Reworking Dollhouse

[TremblingBluStar]

I was thinking about the problems Dollhouse faces as a series and what could be done to save the show, if it enters a second season (not counting on it), or what could have been done to make the first season better than it was.

I realized one of Dollhouse's biggest problem is it takes itself far too seriously. Even with the patented Whedon dialogue, the characters are simply not compelling to watch and never seem to be doing things the average person can relate to.

Take Tahmoh's character, for example. He spends the entire season obsessing over finding the Dollhouse. Instead of being told what the root of this obsession is, the viewers have to simply accept that he is extremely motivated to find Echo. Does he have a missing sister? Does Echo remind him of someone else? We never find out. Consequently, when he finally does find the Dollhouse in the season finale, it isn't nearly as great a moment as it should have been.

It certainly doesn't help that the character has the personality of a dead fish. I don't know if this is due to writing, or Tahmoh's acting - but compare the character to someone like Malcolm Reynolds. Both characters show obsessions and both can be single minded and driven. However, the fact that Captain Reynolds always keeps his charm and wit makes him fun to watch. Ballard is pretty, and dull.

Unfortuantely, with the exception of Topher the other characters are just as dull and uninspired. This is a situation where Whedon should have known better. If the show continues, we need a few new characters to balance the droll ones.

Problem with a show like Dollhouse is, the concept of the show doesn't lend itself to humor. I wish I knew a way around this limitation, but then I'm not the highly paid television writer here. I just know the show needs a better group of characters.

The show also needs a focus and a reason behind the characters central motivation. For Buffy, everybody was behind fighting evil. With Firefly, it was making money and keeping the crew safe.

With Dollhouse, motivations are all over the place, which can work when we know what every character is up to and their motivations link together in interesting ways. Unfortunately, from what we have seen so far, the show is just about Ballard trying to find the Dollhouse and Echo. That's it. It could be compelling if the Dollhouse were a mystery to the viewer, and we were led along with Ballard on his journey. However, we know what the Dollhouse is, what it looks like, and what happens there. So why should we care whether Ballard finds it or not?

I'd like to see a second season focus on a small group of characters working within the Dollhouse for the express purpose of improving people's lives. In shows like Angel, the motivation of the characters was to "help the helpless" Imagine if Dollhouse were taken from the same angle, but there were also the moral ambiguity of whether it's right to take aways someone's free will in the name of doing good.

Having the characters fight to do good could would be a constant struggle against the corporation which owns the Dollhouses, where the characters have to maintain the image of "business as usual" while continuing to bring in the money.

Having said that, if there are charcters (like Echo) who are dolls, things need to change. There main characters who are dolls shouldn't be put into a child state between sessions, because that is quite frankely boring to watch! Why not have a few who maintain their own personalities while not on missions? That way we actually know something about the people who are being put into harm's way, as opposed to the brief flashes we've seen of Echo's prior life.

Anyway, just a few thoughts on what I'd like to see. I don't think the premise of the show is a bad one, or an unworkable one. I don't even think the show itself is bad - just flawed. As structured, it would have made a good movie or mini-series, but not a continuing show.

What other changes can you see improving Dollhouse?

 

[Christopher]

I think the show is fine the way it is. The characters are far from dull. Adelle gets more complex and fascinating every week, a compelling blend of ruthlessness, vulnerability, Macchiavellianism, and idealism. Boyd Langton is an intriguing mystery, a good man working for an organization that's morally ambiguous at best, and his bond with Echo plays a vital role in humanizing her, allowing us to care about her because we can relate to his concern for her. And the buddy or mentor-pupil relationship they've set up between Langton and Ballard in the finale could do a lot to enrich both characters in a second season.

Sure, it's not a simple show to figure out, since the issues are so complex and ambiguous and there's no obvious right or wrong side. But I'm glad to have a show that's so intellectually challenging and I would regret seeing it simplified. It's not just about people saving the day once a week, it's about exploring the nature of identity, the ways in which people use each other and voluntarily surrender their freedoms, the ramifications to society of a technology that can copy or alter the human mind, etc. It's rare to see such a work of genuine science fiction on television -- i.e. a story that doesn't just use new technology or futuristic settings as a background for conventional adventure or melodrama, but that's actually about exploring the ways technology or progress might transform human beings or human society.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Jettison everyone except for Alan Tudyk. Build a series around him - you need a much-better-than-average actor who can handle multiple roles in a very convincing style.

