Episode Discussion 1.10 "Haunted" Aired 4/24/09 (FOX-USA)

Lou

Scooby
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
Messages
2,070
Age
51
Location
Wonderland
After a friend of Adelle's is slain, Adelle has Echo programmed with the dead woman's memories and personality in order to find the killer. In other events, Ballard investigates Mellie's past and Topher imprints Sierra for a secret engagement.
Dollhouse Episodes

And.....GO!
 
So it's getting a little late for me to be up, but here's my two cents on this week (because I am truly that addicted to Dollhouse 😀).

  • I like that it was one of Adelle's friends that was put into a Doll, again we're seeing a more personal side of her that I can appreciate. At first I thought she was just this "hard as stone" kind of character, so the last few episodes she has surprised me
  • It's cute that Echo's ex-handler (I SWEAR I know his name) is still keeping tabs on her. Like was said last week, I really think that the friendship between the two of them will become important later on down the road
  • I was really surprised by what happened with Paul's fingerprints analysis, and that last line he had "I found one" was a total shocker. Did his resident doll hear that? And if so how the heck is he going to get out of explaining it all to her??
  • The Topher/Sierra thing was probably my favourite part, very cute! It kind of makes me want to pinch his cheeks, you know? I'm liking his character more and more, in a wierd way. And seeing Sierra in such an outgoing mood is really nice, I wish she'd get more placements like that 😀
  • As for Echo's placement, a very neat idea in deed. I was really surprised to find out that it was her son, it's great that his own idea about the note backfired on him like that. Great acting on Eliza's part too, especially when the son tried to kiss her :silly: that would be mildly disturbing for a mom!
I do have one complaint this week: I missed the supposedly great preview for next week! 😉 I'll have to catch it later on Fox.com or something. Overall though I liked this week. Reasonably light-hearted and it had a neat storyline to Echo's "assignment"-- probably one of my favourites of her placements so far 🙂
 
C
charmingslayer
It's on YT already and it's amazing!
Loved this episode!

Pro's-

-Sierra having fun.
-Paul's really disturing scene with Mellie where he becomes the client.
-Eliza's storyline and acting
-Adelle was great and finally had a nice scene with Boyd.
-Adelles scene about Topher and Sierra.
-The sad ending.

Con's-
-The end scene was way too abrupt and I think they recycled the clip of her going into the chair.
-Not enough Tierra scenes 😀.

Can someone please tell me what happend in the FBI scene to make the the lady believe him?

The preview for next week was amazing!
I loved everything espicially
1.Alpha.
2.Saunder's ending scene.
3.Paul/Boyd first meeting.
4.Victor ^Mellie's little clip.
à‚nd 5.We finally get an exterior shot of the Dollhouse!
 
Angelic Slayer
Angelic Slayer
Thanks for the tip, finally got to see the promo and WOW! I want to see!
I've thought and thought, and even though it's getting too high for me to place this one, it's FOR SURE in the top 5.

I agree with everything angelic slayer said.

The idea was just kinda TOO neat. But, not enough for me to be SURE it would be something I'd want to do if I knew I was gonna die. They were nice enough to show the downfalls.

For the first time, it really felt like the dolls were a team....like a "opening sequence of Angel" type team. I can't quite describe it better than that. Watching Sierra play and Victor come and look at the horses (and Victor's "country hick" accent was GREAT!) and I realized AGAIN how bad I feel for Mellie (who may NEVER be November to me, no matter how hard they try.) It was just kinda NEAT...like they all had their jobs to do, but were all actually kinda working "together" in the story.
Okay, I doubt that makes sense so I'll move on.

In the FBI office, the lady ran Mellie's prints and it came up with one person (or file) then it seemed to come up with LOTS of files (or people) and then they all deleted themselves and the prints came back as "not on file" or "no match" or something like that. I sit kinda far from the TV during BBtv to read that small writing.

Topher and Sierra were a HOOT! "Let's play with the Sleepies". In fact, I think YC and I would like an episode where they DO make the dolls act out skits to put on YouTube. We vote they try that in the next installment of Dr. Horrible.

I give them a 10 for GREAT idea. It is gonna take at least one more watching to get it all, but I have to watch it again later anyway.

