I don’t like the first part of two-part episodes. It’s fine when you’re watching them on DVD (unless it’s late and you know you shouldn’t watch another one, but you do it anyway and then it turns out to be a cliff-hanger so you have to watch the next one as well), but a week is a long-time between Echo walking out the elevator with Alpha and finding out what the hell is going on.
Or at least I don’t like the first part when I haven’t read spoilers, which has happened to me exactly once (I’ve been spoiled for every show that I was a fan of since 1995). I’m not sure that’s a good sample. But I’m sure I hate it.
But reviewing the first part of a two-parter is particularly difficult. So much of the meaning and point of this episode depends on what happens next. This episode raised far more questions than it answered, and while there is a lot to talk about, there’s a lot I won’t comment on (like who was Echo when Alpha left with her. We’ll all know in a couple of days, and speculating on it wastes precious review time that should be spent laughing at Paul Ballard). So consider this the first part of my review as there are many things that I am reserving judgement on, although my cliff-hanger won’t be as exciting as the show’s.
The theme of this episode – an inversion of Sleeping Beauty – couldn’t have been more clearly signposted if they’d spelled it out in flashing neon lights. But I think I liked it. I found the literal inversion of the sunken tower quite a compelling image.
I’ll talk more about the general ideas of rescue and waking when I talk about the whacky cop adventures of Ballard and Alpha. But I really appreciated that in the end Susan was the only person in this episode who rescues anyone. And she does from a place of solidarity and support, not from chivalry.
I liked the counter-point between the men’s selfish attempts to capture Caroline’s body, and Susan’s advocacy of rescue. Because obviously Ballard’s ridiculous effort to save Caroline needed to be undercut. But I don’t think that’s enough – to reject rescue without offering an alternative is dangerous individualism. The way Susan reached out to Susan shows that there is an alternative
This felt like a reworking of some of the ideas of Ghost, and generally I think this episode was a much stronger take on those ideas. But the similarity between the two did bother me. I find it hard to find the language to describe what I mean, so I hope people will understand the point I’m trying to get at. To me, it feels exploitative, how extreme the abuse depicted in this episode and Ghost. The abuse that Susan, and Eleanor Penn experience is a stand-in for abuse, rendered less real by its enormity ((and I really don’t mean that abuse over a less extended timeframe is not enormous – just that it’s comprehensible to the viewer.))
Also, I think the issues that Ghost brought up are still sitting there – while there was no space in this story to explore the ethics of inserting memories of abuse into people, I hope they will acknowledge it at sometime in the second season. ((There will be a second season. La-la-la-la-la I can’t hear you.)) Because, no matter how altruistic the assignment, forcing memories of abuse on people is horrific. ((Although Jane Espenson did a very fine job with Topher’s characterisation. It was very clear that Topher’s pride came entirely from his programming skills. But clearly that wasn’t the place to explore the ethics – because Topher does not care.))
But what was strongest about this plotline was what Susan offered Susan. And it wasn’t help retelling the story, ((although I enjoyed the Firefly reference)) or giving up her knife, but the hope that she represented, the hope that she was. Hope.
I know everyone has said it, but Enver Gjorkaj was mind-blowingly amazing as Laurence Dominic in that chair. ((and his “people were fighting on me” is possibly my favourite line of the series)) It was a deeply, deeply creepy scene that worked because of his acting. ((I quite enjoyed Sierra’s character, and loved Topher’s explanation that she was exposition central because he hadn’t had much time. But Dichen Lachman has been imprinted to fill the plot-hole in every episode since Needs, and she’s capable of so much more than that)) It was a great way of showing the power, reach, and creepiness of the Dollhouse.
