2.12: The Hollow Men

[Lola m]

Jan 16, 2010 12:59:24 GMT -5 leftylady said:

some random thoughts:

Boyd "Fawkes" - with explosives in the cellar/vault, after being hollowed out as a doll

Oh, clever clever!!! Excellent!

I guessed right on Claire/Clyde

Topher's ultimate weapon - wipe/imprint anyone - about to go viral

Echo's serum as anti-viral vaccine to prevent wipe/imprinting (ultimate anti-weapon)

Is it to prevent imprinting, or to allow the person to control the imprinting or stay in control even when imprinted?

Boyd got caught unprotected in the viral battle - poor planning

Mellie - emptied out and still sleeper but able to control self anyway with feelings for Paul / like Echo

Caroline/Echo running down hall like xx years ago - this time with the real bang.

It all came full circle. Which explains why that seemed like the right plan to Echo!Caroline.

Tony/Victor - not afraid of imprint , will always find Priya/Sierra

He and Echo are examples of one way to combat the tech - embrace it and use it, control it.

Tony as Tophy again - still a hoot - almost better Topher than Topher. ;D

Topher - our most moral at end? whoa! I apologize for not liking Topher in season 1.

Well, I think we were supposed to not like him in season 1.

Boyd and Claire/Clyde ("this boy") - looking back at last week ...

maybe more later.


Hear that finale pushed back to jan 29 by Haiti telethon.

leftylady

[Lola m]

Jan 16, 2010 14:57:13 GMT -5 artemis said:

Hey everyone! My computer froze up (while I was responding to posts on here, alas) two weekends ago, which is why I abruptly disappeared. Unfortunately it turned out to have broken, and is still in the shop. I'm finally back because someone let me borrow back my old computer that I gave them when I bought my new one (quite a happy thing). I hope mine is fixed soon.

Jan 16, 2010 12:59:24 GMT -5 leftylady said:

I guessed right on Claire/Clyde

I'm not sure about that. I know she's NOW Clyde, but I still am skeptical that she was before this episode. And no character said anything in this episode that indicated to me that they believed she was newestClyde before this episode.

I think that's one of the things about this show - it's so hard to tell who anyone is at any time.

I didn't really like this episode. The major things I did like were how well Enver Gjokaj and Amy Acker again portrayed sharply distinct characters. I hope the two of them go on to long and very successful careers, as I feel the show has again and again proven that they have serious acting chops.

I disliked the whole Boyd reveal even more than before when it was revealed that he appeared to be a few Fruit Loops short of a full bowl. It seems like an easy out to portray someone as mentally "off" instead of intentionally acting badly. And I can't even express how much I hated Caroline and/or Echo (not sure who was in control) using a wiped Boyd to destroy Rossum's HQ. To me it's the equivalent of sending a two-year-old as a suicide bomber. I felt like I was going to be sick.

I think it was intentionally sick-causing. Meant to make us go "ick." I have more problems with the way things seem a bit rushed/pushed to get us to this point.

Which I know is because they really did have to rush the end of the series, but still.

I also disliked that Rossum turned out to have handpicked Caroline for life in the DH expressly to use her spinal fluid to develop a vaccine (which doesn't even medically make any sense, and which I don't really get anyway because we haven't seen any indications that three years ago they even knew it would be likely to build a machine that was able to wipe anyone so why would they even have wanted a vaccine for a not-yet-existent machine three years ago? And regardless of the fact that they had allegedly collected and tested her DNA before signing her, how could they even know that she had the ability to react to being wiped in this way before she was ever wiped?), including the implication that it was something about her physiology that made her able to adapt rather than it being a valid way for anyone to cope with the way the DH reworked brains (regardless of whether a particular individual was able to cope in this way or not).

I'm hand-waving the spinal fluid science stuff. ;D

And I felt like Mellie deciding the only way to "overcome" the sleeper programming was to commit suicide was yet another depiction of Actives not being able to get "beyond" being a victim (and for some reason it seems like the writers especially like(d) portraying Madeline/November/Mellie that way).

I've been really disappointed in the way the plot has developed since it came back from its holiday hiatus. At this point I can't say I'm going to particularly miss the show when it goes off the air, when if you'd asked me the question in December I would have expressed sadness that the story was just getting good and we wouldn't be able to see much more of it.

I still believe that we would have seen excellent depth and layers if the end hadn't been pushed as it was. But that's all IMHO, of course.

[leftylady]

Jan 18, 2010 18:05:04 GMT -5 Lola m said:

Is it to prevent imprinting, or to allow the person to control the imprinting or stay in control even when imprinted?

My science-wanking:
If everyone has an imprint gun, you need your bullet/imprint-proof vest to survive the mass shootout in the brain-pocalypse.

Ironic that that is what happened to Boyd - he got zapped before he could harvest/creative his protection.

leftylady

[Spaced Out Looney]

Continuing the conversation with Boyd.
Rossum's basically is the healthcare industry. They've been tracking her, and presumably set her on their trail like they did with Perrin.


Tony and Priya going back into the Dollhouse. Yay!

The gang is gone...and on the run. And Echo/Caroline is in terrible shape.

Priya and Tony.
Note on the chair.
How very Alice in Wonderland.

Tony/Victor as Topher again!!!!

Now, is this part of an intricate plan or did Topher just want a way to go on in case he should die? I mean, did he calculate the odds that Tony and Priya or another a doll should sneak back into the Dollhouse wanting to help?

Whiskey/Claire again, but no longer Claire. Is she Clyde?
Yep.

This world is for people who want to evolve.
But evidently not for people who understand the proper definition of that term.


Ah, Priya and Tony/Victor/Topher are on to Boyd.
And how cool would it have been if Priya had the Topher imprint?

Echo as savior, for the deserving few.

Mind doesn't matter, it's the body we want.
Eh?

Now Echo is on to Boyd.

Boyd is going to force Topher to finish the evil world dominating tech?
Or he will just manipulate him into doing it.

Boyd recruited the gang as his "family." Oookay.
Except Ballard, who Boyd never saw what everyone else saw in him. BWAH!!!
But...who put Ballard on the Dollhouse's trail then? That was Adelle's own initiative?


So Caroline is "special" after all. But in a accident of physiology sort of way. OK.
Anti imprinting vaccine.

I think there's a little bit of fabric missing from Echo's hospital gown.


Thoughtpocalypse. Hee.


Fight, fight, fight.
Boyd turned Doll. Echo as handler. And instructed to blow himself up.
Wow, that's an interesting resolution.

Shit blown up. World saved?
Boyd's personality is imprinted on some one somewhere else, I'm guessing.

10 years later, the world is still an apocalyptic hellscape, so I'm thinking there's still something that needs to be put to rights.

[Spaced Out Looney]

Jan 14, 2010 18:54:24 GMT -5 Sue said:

We are SO cool that we can discuss an ep even before it airs! ;D