Episode Discussion 1.02 "The Target" - Aired 2/20/09 (FOX-US)

[Friendly Lurker]

But why? IMO he's probably a secret agent or someone trying to bring down the FBI or he is in league with Alpha.

I think he's just being mean!

The guy who was on the cell talking to Paul while driving and making out with the blonde.

He was originally cast as a Doll but now he just appears to be someone connected to human trafficking and Paul thinks they might have something to do with the Dollhouse. He could be an undercover Doll... 😉

One more question which might not make sense.
Do the active's remember there doll memories after they have been imprinted?

Like Aussie said, they shouldn't!

 

[Aly Fan]

I mean wow! That one was so much different the the first episode and it just shows how much variaty this show is actually going to have...can't wait 😀

The whole episode was brilliantly done! The flashbacks at the beginning confused me a little but then about half way through the flashback section i started understanding...and then there was the camping scene...and i don't know about anyone else but it was one of the creepiest things that i have seen in a long time. And then the ending with Echo hitting her shoulder like the guy in the forrest!! OMG! I loved it!! Joss Whedon is deffinately back 😀

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Get ready for this.. I actually ENJOYED that episode. It was pretty good. I still say that Reed Diamond and Harry Lennix make the show, at least for me. They are so damn good together. I cannot wait to see them tussle; they have bite and snarled but you know a tussle is coming soon. They don`t list Diamond as appearing after episode 7 though, I really hope they don`t kill him off.

 

[MinwaraYana]

I like it. 5 stars. I think it's much better than the first one.

But what and when and why with the dead naked bodies thing? *confused*

I think Alpha is a doll for sure. Looket his name. 🙂

And I think all the thing leads to Russian thingy. In this episode, the doll Lubov(who was named Victor before the show start), the one that Paul Bullard threaten in the men bathroom said 'Privet' when he picked up the phone when he was with blonde chick in a car.

 

[definition of insane]

But what and when and why with the dead naked bodies thing? *confused*

Alpha killed the dolls while they were showering. Because in their inactive state, they don't know what's happening to them so they never ran while he slashed them to bits.

Hope that helps.

Although in saying that, wouldn't you think that they ought to have at least instilled them with a running away mechanism? I don't know if mechanism is the right word. Topher talks about why they don't give them ninja skills in their inactive state...but why not run and hide er....skills?

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Although in saying that, wouldn't you think that they ought to have at least instilled them with a running away mechanism?

Doltron, don`t even get me started on all the things I find wrong with this series. They imprint them with personality... personality. They still should have thought and a survival instinct. Those are innate. These are grown men and women who`ve had their personality removed, not their brains sucks. It irritates me.

 

[definition of insane]

Oh I have issues with that, too sconess....but give me a few hours and I'm sure I could come up with a wild reason that they keep their inactive dolls in such a birth like state. 😉

 

[LaneMeyer]

I enjoyed this episode more than the first one. That makes sense since it basically built off the first one in terms of character development. Here are some random thoughts:

Eliza did well. I'm starting to realize a connection to Echo. DeKnight emphasized it subtly by hiding her name during the engagement. Did they ever even use it? Interestingly, in the pilot they *emphasized* her fake name. I wonder if that was intentional, because in doing so, it made this episode's turn more dramatic.

The fight in the van was great. Excellent piece of cinematography. I felt like I was in the van with them. Very gritty with the chokeout ending. Normally, we get the standard knockout blow.

'tactile proximity increases bonding protocol' That's just the right type of science for this show. Gives it a little geeky edge and makes sense. Everything else I have no problem suspending my disbelief for.

Here's some wild speculation by me:

Adele is covering for FBI guy. She doesn't want him dead, just neutralized. Now, this is easily explained by angling it like its your standard, 'killing him would bring down a ton of pressure on us since were the bad guys.' There may be a past between those two. Going forward that would almost remind me of an Angel or Wes/Lyla deal, and I'd be totally cool with that.

