I don\u2019t like the first part of two-part episodes. It\u2019s fine when you\u2019re watching them on DVD (unless it\u2019s late and you know you shouldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Or at least I don\u2019t like the first part when I haven\u2019t read spoilers, which has happened to me exactly once (I\u2019ve been spoiled for every show that I was a fan of since 1995). I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s a good sample. But I\u2019m sure I hate it.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s a lot I won\u2019t comment on (like who was Echo when Alpha left with her. We\u2019ll 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\u2019t be as exciting as the show\u2019s. <\/p>\n
The theme of this episode – an inversion of Sleeping Beauty – couldn\u2019t have been more clearly signposted if they\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n
I liked the counter-point between the men\u2019s selfish attempts to capture Caroline\u2019s body, and Susan\u2019s advocacy of rescue. Because obviously Ballard\u2019s ridiculous effort to save Caroline needed to be undercut. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s enough \u2013 to reject rescue without offering an alternative is dangerous individualism. The way Susan reached out to Susan shows that there is an alternative<\/p>\n
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\u2019m 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\u2019t mean that abuse over a less extended timeframe is not enormous \u2013 just that it\u2019s comprehensible to the viewer.))<\/p>\n
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\u2019t 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\u2019s characterisation. It was very clear that Topher\u2019s pride came entirely from his programming skills. But clearly that wasn\u2019t the place to explore the ethics \u2013 because Topher does not care.))<\/p>\n
But what was strongest about this plotline was what Susan offered Susan. And it wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
I know everyone has said it, but Enver Gjorkaj was mind-blowingly amazing as Laurence Dominic in that chair. ((and his \u201cpeople were fighting on me\u201d 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\u2019s character, and loved Topher\u2019s explanation that she was exposition central because he hadn\u2019t had much time. But Dichen Lachman has been imprinted to fill the plot-hole in every episode since Needs, and she\u2019s capable of so much more than that)) It was a great way of showing the power, reach, and creepiness of the Dollhouse.<\/p>\n
One of the questions I\u2019m not going to leave unasked, even though we better know when the finale airs, is what did Dominic mean when he said \u201cWhiskey\u201d to echo. Whiskey like Echo, Sierra, Victor, November, and Alpha is part of the military alphabet. He clearly wasn\u2019t asking for a drink. I still like the theory me and my friend Betsy developed that she\u2019s an ex-doll (or maybe doesn\u2019t know it, since she thought he was asking for a drink). But it\u2019s looking possible that she is actually a doll. Which by itself doesn\u2019t make much sense, since they can surely hire a doctor for a lot cheaper than the labour that they\u2019re foregoing by having her not active, but we\u2019ll see where it goes.<\/p>\n
But the centre of this episode was Ballard and Alpha \u2013 the relationship and resonances between them.<\/p>\n
Like everyone on the internet I knew that Walsh was playing Alpha. I was really annoyed when watching the episode that I\u2019d 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 \u2013 hilarious and familiar. Although it did leave me wondering how Alpha worked. Are there different imprints competing in his brain \u2013 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\u2019s something else entirely.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure the nature of Alpha will be explored more next episode, that wasn\u2019t really the point of this episode. This was about Alpha, and Ballard\u2019s quest to rescue Echo, Caroline, and maybe just Eliza Dushku\u2019s body.<\/p>\n
And Ballard\u2019s version didn\u2019t 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 \u2013 she called Mellie a victim \u2013 he called her a doll. And it was horrible to watch not because it was strange, but because it was familiar. Ballard doesn\u2019t trust the women he knows because she\u2019s in the same state that makes the stranger Caroline pedestal-worthy \u2013 that\u2019s a nasty truth showing.<\/p>\n
Ballard had a purpose to his actions; he was breaking Mellie\u2019s heart, so he could use her reaction to find the dollhouse. That makes it worse to me \u2013 he has no more respect for the dolls humanity than Topher. And now, because of Ballard\u2019s actions, she is, in all probability, dead.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll make a difference. ((one of the things that cracks me up, that I\u2019ve never mentioned before, is that in Ballard\u2019s web of Dollhouse obsession there\u2019s a post it that says \u2018Mind Control?\u2019 I don\u2019t know what\u2019s funnier, that Ballard isn\u2019t sure whether or not the Dollhouse involves mind control, or that they\u2019ve shown that post-it at least half a dozen times)) And when she doesn\u2019t come he drags her where he wants her to go, just like Alpha.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s eventual down-fall through the steps by Stephen\u2019s fear (a combination of very fine writing from Jane Espenson and fantastic acting from Alan Tyduk), and that his downfall was at Echo\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n
I think there\u2019s 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\u2019s lack of information, partly it\u2019s relationships, partly it\u2019s that the alternative isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
But my favourite part of this episode was that it revealed that Ballard is also programmed \u2013 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))<\/p>\n
There is much more to say, but that\u2019s the thing with reviewing the first half of a two-parter. You\u2019ll have to wait to find out the rest of my opinions, just like you\u2019ll have to wait to find out why Alpha wants Echo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u2019t like the first part of two-part episodes. It\u2019s fine when you\u2019re watching them on DVD (unless it\u2019s late and you know you shouldn\u2019t watch another one, but you do it anyway and then it turns out to be … Continue reading