# Dollhouse 10/23 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940 "2009-10-24T05:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/21 "2009-10-25T20:38:59Z")
> [@Pigs\_in\_Space](#): > > Boyd was…prepared. For a smart guy, Topher was not. Why they heck didn’t Topher maker her a sleeper like Melanie (There are three flowers in a vase…the third flower is green) or did he really believe the EvilDoctor and Priya would work it out, and then the EvilDoctor would just let her go? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/22 "2009-10-25T20:56:24Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Why they heck didn’t Topher maker her a sleeper like Melanie (There are three flowers in a vase…the third flower is green) or did he really believe the EvilDoctor and Priya would work it out, and then the EvilDoctor would just let her go? He believed she would run and not go to see him. Pria, on the other hand, thought a better idea would be to kick his ass. ---
**Author:** ![Pigs\_in\_Space](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@Pigs\_in\_Space](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pigs_in_Space)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/23 "2009-10-25T22:05:31Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Why they heck didn’t Topher maker her a sleeper like Melanie (There are three flowers in a vase…the third flower is green) or did he really believe the EvilDoctor and Priya would work it out, and then the EvilDoctor would just let her go? That’s what I mean by unprepared. The likeliest endings for the scenario he set up involved a dead body, one way or another. Boyd figured that out immediately. It seems like Topher’s been sheltered from the consequences of his actions for too long, or he’s just such an academic he doesn’t think that things might not go exactly how he plans them. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/24 "2009-10-25T22:33:24Z")
This is what I meant by Topher not being a psychologist; in his mind, once Priya got herself back, and he explained to her what had happened and what the Dollhouse was, of _course_ she’d make her escape and not risk going to confront Nolan. For as much as he knows about the brain, Topher has no clue about how people work – he really never has. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2009, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/25 "2009-10-25T23:03:39Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Dissolving a body in an acid bath came up on one of the CSI shows (fiction, I know), so I’m guessing in addition to Uosdwis R. Dewoh’s concerns about Topher, they would have done some serious damage to the bathtub. I can’t imagine the first cops on the scene from the missing persons report could miss the mess in the bathroom. Perhaps there’s an engagement-gone-bad team to clean up the real messes? This also came up in an episode of Breaking Bad, a show about a chemistry teacher turned meth dealer. If it was hydrofluoric acid it would go right through the bathtub. You need to dissolve the body in a plastic bin (I forgot which kind of plastic) so that the acid won’t eat through the container. Also, I found out through some Googling that the fumes from any acid that can dissolve flesh can be pretty dangerous to inhale. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/26 "2009-10-26T02:27:21Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > I question the wisdom of dissolving a body into acid. That just leaves you with a very nasty human acid soup, that’s not easy to get rid of. And that bathroom better be bloody well ventilated. Topher should have worn a respirator. Isn’t the idea that you can eventually wash it down the drain? Agreed Topher should have had some protection, but at least we did see him recoil at the fumes. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/27 "2009-10-26T03:45:03Z")
The doctor lived on the top floor of his clinic. I think people are going to notice when the drainage pipes in the roof start leaking nasty human-acid mixture. Sulfuric acid is water soluble though, so maybe they diluted it enough before they let it run through the drain. The sulfuric acid still has to be in a high enough concentration to dissolve the body in any meaningful time, and adding water into sulfuric acid is bad idea (as opposed to the right way of adding sulfuric acid into water). I still think the horrible mixture would at the very least clog the drain. Anyways, this is a minor point in an otherwise excellent episode. And forcing Topher to hack a body to pieces and drown it in acid, beautifully drives home the consequences of his actions from a storytelling perspective. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/28 "2009-10-26T05:21:21Z")
