# Dollhouse 4/10 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2009, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717 "2009-04-11T02:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Aghris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecccb3/32.png) [@Aghris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aghris)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/81 "2009-04-16T20:20:07Z")
Just two random thoughts that I don’t think have been mentioned before: - Up until the episode Needs, it appears that DeWitt is much more involved with Echo than with any of the other dolls, to an extend where it is a danger to the Doll House and her job. This seems to me that she might be related to Caroline, either familially or emotionally. - On the other hand, this episode hints to me that DeWitt herself might be imprinted with some set of parameters for the Doll House. Maybe she is a doll herself. Who would not feel pain when shot? She didn’t even flinch and it wasn’t some sort of flesh wound. The location of that shot suggests some sort of bowel perforation. ---
**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:** [April 16, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/82 "2009-04-16T20:45:05Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > - On the other hand, this episode hints to me that DeWitt herself might be imprinted with some set of parameters for the Doll House. Maybe she is a doll herself. Who would not feel pain when shot? She didn’t even flinch and it wasn’t some sort of flesh wound. The location of that shot suggests some sort of bowel perforation. I don’t think the bullet went though the abdomen. I think it was a flesh wound, a graze, across the side of Dewitt. I’m not certain we’ve seen any dolls withstand physical punishment in a manner that can’t be attributed to an adrenaline rush. Of course, Dewitt being a doll would add more irony to her the-universe-would-collapse-inward conversation with Roger. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2009, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/83 "2009-04-16T23:47:26Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > Well, November did consent to go into the Dollhouse, but I don’t know if Dewitt informed her that she was going to be a high class prostitute. If November’s sign-me-up experience was anything like Carolyn’s or Sam’s (the college student who tried to steal the wacky memory drug), she “consented” under duress. Also, would Ballard know that she “consented” in the first place? And more importantly to my original point, would it matter to him and how he feels about her? As I said, were I in his shoes, I’d find it really, really icky. > [@Aghris](#): > > - On the other hand, this episode hints to me that DeWitt herself might be imprinted with some set of parameters for the Doll House. Maybe she is a doll herself. Who would not feel pain when shot? She didn’t even flinch and it wasn’t some sort of flesh wound. The location of that shot suggests some sort of bowel perforation. I agree that it was likely just a flesh wound. If it were a bowel perforation Dr. Saunders would have been freaking out about sepsis and other complications, she wouldn’t just be sewing it up and calmly admonishing her about anesthetics. DeWitt was also showing pain – she walked out of the room after Dominick was wiped, and she was clutching her stomach. She was being very stoic about it, but it clearly still hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/84 "2009-04-19T12:21:48Z")
I know I’m late to the game here (just watched on our DVR), but bear with me: First, when DeWitt gets shot, she immediately says to ignore it, it’s just a graze. Still amazingly ballsy, but not outright ludicrous. Second, I’m having some ideas about the secret purpose of the Dollhouse. Perhaps the purpose is transhumanistic immortality. They already know how to imprint a complete personality on another brain. Perhaps they need to perfect the process (given the Alpha thing and the featured dolls’ issues), and perhaps they’re trying to engineer “blank slate” people so they don’t have to essentially murder someone to give someone else life - remember the fetal experiments? This would all fit with DeWitt thinking she’s doing something noble, and her having a previous job [trying to?] grow organs from stem cells. Presumably they run the Dollhouse to finance further research and field test imprinting. Oh, and the whole secret purpose thing says to me that Dominic was not the mole who sent messages to Ballard. Those messages stress that he needs to find the secret purpose, while Dominic seemed uninterested in it. There must be two spies because there are two very different espionage goals evident. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/85 "2009-04-19T19:56:59Z")
Question: would an imprint be permanent, if the Doll wasn’t wiped? Or permanent enough, say, with a refresher every six months or so? Because we’ve got really wealthy people having their ‘ideal’ mates manufactured. How long before someone wants to buy rather than rent? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/86 "2009-04-19T20:17:52Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Second, I’m having some ideas about the secret purpose of the Dollhouse. Perhaps the purpose is transhumanistic immortality. They already know how to imprint a complete personality on another brain. Perhaps they need to perfect the process (given the Alpha thing and the featured dolls’ issues), and perhaps they’re trying to engineer “blank slate” people so they don’t have to essentially murder someone to give someone else life - remember the fetal experiments? This would all fit with DeWitt thinking she’s doing something noble, and her having a previous job [trying to?] grow organs from stem cells. Presumably they run the Dollhouse to finance further research and field test imprinting. Yeah, I think this is pretty close. Being familiar with Whedon’s work, the adventure story aspect of the ‘Dollhouse’ is just a audience-grabbing framework from which he’ll write interesting explorations on the nature of consciousness, what it means to be alive, the nature of the human soul, etc. From next week’s preview: The show appears to be about someone who had been recorded, then murdered. The person’s ‘recording’ is put back in one of the dolls to help solve her own murder. She’s fully aware that she’s dead, and that being ‘alive’ again can only be a temporary thing. That should be interesting. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/87 "2009-04-19T20:58:21Z")
> [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Question: would an imprint be permanent, if the Doll wasn’t wiped? Or permanent enough, say, with a refresher every six months or so? I’m hoping at some point we’ll find out how long Mellie was living across the hall from Agent Ballard. The spy message said Mellie had been watching Ballard for “months” but we don’t know if she went in for reprints. Other than her, I think the longest we’ve seen an imprint last has been the several days but less than a week Echo was in the religious compound. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/88 "2009-04-19T22:18:07Z")
I don’t think we’ve seen any evidence that the imprints degrade over time, short of them being badly put together in the first place (the bit where Topher was putting together a new imprint for Echo with Ivy offering suggestions over his shoulder – the computer flagged the imprint as unstable, so he replaced a bit to fix it). All we know about Alpha’s composite event was that it apparently came after he’d been wiped and reprogrammed multiple times. It seemed to be implied that the event happened from his supposedly Blank Slate state – he was inside the Dollhouse at the time. Was Friday’s episode (the 17th) pre-empted for something? It’s not showing up on Hulu. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/89 "2009-04-19T22:52:01Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Was Friday’s episode (the 17th) pre-empted for something? It’s not showing up on Hulu. 2 hour Prison Break premiere. New episode next week. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/90 "2009-04-19T23:15:38Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > Amy Acker is also a guest star, so something may be up with her character too. I think they wanted to avoid having too many Buffyverse actors in the main cast. ---
**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:** [April 21, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/91 "2009-04-21T18:50:20Z")
> [@Idlewild](#): > > I am going to adopt “Maybe there will be cake!” as my default sarcastic response to bad situations. I just love Adele DeWitt even if she is possibly a very bad woman. I’ve been ruminating on whether Adele is bad or good (with qualifications, of course). As we know she was in charge of the house when Echo’s intake happened, and Echo stumbled into the imprinting room during the “first time” for Sierra, I’m going to put money on her being bad. All the greased palms in the world should not have been enough to sell an unwilling person into the Dollhouse. I’m assuming Adele knew, or suspected…and Sierra’s wanna-be suitor/rapist was telling the truth about how he got her intot he Dollhouse. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717/92 "2009-04-22T02:39:50Z")
“Should we help?” “Yeah…I helped when I imprinted her with kung-fu skills, but be my guest!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-4-10/492717.md?page=4)