Dollhouse 3/20/09

[Rabulias]

Hmmmm... Mellie did not erase the answering machine.

Wonder what Ballard will think when he hears that message? Hope he doesn't play it for Mellie!

 

[Remus Lupin]

Hmmmm... Mellie did not erase the answering machine.

Wonder what Ballard will think when he hears that message? Hope he doesn't play it for Mellie!

That, my friend, is known as a "plot hole."

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Very good episode. The plot moves forward, stuff happens, and we see there is more to it.

When Topher left his lab, I kinda assumed someone might hamper with in, so it was kind of a "checkovs gun" thing for me - what would they make of it. But it might also be a red herring - he really just left the lab, and had made the tampering himself. I don't quite believe that, though, but I wouldn't mind either way.

I'm wondering about that supposed inside man plot, though. What exactly was the purpose of sending Echo to meet Ballard?

Since they were not disappointed by her failing to kill him, I think it was to hurt his position in the FBI - the cop shooting scene might have been part of the program.


Aside from that, very good action scenes. Helo/Ballard/Tahmoh looks pretty awesome at them.

I think I could watch a movie featuring Tahmoh Penikett (Agent Ballard) and Summer Glau (River Tam) duking it out with each other and the world.

[sblock=My most used XKCD quote]

I can already see the tag line.
Last Summer, River Tam beat up everyone.
This Summer, she has company - River Tam and Agent Ballard beat up everyone


[/sblock]

 

[Asmo]

This was the first truly enjoyable episode - I´ll continue to watch and hope for the best. Good work!

Asmo

 

[Fast Learner]

Also, I got the idea that Topher was the "brains" behind the personality wipe/amalgamation/transplant technology - is that correct? If there are in fact 20 Dollhouses, does that mean there are 19 (or more) technicians with the knowledge to create blended personalities? Or do the other Dollhouses have their labs run by specialized dolls with downloads of Topher's personality, memory, and knowledge? (That would actually be pretty cool to see.)

Indeed, and that's another element of an overall thought this episode brought up for me: who exactly is a doll? If you ran the company, wouldn't everyone be dolls? The woman who runs the location and her right-arm dude, the Topher, the handlers, everyone. Seems very feasible, and that it would potentially give you a lot more control, making it way easier to keep the whole thing secret.

 

[Fast Learner]

This was the first truly enjoyable episode - I´ll continue to watch and hope for the best. Good work!

It was also the first episode (since the pilot) that was actually written by Joss. Frankly, if he wanted this thing to succeed, I think he needed to be writing all of the episodes from the start, only handing over some writing once the show had taken off.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Indeed, and that's another element of an overall thought this episode brought up for me: who exactly is a doll? If you ran the company, wouldn't everyone be dolls? The woman who runs the location and her right-arm dude, the Topher, the handlers, everyone. Seems very feasible, and that it would potentially give you a lot more control, making it way easier to keep the whole thing secret.

I was thinking exactly along these lines. It would be intriguing to have the paranoia quotient quickly ratchet up to the point where nobody knows whether or not they're a doll.

 

[LightPhoenix]

This was the first truly enjoyable episode - I´ll continue to watch and hope for the best. Good work!

Indeed. Previous episodes have been passable, although I haven't really bothered to post about them. This one was actually interesting, and for the first time I actually want to know what happens next. I said in the thread for the first episode I'd see what happens after six. If this had been another episode like the previous five I probably wouldn't bother watching it anymore. I'll probably re-evaluate when the whole season is through.

 

[Krug]

Good ep, though not sure why Ballard would keep on telling details to a neighbour. The Mellie reveal wasn't too much of a surprise.

I would have thought Sierra's 'watcher' would not have any chance of getting away with it. Some DNA testing would probably have revealed his transgression, and I'm surprised the dollhouses had not taken every step possible to ensure that the infant-like slaves/dolls were protected.

 

[Farganger]

Wow. That was a really good episode. Okay, I'm going to stop bitching.

Jeez, I've never been into one of Whedon's series early enough to fall into that whole 'trust in Joss' stuff, but I guess I should have had more faith that he'd turn what looked only mediocre into something intriguing.

Excellent fight scenes, too. Not the shabby stuff I got used to in Buffy and Angel.

And, despite myself, I was touched at how sweet and in love Dushku managed to look in that last scene. It is creepy to reprogram anyone, but they managed to make me understand the guy's point of view, and find something almost beautiful in the twisted fantasy land.

In previous posts, I've been very negative about the show up to now. But I agree with all RangerWickett's points.

Big improvements in plot, script, character developments, a good fight, a strangely touching ending. I no longer feel stupid for bothering with the series and am looking forward to see what might come next.