Dollhouse Rewatch: "Hollow Men" (2.12)

[VisionGirl]

I can't believe we're almost done with our rewatch!! One question before I start this: would you guys like to extend our rewatch & discuss the comics as well? There are not too many issues, so it shouldn't take us too much longer.

On to the episode:

As the group leaves for Tucson to take down Rossum, Boyd attempts to sabotage its efforts by drugging Echo. Boyd uses Topher's trust to serve Rossum's agenda by tricking Topher into finishing his remote wipe/imprinting technology. Anthony and Priya, who were told in the previous episode to spend their last night together, return to the Dollhouse and discover that Boyd has been betraying them all along. Boyd reveals that he has spared the group's lives because he loves them like family. Caroline has a special genetic trait, expressed in her spinal fluid, which allows her to survive the wipes. Boyd watched over Echo and allowed her to be pushed to her limits in order to allow her to form a complete personality, as every time she "survives" a wipe the gene's expression grows stronger, allowing for Rossum to create a "cure" for wiping. Boyd activates Mellie's sleeper programming and she assaults Paul, but is able to fight it off long enough to tell Paul that she loves him, and then kill herself. Echo manages to fight off Clive 2.0, now in the body of Whiskey, before having her final confrontation with Boyd. Topher wins the ensuing fight by hitting Boyd with the mind-wipe tech he created and hates, and Echo uses the now-Dollstate Boyd to as a suicide bomber to destroy Rossum's headquarters. Echo and Paul have saved the world... but the episode's epilogue depicts them fleeing through the apocalyptic future of "Epitaph One."

Source

TV.com says:

The title "The Hollow Men" references the 1925 poem by T.S. Eliot, concerning post-war Europe under the Treaty of Versailles. The poem famously ends with the lines, "This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang with a whimper."

The Dollhouse Wikia entry for this episode goes into greater detail on the link between the T.S. Eliot poem & the series. You can read the entire text of the poem here: http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/784/.

My thoughts:
-It's hard for me to believe that Adelle doesn't know who Boyd is. Also don't understand why Boyd puts himself at risk of being remembered by Caroline by speaking to her himself.
-God, Amy Acker is a fantastic actress! What an amazing performance.
-Paul: "We feel what we feel".
-Mellie killing herself- oh god. But it really elevates her from a meek person to an individual with strength, and makes her death meaningful & yet incredibly tragic.
-"I'm the one who brings about the thought-pocalypse." Best quote in the episode.
-The last scene with Echo & Boyd was so incredibly sad. In a way it seems incredibly cruel since he is in Doll-state & doesn't understand what's going on. But she has no way of knowing if he will be triggered in some way to become what he was. Kind of reminds me of Lorne killing Lindsey in the final episode of Angel: was it necessary?
-The whole "download my personality into a new body over and over again" reminds me a lot of the Cylons & the Resurrection ships. Really the seed of this aspect was planted in the episode "Haunted".

 

[Washburne]

I got the comimcs so if you want to discuss them I'll join.

Enver as Topher again. So, so much love. His thoughts about Boyds betrayal sums it up perfectly.

”Brothers before others that aren't bros.” If only Boyd was a bro...

There it is. Boyds psycho smile/grin.

”You're here 'cause you're my family. I love you guys.” Once the secret is out everything sounds creepy.

Activating Mellie. How evil. And clever. She snaps out of it. Really. People seem to be able to do that a lot these days. Imprints aren't as strong as they're supposed to. Or just the easiest way to solve the situation. More deaths. Oh, Mellie, Mellie, Mellie. If that's what we should call her.

Thought-pocalypse or brain-pocalypse? ”I figure if I'm responsible for the end of the world, I would get to name it.”

“Are you still me? Because I could use someone to shoulder some of the guilt.”

”What did I miss?” Paul sure doesn't have it easy. Can't blame him for thinking that Adelle was the one activating Mellie.

I know Boyd is evil but in doll state I can't help but to feel sorry for him getting himself killed.

“So, did we save the world?
I guess we did.”

