AOQ Dollhouse Review 2-9: "Stop-Loss"
Arbitrar Of Quality
review threads.
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DOLLHOUSE
Season Two, Episode 9: "Stop-Loss"
(or "It'd be the same opinion twenty times!")
Writer: Andrew Chambliss
Director: Felix Alcal�
[Note: This is a review of "Stop-Loss" only. Thoughts on "The Attic" will
be posted separately.]
Well, that was exhilarating, huh? "Stop-Loss," (credited to Andrew
Chambliss, writer of just about everything) is one of those packed episodes
that tries, and mostly succeeds, to juggle a few themes whilst telling both
a single-episode story and a long term arc. Look at the teaser, which, in a
bit of a throwback to the old days, goes a full ten minutes before cutting
to the opening titles. Hell, look at the first scene, which drops us
straight into Victor/Roger's final Lonely Hearts engagement. The immediate
purpose is for Adelle to find her custom-made lover having another woman on
his mind; here, the audience presumably knows what's going on well before
the character does, so the opening involves watching her put it together.
That includes several good lines from Topher ("if it's funny, I want to take
credit for it. Hee. . ."), although the play of these scenes seems a little
too casual given how badly she betrayed him and the world as a whole a
couple episodes ago. Mitigated some by his continuing to work against her
in the shadows.
But slipped in there, right in the opening, is the revelation that Victor's
about to be set free, and that's what drives most of the early bits. First
of all, I'd like to point out that charged with actually carrying scenes via
actual "acting" rather than "mimicking," Gjokaj doesn't set the world on
fire and make heavy lifters like Dushku look like amateurs, the way some
people would have us believe. Just saying. And that's not meant as a knock
on Enver - I do think he's been good, and he does a solid job here with
acting lost and wide eyed in a subdued, manly, ex-soldier way. Leading up
to the brilliantly conceived image of him lying down in the bathtub without
quite knowing why. But built around this plot, the show is continuing to
move other pieces around. There's the obvious, like Victor's connection to
Sierra. And the less than obvious, like a bit of selfish neediness from
Echo. (BOYD: I thought you'd be pleased. ECHO: I was gonna use him to help
me get everyone out. BOYD: He's already been used for five years.)
And of course, it comes around back to Adelle. We see Adelle defeated in a
few different ways and forced to realize it, which is considerably more
interesting to watch than denial. Williams nicely conveys the increase in
drunkenness, emerging gradually enough that we suspect it, but kinda in a
background way. For whatever reason, I don't find the actor physically
beautiful the way some of ya'all seem to, so I'm not as enamored of the
cleansing shower as I'm sure some will be (although credit for clearly
putting her in contact with actual non-CGI water). But TV writers like to
mix physical with emotional nakedness (notice that Victor shows off some
skin too), and there's plenty of the latter on display throughout the
episode. I always expect these vulnerable moments to lead to moral
redemption, but that expectation is often confounded. The end point of
Adelle's story this time is one of those "surprises" that seems like it
ought to have been inevitable, as she rejects both Echo's side and Rossum's
side in favor of pursuing her own agenda. It seems rather abrupt, but that's
part of what makes it work dramatically - we're lulled into a false sense of
security by the fact that Adelle hasn't acted directly to stop Echo before,
so we assume that she won't. And making "her" people (Topher et al) do it,
which is important to her, even if it's a possible instrument of her
eventual downfall.
I'm still absorbing all this, so forgive me if this review includes a lot of
recapping the plot. What drives Miss DeWitt to this point? The rejection
by Victor/Roger doesn't do it alone. The confrontation with Echo, at least
initially, makes her sink deeper into irrelevance. This is an interesting
scene because when she's in the House, I'm also not used to seeing Echo this
assertive. Sneaking around in the dark, yes. A doll confronting Adelle in
her office and mixing bluster with an offer of an alliance, no. A few
selected lines of interest:
ECHO: You didn't make me. *I* made me.
ADELLE: If you're so powerful, why are still in my House, sneaking around
trying to find your comatose boyfriend?
