Frak !!!
Someone has watched too much Battlestar Galactica ! Tim Minear and Joss gave us a twist-fest yesterday with the 11th episode of Dollhouse.
I wouldn't say that it was the best episode ever, but it was well done. There was good lines and the whole thing was very Joss-like.
I liked the bittersweet way they did a cast reunion. So Dr Saunders pulled a Boomer on us when shooting Bennet. Later I wanted to say "And Boyd turns to be Ellen!" or something like that-- even though young Clyde was actually the FIFTH in the flashback!-- BSG connections aside, Saunders shooting Bennet in the head was shocking and it was perfect. I loved it and I loved the following scenes with Topher: Adelle being motherly with him was a nice echo to "Epitaph One", the blood splatters on the screen, and how Topher sent Ivy away because her brain needed to stay in her head. Topher's journey has become one of the best things on Dollhouse. Claire killing Bennet was also a relief because I wasn't too fond of the geeky flirt between Topher and Bennet, except for Topher's confessing about crushing on her even when he thought she was a dude.
I liked the usual winks and sci-fi references (either in scenes or in lines like Topher mentioning Tron and The Matrix), and that Topher called Adelle their general (season 7 Buffy anyone?). I also liked that Paul rescued Madeline and realised he let her walked away and hadn't thought about her whereabouts after the airport scene. About time!
I didn't like the reveal about what he had lost when Topher rebuilt his brain though. It was such a faux suspens, so obvious and sort of lame. On the other hand it gave Ivy's line "Caroline is gone" a new meaning. If Paul's obsession over Caroline is gone(sorry I don't buy his connection to Echo, I always thought that Paul was in love with a fantasy girl named Caroline and that his pairing with Echo was, to him, just a way to get to the woman of his dreams, so basically he used Echo as much as he helped her), it could lead to a new interest for November/Mellie...which would probably sign her death warrant! Given that November was not in "Epitaph One"I can totally see Mellie sacrificing herself to save Paul in the next episode.
As for the big final reveal about the head of Rossum. It shouldn't have been surprising yet it was. That's how Whedon and his team are good, much better than so many Hollywood people who can't write a real twist.
We've always known that Boyd had a secret agenda, we had always wondered about his backstory, but time has passed, the writers were patient and we sort of forgot it until recently. We even "forgot" that he was neither in the Dollhouse with the other characters nor with Caroline and Paul in "Epitaph One" and that they didn't mention him (they mentioned November but not Boyd!).
Boyd's behaviour has been darker in season 2, especially in "Belonging", which should have clued us in; in "The Attic" Echo's vision of his evil laughing should have let us guess he was the mastermind, but we didn't believe it, it was only her fears after all. We didn't see the truth that was before our eyes because we wanted to be fooled. And in this episode, Minear, like a good magician, distracted our attention, gave us the Boyd/Claire romance as a diversion, as if Boyd's storyline now just revolved around his feelings for both Claire and Echo, so we didn't see the last twist coming in: that's the Prestige!
Even when Boyd showed up and snapped the neck of the Rossum guy who had knocked Topher out, we didn't want to believe that it was odd and that he shouldn't be there! We wanted him to be a knight in armour coming back for his surrogate daughter and saving the day! In spite of all the clues, the final reveal remained powerful which says a lot about the quality of the Mutant Enemy writers.
Yet it had to be Boyd. It was necessarily someone we already knew and it couldn't be Adelle. For along time I had thought that there would be a big reveal about Paul's backstory but they didn't choose that path (probably too complicated), and for a little while I thought that Caroline was already mind-wipped in the flashbacks, or rather that Caroline was just an imprint not the original persona, a bit like with Senator Perrin being an altered imprint of himself ; I also thought that Echo's body was actually the vessel chosen by the head of Rossum before he/she decided to go "undercover" as Caroline --I had that theory because of the scene in "Epitath One" showing that the Rossum leaders used dolls as vessel (Victor had been picked in the scene in question)--so, after The Attic, I toyed with the idea that Caroline knew who the head was because Caroline was the head and Echo would find it out eventually, in a final twist Prisoner style!
But Boyd works too.
We definitely need more stuff to connect the dots and avoid plotholes, but I think that Boyd had been running a little experiment of his own, and that, not only Caroline/Echo, but the whole L.A Dollhouse too has been his pet project. For instance he must be the one who programmed Claire Saunders to hate Topher(Topher claimed he didn't do it), a hatred that led her to hurt him by shooting Bennet. I think he also used Mr Dominic(btw he must have allowed his escape from the attic), and he is the one who sent messages to Paul Ballard through Echo and November. I think he also played Adelle and Topher more than once. He is the mastermind and they have all been his pawns and puppets.
