think it’s beyond the bounds of possibility that that’s where they’re going. ((Although it’s probably beyond the bounds of possibility that we’ll never found out where they’re going because Fox is going to cancel the show. Anyone know anyone with a Nielsen box who accepts bribes?))
But the heart of the show was Sierra, Victor, and their relationship. I could seriously spend all my episode reviews praising Dichen Lachman and particularly Enver Gjokaj. The first great moment of the episode was the scene of them going to bed. It’s such a beautiful portrayal of love, and it doesn’t need words. ((Also I swear Enver Gjokaj’s ears stick out more as Victor than as pre-Victor – how is that even possible?)) The scene in the utility closet was just as powerful, because they articulated the role of their relationship when they’re enslaved. Their relationship is about love and connection as resistance.
It broke my heart when Victor went straight into bed, and didn’t wait for Sierra.
I do have one reservation about the way their relationship is portrayed, that was only exacerbated by this episode. So far Dollhouse has focused on Victor’s desire for Sierra, and Sierra only as an object of desire. It is Victor’s need to get the girl that Boyd and Dr Saunders discuss at the end of the episode. ((I’ve gotten mightily bored of Boyd, who has done very little but punch people since Stage Fright, but there was a lot of depth in that scene.)) Even though she didn’t feel closure until she’d kissed him either. If all she needed was to confront Nolan, then she would have shut down once she left her apartment.
Clearly they can’t show Sierra’s desire for Victor, using the same ways they’ve been showing Victor’s desire for Sierra. But the most powerful statement about his desire for her isn’t his man reaction, or his recitation the Mets (or was it the Yankees) to avoid it, but that she makes him feel better. And we could see that from Sierra, we could see her desiring him. I think it’s really important that we do. ((Oh and while I’m constructing a wish list for future episodes (which have been remarkably successful so far: I wished for more friendship between the dolls and I got Stage Fright. I wished for the writers to take sexual abuse seriously and I got Man on the street). Echo and Sierra’s friendship was important to me. We have barely seen anything of them since episode three, and I am really disappointed that they didn’t take this opportunity to build the only friendship (at the moment the only relationship) between women on the show.))
Obviously there was more to Sierra (and Victor’s) plotline this week than that relationship. I am really glad that they’re dealing with the issues of consent and the dollhouse head-on. It’s now explicit that Priya (the woman Sierra was) did not give any kind of consent. I think it’s important to acknowledge that not only can consent be coerced, but the very notion of consent can be ignored for people with enough power. Like ‘Man on the Street’ this episode didn’t shy away from the horror of abuse. I think “It’ll be ever better now” from Nolan after Sierra left, might just be the most disgusting statement I’ve ever heard. Despite this they still managed to normalise Nolan. Nothing about the music or the way the scene was shot implied that he was a strange psychopathic variation; it was made very clear that his abuse was a result of his power.
I have duelling analyses in my head about the scene between Priya/Sierra, Victor and Nolan. I find it frustrating that the show again showed another man punching the abuser as a solution to a woman being abused (and made the link explicitly in the scene between Dr Saunders and Boyd, although clearly Dr Saunders isn’t as reliable a character by the end of the episode as she was in the beginning).
But I’m really not asking that every rape survivor do their own punching. I think our limited visions of what it means to be strong can be really damaging; there’s strength in breaking down, strength in letting other people helping you, and strength in ignoring it all and finding a way to continue anyway. While I was rewatching the episode, I was wondering about the director’s decision to have both of them in every frame in the conversation with Nolan, as I felt it didn’t give Sierra space in her own story. But the other option would have been to have Sierra more alone.
I think, in the end, that what makes me OK with what they showed, is that Sierra wasn’t silenced by Victor’s presence, or his punching – that it was her voice that rang out in that scene “I’m more of a human than you.” I don’t think it takes away any of the strength Sierra needed to confront Nolan, by showing her having support. And more importantly I think the show portrayed the strength Sierra had, and didn’t diminish her through the support she had.
