# Dollhouse 5/1/09 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 2, 2009, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049 "2009-05-02T01:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/61 "2009-05-06T20:28:13Z")
Here’s a [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfIgY9dhw08) on how Alpha hacked into the Dollhouse. ---
**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:** [May 6, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/62 "2009-05-06T21:47:28Z")
> [@Chopper9760](#): > > I was unnerved by Alpha’s mutterings about CO2 but he was muttering, “Stay asleep, stay asleep,” not “Die abominations!” So I think it’s reasonable to assume that he did just want them all to stay asleep. > > What is Alpha’s motivation for killing all the actives? But the Actives were in the middle of their sleep cycle during the whole scene. There was no reason to be messing around with their environment to keep them sleeping. Alpha only opened November’s crypt to distract Ballard, I think. I do not know what Alpha’s motivation was for killing the previous group of Actives in the shower, nor his reasons for (possibly) trying to kill or damage the current cop of Actives. I suspect we’ll find out eventually. In the meantime, I like **Offkenter** ’s theory. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/63 "2009-05-06T22:47:39Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > killing the previous group of Actives in the shower :smack:Good point, he doesn’t seem to like any other actives save Echo. It’s been theorized that Dr. Saunders is/was an active but is no longer fit for duty due to Alpha’s “gifts.” If that’s the case, why would they imprint her with the memory of Alpha slashing her? Early in the season it seemed as though Adelle and Co. were trying to suppress any discussion of Alpha. Why not just imprint your newly minted doctor with an unfortunate weed-whacker incident? I’m not all that interested in Ballard but isn’t he in a bit of a pickle? Adelle and Boyd were discussing whether or not they should put him in the chair - they might have been bluffing but it didn’t sound like letting him leave was a viable option. Will Ballard help them rescue Echo? Will they poke him in the attic? Can the season finale possibly answer all my questions!? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/64 "2009-05-07T03:43:35Z")
I think Ballard must be a doll that’s been set up by Alpha. It’s the most plausible explanation for his infatuation with Echo (seeing as Alpha obviously has a thing for her). But it could be that he’s an incomplete doll–like Alpha was able to modify him adding emotions and ideas, but not fully clean and overwrite him with a new personality. > [@Pigs\_in\_Space](#): > > Also, what’s going to happen to Victor? His Dominic impression was dead on. Yeah, I wasn’t too impressed with Victor’s English accent, but he did this scene perfectly. Either that or they used Dominic’s voice? I couldn’t tell. > [@Kaio](#): > > I love that Joss writes such complex characters. I can’t hate Topher or DeWitt, though parts of me really want to. I can’t peg Boyd at all – he’s such a straightlaced guy, and a former cop! What’s he doing working for such a morally grey (at best) organization? How does he salve his conscience at night? Didn’t Adelle say that Ballard and the FBI didn’t have “clearance” to know about the Dollhouse? That would make it seem likely that the organization is at least partly a government agency. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/65 "2009-05-07T17:54:04Z")
> [@Chopper9760](#): > > There are lots of interesting theories about who might be a doll and while I enjoy them, I hope Topher and Adelle aren’t dolls. I think we can be reasonably sure they’re not dolls because of their reaction to the weird serum/fear drug from the earlier episode. > [@](#): > > 1. Tonight’s plot made no sense. Alpha kills the environmental guy and dumps his body in Tucson (why? It made no difference to his plan) before Ballard even knows about the environmental guy, or even leaves November. How could he possibly know that Ballard would find the Dollhouse the very next day and come to him immediately? How could he even know that Ballard would make the connection between the Dollhouse and the environmental expert in time? It seems a pretty pointless exercise to dump the body (again, why Tucson?) without knowing that Ballard was on his way. (a) Someone (Alpha? Dollhouse?) has compromised Ballard’s FBI-ex-co-worker’s computer, or the databases she taps into. (b) Someone (Alpha) has compromised Mellie and is feeding Ballard information on the sly, which is making him not trust her. (c) Someone (Alpha again) has figured out how to remote-wipe an active, and presumably how to remote-reprogram them as well. It’s a complex ballet, but makes more sense if you put it in this order: Alpha, who is in L.A., is following/watching Ballard. He follows Ballard, who follows Mellie’s handler, who takes Mellie to the Dollhouse. With Ballard aware of the Dollhouse’s location, he will eventually stumble on the name of the environmental specialist guy. Alpha kills the specialist and takes over his life _only when he knows_ that Ballard has looked the guy up in a compromised database; he plants the evidence pointing to Tucson in order to draw Dollhouse resources offsite. I don’t really get why he needs to go through all that feinting and zig-zagging to bring Ballard inside with him, though, unless his plan was to use Ballard to create a little extra chaos. **Super Wacky Theory re: “Goals”** The weird environmental screed that Alpha-as-environmental-pothead rambles through actually makes quite a bit of sense as a Big Evil Plan: imagine a series of giant Dollhouses that are environmentally neutral. You’ve got one for rocket scientists, one for cancer researchers, a few hundred for heavy laborers, a few hundred for food production, one or two for soldiers, and so on. Each facility is staffed by Whiskey-bots, who are themselves Dolls but believe themselves to be in charge. Then, on top of that pyramid, a final layer of real humans who move their personality from body to body and live as Emperors-for-Eternal-Life of Earth. Outside the Dollhouses, the company could release a drug to paralyze humanity with fear, or cause them to all die, or-or-or. Once the Dollhouses are secure, 90% (99%?) of humanity is expendable - you can choose the population level you like. If you think about Boyd’s reaction to the eternal life engagement, it makes a lot of sense - he said “it’s the end of humanity” or something similar. Horrible! Ghastly! Has a lot in common with the Matrix and the Pax! Could Caroline and Alpha (who both seem to have known each other before) have cooked up a plan to make themselves un-wipe-able? Their goal would probably be to bring down the Dollhouse on (roughly) the same grounds that Mal &co. go after the people behind the Pax. It meshes with her adamant stance against animal testing – because it is sort of the ultimate animal testing. Anyway, everyone keeps saying “that’s what they do, but it’s not their _goal_.” I think that I’ve figured out the goal. Any comments? Am I insane? