Episode Discussion 1.03 "Stage Fright" - Aired 2/27/09 (FOX-USA)

marukisu2 said:
" You can fire me, but bitch dont think you can take me"
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I did love that, its good to see some of Joss's one liners coming back in.

The point of Sierra in this mission (I think) was as back up to Echo. They mentioned that she would only 'kick in' should anything seriously go wrong and Echo was endangered. I think (could be wrong) they did this because her previous engagement went so wrong and they wanted to ensure that things went ok.

This ep and the second finally warmed me up, totally didn't peg Vincent as a doll, an interesting twist...I do agree that the neighbour is a possibility too.

Eliza's makeup, wardrobe did remind me of Faith a little which is never a bad thing.

When I first read what the show was going to be about I thought it sounded pretty naff and I couldn't see how it would fill out. I'm pleased to say that it is one of the view shows that I now really enjoy. Roll on next ep!
 
Faith said:
I did love that, its good to see some of Joss's one liners coming back in.

The point of Sierra in this mission (I think) was as back up to Echo. They mentioned that she would only 'kick in' should anything seriously go wrong and Echo was endangered. I think (could be wrong) they did this because her previous engagement went so wrong and they wanted to ensure that things went ok.
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But Echo didn't need extra protection...she has her handler, and Sierra's handler, keeping an eye on her.
They said, I believe, that Sierra would be useful if things got out of hand. (And she was, unpredictably though.) Things DID get out of hand - she was kidnapped! And Echo appeared to be sacrificing the person she was hired to protect! - and still, all Audra did was sit and cry. I don't know.

I think Echo's head-shake to Sierra was definitely Echo becoming self-aware...but this will probably lead to Sierra becoming aware, too. The Dolls do have memories of their Doll state. They remember, for example, that they take showers before bed, where each room is, etc. I'm sure Sierra remembers that Echo is nice to her, someone to consider a "friend"...but Echo seems to be learning that that's dangerous.

I agree, the episode was way better than the preview looked.
 
If shes self aware i dont see the danger in that. In the Pilot it alluded to her consentually going into the Dollhouse. Ive always thought about what problems might occur once she becomes aware but if she went into the dollhouse of her own free will then what is the issue?
 
It seemed as though there were things compelling her to go to the Dollhouse beyond what we know. I don't think it was something she necessarily wanted to do. Either way, some of the people involved in the Dollhouse seem pretty shifty and we don't know what this attic they refer to is. Her self-awareness would seriously compromise her as a doll in some situations, so the higher ups at Dollhouse wouldn't want her to be self-aware. And we don't know what they would do to her if they found out. Nor does she, which makes it in her best interest to keep it to herself.
 
marukisu2 said:
If shes self aware i dont see the danger in that. In the Pilot it alluded to her consentually going into the Dollhouse. Ive always thought about what problems might occur once she becomes aware but if she went into the dollhouse of her own free will then what is the issue?
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There's a HUGE issue there.
If Echo becomes self-aware, and remembers herself as Caroline, well, that'll affect the imprints she receives in a major way. If she's imprinted to be a bomb de-activator, but knows she's actually not one, won't that affect how she acts? If she remembers things, she's useless to the Dollhouse. She's not a blank slate anymore.

Besides, in the pilot she very clearly states, "I don't have a choice." Clearly, Caroline felt signing up for the Dollhouse was something she had to do. It wasn't something she necessarily wanted.
 
fly on the wall said:
- What was the point of Sierra? Her guardian dude said that she would only be involved in an extreme situation, but she wasn't "involved" at all. I thought she'd whip out some secret ninja skills after being kidnapped, but basically all she did was whimper and cower. Why did they even have her on this mission? I mean, she proved useful in the end, but it doesn't seem that they'd predicted that since Echo acting outside the box was such a shock.
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I see somebody tried to explain that one to you, but let me take a crack at it with more detail. I think there may be some stuff you missed on first viewing of the episode.

Topher and Saunders are discussing Echo being put into danger. Topher says "not to stress. We're sending backup anyway". Sierra walks in for the imprint.

Perhaps Sierra wasn't there to protect Rayna. Perhaps the "extreme situation" which would put her into play wasn't danger to Rayna, but danger to Echo.

But why put a second doll in danger to protect the first? Echo is referred to as the Dollhouse's best active (well since Alpha, anyway). Sierra on the other hand may be expendable. Boyd asks Sierra's handler what happened to the old Sierra. He replies "She did her job".

After Sierra is kidnapped Adelle and Dominic are discussing it...

Adelle:
Ah...she drew his focus away from Rayna. Well, that was a good call.

(Adelle half-smiles. Dominic quick-nods in acknowledgment of the compliment.)

Sierra was kind of a decoy, and may have had the secondary mission of protecting Echo, if Echo was in danger. If the second part is also true, Echo never was in danger, so we never saw that part of the Audra imprint activate.

Another thing to consider is the bit where Topher explains the division of mission and parameters. In Sierra's case we might see her mission as simply being Rayna's biggest fan (the expendable decoy to draw fire). The parameters might be, should Echo be in physical danger activate action-girl.
 
I liked it. I mean, it wasn't as action-y as the other episodes, I'll give you that, but at the end, with us finding out about the singer's insecurities was good. I really liked Sierra in this episode, when Echo saved her it was very cool and I think it made the singer finally come to life.
In other notes, Topher and Claire had a very cute scene together. I liked their squabbling, I thought it was adorable.
 
