Comments on: I Like My Scars: The Dollhouse Recaps Begin

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:42:08 +0000

When can we expect more Dollhouse recaps from you, Sady? I am curious what you thought of the ending.

By: DavidC

DavidC — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:41:33 +0000

@LSG (etc.):
I was strongly under the impression that Echo now always remembers her assignments after she’s been wiped, and Ballard knows it. This particular time, the only thing that was different is she decided to act on what she remembered, not so much because she was a mother but because she’d been ripped away from the assignment, that the situation wasn’t finished playing out.

I think it’s later that we find out, but we know now that Echo mostly remembers things with her notebook. (Which is a neat part of the agency metaphor– the kind of effort that developing agency takes.) Would she have had a chance to put the relevant memories in the notebook? I doubt it.

Hehe, Ballardettes.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:12:10 +0000

I maintain that Ballard has ALWAYS been the creepiest character on the show. His weird Caroline-rescue obsession was prominent all through season 1.
I think Topher is meant to never be taken too seriously, so we won’t be surprised when he screws something up (a la Epitaph One). He also never really thinks about the consequences of what he’s doing because he is too interested on the “how” of it all, whereas Ballard knows he’s using Echo in his own weird fantasy.

By: whatsername

whatsername — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:58:02 +0000

While I had mixed feelings about “Instinct” my understanding is that this whole season is basically revolving around “Epitaph One” (read that in an interview somewhere with Joss) and in that context I think the idea that Topher would start messing around not just with the brain but with other processes of the body was important. Was it the best storyline within which for him to do that? I dunno, like I said, mixed feelings, but there were a couple things I liked about it, as others noted: the ending.

Neither of the first ep’s were spectacular but you hit on two of the three things that have me pretty much riveted: Claire and Echo and their development of agency. But also, how did we get to the state of the world in Epitaph One? Because I think that’s what this season is building to.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:14:10 +0000

@Mr_Subjunctive – I liked season 7 of Buffy an awful lot, although I felt like the parts (episodes) were greater than the whole. I also liked season 6, even though I thought the magical addiction was heavyhanded. But Angel season 4 makes my brain leak out my ears. I’ve been driving a semi truck through its incomprehensible plot holes for years now, trying to make sense of it all, and I will take endless Buffy speeches over Connor angst any day.

Not to turn this into a derail about non-Dollhouse Whedon shows – I was just really surprised that Sady picked on Angel season 1 out of all the choices!

By: mr_subjunctive

mr_subjunctive — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:17:44 +0000

@Brooke:

It was Angel season 4 that was the worst season of anything Whedon has ever done!

Are you forgetting the second half of Buffy 6, with the raping and the magic addiction and the endless Buffy speeches about not being able to see Spike anymore because she was just using him?

Or for that matter, Buffy 7, with the endless Buffy speeches about needing to cowboy up and fight the good fight even though it was hard?

Angel 4 was a mess, true, but c’mon.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:32:14 +0000

I read it as LSG did too, I’ve pretty much been taking Topher not-very-seriously each time he explains what’s going on. Because he’s operating from assumptions that aren’t true, and the audience knows that they’re not true. Epitaph One really demonstrated that he has no handle on this technology.

And I have to say, I really liked season 1 of Angel! It was Angel season 4 that was the worst season of anything Whedon has ever done!

By: muz

muz — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 23:32:53 +0000

LSG, I saw it the way you did.

By: LSG

LSG — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:31:12 +0000

Oh dear, perhaps I was trying too hard to see this in a feminist light. I didn’t like “Instinct,” but I thought that they were deliberately trying to show that (as Napthia9 says) Topher doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I was strongly under the impression that Echo now always remembers her assignments after she’s been wiped, and Ballard knows it. This particular time, the only thing that was different is she decided to act on what she remembered, not so much because she was a mother but because she’d been ripped away from the assignment, that the situation wasn’t finished playing out. Importantly, I thought Ballard was saying “GLANDS DID IT” not because the glands actually did it but because he was trying to cover up the fact that she was remembering, as she always remembers.

My optimistic feminist reading was that the show was trying to call attention to the fact that everybody, especially Topher, was quick to believe that a woman was controlled entirely by her body (especially, of course, her breasts), her mommy instincts, and by the men who programmed said breasts. Their essentialism made them totally miss the fact that she has a mind and is becoming an aware, dangerous force they can’t control. So yeah, I saw it as harking back to the false-consciousness idea than actually being essentialist. But perhaps I’m indulging my optimism too far.

By: Aeryl

Aeryl — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:12:59 +0000

Totally with you on Instinct, Sady.

I was all screaming when I saw the preview after Vows. “OH YEA! ANOTHER SHOW BOUT WOMENZ AND THEIR INABILITY TO BE REASONABLE ABOUT THE BABIEEZ!”

But I actually liked how it ended, aside from the boring claptrap about not knowing how much you value something until it’s taken from you, because Echo reasoned her way out of her maniacal motherhood. Which is actually the exact opposite of the setup, at least to me.