(no subject)
For episode 11 I found the first half a bit slow-moving quite honestly. I got pretty bored with the scenes with Ballard, and found the guy Alpa was pretending to be very irritating to watch. I did think that the framing device of sleeping beauty was nicely done (especially as this episode made Ballard and his wish to be Caroline's white knight really obnoxious and single-minded when he just bypasses November in his heroic rescue attempt), but I wasn't all that invested in the plot with the little girl tbh. It felt kind of superfluous so I'd have preferred if they'd found some way to include the voice-overs without that whole plot. The Victor actor did an awesome job as Dominic though, I loved that scene!
But overall the episode didn't start getting good for me until Ballard got inside the Dollhouse. Really the episode was all about those last 10 minutes when Alpha appeared. His first appearance was unbelievably scary, I was totally cringing when poor Victor got his face slashed aww. Don't hurt Victor! And his scenes questioning Dr. Saunder's about examining him were sooooo creepy.
LOVED 12. All the background on Alpha's creation inside the dollhouse was creeeepy. His "do you understand hell now" as he ripped out the eyes eeek!
The reveal of Whiskey was handled well, and the idea of her and and Alpha being the serial killers on a crime spree unaware that they were actually dolls acting out a Natural Born Killers fantasy was awesome. In fact I loved all of the scenes with Amy Acker, and her final line "I know who I am" when she refuses to look up her original personality. They did a good job of humanising Topher as well, and he seemed to be personally affected by Dr.Saunders in some way/upset that she wouldn't look up who she originally was? I wondered why they weren't honouring the original contract there actually, perhaps they don't like to release the dolls when they've been damaged like she was as the original personality wouldn't be too impressed to wake up in that condition after the promises Adelle made
Was I the only one hoping that they would lose Caroline's computer disk though? I preferred her as Echo with all of the various imprints to make her stronger and better. It would be cooler if they had shattered the computer disk, and we then see Caroline emerging organically from Echo in future seasons with the whole idea of you can't wipe away a soul.
And it was a nice twist that Paul saved Mellie, although I still feel that plot was a little rushed. I just never brought that he cared about Mellie all that much compared to Caroline (whom he had never even met when he became so fixated on her, so if I'm supposed to ship them? I don't). If he really fallen in love with Mellie that would have made it a lot more poignant. But maybe rushing that was an inevitable consequence of only getting 13 episodes
And then episode 13 BLEW MY MIND! Fox must have been insane not to air that episode. It was the best of the season!!!
I really hope that Joss makes good use of every single episode in season 2 (apparently there will be 13) to start building to that future
The scene with Adelle and Topher broke my heart OMG! She seemed so motherly and concerned when she was trying to comfort him during his breakdown, and the way he was all "did I think of that" *dies* It makes me look at a lot of their past scenes again with a new light too (for instance when Adelle is watching Topher on the camera as he celebrates his birthday) as I never see them as all that close before, but now I'm really interested in seeing that develop
And squee at Dominic returning! And my Adelle love is not ending anytime soon! "Did I miss anything?" "Just the vodka thank god" I think that I kinda ship those two *sheepish*, even though there's not much chance of that happening with him being in the attic and all *g*
And Whiskey! Her first appearance was so haunting, and then it all ended up breaking my heart with her having lost her mind and repeating that she had to wait
And Ballard and Caroline working together in the future! I was really pleased that he was made her handler actually as when I first started watching I assumed that would be his role, the FBI hunt always felt kind of dull to me. I'm much more excited about getting to see him working alongside Echo from the inside