You also need an inherently appealing and sympathetic actor - Tudyk again - who can overcome what you are going to have to do with the character, namely make him a criminal psychopath. That's needed so that he has a reasonable motive for subjecting himself to the Dollhouse treatment, that he is just sane enough to realize that he is too broken to fix. Life as a Doll is at least a life, which is better than the alternative.

Anything short of that motive leads to the suspicion that the person was very very stupid to volunteer for brainwashing and the destruction of their personality, even for a temporary period (and what kind of idiot would trust a promise that it was temporary). Stupid people lose the audience's sympathy, very quickly, but a warped and damaged psychopath who is doing something desperate to improve his lot in life might still have a claim on that sympathy.

And giving the lead character a reasonable, non-idiotic motive avoids any possibility that the claim on our sympathies might be because he's a poor widdle victim. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Never ever use that angle in any story. It's the mark of total desperation. Make your lead character evil, twisted, insane, I don't care. Just avoid these two cardinal sins: 1) stupidity and 2) patheticness. Once the audience loses respect for the main character it is truly all over.

 

[theenglish]

Well, my wife and I did not get past the second episode. We found the concept horrific and disgusting (and neither one of us are prudes), much better suited for HBO than a network show wrapped in Wheadon-esque dialogue.

These people subject their bodies to sexual and physical humiliation and violence, and from the start it at least it appears as if they are forced into this. So, we end up watching the woman basically get prostituted/raped and tortured and it is presented as light-hearted action. At least have the decency to bring this up to the seriousness the thematic structure of the show deserves.

The only program that has horrified me more in recent months was Caprica and that, at least, was the point of the episode.

Now, if fans of the show suggest that we watch further as these concerns are addressed then I might, but if not then I won't bother.

 

[intrinsical]

The problem is that the producers held too many secrets close to their chest. The rate at which these secrets are trickling out to the audience is so abysmally small that many have left.

Instead of waiting till the last two episodes, they should have dropped a few more hints about Alpha. More should have been revealed about the secret faction who's been supplying Ballard with hints. I'ld even go as far as revealing that the Dollhouse is an international operation by the 5th or 6th episode, and have dolls from other chapters show up for an episode or two.

 

[Skywalker]

Another huge problem was that the main doll was overshadowed by the three secondary dolls. Victor, Sierra, and November were all far more compelling than Echo ever was. In my opinion, of course.

 

[hyzmarca]

I do believe that they erred by extremely overestimating how sympathetic an animal rights activist backstory would be. What they though would paint her as an idealist instead paints her as an idiot.

If they wanted to paint her as an idealist, they should have gone with violent anti-war radical, or violent anarchist, or anti-American mujihad. All of those demonstrate naive idealism, a willingness to take action to further that idealism, and are substantially more sympathetic than an animal rights activist.

Of course, they could have made her a pedophiliac serial rapist and she'd be more sympathetic than an animal rights activist is. They really dropped the ball there.

 

[JoeZhang]

I thought that it was a fairly average show - the big weakness to me was the lead actress who seems to made out of teak.

 

[Christopher]

These people subject their bodies to sexual and physical humiliation and violence, and from the start it at least it appears as if they are forced into this.

Ahh, see, that's what you were led to think at first, but the truth turned out to be far more complicated. The Dolls are people who volunteered to give up five years of their lives in exchange for a fresh start. They're people who had traumas in their past that they couldn't live with, and they chose this as an alternative to suicide, basically. Since their own minds are stored safely in a computer, once the five years are up, they get put back in their bodies with no memory of anything that happened to them during their time as Dolls, and they can go begin a new life.

And it's not just about sex, and it's definitely not about humiliation, for the most part. I mean, anyone who just wants a body to use and abuse can hire a hooker far more cheaply. The Dollhouse is for people who want minds made to order, not just bodies. It's not just about sex, it's about people looking for the ideal personality that can fill their needs. There was one story where we saw that a man was programming Echo with the personality of his dead wife and recreating what was to have been the perfect romantic moment with her. Yes, it was creepy because he was using her for sex, but it was ambiguous because as twisted as his approach was, his motives were loving. And Dolls could also be programmed to be the ideal hostage negotiator, the ideal bodyguard, the ideal thief, the ideal therapist, the ideal detective, etc. Most of the roles we saw the Dolls playing over the course of the season were not sexual.

