Boyd, under questioning: “We’re pimps and killers, but in a philanthropic way”. Haw.
Simply effing brilliant from beginning to end. At least three stupendous scenes: Mellie’s return to Paul, the reveal of Victor’s “Miss Lonelyhearts”, and the unmasking of the NSA spy. I was riveted.
It becomes clear that the ‘persona of the week’ stories in some of the early eps really were necessary to set the scene. I have to imagine that someone seeing this episode as their first contact with the show could be completely lost.
Sorry, getting carried away here. I’m sure there may be flaws, but for right now the best ep yet, IMO.
This was a brilliant episode. I loved the Victor/Adele liaison. Adele is becoming a more and more interesting character as we get insights into her past. She apparently left behind a past life with a truly noble purpose to work for the Dollhouse. That, in conjunction with her statement about keeping the Dollhouse technology away from clandestine government, makes me wonder what the hell she believes the Dollhouse is achieving. Joss seems to be setting the Dollhouse up as an organization doing terrible things as a means to a noble goal. I can’t wait to see how this will play out.
The scenes with Ballard and Mellie/November were also pretty amazing. Ballard is obviously heading off the deep end with justifiable paranoia and finding out that Mellie is an Active may be enough to break him. On the other hand, Mellie’s support in combination with the admittedly small amount of information that she and Echo have passed to him may be enough to get him through. Knowing that he has his own Doll, whom he has to continue his relationship with to maintain a cover, could help give him insight into the Dollhouse and its motivations.
Looking at this post I see a lot of “mights,” “mays,” and “coulds.” That’s what I love about Joss’ shows. They provide a lot of clues to what may come, but I know damn well that I’m probably being lead up blind alleys, but that he won’t cheat. He’ll actually give us a good story, probably with some neat and consistent twists on the way.
I don’t think Dominic was the one planting the messages in Echo and Mellie - he said something like “if it wasn’t for me, Paul Ballard would know all about you”, and that just doesn’t fit with the secret messages to Paul.
Loved seeing Boyd at the end, watching and being sad that Echo is getting a new handler. I’m interested to see him in the chief of security role.
I absolutely don’t know what’s coming next - and I love it!
Definitely not; the story made clear that he was spying for the National Security Agency, and his behavior towards Echo throughout the series pretty firmly established that he would prefer to see her dead or in the Attic. There’s still another mole there somewhere, somehow tied in with Alpha.
Topher found a chip that led them to Dominic and the NSA - and I’m guessing that was not who planted the chip in the first place, just a nice side benefit.
Dominic’s ‘mission’ for the NSA seemed more of an observe and report - and I actually beleived what he said when he mentioned trying to ‘save’ the dollhouse.
The person planting messages used the chip, which is beyond Dominic’s apparent expertise. My guess is that its Alpha’s tech and messages.
Interesting comment from Dominic to Echo - “One day it will be you wiping them”
And we now have full evidence of what the Attic is - and just how frackin’ tough Adelle is.
Huh. You know - the Attic doesn’t make even a bit of sense. It sounds like the idea is that they completely wipe out the victim’s mind - turn them into a complete veggie. Why bother? If you want someone dead, shooting them works nicely. If you want them alive, it’s much easier to keep them alive if they’re capable of feeding themselves, reporting illnesses, walking, and so on - something close to the baseline “doll” personality. Why wipe someone even further than that? It’s not as if they can notice the additional punishment, and it makes them a heck of a lot harder to keep healthy.
I really like how the Dollhouse personnel are being portrayed sympathetically despite all of the bad guy stuff they do. Topher in particular talks like a good guy, dresses like a good guy, and is even lit and shot like he’s a good guy, all while he does some pretty awful stuff. It gives the show an interesting feel, and leaves me wondering about this mysterious higher purpose that the Dollhouse supposedly serves.
The Ballard parts were great. I really want to see how badly he gets put through the wringer over the course of this show.
I’m a little surprised that Dominic let the whole interrogation take place, given that it had a chance to uncover him. I suppose he was arrogant enough to feel invincible.
That was, by far, the best episode of the series and significantly better than the first few episodes. Now that it’s clear that this could be a good show, it will soon be cancelled.
Yeah, there was an article somewhere online yesterday, maybe Yahoo or MSNBC, about the top 10 shows that deserved to be renewed but stood a good chance of being canceled, a la “Pushing Daisies”.
I don’t see how he could have stopped it without raising suspicions. Also, he seemed quite sure that Sierra would win the race and find the planted file.
They keep the inhabitants of the Attic alive as a cover. If they were killed there would be no possibility of using them in the future, for example in a murder trial. You know - “not only did we not kill Mr Dominic, Your Honor, We have pulled him from his Top Secret job so he can show up in court. He’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
The “Doll” treatment seems to be very difficult for the Dollhouse to maintain. They have to pay for all that nice decor, the art instructors, the matching pajams and the co-ed showers, just to keep the Dolls from becoming unstable. From what we heard about the Attic in this episode, the people in the attic don’t really have a mental state that could become unstable. They are essentially coma patients that can be persuaded to move around if needed.
Not yet. This is Fox we are talking about so we are going to have to wait for the awesome cliffhanger season finale before it gets canceled.
I have little hope that this show will make it to a second season. I’m glad that Whedon hasn’t lost his magic, but I just hope he will learn his lesson this time.
What was it that Echo said to prove that Dominic was the spy? Something like, “20 seconds ago, you mumble mumble” and then he pulls out his gun and starts breaking stuff.
Before that, she said when they got the call Sierra had returned with a name, everybody else in the room tensed up, because they didn’t know what would happen next. But Dominic relaxed, so he must have known whose name it would be.
Right - and then she said he (Dominc) gave her the final clue - Dominic says “wha”, Excho explains that 10 seconds ago you unsnapped your holster, and then the shooting starts.