Or not.

 

[VisionGirl]

@Washurne:
Activating Mellie. How evil. And clever. She snaps out of it. Really. People seem to be able to do that a lot these days. Imprints aren't as strong as they're supposed to. Or just the easiest way to solve the situation.

One of the promos before the show started said "Can you erase a soul?" I think that Joss' bottom line here is "no". Besides just making for good television (Joss says in his first commentary that it's like watching a murder-mystery TV show and them saying "Oh, no one got killed this week"- it's boring), I think one of the reasons things keep messing up is because the tech is imperfect. There is something in the human psyche/soul/personality/will that will always overpower the tech or resist the urge to be controlled.

---------- Post added at 12:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 AM ----------

I also think that this episode (essentially a finale, since Epitaph Two is more like a coda or epilogue) is so Angel-esque. Although the characters aren't cognisant of it like Angel & the gang, they don't prevent the apocalypse, but they do succeed in cutting the head off the snake. As Angel says, "for one bright shiny moment we can show them that they don't own us".

 

[Jules]

I think they were wrong to kill the Active that had been imprinted with Boyd. Its cruel. The active had done nothing wrong. Echo didnt want to hurt Whisky yet as Dr Saunder's she'd killed Bennett and she was currently housing a very evil updated version of Clyde. How do you justify killing the Active used for Boyd and not Whisky?

Mellie killing herself to protect Paul was very Buffy season 5. Why didnt he just knock her unconsious when she had control of herself? I know its because Joss loves the heart ache 🙂

Topher is my favorite, he was so hillarious in this episode. I loved his face when Adelle told Boyd to shoot her and her blood would end up all over Topher's face. Its a shame that for someone so smart he's so niave. He really buys into Boyd telling him to fix the tech for there own protection. He should have just gone with his first instinct.

I loved Pyria and Tony. Tony especially, he is awesome when he gets his upgrade.

I cant wait for the next episode.

 

[Washburne]

Wait, what? The Boyd we know is just an imprint? If that's true I'm ashamed to admit that I've missed that completely. Not that it wouldn't make sense. When did we learn that? I just thought they made the real Boyd into an active in the end.

 

[VisionGirl]

Yeah, I'm not positive that Boyd was an Active. Remember that the new tech affects anyone, not just someone with active Doll architecture. So he was reduced to Doll-state, but I'm not sure that means that he was originally an Active.

---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

Spoiler

He's not present or even mentioned in Epitaph Two even though Harding is present (in another body) & Clyde is mentioned. That leads me to believe that he was the real thing and there is not another one out there after he is killed.

---------- Post added at 01:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 PM ----------

Oops, I was wrong in my statment:

Spoiler

both Harding & Ambrose were in Epitaph Two

.

 

[Jules]

I thought he'd said he'd already gone from body to body, implying he was in an imprint. Maybe I'm getting it mixed up with Clyde. I'll have to watch it again 🙂

 

[Vamp Jenny]

"You are special. You have amazing potential." He didn't know how right he was at the time...

I love it when Topher gets imprinted in Victor XD

Amy's good at playing the villain. I wish we'd see more of her in that kind of roles.

Topher, you can only count on yourself when at war with a corporation that is known for infiltrating human brains. Don't confide in the big bad 😛

I can't see any good reason why Mellie's still with them. Why would Paul insist she tags along in a mission as dangerous as this? His own explanation isn't good enough to me.

Finally, they all know Boyd's the big bad.

So Alpha wasn't so crazy, Boyd's ten times worse!

I liked Mellie at the beginning of S1. Haven't liked her much since, so her death didn't look heroic much to me. I just didn't care... Kinda sad for Paul, though.

Oh, Clyde vs Echo 😀

Wrong person to tell, Paul. Shoot the guy.

"What did I miss?"
Paul's cute and can be very smart, but poor him her was too long to realize on this one.

Topher's a hero 🙂

The end was very dramatic. With Echo leaving Boyd with the bombs in the motherboard room.
But what exactly exploded? There was no damage on the building from the outside...