ECHO: Lady, if I wanted to be somewhere else, I would be. But there's work
to do here. Now, you can be on my side, or you can be on Rossum's, but the
time for playing both is over.
Like I said, Adelle apparently chooses a third option, but not directly in
response to this scene. She shrugs at Rossum's bigger plans, has another
drink, and very pointedly changes her usual sales pitch to ask "isn't that
why we're in business? To give people what they *want*?" It really seems
like Boyd is the factor that finally drives her over the edge, partly
because of his independent agenda and partly because of his words to her.
This is twice now that we've seen Boyd play on Adelle's sense of control,
and both times it's moved her to make choices that leave everyone worse off.
What's he thinking, given how well he knows her? I'm not totally sure
anymore. It should be noted that this isn't plan A. Plan A is to continue
working around Adelle, treating her as irrelevant. But when that becomes
impossible, he tries to bring back the woman who "put this House and the
actives first." Despite his warning in the last scene, he's the one who has
it blow up in his face. Will his seeming awesomeness ultimately lead to the
apocalypse?
"Awesome" is supposedly an '80s word, but I haven't found an appropriate
replacement in the modern era. There's a lot of awesome in this episode.
Like Boyd calling in Echo as his partner on investigations. That's a great
dynamic. To a degree, Echo's portrayal is bordering on hyper-competent
action hero, but her personality still shines through in playful moments
like "you want FBI, private investigator, or should I surprise you?"
Another great scene that combines badass moments ("we're going to war") with
sparkling dialogue is the bit with our hero getting loaded up with imprints.
I won't dissect it further, beyond mentioning that hey, Ivy gets to impress
Topher a little bit, but it's a lot of fun to watch.
I don't know where a hive mind fits into Rossum's plan for us. Maybe just a
dead end. The private army idea, though, is yet another weekly dose of
precursors to the "Epitaph One" account of One Phone Call To Rule Them All.
I'm not enamored with the driving element of "he's integrated, but if we act
quickly, he won't be *fully* integrated!" But at least the show negates
that by having Tony make a connection with another of his old comrades as an
individual (leading to the poor guy's death), and Echo freeing everyone to
have their own minds at the end.
But getting back to an earlier point, if you want to watch a hyper-competent
action hero, Echo is a good choice. She is so consistently, well, awesome.
Using Sierra/Priya as a weapon not only gives greater meaning to the events
of "Belonging," but is a clever strategy in its own right. Then she fights
off a couple guys while blindfolded, rescues her target, and sets up an
escape route. But that's not enough - she can't leave without jumping all
the way in, so she plugs herself into the hive mind and mentally kicks its
ass. Go, Echo! There's even room for some personal growth; by the end of
the episode, our protagonist feels ready to let Priya and Tony be
legitimately free, without treating them as tools anymore, or needing a
goodbye.
There's an exchange wroth quoting from mid-episode. "Who am I talking to
now?" "Echo. You're always talking to Echo." She's defining herself as
something close to the legitimate hero hinted at by "Epitaph One," but here
it's as Echo, not as Caroline. And just as I was thinking that, she starts
to identify herself as Caroline right before getting knocked out by the
closing plot twist. After an episode of seeing the protagonist at her best,
the rug is abruptly pulled out, and she's very quickly defeated. That's
just good drama. And thus Echo, along with Victor and Sierra, ends up as a
cross between a Cylon Hybrid and a _Dexter_ victim.
Random thoughts:
- Victor/Tony's hotel is called the Hyperion. That same in-joke was also
used once on David Boreanaz's current show.
- I don't think CN3 is a real news network, but I believe that same logo has
also been used on _24_ as their generic news source (once all the TVs in the
_24_ universe were no longer tuned to FOX News, anyway).
- I'd like to be able to harness my pensiveness to turn down the music at
clubs
- There are a few random things that might have deeper themes beyond the
surface meanings, but if so, I don't really know what. Some examples: Tony
wakes up in a world where the war he tried to escape is still going on. The
hive mind injection center looks an awful lot like the Chair back in the
House. Adelle first decides that "pain reveals who you really are," which
could be a Bennett line, and later that people tend to end up dead around
our hero, as Lawrence Dominic used to argue.
