Dollhouse: "Haunted" (1x10)

[tharpdevenport]

Thoughts when it ends.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Need to cover the familiar bases: Topher is a terrible character and the actor can't act at all. And the scoring for the show is bad.


Anyway, okay episode. I just think the way it was handled made it a bit boring, though it was an interesting idea.

And with only two episodes left (maybe three if FOX airs the 13th episode), it was a pity just about nothing event-wise occured here.

Next Friday is again being billed as the "event you've been waiting for", but I won't fall for that again.

And, by golly ... that's Wash I see there ... probably as Omega or Alpha.

 

[Caligula]

I gotta disagree about Topher. He's been one of the more entertaining parts of the show for me. His scenes with Sierra in this one were really cute and raised the episode from average to above average.

On the other hand, I completely agree in regards to the teaser for next week. It's like that classic song by The Who: "We Won't Get Fooled Again."

 

[WendellM]

I was looking forward to a thread this week after last week's hiatus - thanks, Tharp.

I liked the Phildickian angle of dealing with one's own death in another body. While the philosophical angle wasn't as pronounced as I'd like, I enjoyed what was present. And the "detective work" was handled pretty decently in spite of covering familiar ground.

"Emo/Elmo" and the inappropriate kiss were among several bits of welcome humor. Mellie (or rather the writers) know just what a man wants to hear from a woman . I also enjoyed seeing the versatile Gregg Henry as a red herring.

At first I thought that Topher might have implanted a recording of one of his guy-buddies on Sierra, then maybe a constructed personality, then finally I wondered if it were his own personality. Seeing Dichen Lachman having fun rather than being emotionally tortured was good whatever the reason.

Above Average.

 

[Ryan]

At first I thought that Topher might have implanted a recording of one of his guy-buddies on Sierra, then maybe a constructed personality, then finally I wondered if it were his own personality.

I figured it was a copy of his personality too. Topher seems the kind of guy who's egomaniacal enough to do that (though I do have to say his character is really growing on me).

I'd give the episode above average overall. It had plot holes galore but the execution was solid.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The fact that this is a one-off, stand-alone story prevented them from making more of the ramifications of the whole "we can bring you back to life." She went too easily and conveniently into that good night. If it was necessary for them to do this story this way, they would have been better off clearly establishing at the outset that she could be shut down against her will by a trigger of some kind.

There were some good moments, and an unexpectedly risky one - that the kid actually unknowingly put the moves on "Mom" by misreading her and Echo's reaction to it was just funny as Hell.

The killer became real obvious as soon as the son recognized the mother, I thought. By the time they were on the run together it was certain, if for no other reason simply that the "killer's" reveal came about five minutes too early in the hour.

The Topher "B" story was enjoyable and went a little ways toward making him more sympathetic if not one bit less of a cliche. The Ballard "B" story was dynamite. "I found one." Jeezuz is that man's head fucked.

Did I mention that I want to do DeWitt? Add Sierra to the short list.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I take it the scenes with Topher and Sierra are supposed to be cute and funny but I can't get past the implant conceit and the whole thing just creeps me out personally.

 

[Borgminister]

This episode reminded me of Murder She Wrote... but still entertaining.

Looks like a Whedon alum is along for the ride next week.

 

[Wentworth-Roth]

I really liked this episode, it's one of the very few I watched in its entirety.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The Ballard "B" story was dynamite. "I found one." Jeezuz is that man's head fucked.

I've found virtually everything with Ballard in this series compelling. He's the character I'm rooting for. And if next week gets him killed or sends him to the Attic, I'm going to be seriously upset.

 

[Forbin]

Brilliant concept handled as well as can be expected for prime time TV.

I agree she went too easily at the end. Of course it would have been a horrendous cliche if she'd decided to run off or put up a fight for Echo's body (hm!). But a bit of "just five more minutes, ma?" would have been expected of a normal person. Or maybe it just shows how strong a person she was that she simply lay down and died on cue.

One of the best eps, IMHO.

 

[Pingfah]

Loved it. Definitely the best standalone episode. As somebody else pointed out, rather a homage to Murder She Wrote. Good classic murder story, very well acted by all involved.