Of course there was a dark side, too. We found that the backstory of the doll Sierra pretty much was what you're describing. So however much the Dollhouse staff convinced themselves that what they were doing was a noble and worthwhile service, that they were actually doing their Dolls a favor, there was a hypocrisy to that. That's the cool thing about the show -- it wasn't a situation you can cubbyhole as good or evil. Whedon's work has been moving progressively toward rejecting the idea of a separate good and evil, toward blurring the line between them, and this show is the most extreme example. It's not about good people and bad people; it's just about people making choices for reasons that make sense to them or that fill their needs. It's that ambiguity that makes it so compelling -- the way it makes you sympathize with the characters even as you're disturbed by what they're doing.

So, we end up watching the woman basically get prostituted/raped and tortured and it is presented as light-hearted action. At least have the decency to bring this up to the seriousness the thematic structure of the show deserves.

Okay, maybe the first few episodes that were shaped by network dictates to make it a more conventional show led to this incongruity you're describing. But by later in the series, as it became closer to what Whedon intended, it was definitely exploring the themes quite seriously (though not without humor, of course).

Another huge problem was that the main doll was overshadowed by the three secondary dolls. Victor, Sierra, and November were all far more compelling than Echo ever was. In my opinion, of course.

I'm not sure I see that as a problem. It would only be a problem if Whedon and Dushku tried to force it to be primarily about Echo, but I don't think they've done that. It started out looking like a star vehicle for Dushku, but they weren't afraid to let it become a true ensemble show.

 

[Joe Washington]

How's this for reworking Dollhouse:

DeWitt is a brilliant scientist that invented the Dollhouse technology. Her goals for the technology were strictly humanitarian like programming those who lack medical knowledge or skills with those two attributes so they can help in major areas of the world where people are suffering. But the scientific community, once hearing about her invention, went aganist her, viewing this technology as something that can be easily used unethically if it fallen into the wrong hands. DeWitt almost lost hope in the future of her technology until the Rossum Corporation developed an interest in her work and presented her with a proposal. They'll give her a place and ways to use her technology for people and they'll be willing to have her do as much good work as she wants. But in addition to those good works, the Corporation will bring in clients whose demands will be far less humanitarian and it will be her job to accommodate them. DeWitt agrees to the proposal and so the Dollhouse was born.

The Dollhouse is built beneath a health spa, which has an elevator that is used to get to the underground Dollhouse facility when a secret button in the elevator is pressed. This being the first operational Dollhouse, the Corporation puts DeWitt in charge of it with Dominic as her head of security. DeWitt had her assistant and colleague, Topher, brought into the Dollhouse as its programmer, which was one of DeWitt's conditions if she is to work for the Rossum Corporation.

After much talk between DeWitt and the Rossum Corporation, it was decided that those will become the Dollhouse's Actives will be prison inmates who are facing life in prison or death row. Outcasts of the world who have very little options in their lives. Among the inmates handpicked by the Corporation are Caroline, Sierra, Victor, and Mellie. Caroline is the troublesome sister of FBI Agent Paul Ballard. One day, she got herself into something that got her into more trouble than she's used to and because of that, she's in prison. Despite their strained relationship, Ballard has been trying to get her sister an overturn of her sentence but all his efforts were failing. Just when she thinks her life is over, Caroline meets Miss DeWitt, who offers her and the other inmates a deal: if they sign a five-year contract which will make them guinea pigs in the Dollhouse project, by the end of those five years, they'll be released into the outside world with their memories and personalties returned to them, five million dollars in their pocket and a new identity for them to use in their new free lives. All of this would be made possible by the Rossum Corporation. With his brother ending up empty handed on his end, Caroline accepts the deal and as did the other inmates. Caroline was wiped of her personality and memories, which were locked in a special place along with the personalities and memories of the other inmates, and when she became a part of the Dollhouse project, she was given the name Echo. In the outside world, the Corporation pulled some strings to make it look like the inmates were transferred to a special maximum security prison, which they are not given any contact with visitors. Paul learns about this and tries to reach Caroline in the prison facility. When he fails to do that, Paul makes it his mission to find out how this happened, why, and who was behind it even if it means the cost of his job.

