Dollhouse versus Dollhouse
Dec. 4th, 2009 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogueslayer452OH MY FRAKKING GOD.
This was a two-parter, but to me it felt like one huge two hour episode. And it was absolutely fantastic. Better than fantastic, it was just amazing all around.
I've been waiting for a Dollhouse versus Dollhouse kind of plot for some time, or just seeing another Dollhouse facility other than the Los Angeles location. It was nice seeing the differences between the two, how they're operated and the different technology used. Although I wished we could've seen the entirety of that other Dollhouse, we only saw just a small snippet of the outside where their dolls roamed about, but nonetheless seeing the technological parts? Was awesome. More awesome was SUMMER FUCKING GLAU WEARING GLASSES IN HER DEMENTED AND TWISTED WAYS! There wasn't much background, adding more intrigue to that mystery of how their operations work and how the head of that Dollhouse can encourage such actions (though knowing Rossum's corporation they probably do encourage it, plus Summer's character, Bennett, is quite scary, damaged and scary).
Anyway, I loved this inner-Dollhouse battle which is all connected to Rossum, a highly powerful corporation which uses manipulation even amongst other Dollhouses. It also appears that Adelle's Dollhouse is more in the dark than the other ones. It's making me very curious as to what their truest intentions really are, and judging from their impressions with Adelle I want to know what they plan on doing to that Dollhouse in the future.
Secondly, I want to address the remote wiping system which Topher invented. Small and with some complications, but nonetheless an advancement which is going to bring forth the future from "Epitaph One" into a reality.
I have a feeling that by working with Bennett, with her skills and knowledge in neuroscience, he might have inadvertently placed such technology of remote wiping directly into Rossum's hands, which is bad bad bad. Again, Rossum has destructive plans for their own gain and will use their Dollhouse facilities to achieve these goals however they can. I just, I'm amazed that Topher is even continuing with this project. Curiosity and somewhat helpful maybe, but in the wrong hands the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance, and we know this from the post-apocalyptic future in which we've seen. I'm just so fascinated, and scared, with what might happen to these characters.
WESLEY IS AN ACTIVE! OH HOLY SHIT! TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING AT ALL! And the fact that his handler was pretending to be his wife, for three years? Wow.
I love the message about self-identity and self-discovery, and upon that scary realization knowing that you are never truly free. We know this from Madeline's story, no matter what you are still connected to the Dollhouse even after your contract is up. What is freedom? Are we truly free even if we escape? Where are those limits, what can be done to stop it? Should someone return to who they used to be, will the truth destroy them? We have Madeline learning the truth about what happened during her sleeper/doll state, the senator realizing he's actually a doll and later learning the horrifying truth that he killed someone, and we have Echo, who received a memory from someone else allowing her to see the truth about Caroline, who her original personality truly was. Which was surprising in and of itself, seeing a memory where there's a different version of Caroline that we haven't seen before now (makes me wondering when this happened, before or after her attempts at exposing Rossum and when she watched her boyfriend die and she escaped, running for her life?)
This really sets the bar that not everything is quite that simple, that Echo can't just break everyone out, there is no black and white; there's all this gray and it's confusing, it doesn't make sense. It's complicated and there's no real safe haven. And you know what? It's fascinating to see this play out, because I'm rooting for Echo and her wanting to find herself, and the fact that she's becoming her own person, acquiring all these different personalities and experiences from past engagements and making them her own -- and repeating what Whiskey was mentioning, not wanting to let herself die just to have that personality back again. Complicated, complex, amazing.
TOPHER AND VICTOR!TOPHER! HOLY SHIT ENVER IS FUCKING AMAZING WITH HIS IMPRESSIONS! HE WAS TOPHER, SPOT-ON AND PERFECT! RIGHT DOWN TO THE MANNERISMS AND VOICE, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! GIVE THIS MAN AN EMMY, FOR REALS NOW!
Summer Glau = evil genius, but also adorable with Topher. CUTE GEEKY LOVE! Too bad she had a master plan on killing Echo because of their disoriented past. But it makes me wonder how she managed to get into the Dollhouse business, or if she had been involved the entire time with Rossum and Caroline found out therefore not helping her. This makes things interesting....
Adelle Dewitt = HBIC. TRUFAX. ♥
Poor Madeline. She can never escape the Dollhouse, any Dollhouse. It seems that Bennett likes tormenting the dolls, showing them pain, having her relive her own (I think?) :(
Paul no longer participating with the Dollhouse, going rogue. From what we've seen in the preview, he and Echo meet up and are preparing to take down the Dollhouse together, as what we've seen from the future episode they kind of do team up in that sense. Though as far as the suspected romance between them, I don't think it'll happen. Echo seems more self-sufficient and stronger than that, she's not helpless and I think while Paul might still want to save her, Echo can take care of herself. Which is why I don't really ship her with anyone in the show.
I kinda wanna see them teaming up with Whiskey. Paul/Echo/Whiskey (and possibly Boyd, if he's game) against the Dollhouse? Hell yeah.