- "Cruella DeWitt." Heh.
So, as you can see, I've been taking the ending at face value. Assuming
Adelle's not up to something beyond what she says, and that Boyd and Topher
don't have any tricks up their sleeves. That might be wrong, but if so, it'll
be a twist. The one thing I'm not totally sure about is the very final
moment. Everyone else's bodies are asleep, but Echo opens her eyes. Is
that supposed to happen? It looks claustrophobic, but in the two seconds
that we see her face, she doesn't seem scared. So, don't know quite what it
means. I don't think that's really a big flaw, because no matter what, I
would be dying to see what happens next. We're back into constantly rising
action, and we'll see if the show can sustain this momentum till the end.
Missing in action this episode: Penikett (3). Again, there's a clear plot
reason for it.
.
.
So.
One sentence summary: Packed solid, and just barely shy of Excellent
territory.
AOQ rating: Good
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[Season Two so far:
1) "Vows" - Good
2) "Instinct" - Good
3) "Belle Chose" - Decent
4) "Belonging" - Good
5) "The Public Eye" - Decent
6) "The Left Hand" - Excellent
7) "Meet Jane Doe" - Good
8) "A Love Supreme" - Decent
9) "Stop-Loss" - Good]
One Bit Shy
news:hgj97v$igb$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> DOLLHOUSE
> Season Two, Episode 9: "Stop-Loss"
> Well, that was exhilarating, huh?
Yes, but... I noticed something this week. It had been there last week
too, though especially pronounced this week. The raised energy, accelerated
pace & probably the double dose of episodes have been for me a tad
overwhelming and even bewildering on first view. Or at least I think that's
the explanation. In any case I found that I enjoyed both of this week's
episodes considerably more on second view by simple reason of having the
stories lock in place in my mind much more solidly. That's not really a
complaint since I also found myself unusually eager to quickly re-watch the
episodes. Thank heavens for DVR and Hulu. How on earth did I used to watch
TV? (Less effectively actually.)
> "Stop-Loss," (credited to Andrew Chambliss, writer of just about
> everything) is one of those packed episodes that tries, and mostly
> succeeds, to juggle a few themes whilst telling both a single-episode
> story and a long term arc. Look at the teaser, which, in a bit of a
> throwback to the old days, goes a full ten minutes before cutting to the
> opening titles. Hell, look at the first scene, which drops us straight
> into Victor/Roger's final Lonely Hearts engagement. The immediate purpose
> is for Adelle to find her custom-made lover having another woman on his
> mind; here, the audience presumably knows what's going on well before the
> character does, so the opening involves watching her put it together. That
> includes several good lines from Topher ("if it's funny, I want to take
> credit for it. Hee. . ."), although the play of these scenes seems a
> little too casual given how badly she betrayed him and the world as a
> whole a couple episodes ago. Mitigated some by his continuing to work
> against her in the shadows.
This is the same Topher who will later want to prank on a passed out drunk
Adelle even as deadly serious events swirl around him. To each their own
coping mechanism.
I assume this is a product of the accelerated story pace. The show just
doesn't have the luxury of letting time naturally settle things down, but
doesn't want to let go of the best context for the story of the moment. Oh,
well. The payoff of getting the story told more than compensates for a
small awkwardness like this.
> But slipped in there, right in the opening, is the revelation that
> Victor's about to be set free, and that's what drives most of the early
> bits. First of all, I'd like to point out that charged with actually
> carrying scenes via actual "acting" rather than "mimicking," Gjokaj
> doesn't set the world on fire and make heavy lifters like Dushku look like
> amateurs, the way some people would have us believe. Just saying.
I'll "echo" that. Though I think it's spitting in the wind. Minds are made
up. I'll just add that I think Eliza has really raised her performance
level this season and should be proud of her work.