Topher wanted to create the 'perfect' active and that's believable given what we know of his character (ie. god complex). I think him and Saunders maybe 'liked' eachother at one point, but it probably never developed into them telling eachother their feelings. He creates Alpha. Alpha goes vengeful and slashes us Saunders face to punish Topher... for some reason. I haven't flushed out all the details. 🙂

 

[Bluebird]

I forgot to mention the music last time. The score is beautiful. 🙂

 

[itsxpaperdoll]

I might also go for a WOW. This episode was great and so on. I liked the flashbacks, but I was a little disapointed that they already started to explain the whole alpha thing so early on. It would have been better, suspense wise, if they kept all that in the dark for a little longer.

 

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

Well its like the guy said in The Target, to prove your not just an echo... like an echo of the person she once was.

But yes it seems alpha is imprinting others with personalities, since there was no record of hunting guy (why on earth can't i remember his name?), and possibly without them being volunteers, which is creepy.

Maybe he hasn't killed Echo because he knows shes retaining memories? And he set this whole thing up to test, just like was said, if she has the fight in her to be allowed to live, and how maybe he can turn her to side with him? That's what im thinking.

Also im wondering if Saunders/Topher thing is that Saunders can't forgive Topher for creating Alpha in the first place and thus blames him for the attack as well.

 

[Buffanator]

I, too, enjoyed Eppy #2 much more than the pilot. Helluva show! - I loved seeing a little more of what "Dollhouse" is actually about. It raised my interest in the show by 80% at least. The 1st eppy didn't do anything much for me, except give me some hot Eliza time. 😉

But this one was great. At first I thought it was going to be just another "guy who wants the perfect woman" B.S. but I was pleasantly surprised to see him want to HUNT her. That was awesome. And the way she fought back was awesome too.

Please FOX.... give this show a chance... I'm so F@*$)#(! tired of reality shows... I love a good fantasy show. (And what I wouldn't give for JW to have a show on HBO or Showtime... imagine the funnery we could get out of that!)

 

[itsxpaperdoll]

I might also go for a WOW. This episode was great and so on. I liked the flashbacks, but I was a little disapointed that they already started to explain the whole alpha thing so early on. It would have been better, suspense wise, if they kept all that in the dark for a little longer.

Okay, I just want to expand on that for a bit, because I wrote only shortly after waking up, and my brain wasn't exactly working yet. And I had just eaten too many jelly beans so I felt a little bit sick as well.

But, anyways, the build up in this episode was really good, IMO. It started out really easy, and I really thought this episode was just going to be about the history of Echo, and Alpha, what with all the flashbacks. Then when the grimness entered the storyline, it turned from interesting to exciting and finally to some butt kicking geniousness. Eliza did, frankly, better than I expected and her relationship with whatshisname, her guardian, is starting to get to me, in a good way.
Also, I'm beginning to like Topher, I think he's a troubled person. And I like that we saw a bit more of boss lady, and how she reacted to the thing with the FBI guy was intruiging. You would think that, working for something as ilegal and unethical as the Dollhouse, she'd have no issues with getting him killed.

However, I thought it a bit of a shame how much they already explained to us about Alpha. It would have been, like I saiid in the above post, better, I think, if they kept it a little bit more in the dark. You know, so we could keep guessing, if the guy we saw at the end of the first episode was Alpha, what he did, what was going on, if he really existed, things like that. Fortunately, they gave us new things to wonder and ponder about. I like this Alpha guy, and I'd love to find out more about him. Also, I'm still not really liking the FBI thing, I think it slows the show down, but at least in this episodes, FBI-guy's scenes were less random than in the first one. I think good things can happen in that bit of the story line too.