The biggest question though is who are the inside sources that wanted Paul to learn about the truth of the Dollhouse? Are they continuing to watch him, send him messages? Are they going to pop up again? Because I think that should be another factor to explore, or what we can with the limited episodes we have left.
Overall, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this return of Dollhouse. Loved. ♥
Now THIS is pure Joss Whedon, utterly and completely Joss Whedon right here. This is what should have been done with the show since the beginning, instead of FOX trying to control things because having more of these inner-mythology suspenseful episodes is far more interesting than episodic engagements. If anything, Dollhouse should have started with this dark stuff right off the bat, because it would have drawn in more viewers with the suspense and intrigue. Unfortunately, it didn't. I'm sad it'll be ending, and feel that these back-to-back two-hour episodes are more of FOX's way of getting rid of the show.
But I still love it, love the direction its heading and the complexities it holds. And from the previews for the next two episodes, it's going to be quite a doozy.
This was a two-parter, but to me it felt like one huge two hour episode. And it was absolutely fantastic. Better than fantastic, it was just amazing all around.
I've been waiting for a Dollhouse versus Dollhouse kind of plot for some time, or just seeing another Dollhouse facility other than the Los Angeles location. It was nice seeing the differences between the two, how they're operated and the different technology used. Although I wished we could've seen the entirety of that other Dollhouse, we only saw just a small snippet of the outside where their dolls roamed about, but nonetheless seeing the technological parts? Was awesome. More awesome was SUMMER FUCKING GLAU WEARING GLASSES IN HER DEMENTED AND TWISTED WAYS! There wasn't much background, adding more intrigue to that mystery of how their operations work and how the head of that Dollhouse can encourage such actions (though knowing Rossum's corporation they probably do encourage it, plus Summer's character, Bennett, is quite scary, damaged and scary).
Anyway, I loved this inner-Dollhouse battle which is all connected to Rossum, a highly powerful corporation which uses manipulation even amongst other Dollhouses. It also appears that Adelle's Dollhouse is more in the dark than the other ones. It's making me very curious as to what their truest intentions really are, and judging from their impressions with Adelle I want to know what they plan on doing to that Dollhouse in the future.
Secondly, I want to address the remote wiping system which Topher invented. Small and with some complications, but nonetheless an advancement which is going to bring forth the future from "Epitaph One" into a reality.
I have a feeling that by working with Bennett, with her skills and knowledge in neuroscience, he might have inadvertently placed such technology of remote wiping directly into Rossum's hands, which is bad bad bad. Again, Rossum has destructive plans for their own gain and will use their Dollhouse facilities to achieve these goals however they can. I just, I'm amazed that Topher is even continuing with this project. Curiosity and somewhat helpful maybe, but in the wrong hands the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance, and we know this from the post-apocalyptic future in which we've seen. I'm just so fascinated, and scared, with what might happen to these characters.
WESLEY IS AN ACTIVE! OH HOLY SHIT! TOTALLY DID NOT SEE THAT COMING AT ALL! And the fact that his handler was pretending to be his wife, for three years? Wow.
I love the message about self-identity and self-discovery, and upon that scary realization knowing that you are never truly free. We know this from Madeline's story, no matter what you are still connected to the Dollhouse even after your contract is up. What is freedom? Are we truly free even if we escape? Where are those limits, what can be done to stop it? Should someone return to who they used to be, will the truth destroy them? We have Madeline learning the truth about what happened during her sleeper/doll state, the senator realizing he's actually a doll and later learning the horrifying truth that he killed someone, and we have Echo, who received a memory from someone else allowing her to see the truth about Caroline, who her original personality truly was. Which was surprising in and of itself, seeing a memory where there's a different version of Caroline that we haven't seen before now (makes me wondering when this happened, before or after her attempts at exposing Rossum and when she watched her boyfriend die and she escaped, running for her life?)
This really sets the bar that not everything is quite that simple, that Echo can't just break everyone out, there is no black and white; there's all this gray and it's confusing, it doesn't make sense. It's complicated and there's no real safe haven. And you know what? It's fascinating to see this play out, because I'm rooting for Echo and her wanting to find herself, and the fact that she's becoming her own person, acquiring all these different personalities and experiences from past engagements and making them her own -- and repeating what Whiskey was mentioning, not wanting to let herself die just to have that personality back again. Complicated, complex, amazing.
TOPHER AND VICTOR!TOPHER! HOLY SHIT ENVER IS FUCKING AMAZING WITH HIS IMPRESSIONS! HE WAS TOPHER, SPOT-ON AND PERFECT! RIGHT DOWN TO THE MANNERISMS AND VOICE, HOLY FUCKING SHIT! GIVE THIS MAN AN EMMY, FOR REALS NOW!
Summer Glau = evil genius, but also adorable with Topher. CUTE GEEKY LOVE! Too bad she had a master plan on killing Echo because of their disoriented past. But it makes me wonder how she managed to get into the Dollhouse business, or if she had been involved the entire time with Rossum and Caroline found out therefore not helping her. This makes things interesting....