When the series opens, a year has passed since Ballard began his personal mission. The Dollhouse is becoming a success and the Corporation is already opening a few other Dollhouses around the world. But then something bad happens. One of the Actives, Alpha, goes psychotic, killing some of the Dollhouse's staff and forcing Echo to go in the chair so he can do something to her mind. Alpha was stopped before he could do any damage to Echo's mind. Alpha was sent off to a facility where the Corporation says Alpha would be dealt with and Echo rejoined her fellow Actives and went on with her life in the Dollhouse. That was until she starts remembering pieces of memories left lingering between imprints. Alpha planted something in Echo's mind that is causing her to slowly remember. Meanwhile, a new handler named Boyd is brought in to replace Echo's former handler who died in Alpha's rampage as the Dollhouse is trying to move on from the Alpha massacre. But over the course of the season, we are shown that it has impacted the Dollhouse staff in different ways. DeWitt is confronted by the reality of how her technology can go wrong and can be misused in the worst way possible. This makes her question her beliefs and whether or not to joining the Rossum Corporation was a good idea. When Topher tells her about Echo possibly slowly regaining pieces of memory, DeWitt decides to keep it between her and Topher and let it go on until she figure out how to use it in the future. She doesn't entirely trust Dominic, who she suspects is keeping tabs on her for the Corporation.

In the season finale, we find out Alpha wasn't killed by the Corporation. It turns out, they have been using him to see what else he can do by putting him on assignments the kind DeWitt's Dollhouse have never done but which the other Dollhouses are being trained to do by the Corporation.

 

[commodore64]

I thought that it was a fairly average show - the big weakness to me was the lead actress who seems to made out of teak.

Agreed. I thought the other actors were good. Topher is interesting. He's supposed to be the young/annoying character. I like the body guard. I like the chick who runs the place. I even like Sierra and Victor. Ballard is okay.

The lead actress seems out of her league and unable to handle the character, which admittedly must be hard to portray. You know, being the lead is hard. It's so much easier to be the bad guy/gal or the sidekick, which is possibly why she was better in the Buffy series.

 

[Casi]

I thought that it was a fairly average show - the big weakness to me was the lead actress who seems to made out of teak.

You know...as an old Buffy hand...I wanted so much to like Eliza in this role. But I've had to come to grips with the fact that she's just not a good actress. Faith is really the only character she's got, and that character was only interesting because she was a Slayer.

However....I'm going to spoiler tag my thoughts on the last two episodes in case anyone hasn't seen them yet.

Spoiler: About the End

I really think the addition of Alan Tudyk was really a saving grace for this season. He's such a versital actor and God I just love him. He managed to become a fully rounded character the minute we saw him...and then he wasn't even that person! That's more developement we've gotten from any other character on the whole show. Topher is the only one who has come even close to being that round.

On a whole...I'm a little dissappointed with it but I think it's ratings, particularly on Hulu are just high enough to get it a second season. Let's hope it has something better to show us.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Well, my wife and I did not get past the second episode. We found the concept horrific and disgusting (and neither one of us are prudes), much better suited for HBO than a network show wrapped in Wheadon-esque dialogue.

These people subject their bodies to sexual and physical humiliation and violence, and from the start it at least it appears as if they are forced into this. So, we end up watching the woman basically get prostituted/raped and tortured and it is presented as light-hearted action. At least have the decency to bring this up to the seriousness the thematic structure of the show deserves.

Yes, there's a serious disconnect between the content and the style. There's a big problem with hypocrisy as a result - we're shown Echo and supposed to go awwww, she's a poor widdle victim. Which is distasteful, manipulative and really disrespectful to the main character - when I saw how manipulative the scenario was, that raised my hackles something awful, I have to admit. I had a very negative gut reaction immediately, just because of how I perceived the show trying to manipulate me (and the audience in general).

And then there was the added problem that they made me lose respect for the main character almost immediately by presenting her as a weakling and a victim, and also stupid by implication. No amount of "girl power" scenes of Echo kicking butt can compensate for that. Whedon seems to think he can present female characters as victims and it's okay when they overcome their victimhood, but he lost me at the initial presentation of victimhood so I'm too contemptuous of the character for the butt-kicking scenes to change my mind; by then, it's way too late, and the whole victim/butt-kicking progression is too obviously artificial and contrived to work on me anyway. I like stories to have a more organic, natural-flowing feel than that. When I can see the mechanisms working behind the writing, ugh.

Which is why I think the solution is 1) make the lead character MALE (so that Whedon is not tempted to present him as a victim - Whedon doesn't seem to do that with male characters nearly as much); 2) give the lead character a sensible, smart motive for subjecting himself to the Dollhouse treatment (so we don't lose respect for him or doubt his intelligence.)