This is likely to sound jumbled because I'm not sure I can exactly find the right words.

But, it does seem that there may be a difference in becoming "self aware" (which Echo seems to be doing) and "remembering her life as Caroline".
It seems, at least so far with the oh so vast amount of info that we have, that she's able to access parts of her brain that she may not be supposed to...like parts of the last imprint, or last months imprint, or maybe basic reasoning skills. And she does seem to be putting little bits together, but so far, it hasn't really said "Caroline" to me. More of an awareness that "something" is going on.
Kinda like dragging the strongest pieces of each imprint along with her.

So far, other than the blip in the woods, we've seen no signs of "Caroline" and Echo just say it as a "girl that looked like her but wasn't".
Which, would eventually lead to, "who am I?" after she figured it out, but seems to first lead to "WTFery" (<----I learned a new word from CrazyFlakes)

More clues to this would be that Alpha didn't remember who he "was", it would seem that he became aware that these people were doing something "to him" and went berserk using the tools he'd learned from the imprints because he thought they were doing something TO HIM.
If he had just remembered being "Bob the mild mannered accountant" or even "Butch the street thug" he would have just sat up and said, "Is my 5 years up?"

Besides, the scarier (and longer lasting) plot line would be that the Dollhouse is essentially making "Super Soldiers" of sorts by giving these dolls these many a varied skills that when mixed all together make one almost invincible. (Which may point to Paul BEING some sort of doll after his vampire like ninja skills this week.)

But, all this said, it makes me not worried at all about Eliza's "range" as an actor. Because if all these skills are basically turning her into some kick butt super hero slayer type, then she really doesn't need to be able to do all that much. She certainly has shown the range to cover "uppity Librarian type" and "innocent empty doll".....and if they all lead to "I'm gonna whoop you", I think she can handle it QUITE nicely.

Okay, I'm done with my rambling for now. Gotta give DoI time to catch up with my out there theories! I can't take up ALL her space!
 
B
Blair Waldorf-Bass
Fantastic post hun! :)
So, Paul's neighbor is an active, as I suspected. When do we think she'll kick in? To do whatever job it is she must. And what do you think the 'end game' for her is? What do you think she's set there for exactly? To watch him and get intel? To slap him around? hehe. To keep him busy? ???
 
T
Tsquared
I really hope this isn't an unmarked spoiler, because it completely ruined my speculations about her.. I hate 'em! Spoilers = xP.
TabulaRasa said:
So, Paul's neighbor is an active, as I suspected. When do we think she'll kick in? To do whatever job it is she must. And what do you think the 'end game' for her is? What do you think she's set there for exactly? To watch him and get intel? To slap him around? hehe. To keep him busy? ???
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Unless you read a spoiler, they haven't established that his neighbor is an active.
 
TabulaRasa said:
So, Paul's neighbor is an active, as I suspected. When do we think she'll kick in? To do whatever job it is she must. And what do you think the 'end game' for her is? What do you think she's set there for exactly? To watch him and get intel? To slap him around? hehe. To keep him busy? ???
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🙁 If you actually did read that as a spoiler somewhere... booo! Spoilers BAD!
 
Friendly Lurker
Friendly Lurker
Spoilers bad! Worse than beer!
That's seriously lame if she is. That's twice in the span of a few episodes that twist would be pulled and that would make every prominent figure featured in Ballard's life a doll. Dumb.
 
I loved this episode, favorite by far!

That bit where Echo shook her head at Sierra was awesome! But the fact that Sierra followed that direction straight away without finding it weired kinda suggests she will be self aware also, which is good, I think you need at least 2 of them self aware or else it would be kinda pointless!

I knew Victor was/would be a doll because of the promo pics from way before the show started, but I think there could be a few options with him:

1) He was a Doll set up to mess with the Agent.
2) The Dollhouse forced being a doll on him because they know he was helping the agent so, they grabbed him, wiped him and reprogrammed him so they can control what he leaks.
3) Victor actually has a twin, Who is a doll - there didn't seem to be any connection between Victor and Active state Victor, he seemed to be getting wiped kinda randomly in the episode and then back to normal!
 
The Chosen
The Chosen
i like your second theory lots and lots.
Airam
Airam
the twin thing crossed my mind too actually!
AndrewCrossett said:
As I heard it, that plot direction was abandoned early on... although that may be an intentional piece of misdirection by the producers, as the Victor thing apparently was.
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Seems like misdirection to me especially since Joss said
there's a good chance "November" will be showing up after all

As for "Stage Fright," I think it's leaps & bounds the best episode so far, still not amazing, but it definitely took Dollhouse mediocre to good.
 
fly on the wall said:
There's a HUGE issue there.
If Echo becomes self-aware, and remembers herself as Caroline, well, that'll affect the imprints she receives in a major way. If she's imprinted to be a bomb de-activator, but knows she's actually not one, won't that affect how she acts? If she remembers things, she's useless to the Dollhouse. She's not a blank slate anymore.

Besides, in the pilot she very clearly states, "I don't have a choice." Clearly, Caroline felt signing up for the Dollhouse was something she had to do. It wasn't something she necessarily wanted.
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Well i guess then that is the dilemma. What if someone wants to do the job and they cant. but even then if she cant cant they just fina a new Echo?
 
Amazing, again. The Victor thing made me hit myself on the forhead. It was like you should have no who Victor was (not from watching the show) but you didn't. It was a nice surprise.
 
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