Episode Discussion 1.04 "Grey Hour" - Aired 3/6/09 (FOX-USA)

Another great episode. 🙂

- I love getting a closer look at Echo. I kept "awwing" throughout this episode. Echo's adorable. The "I'm not broken" line made me especially awwy. She's so much like a child, my heart can't help but go out to her.
- I also loved the switch between the two criminal guys. First, Guy 1 was a jerk and Guy 2 was the nice one, but once Echo "broke", they totally switched. I'm so glad Guy 1 made it out alive. His art discussion with Echo, his sympathy with her, the advice he tried to give her, everything about him made me want him to live.
- I'm sensing a Viktor/Sierra/Echo alliance and eventual mutiny developing. I love how they're becoming friends, or as Topher would say, "herding."
- I'm glad Echo didn't start shooting when she was commanded to. I think it would have changed her a lot. I'm not sure how, but I don't think I would have liked it. She has a sense of right and wrong, even if it's totally based on who's nice to her and who isn't. Still, she made the right choice IMO. She showed true trust and loyalty. She's far more than just a doll.
 
A good episode. Can I just say nobody in the world looks better with leather-sheathed legs than Eliza Dushku? Although I'm not sure stilletto heels really count as the "comfy shoes" she was talking about, or as a very good choice of footwear in a line of work where you might well have to run for your life.
 
Really enjoyed this ep, even more than last week. Wow. Where to begin. Hmm...
*consults notes*

* I missed the first 1-2 minutes of the ep. (Had to powder my nose! 😉) WTF was with the midwife stuff at the beginning?

* When ED played the "lady-of-the-evening in peril avec bloody lip" then did a switcheroo. Bam! Good stuff! Very kewl!

* No lasagna-stalker-neighbor-gurl in this ep. (Very sad.) *sniffle*
I think she's cute and I missed her.

* To whom was Adelle talking to on the phone?

* Who remote-wiped Echo over the cell? It sounds like Alpha, from the convo between Adelle and Topher, IIRC.

* More awesome Sierra screen-time! Huzzah!

* Like the cute Asian lab-coat in this ep. I don't remember her in the earlier installments. Ick on the nose piercing, though.

* ED in tight, tight pants: BOING!

* Downside: the overly-quick resolution of the crisis was somewhat disappointing, IMHO.

I'm definitely gonna have to sit down and rewatch all the eps on HULU to let more sink in. That, friends, is the sign of good storytelling. If you can watch something only once and then go "meh", it's not worth watching at all, as far as I'm concerned.

TTFN.
 
WhiteHat, the midwife stuff was just a midwife stuff. Echo was imprinted as a very kind and unstressful midwife for giving birth at home. It was kinda useless to the plot, except sort of symbolical later, when Topher says a wipe is like a birth : traumatic. That was a bit easy a metaphor, if you ask me, what with the midwife two minutes at the beginning. Anyway.

I liked this episode, it was cool. I still have some problems with Eliza Dushku's acting : she's doing her best - just like Echo - but I can often see her acting, and that's a minus... And about the girl who plays Sierra, I thought she was really better this episode (last episode I hated her acting).

I can't be interested in this FBI guy. At least make his stalker-neighbour appear, she's cute.

When we're talking about no-shows, how about ... AMY ACKER ? I thought she was supposed to be in all the 7 first episodes 🙁 I was very sad not to see her. Her character has huge potential, it's a shame she's not seen more.

It was amazing when Echo got remotely wiped, I totally had an "OMG" moment. The thing about art was cool stuff, and all the breaking into the vault too.

Generally speaking, I thought it was greatly written, but all the episodes we've seen so far have had the same development, with a metaphor about the Doll condition and with Echo showing she's a bit aware at the end, etc. I'm looking forward to some real action, but I'll have to wait for ep 8 I guess...

I may sound all grumpy but I did enjoy this episode.
 
I'm so glad to see some humour mixed with heart back in, much like last week. Good to see some fun little Whedonesque quips back on the screen.

Hey, old stuff expert? Old stuff's in here...
(I admit, I could almost see Buffy saying that to Giles in early days...)