I do believe that they erred by extremely overestimating how sympathetic an animal rights activist backstory would be. What they though would paint her as an idealist instead paints her as an idiot.

Yeah, PETA has managed to turn animal rights activists into jokes - too bad, really. But even without PETA, that angle is far too cowardly. Whedon should have not been such a wuss. Make Caroline a real terrorist, who committed murder, blew up a frakkin' day care center or something. How about a violent, psychopathic white supremacist?

I could buy Caroline being horrified with herself enough to volunteer for the Dollhouse if that had been her past. But no, that would be far too hard-edged for Whedon, so he cops out with an "awwww, she's not so bad" backtstory. Blech. If you're going to present this "edgy" story, you have got to have the courage of your convictions and follow through.

They're people who had traumas in their past that they couldn't live with, and they chose this as an alternative to suicide, basically.

That's the problem - if the trauma is extreme (repentant white supremacist killer), then we can sympathize with the person. If the trauma is not extreme enough (stupid college girl dabbling in "radical" animal rights), then they just come off as a nitwit and a wuss.

 

[Casi]

I disagree. I think we're being shown a lot of different definitions of the word victim. It's a question that has come up in his other work, though not in this particular way. It's a very good vs evil situation. And we don't actually know enough about Caroline to know if she is actually a victim. Does she deserve the treatment she's put through. No. Absolutely not. It's mental and physical rape, something Whedon knew, in point of fact. He actually went to Equality Now and pitched the idea before ever letting it get off the ground. He knew how dark it was going to get.

I still think there are two main reasons the show is failing right now. Eliza is not a strong enough actor for this role and Fox is leaning really hard to tone down the negativity. It's the same thing they did with Firefly, forcing the crew to be more familial instead of allowing the more natural growth he wanted.

 

[Christopher]

And then there was the added problem that they made me lose respect for the main character almost immediately by presenting her as a weakling and a victim, and also stupid by implication. No amount of "girl power" scenes of Echo kicking butt can compensate for that. Whedon seems to think he can present female characters as victims and it's okay when they overcome their victimhood, but he lost me at the initial presentation of victimhood so I'm too contemptuous of the character for the butt-kicking scenes to change my mind; by then, it's way too late, and the whole victim/butt-kicking progression is too obviously artificial and contrived to work on me anyway.

You're talking about it as though Echo/Caroline were intrinsically stupid and as if she were the same person as her various imprints. That doesn't make sense. This is not a single character who's both weak and a fighter. This is a woman who's had her own identity physically erased from her brain so that other constructed or composite personalities can be downloaded into it. The default Echo personality is itself a created persona, a very crude, basic personality designed to have no will or initiative. I don't think it's remotely fair to feel contempt for her when she's been made that way by other people. It's not some kind of innate character flaw. And her strength didn't come from her ability to "kick butt," which is merely a programmed ability of the various synthetic personae downloaded into her body from week to week. Her true strength comes from her ability to retain some sense of selfhood and memory when it was all supposed to be deleted. This is an allegorical story about a person who's had her identity removed but who manages to retain some essence of self and transcend the limits and assumptions imposed on her by others.

Which is why I think the solution is 1) make the lead character MALE (so that Whedon is not tempted to present him as a victim - Whedon doesn't seem to do that with male characters nearly as much)

Did you miss what happened to Victor in the last two episodes?

That's the problem - if the trauma is extreme (repentant white supremacist killer), then we can sympathize with the person. If the trauma is not extreme enough (stupid college girl dabbling in "radical" animal rights), then they just come off as a nitwit and a wuss.

Excuse me? Why do you assume it has to be personal guilt for some kind of horrific crime that's the driving motivation? I think you're forgetting that Caroline's lover got killed in the incident where they broke into the lab. Obviously she was experiencing deep grief at his death, and probably some sense of guilt at drawing him into the situation that led to his death. I hardly think that it makes someone "a nitwit and a wuss" to be overwhelmed by grief at the death of a loved one. In fact, as someone who experienced that kind of grief very early in my life, I'm offended by the suggestion.

 

[Casi]

[quoteWhich is why I think the solution is 1) make the lead character MALE (so that Whedon is not tempted to present him as a victim - Whedon doesn't seem to do that with male characters nearly as much) [/quote]

Did you also miss what happened to Spike in season seven of Buffy? Or what happened to Angel through his entire run on Buffy? Or what happened to Wash in Serenity? Or the fact that Dr. Horrible is a victim of his own misguided views? Joss isn't about victimizing women. He's more woman power than most writers have been in the past fifty years and that is evident by his entire body of work. He knew how dark this subject matter would be and that it would raise warning bells for a lot of people, and he did it anyway. I think there is a really important story to tell in this show, I'm just worried we won't have the chance to see it actually play out.