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/66 "2009-05-07T18:01:33Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > Anyway, everyone keeps saying “that’s what they do, but it’s not their _goal_.” I think that I’ve figured out the goal. Any comments? Am I insane? No clue - but I appreciate your write-up and reasoning as a way to clarify how this all might’ve played out. And while I have no clue about your Goal Hypothesis, it certainly fits the “some sort of vast, power-grabbing, humanity-controlling conspiracy” angle quite well - and yeah, I am assuming that The Joss™ is swinging for that kind of Big Fence… Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/67 "2009-05-07T18:03:53Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Clearly I’m dense, but can you point me to some of the clue-dropping about Doc-Saunders-is-a-Doll prior to this episode? The big one for me is that Adele asks Doc S. about her work habits, and notes that she sleeps at the Dollhouse, lives at the Dollhouse, takes all her meals there, etc. Doc S. dismisses this as not-really-unusual. It is presented (at the time) as a symptom of her workaholic nature, or possibly a symptom of PTSD from her encounter w/ Alpha. Doc Saunders, who is ordinarily pretty astute, believes firmly that Alpha was killed. Not wiped, not taken to the Attic, but killed/executed. Boyd questions this (pretty obvious!) lie as soon as he hears it, but Doc Saunders seems to believe it. Her notable absence during the drugs-as-litmus-test episode was an “absence of evidence” clue. And of course, Alpha let her live. He knows how to kill, and kill quickly, so he didn’t let her live because he’s a compassionate guy… he let her live just like he let Echo live. We just don’t know _why_ yet. But her status as a survivor of the Alpha rampage is important and marks her for suspicion. ---
**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:** [May 8, 2009, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/68 "2009-05-08T08:46:58Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > But we know there are other dollhouses and Topher also knows of their existence. So…has he ever asked who the super geniuses are running the ([sub]overdrawn at the[/sub]) memory banks in the other places? I always got the impression that the L.A. Dollhouse is the “original” dollhouse and Topher was one of the main inventors of the process. Evidenced by the fact that the architect guy (ignoring the fact that he was impersonated by Alpha - his backstory still seems to be accurate) seems to have designed the L.A. dollhouse. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/69 "2009-05-08T19:35:48Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > It’s a complex ballet, but makes more sense if you put it in this order: Alpha, who is in L.A., is following/watching Ballard. He follows Ballard, who follows Mellie’s handler, who takes Mellie to the Dollhouse. With Ballard aware of the Dollhouse’s location, he will eventually stumble on the name of the environmental specialist guy. Alpha kills the specialist and takes over his life _only when he knows_ that Ballard has looked the guy up in a compromised database; he plants the evidence pointing to Tucson in order to draw Dollhouse resources offsite. But didn’t the murder in Tucson happen _before_ Ballard followed Mellie to the Flower Street building? That’s how I remember it from last week. Of course, Alpha could have anticipated that one way or another Ballard would eventually connect the Dollhouse to the architect, and set up house in the apartment to await the inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/70 "2009-05-08T21:16:45Z")
> [@Jurph](#): > > Anyway, everyone keeps saying “that’s what they do, but it’s not their _goal_.” I think that I’ve figured out the goal. Any comments? Am I insane? Ehhh… I think the Ultimate Goal ™ will turn out to be somewhat more morally ambiguous. Keep in mind that DeWitt has repeatedly said she believes in whatever this purpose is. Yet she’s not completely heartless – sure she doesn’t let anyone _see_ that she has feelings, but in the privacy of her own bedroom she did have a sobbing breakdown after commanding that Dominick be consigned to the Attic. Given that, I have a hard time seeing her being “on board” with something that is so clearly horrible and power-mongering on such a huge scale; I think that she believes the Ultimate Goal to be humanitarian, even if the means to get there are somewhat morally grey. And I don’t think anyone with a brain could conceive of a “strong ruling over the weak” scenario as humanitarian. > [@Jurph](#): > > The big one for me is that Adele asks Doc S. about her work habits, and notes that she sleeps at the Dollhouse, lives at the Dollhouse, takes all her meals there, etc. Doc S. dismisses this as not-really-unusual. It is presented (at the time) as a symptom of her workaholic nature, or possibly a symptom of PTSD from her encounter w/ Alpha. > > Doc Saunders, who is ordinarily pretty astute, believes firmly that Alpha was killed. Not wiped, not taken to the Attic, but killed/executed. Boyd questions this (pretty obvious!) lie as soon as he hears it, but Doc Saunders seems to believe it. Hrm. I see your point, but could go either way on these. I recall that Topher was also thoroughly convinced that Alpha was dead, until DeWitt upped his security clearance to tell him. Some are just less prone to question things or rock the boat. (Plus questioning the Alpha stuff would necessarily mean having to think about Alpha, which is probably something she’d prefer to avoid.) > [@](#): > > Her notable absence during the drugs-as-litmus-test episode was an “absence of evidence” clue. I think this is an excellent point, and putting it with the whole “Whiskey!” thing is what’s most convincing to me. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049/71 "2009-05-14T03:33:34Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Yeah, that’s weird. They should have gone there first. Although I think there’s some fan speculation that Dr Saunders is really Whiskey. Which of course only came about after seeing that scene. . . . And turned out to becorrect. We’ve been _primed._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dollhouse-5-1-09/495049.md?page=3)