And next week looks FUN!
 
Great episode. Really neat idea to save your own memories so you can go back and see your own funeral.
Can't see myself doing something like that though.

I thought that they did a pretty good job with the whole mystery killer story. I went back and forth as the story progressed.

Loved how they just let Topher do his special testing thing... it's quite sad when you think about it though.
My favorite part of the episode too. Sierra was great.

/SK
 
I think it said after flashing all the aliases that there were zero matches found.

I liked it, not loved it, but it was a tidy little episode for sure. As soon as Victor (and a much better accent!) and Nick had that whole exchange I knew it was him though. The idea was good, but I'm a little disturbed by the whole "let's see who really loved me after I died" thing...ignorance is sometimes bliss.

It was touching and sad about Topher and Sierra in some ways....he really only gets a friend on his birthday? Though, through parts of that, I kept thinking, that Topher downloaded himself into Sierra...well, like the gamey side and mannerisms and stuff...really does go to show how much the Dollhouse staff really have no other lives outside the Dollhouse...we've seen that Claire has practically no life outside the Dollhouse, and now Topher as well....not forgetting Adelle as Miss Lonelyhearts...

Paul and Mellie/November....he's kinda disgusted with himself, isn't he? I don't really know what to think, whether he's realised that he can't get out of the illusion or that he thinks he's as bad as the people he's trying to uncover, or what...I don't know...

The Emo/Elmo line made me laugh "Honey, that's not a word" lol.
 
Bluebird
Bluebird
I thought that about Topher too! Sierra is Topher! (sw)
I think it said after flashing all the aliases that there were zero matches found.

I liked it, not loved it, but it was a tidy little episode for sure. As soon as Victor (and a much better accent!) and Nick had that whole exchange I knew it was him though. The idea was good, but I'm a little disturbed by the whole "let's see who really loved me after I died" thing...ignorance is sometimes bliss.

It was touching and sad about Topher and Sierra in some ways....he really only gets a friend on his birthday? Though, through parts of that, I kept thinking, that Topher downloaded himself into Sierra...well, like the gamey side and mannerisms and stuff...really does go to show how much the Dollhouse staff really have no other lives outside the Dollhouse...we've seen that Claire has practically no life outside the Dollhouse, and now Topher as well....not forgetting Adelle as Miss Lonelyhearts...

Paul and Mellie/November....he's kinda disgusted with himself, isn't he? I don't really know what to think, whether he's realised that he can't get out of the illusion or that he thinks he's as bad as the people he's trying to uncover, or what...I don't know...

The Emo/Elmo line made me laugh "Honey, that's not a word" lol.

I pretty much think the same.
 
My initial thought was that this was one of the episodes I've liked the most. And I think I know why. My expectations have been high from the start so the episodes have only had a chance to satisfy me but the preview for this didn't really had me going. I wanted more progress in the awarenss situation and now it was mostly just "another mission" although in a way a very special one. So lower expectations = easier to like. Which kind of makes me wonder if I should watch the preview of the next episode or not. And if I thought I liked Sierra before, wow. I know it isn't her since it's an imprint but it doesn't matter. Makes me like her more all the same. And Topher, it did take me quite a while to start liking him but I'm liking him more and more. The whole situation with Ballard is deeply disturbing though, and I feel for him.


*goes to try and find the previev for next episode*
 
I liked it.

It was a brilliant imprint idea. Eliza's acting was really good, far better than the beginning of the show, she made us forget Eliza/Faith/Echo, well done. Topher was cute. Paul's investigation keeps on going on verrry slow, one thing at a time... I feel like they didn't know how to complicate it, so he's taking the normal inverstigation road but really slowly...

No Amy = bad. As in "really".

Over all a good episode, maybe one of the best "standalones" (by that I mean just a simple mission outside the Dollhouse) we've got, but really below the not-stand-alones.
 
One of my favorite episodes. It was by far the most interesting of the standalone eps, and Eliza's best acting job so far. The "eternal life" implications were fascinating, and something I think will become important if the show lasts long enough. (Or maybe even in "Epitaph One").

Loved the Topher/Sierra scenes, especially in that he just wanted a friend rather than sex, despite having an insanely hot doll to play with.
 
