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| Friday, April 24, 2009 10:09 PM |
| (Last updated on Friday, April 24, 2009 10:35 PM) | | On the Viewer - Dollhouse (Episode 10 - "Haunted") |
 by Fëanor |
Now here's a premise: Miss DeWitt's friend Margaret is killed, so she loads up Echo with Margaret's memories and personality.
Topher: "Guess she's special friends with Adele? I mean not-" [punches his fists together] "-special friends. Although... late night, too much wine..."
Langton: "Life after death? Where does that end?"
DeWitt's having a conversation with Margaret - about Margaret's death! Mind-blowing! Margaret's looking forward to attending her own funeral.
Apparently Margaret had herself scanned ahead of time suspecting something like this would happen, and is planning on solving her own murder. She's taking this all very well, like it happens to her every day!
Topher told Langton he needed an active for some kind of test, but really he just wanted to make himself the perfect buddy to play video games with - something he's apparently done before.
Margaret discovers what her family and lover really thinks of her. It's hard to take. She almost gives herself away. Especially when her son tries to make out with her and she nearly throws up!
Margaret: "It was all just a worthless illusion."
DeWitt: "Illusions aren't worthless. They're at the heart of most relationships." (She should know!)
[Commercial for Matthew McConaughey's upcoming film Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: the definition of true horror.]
Langton is very upset about the idea of Dollhouse giving out eternal life.
Woah! Ballard gets November's prints and has his buddy at the bureau run them. A bunch of names and pictures pop up - and then disappear, to be replaced by the message "zero results found." Yep, the Dollhouse has friends in high places all right.
Sierra, as Topher's friend, suggests they play with the "sleepies" - make them fight, or perform skits and see how many hits the videos get on YouTube. Heh. Now they're playing laser tag?! Topher is hilarious.
Ballard is very awkward and rather cold with Mellie now that he knows the truth about her. Then they have some very weird and disturbing angry sex.
Uh oh, Margaret's son has figured her out somehow. He already knows about the Dollhouse, as he's also a customer! He's impressed by what she's done. "The possibilities. Living forever, moving from body to body."
DeWitt is watching Topher having fun with the friend he's made. It's a slightly twisted, deeply melancholy moment. Apparently he does this "diagnostic test" once a year. DeWitt and Topher are both such lonely, broken people.
Speaking of lonely, broken people, Ballard is really messed up now. He realizes he himself has become a Dollhouse client.
Margaret finds her own killer, gets to help put him away from beyond the grave, and even gets to say some final words to all her loved ones. It's a painful, moving moment as she gets back in the chair at the Dollhouse to die again. DeWitt takes it harder than Margaret does.
Another intense, emotional, thought provoking episode. I thought Ballard and Mellie's relationship was weird and disturbing when they were just neighbors and she was stalking him; now it's entered a whole new level of weird and disturbing. And holy crap! I just saw the preview for the next episode, and it looks incredible! I can't wait.
UPDATE: Some further thoughts on the Dollhouse. It's got to be such a great toy box for writers and actors to play with. There are so many possibilities - so many stories that can be told, so many characters that can appear in them. I really hope the show gets renewed. It could have such a great future. |
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