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Dollhouse, Part 2: This Time It's Not Retooled by Fox Executives.
The second episode of Dollhouse actually felt a lot more like what I think people were expecting: it just felt like everyone was actually breathing. It was dark, but not quite so icky, and there were actually times when it was possible to smile while watching it.
One of the most interesting things is that it dove straight into the mythology/story arc of the show, instead of having a few status-quo" let's just do the mission of the week and maybe (perhaps) learn a scrap of information that may or may not be true." Oh no, the ground has been hit, and the story, she is running. It's no "Walkabout," but it's definitely much more promising than it was last week.
Alpha Bits
The Alpha story is clearly being pushed hard. And the way the last episode fell out, it's leaning toward Alpha having the ability to create his own actives, of which Richard Connell was one (nice catch,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeandink). I've already seen speculation that Ballard is actually an Alpha Active, though I think that's a stretch.
If we assume that Alpha is in charge of the Dangerous Game, that has to draw more attention to the canteen. Connell said (and may have believed) that it was just a tranquilizer. But if the entire thing was organized by a former Active, then it's very likely that it was more than that. Echo seeing herself as Caroline and as Blank!Echo may have been the intended effect of the drug, not a side effect. It certainly seems like it was a setup that Echo could only survive if she was able to in some way unite previous experience.
Boyd Is Totally a Doll
Or, if not a doll, an active of some sort. A former doll? An employee who volunteered for a memory implant?
Boyd shows up at the Dollhouse in the wake of Alpha's rampage. Literally so: he ends up walking through the blood of his predecessor. And as he is introduced, we see people setting right furniture that is still covered in blood. It looks like he's been hired on the day of the attack (within 24 hours at most). And somehow I suspect that a super-secret pseudo-legal organization that just had a massive security breach is able to pull new recruits in that quickly (especially with a new policy emphasizing [dotdotdot] "intensive backgrounds"). It makes more sense that they'd just "create" some new employees.
This theory would also adds another layer to the inverted "call and response" when Echo asks him to trust her. It's not just that he remembers the previous time, it's that, as an active, it affects him as well. They didn't just make Boyd the most important person in Echo's life, they made Echo the most important person in Boyd's life.
Composite Event
One of the most interesting things about the episode is the glimpses of pre-Alpha Dollhouse life we get. They all know what a "composite event" is, but people don't tend to have handy words for unthinkably impossible events, which suggests it may have happened before. Add to that the insight that at one point, dolls were not kept in a "blank" state. I'd suspected taht, for the series to continue, later seasons would have to add more variety to the Dollhouse personality for actives, and this line indicates that it would be possible.
One of the most interesting things is that it dove straight into the mythology/story arc of the show, instead of having a few status-quo" let's just do the mission of the week and maybe (perhaps) learn a scrap of information that may or may not be true." Oh no, the ground has been hit, and the story, she is running. It's no "Walkabout," but it's definitely much more promising than it was last week.
Alpha Bits
The Alpha story is clearly being pushed hard. And the way the last episode fell out, it's leaning toward Alpha having the ability to create his own actives, of which Richard Connell was one (nice catch,
coffeandink). I've already seen speculation that Ballard is actually an Alpha Active, though I think that's a stretch.If we assume that Alpha is in charge of the Dangerous Game, that has to draw more attention to the canteen. Connell said (and may have believed) that it was just a tranquilizer. But if the entire thing was organized by a former Active, then it's very likely that it was more than that. Echo seeing herself as Caroline and as Blank!Echo may have been the intended effect of the drug, not a side effect. It certainly seems like it was a setup that Echo could only survive if she was able to in some way unite previous experience.
Boyd Is Totally a Doll
Or, if not a doll, an active of some sort. A former doll? An employee who volunteered for a memory implant?
Boyd shows up at the Dollhouse in the wake of Alpha's rampage. Literally so: he ends up walking through the blood of his predecessor. And as he is introduced, we see people setting right furniture that is still covered in blood. It looks like he's been hired on the day of the attack (within 24 hours at most). And somehow I suspect that a super-secret pseudo-legal organization that just had a massive security breach is able to pull new recruits in that quickly (especially with a new policy emphasizing [dotdotdot] "intensive backgrounds"). It makes more sense that they'd just "create" some new employees.
This theory would also adds another layer to the inverted "call and response" when Echo asks him to trust her. It's not just that he remembers the previous time, it's that, as an active, it affects him as well. They didn't just make Boyd the most important person in Echo's life, they made Echo the most important person in Boyd's life.
Composite Event
One of the most interesting things about the episode is the glimpses of pre-Alpha Dollhouse life we get. They all know what a "composite event" is, but people don't tend to have handy words for unthinkably impossible events, which suggests it may have happened before. Add to that the insight that at one point, dolls were not kept in a "blank" state. I'd suspected taht, for the series to continue, later seasons would have to add more variety to the Dollhouse personality for actives, and this line indicates that it would be possible.
no subject
no subject
That said, I got a lot more out of the pilot the second time around (after seeing ep 2), and began to believe that Joss has a plan for us, and that it might be a pretty cool one. Not holding my breath, though.
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Because Echo stayed with one persona through most of the show, and because Boyd's part was larger, we had sympathetic characters to latch on to and follow. Hopefully, this will stay on.
I hadn't thought Boyd might be an active, or former active. It's possible that Boyd showed up right after the attack because that was when he was always supposed to show up. I'd gotten the impression he was being hired anyway, and stepping into the dead man's shoes was something done because the Dollhouse needed that vacancy filled before whatever post Boyd was orriginally hired for.
I don't see actives in all the places you do. Having one of the supposed "normals" be an (ex?) active would be a good plot twist. More might well be over doing it.
no subject
...and then flickered through another couple of patterns *when they were most useful to her*.
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I guess if you and Tablesaw both saw this, then it was there. But it seems to me it would have made sense that if it was there, they'd have communicated it clearly to the whole audience, not left it as a subtlety... so was it there blatantly and I just missed it, or are you picking up on some subtle clues?
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Then she seems to flip back to the active imprint ("I have four brothers, none of them are Democrats") but she is now active and confident; she's running *towards* the hunter. With a gun.
I read that as some core persona -- not a personality, but perhaps the seed of one -- seizing the tools at hand to build something it needed. Note Echo's line in this scene: "I'm a fast learner." Also the backstory lines about "composite events", ie, Actives piecing together different imprints.
So I am convinced that the show (at least the season arc) is setting this up as the theme: Echo constructing herself from her own metaphorical chains. Vs Alpha, who did the same thing, only he chose differently.
What I'm not sure of is whether Future Echo will be a grown-up version of Caroline, or (less interestingly) a female superhero agent cliche, or (much more interestingly) no consistent personality -- an alien being which puts on personalities the way we put on clothes. The latter would be hard as hell to do right, and I don't *really* believe that either Whedon or Dushku is up to it, but I hope they try.