Dollhouse ReWatch: "Belle Chose" (2.3)

[VisionGirl]

Getting caught up!

Before we get started, I need to tell you guys that I'm going on vacation for 10 days leaving on Saturday, so I need a replacement to fill in while I'm gone. I won't even be able to watch & join in on the discussion until I get back! 🙁 Anybody interested?

While Echo is engaged by a college professor (Arye Gross) as nubile student Kiki, Terry Karrens (Joe Sikora), nephew of Rossum Corporation benefactor Bradley Karrens (Michael Hogan), is struck by a car near Beverly Hills and left comatose. While mapping his brain in an attempt to figure out if he'll recover, Topher discovers signs that Terry is either a serial killer or about to become one, and Bradley admits that he is trying to revive Terry quickly so that his latest victims can be rescued. Instead, Victor is imprinted with his personality and former FBI Agent Paul Ballard interviews him, but before anyone can get a location from him, Bradley frees him, after which Victor/Terry incapacitates his uncle and resumes the hunt for a new "Aunt Sheila." At Adelle's urging, Topher attempts a remote wipe on Victor, which ends up flipping imprints: while Victor becomes Kiki, showing off "her" dance moves amused bystanders, Echo becomes Terry and returns to "his" hideout. Only Echo's intervention, fighting the Terry imprint, allows Dollhouse teams to save the captured women.

Source

The title means "beautiful thing" in the French language. Source

The title of the episode is a direct reference to the text of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, specifically the "Wife Of Bath's Tale" which Kiki and Professor Gossen are discussing. In the tale the Wife of Bath refers to her private parts as her "belle chose."
http://www.tv.com/shows/dollhouse/belle-chose-1285240/

Michael Hogan (who played Terry's uncle) is the fourth Battlestar Galactica alumni to appear in Dollhouse.

The episode's literary subplot for the first half, in which Echo is hired out by a medieval literature professor, examines notions of empowerment. Professor Edmond Gossen suggests to Kiki Turner (Echo) the example of The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer's Middle English poem The Canterbury Tales. Drawing on Chaucer's Wife of Bath, he posits a notion of female empowerment whereby women can utilise sex as a means to manipulate men, insinuating Kiki could seduce him to improve her grades from an F to an A. However, the situation illustrates many ways in which men still retain power in these situations: the entire Gossen-Kiki encounter is a fiction of Gossen's mind, and while Kiki believes she is exercising her own agency in seducing her professor, in reality she is Echo whose consent to have sex is an irrelevancy. A male-dominated world means that these expressions of female 'power' are illusory, as they ultimately serve to satisfy male pleasure. The parallels between Kiki and Echo as separate identities would suggest that under Gossen's view, Echo in the Wife of Bath role must endure the sexual economy of the Dollhouse in order to construct the cognizant identity and in turn power to enact her own nascent plan to 'free' the Dolls.

The paralyzed women in Karren's lair are of course parallels to the dolls themselves, immobilized and forced to endure suffering and roleplay scenarios, with fleeting moments of agency and designs for freedom.

The episode also makes some questions about gender roles and authority. Ballard comments to Terry Karrens that all of his names are girls' names. When Kiki is transferred to Victor's body, there is no scene which illustrates a realization of a new gender identity; rather, she continues in her ordinary personality, and flamboyant behaviour, which causes club patrons to mistake her for a gay man.

http://dollhouse.wikia.com/wiki/Belle_Chose

This is probably one of my favorite standalones so far. I'll be back later with my own comments.

 

[Washburne]

Creepy, creepy guy.

”Topher has ethical problems. Topher.
Way to land it.”

”I won't even do this for my wife.
I was trained at Quantico.”

”It turns out we're in need of a fbi profiler. I suggested you.
For what?
To interrogate a possible serial killer.
Serial killer?
*looks at Kiki*
Thank god.”

Is it just me or do people escape from the dollhouse a little too easy too often?

The plan missfired. 3 times (uncles plan, finding Victor with GPS and remote vipe. Huge surprise. 😛

Now lets talk acting. Both Eliza and Enver end up playing both Kiki and Terry. Who do you think impresses more. Is it even a contest? Do we appriciate men playing women more than the other way around?

”Paul, oh Paul. Why did you leave me?
Do you have a problem?” :: red ::

Oh I forgot. More Battlestar Galactica. Michel Hogan plays the uncle. As been already mentioned. 😉

 

[VisionGirl]

Hey [MENTION=8013]Washburne[/MENTION], would you like to take over the Dollhouse discussions while I'm gone?

Joss did not write this one, Tim Minear did. And he knocked it out of the park. It is totally Whedonish to combine hilarious comedy with abject horror. The Terry storyline is so incredibly creepy! Enver's portrayal of Victor as Terry was dead on. Eliza's wasn't quite so great, but I do like how nothing was made of Terry now being in a female body.

Paul watching Echo after she gets dressed gives me an icky feeling, especially with the pigtails.

Paul: "A serial killer? THank God"

Victor as Kiki is the bomb!

Echo imprinted as Terry and glitching reminds me a bit of Glory and Ben, especially with the "he's still here, he's coming!" part. I do think Eliza did a great job with that.

As a standalone, this episode really does it for me. Exciting, creepy, funny, intriguing.

 

[Vamp Jenny]

Creepy guy...

Paul's still not used to his handler's job

The way aul looks at Echo when she's at her fitting for Kiki's, it's just so adorable!!! (I'm on a romantical mood these days, don't worry, it'll wear off but right now I'm enjoying a bit too much any romance in TV shows)

Paul can be scary when he wants to! If I was Terry, I'd be shaking in my boots. But then Terry's wacko so maybe shaking in his boots isn't something he does...

Adele and Paul make a great team at interrogating suspects 🙂
[MENTION=8013]Washburne[/MENTION] you're right, people escape way too easily from the Dollhouse.

Topher might be a genius, but it seems like his work always blow up in his face one way or another. No wonder he's going crazy in the future...

Now everybody in the club think Paul's gay XD

Scary ending. I know Echo remembers every imprint, but thinking this one is still there... It could lead her to become like Alpha... :s

 

[Jules]

I loved the episode. It had just the right mix of humor and suspence. The funny parts were Topher (as always), Victor/Kiki and Paul at the club, Paul with his whole handler duties.

I like that Adelle and Topher's morals are being highlighted more. The fact that Adelle doesnt want Terry to wake up, that its not all about what the client wants and more about doing the right thing.

It seems that when Kiki got switched over to Victors body she had no knowledge that she was in a man's body and her preference was that she was still into guys.

I would have liked to see a bit more struggle for control of Echo's body. She was telling those women that he was going to take over any minute, yet she remained in control for quite a while.