> And that's not meant as a knock on Enver - I do think he's been good, and
> he does a solid job here with acting lost and wide eyed in a subdued,
> manly, ex-soldier way. Leading up to the brilliantly conceived image of
> him lying down in the bathtub without quite knowing why. But built around
> this plot, the show is continuing to move other pieces around. There's
> the obvious, like Victor's connection to Sierra. And the less than
> obvious, like a bit of selfish neediness from Echo. (BOYD: I thought
> you'd be pleased. ECHO: I was gonna use him to help me get everyone out.
> BOYD: He's already been used for five years.)
Not selfish enough to try to stop his leaving - indeed, she later tries to
help Victor and Sierra both leave. So it comes across to me more like
simply acknowledging that his absence makes things harder for her.
I wonder if there might be another angle to her reaction as well. She's not
exactly looking forward to turning herself over to Caroline. Might she
worry whether a released Victor (or any doll) is really a good idea?
Doesn't "Victor" just disappear and become forgotten.
> And of course, it comes around back to Adelle. We see Adelle defeated in
> a few different ways and forced to realize it, which is considerably more
> interesting to watch than denial. Williams nicely conveys the increase in
> drunkenness, emerging gradually enough that we suspect it, but kinda in a
> background way. For whatever reason, I don't find the actor physically
> beautiful the way some of ya'all seem to, so I'm not as enamored of the
> cleansing shower as I'm sure some will be (although credit for clearly
> putting her in contact with actual non-CGI water). But TV writers like to
> mix physical with emotional nakedness (notice that Victor shows off some
> skin too), and there's plenty of the latter on display throughout the
> episode.
Emotionally naked yes. Maybe I'm naive, but I struggle to imagine the
shower scene as impressing many for the titillation of it. I think the
drunken performance and depiction is excellent. I loved her passed out on
the desk and then jerked awake with drool dripping from her face. (Also
evidence that flattering her appearance is precisely not what the show is
after.) Hitting bottom is ugly.
> I always expect these vulnerable moments to lead to moral redemption, but
> that expectation is often confounded. The end point of Adelle's story
> this time is one of those "surprises" that seems like it ought to have
> been inevitable, as she rejects both Echo's side and Rossum's side in
> favor of pursuing her own agenda. It seems rather abrupt, but that's part
> of what makes it work dramatically - we're lulled into a false sense of
> security by the fact that Adelle hasn't acted directly to stop Echo
> before, so we assume that she won't. And making "her" people (Topher et
> al) do it, which is important to her, even if it's a possible instrument
> of her eventual downfall.
Drunk or not, she can be as mean as anybody we see in the series. In any
case, whatever is going on in her head, and whatever her true intent is, you
know that in the end she has to control.
> I'm still absorbing all this, so forgive me if this review includes a lot
> of recapping the plot.
Sidelight. The reason I so rarely write straight reviews myself is that I
detest recapping. It's among the hardest exercises in writing I've ever
attempted. (For me that is. Some people seem to thrive at it.)
> What drives Miss DeWitt to this point? The rejection by Victor/Roger
> doesn't do it alone. The confrontation with Echo, at least initially,
> makes her sink deeper into irrelevance. This is an interesting scene
> because when she's in the House, I'm also not used to seeing Echo this
> assertive. Sneaking around in the dark, yes. A doll confronting Adelle
> in her office and mixing bluster with an offer of an alliance, no. A few
> selected lines of interest:
>
> ECHO: You didn't make me. *I* made me.
> ADELLE: If you're so powerful, why are still in my House, sneaking around
> trying to find your comatose boyfriend?
> ECHO: Lady, if I wanted to be somewhere else, I would be. But there's
> work to do here. Now, you can be on my side, or you can be on Rossum's,
> but the time for playing both is over.
One of the things about that moment that's interesting to me is that Echo
actually sees Adelle as still playing both sides rather than kowtowing to
Rossum. Boyd has arrived at much the same place in his later confrontation
with Adelle - an attitude that on the surface at least just makes him
vulnerable to Adelle's retribution. Topher's connection to the old Adelle
probably explains much of his continued tolerance of her too. So the people
around her seem to find more possibility within her and show more loyalty to
her (even as they warn her of the limits to that) than she probably has
earned at this point. But you know, they all do have a long-term connection
with her, each in their own way, that probably does make it hard to let go.
