Dollhouse - Getting Closer
So…wordpress ate my Attic response. Pretty much I liked the episode, and am wondering what Adelle will do or has done to upset Echo enough to get Caroline convined to let her die. In more exciting news, I am watching this on the teevee! No, really!
This is probably the episode in which I’ve had the most strong feelings about Caroline, good and bad. She’s a good actress even as, well, Caroline. She’s well past Ballard’s point of no return, being willing to use sex against her enemies, but it seems she does have some reservations about using friendship. I’m glad Caroline wasn’t as much of a nasty person as Bennett thought she was. Her willingness to call herself a terrorist makes for a pretty intense moment, and suggests she’s been blowing stuff up for a while.
The Bennett and Caroline scenes are really tough to watch. First of all, Bennett is beautiful, so it’s hard to accept that “nobody’s ever taken an interest,” which means that she’s really always been damaged emotionally. Even knowing what Bennett will become, Caroline’s exploitation of such a lonely and vulnerable girl is completely heartbreaking. It’s hard to watch someone so unhappy and lonely be used by our hero, especially in such a blatantly titillating fashion. It does seem that the memory from Left Hand was perfectly true, as “I’m going to make sure it’s just me” was pretty quiet.
We get a really interesting picture of an Active’s perspective on selfhood versus everyone else’s. Ivy and topher think Echo’s not real, while Priya and Tony know differently. And yet the question isn’t about reality, it’s about if Caroline can be kept under control. Boyd seems to have thought so, as does Adelle, and now Echo agrees. Their plan is a little bit stupid, though. If they’re that worried, they should have imprinted another Doll with Caroline, one who could be properly wiped afterwards. It’s cruel to Caroline,but it’s a lot safer if they want to actually have a shot at the next stage of their plan.
In my DEAD AND EATEN Attic review I was hoping “at home” meant Saunders. Hooray! I half expected her to say she wasn’t afraid, now that you’re here, Boyd. But that’d be too easy, and it would remind us too overtly that this is still a relationship between a Handler and an Ative. I mean, even before we find out just how much power Boyd has over her. What specific use is she to him? I’d be so disappointed, more even than finding out he was the Big Bad, if he’s such a cold bastard he can manipulate an Active’s love for him, somehow.
I liked the Bennett/Topher romance a lot, but that’s mostly residual affection from episode 6, as well as the utter openness and sweetness both actors bring to the table. There just wasn’t time to get invested in the relationship. I’m glad they’re not playing it entirely straight, but instead drawing out the goofiness of two isolated people falling into each other’s arms rather than pretending love makes you graceful and wise.
This also seems like a good moment to say that the self-loathing nerdy Glau fanboys are probably going on and on about how weird it is that she gets with Topher of all people and to them I say: shut up, a lot. The most precious thing about this weird almost-relationship they have is that of two people whose existence revolves around exploitation and sexual abuse and manipulation and the use of power that one human being should never have over another, what they want, what they need, is something that can’t be given by themselves, is a true meeting of the minds. They work precisely because they can’t possibly be status symbols to one another, because they don’t belong to a world where status means anything, which means they know exactly how hollow that is. And also? Topher has sexual chemistry with just about every non-Active character he spends more than five minutes with. He is cute and funny and just short of incapable of lying, which means pretty much incapable of cheating, and interested in her as a person. And I’m not a huge Topher fangirl. I like him more than I used to since he grew a conscience, though. ALSO HE IS CUTE SHUT UP.
I love Bennett’s creepy music, which was perfect for the character and for her untimely end. I liked what we learned about Bennett - she seems to be the most morally flexible person in the show, including even Topher, which is seriously saying something. She works for Rossum because that’s what’s interesting, but if someone offers her something a little more attractive - friendship or love - she can be persuaded in a heartbeat. She’s dangerous. I like it.
