Dollhouse 2x07: Meet Jane Doe and 2x08: A Love Supreme
So, when Joss said he wasn't going to hold back, I didn't realise we were going to skip to S5 just like that. I mean, who flashes forward three months? It worked just about, but everyone went through three months of character progression completely randomly, which was surreal as hell. And what's up with Adelle?? She must have a scheme, surely??
I'm not sure what else to say about the actual content, because the main thing I was struck by was just how mad the episode was. Poor Galena's storyline seemed to prove to me how much Echo's obsession with helping people is really not always in their best interests. (Maybe she got her out eventually, but when exactly was it that she learned the English she spoke in her last sequence with Paul and Echo - also, three months in prison at Echo's expense was probably not at all enjoyable or necessary. Plus, there's nothing to say that she won't get picked up a month down the road with her fake ID.)
Paul is still being a loser fancying the Caroline he can save above all else, though perhaps it is a little reasonable that he doesn't fancy the massive number of personalities in Echo's head. It can't be 100% about her body then, which is better than nothing.
Hooray for Ivy being back! Not digging the Ivy-Topher-Bennett love triangle, but I'd love Bennett and Ivy to interact at some point. Poor, poor, poor, poor Topher. I'm a little worried there's a part of me that loves Adelle's betrayal, because it's almost the just deserts for seeing Adelle as a mother-figure necessarily since she's a middle-aged woman, but at the same time what the hell's going on?? Why is Adelle suddenly channelling Spike in a sort of Angelus-esque character transplant? Confusion abounds my end, so on with the next episode.
... Oh noes - I don't think I liked it. :(
Sorry, that's completely out of the blue. But, yeah. What's with the sudden Echo/Ballard 4 evs? Where's the payoff for Adelle going insane? We've gone straight to self-preservation and bargaining, fine, but without even a by-your-leave? And did I miss why Alpha just left? What happened to my Dollhouse? I feel like this was an episode from another show.
I'm irrationally bummed out and can't think of anything else to say. I'll be thinking this over. May be back later.
Yeah.
ETA: All right, so I'm back. And here's what I'm trying to work out - why can't Joss let characters die without someone becoming their significant other, if only over the course of an episode (because, maybe it's just me, but the relationship they had here was not the relationship they had earlier in the season - though of course Echo apparently became a cohesive personality when I wasn't looking too; and here was me thinking that process was the story rather than a complete sideline to The Plan of Doom). It's like death in the Jossverse is measured completely through it's reactions in others rather than our own emotions. It's like Ballard's "death" couldn't have been significant unless Echo became his weeping vengeful lesbian lover wife girlfriend person. Because when it first happened, I loved it - it felt like something really interesting was happening. It wasn't an episode ender, it was in the middle, and a character that was just doing his thing whom no one really liked. It felt important to the story as a whole. And then Echo got her limit break and it was like every other dead lover plot there's been, shipped in for a bit of pathos before the show goes off air, because it's not a show until somebody dies and somebody grieves. When did Ballard become the hero of this piece???
I'm not sure what else to say about the actual content, because the main thing I was struck by was just how mad the episode was. Poor Galena's storyline seemed to prove to me how much Echo's obsession with helping people is really not always in their best interests. (Maybe she got her out eventually, but when exactly was it that she learned the English she spoke in her last sequence with Paul and Echo - also, three months in prison at Echo's expense was probably not at all enjoyable or necessary. Plus, there's nothing to say that she won't get picked up a month down the road with her fake ID.)
Paul is still being a loser fancying the Caroline he can save above all else, though perhaps it is a little reasonable that he doesn't fancy the massive number of personalities in Echo's head. It can't be 100% about her body then, which is better than nothing.
Hooray for Ivy being back! Not digging the Ivy-Topher-Bennett love triangle, but I'd love Bennett and Ivy to interact at some point. Poor, poor, poor, poor Topher. I'm a little worried there's a part of me that loves Adelle's betrayal, because it's almost the just deserts for seeing Adelle as a mother-figure necessarily since she's a middle-aged woman, but at the same time what the hell's going on?? Why is Adelle suddenly channelling Spike in a sort of Angelus-esque character transplant? Confusion abounds my end, so on with the next episode.
... Oh noes - I don't think I liked it. :(
Sorry, that's completely out of the blue. But, yeah. What's with the sudden Echo/Ballard 4 evs? Where's the payoff for Adelle going insane? We've gone straight to self-preservation and bargaining, fine, but without even a by-your-leave? And did I miss why Alpha just left? What happened to my Dollhouse? I feel like this was an episode from another show.
I'm irrationally bummed out and can't think of anything else to say. I'll be thinking this over. May be back later.
Yeah.
ETA: All right, so I'm back. And here's what I'm trying to work out - why can't Joss let characters die without someone becoming their significant other, if only over the course of an episode (because, maybe it's just me, but the relationship they had here was not the relationship they had earlier in the season - though of course Echo apparently became a cohesive personality when I wasn't looking too; and here was me thinking that process was the story rather than a complete sideline to The Plan of Doom). It's like death in the Jossverse is measured completely through it's reactions in others rather than our own emotions. It's like Ballard's "death" couldn't have been significant unless Echo became his weeping vengeful lesbian lover wife girlfriend person. Because when it first happened, I loved it - it felt like something really interesting was happening. It wasn't an episode ender, it was in the middle, and a character that was just doing his thing whom no one really liked. It felt important to the story as a whole. And then Echo got her limit break and it was like every other dead lover plot there's been, shipped in for a bit of pathos before the show goes off air, because it's not a show until somebody dies and somebody grieves. When did Ballard become the hero of this piece???