So Adelle is definitely working for a higher power, that was my thought on that phone call. In a way I was glad to also see what they were stealing...if that makes any sense, after being shown around the Athens' Acropolis last year...the Greeks are just a tiny bit bitter about losing all the bits and pieces so I enjoyed the homeage to them trying to recover their historical artifacts.

Liked the mini twist from beaten hooker to professional thief...I honestly didn't even see that coming! ED does play it very Faith-ish though ("Blue Skies" remind anyone else of "Five by Five"?). Loved seeing how Taffy got played out by both Echo and Sierra...I almost prefer Sierra's version though.

There were so many bits I liked about this ep, possibly by favourite so far. I liked seeing more of Victor and Lubov. Sierra, Topher and his little tech assistant. Boyd going gung ho cowboy to save his girl. I love him more and more. Ballard....eh....he's not exactly endearing himself to me anyway. Though I did think ED did play Echo stuck in the vault, freaked and learning very well. The scene with the poor stabbed guy and her were very touching, like he was explaining art/life of a 5 year old. I found it very sweet.

Speculation wise....I know we're given the impression that Alpha did the wipe....the thing that worries be about that is, with Topher so protective of his little processes, how is that even possible? And what purpose would it have served to wipe Echo in the middle of a job like that? It's opening a whole bunch of questions that I'll probably try and post answers for in the spec thread later. 😉
 
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Friendly Lurker
Friendly Lurker
Alpha probably wants to make her more aware even though Topher said nothing's "broken"!
I liked this one too.
It had some interesting turns. I thought that the wiped out Echo should save the situation herself. I'm glad that didn't happened though.
Agree that they got away a bit easy at the end... but thats not what the episode was about so I don't really mind.
Now I want to hear more about Alpha, lets see what the next episode will bring. 🙂

Must admit that I don't really get the whole Ballard / Victor story.
Guess that the Dollhouse uses Victor to keep Ballard busy but not to close. But I don't understand the hows and whys. Should rewatch all episode and keep an extra eye on that story.

The Topher character is also really growing on me. He is quite a scary guy actually, doing what he does, but he still manage to be rather likeable, gotta love that.

On a final note. I'm becoming more and more a fan of Eliza.
Just watching Tru Calling also helps.

/SK
 
This was such an interesting episode. The wiped Echo is so endearing, you can't not love her, and it was great seeing the decisions she made. 😀 I thought the story started off a bit blah, with the safe cracker thing, but then it just got better and better. And I loved the look on Boyd's face when Echo said her sweet 'I'm not broken'. 🙂

And a great Sia song at the end. I love Sia!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtIfKgooCbc"]YouTube - Sia - I Go To Sleep - With Lyrics[/ame]
 
I believe Alpha is actively trying to make Echo like himself. Whatever he's up to... he wants her by his side. I think it's because Caroline and Alpha (whoever he was pre-Dollhouse) had some sort of history together.

Wiping Echo in the middle of a job forced her to deal with the real world (the "sensory overload" Topher mentioned) and start processing information outside of her Dollhouse imprint. She was terrified and cowering at first, but then she gradually became more comfortable and more aware. She was holding real conversations, exhibiting curiosity... starting to function independently. By sketching the Picasso image in the mirror at the end, she was demonstrating that she's still retaining memories (and potentially, skills) from each persona she plays.

This is exactly what happened to Alpha, and it's what he wants to make happen to her.

Echo will end up self-aware, with access to all the skills of all her personas, trying to keep her sanity. On one side will be Alpha, trying to drag her into his personal hell, and on the other side will be the Dollhouse people... acting under orders from the "Senior Partners" with varying degrees of reluctance... trying to destroy her and the threat she is to them.
 
nerd4hire
nerd4hire
I didn't catch the Picasso sketch in the mirror on first viewing. Thanks.
I enjoyed this episode not as much as the last one though. I thought it took longer to get in to than the third episode.
But i did enjoy it when it got going and seeing how echo and everyone else reacted with the remote wipe situation.I also loved the last 5mins! i was like OMG!!! 😉
 
Ok i think i was far more INTO the last episode, the whole heist thing didn't draw my attention, but then again when they did it on Angel with The Shroud of Rahmon i wasn't into it either. But i LOVED seeing more of pure Echo. Some people find her annoying, but i think it's really interesting. Also, the little Victor and Ballard scenes...didnt seem to even do much to push their story line further. kind of bored by it.