I wonder about Alpha though? Was the Alpha mess part of Boyd's plan(poor poor Whiskey/Claire if it is true) or has Alpha really become a wild card? Methinks he is a wild card, but who knows...
Of course there's still the question of Boyd's motives and real goal(is it really what we saw in "Epitaph One"?). Besides it's obvious that there's a parallel going on between Caroline and him. The way he manipulated everyone (Clyde, Echo...)echoed the way Caroline manipulated Bennet, befriending her, making her trust her...with her life!
If Caroline is evil, Boyd might be too...but she isn't that bad, and I have the feeling that it's more complicated. Perhaps Boyd did think he'd been doing something right, perhaps he does care for the people he has been manipulating/using, just like Caroline, just like everyone else on the show(Adelle, Paul etc).
I don't think that Claire was sent by Boyd to kill Bennet and therefore prevent the return of Caroline, it rather seemed like a coincidence; besides it happened too late, Topher already knew enough to finish the job. The trigger was that Claire finally found out what would really hurt Topher as she had just witnessed the way he behaved with Bennet and concluded he was in love, so she shot Bennet in the head in front of Topher. On the other hand she's a doctor and came with a gun at hand...
So perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps that Boyd programmed Claire to kill Bennet (the Boyd/Claire pairing echoing the Perrin fake couple now!), thus trying to prevent Echo from knowing the true part he played in the whole thing...unless he's just playing with Topher's fragile mind. Poor Topher, we already knew he was doomed but it doesn't diminish the tragic journey of the guy who could have been saved by love but lost it as soon as he had found it.
The other possiblity is that Whiskey/Saunders was triggered as a sleeper agent by the other half of Rossum (let's call them Clyde's agents if they exist, unless it's more complicated and Boyd was the original founder but no longer rules the company), which would put her in the middle of an epic fight.
So many possibilities and only two episodes to go!
ETA: I forgot to post the link explaining the origins of the name Rossum. In the episode Clyde mentioned that it came from a play and here it is. It's probably old news for many viewers but I hadn't googled the Rossum name until today!
I wouldn't say that it was the best episode ever, but it was well done. There was good lines and the whole thing was very Joss-like.
I liked the bittersweet way they did a cast reunion. So Dr Saunders pulled a Boomer on us when shooting Bennet. Later I wanted to say "And Boyd turns to be Ellen!" or something like that-- even though young Clyde was actually the FIFTH in the flashback!-- BSG connections aside, Saunders shooting Bennet in the head was shocking and it was perfect. I loved it and I loved the following scenes with Topher: Adelle being motherly with him was a nice echo to "Epitaph One", the blood splatters on the screen, and how Topher sent Ivy away because her brain needed to stay in her head. Topher's journey has become one of the best things on Dollhouse. Claire killing Bennet was also a relief because I wasn't too fond of the geeky flirt between Topher and Bennet, except for Topher's confessing about crushing on her even when he thought she was a dude.
I liked the usual winks and sci-fi references (either in scenes or in lines like Topher mentioning Tron and The Matrix), and that Topher called Adelle their general (season 7 Buffy anyone?). I also liked that Paul rescued Madeline and realised he let her walked away and hadn't thought about her whereabouts after the airport scene. About time!
I didn't like the reveal about what he had lost when Topher rebuilt his brain though. It was such a faux suspens, so obvious and sort of lame. On the other hand it gave Ivy's line "Caroline is gone" a new meaning. If Paul's obsession over Caroline is gone(sorry I don't buy his connection to Echo, I always thought that Paul was in love with a fantasy girl named Caroline and that his pairing with Echo was, to him, just a way to get to the woman of his dreams, so basically he used Echo as much as he helped her), it could lead to a new interest for November/Mellie...which would probably sign her death warrant! Given that November was not in "Epitaph One"I can totally see Mellie sacrificing herself to save Paul in the next episode.
As for the big final reveal about the head of Rossum. It shouldn't have been surprising yet it was. That's how Whedon and his team are good, much better than so many Hollywood people who can't write a real twist.
We've always known that Boyd had a secret agenda, we had always wondered about his backstory, but time has passed, the writers were patient and we sort of forgot it until recently. We even "forgot" that he was neither in the Dollhouse with the other characters nor with Caroline and Paul in "Epitaph One" and that they didn't mention him (they mentioned November but not Boyd!).