One of the questions I’m not going to leave unasked, even though we better know when the finale airs, is what did Dominic mean when he said “Whiskey” to echo. Whiskey like Echo, Sierra, Victor, November, and Alpha is part of the military alphabet. He clearly wasn’t asking for a drink. I still like the theory me and my friend Betsy developed that she’s an ex-doll (or maybe doesn’t know it, since she thought he was asking for a drink). But it’s looking possible that she is actually a doll. Which by itself doesn’t make much sense, since they can surely hire a doctor for a lot cheaper than the labour that they’re foregoing by having her not active, but we’ll see where it goes.
But the centre of this episode was Ballard and Alpha – the relationship and resonances between them.
Like everyone on the internet I knew that Walsh was playing Alpha. I was really annoyed when watching the episode that I’d been spoiled. ((and feeling guilty. I told my friend Betsy about Walsh playing Alpha in much the same way I told her that Fred was playing Dr Saunders. Bad me)) I loved the conspiracy-theorist-environmentalist-stoner-misogynist persona of Alpha for most of the episode – hilarious and familiar. Although it did leave me wondering how Alpha worked. Are there different imprints competing in his brain – had the Dollhouse once imprinted him with the character we saw, or someone who could act like the character we saw? Or can he create imprints in his head, the way Topher can on the computer? Or maybe it’s something else entirely.
I’m sure the nature of Alpha will be explored more next episode, that wasn’t really the point of this episode. This was about Alpha, and Ballard’s quest to rescue Echo, Caroline, and maybe just Eliza Dushku’s body.
And Ballard’s version didn’t come across as righteous. Ballard has reclassified Mellie as a thing, not a person. It was clear in the break up scene and when he talked about her with Loomis – she called Mellie a victim – he called her a doll. And it was horrible to watch not because it was strange, but because it was familiar. Ballard doesn’t trust the women he knows because she’s in the same state that makes the stranger Caroline pedestal-worthy – that’s a nasty truth showing.
Ballard had a purpose to his actions; he was breaking Mellie’s heart, so he could use her reaction to find the dollhouse. That makes it worse to me – he has no more respect for the dolls humanity than Topher. And now, because of Ballard’s actions, she is, in all probability, dead.
When he actually finds Echo he has no respect for her as a person, or her autonomy. He talks to her slowly about being brainwashed, as if that’ll make a difference. ((one of the things that cracks me up, that I’ve never mentioned before, is that in Ballard’s web of Dollhouse obsession there’s a post it that says ‘Mind Control?’ I don’t know what’s funnier, that Ballard isn’t sure whether or not the Dollhouse involves mind control, or that they’ve shown that post-it at least half a dozen times)) And when she doesn’t come he drags her where he wants her to go, just like Alpha.
In fact, Echo made a choice, and fought against him. ((In a fight where a table broke. Every time a table breaks during a fight on this show, I expect someone to pick up the remains and stake someone with it.)) I loved the ridiculous over-signalling of Ballard’s eventual down-fall through the steps by Stephen’s fear (a combination of very fine writing from Jane Espenson and fantastic acting from Alan Tyduk), and that his downfall was at Echo’s hands.
I think there’s a lot packed into that fight, because people do choose oppression over alternatives, and for many different reasons. This episode makes it clear why Echo sides with Boyd over Ballard, and makes you side with her – partly it’s lack of information, partly it’s relationships, partly it’s that the alternative isn’t any better. None of those are fixed, none of those are impossible to overcome, but they all exist in our world as well as in that fight.
But my favourite part of this episode was that it revealed that Ballard is also programmed – he has had less agency than Echo. Everything he has done since the beginning of the show he has done because someone wanted him to, either the dollhouse, or Alpha. ((at this stage I think Alpha was using the NSA chip to imprint the messages. If so my special review stop-watch action was pointless))
There is much more to say, but that’s the thing with reviewing the first half of a two-parter. You’ll have to wait to find out the rest of my opinions, just like you’ll have to wait to find out why Alpha wants Echo.
One thing I didn’t understand was why Alpha needed Ballard at all. He understands how to get into the dollhouse, he knew how to get into the security systems, he presumably knows where it is. Did he simply need to have Ballard around as a distraction?