Finally, I have to agree with DoI and, erm, our resident Lapdog, the dolls in their inactive state annoy me. It's like, with no personality, they would still have the run and hide instinct, which is called instinct, or reflex, for the simple reason that it's not merely something that's part of your personality (or consciousness), but it's something that happens in part of your brain that animals have had since they first developped a brain, and is therefure purely subconcious, and part of your dna and everything, and impossible to wipe. So they don't have that elemantary bit of being alive, but they do want to go swim? Which is a concious decision? It's all a bit too simple, I think. But hey, it works for the story, so no more complaining from me ^^

 

[Blondie Bear]

Finally, I have to agree with DoI and, erm, our resident Lapdog, the dolls in their inactive state annoy me. It's like, with no personality, they would still have the run and hide instinct, which is called instinct, or reflex, for the simple reason that it's not merely something that's part of your personality (or consciousness), but it's something that happens in part of your brain that animals have had since they first developped a brain, and is therefure purely subconcious, and part of your dna and everything, and impossible to wipe. So they don't have that elemantary bit of being alive, but they do want to go swim? Which is a concious decision? It's all a bit too simple, I think. But hey, it works for the story, so no more complaining from me ^^

I thought that at first, too. But then I started to think more, and I think we've bred that instinct almost out of people. How many times do we hear about people who are attacked, raped, murdered, whatever--and did nothing to stop it, not even run? Some people seem to have lost that fight-or-flight thing and they cower like frightened rabbits instead. Now, I don't think that the type of people they've gotten for the Dollhouse would be the type of person who's lost that instinct, but maybe they've figured out, from comparing the brains of the people who have it and the people who don't, to erase that bit of instinct. After all, they've figured out how to make trust in the handler instinct. Who says they can't erase the fight-or-flight response? Is it any more ridiculous or suspension-of-disbeliefy than the rest of the show?

 

[Kean]

I was left feeling a little blah about this episode. Maybe I'm looking for it but I can't help but feel that Joss's previous shows (mainly Buffy and Angel) are echoing (no pun intended) thoughout Dollhouse. The set is annoyinly too similar to Angel's season 5 W&H. I found it very distracting while wacthing the second ep. Dialogue too, there was a couple of things that sent off sirens in my head like 'The last one was bigger' and the 'Do you trust me'. Ok, not exactly stealing lines but what bothers me is that Dollhouse feels too much like Buffy and Angel, I thought this would be a good thing but DH pales in comparison.

I feel like this show is trying to borrow aspects from Buffy and Angel and mesh them together. It just didn't feel right. I can't explain it any other way.

The lack of truly funny punchlines is a concern too. There is wit (of course) but I think it could do with lightening up a bit.

I hate to be so negative but I just felt while watching this ep that I had seen Joss tell this story before.

As far as how the actual story is going I think Alpha is possibly the person who taped that clip of Caroline. It kinda looks like Alpha got brought into the Dollhouse and then the people in his life came looking for him...i.e. Echo.

I do find the nature of their connection interesting though. I want to see how it turns out.

---------- Post added at 08:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 PM ----------

Friendly Lurker agrees: Honestly, I think you're looking for similarities too hard. 😉

So do I, to be honest. However, I still maintain that it still feels too much like his previous shows. Maybe it was the fact that this ep was very action driven, I don't know. What I do know is that I will get bored if I keep getting the feeling that I already deja'd this vu.

 

[Friendly Lurker]

So do I, to be honest. However, I still maintain that it still feels too much like his previous shows. Maybe it was the fact that this ep was very action driven, I don't know. What I do know is that I will get bored if I keep getting the feeling that I already deja'd this vu.

I've been the exact opposite. I wanted it to be more Joss-ish! I guess doing the same thing every time would be boring but I miss having a gang like the Scoobies. I'm also not sure how well the relationships can develop between the characters.

 

[disturbedvanity]

I don't remember which article, but someone had wrote that it's hard to become attached to a character that is constantly changing into a different person. I have to disagree!! Maybe I am biased because I love Eliza....but already after 2 episodes I adore Echo =P

---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:15 PM ----------

also, the music is classic Joss...it's fantastic. Do we know who is producing the music?

 

[Lou]

And Now It's Time For
Random Weird Theories By Lou
inspired by DoI!

