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Oct. 23rd, 2009 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsTV Commentary:
Dollhouse- what the frick, so Fox is choosing pull Dollhouse from the November sweeps schedule to show re-runs of House and Bones. Which doesn't sound too promising for the show. Fox said they were definitely gonna show all 13 eps of this season, but its looking doubtful that there'll be any more beyond that. Even more annoying, they choose to do that after an incredible ep like this? So this ep we learn the history of Sierra. We knew some of it, that she was sent to the Dollhouse by some bastard with pull at the organization running things. But we find out she used to be a struggling young artist that the guy was obsessed with, and he drugged her to make her look like a paranoid-schizo. And her ravings about people taking her to the institution she was at and all the effed up stuff the guy was doing to her made her seem even more crazy.
I feel kinda bad for Topher, b/c at the start of the ep, Echo notices something is wrong with Sierra and asks him to figure it out, and he does, going to Boyd and Adele with it. But during this, Topher's trying to brag to Boyd that he helped Sierra, that she was a mentally ill girl that he fixed. I mean, he comes off as a callous jerk, but it seems like more recently he's trying to prove he does care about the dolls. I guess its a byproduct of Claire leaving? But wow, that scene with Adele must've been crushing for him- Sierra's dick stalker has juice, so he tells Adele to permanently imprint Sierra to be all in love with him so he can have her as his wife, and Lundy forces her to. She's not wanting to do it, and Topher tries to protest, but she tells them they have no choice. So she gives him this speech about how everyone at the Dollhouse is there because of some moral failing, except for him. But before he can take it as a complement, she tells him he was picked because he was amoral! HA! I doubt "you see everybody as your playthings, but at least you're protective of your toys" is something he finds all that complementary.
Oh, ha, you know, I didn't even realize that one part was a flashback at first, because I didn't notice Adele had her old hairstyle. They kinda trick you with the whole "Sierra's last engagement ever" thing. (And why pray tell, was it her last engagement?) I also didn't pick up on the Hearn thing at first. Was that Sierra's rapey handler?
But how was that guy not suspicious when she started talking about how he wanted her and what role he wanted her to play?! Though I guess that's exactly the way he was expecting her to act, but to me the way she was talking raised a whole lot of red flags! I guess Topher gave Priya back her memories, and its interesting that rather than freaking the eff out, she was willing to pretend until she could get close enough to the guy to kill him. It always confuses me how much monitoring they have in the Dollhouse. Like when would Topher have had time to explain all this to her? Or did he program that in when he uploaded her personality back? But what about Echo reading at the end while Sierra and Victor snuggle? Though I guess Boyd knows what's up and is willing to keep their secrets (more on that later).
But Sierra or rather Priya kills the guy, and Topher shows up, saying they need to run away, but Boyd's right behind him, and helps them cover it up. But heh, so that Topher understands the consequences of what he did, he makes him help get dispose of the body with tools and sulfuric acid. Its kinda disturbing how much Boyd knows about disposing of bodies. I mean, "cutting open the femoral arteries to drain the fluid quickly to make it easier to cut up"? Heh, and who's "The Goose"?
That is amusingly ironic though, by Topher trying to help her, she ends up brutally murdering a guy and flipping out, make her the kinda person who goes to become a doll!
I'm a little skeptical about the narrative Boyd constructed (to borrow a term from this week's Dexter). Why, after that guy was so obsessed with Sierra, would he just choose to take off and leave her behind? I mean, its obvious Adele knows and is letting them get away with it, but Lundy made it sound like they're all knowing, given they knew about her fling with Victor. Surely they'd figure it out!
Oh, the heart to heart in the end between Topher and Sierra, was the whole sometimes she's allowed to have beer on special occasions, was that referencing the time he imprinted her with that buddy personality he hung out with on his b-day? Though she'd only been there a year, so obviously that couldn't happen more than once, unless there were other special occasions he was able to have her for.
Though her request that if he woke her up again if he could erase that one day so she wouldn't remember what she did. Can he do that? I mean, he can make all sorts of imprints, but if he messes up with their original personality but with slight changes, is that still them?
