Dollhouse: Man on the Street

By Sonia Aurora
When the Buffy series first got aired on TV, I actually caught it the weekend it re-aired because my boyfriend at the time was enamored of Ms. Gellar and had to see it again. Because he worked late, I started taping (yes, taping, back in an era where Tivo and DVR did not exist) the episodes for him, while also watching them. I liked the show, the fun language, the kick-ass slayer (girl power!), the quirky friends. It had my attention but didn’t seep into me the way my favorite show at the time, The X-Files, had. And then, in Episode 6 (“The Pack”), while Xander was overtaken by some predator, animalistic spirit and acting all wonky, Giles not believing our heroine, Buffy, who desperately pleaded with him to “stop trying to Scully me.” My jaw dropped. I can’t explain it, but something about that line, that connection, clicked something in my head and I in that moment decided I would love and watch that forever, and I did (and do).  Maybe Joss Whedon’s lucky # is 6…all I know is this Dollhouse episode – it’s sixth – did it for me. At one point, in one moment, something clicked, and my unwavering devotion was born. However long this series runs, I will be sacrificing time to watch it, to think on it, to not only dissect it for the articles I write here but for the way it affects me and my way of thought. It’s the power the best of art has. It is now what the Dollhouse has become for me.

This week we begin with an unearthed news video that addresses the urban legend of the Dollhouse, the myth beginning at sometime in the late eighties. Throughout the episode we get man-on-the-street queries as to their thoughts on its existence, most of whom think it’s akin to slavery, or intrigued at the thought of someone doing whatever it is you want. Ballard’s playing this tape along with the Caroline-on-Campus and the Running-of-the-Compound footage (from last week’s episode). In shuffling through some papers, Ballard seems to find some kind of “easy” connection, but before he can get more to it, a superior (who’s egged him and his kooky notions on in one instance before) comes along and feeds him the usual spiel: he’s wasting his time on a bogus assignment, stop meddling in investigations, he must have the hots for Caroline (Echo) which is why he’s so hell bent on the Dollhouse. It’s this last theory that plays out the most in the episode, as this week it’s mostly Ballard’s show (of which I am not complaining, not only because we get more insights into him, but also we get quite a few shirtless scenes).

But, the Dollhouse isn’t ignored, as Sierra uncharacteristically goes to sit by herself and not with Victor or Echo. He’s sad about this and he goes to tap Sierra on the shoulder and she freaks out, shrieking and recoiling in horror, so far as falling off her chair. Dr. Saunders finds out that Victor likes to play house with Sierra and that she’s had sex in the walls of the Dollhouse with someone. Butm the dolls don’t have sex drives, do they? Hern, Sierra’s handler, is ballistic, but since he’s a douche, I’m inclined to believe that he’s the violator. Echo also offers up the tidbit that when they go to the pods to sleep, she hears Sierra cry.

Ballard does find a paper trail that has something to do with the Mayfair Fund and the first episode kidnapping engagement, as well as with some dot.com billionaire named Joel Mynor (played sweetly by Patton Oswalt). Cut to Ballard and his in-love-with-him neighbor Mellie chatting about his theories over Chinese food in his apartment. She’s also featured heavily in the episode, as it dawns on me that this means she’s going to die. It’s a classic plot device – feel for a secondary character more before she (or he) is offed. Also knowing that Joss isn’t afraid of killing of any of his characters (as long as it holds for his story, thank goodness) and I’m saddened because I like Mellie’s batting-eyes lovelorn-ness. This presumption is solidified as the episode goes on, so I spend the better part of the hour shivering with the anticipation of how it will go down.

Joel Mynor, meanwhile, advises his security detail to leave him completely alone at a lovely house as he waits for, as it happens, Echo, in her new engagement, frantic that she was called away from work to meet him there. Ballard infiltrates, again possessing superhuman strengths as he takes down security guy after security guy, faltering only when he comes face-to-face with Echo, his Caroline. She’s hilarious with her shrill accusations that Joel’s internet investment has to do with porn, and in the chaos Langdon grabs Echo for her treatment. Ballard has a sit down with Joel, who scoffs that Joel only wants to play house as part of his fantasy, and Joel scoffs back that Ballard’s fantasy is Caroline’s grateful tears when he saves her from the Dollhouse. We learn that Ballard is divorced (surprise surprise). We also learn about an engagement that tugs at our heartstrings: Joel was married to Rebecca, a beautiful nurse who loved him and supported him while he was a basket case, one step behind everyone with his internet ideas. When he finally broke through, getting his first mega-check for his inception of, among other things, Bouncy the Rat, he beckoned her from work to come over and see the house – the house he and Ballard are currently talking in – and see the expression on her face when he is able to tell her that it is their new home and he finally made it, they finally made it.

