Dollhouse never appealed to me though. Not only does it sounds very bland but it sounds like Whedon just doesn't care about it. He's been on record saying that he only made it because Eliza Dushku needed a job.

As many have pointed out, the premiere uses the traditional Dollhouse formula, but it works because of the stylized writing and intense grip on the battle of morality.

I say keep it up.

Who me, run-on sentences? At least I use them mindfully!

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the series even if I'm not particularly fired-up by the framework. (There's only so many times I can watch surrogate-bride episodes.) Whedon manages, as usual, to tackle some fairly interesting ethical and moral issues while not ramming them down your throat or even preaching, particularly, and while his characters are — as always — very archetypal, they're fairly well-rounded which is more than one can say for similar audience type shows such as Smallville.

I'd better stop before I ramble tooooo far. Season 1 really was *not* as abysmal as it ended up rating — I'm constantly puzzled that unfunny pap (to me) like Psych can get renewed over and over again while much smarter stuff (like Pushing Daisies, or the *excellent* but short-lived "Profit" back in the 90s) will instantly get canned. Puzzled, but not shocked. Viewers are stupid — except for me, of course.

Ye gods. English & French lit degree and Film Studies ex-SO — I could talk about this stuff for hours. Done now! Honest!

I loved how Echo ends up dancing with Apollo. Very nice! But then she ends up spurning his advances and kicking his ass. Anyone who knows Greek mythology knows this does not bode well for Echo. She's been cast as a modern-day Cassandra. She has a view to the future, and she wants to change it, and of course she is doomed. The Trojan Horse (imprinting technology) will breach the city walls, and no one will hear her until it's too late. And because *we* have seen the future, and can do nothing about it, *we* get cast as Cassandras too. It's a way for us to identify with the lead. Very nice, Joss.

And the whole "bride of Frankenstein" bit was delightful. Echo's hair was swept back and had some subtle highlights to it. Echo with Apollo, and Claire with Topher. The two storylines seemed to mirror/twin each other. Echo in her virginal white, and getting laid; Claire in her slutty black, and not getting anything. Echo is polyphrenic, understanding that she's had multiple selves. Claire is uniphrenic, having a single sense of self. When Echo is in the Dollhouse, she's in her doll state. Claire is not in a doll state. Echo wants to find out her "true" self, she wants reunion with Caroline. Claire does not want to know who she "was", she is scared of losing herself, even though she knows that she's a "fake". Claire resides in Whiskey, who used to be Number One, but Echo is now Number One; they've traded places in a way.

I loved the twist that Echo was playing an agent playing a bride, and that Paul was actually the client of the dollhouse rather than Apollo. Double twist! And now we know that Echo still remembers her composite event. Topher's technology is flawed, it doesn't do a complete wipe. There are parts of the brain that retain echoes of experience, beyond memory. So sweet.

They've really jumped in to making E1 pay off. Claire and Boyd are already flirting! Paul becoming Echo's handler (like I originally thought at the beginning of the episode.) I think I like they're diving right in to the mythology, rather than trying to tease us with it for too long. I liked hearing Topher's, "I know what I know." They are going to deliver the goods, in spades.

Wow, the loathing that Topher and Claire have for themselves. I love the look of shock on Claire's face when Echo says, "No one is their best in this place." Wow. And Topher's revulsion as he reveals that he *didn't* program Claire to hate him, but that that was her own choice. Wow.

Topher sleeps in the computer room? Is that like the center of the labyrinth?

Echo sits peacefully between two V shaped structures (shout out to V and Elizabeth Mitchell?) and Paul comes to sit down. Echo has "ascended" – a near-death experience that results in an experience of "communion". She remembers everything, she says. (Claire does not remember.) "We are lost, but we are not gone," says Echo, and at this stage in the game our hearing should sharpen; the Dollhouse is an *Island*. Two planes converge – and the false vows at the beginning of the episode are replaced by true vows as the end, and those vows are made over the Chair.

Exquisite.