Dollhouse: Gray Hour - Echo becomes a thief and loses herself on the same day.

POSTED BY: Haken
UPDATED: Thursday, March 12, 2009 19:18
VIEWED: 11220
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1EYEDCAT

Saturday, March 7, 2009 1:41 PM

I think the series turned a corner with this episode. It's still not perfect, but now I'll be watching it entirely on its merits and not, in part, to support Whedon.

I would still like to see a little more exploration of the philosophical/moral/peculiar implications of the premise; for example, the appearance of 2 'copies' of the same person, and a little less of the assignment-of-the-week.

PHOENIXROSE

Saturday, March 7, 2009 5:28 PM

I really liked this ep. I liked that Victor didn't have his accent while eating lunch (that bugged me last ep) I liked seeing Sierra doing something more interesting. I really liked seeing Echo thrown into the real world, seeing how she handled it. I think my favorite part was when she put her chin up and said "I'm not broken."
To me, it makes perfect sense that Alpha wiped her. He retained bits of all his personas, and it made him what he is. I think he knows the same thing happens to Echo. I think he's pushing her. Maybe he wants a friend, maybe he wants her to get out, maybe he just wants to see if he's the only one this can happen to. Maybe it's something else entirely. Clearly, she is remembering, but does that mean one day she'll wake up a super genius assassin, attack half the people in the Dollhouse, and then disappear off their radar? I don't know. I think that would be too predictable, but it could happen.
And yes, DeWitt said no one knows the details of the engagement, but she was clearly lying. They knew what was going on, they had Boyd outside, and in communication with 'Taffy.' Perhaps the only thing they didn't know was what was being stolen, which they found out in the end. They lead the clients to believe that a supercomputer knows the assignment, calculates risk, and programs the dolls accordingly, which is partially true, it just does it with some human guidance.
I grow far more intrigued by all the characters. I'm pretty eager for next week's episode.

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ASARIAN

Saturday, March 7, 2009 10:43 PM

Last week I had pretty much written off Sierra. This week I found her a LOT more pleasant to watch, though. She was, to be honest, quite good actually -- bordering on excellent (but let's not overdo it). Even DeWitt finally rose above her caricature, and showed signs of being a real person, after all. And, heck, even the security dude wasn't constantly mocking his own jackass role, and cared for a moment (if not out of the goodness of his own heart, then simply because he seemed to care professionally, instead of walking the halls like he gives a rat's ass, as he was doing before). And even Topher, who so far never much transcended his 'nerdy jerk with nervous smile' persona, appeared almost human there for a while.

The engagement itself, eh, weren't all that spectacular. It definitely had some 'Riveresque' moments (the obvious "You found me broken" parallel). And when Echo asked that guy, "Are you okay?", my hand to God, I expected him to say "I got stabbed, right here!" :)

They also got the chess-pieces sorted out (just by putting them in start-up position). Now, if only someone be kind enough to tell the prop-master that a white square (h1) goes into the lower left corner, instead of a black one, we're all set for perfection come next round. :)

Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:
Did I hear DeWitt correctly when she told the prospective client that only the client knows all the details of the engagement? If that is what she said then it makes no sense. How would they know how to imprint the active for that engagement?

Yeah, that was pretty darn lame. Unbelievably unbelievable, really.

Funny thing is, I only now get to think of Eliza's performance. Wonder why. I liked her 'negotiator' type / take charge kinda first part of her role. The latter, her tabula rasa state, while not as spiffy, of course, certainly had its own merit. Especiallly the way she absorbed / interpreted art.

And I like how they gave Sierra the Taffy persona, too. In hindsight it's pretty obvious that nothing is to stop you from imprinting the same character onto two different people, but I thought that was an interesting twist, nonetheless.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

BYTEMITE

Sunday, March 8, 2009 5:00 PM

I like that we finally got some interaction between the wiped dolls, and got to see some actual character from Echo in that state. It addresses one of the problems the show's premise would have to surmount (making someone intentionally written with no personality interesting), and the other problem that there needs to be more cast interaction with Echo.

The scene where they eat lunch together is still kinda creepy and empty and awkward, but it's supposed to be. And it's coupled with the revelation that the dolls shouldn't normally be doing that, which explained past episodes and why that aspect I was expecting from Joss was absent up to then.

