Where do Dolls Come From?

[nerd4hire]

In the pilot it's suggested Caroline signs up as a Doll, because some tricky pressure in her life forces her into the option.

That's one kind of thing. Not necessarily outright evil from a Dollhouse perspective, just a little mercenary to take advantage of it.

Later it's suggested a Russian mob is involved in human trafficking, and they are populating the Dollhouse. In fact Paul goes to a hotel basement supposedly run by the Borodins and there are mattresses.

That's just evil.

It seems to me like the question, where exactly do the dolls come from matters. It determines how villainous the Dollhouse corporation really is.

 

[goldenboy]

If you're trying to apply real world logic to this, seems like they'd want to use completely marginalized people (the homeless, people who've gone missing for years) and foreigners as dolls—anything that would reduce the possibility of the dolls being ID'd as their original persona.

I wonder how typical or atypical Caroline's recruitment was. Would the Dollhouse have to develop an elaborate cover story scenario for the dolls? Like, Caroline's joined the PeaceCorps; Echo is periodically programmed as a Caroline-like persona, calling her parents, writing...

 

[Mumrik]

If you're trying to apply real world logic to this, seems like they'd want to use completely marginalized people (the homeless, people who've gone missing for years) and foreigners as dolls—anything that would reduce the possibility of the dolls being ID'd as their original persona.

Good point. That's what I figured too. That would be the easiest way, pick up some homeless guy, wipe his memory, you have your doll, no problem.

But I have this other idea coming from what we've seen from Caroline's recruitment. What if the Dollhouse picks criminals to be their dolls? Caroline seemed to be in a pretty desperate situation when she signed up, so what if she was in for death penalty or life imprisionment and was given the choice? Either become a doll for five years and then get a new life, prison or death.
Of course, then the Dollhouse must be some undercover government organisation or pay really big sums to have their dolls' criminal history cleared.

Probably a pretty crazy idea but it's stuck in my head since the pilot.

 

[Aly Fan]

I always got the impression that the people who became dolls volunteered for it to a certain extent. I always got the impression that it was the ones who wanted to disappear, to be someone else, due to something they'd done in the past or for personal reasons...that's just the impression i got...i maybe completely wrong though...

 

[AndrewCrossett]

I think only people who volunteer are turned into dolls... and obviously they have to meet certain standards of health, strength and attractiveness to qualify. I don't know if they're usually promised a payment at the end of their 5-year term or not... Caroline's "payment" may have been making her big problem go away.

The fact that they volunteer doesn't necessarily mean they think they have a choice. Caroline obviously didn't want to do it, but didn't seen any other way out of her trouble.

I don't know about the Dollhouse's owners... we haven't seen them yet... but Adelle and the others who work there seem to have some basic sense of human decency (or think they do, at least) and I doubt they'd be involved in outright kidnapping and slavery.

 

[nerd4hire]

Well, FBI agent Paul Ballard is investigating the possibility Russian mobsters (the Borodins) may be supplying bodies for Dolls by way of human trafficking. Whether he's right, or not, we will see - hopefully.

So far the only actual recruitment we've seen has been with Caroline, but that doesn't necessarily mean recruitment by participant choice is the only way they go.

 

[Flannen]

I think there's got be something a bit dodgy going on and agree with nerd4hire that just because we saw Caroline participate 'willingly', I use the term loosely, doesn't mean that they don't have other means of getting dolls. The fact that the Paul Ballard is involved suggests to me that there is something else going on that isn't quite as 'legal' as helping people's problems disappear. Plus, isn't the guy that Ballard goes to for information a doll himself? Which makes me think they need to use him to keep Ballard following up the Russian Mafia lead in order to keep him away from something worse. That's the impression I got, but I am a few episodes behind so things may have happened that I don't know about. If this is the case, just ignore me 🙂