Adelle Dewitt = HBIC. TRUFAX. ♥
Poor Madeline. She can never escape the Dollhouse, any Dollhouse. It seems that Bennett likes tormenting the dolls, showing them pain, having her relive her own (I think?) :(
Paul no longer participating with the Dollhouse, going rogue. From what we've seen in the preview, he and Echo meet up and are preparing to take down the Dollhouse together, as what we've seen from the future episode they kind of do team up in that sense. Though as far as the suspected romance between them, I don't think it'll happen. Echo seems more self-sufficient and stronger than that, she's not helpless and I think while Paul might still want to save her, Echo can take care of herself. Which is why I don't really ship her with anyone in the show.
I kinda wanna see them teaming up with Whiskey. Paul/Echo/Whiskey (and possibly Boyd, if he's game) against the Dollhouse? Hell yeah.
The biggest question though is who are the inside sources that wanted Paul to learn about the truth of the Dollhouse? Are they continuing to watch him, send him messages? Are they going to pop up again? Because I think that should be another factor to explore, or what we can with the limited episodes we have left.
Overall, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this return of Dollhouse. Loved. ♥
Now THIS is pure Joss Whedon, utterly and completely Joss Whedon right here. This is what should have been done with the show since the beginning, instead of FOX trying to control things because having more of these inner-mythology suspenseful episodes is far more interesting than episodic engagements. If anything, Dollhouse should have started with this dark stuff right off the bat, because it would have drawn in more viewers with the suspense and intrigue. Unfortunately, it didn't. I'm sad it'll be ending, and feel that these back-to-back two-hour episodes are more of FOX's way of getting rid of the show.
But I still love it, love the direction its heading and the complexities it holds. And from the previews for the next two episodes, it's going to be quite a doozy.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-05 11:30 am (UTC)THIS IS WHY JOSS IS BOSS, Y'ALL.
Topher!Victor is BRILLIANT. Topher's adorable, as usual. Topher/Bennett? OMG I SHIP IT. Despite the whole evil
programmed human under the Alliancething she's got going on. (so is she really a Doll or is she real!Bennett? I really want to know her past with Echo. How did Caroline's BFF become such a genius programmer person working for the Dollhouse? Did she offer Caroline to the Dollhouse? INTRIGUED, I AM.) And if Bennett's a doll, that makes 3 of Summer Glau's characters programmed heh.I love the whole Dollhouse vs Dollhouse concept. And I really think that the LA dolls have it much better so far. DC's environment was pretty sterile, clinical (still, Greek gods ftw! If only Jamie didn't gueststar as an arms dealer, then they could have opened up a guest spot as Apollo heh. /wishful thinking) compared with LA's whole serenity~ and peace and resort-like concept. I wish Fox didn't cancel the show, I really want to know how it all ends etc.
Summer creeped me out. Majorly. River's psycho was adorable at time, this one was just CREEPY AND SCARY AND -runs in the other direction-
omg yesssssss I never shipped Echo/Paul either. It was a little weird, imo. I mostly thought of it as a Paul-wanting-to-be-a-white-knight thing. He likes lost causes and he wants to save her from the Big Bad Corporation, and that was abot it. Want them to kick ass though.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-05 12:25 pm (UTC)I'm certain that Bennett is really Bennett, but she definitely seemed to be tweaking a bit in the beginning, wasn't she? I was starting to think that she, too, was a doll herself until Topher debunked that (and Joss said that he didn't want her to become a doll or anything like that because, you know, of typecasting). But it does rise that excellent question about who she is, how she landed in that DC Dollhouse and when, precisely, she and Caroline had been friends and that whole incident took place.
I have my theories that she and Caroline had been working together, something in connection with Rossum, until Caroline learned that Bennett had been involved with a Rossum project of sorts, and that is why she just left her there. Because Rossum represents everything Caroline despises. But I don't know. Really wish they can revisit this, because I am very intrigued with how it all played out.
The differences between the two Dollhouses was interesting to see. I assumed that all Dollhouses had the same kind of interior concept and/or design, it seems not. Which makes the LA-based Dollhouse seem not so bad compared to the DC one. Not only with how it looks, but with how they're operated; Adelle seems very concerned about her Actives unlike others do underneath that organization. I really am appreciating the kind of foodchain that's set up between the Dollhouses and Rossum, that kind of power trip (ex. seeing Adelle and her Rossum superior, she definitely is very intimidated by him but certainly wants to play things her way, despite whatever consequences might happen in the process).
Summer creeped me out. Majorly. River's psycho was adorable at time, this one was just CREEPY AND SCARY AND -runs in the other direction-
SRSLY! I WAS LIKE OMGWHOA SUMMER, GOING CREEPY THERE! River was definitely in that wacky crazy feel, but Bennett was on the level of OMG PSYCHOPATHIC CHICK RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! :O Summer is one damn good actress, just damn. Love her.
In the beginning I kinda like the idea of Paul/Echo, or at least Paul/Caroline. But now it would definitely seem weird and awkward at this point, because with Echo becoming her own person and dealing with all what she has to figure out, I would much rather have her and Paul team up to fight against the Dollhouse/Rossum organization.