To keep giving her another chance.
> Like I said, Adelle apparently chooses a third option, but not directly in
> response to this scene. She shrugs at Rossum's bigger plans, has another
> drink, and very pointedly changes her usual sales pitch to ask "isn't that
> why we're in business? To give people what they *want*?" It really seems
> like Boyd is the factor that finally drives her over the edge, partly
> because of his independent agenda and partly because of his words to her.
> This is twice now that we've seen Boyd play on Adelle's sense of control,
> and both times it's moved her to make choices that leave everyone worse
> off. What's he thinking, given how well he knows her? I'm not totally
> sure anymore. It should be noted that this isn't plan A. Plan A is to
> continue working around Adelle, treating her as irrelevant. But when that
> becomes impossible, he tries to bring back the woman who "put this House
> and the actives first." Despite his warning in the last scene, he's the
> one who has it blow up in his face. Will his seeming awesomeness
> ultimately lead to the apocalypse?
Ah, so you ended up the same place I did with Boyd. Just note that it's not
only Boyd. He just was the last. Echo gave Adelle the chance to be Adelle
again too. And you remarked on Topher sticking to an unnaturally casual
relationship with Adelle. I doubt an explanation will ever be spelled out,
but I think it's supposed to feel right for the characters. Whether it's
lingering attachments not easily let go, or an underlying feeling that they
can't really make it without Adelle in charge, or maybe instinct (and a
little hope) that eventually she's going to come through; the people around
her continue to invest in her.
Hitting bottom is depicted as a process. Not just one telling moment, but
an accumulation of things eventually coming to a head in conversation with
Boyd. You hit on some of the big ones. I'll mention another moment with
Victor that seemed to hang heavy at the time - when he told her that he
didn't believe she'd stoop to the level of the "pathetic souls" that hire
out Dollhouse actives. She'd been wounded by that last season too in an
episode marked by an abrupt change in performance by her, culminating in the
sending of Dominic to the attic. The parallel is limited, but it does show
some precedence for abrupt hardening by Adelle and extreme reaction to
"betrayal" by her security chief. Parallels aside, this time the wound
seemed to be especially deep. Perhaps because it displays a kind of
character regression, repeating the character flaw that she had so
forcefully thrust away previously.
The encounter with Boyd did have elements that may have served especially
well as final straws. Being directly called a drunk for one, paired with
her look at the drink before her that suggested her awareness of how much
she wanted its solace right then. But mostly the open disdain for her
authority - or worse, her lack of relevancy. Boyd really was content to
ignore her. At that point she would feel about as far from control as
possible.
The stagger to the shower and subsequent naked body and soul is intense and
fascinating to watch. To add to your symbolic notion, note that the act is
cleansing one too. But the really curious element is to wonder why she'd do
it in the doll's shower room? Why would a bottom hitting, defeated Adelle
retreat to there?
> "Awesome" is supposedly an '80s word, but I haven't found an appropriate
> replacement in the modern era. There's a lot of awesome in this episode.
> Like Boyd calling in Echo as his partner on investigations. That's a
> great dynamic. To a degree, Echo's portrayal is bordering on
> hyper-competent action hero, but her personality still shines through in
> playful moments like "you want FBI, private investigator, or should I
> surprise you?" Another great scene that combines badass moments ("we're
> going to war") with sparkling dialogue is the bit with our hero getting
> loaded up with imprints. I won't dissect it further, beyond mentioning
> that hey, Ivy gets to impress Topher a little bit, but it's a lot of fun
> to watch.
I notice that Echo doesn't appear to have had a headache since she was sent
on the engagement where she discovered Alpha's victim.
> I don't know where a hive mind fits into Rossum's plan for us. Maybe just
> a dead end. The private army idea, though, is yet another weekly dose of
> precursors to the "Epitaph One" account of One Phone Call To Rule Them
> All.