Can someone please tell me what happend in the FBI scene to make the the lady believe him?

Mellie showed up under a bunch of different aliases, but then they all disappeared out of the FBI database. Poof. Gone. It was so freaky and conspiracy-y that whatserface started to believe Paul that something weird is going on.

I liked this episode a lot, but what I'm REALLY excited for is NEXT week! There was some shrieking and jumping up and down at that preview, let me tell you!
 
I really liked this episode. I think it's one of my favourites. The Topher and Sierra scenes were my fave part of the episode, so cute. ^_^

And when I saw the preview for next week, I started hyperventilating and screaming, and I fell off the bed. XD
 
B
Blondie Bear
Me, too! Except for the falling off the bed part.
The thing I don't get is how exactly can they implant the 'neural content' (my phrase) of a decedent's brain into a living subject long after the time when brain death supposedly occurs?

And I also liked the scenes between Topher and his 'gamer-geek gal-pal' Sierra. It's apparent that Topher, Adelle and the Doctor are all very lonely people and need to get out more!
 
^ Are you talking about Adelle's friend? Adelle mentions that she underwent "painful" brain scans for "a year and a half" at the Dollhouse cos she was paranoid and concerned that what actually happened to her might in fact happen.

That just makes me wonder...does it actually take a year and a half to completely "download" every person's memories/essence/whatever into the Dollhouse servers (or however they're stored)?
 
That just makes me wonder...does it actually take a year and a half to completely "download" every person's memories/essence/whatever into the Dollhouse servers (or however they're stored)?
I took it as she did it every now and then just to have an imprint that was as updated as possible for the day she died.

Not sure if I understood it correctly though.

/SK
 
B
Blondie Bear
That's what I figured, too.
I took it as she did it every now and then just to have an imprint that was as updated as possible for the day she died.

Not sure if I understood it correctly though.

/SK

Yeah, that could make sense, in terms of keeping her latest memories up to date, yeah. I can see that.

I don't see this show ever really delving into the philosophical/metaphysical questions of this kind of scenario. If you precisely copy a person's brain and memories...down to the last neuron...it's still just a replica of that person (however precise it may be). It's not "you". You can't transfer your unique being-ness/consciousness into a computer, even in theory. Or can you? Is that "you" for all practical purposes?
 
Not the best episode this week, I started to get a little bored half way through. It was like watching a game of Cluedo between the family trying to solve who killed Margret. It was a good shift from husband to son, that I didn't see coming and thought it was a great twist. Still the rest of it was just blah and just a little too slow paced but then you have to have episodes like this at time to flush everything out.

Topher imprinting Sierra and having a bit of fun was alright, I found it sweet that Adelle calls it tests or something along those lines. She obviously understands him a lot more that she lets on.Best part was probably with Paul getting finger prints from Mellie and seeing all those photos come up with her under diifferent identities. It makes me curious to know whats Mellie's true persona is and why everything was wiped off the computer at the last minute.

Oh well hopefully next week will be a better episode. 😀
 
Hmmm. What I consider a nuanced, thoughtful, character-driven story, it seems a lot of people consider "boring."

It's too late for Dollhouse... it won't be back. But if there's one lesson to be learned here for future reference, it's that the age of stand-alone episodes is over. When you have a show with a mythology, you need to advance that mythology every single week, or people will lose interest.

I look forward to the last 2 episodes, and the extra episode on the DVD set, and I hope Joss can be talked into continuing the canon in comic book form. While I think he's right that the show's format doesn't fit the monthly comic format, graphic novels might be a different story.
 
Joan the Vampire Slayer
Joan the Vampire Slayer
Agreed. I thought this episode was great because it wasn't as "action" packed as others
Do you have insider info none of us earthlings have???
I've heard nothing about definite cancellation.

Dropping below 3 million viewers is death for any network TV show. Those numbers aren't even good enough for basic cable.

I love Dollhouse. I haven't failed to enjoy a single episode. But I've come to realize that I live in Bizarro World, and many of the things I love, the rest of humanity is absolutely indifferent to.

If Dollhouse gets picked up for a second season, I'll consider it the single biggest surprise in my long history as a TV viewer. And I'll be very interested to know what Fox's thinking is.
 
Back
Top Bottom