geeks: first they get your brains, then they get into your pants
So, this isn't exactly something I should post here, but it doesn't belong just in my journal, so again, please forgive if this isn't what you're looking for tonight. Again, this was written for a challenge at whedonland, which asked to study something that failed or died (like all the shows Whedon has created.)
As one last note, this essay does include spoilers from tonight's finale, so please for the love of Joss, don't read if you haven't watched the end. The actual purpose was to examine Topher's love life as a doomed aspect of Dollhouse
And with that...
The socially awkward lab technician should, under normal television tropes, be the one to end a series alone and sexually frustrated. However, because this is Joss’ world, the geek shall inherit plenty of tail. In Dollhouse’s short run, Topher Brink has managed to find himself involved with two women, who ultimately battle each other for his affection. Although, Topher had a love/hate relationship with Claire Saunders, his relationship with Bennett was ultimately doomed because of his previous relationship.
As the first season of the show ended, Topher managed to transform himself from a social outcast only interested in the technology, to a boy trying to find acceptance and finally into a man who had a strange and frantic relationship with someone who he had designed to hate him. All of those moments (spaced out through the first thirteen episodes), defined Topher not as the all knowing tech god, but as a man who is still struggling to find himself. However, in his brief moment with his imprinted friend, it was clear that he was capable of good social skills. That moment when he finally understands what he had done to Dr. Saunders opened his eyes to some of the ramifications of his job.
When the second season opened, there were more overt hints about the ways in which Topher continued to show his stunted and awkward reaction to Dr. Saunders. Shocked reactions to Saunders’ advances only demonstrated his inability to understand others. By the time that Bennett Halverson entered into his mind (as more than just a name with a skillset), he tried to be different than he had been with Saunders. The result was a series of missteps and more than a few painful moments when she was brought back into the fold of the LA House.
After resolving the missteps that had previously defined the relationship between Bennett and Topher, the pair worked together to try and counteract the proliferation of the technology Topher created. In the process, however, Saunders was reintroduced and her love and hatred of Topher made it impossible for her to do anything else but kill his new love. Despite the fact that she’d fallen for Boyd (which while never explained must have been serious if it started somewhere after she left the House and before she returned later.) His happiness with another woman must have been part of his program for her (also creepy on his part if he loved her so much that she had to hate him and still protect him from any other woman who might worm her way into his heart.)
Bennett’s murder killed the relationship in the physical sense, but it was not forgotten. Much can be said of Topher’s fractured state in the future, though; his relationship with Adelle and his memories of Bennett remained in tact (and the fact that his love for Bennett still survived ten years and all of the psychological torture he was subjected to via those men in Rossum is laudible.) His creature comforts, those toys in the pod, as well as the pod itself along with even a digital copy of his true love were the saving grace against the technology he created as Rossum’s directive.
As one last note, this essay does include spoilers from tonight's finale, so please for the love of Joss, don't read if you haven't watched the end. The actual purpose was to examine Topher's love life as a doomed aspect of Dollhouse
And with that...
The socially awkward lab technician should, under normal television tropes, be the one to end a series alone and sexually frustrated. However, because this is Joss’ world, the geek shall inherit plenty of tail. In Dollhouse’s short run, Topher Brink has managed to find himself involved with two women, who ultimately battle each other for his affection. Although, Topher had a love/hate relationship with Claire Saunders, his relationship with Bennett was ultimately doomed because of his previous relationship.
As the first season of the show ended, Topher managed to transform himself from a social outcast only interested in the technology, to a boy trying to find acceptance and finally into a man who had a strange and frantic relationship with someone who he had designed to hate him. All of those moments (spaced out through the first thirteen episodes), defined Topher not as the all knowing tech god, but as a man who is still struggling to find himself. However, in his brief moment with his imprinted friend, it was clear that he was capable of good social skills. That moment when he finally understands what he had done to Dr. Saunders opened his eyes to some of the ramifications of his job.
When the second season opened, there were more overt hints about the ways in which Topher continued to show his stunted and awkward reaction to Dr. Saunders. Shocked reactions to Saunders’ advances only demonstrated his inability to understand others. By the time that Bennett Halverson entered into his mind (as more than just a name with a skillset), he tried to be different than he had been with Saunders. The result was a series of missteps and more than a few painful moments when she was brought back into the fold of the LA House.
After resolving the missteps that had previously defined the relationship between Bennett and Topher, the pair worked together to try and counteract the proliferation of the technology Topher created. In the process, however, Saunders was reintroduced and her love and hatred of Topher made it impossible for her to do anything else but kill his new love. Despite the fact that she’d fallen for Boyd (which while never explained must have been serious if it started somewhere after she left the House and before she returned later.) His happiness with another woman must have been part of his program for her (also creepy on his part if he loved her so much that she had to hate him and still protect him from any other woman who might worm her way into his heart.)
Bennett’s murder killed the relationship in the physical sense, but it was not forgotten. Much can be said of Topher’s fractured state in the future, though; his relationship with Adelle and his memories of Bennett remained in tact (and the fact that his love for Bennett still survived ten years and all of the psychological torture he was subjected to via those men in Rossum is laudible.) His creature comforts, those toys in the pod, as well as the pod itself along with even a digital copy of his true love were the saving grace against the technology he created as Rossum’s directive.