That's pretty clever. Did you make that up?
> I'm not enamored with the driving element of "he's integrated, but if we
> act quickly, he won't be *fully* integrated!" But at least the show
> negates that by having Tony make a connection with another of his old
> comrades as an individual (leading to the poor guy's death), and Echo
> freeing everyone to have their own minds at the end.
I'm not certain what to make of the group mind because it's not clear to me
if this goes anywhere or is intended to feed back to Echo's condition. But
there are a couple of parallels to make note of. The first I'll just
mention because the parallel is to the construct in the next episode.
Consider this a stripped down version of that network.
Far more important, I think, is the parallel to Echo herself. I was really
struck by Echo watching Topher as he described the bad and badder versions
of group think and how the individual loses himself in the group. But isn't
that exactly what Echo is herself? The separate bodies are just extra
appendages. The point is multiple minds merged into one. When Boyd asks
Echo who he's talking to then, she responds that it's always Echo now. And
Echo continues to be emphatic about how she's an individual who's created
herself. But technically, "Echo" is just a shell. If an individual entity
has arisen from that, isn't it a kind of group think too?
Yes, I know there are many arguments against that, including those made by
the show, but I think the parallel ought to give pause anyway. Especially
when you see that her method of defeating Rossum's army was to simply join
their group think and overwhelm it by sheer volume of minds with a different
agenda. She won because she was just a bigger, badder version of them.
> But getting back to an earlier point, if you want to watch a
> hyper-competent action hero, Echo is a good choice. She is so
> consistently, well, awesome. Using Sierra/Priya as a weapon not only gives
> greater meaning to the events of "Belonging," but is a clever strategy in
> its own right. Then she fights off a couple guys while blindfolded,
> rescues her target, and sets up an escape route. But that's not enough -
> she can't leave without jumping all the way in, so she plugs herself into
> the hive mind and mentally kicks its ass. Go, Echo! There's even room
> for some personal growth; by the end of the episode, our protagonist feels
> ready to let Priya and Tony be legitimately free, without treating them as
> tools anymore, or needing a goodbye.
Forgetting the philosophy of it all, it's just a cool solution to the
problem. It also marks this episode as one of the series best at following
through with its unique in-episode story. The only thing that disappointed
me a little was how comparatively mundane (mundane for Hollywood story
telling that is) Victor's history turned out to be.
> There's an exchange wroth quoting from mid-episode. "Who am I talking to
> now?" "Echo. You're always talking to Echo." She's defining herself as
> something close to the legitimate hero hinted at by "Epitaph One," but
> here it's as Echo, not as Caroline. And just as I was thinking that, she
> starts to identify herself as Caroline right before getting knocked out by
> the closing plot twist.
Well, I guess that's identifying herself as Caroline in a sense. It seemed
to me a tacit recognition that she'll go away once Caroline returns, which
is why they'll have to look her up. Caroline won't know them.
> After an episode of seeing the protagonist at her best, the rug is
> abruptly pulled out, and she's very quickly defeated. That's just good
> drama.
Might that also suggest how easy it could be to defeat Rossum's army - even
without Echo's solution?
> And thus Echo, along with Victor and Sierra, ends up as a cross between a
> Cylon Hybrid and a _Dexter_ victim.
Dexter victim. Heh. I must say that I was quite amused to see these
supposedly high-tech stasis modules (or whatever) come with a roll of Saran
Wrap at the end.
> - There are a few random things that might have deeper themes beyond the
> surface meanings, but if so, I don't really know what. Some examples:
> Tony wakes up in a world where the war he tried to escape is still going
> on.
I think it's just mild topical commentary. They twice made a point of
observing that the war still continues after all these years. It also
serves to remind that the series is supposed to be occurring in close to
real time. A kind of be scared now message, as opposed to postponing it for
the future.
> One sentence summary: Packed solid, and just barely shy of Excellent
> territory.
