Synopsis: Awakening within the Dollhouse, with large parts of their original personalities having returned, Echo, Sierra and Victor plan an escape.
It hasn’t started yet, but I’m really excited!
Great start. I’m definitely seeing ‘echoes’ of “Spin the Bottle” from Angel.
Victor: We’re all gonna die.
Oooh, such a switch ending. Joss, you magnificent bastard. 
I’m really hoping that there’s some way to get this show a second season now.
Hrmph. I was pretty disappointed at minute 20 or so when we found out the whole thing was planned in advance by the head woman and tech guy. And the “we rigged their brain to release a narcotic when they felt feeling of closure” has to be one of the worst hand-waving explanations ever.
I know someone says this every week, but I have to say I’m losing patience with this show. I guess they can’t advance the main plot too fast, but the side plots just aren’t cutting it for me.
So, was Mike’s need met? Or was he just involved because he slept in their room?
I think Mike was involved so that they other four would see someone get a treatment and what that meant, prompting them to decide that they had to risk attempting an escape rather than continuing to blend in and see what happened.
Mike needed a sauna.
As typical for Joss-verse, the secondary characters are way more compelling than the putative lead. Caroline comes off as a very cranky Faith, but Sierra and Mellie evoke more interest, for me anyhow.
He’s a plot device, so the main characters can learn what the Dollhouse does(wiping your memories).
I really like Victor, Sierra, and Helo’s girlfriend wayyyyyyyy more than Echo/Caroline.
Victor should be the main character.
There’s actually a lot going on with the main and side plots. You may notice them upon repeated viewings, or when the DVD set comes out. So far the pacing has been on par with or, in some cases, far more accelerated than Angel / Buffy. When I watched those on DVD, the pacing seemed almost too quick because I wasn’t waiting a week between each episode.
In the case of Buffy, the first 12 episode season did very little in the way of advancing the overall story… . it was largely formulaic “monster of the week” plots. For me, the first 13 episode season of Dollhouse is moving the plot on pace with a regular 22 episode season of Angel or Buffy.
I think that, based on tonight’s episode, we can rule out Amy Acker’s character as the mole. I am thinking more and more that it is DeWitt. We may find out for sure next week, but probably not.
What, just because Doctor Saunders (Acker) suggested the closure scam? Do you think it necessarily works counter to the mole’s agenda? I’m not so sure. We know that Echo had a chance to make contact with the FBI guy again. Did we see how she got his contact information, exactly??
She was looking at his file when the power went out.
And that’s the thing I like - they ‘think’ they are in control of the actives - but I’ll bet Topher had to change his undies - no way they could have prepared for the shooting - otherwise they would have had blanks - and I’m pretty sure that one handler was retired.
I have to disagree. I thought the explanation was pretty clever.
You knew that Dewitt would not just let the Dolls run around the Dollhouse like that unless she had a plan. I spent the whole episode trying to figure out what it would be and the closure explanation makes sense to me. As an added bonus it also told us a little more about the real people behind the actives.
First time I’ve seen the show, so was totally lost. Pacing was weird, not at all a normal plot scheme, so, of course I watched for the novelty. Very disturbing, and cold, and had the effect of giving me some bad dreams. Artistically, that’s a good thing, to affect the brainpan to that degree.
So, I’ve been trying to catch up on the plot, and curve of the show, online. I’ll watch it again, because it’s really different, but, the coldness/aloof tenor I’ll have to work at to like the show. There wasn’t any hook to have me care about any of the characters, and maybe that’s the point, but, something is missing.
First time I’ve seen the show, so was totally lost. Pacing was weird, not at all a normal plot scheme, so, of course I watched for the novelty. Very disturbing, and cold, and had the effect of giving me some bad dreams. Artistically, that’s a good thing, to affect the brainpan to that degree.
So, I’ve been trying to catch up on the plot, and curve of the show, online. I’ll watch it again, because it’s really different, but, the coldness/aloof tenor I’ll have to work at to like the show. There wasn’t any hook to have me care about any of the characters, and maybe that’s the point, but, something is missing.
That doublepost was trying to edit the first one… WTF.???..Great, now I’m all paranoid due to this show. Bad dreams again tonight.
Yep, pretty cold indeed and perverse as I am, I am enjoying how the writers manage to keep that Whedonesque thing going of screwing around fairly cleverly with audience expectations, like the setup (and apparent knockdown, for the moment) of Amy Acker’s character as the mole.
Some things about this ep bugged the hell out of me, however. Most of the scenes with Penikett (Ballard), particularly the dream-sequence opener, fell flat, IMO; Dushku’s supposedly fundamental identity as ‘Caroline’ is trite, cartoonish and uninteresting; and the final scenes with their syrupy music came off as pretentious and maudlin.
Nevertheless, from a plotting standpoint I pretty much dug it. At this point it has become clear that one of the major influences on story (and maybe for the production design as well) is that late ‘60s cult classic The Prisoner. There even seems to be a “Who is Number One?” plot line a-comin’ somewhere down the line.
Oh, and I’m more and more impressed with Miracle Laurie (Mellie/November) as this show goes on. She gets my personal vote as “person we’d most like to see as lead instead of Dushku”.
So, not my favorite ep, but I’ll join in to say I hope this gets picked up for a second season.
Note that Boyd identifies with the Actives now. And we’ve met Tango & Mike.