Daughter of the Ring of Fire » Blog Archive

Mar

2009

Dollhouse: True Believer

Posted on 22:09, March 13th, 2009 by EKSwitaj

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The ironies of Echo-programmed-to-be-Esther being sent to infiltrate a cult are not lost on this episode, nor is the point belabored. The Senator who rents Echo (and this serves as a fairly non-cliché way to introduce the cliché but necessary figure of a well-placed protector for the criminal organization) for this purpose mentions the irony, but is not allowed to muse on it for long. Moreover, the eerily similar speeches of Jonas Sparrow and Adelle DeWitt on the innocence of those under their power (though these two would say care) and on preservation of a pure environment for them are divided by enough scenes to avoid any sense of overkill.

One parallel that could have been more clearly addressed, however, is that of sexual assault. It was there for those who know to look for it: there’s the mention of Jonas Sparrow having been sent to jail for something involving underage girls, and the mention of the cult members having previously been at Zion Ranch brings to mind Yearning for Zion Ranch. If you already understand that the Actives of the Dollhouse are unable to give consent, you can see the parallels. Had sexual crimes been more directly considered, however, it would have been possible for a few of the ATF agents to discuss the impossibility of giving meaningful consent when one’s self has been compromised, how cult leaders can manipulate their followers into sexual activities. This is only one example of the sort of conversation that might allow viewers who do not see how sexual assault is an issue in this series to understand. That way, everyone would have been able to see through Ms. DeWitt’s discussion of Victor’s erection being a violation of the innocence of the Dollhouse. Her problem with it has nothing to do with wishing to protect the women Actives from rape (since she is happy to rent them out for such purposes). Rather, she needs to control the actions and sexuality of all the Actives. (The use of the penis as a symbol for the possibility of individual self-determination is, however, more than a little cliché.)

Finally, when Echo-Esther leads the cult members out of the burning church, we can see her original personality coming through. In the FBI storyline, Caroline’s “potty mouth” has been commented on, and now she tells people to move ass. Once again, after the final wipe of the episode, we get an indication that not every memory has been erased. It does seem stronger than previous episodes, but a stronger actress than Eliza Dushku might be able to do a better job of giving these episode-ending indications of memory a subtle arc.

ETA: Alyssa Rosenberg’s review in the Atlantic, written after seeing the first five episodes, while seemingly evenhanded, ignores a lot of the nuance and hints of what’s to come in Echo.