First off, I LOVED this episode. I was constantly shocked looking at the clock and thinking, "We're not even halfway through? How can that be?"
Granted, it's taken a couple of watchings to be able to get a grip on everything I wanted to think about.
I did like the shots of the Alpha Attack and Dr. Saunder's reaction to it all.

In watching the second one with my husband, I was forced to go back to the end of the first. And in relooking (again) I realized that it looks like the dead people on floor are, indeed, a male and female. Perhaps we can assume it's Caroline's parents.
Then, Ballard tells the neighbor (who is too darn creepy to NOT be a doll plant) that the FBI has NO record of Caroline at all. Now, granted, we knew that they were supposed to get rid of whatever "problem" she had, but not that they were going to totally erase her from existence. There should be shot and school records and all sorts of information on her still. And yet, they're gone. So, perhaps the theory that they're not returned after the original contract they signed is up, IS true.
Of course, it does make you wonder about her parents who didn't NOTICE that she was erased....whether it was them that Alpha killed or not.

Also, it would appear Alpha knew Caroline. At least it kinda seems that way. He was able to find pictures and the video. The only two places I can think of that he could find that in what SEEMED to be a house would be either her house or his own house. (Which might make those HIS parents he slaughtered.)

There is also the question of the "HE" that the hunter and the fake ranger speak of.
Richard says something like "He said you were special" and he also says "the guy he got the poison from said he wouldn't kill her just make her spinny". But, whatever this was in the water oddly, makes her remember the old her, Alpha, and apparently enough of something to make her want to "fight back" instead of running off.

The fake ranger also says he was hired by a guy over the phone to "stall the response team". He doesn't kill the handler, just the other guy (and if I were Richard and the one that hired him, I'd say to kill them both.) Then oddly, the fake ranger is killed by what is apparently Alpha.

I could maybe go with Alpha's creating his own dolls. For one thing, that fake ranger seemed okay to kill for no apparent reason. That's not something one can usually just hire someone over the phone to just go "do".

I kinda feel like Alpha went to a LOT of trouble to do all this stuff, not to kill Echo, but to get her to start to remember something. Some strange mix between the drugs and the adrenaline that triggers something in the head. Even the strange "salute" that Richard seemed to do a LOT more often than a normal person would repeat something their Dad told them.

Anyway, I loved it. One of the best hours of television I've seen in a LONG time, if not ever!

 

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

I think the people at Dollhouse are far more powerful than it would seem. Whose to say they couldnt erase all traces of documents and anything and everything that had to do with Caroline?

But yeah, Caroline and him have to have known each other in a much deeper capacity than just, they were both actives.

Anyone read the rumors of it possibly being Alan Tudyk? Cuz apparently there was a post on his blog that he joined the cast of dollhouse, and then it was taken down suddenly, and it was mentioned somewhere else as well, and now people are speculating that he's Alpha. that'd be cool!

 

[Silum]

Few points...

Lack of ability to connect with Echo

I thought they showed very well that we can get attached to Echo in this ep. I actually felt really bad for her as she has being harassed by that agent at the end, telling her shes just empty inside... i could start to see a little pain in Echo's eyes which was just awesome, not to mention her doing the whole shoulder thing. Im already falling in love with 'blank state' echo and cant wait for her to take more and more control.

We were told no serial story line at first

Well that seems to not be true, were getting hints of her becoming self aware but beyond that we have the whole Alpha story line already coming into play.

Too familiar with Buffy/Angel

I dont really see this, except maybe a little set design. For the most part this seems very different than Buffy in that it has less humour and takes itself a little more seriously (a good thing). Its more similar to Angel in its 5th season but still, your grasping to find the connections. Either way, i don't find similarities distracting and were not living in a TV show with vampires, demons, or space ships ...this is the most grounded of all his shows!

One thing that is missing is a little JW comedy but again, the show is what it is, everything JW does doesnt have to a one-liner riddled piece of work. JW is still all about characters and Dollhouse is proving to take this even further.