He heard the impact of the sanitation truck that hit her car three blocks from the house, the accident that claimed her life and robbed him of the opportunity to tell her how much her hard work and dedication to his dreams had paid off. So every year, he enlists the Dollhouse to allow him that satisfaction of his Rebecca knowing that he made it, seeing the house he bought for her, for them, to live in happily ever after. This story just eats the romantic in me, and it showcases an instance where the Dollhouse does some good. Joel will never get his Rebecca back, and the real Rebecca will never really know, but he gets to play house and in his loneliness pretend to recapture that love and glory. (I’m actually tearing up as I write this, thinking about it). Ballard still verbally attacks him, knowing Joel still has sex with the Active (it is a fantasy, after all) and Joel admits needing some “serious moral spankitude” and Ballard ultimately leaves, knowing he can’t just haul in Joel, as sirens whistle in the distance. Joel holds his champagne glass in the air and says, “Happy Anniversary” (sniff).

There’s some chaos at the Dollhouse, where Victor’s being interrogated and the tapes show nothing of what went on with Sierra. Langdon is piecing things together, and we know he will figure it out. Then Victor gets hauled away for doing “something bad” and some other nervous handler gets hauled off, but Sierra still meets with her man. The man who IS Hern, her slimy handler. Langdon comes in and punches him through a glass door.

Langdon = awesomeness.

Shirtless Ballard is with Mellie again, really opening up to her and his theories and at one point grabs and kisses her. It catches me off guard, making me as breathless as I’m sure she was (and makes me miss my long distance boyfriend even more). She’s cute and awkward, determined not to be a stand-in for Caroline and his obsession, but I think he really wants to have some kind of actual connection with someone in the flesh. I also still have that oogie feeling she’s done for, which plays with my edge throughout the episode. She insists they be neighborly, and asks to borrow a cup of sugar (sweet).

Langdon gets reprimanded (and, ironically, a bonus) since he caught the perp, but did it off the radar of DeWitt and Dominic (i.e., the proper channels). Dominic and DeWitt chat about having to deal with Hern and also with our chatty Fed, who has a wire in his apartment. They know that he’s been telling Mellie pretty much everything. Yup, as suspected, our girl is cooked. They decide to prep Echo for a “second date”, and Topher is having some fun creating Echo’s new identity, mixed with “aggression and precision,” “gorgeous but deadly.” Langdon’s also worried since he’s not on the engagement with Echo, because he’s been suspended for 48 hours while Echo does her thing (tortures and kills Mellie? Kicks Ballard’s ass? Kills him?).

Meanwhile Hern’s bound in DeWitt’s office with Dominic beating him around the head. He admits to four sexual encounters with Sierra while he defends himself that they’re in the “business of using people.” DeWitt asks Dominic to leave, assuring him that she’s safe, and she tells Hern she wants to use him – Mellie needs to be killed, it has to be dirty and he’s the man for the job, so she doesn’t have to send him to the Attic (so, apparently, the Attic isn’t just for Actives…interesting). Zip to Mellie in mid-O – yup, our doomed girl is having sex with our Fed; she is so done for. After coitus she has a cute speech about how she won’t get all weird on him if he thinks their neighborly naked encounter was a mistake, and teases him for possibly becoming clingy with her when he asks if he doesn’t think it was. He asks for her help to look over his files and possibly see something he is missing, and runs out to grab food for them.  While he’s waiting he encounters Echo and she trades bad ass move to bad ass move with him in the kitchen (Ballard: replicant Active??). The fight goes into the back alley, and he makes the mistake of hesitating which allows her to bring him down.

