the future of the Dollhouse
Jul. 19th, 2009 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
okelayI just watched Epitaph One. It was amazing. brilliant. incredible. scary and full of both tearjerkers and heartwarming moments.
Joss really should make horror or post-apocalyptic movies. well, I'm waiting for cabin in the woods.
the episode:
It's LA in 2019. the dollhouse tech has somehow crashed the human race, turning humans into killing machines, and a lot of people are basically body surfing and often they don't know how or why.
Those who remain themselves are called Actuals and they tattoo their names on their backs so if they're imprinted, they can know and be, well,killed.
Felicia Day is one of them. she radioes that the place she's at is clear. she then proceeds to "ditch the tech" it's a simple radio, but they treat anything as if it's somehow infected. dangerous. which it is, as it turns out.
she and a small group hide in the sewers and they find an empty dollhouse.
they find the chair and guess its purpose. Whiskey appears and helps them. they want to reach safehaven. they need Caroline, Whiskey tells them.
With the help of the chair,we see what happened. the first memory is from the pilot, of Adelle explaining the purpose of the Dollhouse. Next Topher is introduced and he talks of the improvements he plans. later, Paul is Echo's handler and we see she's learned to handle more than one imprint. she's Caroline but has functional imprints. she gets bad headaches, a side effect probably cause of the stress on the brain.
a bit further ahead we learn a Mr.Ambrose, one of the owners or leaders has decided they'll offer upgrades. rich people can pay and get a new body and live forever.
Adelle protests and he says you can be with us or against us.
even later, the dollhouse is on lockdown, their dolls have been returned their original personalities , Topher's gone absolutely mad and Adelle is acting as mother hen to them all, especially to loony Topher. is really heartbreaking to see. he blames himself, he doesn't know what to do.Adelle is really sweet with him. she seems to be the only one who knows how to handle him.she says he's "having a bad day"
we see victor and sierra who are themselves but aren't together (anymore) she gets headaches too. they all do apparently.
Boyd runs away, to somewhere before it all goes too bad. he and Claire share a tearful goodbye.
soon, Caroline comes back. there's somewhere or something, to avoid imprinting.she's leading them there.
Adelle asks her what she'll do with them and Caroline cocks a gun.
in 2019, Whiskey,imprinted with old memories, shows them where hardrives are hidden. Caroline amongst them. she can lead them to safe haven. they imprint her on a little girl who was someone else and tried to kill them. girl!Caroline leads them to Adelle's office, where there's a wall covered in photos with the words "to remember". November, Victor,Sierra and Caroline are all there.
We don't see Boyd,Whiskey,Topher or Adelle.
they climb out a ladder, on their way to safe haven.
it's not clear wether safe haven is an actual place where 'the signal' doesn't reach or if it's a way to protect oneself from the imprint.
Caroline does say "it'll be hard to get everyone to the compound" though.
Topher says all it took was a phone call and there was a army programmed to kill everyone else.
we don't see when or how things got to so bad or how far has it spread but I think it's safe to say a similar situation happened around every dollhouse.
Someone, perhaps Topher, perfected the remote imprinting process.
When he's with Adelle, he says "just a phone call...that is brilliant...why didn't I think of that?" and Adelle just sort of looks at him with sympathy and he goes "did I think of that?... did I?"
and her look turns more to pity. he starts sort of crying and goes "I think I could figure it all out, is that curiosity or arrogance?" she climbs into his hole(one of the actives' former beds) and holds him as he crying, and repeats "I know what I know". it's really,really sad.
It isn't clear what happens to the dollhouse staff.
I want to think Caroline lets them go with them to safehaven but I'm not sure I believe it.
I saw the original pilot earlier, which is much better than the aired pilot, it explains everything better and "Echoes" and "Epitaph One" are very much related. you can watch these two and ignore the entire series.
there's a lot of callbacks and dropped anvils and it's fantastic.
in the original pilot Boyd talks about his doubts with Topher (they talk a lot in it, they seem close) and Topher says "I don't care!" (about morality) and goes on to say Saunder's got this crazy idea the actives are still people. he doesn't, for him they're basically toys,or pieces of a puzzle.
but then he goes on to say something very important. he tells Boyd they are part of the dollhouse too and that someone is playing with them. "You know what kids do? They break their toys"
and in the end of "Epitaph One" Caroline says "They were kids playing with matches" when Mag(FD) asks if they really though they were helping, if this is what they needed.
It's incredible how it was Topher who had such a clear idea of what they were doing and of the possible repercussions. he also looks dissaproving and mildy scared of Mr Ambrose when he's on Victor's body, talking to Adelle about their new services.
Topher is a integral part of the flashbacks and we see a lot more of his relationships with Boyd and more importantly with Adelle, which is really interesting.
in all the flashbacks, we see Dr.Saunders but in 2019, what the Actuals find is a blank Whiskey who repeats that she has to stay. It seems Caroline,the real one, left her there to guide others to safehaven. but girl!caroline didn't know she'd been wiped. she says "I told her she'd lose her mind if she stayed. I guess she thought that was best"
It was amazing and I can't believe that is all there is.I want more! more details. about what happened and how and about the rest of the world and also what happened to the dollhouse leaders who started it all.
and I want to see safehaven.
part of me would like s2 to be all about 2019, but I also think it's a bad idea. it's better if we only get a glimpse before returning to the present to see if that is the way it's gonna go and if so, how it goes down.
I'm also really curious about Dominic. in the flashbacks we see he's taken out of the attic and is put back in his body,I think but we don't know why. or what does he do.