>
> AOQ rating: Good
Same reaction. Pretty much the same reasons. Good. Still not quite
jumping out of my chair in enthusiasm, but mighty fine entertainment anyway.
OBS
Arbitrar Of Quality
news:Uc-dnVUH4rORy7DW...@supernews.com...
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
> news:hgj97v$igb$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>> But slipped in there, right in the opening, is the revelation that
>> Victor's about to be set free, and that's what drives most of the early
>> bits. First of all, I'd like to point out that charged with actually
>> carrying scenes via actual "acting" rather than "mimicking," Gjokaj
>> doesn't set the world on fire and make heavy lifters like Dushku look
>> like amateurs, the way some people would have us believe. Just saying.
>
> I'll "echo" that. Though I think it's spitting in the wind. Minds are
> made up. I'll just add that I think Eliza has really raised her
> performance level this season and should be proud of her work.
She was more hit than miss last year, and almost all hit this year. The few
who are still watching don't seem to be complaining so much anymore, at
least. And Lachman and Gjokaj will certainly get a much deserved profile
boost from this series in the meantime.
>> I'm still absorbing all this, so forgive me if this review includes a lot
>> of recapping the plot.
>
> Sidelight. The reason I so rarely write straight reviews myself is that I
> detest recapping. It's among the hardest exercises in writing I've ever
> attempted. (For me that is. Some people seem to thrive at it.)
I don't like it much either; I hate reading reviews that are mostly recap,
and I hate it when my own writing becomes more recap than commentary. When
I step away from really analyzing what's going on, it's usually a sign that
I'm either tired, thrown by the plot, or still trying to work out exactly
how I feel about something.
The thing is, I never know whether we're supposed to make specific
conclusions about why one event os "the last." Are we supposed to think
that it's simply the chronology that causes Echo's ultimatum (for instance)
to make her retreat and Boyd's contempt to make her act? If there's a
specific reason the one event had to eb the "last" that sets things in
motion, I don't totally get it, although you do go into some possibilities
in some of the text I'm snipping.
> I notice that Echo doesn't appear to have had a headache since she was
> sent on the engagement where she discovered Alpha's victim.
Don't knwo if that's been dropped. It makes its way into "The Attic," but
only in a hallucinatory way.
>> The private army idea, though, is yet another weekly dose of precursors
>> to the "Epitaph One" account of One Phone Call To Rule Them All.
>
> That's pretty clever. Did you make that up?
Kinda proud of it.
> But there are a couple of parallels to make note of. The first I'll just
> mention because the parallel is to the construct in the next episode.
> Consider this a stripped down version of that network.
You know, until I started reading other peoples' comments, it didn't occur
to me to make any kind of connection between the two brain-networks. (And
I'm not sure there is one beyond variations on a Rossum-method theme.)
-AOQ
One Bit Shy
> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote in message
> news:Uc-dnVUH4rORy7DW...@supernews.com...
>> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:hgj97v$igb$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>>> I'm still absorbing all this, so forgive me if this review includes a
>>> lot of recapping the plot.
>>
>> Sidelight. The reason I so rarely write straight reviews myself is that
>> I detest recapping. It's among the hardest exercises in writing I've
>> ever attempted. (For me that is. Some people seem to thrive at it.)
>
> I don't like it much either; I hate reading reviews that are mostly recap,
> and I hate it when my own writing becomes more recap than commentary.
> When I step away from really analyzing what's going on, it's usually a
> sign that I'm either tired, thrown by the plot, or still trying to work
> out exactly how I feel about something.
Well, you don't recap as much as you used to. I'll take that as generally
positive. But for a review to really make sense - especially if anybody who
hasn't seen the show reads it (admittedly not the norm for your environ) -
some degree of recapping is still necessary to give context to commentary.
My advantage as responder - which I shamelessly seize - is that I can leave
most of that work to you and go directly to the commentary.
