The Good, The Bad, and the Dolls: Part Two

As I said in the previous post, Dollhouse centers most of their story arcs and conflicts around a few key Actives - Echo, Sierra, and Victor. These three will develop into personifications of some of the show's key themes and ideas. 

However, the emotionless nature of these characters due to their constant mind-wiped state means that the show must derive a great deal of its conflict and drama from its other characters. Thus, in the first few episodes, the audience is introduced to a wide range of other character within and outside the Dollhouse to provide many of the moral dilemmas created by the services of the Dollhouse. 

Each will struggle with his or her role in the continued existence of the Dollhouse throughout the series, yet all of the people below, whether "good" or "bad" still believes that they are doing the right thing. At least for the moment...

The "Bad Guys"

(from left to right) Adelle DeWitt, Laurence Dominic, Topher Brink

In a show where nearly every character is either the victim or the perpetrator of unspeakable acts, it is hard to draw a clear line between "good guys" and "bad guys". In this instance, our villains are the individuals whose actions keep the Dollhouse and its various illegal activities running smoothly. For that, we can thank Topher Brink, Laurence Dominic, and Adelle DeWitt - the brains, brawn, and boss of the Dollhouse.

Topher Brink is the Programmer for the LA Dollhouse. His job is to imprint the Actives with the appropriate personality for a given engagement, then wipe their minds once they have completed their task. Topher honestly believes that his and the Dollhouse's actions are justified, because they do help make people's lives better. Yet that view will be challenged as Topher will see the technology of the Dollhouse and of his own creation, misused and abused to harm others.

Laurence Dominic is the chief of security for the Dollhouse in Los Angeles. He has a cold, ruthless demeanor, and his only concern is preventing the organization he serves from being compromised from without and from within. However, with each new threat upon the secrecy of the Dollhouse and the safety of its Actives, we will see a new side of Dominic emerge, one that poses its own threat to the Dollhouse.

Finally, Adelle DeWitt is the director of the Dollhouse. She arranges engagement between the Actives and their wealthy clients and is ultimately responsible for everything her Dolls go through. As a result, Adelle shows much more concern for the Actives than Dominic or Topher. She too believes that the Dollhouse is based around helping people, and she will do everything in her power to protect that vision of the Dollhouse. Yet like all the others, Adelle will begin to see firsthand exactly how many people can be hurt by her actions.

The "Good Guys"

(from left to right) Boyd, Dr. Saunders, Paul, and Mellie

Contrasting with the "bad guys" above, these characters all agree: The Dollhouse is wrong and needs to be stopped. However, many of them are powerless to actually stop the Dollhouse, so they try to help and protect the Actives in the Dollhouse from harm.

Boyd Langton is an ex-cop who is now Echo's handler. His job is to protect Echo from any harm during an engagement. Though he might work for the Dollhouse, he does not share his superiors' delusions about the good work done there. His concern lies more in Echo and her well-being. Throughout the series, we will see his concern for Echo evolve into something that will challenge the secrecy of the Dollhouse.
Dr. Claire Saunders is the resident physician of the Dollhouse. She examines all the Actives for any physical or psychological damage incurred from an outside engagement or within the House. While her caring attitude toward the docile Actives fits her role as a doctor, Saunders does not believe the Dollhouse is a force for good, since she carries the scars of one of the Dollhouse's mistake on her face.

Agent Paul Ballard and Mellie are the only two characters thus far mentioned who exist outside the Dollhouse. Yet they are just as connected to it as anyone else. Paul Ballard is an FBI agent assigned to the dead-end Dollhouse case by his superiors in an effort to keep him out of the way of other important investigations. However, as he gathers more evidence and gets closer and closer to the truth, Ballard will become obsessed with exposing the Dollhouse and saving Caroline - the actual name of the Active Echo. 
Mellie, however, is just an average citizen with a hopeless crush on Agent Ballard, her next-door neighbor. In an effort to get closer to him, she too will get sucked into the corruptible nature of the Dollhouse, and both she and Paul will be unable to escape it without help.

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Next week, I'll discuss the first major turning point of Dollhouse: the fifth episode "Man on the Street". There's gonna be love, betrayal, suspense, drama, and a special cameo from Spence Olchin of The King of Queens. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Dolls

The Main Cast of Dollhouse Season 1 (All Dollhouse photos ©2009, 2010 Fox Broadcasting Co.)

Dollhouse may have only aired for two seasons, but those 26 episodes were more than enough to establish an entire cast of memorable, if not relatable, characters. We'll be focusing on the main and recurring characters introduced in the first five episodes of season 1. This will give us a good starting point at analyzing how individual characters will become personifications of some of the show's key themes.

The Actives

The Actives Victor, Echo, and Sierra (from left to right)

Within the first episodes, the show begins to focus on a few key Actives in the Dollhouse. These individuals are supposed to be mentally indistinguishable from any Doll in the House: mindless, worry-free, naive, capable and willing to do anything given the right personality imprint. 

But as the show continues, we will see the nature of identity and the self question as Echo, the Dollhouse's most popular Active, begins to form her own personality despite constant mind wipes, as well as her own schemes to free herself and her fellow Actives from psychological bondage.

We also will see a romance begin to form between Victor and Sierra, which should be impossible given the Dolls' emotionally suppressed state. Not only will these two act as the show's exploration of love and attraction, they both individually represent other main themes of the show. Victor will come to show us the power of the Dollhouse to corrupt the individual and enslave others, as he is constantly used by others as a means to an evil end. 

Sierra's story, however, is infinitely more tragic. Her presence in Dollhouse will show her personally living the tragic implications of being made a defenseless, vulnerable Doll, and all the abuse and anguish that comes with it.

Next week, we'll look at the "horrible" people who did this to the Dolls, and how morality tends to become very gray in the Dollhouse.

A First Look at Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

I recently began watching the short-lived science fiction series Dollhouse on Netflix. I found the basic premise very intriguing: there exists an organization in Los Angeles called “the Dollhouse,” in which normal people voluntarily (or so it first appears) agree to have their personalities wiped and periodically replaced with new artificial identities. These “Actives,” as they are called by their caretakers, are indistinguishable from the real thing, and are created to satisfy the fantasies or desires of the highest bidder. The show mainly follows the House’s most popular Active, Echo (played by Eliza Dushku), and her growth from mindless Doll to a defiant person of her own.

The nature of the Dollhouse’s activities forces the characters of Dollhouse, both the actives and those responsible for them, to confront their many moral implications. The Dollhouse’s practice of hiring out people to fulfill the desires (often sexual) of the obscenely wealthy already carries strong overtones of human trafficking, prostitution, and slavery. As the series progresses, we see that the Actives, who might have joined the Dollhouse to escape troubles in the real world, are now facing exploitation and abuse in their mindless state, incapable of doing anything to stop it.

The show first aired back in 2009, but due to a lack of strong viewership and mixed review from critics, the show ended with only two 13-episode season in 2010. Which is a shame, because from the little I’ve seen of it, Dollhouse deserved much better treatment than it got five years ago.