Think of it this way...was this first season really any worse than the first season of Buffy?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Caroline's lover got killed in the incident where they broke into the lab. Obviously she was experiencing deep grief at his death, and probably some sense of guilt at drawing him into the situation that led to his death.

That's a pathetic motivation. She should have the emotional strength to deal with it. Choosing oblivion is the mark of a coward, and destroys any sympathy I might feel toward the character. She's a wuss and deserves whatever shit is heaped upon her. But that's because she has, in effect, decided to commit suicide and I think of people who do that as cowards who are not at all deserving of my respect.

And I find it amazing anyone could believe that Echo is not being deliberately presented as a victim when from the start Whedon has both sexualized and infantilized her in some kind of grotesque quasi-pedophiliac fantasy that he wants us to participate in. Although my tastes do run to the grotesque, that's a bit too much for me. Plus he's doing it in an off-putting hypocritical way. If he were being honest and up front about his sick little fantasies, with both the audience and himself for that matter, I might be more amenable to going along with the show.

The bottom line is that enough people have been uninterested in this show, for whatever reason, that the ratings are a failure. How many of them bailed on it because of lack of respect or sympathy for the character, I don't know, but considering how many people are complaining about this from various angles, it certainly has contributed.

For the right way to portray a character who is essentially a victim, and has been emotionally and mentally warped out of shape by it, yet with an approach that does not lose the audience's sympathy and respect, and handles grotesque and upsetting material in an honest and even compelling way, watch Dexter.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Of course she's victim, everyone in the dollhouse is. They're slaves for fuck's sake.

 

[hyzmarca]

That's the problem - if the trauma is extreme (repentant white supremacist killer), then we can sympathize with the person. If the trauma is not extreme enough (stupid college girl dabbling in "radical" animal rights), then they just come off as a nitwit and a wuss.

Excuse me? Why do you assume it has to be personal guilt for some kind of horrific crime that's the driving motivation? I think you're forgetting that Caroline's lover got killed in the incident where they broke into the lab. Obviously she was experiencing deep grief at his death, and probably some sense of guilt at drawing him into the situation that led to his death. I hardly think that it makes someone "a nitwit and a wuss" to be overwhelmed by grief at the death of a loved one. In fact, as someone who experienced that kind of grief very early in my life, I'm offended by the suggestion.

No, breaking into a lab to help all the poor defenseless animals makes one a nitwit and a wuss. The fact that it was her own stupidity that led to the whole situation makes it difficult to sympathize with her, mostly because it is difficult to sympathize with those sorts of extreme animal rights activists in the first place. There are any number of similar idealistic backstories that would have made her substantially more sympathetic. If her cause was more serious, like liberating Palestine or ending the war in Iraq, it would have been easier to sympathize with her. If she was forced to kill her boyfriend with her own hands for the greater good, instead of leading him to die in a stupid and easily forseeable way, then she would have been more sympathetic.

In short, the problem is the cause. Most people can't sympathetize with someone who would put lab animals above human lives. If she were fighting for actual people, no matter how misguided she may have been, then at least it would be understandable. If she was an ecoterrorist blowing up oil refineries and such it would have been understandable, because the fate of the planet as a whole is a sufficiently great concern to warrent endangering some lives, while the fate of a few specific animals is not unless there is a strong pre-existing emotional bond with one of the animals.

 

[3D Master]

Caroline's lover got killed in the incident where they broke into the lab. Obviously she was experiencing deep grief at his death, and probably some sense of guilt at drawing him into the situation that led to his death.

That's a pathetic motivation. She should have the emotional strength to deal with it. Choosing oblivion is the mark of a coward, and destroys any sympathy I might feel toward the character. She's a wuss and deserves whatever shit is heaped upon her. But that's because she has, in effect, decided to commit suicide and I think of people who do that as cowards who are not at all deserving of my respect.

Especially considering she sold herself to the very company she just got the evidence from that they're experimenting on humans; the very company that REALLY got her friend killed. You got the evidence to bring this entire company and all its affiliates down crashing if she handed it to the police, (provided the international-wide conspiracy doesn't cover it up) and what does she do instead? Sell her soul to the very devil she's got by the balls.