But like I say I’m not sure, and I’d be really interested in other people’s views. Does the desire for representations of rape survivors as strong put additional pressure and limited views on what strength is? Does his punching take away from her words? Could we have done without the punching?
The show ends with a reveal, and what for me is quite close to despair. Amy Acker is an amazing actress, I was distraught when I discovered this whole, horrible, solution was her idea. It also felt very real to me, that is possible to control actives better by giving them some freedom. We appreciate that she sees actives as people not pets, but she is using that knowledge to deepen the dollhouse’s power. Liberal control can, at times, be more effective than totalitarianism.
Well, I started out irritable that November wore sleeves where Echo and Sierra didn’t, so I wasn’t all that inclined to like the rest of the episode.
I am further irritated, because Adelle DeWitt clearly believes that people are volunteers, for some definition of volunteer, and it’s heavily implied that she must know that Sierra was just plain forced into it. (There are some other problems with that idea given what we know of the dollhouse in general.) So — was DeWitt not told about Sierra? Did some other, less ethical dollhouse turn her into a doll, then give her to this one? (If there are other dollhouses, Topher being the only one in the world who can do this is a little odd, but can be ascribed to his megalomania.) Or are we just changing the character of DeWitt to someone who lies to everyone?
Dr. Amy Acker has suddenly become far more interesting. She cares for the dolls as people, certainly, but as dollpeople, not as the people they used to be. She wants them to be okay. Maybe she even wants them to be free, but she’s not willing to risk herself for them. This isn’t exactly praiseworthy, but it’s so human.
Best single line of the series, thus far. The delivery was great.
I thought that Adelle was just flat out lying. I never even considered that she believed that. Caroline, since she has no memories of it, has no way of knowing. I figured Adelle was just saying that to keep Caroline off balance. Now I have a new thing to wonder about.
Yeah. Me, too. I see no reason why they’d let anybody go. Use them up & dump the bodies seems pretty in character for the Dollhouse from what we’ve seen so far.
I’m pretty much with you on the rest of your review. I appreciate your analysis.
I do think that the writers still haven’t figured out how to do this show in the time allotted. This episode also had some holes in it due, I think, to time restrictions. I really hope they figure this out soon.
Glad you appreciate my appreciation :)
I very much agree with your doubts about November’s inclusion. It made it seem like they weren’t listening to their own techno-babble in the previous episode, which is never appealing. I can understand their wanting to bond her further with the core dolls and do more exposition on her character, but perhaps they could have found a stronger pretext.
Racialicious recently had a post up on the casting and treatment of POCs in the show, and a commenter sadface (at 21) had a really great point about Sierra’s closure:
Deleted because my previous post finally showed up. If a mod fished it out, thanks to you.
I have a theory that could explain some of the inconsistencies in Dewitt’s character.
I wonder if Dewitt’s need to believe that the dollhouse is somehow consensual and that the dolls are freed after five years might turn out to be something that was programmed into her.
Maybe Dewitt did a five-year stint as a doll, and, after having all traces of her former life erased, the dollhouse was the only employer who would have her. So, she went to work for the dollhouse and is forced to always wonder whether or not her choice to work there is her choice or whether she is still being controlled.
She needs to believe that the dolls are set truly set free after their time is up in order to believe that she herself is free. She needs to believe that the dolls consent to becoming dolls in order to avoid thinking that she herself was violated by the dollhouse. So, when her time as a doll was up, the dollhouse programmed those unshakeable beliefs into her.
Turtle – I had a whole rant about sleeves written, and then I rewatched the episode and saw that November changed into a tank top when she started wearing clothes. But it annoyed me too. I find Adelle’s capacity for self-deceit quite fascinating.
Jake – that’s an interesting point about the timing – I’ve wondered if some of the problems is that the people who write this show are really used to writing 42 minute eps, and keep going over and under what they can tell in 50 minute eps.
Felicity – I don’t think it would have taken that much set up or connection – she would have had to glitch also about her baby in the episode before, and then it all makes more sense.
