I’m going to guess that the preview for next week was misleading and that Boyd is not the “big bad”. Per Clyde he can’t be the founder. And showing him in the preview as the bad guy is too much of a spoiler.
I actually thought that this episode took a while to get going but that the last 5-10 minutes were excellent. Also thought the “Tron” line from Topher was one of the best of the series.
So is Dr. Saunders in league with Rossum? After she shot Bennett, there was speculation from the LA Dollhouse crew, but I don’t think it was ever confirmed in any way.
Except that he was shown in the actual episode as being the big bad. He was introduced by the Rossum CEO as his partner. Then commercials, then previews.
Yah. The other characters suggested she was a sleeper, but I don’t buy it - the way she talked to Bennet was just chilling. And the look she gave Topher - wow. Amy Acker needs to be in more shows.
BTW, I loved the quirky indie-romantic-comedy they played in all the scenes with Topher and Bennet - hilarious!
Actually, we don’t know that as Joss has talked pretty openly about Dollhouse’s early going having a bunch of problems. And some of the meddling that the Fox executives did (like dumping the original pilot) were for the better in my opinion.
They just showed Boyd step out of the shadows in the initial discussion with Caroline, after he said he and his partner were looking forward to meeting her. It just feels like a viewer trap to me.
Yeah, I don’t think he’s necessarily the big “bad.” He’s the big something, but I don’t think he’s the “Take over the world” type.
Why can’t he be the big bad? Because he’s American and was friends with Clyde at university? Lots of Americans go to English universities. He was a bad guy at the end of the episode, not just in the preview (which I didn’t see).
Of course, just because it’s the same body doesn’t mean it’s the same mind. Who knows who’s in there?
Odd that Clyde 5.0 was American. He certainly wasn’t Topher, though. Topher would have been about ten when the Clydes were created. They’re both just nerds. And man, do I love Topher now. Hated the Topher-Bennett love theme tune, but liked their romance.
I think there were about five geek references a minute in this ep. 
The Matrix, Tron, Firefly, Buffy, and a few others that I’ve forgotten just this second.
I’m jealous if you guys get a preview of what’s coming up next week. Might have a look around online and see if it’s uploaded somewhere (odds on it is).
Any clue who the woman is that Echo confronted in the preview?
I was suspicious of Clair when whe was talking with Bennet, but I did not see that coming. Poor Topher.
And I’m even more convinced that Bennet was not wholly justified in being mad at Caroline. If Caroline had stayed, her arm would still be dead, and whe would likely be a doll.
There is certainly more to Boyd, but what exactly is remains to be scene.
Brian
OK, just watched the preview. It was only 30 seconds long, but I presume it was the same one you guys were talking about. Echo was confronting Claire - Dr Saunders - or whoever Dr Saunders really is.
Agreed about Bennett having no good reason to be angry at Caroline. Caroline hung around to give Bennett a cover story, then left so that it would only be her caught. Depends whose memory that is, I guess, and how reliable the memories are. The show seems to assume that memories retrieved by the computers are intact, realistic, almost objective, but that’s not how memories work.
BTW, since the title of the next ep is ‘Hollow Man,’ have a look at T S Eliot’s 'The Hollow Men’if you don’t know it already. It’s one of my favourite ieces of poetry ever, and man does it fit the Dollhouse, especially this part:
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
And then it has that famous line about the world ending ‘not with a bang, but a whimper.’ Nice geek reference there, Joss.
Yes. Hopefully without her face being covered in scars or blue veiny stuff, though. Damnit Joss, let the pretty girl look pretty.
Loved the ep, and Saunders shooting Bennett in front of Topher was one of the most resonant and horrifying moments in the series, but I’m hoping Boyd is not in fact being set up as the moving force behind Rossum, mainly because it wouldn’t make any sense based on what we’ve seen throughout the show. At all times, Boyd has had a full-time job related to security at the LA house; it’s a bit hard for me to believe he’d have the time to give his full attention to plans for world domination. I have to think his presence on the last scenes is basically as a messenger, that he was placed in the LA house specifically to keep an eye on Echo and that someone yet to be introduced is pulling the strings here; guess we’ll see in the next ep.
Couple other outstanding moments: excellent job integrating a scene from ‘Epitaph One’ into the current plotline (Boyd saying goodbye to Saunders), and more badassery from DeWitt: loved the scene where she is confronted in her office by the Rossum goons dispatched to take over the operation, ending with the coolly-spoken line about the carpet being ruined after they’ve bled all over it.
Yes, and let me just say: how come when Alpha slices and dices Victor’s face, they fix it so that there is no trace of the attack while leaving Dr. Saunders horribly scarred? Wtf??? It’s DeWitt she should have popped a cap into over that.
Saunders chose to keep her scars.
They bring out her eyes.
Huh, I must have missed that.
But anyway, Claire probably didn’t. I mean, ultimately, it’s Claire’s face, right, and she’d get it back at some point? I don’t remember them asking Victor, either.
Victor was still on his contract and wasn’t needed to replace anyone.
Claire Saunders was created because there was a need for a GP in the Dollhouse and it would be difficult if not impossible to recruit one. Thus, Topher created one.
When Whiskey appears in “Epitaph One” she appears without the scars. But she appears in one flashback as Dr. Saunders and later as doll-state Whiskey. I’m theorizing for the moment that this is somehow a part of some wicked revenge Topher has planned for her but mini-Caroline’s reaction to her in E1 suggests otherwise.
Her original personality was lost, IIRC. Smashed by Alpha. She’s just Dr Saunders plus whatever personality the blank-slate dollhouse personality has been able to grow.
At least, that’s what we knew about her up until she shot Bennett. Now, for all we know, she might be someone completely different. Saunders plus programming, someone else plus Saunders, someone pretending to be Saunders, Saunders but with her original personality put back in (maybe by Boyd) sometime after it had been ‘destroyed,’ etc etc.
We originally found out she was a doll due to the way she reacted to things like that touch-borne virus that affected dolls and normal people differently. Boyd was affected like a normal person, never like a doll, which is interesting.
Edit: in the preview I’m fairly sure Saunders doesn’t have scars.
Yeah, I think that’s the point. In the commentary for Epitaph One they mentioned that they aren’t cheating, as such, but what you see might be misleading even if accurate. Here is a perfect example. Given the first snippet we saw, it seemed clear that Caroline abandoned Bennett to be picked up by the authorities, while Caroline high-tailed it out of there, and that’s why Bennett hates her. It turns out Caroline left Bennett there so she would be safe, while Caroline essentially turned herself in to help protect her. And that Bennett hates her because she still considered that abandonment, a la, the “I’m mad because you’re refusing to [use me]” conversation.
I liked the callbacks to Epitaph One, not just the fleeing Boyd scene, but the foreshadowing of Adele and Topher, with her taking his face in her hands and trying to bring him back from catatonia.
Other than that, I’m confused! They made a big deal out of Caroline being the one to see Clyde’s partner, so I’m thinking Boyd really is the Big Bad. But his presence and actions in L.A. don’t make a lot of sense with that.
Also, why would he have Saunders kill Bennett, if his motive is to use Caroline? Or something? Why kill Bennett but not Topher? Unless it really was just Saunders’ hatred of Topher, perhaps coupled with a conscience-ectomy care of Boyd. It would be an efficient way to torture someone, to murder the one person they’d ever loved right in front of them, about five minutes after they realized they might have a future.
(One thing I’m sure of: HATED Adele’s hair extensions in the flashback. Whoever’s in charge of that should have checked to see if they looked OK from the side and back, if they were going to shoot her from those angles!)