Of course recap alone is the worst. I got trapped (favor for a friend)
recapping Dr. Horrible for a web site I'll leave unnamed. It felt like
torture. I cannot express enough what a relief and a release it was to
simply respond to your posts for that. Not only was it more pleasant, but
it also felt like my IQ went up a few score. Recapping appears to make me
stupid. Like lead poisoning or something.
>> Hitting bottom is depicted as a process. Not just one telling moment,
>> but an accumulation of things eventually coming to a head in conversation
>> with Boyd.
>
> The thing is, I never know whether we're supposed to make specific
> conclusions about why one event os "the last." Are we supposed to think
> that it's simply the chronology that causes Echo's ultimatum (for
> instance) to make her retreat and Boyd's contempt to make her act? If
> there's a specific reason the one event had to eb the "last" that sets
> things in motion, I don't totally get it, although you do go into some
> possibilities in some of the text I'm snipping.
It looks to me like you're expecting it all to be event driven. Events
matter and do drive some of this. But Adelle's not a pinball merely
reacting to every stimulus. She has to contribute her part, which here is
going through psychological and emotional stages in her fall. When Echo
confronts her, Adelle still imagines herself to be playing Echo somehow -
able to control her. Echo is disdainful of that act, but you'll note that
Adelle offered plenty of disdain herself. I'm sure Adelle was unhappy with
the resolution, but I also expect that she still saw it as a confrontation
between powerful forces - not just a dressing down by Echo. Adelle just
hadn't fallen far enough yet. She can still go in denial with the best of
them. So you just have to wait for her to fall further until the last bit
of self respect is stripped away. Outside forces continue to beat on her.
But she still has to go through things like blacking out at her desk.
In that context, the content of the outside events may not matter that much,
so long as they keep the pressure up. But down there at the bottom you
probably are waiting for something to really wake her up. From what I could
see, I think that probably was the realization that the house was being run
without her.
>> But there are a couple of parallels to make note of. The first I'll
>> just mention because the parallel is to the construct in the next
>> episode. Consider this a stripped down version of that network.
>
> You know, until I started reading other peoples' comments, it didn't occur
> to me to make any kind of connection between the two brain-networks. (And
> I'm not sure there is one beyond variations on a Rossum-method theme.)
It's the networking across bodies - something that Echo doesn't do on her
own. With the soldiers it's used to harness the physical capabilities of
the bodies. With the Attic it's used to harness the processing power of the
brains. Different applications. Same technology. As I mentioned in my
Attic commentary, I think the series is making an effort to demonstrate how
varied the application of Dollhouse technology can be.
OBS
Wiggz of Wiggz the 3rd
"Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
news:hgj97v$igb$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> A reminder: Please avoid spoilers/discussion of unaired episodes in these
> review threads.
> .
> .
> - The hive mind injection center looks an awful lot like the Chair back
> in the House. >
Far from this being a random occurrence, I saw this very much as a plot
device to highlight Rossum's deviation into other areas of industry. We're
talking about showing the corporation as a global monopolising entity - and
this diversion further hints and develops that arc.
Wiggz of Wiggz the 3rd
Arbitrar Of Quality
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@wildmail.com> wrote in message
> news:hgmrvp$dbh$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
>> "One Bit Shy" <O...@nomail.sorry> wrote in message
>> news:Uc-dnVUH4rORy7DW...@supernews.com...
>>> Hitting bottom is depicted as a process. Not just one telling moment,
>>> but an accumulation of things eventually coming to a head in
>>> conversation with Boyd.
>>
>> The thing is, I never know whether we're supposed to make specific
>> conclusions about why one event os "the last." Are we supposed to think
>> that it's simply the chronology that causes Echo's ultimatum (for
>> instance) to make her retreat and Boyd's contempt to make her act? If
>> there's a specific reason the one event had to eb the "last" that sets
>> things in motion, I don't totally get it, although you do go into some
>> possibilities in some of the text I'm snipping.
> In that context, the content of the outside events may not matter that
> much, so long as they keep the pressure up. But down there at the bottom
> you probably are waiting for something to really wake her up. From what I
> could see, I think that probably was the realization that the house was
> being run without her.
I can go with that.
-AOQ