Dollhouse ReWatch: "True Believer" (1.5)

VisionGirl

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Imprinted as a blind woman, Echo must infiltrate a heavily guarded cult in order to rescue someone being held against their will. Echo's eyes transmit what they see to government agents watching the compound, though she herself is blind. Echo's imprint is not that of an undercover agent, but rather someone who fully believes she has been brought there in a vision by the cult's leader, a former felon. However, when that leader becomes paranoid and violent, it is Echo who steps up to save the day. Paul Ballard continues his search for Caroline, using facial recognition software. Dominic begins to reveal how much he dislikes Echo. Topher and Dr. Saunders observe a surprising (and supposedly impossible) reaction between two of the Actives in their doll states: evidently, Victor finds Sierra attractive.
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Sorry I'm late with this guys! I'm going to bed now, so I'll comment tomorrow. I just want to say that I really, really liked this episode!
 
"It's not so much the singing as the smiling." I sure agree. Smiling faces can be the greatest sight in the world but it can also be creepy.

I admit, "cults" fascinate me. And scare me at the same time. I truly believe that not all what others call cults are bad while I'm as confident that some take adventage of people and us them for themselves. It's difficult to be neutral when it comes to the subject. What defines what is a cult and what's not? Do the word cult automatically mean something bad?

Why so suspicious? If you don't have anything to hide shouldn't you be happy for people wanting to join your community? If they don't do anything illegal what's the harm in having people from the goverment there to take a look? Maybe I'm too black or white in this question. Keeping the garden "clean" sure. Although way too dramatacly. Being hostile and violent isn't the way to do it.

Man reaction time! 😀

Looking through 3 months of showering to find more man reaction. What a great job.

Poor Mellie. Not getting the attention she want from Paul.

Dominic... Blaming Echo right away for what ever is going on. Wrong. Not like he's getting better during the rest of episode.

Echo on tv and Paul is watching. Total coincidence but now he'll never ever give up.
 
Just like "Stage fright" and "The Target" this plot line just doesn't do it for me. It's boring and feels as if it's been done a dozen times before.

The whole Echo as a 'blind' spy didn't warm me to it in the least.

I feel for Mellie, she's so sweet, but not even I'm fond of Dominic in this episode. His "it's Echo's fault" is I don't know... fine if he dislikes her but it's a far walk from distrusting someone to murdering them in cold blood. It feels as if he's this 'villain' within... worse than Adele, but I'm not sure I'm buying why his hatred of Echo takes him so far...?


*giggles* man reactions... love it 🙂
 
I love Paul 😀 He's just adorable!

Or even worse, a sneizure
XD

The idea of the FBI engagement was good. With her imprint and the camera in her eyes, Echo was able to do what no one else would ever be able to.

I admire Eliza to be able to play a blind person. It must be very hard to make sure not to relate on your sight when you're acting.

Sierra and Victor in the shower always makes me LOL. I know they're innocent and all, but the way he looks at her and then at himself and how he says "it feels......... nice"

Aww poor Mellie. I totally ship Paul/Omega, but still it's sad to see her being lovesick and ignored.

[sing]
Victor likes Sierra!
[/sing]
😀 so foreshadowing!

I don't like agent Lilly... He's all about the job, ready to kill Esther if it helps him. It's not because you work with the FBI that you can just care about the job being done no matter the consequences, dude...

grrrrr... Dominic is seriously getting on my nerves...
put him in the attic already!!

I just realized... I don't know if it was intended, but Esther Carpenter... Jesus was a carpenter, she infiltrated a cult... funny choice of name.

I liked this episode. i know the first few episodes are not very popular (or it seems so) but I like them. I think it sets slowly the plot in the same way a lot of other shows do. A few episodes with a very thinconductive line that slowly grows thicker until we get to the core of the season's plot 🙂
 
Oh, Dominic is so annoying! & if Echo is remembering stuff, he's in big trouble!
I love Victor & Sierra! Topher is so childlike, especially when discussing Victor's "man-reaction"
I love it when Echo regains her sight, the ATF agent says "We're blind", and Boyd gets that little smile on his face.

A couple of episodes ago, we saw Adelle get upset at the idea of losing Echo. I think we see some anxiety about that here as well, as well as annoyance at Dominic. I think she has more feelings for the Actives then she lets on. She says it's all business, but she clearly has an emotional attachment.

And while I agree that the cult plotline isn't that exciting, I really like Echo/Esther's character here. I'm not sure what I like about it, it's certainly very different than the other imprints she has had. She seems innocent, believing, but obviously turns out not as gullible as you think she is. She's not stupid certainly. I am interested in plots about "faith" (whatever that may be), and while I didn't care about the cult itself or any of it's members, the idea that Esther had the dream, and was looking for a place to belong, was compelling to me.

My favorite dialogue:
Loomis: Then you know that I've got plenty of faces to scan for people much more impressive than you.
Ballard: Not as charming.
Loomis: Was that flirting?
Ballard: I think so. It's been a while. Did I mention I was shot?
I love Paul! And poor, poor Mellie. 🙁

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:25 AM ----------

Some trivia: Tim Minear wrote this episode. They filmed it on election day/night, 2008. Eliza:
we were all gathered around this little television with like crank knobs, sitting on a stool out in the middle of nowhere [on election night] watching Obama take it. We will all remember that for sure."
http://dollhouse.wikia.com/wiki/True_Believer

I really like this blog review (written at the time of airing): http://blogs.pioneerlocal.com/entertainment/2009/03/dollhouse_review_getting_a_lit.html
 
Washburne
Washburne
Love that dialogue.
Taake
Taake
nice review link! I liked it
Why does Dominic have such negative feelings towards Echo? Other than her being a top active and him possibly being jealous...are there any other reasons? The guy is a serious prick.

I found this story line interesting, the whole concept of cults is fascinating to me so it was neat to see their take on it. The first time watching it I thought Echo going in as a blind woman was a bit over the top; it didn't bother me as much the second time.

It's so sad to see Mellie trying to hard to get a little attention from Paul. She is so sweet and he hardly gives her the time of day.

I love the shower scene with Victor and Sierra! The whole "man reaction" thing was funny.
 
I think this episode shows how fear of something can lead to the worst kind of hate. Dominic hates Echo, at the end of the episode he says Echo is showing signs of being like Alpha. Knowing what Alpha can do and thinking Echo might do the same, in my opinion, is why he's acting like he is. He's trying to stop his worst nightmare coming true.

I wasnt hugely thrilled with the plotline. I know you sometimes get corrupt authorities, but having a ''cult'' that was doing nothing wrong, were people were happy and then having that guy spread rumors in town to make people afraid and writing that note. It just felt wrong, even if the he was trying to catch a bad guy.

I'm still not interested in Ballard or his scenes 🙁
 
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