No matter how fake a personality is during the engagement, the person she/he is then still has free will, and perhaps true feelings
I tend to think so too, but it's not been proven. We've seen the Dollhouse use post-hypnotic triggers on people, and it's possible that they program Actives with a compulsion to have sex with the clients. I don't think they do that normally, though. As we saw with Rebecca!Echo, when Ballard burst in and broke the mood she lost all possible interest in sex with her 'husband'. If she had post-hypnotic conditioning that wouldn't have made any difference; she'd have no choice but to jump into bed with him.
I found the ending scene, after she stated it was "not finished", quite touching.
I'm surprised the Dollhouse people didn't freak out. Echo isn't supposed to retain such detailed subconscious memories of her last engagement, is she?
Could he have chosen to have his own memories wiped in order to live a complete fantasy?
Great minds think alike. :-) I actually don't think so - at least, we've been told that Dolls can only be imprinted for a short time and giving them the same imprint repeatedly is dangerous. (At least I think we've been told that. It might have been in the unaired pilot instead...) Mind you, it could be that the reason they don't imprint people permanently is because it makes them impossible to wipe their brains again afterwards, the new personality is too strongly embedded. So if someone is to be a permanant Active, that wouldn't matter.
But then there's Mellie. I wonder; is she proof that actually, you can be an Active for a long period of time? Or does she spend most of her time in the Dollhouse, and they program her up and rush her over to Paul's house so she can be waiting on his doorstep only when they find out he's on his way home? Or is she not an Active at all, but a real person who's had commands implanted in her brain by a different application of the basic Dollhouse technology?
The idea that he might be a client himself is an interesting one. I wonder if it's a bit too twisty for a Joss/Fox show, though? It might seem too much like an "And then I woke up!" reveal for the final episode.
I think, really, it's the parallel that we're meant to be seeing. Here are all these Dolls with programmed lives, and there's Paul Ballard, supposedly the real, genuine human, and he's living just as much of an artificial fantasy role as Echo is. I think it's meant to question the nature of our own identity, and whether there's anything more to a person than the sum of our thoughts and actions.
the question of the possible insider
Or insiders, plural. All with different agendas. :-) Remember, the people who sent Paul the message in this episode claim to have no connection to Alpha, although they seem to know he's been in contact with him already.
"The Dollhouse deals in fantasy. That is their business. But that is not their purpose." "What is?" "We need you to find out."
Adelle seems to genuinely care about her Dolls and thinks that what the Dollhouse is doing is a good thing. I wonder if she knows about this secret agenda? If so, does she support it or oppose it? If not, is she the one trying to get Ballard to discover what it is?
no subject
I tend to think so too, but it's not been proven. We've seen the Dollhouse use post-hypnotic triggers on people, and it's possible that they program Actives with a compulsion to have sex with the clients. I don't think they do that normally, though. As we saw with Rebecca!Echo, when Ballard burst in and broke the mood she lost all possible interest in sex with her 'husband'. If she had post-hypnotic conditioning that wouldn't have made any difference; she'd have no choice but to jump into bed with him.
I found the ending scene, after she stated it was "not finished", quite touching.
I'm surprised the Dollhouse people didn't freak out. Echo isn't supposed to retain such detailed subconscious memories of her last engagement, is she?
Could he have chosen to have his own memories wiped in order to live a complete fantasy?
Great minds think alike. :-) I actually don't think so - at least, we've been told that Dolls can only be imprinted for a short time and giving them the same imprint repeatedly is dangerous. (At least I think we've been told that. It might have been in the unaired pilot instead...) Mind you, it could be that the reason they don't imprint people permanently is because it makes them impossible to wipe their brains again afterwards, the new personality is too strongly embedded. So if someone is to be a permanant Active, that wouldn't matter.
But then there's Mellie. I wonder; is she proof that actually, you can be an Active for a long period of time? Or does she spend most of her time in the Dollhouse, and they program her up and rush her over to Paul's house so she can be waiting on his doorstep only when they find out he's on his way home? Or is she not an Active at all, but a real person who's had commands implanted in her brain by a different application of the basic Dollhouse technology?
The idea that he might be a client himself is an interesting one. I wonder if it's a bit too twisty for a Joss/Fox show, though? It might seem too much like an "And then I woke up!" reveal for the final episode.
I think, really, it's the parallel that we're meant to be seeing. Here are all these Dolls with programmed lives, and there's Paul Ballard, supposedly the real, genuine human, and he's living just as much of an artificial fantasy role as Echo is. I think it's meant to question the nature of our own identity, and whether there's anything more to a person than the sum of our thoughts and actions.
the question of the possible insider
Or insiders, plural. All with different agendas. :-) Remember, the people who sent Paul the message in this episode claim to have no connection to Alpha, although they seem to know he's been in contact with him already.
"The Dollhouse deals in fantasy. That is their business. But that is not their purpose."
"What is?"
"We need you to find out."
Adelle seems to genuinely care about her Dolls and thinks that what the Dollhouse is doing is a good thing. I wonder if she knows about this secret agenda? If so, does she support it or oppose it? If not, is she the one trying to get Ballard to discover what it is?