Boyd's behaviour has been darker in season 2, especially in "Belonging", which should have clued us in; in "The Attic" Echo's vision of his evil laughing should have let us guess he was the mastermind, but we didn't believe it, it was only her fears after all. We didn't see the truth that was before our eyes because we wanted to be fooled. And in this episode, Minear, like a good magician, distracted our attention, gave us the Boyd/Claire romance as a diversion, as if Boyd's storyline now just revolved around his feelings for both Claire and Echo, so we didn't see the last twist coming in: that's the Prestige!
Even when Boyd showed up and snapped the neck of the Rossum guy who had knocked Topher out, we didn't want to believe that it was odd and that he shouldn't be there! We wanted him to be a knight in armour coming back for his surrogate daughter and saving the day! In spite of all the clues, the final reveal remained powerful which says a lot about the quality of the Mutant Enemy writers.
Yet it had to be Boyd. It was necessarily someone we already knew and it couldn't be Adelle. For along time I had thought that there would be a big reveal about Paul's backstory but they didn't choose that path (probably too complicated), and for a little while I thought that Caroline was already mind-wipped in the flashbacks, or rather that Caroline was just an imprint not the original persona, a bit like with Senator Perrin being an altered imprint of himself ; I also thought that Echo's body was actually the vessel chosen by the head of Rossum before he/she decided to go "undercover" as Caroline --I had that theory because of the scene in "Epitath One" showing that the Rossum leaders used dolls as vessel (Victor had been picked in the scene in question)--so, after The Attic, I toyed with the idea that Caroline knew who the head was because Caroline was the head and Echo would find it out eventually, in a final twist Prisoner style!
But Boyd works too.
We definitely need more stuff to connect the dots and avoid plotholes, but I think that Boyd had been running a little experiment of his own, and that, not only Caroline/Echo, but the whole L.A Dollhouse too has been his pet project. For instance he must be the one who programmed Claire Saunders to hate Topher(Topher claimed he didn't do it), a hatred that led her to hurt him by shooting Bennet. I think he also used Mr Dominic(btw he must have allowed his escape from the attic), and he is the one who sent messages to Paul Ballard through Echo and November. I think he also played Adelle and Topher more than once. He is the mastermind and they have all been his pawns and puppets.
I wonder about Alpha though? Was the Alpha mess part of Boyd's plan(poor poor Whiskey/Claire if it is true) or has Alpha really become a wild card? Methinks he is a wild card, but who knows...
Of course there's still the question of Boyd's motives and real goal(is it really what we saw in "Epitaph One"?). Besides it's obvious that there's a parallel going on between Caroline and him. The way he manipulated everyone (Clyde, Echo...)echoed the way Caroline manipulated Bennet, befriending her, making her trust her...with her life!
If Caroline is evil, Boyd might be too...but she isn't that bad, and I have the feeling that it's more complicated. Perhaps Boyd did think he'd been doing something right, perhaps he does care for the people he has been manipulating/using, just like Caroline, just like everyone else on the show(Adelle, Paul etc).
I don't think that Claire was sent by Boyd to kill Bennet and therefore prevent the return of Caroline, it rather seemed like a coincidence; besides it happened too late, Topher already knew enough to finish the job. The trigger was that Claire finally found out what would really hurt Topher as she had just witnessed the way he behaved with Bennet and concluded he was in love, so she shot Bennet in the head in front of Topher. On the other hand she's a doctor and came with a gun at hand...
So perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps that Boyd programmed Claire to kill Bennet (the Boyd/Claire pairing echoing the Perrin fake couple now!), thus trying to prevent Echo from knowing the true part he played in the whole thing...unless he's just playing with Topher's fragile mind. Poor Topher, we already knew he was doomed but it doesn't diminish the tragic journey of the guy who could have been saved by love but lost it as soon as he had found it.
The other possiblity is that Whiskey/Saunders was triggered as a sleeper agent by the other half of Rossum (let's call them Clyde's agents if they exist, unless it's more complicated and Boyd was the original founder but no longer rules the company), which would put her in the middle of an epic fight.
So many possibilities and only two episodes to go!
ETA: I forgot to post the link explaining the origins of the name Rossum. In the episode Clyde mentioned that it came from a play and here it is. It's probably old news for many viewers but I hadn't googled the Rossum name until today!