And of course River-esque Echo in the vault is love. And I also thought the switch in roles how the two guys behave towards Echo was interesting. The thief who started yelling at her and slapped her, he initially offered to deal with Echo because "he has a sister" with some condition. I'm kind of disturbed to imagine how he treats his sister, that was no Simon Tam. She even identifies him as being in the same category as the hunter in the woods, a guy who believes people have to prove their worthiness to have the right to live, and kills him the same way. The other guy clearly hates what he does, takes moral issue at first with Taffy being so comfortable with her job, says he's a bad guy, but then we see him actually care about Echo. Lots of good characterization even for minor characters, and I kind of hope we see them again. Joss finally showed off his writing chops with this episode, and I feel validated now for watching the others.

Watching this one, I've got some suspicions.

I think Victor's story with the FBI agent isn't happening concurrent with the events going on with Echo, I think they're Victor's backstory. I think it's going to be revealed that after Ballard stopped protecting Victor, the Russian Mafia grabbed him and put him in the Dollhouse as a punishment for being a snitch.

And I think Dominic was once Alpha's handler, and that's why he seems so jaded and cruel towards the other dolls.

ASARIAN

Sunday, March 8, 2009 6:02 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

I think Victor's story with the FBI agent isn't happening concurrent with the events going on with Echo, I think they're Victor's backstory. I think it's going to be revealed that after Ballard stopped protecting Victor, the Russian Mafia grabbed him and put him in the Dollhouse as a punishment for being a snitch.

An interesting thought! :) I'm thinkin' you might be right. It would certainly be 'Jossing' the plot up (can you use Jossing as a verb?). We'll have it on record that you thought of it first.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

PHOENIXROSE

Sunday, March 8, 2009 6:47 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think Victor's story with the FBI agent isn't happening concurrent with the events going on with Echo, I think they're Victor's backstory. I think it's going to be revealed that after Ballard stopped protecting Victor, the Russian Mafia grabbed him and put him in the Dollhouse as a punishment for being a snitch.

that's a great theory, but unfortunately I can't agree. DeWitt talks about the agent, keeping him off the track, giving him closure, etc. He's definitely being manipulated from inside the Dollhouse by means of Victor.

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ASARIAN

Sunday, March 8, 2009 6:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
[Bthat's a great theory, but unfortunately I can't agree. DeWitt talks about the agent, keeping him off the track, giving him closure, etc. He's definitely being manipulated from inside the Dollhouse by means of Victor.

Sure, the Dollhouse does that. But it's still posssible the Ballard interactions we see with Victor are 'pre-Victor-in-the-Dollhouse', right?

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

PHOENIXROSE

Sunday, March 8, 2009 7:18 PM

Anything's possible, but I don't think it's at all likely. I think if that's the kind of twist that was being aimed at, we would have seen the interactions, would have seen Victor in the Dollhouse, possibly seen more interactions, but we would not have then seen DeWitt talking about Ballard, or about the interactions, or about bringing them to the closure that was needed. She seemed sad when discussing it, I don't think she enjoyed the thought of setting one of her actives up for very likely death.
There are a lot of twists and turns in Joss's storytelling, a lot of mysteries. He's an artist in that respect. He makes you wonder, he makes you think, makes you try to solve the mystery while he unfurls it layer by layer. The mystery of what's happening to Echo, and why, and what Alpha is trying to achieve, and why, is what keeps poking at me, intriguing moments giving me a whiff of the main course, that subtle scent that leaves you puzzling, "What is that? And when will it be ready so I can sink my teeth into it?" I don't think he'd give us a (false) straight-on explanation to hide a plot twist, that just seems... cheesy. Cheap. He's a better storyteller than that. Just my opinion, of course.

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OUT2THEBLACK

Sunday, March 8, 2009 7:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

...Lots of good characterization even for minor characters, and I kind of hope we see them again. Joss finally showed off his writing chops with this episode, and I feel validated now for watching the others.

Except that he didn't...

Joss didn't write this one , it was a couple of chicks that he hired...

I'd like to see him take a more direct hand to the scripts , and inject some trademark snarky humor...

BYTEMITE

Sunday, March 8, 2009 7:50 PM

We've all heard the stories about how hands on Joss is when it comes to scripts. If there's a lack of humour, it's either a mandate for Fox, or Joss himself is trying for something different. He did say somewhere that he wanted Dollhouse to be darker and more grown-up.

PhoenixRose: You bring up a good point, although DeWitt talking about closure for agent Ballard suggests to me something happened in the past.

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