Daughter of the Ring of Fire » Blog Archive

Feb

2009

Dollhouse: Stage Fright

Posted on 22:36, February 27th, 2009 by EKSwitaj

Read my latest story, "The All-Nighter", at 52|250.

I didn’t get a chance to write up my thoughts on last week’s episode, which seemed more like a placeholder than anything else, a mediocre adventure that advanced the story. The FBI storyline served primarily as a cliché device to remind us that Echo had once been someone else (which made it hard to have much sympathy for the agent after this week’s plot twist). Having the client turn around and hunt Echo brought to the surface clients’ lack of concern for the humanity of actives they rent, but the execution was merely workmanlike. Similarly, the introduction of the “composite incident” while not particularly subtle or interesting in itself underscored the idea that Topher doesn’t know as much as he thinks he does about how the reprogramming of personalities works.

This week’s episode, however, proved much better. Having Echo sing about freedom at her audition seems at first merely ironic, but the episode develops the theme. Rayna, the celebrity Echo has been programmed to save, talks about wanting to die in order to be free. She describes her position in terms of having been “grown in a lab”, creating a moment of dramatic irony as we the audience and possibly Echo (who in the previous episode began to have flashbacks to her life before) know which woman comes closest to literally embodying that.

[ETA: Maia of Alas, a Blog thinks the episode would have been stronger "if we’d just seen snippets of the consequences for [Rayna] of not toeing the line – of not being just rebellious enough – then the episode might have soared”. I would argue that because these issues are told rather than shown, it helps us understand that Rayna’s difficulties, as a wealthy celebrity, are due to the (socially implanted) limits of her own perceptions, which contrasts with the more directly (that is, violently) implanted limits faced by the actives.]

When Rayna faces death, she realizes that she need not die and does not wish to do so. There are other ways for her to find freedom. The actives Sierra and Echo, on the other hand, are going to have to make these options themselves, which makes Rayna’s rendition of Echo’s audition song poignant, especially when the two actives exchange a meaningful glance back in the Dollhouse when they are supposed to have been placed in a “tabula rasa” state.

Sierra in this episode has played a superfan, the sort who gives up quite a bit of her own personality and will to following her favorite celebrity, though she isn’t a stalker. This also has some parallels with the loss of self experienced by actives, except of course that such fans do have some freedom to stop being fans.

Finally, the development of Boyd, Echo’s handler, has continued in a sympathetic vein over the last two episodes. He disapproves of much of the actions of the Dollhouse. Because of his being an ex-cop, one suspects he didn’t have many job options. His function appears to be to allow us to cheer for a representative of the Dollhouse when the story requires without being implicated ourselves; this may be necessary, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. Especially given the use of Eliza Dushku‘s body in promotions, shouldn’t the audience feel implicated? Isn’t it problematic to watch, as entertainment, a story about human trafficking without feeling that way?