All that said, the whole thing happens entirely too quickly for Bennett’s murder to have the intended emotional impact on me, which is a shame. Between the shock of Saunders whipping out the gun and the fact that we’ve just learned all of the sympathetic things we know about Bennett, it doesn’t sink in until Topher starts to lose it, and then there’s no time to grieve. Also, romance = immediate death doesn’t affect me like it should any more, because it is old. I don’t need a grieving almost-lover to break my heart in the event of death, and I always feel like a show is underestimating my ability to empathize with a character without one. This especially bothers me when it’s a dead lady, which it always is, because it’s almost like saying a woman’s death is irrelevant without a broken-hearted man (usually) to tell us it’s not. I will give it a couple of points for the way Topher clearly tells the audience what’s about to happen - he asks Bennett for more kissing if they prevent the end of the world, which we know they won’t; hence, no more kissing.
I’m expecting Evil Saunders to tell us something really big, but there are a few possibilities. It could be that Whiskey, having now gone for years without a treatment, is truly a broken doll, well before E1. The idea put forth by the cast that she’s a sleeper is attractive because it absolves both Saunders and Whiskey. It has two main counts against it: we’ve never seen a sleeper use a gun, or to converse so sweetly (or at all) with their intended targets. Neither of these two necessarily disproves the theory - sleepers could just be programmed to use the best practicable weapon, and neither Perrin nor Mellie had access to a gun, whereas Boyd could’ve slipped Whiskey one any time. She could have been triggered by her own words. Thematically, I like the idea of Saunders as a sleeper because the other Active/Handler relationship we’ve sen is Mellie/Paul, which is resurrected in this episode with Mellie coming back once Paul’s memories of loving Echo have been destroyed.
The idea that the unadulterated Saunders herself is behind the murder of Bennett doesn’t hold up much (or any) better, because Saunders has no motive that we know of. If she didn’t hate Topher enough to kill him, any of the times she had a clear chance, she probably doesn’t hate him enough to kill a bystander, unless there’s some hidden clause that Topher programmed her never to want to hut him either. Moreover, we know Saunders’ purpose in life and cold-blooded murder, especially of Dollhouse personnel, is outside her parameters. She should have neither the knowledge to fire a gun, nor the desire to go out and learn how.
The answer that makes the most sense is that Boyd, at some point, corrupted the imprint and added a parameter (maybe he’s had Topher’s non-chair wipe device made?), or, most interestingly, manipulated her into becoming a very different and much more desperate person (not unlike Alpha does to Paul). It doesn’t seem to be true that he wanted her to prevent Caroline’s return at any cost, or she’d have had to kill Topher, or at least take back the disk from him at gunpoint. Aside from which, Boyd could have erased Caroline’s personality at any time over the last year or so, so if that’s the motive then the murder just means showing more of his cards than he needs to, which doesn’t seem like him. For some specific reason, Bennett had to die for Boyd’s plan, whatever it is, to work.
Time to talk about the best twist ever! Because that was the BEST TWIST EVER. I didn’t see it coming and I loved it. It was pretty clear that the exec was going to be someone we knew, or otherwise it wouldn’t have been kept a secret from us, but I didn’t think it was particularly worthwhile to try to guess who it was (other than recognizing that Adelle and Ivy were probably red herrings). I love that even with my innate cynicism, even with how much I’ve thought about the show and how familiar I am with the ME story stucture, how much I don’t even like freaking Boyd, it can still surprise me. It’s possible, of course, though deeply unlikely that Boyd’s not the Big Bad either - that Atticed Clyde was lying. I don’t see any reason to believe that but it’s never been more clear that nothing is as it seems. What we do know for sure is that Boyd is not a Doll - we’ve known that since back in Echoes when he got all gigglefit at the drug.
What doesn’t make sense yet is why Caroline, in particular. All Boyd and Ambrose know of her is that she is brave, intelligent, and good at manipulation. There are lots of people who fit that description. At the time, we don’t know how or if they had no reason to believe Echo is any different. It will be disappointing if it’s a replay of Alpha, with Boyd telling us that he just somehow knew she was special. It is like the Alpha story in one other way, though - like the people he holds in such deep contempt, Boyd is at this point nothing more than a very specialized client.
