The Dollhouse is amateurishly run (Hearn was right - of course that sort of thing was bound to happen, and should have been predicted and prevented)
...Unless the higher powers don't really give a damn about how well the Dollhouses are run, as long as they get to perfect their doll technology (see my comments below about Echo's message to Ballard).
and Agent Ballard should be booted from the FBI for unprofessional behavior (yakking to his neighbor about his case and endangering her life).
If there were no repercussions, I'd agree with you. But seeing as how he was suspended and his neighbor the doll is now a traumatized wreck, I don't see why you're frustrated about the Ballard situation. What I like about Whedon's shows is that, unlike a lot of shows, when the characters screw up, they and the people around them end up paying for it.
This episode provides yet more evidence that the Dollhouse makes no financial sense. The software mogul guy could have hired a dream date from any reasonably upscale escort service to put on the act he required - no brainwashing or added expense was required for that gig. And Ballard holding his own in a fight with Echo proves that there's no point in the Dollhouse's fight training, if they can get just as good a fighter for a government wage. And once again, no brainwashing required. There are plenty of guys willing to do dirty work for a price, and that price would be a whole lot lower than required to support the Dollhouse facility.
They're paying a premium for people who
won't remember anything about the job they're hired to do. Kind of hard to find a skilled-to-order amnesiac at government wages.
...Of course, the Dollhouse ends up knowing what happened because the handler's sitting there in a truck monitoring and recording everything, but from what we've seen the clients aren't supposed to know about that. The clients think they're all alone with someone who won't remember any of the depraved, pathetic, embarrassing or illegal things they have them do.
The boo hoo story from the software mogul was sappy and trite. Who couldn't guess his wifey would end up killed before she set foot in her new dream house? Shitty writing.
Yeah, I saw that coming too. But I don't need to be surprised by every conversation in a show. One or two major twists is enough to pique my interest, and the message from Echo qualified as a couple twists on its own.
Basically this show is about characters who are idiots and screw-ups...
Exactly what I thought when I watched Buffy, Angel and Firefly. I liked them anyway. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather watch a show about idiots and screw-ups than something like CSI where you know everyone's at the top of their game and the good guys are going to win 50 minutes into every episode. Maybe this is why all the shows I like get canceled.
...and a premise that makes no sense. No more second chances from me, this is total garbage. If this was a "step up" from the episodes I missed, I sure didn't miss anything.
I laughed a bunch of times tonight - for the first time with this series. "Why don't you get a drink and go beat your chest," in particular, felt like Angel or Firefly-level Whedon dialogue.
And of course the premise doesn't make sense: ironically, that's part of the premise, and that's probably what I find interesting about the show. The whole system is a house of cards that's been unraveling from the start because (a) it's not possible to keep something like that secret, and (b) it apparently isn't possible to just erase humans and treat them like dolls for long. Echo's message hinted that the whole Dollhouse system isn't the point, and the "man on the street" segments trended toward the notion that Dollhouses might be a front for higher (government?) powers that are testing the technology for a much bigger purpose. Dollhouses aren't really services for the rich, they're self-financing laboratories perfecting technologies that tptb plan to use to reshape the world. Not really a spoiler so much as an educated guess: The preview for next week suggests to me they're developing technology to wipe massive numbers of people - maybe everyone on earth. Maybe they even think it's nearing time to reboot humanity.
amongst many others, for me.
