The Morning After: Programming Note

@James - hope all is well.
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I really enjoyed Dollhouse again this week. It reminded me a lot of the "Band Candy" episode of Buffy, although in a thematically different context - in Buffy, the focus was more on the whole adult-child "responsibility" thing, while in Dollhouse the focus seemed to be more about loss of power and the loss of control of onesself. Yes, its a plot device that's been done before (and yeah, its been done a LOT), but I love how genre shows often offer individual takes on that mechanism. I've heard criticisms of the way this episode gave us silly versions of folks who are basically the villans of the piece, but I thought that it totally worked with the premise of the show, in that it took the people who make a living removing people's free will frakked with their heads and self-control for a change. Something that I'd like some more insight into, quick, is why Adelle is so eager to protect Echo when there have been so many memory and programming glitches with her. We know that she pursued Echo, grooming her in some twisted fashion for 2 years, but she seems to care about her in a way that belies the apparant lack of substance in their relationship (if that sentence makes any sense).
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I've also heard criticism that there are too many "glitches" with the imprinting technology - that such a high-profile operation would be inherently unsustainable if the technology was truly so unreliable. I totally agree that the glitches are problems, but I totally disagree that its a problem with the show itself - an emerging theme of the show is the way that people seize on the opportunity to exploit new technology without a thorough understanding of the consequences. The dolls aren't just assets, they're lab rats in an ongoing tabula rasa experiment. The technology is rapidly evolving, now even faster than they can keep up with (now that Alpha is developing remote wipe/upload technology). Of COURSE there are going to be major glitches - I imagine that is to be expected, and is a big part of the reason for all the security and handlers - the Dollhouse folks get paid the big bucks because they make every effort to stay ahead of the game, and plan for/control all eventualities. But nothing is perfect or all-powerful. IMO the fact that there are major glitches only makes it feel more realistic, and fits with the bigger questions/issues of the show. There are so many consequences of what they're doing that they had not expected - composite events, handler-rape, resurfacing of traumatic memories, grouping, etc - but once the Dollhouse was up and running, plugged into powerful circles, politically connected, it makes total sense that they have to endure and maintain at all costs, technical difficulties be darned. I think that situation is really interesting.
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Looking VERY forward to next week.

My fiancee said that this episode's concept would have worked better in another season or so, which makes sense since we're still trying to get a handle on how these characters operate normally.
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I'm just having a hard time justifying all of the effort the Dollhouse organization is putting into the push me/pull you relationship with the (ex-)agent. Also, it seems like the organization is totally fine with hiring/keeping people who are not 100% on board - I'd like a little more team spirit in my secret society workforce.

I liked this one a lot, and was a little surprised to see the criticism. I can see why someone would say it would have been a better episode in later years (some reviewer said it, I don't remember who), but I disagreed... I thought the humor and silliness revealed a lot of their characters.
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Very excited for this Friday

I thought this was a decent monster-of-the-week episode with a little humorous character development.

I'm worried about one thing, though. Did we just see a major part of echo's origin story? She voluntarily gave up five years of her life to be a prostitute and slave (with potential brain damage) because she was caught breaking into a college lab to add some variety to her anti-war rally schedule? Was this the alternative to expulsion, or maybe six months jail time? And the private security forces used inappropriate force, killing her unarmed boyfriend? I must be missing something...

@ brian: the backstory basically showed that Echo/Caroline knew far too much and was essentially given an offer she couldn't refuse. they needed dolls, she preferred to not be dead, so they came to a mutually beneficial agreement.

Yeah, I am wondering what else happened that got Caroline into that situation. Did she keep crusading against the company and was eventually caught? There's got to be more than one botched break-in...

I was merely whelmed by the rest of the episode, but I was intrigued by what archstanton suggests:
Was the recruitment of the traitorous research guy just showing us the dire straits the dolls are usually in before they join?
OR was it to show the audience that out of all the dolls we've seen recruited, 100% of them have previously ticked off the Rossum Corporation? Is Dollhouse recruitment just Rossum's revenge - force their targets off the grid for five years, get them out of Rossum's hair, and if the dolls make it through their five year term (and if they are ever released as claimed), restore their memories with the bits that implicate Rossum removed/altered to permanently remove the issue?

It wasn't just the break in, it's what she learned during the break-in. specifically, that they were experimenting on people. the dollhouse had to either kill her or wipe her memory, and being able to coerce her into becoming a doll was just a bonus from their point of view.

@ Tom: I'd say that we were meant to know that the Rossum corporation recruits people who fit the profile (youngish, attractive, etc) and who they have leverage on. I'd guess almost all actives were in a position where they could not refuse the offer. I'll also guess that we're going to see a pattern of this kind of blackmail with regards to a lot of their employees (actives, handlers and support) and with their clients. The Rossum corp. is being set up as a massive international operation that has the ability to control people's minds. given their exclusive clientele of the rich and powerful (we've already seen 1 congressman), I'd guess they use the engagements to gain access to and power over influential people.

@archstanton68: I guess it just doesn't ring true to me. Some bim breaks in, sees bad stuff, gets away with no evidence, and suddenly she's Enemy #1? She's just not a credible threat. Even if she came back with the authorities in tow 30 minutes later, Rossum could have that lab scrubbed in record time. A tree-hugging PETA member isn't going to have the clout to take down the evil empire with nothing but her self-righteous say-so. They could simply have laughed in her face and gone about their business as usual with all the people they own. That's why I say there has to be more. (And because I have faith in the Great Whedon, I am willing to believe there must be more. Maybe she became a major crusader after her man's death - ala Sarah Connor. Echo the Eco-Terrorist! Coordinated raids, corporate espionage, hiding out in South America! I may be getting ahead of myself.)
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Now the other kid in this episode, I forget his name. He's actually smart enough to be a threat. He's seen the research; hell, he's done some of it. He's used the product to kill, and he could explain the outbreak at Fremont College to the authorities. He nearly got away with taking the brain juice to the competitors, too, and it's entirely possible he knows enough about it to recreate it. He has to disappear, but it would cause issues if his body was found. Taking him as an asset is believable. Maybe he'd be good to toss him in the lab with Topher. He's pretty enough to be a doll but smart enough to be of use elsewhere.

I think masurix might be on to something with the idea of Echo/Caroline escalating things after the first incident. There has to be something more than a death threat or avoiding a legal slap on the wrist that compels Caroline to become Echo. Rossum pressured the newest recruit with not only freedom from prosecution, but also safety for his mom -- still weak, but moving toward a believable sacrifice. It seems to me one complexity of the Dollhouse is the pseudo-voluntary nature of the dolls' service, kind of like selling one's soul to a multi-dimensional evil corporation.
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I trust Joss Whedon will come through as well -- I guess I'm just a little impatient. Perhaps they'll introduce James Marsters in season 2 and it will really get cooking...