EDIT- Wait, I just realized she meant restore her personality from the "last save", which would've been before all this nasty murder and cover up business. But even that's weird. So, he restores her, something happened that she didn't like, and they can just re-restore her to that previous version of herself? Which I think makes things even more insane philosphically. I mean, the dead lady and epitaph one eps raised the question, are these "imprints" them, and thus make the process a form of immortality? But then you would think the combo of imprint and the original body would be the "true" them. But how does that work when you do a re-restore then? I mean, being restored, they began gaining experiences as their "true selves", so going back to the earlier version of themselves really still them? Or is it just a fancier form of amnesia? (I'm kinda amused how this is all very Cylon-y, as well)
Other things- we learn a little more about Victor. We knew he was a soldier and something bad happened to him, but we get a little more insight into this. Apparently his fellow soldiers were getting wiped out and he was thrown into a leadership position? And aw, even when they first met it was love at first sight (and seriously, what's his name who plays Victor is totally skilled with the mimicking and accents). They make such a cute little couple, even if they act like children. Like he was waiting for her like a pathetic little puppy, and even though she shouldn't remember anything of her time as a doll, she knew she and Victor were in love.
And Boyd has started to figure out Echo is starting to remember. He finds a book she's been secretly keeping and reading, but he missed the secret scratchings she put on the cover of her sleeping chamber. I caught some of those words- the left seemed to be about her encounters: there's mention of "them taking her baby, but baby isn't mine", her son killing her (was that the rich lady encounter?), blue skies (was that the locked in the vault ep?), and something about whores (I assume that's the serial killer one from a few weeks ago). I wasn't sure what "I was trained to kill" and "fight to survive" signified. Was the latter the one when the Middleman was hunting her in the woods?
The right side seemed to be observations- she mentioned Victor liking Sierra, Dominic being bad, Topher making them, and asking where Caroline is. Also, something about ghosts, and another line about mountatins. The mountain thing sounds familiar, was that mentioned before?
But yeah, when Boyd confronts her on it, she does her best to act like a dumb little doll, but Boyd sees through the charade. He's not gonna spill her secret, but apparently Echo's been subtly trying to manipulate everybody so they can survive "the coming storm"?
Dollhouse- what the frick, so Fox is choosing pull Dollhouse from the November sweeps schedule to show re-runs of House and Bones. Which doesn't sound too promising for the show. Fox said they were definitely gonna show all 13 eps of this season, but its looking doubtful that there'll be any more beyond that. Even more annoying, they choose to do that after an incredible ep like this? So this ep we learn the history of Sierra. We knew some of it, that she was sent to the Dollhouse by some bastard with pull at the organization running things. But we find out she used to be a struggling young artist that the guy was obsessed with, and he drugged her to make her look like a paranoid-schizo. And her ravings about people taking her to the institution she was at and all the effed up stuff the guy was doing to her made her seem even more crazy.
I feel kinda bad for Topher, b/c at the start of the ep, Echo notices something is wrong with Sierra and asks him to figure it out, and he does, going to Boyd and Adele with it. But during this, Topher's trying to brag to Boyd that he helped Sierra, that she was a mentally ill girl that he fixed. I mean, he comes off as a callous jerk, but it seems like more recently he's trying to prove he does care about the dolls. I guess its a byproduct of Claire leaving? But wow, that scene with Adele must've been crushing for him- Sierra's dick stalker has juice, so he tells Adele to permanently imprint Sierra to be all in love with him so he can have her as his wife, and Lundy forces her to. She's not wanting to do it, and Topher tries to protest, but she tells them they have no choice. So she gives him this speech about how everyone at the Dollhouse is there because of some moral failing, except for him. But before he can take it as a complement, she tells him he was picked because he was amoral! HA! I doubt "you see everybody as your playthings, but at least you're protective of your toys" is something he finds all that complementary.
Oh, ha, you know, I didn't even realize that one part was a flashback at first, because I didn't notice Adele had her old hairstyle. They kinda trick you with the whole "Sierra's last engagement ever" thing. (And why pray tell, was it her last engagement?) I also didn't pick up on the Hearn thing at first. Was that Sierra's rapey handler?
But how was that guy not suspicious when she started talking about how he wanted her and what role he wanted her to play?! Though I guess that's exactly the way he was expecting her to act, but to me the way she was talking raised a whole lot of red flags! I guess Topher gave Priya back her memories, and its interesting that rather than freaking the eff out, she was willing to pretend until she could get close enough to the guy to kill him. It always confuses me how much monitoring they have in the Dollhouse. Like when would Topher have had time to explain all this to her? Or did he program that in when he uploaded her personality back? But what about Echo reading at the end while Sierra and Victor snuggle? Though I guess Boyd knows what's up and is willing to keep their secrets (more on that later).