> [@Pigs\_in\_Space](#): > > Did any one get a screencap of Echo’s pod? Far more useful to transcribe it: [ul] [li]The Attic is Bad[/li][li]Where is Caroline[/li][li]I am Nobody[/li][li]Friends Help Each Other[/li][li]I Was Blind[/li][li]Shoulder to the Wheel[/li][li]I (was / am) Trained to Kill[/li][li]Ghosts Aren’t Real[/li][li]Mountains Are Safe[/li][li]Topher Makes N?—[/li][li]Dominic Was Bad[/li][li]My Son Killed Me[/li][li](I’m a?) Believer[/li][li]Victor Loves Sierra (or Victory Loves C—, Sierra Lo—)[/li][li](We Have a?) Right to Survive[/li][li](My Friend?) Bought Me A House[/li][li]Blue Skies[/li][li]I Love My Baby[/li][li]Baby Isn’t Mine[/li][li]I Like Pie[/li][li](We Are The?) (Women Are?) Whores[/li][li]I Tried To Make (Shade?)[/li][li]God / Good?[/li][li]Novem (w) ber K—[/li][li]Th—[/li][li]Dr S—[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/29 "2009-10-26T14:34:46Z")
First we have Echo returning to the Dollhouse and now we have Sierra doing the same. Couldn’t this be explained by a few throw-away lines? Topher could say that they’re programed to want to stay with the house until their contracts are complete. As it stands, it’s kind of irritating. Echo can legitimately claim that she wants to bring down the DH but what’s Sierra’s motive for staying? Are we supposed to conclude that she loves Victor enough to be a zombie? Is her former life thoroughly in shambles? Or is it, as stated upthread, a way to avoid consequences from Rossum? I suppose it could be all 3 and more, for once, I would have preferred that the show be a bit less oblique. That said, GO SHOW GO! That ep rocked my socks. As always, the ensemble is miles better than watching Echo. Now that we’ve firmly established what the engagements are like, I’d be comfortable never seeing another one. Echo’s screen time is bearable when she’s wandering doing her vacant spy routine. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/30 "2009-10-26T14:43:34Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Isn’t the idea that you can eventually wash it down the drain? Agreed Topher should have had some protection, but at least we did see him recoil at the fumes. You know what happens when you add water into a pool of acid? It’s the same as if you threw water into a pot of heated oil except instead of sizzling oil flying around, you get an explosion of acid flying up at your face. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/31 "2009-10-26T14:44:46Z")
“Add the acid to the base, if you want to save your face.” ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/32 "2009-10-26T15:00:39Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > This also came up in an episode of Breaking Bad, a show about a chemistry teacher turned meth dealer. If it was hydrofluoric acid it would go right through the bathtub. You need to dissolve the body in a plastic bin (I forgot which kind of plastic) so that the acid won’t eat through the container. Also, I found out through some Googling that the fumes from any acid that can dissolve flesh can be pretty dangerous to inhale. > [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > The doctor lived on the top floor of his clinic. I think people are going to notice when the drainage pipes in the roof start leaking nasty human-acid mixture. Sulfuric acid is water soluble though, so maybe they diluted it enough before they let it run through the drain. The sulfuric acid still has to be in a high enough concentration to dissolve the body in any meaningful time, and adding water into sulfuric acid is bad idea (as opposed to the right way of adding sulfuric acid into water). I still think the horrible mixture would at the very least clog the drain. So, if you dissolved the body parts in a plastic bin of acid, and then ran water into the tub and added some of the acid to that, you could safely and effectively dispose of the body without anyone having an acid splash-up or dissolving the tub. You’d have to work in batches, of course, but the increased dilution would have the added benefit of making the drain less likely to clog. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/33 "2009-10-26T16:30:16Z")
Maybe it was a weak enough acid to just burn off the epidermis, therefore removing finger prints, tattoos, distinguishing features, etc. Then they add a base to neutralize the acid, drain the tub, then the cleaner takes the now unidentifiable cut up parts and gets rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/34 "2009-10-26T16:35:25Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > The only reason I can think of is that he wanted to have her “story” unenmeshed with Nolan’s, in case Rossum stumbled across her alive and well later on with no Nolan… but that seems rather weak to me. If they did find her, she could just say that Nolan “disappeared” while they were on the run – went out to meet someone and never came back, say. I thought that unless Pria could lie exceptionally well, it made the most sense for her to go back to the Dollhouse. If the Dollhouse executives found Pria by herself, they would expect her to be someone who was deeply in love with the doctor and probably very sad