It left me with about a billlion unanswered questions, a lot of which I haven't even thought of yet!
Joss really should make horror or post-apocalyptic movies. well, I'm waiting for cabin in the woods.
the episode:
It's LA in 2019. the dollhouse tech has somehow crashed the human race, turning humans into killing machines, and a lot of people are basically body surfing and often they don't know how or why.
Those who remain themselves are called Actuals and they tattoo their names on their backs so if they're imprinted, they can know and be, well,killed.
Felicia Day is one of them. she radioes that the place she's at is clear. she then proceeds to "ditch the tech" it's a simple radio, but they treat anything as if it's somehow infected. dangerous. which it is, as it turns out.
she and a small group hide in the sewers and they find an empty dollhouse.
they find the chair and guess its purpose. Whiskey appears and helps them. they want to reach safehaven. they need Caroline, Whiskey tells them.
With the help of the chair,we see what happened. the first memory is from the pilot, of Adelle explaining the purpose of the Dollhouse. Next Topher is introduced and he talks of the improvements he plans. later, Paul is Echo's handler and we see she's learned to handle more than one imprint. she's Caroline but has functional imprints. she gets bad headaches, a side effect probably cause of the stress on the brain.
a bit further ahead we learn a Mr.Ambrose, one of the owners or leaders has decided they'll offer upgrades. rich people can pay and get a new body and live forever.
Adelle protests and he says you can be with us or against us.
even later, the dollhouse is on lockdown, their dolls have been returned their original personalities , Topher's gone absolutely mad and Adelle is acting as mother hen to them all, especially to loony Topher. is really heartbreaking to see. he blames himself, he doesn't know what to do.Adelle is really sweet with him. she seems to be the only one who knows how to handle him.she says he's "having a bad day"
we see victor and sierra who are themselves but aren't together (anymore) she gets headaches too. they all do apparently.
Boyd runs away, to somewhere before it all goes too bad. he and Claire share a tearful goodbye.
soon, Caroline comes back. there's somewhere or something, to avoid imprinting.she's leading them there.
Adelle asks her what she'll do with them and Caroline cocks a gun.
in 2019, Whiskey,imprinted with old memories, shows them where hardrives are hidden. Caroline amongst them. she can lead them to safe haven. they imprint her on a little girl who was someone else and tried to kill them. girl!Caroline leads them to Adelle's office, where there's a wall covered in photos with the words "to remember". November, Victor,Sierra and Caroline are all there.
We don't see Boyd,Whiskey,Topher or Adelle.
they climb out a ladder, on their way to safe haven.
it's not clear wether safe haven is an actual place where 'the signal' doesn't reach or if it's a way to protect oneself from the imprint.
Caroline does say "it'll be hard to get everyone to the compound" though.
Topher says all it took was a phone call and there was a army programmed to kill everyone else.
we don't see when or how things got to so bad or how far has it spread but I think it's safe to say a similar situation happened around every dollhouse.
Someone, perhaps Topher, perfected the remote imprinting process.
When he's with Adelle, he says "just a phone call...that is brilliant...why didn't I think of that?" and Adelle just sort of looks at him with sympathy and he goes "did I think of that?... did I?"
and her look turns more to pity. he starts sort of crying and goes "I think I could figure it all out, is that curiosity or arrogance?" she climbs into his hole(one of the actives' former beds) and holds him as he crying, and repeats "I know what I know". it's really,really sad.
It isn't clear what happens to the dollhouse staff.
I want to think Caroline lets them go with them to safehaven but I'm not sure I believe it.
I saw the original pilot earlier, which is much better than the aired pilot, it explains everything better and "Echoes" and "Epitaph One" are very much related. you can watch these two and ignore the entire series.
there's a lot of callbacks and dropped anvils and it's fantastic.
in the original pilot Boyd talks about his doubts with Topher (they talk a lot in it, they seem close) and Topher says "I don't care!" (about morality) and goes on to say Saunder's got this crazy idea the actives are still people. he doesn't, for him they're basically toys,or pieces of a puzzle.
but then he goes on to say something very important. he tells Boyd they are part of the dollhouse too and that someone is playing with them. "You know what kids do? They break their toys"
and in the end of "Epitaph One" Caroline says "They were kids playing with matches" when Mag(FD) asks if they really though they were helping, if this is what they needed.
It's incredible how it was Topher who had such a clear idea of what they were doing and of the possible repercussions. he also looks dissaproving and mildy scared of Mr Ambrose when he's on Victor's body, talking to Adelle about their new services.
Topher is a integral part of the flashbacks and we see a lot more of his relationships with Boyd and more importantly with Adelle, which is really interesting.
in all the flashbacks, we see Dr.Saunders but in 2019, what the Actuals find is a blank Whiskey who repeats that she has to stay. It seems Caroline,the real one, left her there to guide others to safehaven. but girl!caroline didn't know she'd been wiped. she says "I told her she'd lose her mind if she stayed. I guess she thought that was best"
It was amazing and I can't believe that is all there is.I want more! more details. about what happened and how and about the rest of the world and also what happened to the dollhouse leaders who started it all.
and I want to see safehaven.
part of me would like s2 to be all about 2019, but I also think it's a bad idea. it's better if we only get a glimpse before returning to the present to see if that is the way it's gonna go and if so, how it goes down.
I'm also really curious about Dominic. in the flashbacks we see he's taken out of the attic and is put back in his body,I think but we don't know why. or what does he do.
It left me with about a billlion unanswered questions, a lot of which I haven't even thought of yet!