She tells him that the Dollhouse is real and that they know he’s after them and they are getting him taken off the case. She then tells him that someone is inside the Dollhouse and imprinted the engagement with this parameter to tell him the truth. I wonder if this isn’t just an ingenious ploy to play on Ballard’s paranoia, but I believe in this. The Dollhouse isn’t simple, and if it has been around since the 1980’s I fail to believe only Ballard’s been tapped to try and bring it down. (I also have a theory that the “inside man” could be Topher’s little Asian sidekick scientist, who mainly brings him lunch because she can’t interrupt his geniusness at work). Echo also tells Ballard that he’s going about the whole thing the wrong way since the Dollhouse is ensconced in major political powers and it’s not the only one in existence – Los Angeles is just one city for one Dollhouse. Echo also lets Ballard know that whoever sent him the Caroline info is not the inside person (naturally, since we suspect its Alpha on the outside mucking things up). Also, the true purpose of the Dollhouse is not fantasy, and he needs to be the one to find out its real purpose. Just then a beat cop comes upon them, Echo screams, “He has a gun!”, grabs Ballard’s arm and gun and shoots the cop. She assures Ballard that the cop will live, though he’ll get blamed for the shooting. But that was the point of her engagement; it’s done and she needs to go and for now, he needs to let the Dollhouse win so they can back off of him. She also lets him know that they will protect the information at any cost, and while he lives, anyone else that might know….

Mellie.

As he runs, Mellie opens the door to a masked intruder who attacks her and she confirms (for us) it’s Hern when she unmasks him. Ballard is making a frantic call as he tries to get to her and as Hern chokes her Ballard’s phone rings.

And this was when the show hooked me, line and sinker:

The machine picks up and DeWitt’s voice comes through soothingly:

“There are 3 flowers in a vase; the third flower is green.”

Mellie’s head jerks and she attacks Hern, throwing him effortlessly through the apartment as he just did her and breaking his neck on a table. Then, DeWitt speaks again:

“There are 3 flowers in a vase; the third flower is yellow.”

This deactivates her and she crumbles into a crying heap as Ballard bursts in, takes in the scene and goes to hold her.

So, all this time, Ballard been befriending and bedding an Active! It was a twist I never saw coming, and I love the easy activation of poetic lines over the phone. It was simple and brilliant, because it jarred me in a way I didn’t expect, and started and ended quickly and neatly. It makes even more intricate how far the organization extends, and shows that everyone on the show has layers of which we have yet to peel and know. I really can’t gush enough about this one small yet vastly significant moment.

Ballard turns in his badge and weapon and walks out almost too neatly (though no one seems to notice his coolness). He’s suspended for the cop shooting and his general “violent paranoia.” Mellie needs to get a diagnostic done, and Dominic feels all the loose ends are tied and commends DeWitt for a job well done. She makes the distinction that she “played a bad hand very well.” She knows they’re walking a fine line of discovery and it really is only a matter of time. They might have (figuratively) handcuffed Ballard, but it doesn’t quench his passion of finding out the truth.  Sierra’s been wiped as best she could about her encounters with Hern, and DeWitt wants to believe all is well. She sits with Echo who is painting a child’s picture of a house and family:

Echo (flatly): “It isn’t finished.”
DeWitt:  “The picture?”
Echo (a flicker of urgency): “It isn’t finished.”
DeWitt (controlled fear): “You’d like it to be finished?”

Echo doesn’t respond, but this just hardens the notion that no, it – the Dollhouse, the investigation, whatever you want to believe “It” is, is far from being finished.  We end the episode on a more optimistic note, at least one where the Dollhouse has a more pleasant light cast on it, with a replay of Joel Mynor and Echo (again) as his wife Rebecca meeting him at their new home, so he can experience the fantasy of the reality he was cheated.  And yes, a tear (or three) rolled down my cheek.

This episode tugged at so many emotions for me – the panic of Mellie’s fate, the elation of her “true identity,” the sympathy for Joel Myner, the overall intrigue as walls comes crashing down and are duct-taped back up. I’m sold, I’m in, and I will probably forgo Friday night plans as I did Tuesdays (and Mondays) for Buffy. Sure, I have a DVR, but I want to be in the moment of it now, as the story lines unspool, and unravel.

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About Sonia Aurora: Aspiring screenwriter and seamstress, Sonia’s dream is to write life-changing films while product-placing her own line of handbags. In 1999, she wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the short film Dr. Lovestrange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bug, a satirical homage to Stanley Kubrick set amidst the panic of Y2K (Featured on ifilm.com & Coming Soon to YouTube!). While Sonia waits patiently for the Studios to call, she continues her selfless, humanitarian efforts (think Mother Teresa) through her scripts, short stories and sewing (a true triple-threat!), knowing all the while that someday her efforts will indeed save (or at least mildly tweak) the world. She still struggles with which picture to kiss before bedtime: her boyfriend’s or Bruce Campbell’s. And, in the interest of time, she’d like to start thanking the Academy now.

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