Second of all, I didn’t get the impression she was imprinted as an expert woodswoman. The only thing we her do with competence is white water raft (which lots of normal people do) and have sex (ditto). She didn’t know how to shoot a bow and arrow – the guy taught her that. I think she was imprinted to be just an athletic, adventurous girl who have some skill in the outdoor.

Now someone turns the bow and arrow on her and you expect her to be – what – female Rambo? Roco, the fact that you’ve designed a whole website around a TV show leads me to believe that your expectations of what a real person would and would not do in the face of death is a bit skewed. And I agree with the guy above who said that only someone watching a TV show would be suspicious of a random canteen of water in a cabin the forest. Someone in real life running around, fearing for their life, and thirty would not suspect a random water bottle. In real life, it *wouldn’t* have been poisoned. Walking into a dark room in real life also won’t get you killed, but in a horror movie it will. That’s why it’s a horror movie; and the water was poisoned because this is a TV show. Kudos to Joss for giving his characters some halfway realistic reactions to what are necessarily absurd situations.

maybe he did a wrong choice to hire Eliza as Echo.. (I can’t believe I think that).. Anyway, I know I’ll watch it again next week.

Yeah, I would agree with that. The only problem is that she cast him, effectively. So she was always going to be in the main role.

It’s a difficult one – how do you bring to life such relevant concepts such as identity and consciousness when you don’t have the tools with which to create?

That said, Whedon has faith in her so we can only hope that she comes good.

I do agree, let’s hope they go down the road of Caroline/Echo/Alpha intrication and not some dumb ‘i am your brother Echo’ pointless solution.

I’ve been reading extensively on Greek Mythology for my teaching lately and how it has been building the frames of our actual occidental philosophy. I ‘stumbled’ (hehe) on the myth of the nymph Echo, i think there are some interesting points i just felt i could share.

Unfortunately don’t have the time to elaborate tonight but here are some thoughts: Echo was a storyteller, a muse, and she fell in love with a mortal, Narcisse. But the story got complicated. The whole Narcisse myth all by itself is quite interesting as it brings to mind notions of reflection, manipulation etc.

Now i am certain there isn’t any direct link between this Echo and that Echo and that the name is a pure ‘coincidence’ that fortunately carries tons of meanings. Yet, storytelling is all about what the DH is creating. An hyperreal series of stories with manipulated puppets. This thing is bound to provoke Chaos. And as the Greeks say, Chaos is the matrix to everything.

Voila, it’s super dumb i’m sure but eventually someone brighter will rebounces on it… if necessary

Seems pretty clear to me that Alpha is trying to free Echo because he sees her as having a capacity for accessing multiple imprints (like he does, but hopefully she won’t go crazy like he did).

In this instance, Alpha seems like s/he had full-blown awareness. It will be interesting to see how this can happen. All the composite imprints in the world wouldn’t be any good unless there was a way to consciously control them.

Interesting possibilities.

Finally, dollhouse is not quite so morally cut and dry to me as it is to Shar. My understanding is that the actives are paid. They are in some serious trouble -DH scoops them up and offers them an alternative for 5 years as well as payment. This is different from slavery. I think it is still wrong, but I think why it is wrong is interesting, and will be explored by the show, which i, for one, intend to keep watching.

Interesting. I’m not sure it is too different from slavery though. The Dollhouse may be promising ‘reparations’ before inflicting abuse on the pre-wiped humans, but it’s still a form of slavery to me.

I also believe that lasagna girl is an active. Immediately after Madame Dollhouse tells her assistant that Agent Ballard is “being handled” they flash to the lasagna scene. Its sort of hilarious that he is looking everywhere for DH and it is right under his nose.

Finally, dollhouse is not quite so morally cut and dry to me as it is to Shar. My understanding is that the actives are paid. They are in some serious trouble -DH scoops them up and offers them an alternative for 5 years as well as payment. This is different from slavery. I think it is still wrong, but I think why it is wrong is interesting, and will be explored by the show, which i, for one, intend to keep watching.

The whole Alpha mystery is quite interesting because we somehow understand why Echo is so ’special’. But then again was she special when she was Caroline or did she turn special after her enrollment in the DH?

Now that IS an interesting question! Good thinking, LPF!

We know that Caroline was in some sort of trouble prior to being wiped, so perhaps that could play into it? Although, I think it could be more interesting if it’s a mixture of the two – i.e. the human/imprint aspect of Alpha being intrinsically drawn to the human/imprint side of Echo. Could make for some interesting exploration, if they decide to go down that route.

As for Eliza. Thumbs up. I’m sorry Roco, i’ll have to go with Bekki. I know Dushku will never reach the level of say Meryl Streep who can be anyone with style (a little like Isabelle Huppert). Yet she was pretty decent in ‘Target’. Her acting was fairly expected of course when she was Echo-the-forest-squirrel. But it is in the fashback scenes especially the one when she is talking about heavy guy with Boyd and saying that she wants him to know ‘who she really is’ (heavish dialogue!) that she cracked me up! She is good at playing innocent/dumb girl and i think that string need to pulled more instead of the zombie-doll-i-gonna-go-swimming-now-

Hey, that’s fine – like I always say, we all have different perspectives on things, and that’s the way it should be.

I’m yet to see much shade or variation in her acting, but hopefully that will change over the course of the season. In the meantime, I look forward to reading your interpretations.

Although, 8/10? Yikes!

I too found the exposition terrible. I’m not sure that we can constantly blame Fox for the faults of the show, but it was rather lame.

I get the feeling that they’re trying to sexualize Echo as much as possible in order to ‘empower’ her later on in the series. I just think it’s too heavy-handed on so many levels. We all know that it’s a difficult concept to portray, but they had over a year to nail it, instead, well, I don’t even have to say it..

You’re probably right to point out Topher – whilst I didn’t find him particularly humourous in 1.02, he’s the most likely source of the funny.

I’m with you on the potential of the Boyd/Brink relationship. I like your take on that also – Topher definitely seems vulnerable when it comes to his ‘creations’ going haywire.

Interesting theory on Alpha ‘not being able’ to kill Echo! That’s certainly different to him ‘choosing’ not to, and would possibly give us a freewill vs determinism vibe.

I hear you on the satellite, but I still think it’s contrived. Surely the ‘Dollhouse’ would prepare for such circumstances? They presumably knew that maniac guy was taking Echo into the woods – wouldn’t they have a protocol or prepping process whereby they ensured that the signal would be in place ‘before’ the fun started? As you say, it’s impressive that they have control over satellites, but I think that it’s pretty weak if they expect us to believe that such a high powered and ‘underground’ group wouldn’t do their homework first..

I don’t want Dollhouse to turn out like the Bionic Woman reimagining. So far, not so good