“Stop-Loss”
Written by Andrew Chambliss Directed by Felix Alcalá The Story Victor’s contract is up. Adelle tries to have one last go with “Roger,” but he rejects her because he’s in love with Sierra, even though he can barely remember her. He leaves the Dollhouse as Tony Ceccoli, but but he’s being watched. He’s also not adjusting easily to being back in his life. He doesn’t enjoy the nightlife, and he sleeps in his bathtub instead of his bed. Special ops guys break into his apartment (or swanky hotel room?). He puts up a good fight, but they beat him up and drag him off. They’re a bunch of ex-soldier dolls. He’s actually cool with joining them, at least, until they reveal that joining up means getting hooked into a soldier hive-mind. But he’s not weirded enough to actually stop them doing it. This is Rossum’s military branch, MindWhisper. Boyd, Echo, and Topher figure out enough to go after him, and Topher imprints Echo with more useful skills. Echo wants Sierra to come too. She has Topher imprint her as Priya, but he doesn’t erase the bad memories, so she’s angry. But he needed her to remember Victor. Echo and Priya head to the military compound, and they find Tony. Priya’s presence helps keep him himself, but the other groupthink soldiers are still after them. Echo sticks herself into the groupthink and manages to overpower the other soldiers and send them home. Then she, Tony, and Priya head out, but that’s when Adelle decides to get a grip and detox from her alcohol poisoning. She has all of them brought back in and shipped to the Attic. The groupthink thing is such a trippy concept. Dollhouse has such a malleable premise. It’s done a dozen different genres so far, and now it’s doing Borg (if that’s what I think it is) and The Matrix in quick succession. It’s particularly creepy how the Attic people are sealed for storage. It’s like they’re actual, shrink-wrapped dolls now. Things I Liked
Things I Didn’t
The Characters Adelle did switch to Rossum’s side, but it stung her conscience so badly that she became a miserable shambles of her old carefully controlled self. I’m glad I already know she ends up being one of the good guys, because the way she ends the episode would have sucked otherwise. She’s gone from being Rossum’s stooge to being a double-agent against them, which is excellent. Like Madeline, Tony was pretty much hollowed out by whatever process the Dollhouse uses to take away the bad experiences and make them “functional” again. No wonder he was an easy mark for these soldiers. And for that reason, I’m so glad Topher didn’t remove Priya’s bad memories. They suck, but without them, she’d be empty. Overall Rating 4.5/5
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The Watcher's Diary
In this blog, I'll be reviewing, analyzing, and generally fangirling over excellent television. Exhibit A: the Whedonverse. Archives
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