I’ve also been reading Rossum wrong. It seemed like they were amoral, anything or a profit, but all this talk of The Future and recklessness with their tech suggests that Boyd actually wants to wreck the world and bring about the apocalypse. But the end of the world is not profitable. They’re just all-out evil. If he was just into making a profit and doing some cool stuff along the way, he’d be a lot more like Adelle. Not to mention, she didn’t start being special as a Doll until after he showed up. He could have been playing with the technology all along to see what he could do to her. Notably, he’s also been complicit in all kinds of incidents which have damaged the short-term prospects both for profit and scientific advancement. Topher meets no consequences for Nolan’s death.
How do we make sense of Boyd’s characterization up until now? His utter devotion to Echo’s well-being makes sense, as he would want to protect her. He doesn’t have to care about the rest of the Dolls. And wow, he really didn’t need that bonus. His constant ethical arguments, however, make little sense (except maybe as cover for his devotion to Echo?), as does the fact that he seems to have actually have solid cop skills. Was he having a crisis of conscience and decided to use Caroline to see how he felt?
There has been one very consistent clue, which I’ve noticed every time it’s been dropped, but feel very foolish for not having once recognized it for what it is, and that is how simply terrible Boyd is at his job as head of security, specifically because he is entirely too focused on Echo to be doing that job. At the time, it seemed strange to me that someone cold enough to be willing to kill for the Dollhouse could feel so strongly about someone he thinks is a blank Doll that he’s willing to gamble the safety of the house (meaning all of the other blank Dolls as well as the business itself) just so that he can keep a closer eye on her seemed ridiculous. I accepted that Rossum wanted the status quo, when actually, Boyd wants to move out of the status quo at breakneck speed, and sees Echo as the key to doing so. If that’s the case, all of his previous actions make sense. He doesn’t care about the safety of his house because soon enough the houses will cease to be relevant, and of course it makes sense that Echo would be his all-encompassing priority. And how much do I love that the show has made itself totally clear that the guy who says he’s protecting you for your own good is absolutely not to be trusted? So, so much, that is how much.
I also wish I could rewatch Spy now. Boyd is the second Head of Security with an agenda towards controlling the House’s technology, and just like Dom, he’s the last person you’d suspect of doing so. I remember being very dissatisfied with Dominic as the only mole, because of the way Echo’s additional imprints gave away too much information. In this case though, now that we know Boyd has an out-of-control agenda and knows a great deal more than he lets on about programming, I wonder if Boyd didn’t want Ballard getting into the Dollhouse for some reason, and set up Dominic as his fall guy? I don’t know why he’d want Ballard there, but it does make that particular dangling thread from s1 make sense, which I like.
I think we can pretty much safely discount Adelle having any knowledge of Boyd’s true identity. Even assuming he wanted a resistance group to spring up for some reason, I can’t imagine her behaving for her boss the way she talks and acts in front of Boyd, and of course there’s nobody else in the office to be showing off for when she sends him off to draw fire. I don’t think Saunders knows, either, though of course her desire for more time could reflect having been in on the apocalypse planning and not being too wild about the end of the world.
Wow. Normally I do a rewatch before I post, but this monster is 2500 words long. This is a truly impressive episode, for all of this to happen in 45 minutes and remain staggeringly interesting and entertaining. I love it. Well done, Minear & co.
Deep Thoughts
- She can kill you with her brain. And then, appropriately, she gets killed in the brain.
- The doll being treated in the shot is Victor.
- Getting a roomie. Heh.
- Adelle is really fantastic in this episode. She’d rather people have their own personalities, but reason always, always before honor.
- What’s weirdly breaking my heart right now is Stop Loss, and remembering how Boyd gave Tony his money and papers and freedom, knowing he’d sold him into a permanent loss of self. How much of a cold bastard? Such a cold bastard.
- I was also saying in my lost and mourned Attic review about how it would’ve been too banal and obvious for them to ahve taken away Paul’s love for Echo. But, well.
- I loved all of the foreshadowing, when Caroline tells Bennett to get in the chair for her treatment. It’s obvious but it works.