But Sierra or rather Priya kills the guy, and Topher shows up, saying they need to run away, but Boyd's right behind him, and helps them cover it up. But heh, so that Topher understands the consequences of what he did, he makes him help get dispose of the body with tools and sulfuric acid. Its kinda disturbing how much Boyd knows about disposing of bodies. I mean, "cutting open the femoral arteries to drain the fluid quickly to make it easier to cut up"? Heh, and who's "The Goose"?
That is amusingly ironic though, by Topher trying to help her, she ends up brutally murdering a guy and flipping out, make her the kinda person who goes to become a doll!
I'm a little skeptical about the narrative Boyd constructed (to borrow a term from this week's Dexter). Why, after that guy was so obsessed with Sierra, would he just choose to take off and leave her behind? I mean, its obvious Adele knows and is letting them get away with it, but Lundy made it sound like they're all knowing, given they knew about her fling with Victor. Surely they'd figure it out!
Oh, the heart to heart in the end between Topher and Sierra, was the whole sometimes she's allowed to have beer on special occasions, was that referencing the time he imprinted her with that buddy personality he hung out with on his b-day? Though she'd only been there a year, so obviously that couldn't happen more than once, unless there were other special occasions he was able to have her for.
Though her request that if he woke her up again if he could erase that one day so she wouldn't remember what she did. Can he do that? I mean, he can make all sorts of imprints, but if he messes up with their original personality but with slight changes, is that still them?
EDIT- Wait, I just realized she meant restore her personality from the "last save", which would've been before all this nasty murder and cover up business. But even that's weird. So, he restores her, something happened that she didn't like, and they can just re-restore her to that previous version of herself? Which I think makes things even more insane philosphically. I mean, the dead lady and epitaph one eps raised the question, are these "imprints" them, and thus make the process a form of immortality? But then you would think the combo of imprint and the original body would be the "true" them. But how does that work when you do a re-restore then? I mean, being restored, they began gaining experiences as their "true selves", so going back to the earlier version of themselves really still them? Or is it just a fancier form of amnesia? (I'm kinda amused how this is all very Cylon-y, as well)
Other things- we learn a little more about Victor. We knew he was a soldier and something bad happened to him, but we get a little more insight into this. Apparently his fellow soldiers were getting wiped out and he was thrown into a leadership position? And aw, even when they first met it was love at first sight (and seriously, what's his name who plays Victor is totally skilled with the mimicking and accents). They make such a cute little couple, even if they act like children. Like he was waiting for her like a pathetic little puppy, and even though she shouldn't remember anything of her time as a doll, she knew she and Victor were in love.
And Boyd has started to figure out Echo is starting to remember. He finds a book she's been secretly keeping and reading, but he missed the secret scratchings she put on the cover of her sleeping chamber. I caught some of those words- the left seemed to be about her encounters: there's mention of "them taking her baby, but baby isn't mine", her son killing her (was that the rich lady encounter?), blue skies (was that the locked in the vault ep?), and something about whores (I assume that's the serial killer one from a few weeks ago). I wasn't sure what "I was trained to kill" and "fight to survive" signified. Was the latter the one when the Middleman was hunting her in the woods?
The right side seemed to be observations- she mentioned Victor liking Sierra, Dominic being bad, Topher making them, and asking where Caroline is. Also, something about ghosts, and another line about mountatins. The mountain thing sounds familiar, was that mentioned before?
But yeah, when Boyd confronts her on it, she does her best to act like a dumb little doll, but Boyd sees through the charade. He's not gonna spill her secret, but apparently Echo's been subtly trying to manipulate everybody so they can survive "the coming storm"?
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 02:57 pm (UTC)Me: Is "Dollhouse" Joss Whedon?
J: Yeah.
Me: Of course it is.
What, exactly, made him think Fox was gonna do right by him ever again?
no subject
Date: 2009-10-24 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-25 10:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-28 04:18 am (UTC)Also, I noticed Jonathan Frakes directed this episode. Weird.