Dollhouse 106: Man on the street

[ishtar79]

Watching this episode left me in a bit of a daze and with entirely too many thoughts swimming in my head.

Short version: I loved it, even when it disturbed the hell out of me.

Longer version: breaking out of the usual format was long overdue. I hope they do it a lot more often (you know, assuming the show survives past one season, if that). The intercuts to the interviews in the street were a great bit of self-referential meta, and it did a great job of illustrating some of the extreme moral ickiness of the Dollhouse concept (I also seriously cracked-up at Serious Repressed Homosexuality Guy. Well, mostly at his girlfriend’s reaction).

But more than the interviews, the text itself seem to be addressing the issues in a more overt way than usual. With Sierra’s rape at the forefront. Now, it’s a known fact that this show can’t get through a whole episode without throwing in some general rapey/violence towards women themes, but this felt infinitely *worse* than all they’ve shown before. Because they’re programmed to trust their handlers, because a wiped Active is utterly helpless, because there’s nobody she can go to for help. To their credit, the show was unflinching in showing the magnitude of the violation-it had some definite child molestation vibes, between Sierra’s especially childlike phrasing, the wordchoice “playing a game” and even the way her creep of a handler approached her. My only complaint about his death is that it was far too quick. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still queasy from Sierra’s victimization, but I appreciated the fact that the show showed just in just how vulnerable a position the Actives are (and I’m embarrassed to say that for all the mulling over I’ve been doing over lack of consent on their assignments, I didn’t really contemplate this possibility).

How ironic was it that Sierra’s subhuman rapist was the one to voice some of the criticisms I’ve been seing around fandom? Because yes, Adelle really isn’t in any position to express moral outrage. Having said that, for all my awareness of Adelle’s utter lack of morals, my blood ran cold when she ordered the murder (and rape) of Millie. I had a hunch that there might be some twist involved, because this is a new level of callous, but I also thought of the fact that a)this is Dollhouse and b)it wouldn’t be the first time Whedon killed the girlfriend right after sex to bring the mega-angst. So even though I’ve been reading Millie as a doll from day one, I LOVED the way the reveal was handled. SO much more satisfying than if the Handler had been killed by, say, Dominic (even watching him smack Rapist Handler around didn’t make me like him one iota. That’s how much I can’t stand him).

So I already said the client is a creep, and his sob story didn’t change my assessment (and I found the last scene disturbing and what’s more, believe I was meant to). The fact he’s a person with a real story doesn’t excuse his actions-but it makes the moral questions more interesting, especially in combination from some of the interviews in the street. Having said that, he had Ballard’s number. He does live in his own obsessive little reality, centered around the Dollhouse and Caroline. There is a definite paternalistic/stalkerish element in his desire to ‘save’ Caroline, which is why I liked the fact that on their second meeting, she kicked his fine ass into a new shape. His suddenly returning Millie’s affections really was All About Caroline, and his desire to prove the client wrong and reassert his own normality and moral superiority. And for all his flaws, he’s still the most moral non-Active person on the show-which really speaks volumes.

I’m still on the fence whether the ‘corrupt imprint’ was that, or Adelle playing a long con. It could be read both ways, really. The fact she made Dominic leave the room before ordering the fake hit is telling: Adelle definitely has her own agenda, even though I haven’t the faintest idea of what exactly that is.

There was less Echo in this episode, and I was fine with that, as it went a long way to develop the other characters. I did like that she seemed to take more initiative even in her wiped state, interacting with Boyd and telling people about Sierra’s crying. I noticed that a lot of people seemed to interpret her ‘it’s not finished’ line as her wanting to complete the assignment-I think that’s just how Adelle chose to read it. Echo is slowly gathering up the pieces until she’s got a complete picture. She’s not finished becoming.

Some random thoughts:

-There can never be enough shirtless!Paul on the show. I appreciated the focus on the manflesh in this episode, and that the only girlflesh we got was an actress who’s far from the typical Hollywood beauty ideal.

-Poor Victor-so ready to believe he’d done something terrible, even if he had no idea why. I never for a second bought the Victor Did It misdirection.

-Adelle’s gloriously bitchy line to Rapist Handler about him hardly being anyone’s fantasy cracked me up.

-My main thought during Ballard’s Walk Of Shame: “Thank God, no more boring FBI scenes.” I hope he’ll still get to interact with that lady that helped him out though, she was awesome, and this show is desperately in need of some female characters who are not evil or brainwiped.

-So I know Echo’s Gorgeous But Deadly persona was an imprint within an imprint, but the way she brandished that knife and kicked ass had me going “Whee, FAITH!” all the way through.