that she wasn’t with him. They would expect her not to know anything about him drugging her and sending her to the Dollhouse. But she was extremely shaken up by what the doctor had put her through and about the murder. If they found her and asked her more than one or two questions, it would be easy enough to figure out that she didn’t have an imprint that made her in love with the doctor, but that she was her normal self and that she killed the doctor for what he’d done. The Dollhouse execs probably wouldn’t like that, and bad things would happen for Pria, Topher, Boyd, and Adelle. It seems like it would be better for them all if Pria went back to the Dollhouse, did a few more years of service, and got out in few years with whatever substantial amount of money and no memory of what had happened. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/35 "2009-10-26T16:47:57Z")
I don’t think the dollhouse or Topher would want to honor Sierra’s request to make her forget the day. First, as bad as she may feel about taking a life, getting rid of that memory eliminates all sense of closure Sierra would have over the situation. Imagine waking up in 4 years wanting revenge only to find out the guy skipped the country in 2009 while you’d been placed in the state of a slave girl by that guy? And because she’d killed him there’d be no chance of ever meeting him again no matter how hard she searched (and she would). Also, by eliminating that day from her memory, they also eliminate her consent. Basically, from her perspective, she’d been drugged then dragged into slavery for 5+ years. Which leads me to question why she’d even trust anyone from the Dollhouse to begin with. They’d basically kidnapped her and forced her into a life of prostitution. Sorry, but it would take, well, never and a day before I trusted anyone in that situation again. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/36 "2009-10-26T16:50:13Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > I don’t think the dollhouse or Topher would want to honor Sierra’s request to make her forget the day. First, as bad as she may feel about taking a life, getting rid of that memory eliminates all sense of closure Sierra would have over the situation. Imagine waking up in 4 years wanting revenge only to find out the guy skipped the country in 2009 while you’d been placed in the state of a slave girl by that guy? And because she’d killed him there’d be no chance of ever meeting him again no matter how hard she searched (and she would). > > Also, by eliminating that day from her memory, they also eliminate her consent. Basically, from her perspective, she’d been drugged then dragged into slavery for 5+ years. > > Which leads me to question why she’d even trust anyone from the Dollhouse to begin with. They’d basically kidnapped her and forced her into a life of prostitution. Sorry, but it would take, well, never and a day before I trusted anyone in that situation again. They can eliminate the feelings without getting rid of the memory like they did for November about the loss of her kid. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/37 "2009-10-26T17:55:07Z")
Am I the only one that wishes they’d make DeWitt pretty again? Her new hairstyle is terrible. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/38 "2009-10-26T17:56:08Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > They can eliminate the feelings without getting rid of the memory like they did for November about the loss of her kid. They can also eliminate the whole terrifying ordeal. They can eliminate all memory of this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/39 "2009-10-26T18:05:00Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Which leads me to question why she’d even trust anyone from the Dollhouse to begin with. They’d basically kidnapped her and forced her into a life of prostitution. Sorry, but it would take, well, never and a day before I trusted anyone in that situation again. Topher put her original personality back and (attempted to) let her go, rather than carrying out orders that she be sent to Nolan as essentially a sex slave. (He explained at least part of the whole situation to her, they said as much.) Boyd came in and helped them “clean up” a very messy situation. Both of them did these things of their own initiative. Topher especially was potentially facing some pretty severe consequences, as sooner or later Nolan would have been calling up asking where Sierra was; but he did it anyway. Even if she doesn’t trust anyone else in the Dollhouse, I think those two managed to earn at least a little of her trust. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940/40 "2009-10-26T19:21:55Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Am I the only one that wishes they’d make DeWitt pretty again? Her new hairstyle is terrible. You’re not alone, the world weeps with you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-10-23/514940.md?page=3)