Thanks to being ridiculously busy at work I was not spoiled (footnote 7)!
This episode was more engaging than any of the others for me. I’m looking forward to part 2.
My personal theory is that Dr. Saunders/Whiskey is a doll, but after she was disfigured in Alpha’s original freakout session, she was considered unfit for “regular duty,” so they just imprinted her with Claire to make her still useful. I think the real question isn’t so much “Is Dr. Saunders an imprint” as “What is the dollhouse going to do when her five years are up? Are they already up?”
I assumed that Ballard was there as a distraction (more specifically, to get Echo out of her sleeping chamber without Alpha immediately exposing himself).
Still, Alpha’s plans feel more like a Xanatos Roulette the more I think about this episode. He had a decent amount of setup to do–murdering the real Kepler, moving his body to Arizona, putting a picture of himself in the FBI database, and so on–which must have happened just before everything started, but the actual trigger for the events Paul breaking up with Mellie, and I’m not seeing how Alpha could have any control over when that happened.
Perhaps Alpha has been monitoring Ballard and saw the breakup? He seems pretty much omniscient ….
I guess that might be possible. Maybe I’m confused about the timing of things, but I got the impression that Alpha would have had to start setting things up before the breakup.
One point of interest is that Alpha was acting amazingly like Topher, which was an imprint of which?
I think Alpha was just amusing himself by doing his impression of Topher.
Paul broke up with Mellie because she suddenly turned into the November-doll and recited a recorded message. If Alpha was the original source of the message, then he could predict to within a day or two when the breakup would happen.
But that happened two episodes ago, and Alpha dumped Kepler’s body “yesterday, not last week.” Admittedly the time gap between episodes isn’t specified, but the intervening episode itself took place over several days. How does Alpha know that Paul won’t react to Mellie revealing herself by breaking up with her immediately? Paul may be “programmed” in some broader sense, but it strains my suspension of disbelief to believe he’s programmed that precisely.
I guess I shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about this until I know that tonight’s episode doesn’t explain it…
First, it’s not “Walsh,” it’s “Wash” (short for “Hoban Washburne”. Behold, I am a dork). Also, you suspect Dr. Claire Saunders of being a doll, not “echo,” right (’cause that’s what you wrote)?
Spec Spec Spec
My guess is that Dr. Saunders was a real person who was killed by Alpha, but that the Dollhouse still had an imprint of her which they put into the now scarred Whiskey. I agree with Speck about the real question being “What happens when the five years are up?”
As far as whether Alpha was mocking Topher or was actually Stephen J. Pot-Smoker, Alan Tudyk has suggested that Alpha still has around 43 personalities still in him, but had a “composite event” that means he can switch in and out of them (at will?). So he probably has either Stephen Kepler or some combo of personalities that adds up to Stephen Kepler, he was just letting it out.
Well, I just watched the season finale… and we do have many answers, although discussing them will probably have to wait for that episode’s review.
I’m still wondering if there’s going to be a second season, though.
Geeky crossover joy: Topher said “frak.”
Don’t know where I’ve been, but wherever it was, I was completely oblivious to who was playing Alpha and the surprise was shocking and quite delicious (sorry – not helping, am I?). Tudyk was incredible in both personae. I’ve never been much attached to Ballard’s character – dunno if it’s the actor? – but in this episode, I stopped being bored by him and started despising him. Off to save the woman, whether she wants to or not, he’s motivated by his fantasy image of Caroline and the power it gives him, not seeing her as a real person.
I hear it’s touch and go whether Dollhouse will be renewed and if not, I’ll be sad to see it go. Just as it’s starting to show the layers and layers of meaning, I want to see what happens next. One of the most complex series on TV.
See, I didn’t think Ballard and Boyd wanted to save the same person at all: I think Boyd wants to save Echo and Ballard wants to save Caroline. It is a distinction that is important of who went after whom.