 

[Warp Coil]

Even though the A-story was pretty much a stand-alone murder mystery, I found it oddly compelling. Very well executed. A job well done by the actors. I dunno... I really liked it.

 

[J47]

Below Average.

The premise was great, but the execution was piss poor. Who didn't see it being the son from the second the gambling debt was mentioned? Actually, I think my distaste of the episode might be mostly due to Eliza Dushku's acting. You can all complain about Topher as much as you want, but his acting compared to Eliza's this week was Emmy-worthy.

I did like the Ballard/Mellie plot, Tahmoh and Miracle have great chemistry. And the son kissing his mom was good for a chuckle.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Of course it would have been a horrendous cliche if she'd decided to run off or put up a fight for Echo's body (hm!).

Yeah, that's the stand-aloney problem with this kind of a story. If they were to do an extended set of stories about a personality "hijacking" one of the Actives, it could be pretty interesting.

Aside from Dick, Robert Silverberg used the whole idea of human beings with replacement personalities in a series of short novels back in the 1960s. The stories weren't related, per se - just the same conceit used in different stories. There was always a threat(?) of the original personality overcoming the new personality (Silverberg called it "going dybbuk"). Often the original was a psychopathic killer who'd been overwritten as punishment - the morality of it and the question of "which one am I pulling for / identifying with here" was always interesting.

I mean - Echo is becoming a bit more real and independent almost every week. Assuming this series continues, is there a point at which we stop wanting Carolyn to get her life back because it means that Echo dies? How invested are we in the person that November used to be, as opposed to the person who's in love with Ballard and whom he's so conflicted about?

I think that there have become three distinct types of Actives as characters on this show - there's Echo, who we're encouraged to identify with as her original (Carolyn) her Active (Echo) and each of her implanted personalities in turn. There's Melly/November, who we follow primarily in her Melly personality (although we see her at the Dollhouse). And there are Sierra and Victor, who we see with implanted personalities but who are most developed as Actives-in-waiting within the Dollhouse because we see them forming attachments and having traumatic experiences there.

Or at least, it seems like that to me. Obviously, since we see all of these characters in each of their incarnations the matter is not that cut-and-dried.

 

[Bishbot]

Aside from Dick, Robert Silverberg used the whole idea of human beings with replacement personalities in a series of short novels back in the 1960s. The stories weren't related, per se - just the same conceit used in different stories. There was always a threat(?) of the original personality overcoming the new personality (Silverberg called it "going dybbuk"). Often the original was a psychopathic killer who'd been overwritten as punishment - the morality of it and the question of "which one am I pulling for / identifying with here" was always interesting.

Richard Morgan's "Takeshi Kovacs" books have the same conceit - that consciousness can now be seperated from bodies and transferred at will. You get people using the bodies of condemned criminals, or leasing out their own bodies, or using artificial bodies and the very wealthy back themselves up remotely and have banks of clones - living, effectively, forever. In fact the first book, "Altered Carbon" deals with a man who hires Kovacs to investigate his death, which has been ruled a suicide, because he does not think himself capable of suicide.

I actually expected, once it became apparent that she obviously couldn't remember anything between her last scan and her death, that in that time she would have discovered something that made her kill herself - which I think would have been a better ending than "the son did it".

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Anybody else think the guy playing nick looks alot like jeremy piven? Although i looked him up and it turns out he's beau bridges son, the episode was a bit paint by numbers, but the topher stuff was odd, but heartfelt since I think it was his birthday, maybe he's a really lonely guy and his geeky snarkiness is more of a defense mechanism to hide that fact, I could be reading way too much into that

 

[Captain Shaw]

I do think he his lonely.
But unless he is the spy he is a evil son of a bitch who deserves to end up in the attic.

 

[Hyperspace05]

I voted excellent... I liked the story.

 

[Ayelbourne]

I liked the Topher part. I liked the concept of achieving immortality through Dollhouse technology. I loved the Ballard/Mellie bits because, dude, with all those layers of "who abuses who" this is all kinds of frakked up.

I didn't like the A-plot. Pretty boring and predictable murder mystery. Why should I care about the family issues of some stupid rich snobs who I'm not going to see ever again anyway?