I don’t think it’s all that fan-wanky to assume that meddling with Dominic’s imprint might have compromised the information they were trying to retrieve. I mean, if you have sedatives and sodium pentathol(sp?) do you really need to risk damaging the info, particularly in a time crunch?
Honestly, if they’d made Dominic compliant via imprint, I would have been sorely disappointed. A large part of the show’s drama is predicated on the idea that the Dollhouse really doesn’t have it all down pat, the staff and the tech are flawed.
Also, look at all the drama that we would have missed. Victor rocked my socks, he was channeling Dominic so well that when I look back on the scene, I’m picturing Reed Diamond in the chair, that was really good stuff. Doesn’t it make the Attic way more terrifying to have folks waking up without their own body and freaking out?
I love it that Topher can’t pull up someone’s brain scan/imprint and read the thoughts and memories. With enough time he can create amalgams with specific skills but that’s because Topher is brilliant, the tech doesn’t allow for mind-reading. The Dollhouse has all of this valuable information and a library of skills but they have to use people as card-readers to make it all useful.
I worry about Ballard being a doll. I really like this show but it’s going to get pretty boring if everyone turns out to be imprinted.
One thing I’ve wondered about Topher. He’s set up as this one of a kind super genius. He at least believes himself to be that in his own mind. 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?
Either Topher’s not as special as he thinks he is or he’s a doll that’s been spat out at least 20 times in which case he’s REALLY not as special as he thinks he is.
Does anyone else think that the abused young girl, Susan, is being set up as a parallel to Alpha? Alpha seems to hate Dolls, not the Dollhouse. Susan hated Briar Rose for being a victim. I think Alpha hates himself for having become a Doll, and has attacked other Dolls because he hates seeing that same perceived weakness in them. Alternatively, may be trying to take down the Dollhouse, but if he is he’s doing it in a very slow, deliberate way. His attacks on others Dolls seem much less planned, almost reflexive.
I’ve been harboring the theory that Topher’s a doll for most of the season. I don’t have much evidence, but my pet theory is that many of the people running the Dollhouse are Dolls.
One thing I like about this show is it looks like fun. I’d love to be an actor on it. For example I’m willing to bet that Tudyk had a great time playing both Aplha and his cover.
When Ballard and Adelle are talking he says something about her trying to kill him and she responds with something along the lines of, “And isn’t lucky for both of us that I failed?”
So yeah, the Dollhouse had discredited Ballard, suspended him from the FBI, given him a fake GF/spy, and tried to kill him - maybe more than once.
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. It’s fun to be drawn to characters with bad/questionable morals. I hated Topher when the series began - smug little prick who makes the rape and torture of all the dolls possible. Then Joss goes and makes him cute with the damn “diagnostic test” crap. Well shit. Now I like Topher even though his morals are obviously whacked.
Same with Adelle, she’s interesting because she’s flawed. Dominic turned out to be interesting because he wasn’t a full-on bad guy.
I don’t want to find out that everyone I thought was interesting and conflicted was actually just a doll.
SPOILER ALERT(not really)! Every character on the show is a doll. END SPOILER ALERT! This seems to be the way it’s going. Actually, it is fun to speculate who is and who is not really a doll. It was a big surprise when Victor was first revealed to be one. I hope that Adelle, Topher, Boyd, and Ballard are not dolls. Actually, I don’t think any handlers are dolls. You don’t want a doll leading the dolls. The evidence is strong that the doc is one. We know Alpha, Echo, Sierra, Victor, and November are dolls. We’ve also met Mike for one episode.
In the 7th episode, “Echoes,” many of the characters were exposed to a drug that affected dolls & non-dolls differently. Non-dolls rather quickly began showing symptoms familiar to those of us who’ve studied up on psychedelic matters. The dolls’ responses took longer to manifest & appeared as memory glitches. Painful glitches; none of them giggled, but the non-dolls did.
Topher, Adelle, Boyd & Laurence Dominic had “non-doll” responses. Echo, November, Sierra & Victor had the bad trips. Doctor Saunders did not appear in the episode…
I think Joss Whedon said recently that not everybody is a doll! But there are obviously many mysteries remaining. (At least one more season’s worth?)
Awesome observation! That definitely points to Dr. Saunders being a doll. It’ll be interesting to find out the details of her situation, doll or not. I’ve heard speculation that Amy Acker isn’t a long-term character, I hope that she sticks around.
Even when we’ve managed to predict things on the show, it’s been presented well enough that I’m still entertained. Mellie for example, we knew from the get-go that she was probably a doll but they drug it out so long that I began to doubt myself. The “sleeper active” was a great way to present an otherwise predictable situation. Alpha’s presentation was pretty good as well; we’d all heard it was AT and the Kepler plot was a bit obvious but AT’s acting totally made up for it.
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? I seriously had no clue that anything was amiss with her until Dominick-in-Victor’s-body looked at her and said “Whiskey!” (Which gave me a serious mental double-take: “Waitamin… who’s Whiskey??”)
AT’s acting was so awesome that five minutes into meeting “Kepler”, he was such a weenie that I was doubting the intel. I couldn’t make up my mind if that was Alpha’s clever cover, or if he seriously was that much of a weenie.
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?
I’ve been trying to figure out how the characters fit into the Briar Rose story. The prince could be Ballard or Alpha… or… I think Echo telling Susan that Briar Rose dreamed the prince into being and saved herself is significant.
Also, the big steps on the stairs is still cracking me up.
In that case it’s pretty convenient that none of the three main dolls (Echo, Victor and Sierra) were in their pods while this was going on. Though what they are going to do with Victor now I really don’t know. Poor guy.
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? I suppose he (temporarily) cripples the dollhouse.
I don’t think he was trying to kill them, it was just a scary bit of dialogue that explained why all the dolls weren’t awakening amidst the action.
My theory as to what happens to Victor is that Dr. Saunders finds out that she’s Whiskey or something else unfortunate happens to her which makes her unsuitable to continue at her current position and Vic is the new doc. This also answers my previous idea about why Amy Acker has guest star status. This theory also assumes that the show continues for another season, which doesn’t look likely, unfortunately.