Also, just a side question: has NO ONE heard of plastic surgery? They have more money than god, why can’t they just fix Whiskey/ Dr. Saunders? And Victor
They can’t have plastic surgery. The scars symbolize brokenness that cannot be fixed. A particular kind of brokenness we must pity.
They’ve mentioned that Whiskey/Dr Saunders could have plastic surgery, but refuses to. Of course, that just brings up the question, why did they program her that way?
As for Victor, I assume that he will be getting plastic surgery and they’ll return to using him as a doll.
Did they mention that they could be fixed Amp? I don’t remember that being in dialogue – although perhaps it was in a shooting script?
Kay – one of the things that makes me really grumpy about them revealing all this about Whiskey in the finale which concentrates on Alpha is how they don’t engage with any of that at all. In many ways it’s a perfect example of the social model of disability. I don’t think any of the engagements that Sierra has been on would have been affected by Whiskey’s scars (neither would (at minimum) the hostage negotiator, Taffy, the woman getting into the cult, the person who was trying to kill Ballard, the spy-hunter, the rich woman, or Susan.) The idea that Whiskey couldn’t be hired out any more is not just about her scars.
Or maybe on the other hand it’s about our embodied-ness. I feel like they’ve consistently avoided/refused/triviliased the embodied nature of who we are. Maybe Topher can’t programme the effect of living in a marked body into actives.
But if they don’t address any of those ideas, or options with the story they’re telling – then it becomes exactly that – reifnorcing the idea that some bodies are broken and are objects of pity.
#9: Yes! I must admit that’s true on any show where a table gets broken, but on a show where a table gets broken and Dushku is in frame, even more so.
My least substantive comment ever, but there it is.
Amp is right. There was mention that Whiskey/Dr. Saunders “chose” not to have plastic surgery.
Maia, excellent point about the many doll roles that don’t require physical perfection or even beauty. I expect they won’t explore that, though I don’t see why Topher couldn’t program embodiedness into a doll. I think he must, but the dollhouse story is all about the underlying disconnect of not being yourself and not being aware of the disconnect. They do toy with the idea very abstractly every time a doll feels “off” and has a moment where they don’t feel themselves. Dominic brought back in Victor’s body knew he wasn’t fully himself, and the dead woman investigating her own murder knew being in Echo’s body was different.
Disability has, so far, been a tool for other things throughout the show. Even to the extent that Alpha is dangerous and insane, as if every doll shouldn’t be thought of as some sort of dissociative personality, or every person working there as a sociopath. Alpha is a technological accident, Topher says. Right.
And here’s a SPOILER for the season finale, the second part of this two-hour episode, “Omega.” This is the dialogue between Victor and Dr. Saunders after Alpha carves up Victor’s face and the doc is treating the gruesome wounds:
Victor: It hurts.
Dr.: I know it does. It won’t always.
V: I’m not my best anymore. I want to be my best.
Dr: Yes, I know you do.
V: How can I be my best now? … Dr. Saunders? How can I be my best, please?
Dr: You can’t, Victor. You can’t be your best. Your best is past. Your best you can’t even remember. You’re ugly now. You’re disgusting. All you can hope for now is pity. And for that… you’re going to have to look somewhere else.
I think the dialogue there probably says some important things about the self-loathing a victim experiences from abuse or attack, but being victimized gets morphed with physical imperfection in a disturbing way. And to me, it’s simply an easy narrative/visual tactic. I like that the scene is about abuse across genders, btw. But using physicality (or very superficial appearance) when what they seem to really be discussing is the emotional toll pisses me off. The subtext is uncritically ableist. I haven’t seen any clue anywhere that embodiment is being critically complicated in any disability-conscious way. Psychological/mental health, maybe.
Hmm, I’ll have to watch again; I don’t remember that part. But if Whiskey was the most popular doll, I have hefty doubts that they wouldn’t have fixed her scars and sent her out again.