Ali – I didn’t interpret that scene like that – although they certainly left it open to that reading. First it was clear that the level of closure that the dolls needed to black out, was considerably less than what a non-doll would need (grieving on a gravestone would only be a tiny part in the grieving for your daughter. Secondly, what was so powerful about that scene was the declaration that they were going to be there for each other and have each others backs, even if they had to go back (and that’s what happened immediately abefore the kiss/blackout). I think not being alone is a compelling need for a rape survivor. Although I really do think that it would have been better if they hadn’t left the ambiguity that it was the kiss that mattered and let the words stand for themselves (for instance if they hadn’t kissed and let the words stand for themselves I think it would have been stronger – and I’m Sierra/Victor shipper for sure).
There was a line in episode 7 (I think) that stuck out to me – someone is talking to Adelle, and they say, “Is this you talking, or Rossum?” It was a great line because it continued to play with the theme of autonomy versus control, but I also wondered if it could be a clue to a plot twist.
Is it possible that Adelle is a doll? Not even a former doll – just an active, plain and simple? What about other dollhouse staffers?
Maia – great review, as always.
Dunno why I haven’t chimed in until now. For some reason, to be honest, I just really did not enjoy this episode. I liked a few moments — the walking out of the tunnel part, the Victor/Sierra pact made in the utility closet. There were some effective moments of suspence.
But for the most part I watched the plot and heard the lines and felt like I ought to be engaged by them and just … wasn’t. I am really finding myself missing the sort of ensemble acting and characterization that was so magical in most of Whedon’s other works (and so problematically absent, it seemed to me, at the beginning of Angel). What I kept repeating to my partner as we watched was “they just don’t seem to care much about each other, do they? If they don’t care about each other, why should I care about them?” I am running out of patience with my own apathy.
That’s why Victor/Sierra are the highlight of the show for me. That’s why Mellie leaving Paul (that’s his name, right?) just after they got together was so disappointing.
And I’m not just talking about shipping, though I enjoy that plenty. If, for instance, there seemed to be some esprit de corps amongst the dollhouse employees, for example .. that could be fantastically engaging. If they cared about each other, not necessarily without conflict as well but at least with some sense of protectiveness and fondness, I would care about them and be all the more challenged by the show’s premise. Similarly, if the dolls really did develop lasting relationships, that could draw me in. But we seem to get continually teased about that with nothing really substantial developing other than some drips and drops here and there.
I also wonder how much of that involves the cast and crew as well as the writing. I just re-watched Firefly and the “making of” documentary that came with my dvd set, and it’s quite clear that there was a lot of fondness and good spirits amongst cast and crew. This came out in their performances. By the end of the pilot I was already willing to cry for happiness that Kaylee was okay.
There has so far been nothing like that in this series. To be honest, I’m torn between hoping for the show to pull out a miracle renewal so Whedon and folks can retool and improve it like I know they have the brilliance to do, or else to see it canceled and Whedon freed up to work on other, better projects sooner rather than later.
What annoyed me whiile watching this episode was that it didn’t win me over to the fact that Sierra’s needs were met, so she fell asleep. I walked away thinking they kept her awake on purpose until Victor’s needs were met, and that they programmed her differently so she would fall asleep when he “got the girl.” Which goes along with the Dollhouse’s motives.
Yes! Those are my thoughts exactly.
Just want to echo (sorry) the praise for these reviews. They’re great. I look forward to the review of last night’s episode!
SF
I don’t have anything to add (nice analysis) except to point out (because a few people made this mistake so far) that all the dolls were on a timer. They all shut down at the same time. That was Dewitt’s security measure, that even if they got out and away but didn’t fulfill their needs they would still shut down and could be collected.
So, Sierra’s going to sleep after kissing Viktor didn’t have to do with the kiss, time just ran out.
My theory for why November was involved: she happens to sleep in the same room as the crucial three, just like Mike. Unlike Mike, she didn’t get caught at being self-aware. And it wasn’t like it was going to hurt anything if she went on a side trip too. The Dollhouse’s plan could have gone just as well had November gotten wiped and Mike gone adventuring.
Victor–>Sierra vs. Mellie–>Paul
?
(The arrows and their directions are deliberate.)