Also, the grouping together Topher pointed out...veeery interesting. I'm loving the development here of the dolls.
 
I liked it. The characters are developing nicely, and it's fun to see the different jobs that Echo's set to, like the midwife job at the beginning. It's nice that she's not always picked up for dates or illegal activity. It looks like the father was so worried about having just the right midwife that he got the Dollhouse to make him the perfect one, and that's kind of sweet.
 
It was sweet, Blondie, but as Lou and I discussed during BBtv Dollhouse (see me plugging it? I'm plugging it! 😀), she's one *expensive* midwife. 😉

Okay, I adore Boyd, and when he found out that Echo'd been wiped and he was gonna go after her and everything, it was so sweet!!! 🙂

And I'm trying to remember everything I said to Lou about this, but last night is now fuzzy (too much screwdriver), sooo. Yeah. I liked the Picasso face in the mirror.

But about Sierra as Taffy Two... she was like, the most nonchalant uncaring person, ever. 😛 She didn't seem to try very hard to get the folks out.

I missed Lasagna Girl and I missed Amy Acker. 🙁 Also, I'm not a fan of FBI Guy. He just, doesn't interest me. Although I'm a little confused on the storyline for this episode between Viktor (who reminds me of Doyle in that persona, if Doyle were Russian) and FBI Guy...? Hubby and Friend happened to start talking during those scenes. *rolls eyes*
 
We have BBTv for Dollhouse? I'm so there next week. Promise.

ETA: And, yeah, it's expensive, but did you see that house? They could obviously afford it.
 
Loved the episode more than last weeks. Seeing Echo suddenly mind-wiped in the middle of a job was interesting. But now I always wonder, who are all of those people inside Dollhouse? The place is like packed.
 
Gray Hour

So what did everyone think of last night's episode?

I think it's my new favorite episode.. hmmm.. That seems to happen every week.
 
I had to watch this one again. I picked up some stuff on second viewing, I think.

* Earlier there was a question concerning the purpose of the whole mid-wife segment starting the ep. I think the question was answered, but I have more detail. Isolate the bit at the end of the segment.

Echo as Midwife:
Here's a promise. All this...scary, painful stuff...you won't even remember.

Birthing Mother
I wanna forget. I wanna forget. I wanna forget.

They then seque to Echo's mind wipe of her mid-wife experience. There's a parallel being drawn.

Topher later says being wiped is not unlike being born.

Also there's the repeated image of Echo curled in the fetal position at the bottom of the pool.

* We see Echo, Sierra, and Victor "flock". Did Echo used to flock with Alpha? (Hehe...don't flock with me)

* Topher asks Eidie, Aydee, ID, (or whatever the name of his assistant is) "Do you wanna know how to avoid spandrels when aligning rigid designators?". Spandrels are side effects to the evolutionary process not defined by natural selection. In the Dollhouse imprinting process it would mean the doll developing unforseen character traits. Those damned spandrels.

* When Dominic suggests they have Boyd neutralize Echo, Adelle says "No. I'm beginning to suspect he doesn't have the proper distance. Send out for Ramirez and Hutchins". Will we see Ramirez and Hutchins in the future, I wonder. Are they kind of like the Watcher wetworks guys in Buffy?

* I heard Adelle say, "Michelango believed his artworks already existed inside the marble waiting to get free" on first viewing of Gray Hour. I didn't ponder the significance until the second.

Very cool, this Ep. I too love that song at the end Bluebird, and the la, la, la, opening credits, are really starting to take on a new cool tude mood the more I see them too. There's a lot about this series that's better with multiple viewings.
 
Friendly Lurker
Friendly Lurker
Good points!
Maybe you're right. When I saw the grouping thing described in the old promos that was the impression I got too, but this time it seemed more like Topher was getting enthused while explaining the phenomena to Boyd. More lke "Hey, there's this".
 
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