Episode 4 - Belonging
28 March 2012
Synopsis: We learn how Priya, an Aussie artist, came to the attention of PHD extraordinaire Nolan Kennard. When she refused all of his advances he used anti-psychotic medication to make her appear insane and had her sent to the Dollhouse. She became Sierra and is now painting disturbing pictures of Nolan’s influence which catch Echo’s eye. Echo reports this to Topher who begins to investigate. When Adelle learns the truth Rossum higher up Mr Harding orders her to send Sierra to Nolan. Topher gives Priya her personality back and she stabs Nolan to death. Boyd instructs her and Topher how to dispose of Nolan’s body and fake that he disappeared. Boyd confronts Echo about her developing personality but she warns him that a storm is coming.
The Good: There is a lot to like about this episode. The first is that it answers a lot of questions and links the characters to events we have seen occur but have evaded comment so far. In season one’s episode “Needs” (108) we learnt that Sierra had been sold into slavery. It was difficult to know how anyone could justify that. Here we see in detail that our characters were ignorant and once they find out the truth they act with appropriate horror. We also get confirmation that Victor’s military memories (107) were indeed his original personality and a hint of what led him to the life of an active. We even get Adelle’s engagements with Victor (109) acknowledged when Harding uses them to shut down her moral arguments. All this continuity is a reward for viewers, it shows that what we have sat through is all part of a greater story.
Sierra is the star of the show but it’s Topher who gets the most interesting character development. Adelle makes an interesting point about him when she says that unlike everyone else in the Dollhouse he has no excuse for his lack of conscience. Certainly the little we learn about Boyd suggests he has been involved in some criminal activity. It’s not difficult to imagine that the other handlers are ex-criminals, policemen or soldiers who couldn’t get more reputable jobs. Where as Topher is the boy genius who can distance himself from human reactions and the consequences of his technological achievements. But here he feels much more personally responsible for Sierra’s fate because he helped bring her in. We see him excited to try his hand at repairing a psychotic brain and he takes pride in taking the miserable and confused Priya and turning her into happy-go-lucky Sierra. In his mind he thought he had helped her. Learning that he inadvertently turned a prisoner into a slave was too much for him to take. So he does what he thinks is right and allows her to murder Nolan for what he did.
Throughout I thought the writing of Topher and his acting were strong. He looked and acted very much like the scolded child when Adelle lectured him on his moral failings. Then even knowing what Sierra was likely going to do he still managed to look truly shocked and mortified by seeing the dead Nolan, a murder which literally and figuratively put blood on his hands.
Boyd seems to have had experience of dealing with corpses before, raising more questions about his CV. He maintained his cool but kind persona as he helps Topher, Priya and Echo out and confirming to Adelle that she has found a head of security who shares her moral code. Adelle too had a good episode, her moral outrage clear but her moral standing very much shaky.
Finally Echo came across as a simple, admirable heroin in a way which she hasn’t quite before. She has begun to learn how to work the Dollhouse system to get things she wants. She is hiding books in her pod and making notes there too to help her remember what she has learnt. Her decision to try and wake everyone up to her level of consciousness is a good story to push the plots onward from here.
The Bad: The attic is a threat which makes it difficult to see working in the Dollhouse as anything but a terrifying place. Harding warns Adelle that she wouldn’t like the retirement plan. As in we will wipe your brain before we let you go back into society with such incriminating information. With no rules or police to protect an employee from Rossum’s whims the attic remains as an obstacle to the story. It’s such a disproportionately horrifying threat that anyone breaking rules feels in far too much danger to me.
For example, Boyd’s relaxed attitude to what the Dollhouse does makes it plausible that he would allow Echo to continue her meddling and actually encourage it. But seriously, what kind of head of security would hand an active an access card? Sometimes you have to follow a logic trail and see where it takes you. Here I think, Echo opens a door she wasn’t meant to. Rossum find out that Boyd gave it to her. Boyd is placed in the attic. Is it really worth his life to allow her a bit of freedom? It’s writing which helps the plot but not the sense of reality.
My main issue with this story is not the attic but it is connected to it. Having killed Nolan the writing did what most shows don’t. They showed some of the gruesome consequences of trying to cover up murder. Sierra and Topher slosh around in Nolan’s blood trying to hide their sins from the wider world. But it seems so unconvincing that they could get away with it. We live in an era of TV shows about cops who always catch the killers. We also live in an era of big brother style organisations who know all. The idea that Rossum wouldn’t work out what was going on seems very far fetched. Especially as they knew about Adelle’s secret affair with Victor. And there’s the threat of the attic again. Surely it would be too easy for Rossum to suspect Adelle and company had something to do with one of their best doctors going missing? And then it’s off to the attic with all of them.
The show is also trying to simulate something which is just too complex for a forty minute episode. Can you imagine how disorientated you would be if you “woke up” and were told a year had passed, that you were a psychotic a minute ago but were now fine? No you can’t imagine it for good reason. Yet we have to believe that Priya took it all in and headed straight out to murder Nolan. I just don’t think those emotions are something you can accurately write, act or direct. Inevitably when she starts her confrontation with Nolan you have to wonder what thinking had gone into it. She had no weapon and it didn’t seem like she had much of a plan or a human reaction to her traumatic situation. Having been told that this man sold her into slavery and a year of her life was missing, she decided to go and confront him, semi-in character, with no weapon and no way to know he wouldn’t have her sent back to slavery again with ease.
Sierra then returns to being an active which seems very odd. She has made no deal with Adelle for peace of mind or a cash settlement. She has no understandable reason to want to become an active, a process she only learned about a few hours ago. It doesn’t seem clear why Topher doesn’t wipe her last few days’ memory and then set her free. Again, it’s an attempt to write a good TV story but one which doesn’t pass the real world reality test.
The Unknown: Again we see Topher working on the remote wipe idea, which Alpha activated over a phone. Once more it recalls Topher’s own psychotic state in “Epitaph One” (113) where he seemed to have developed the technology to call an entire city with a wipe. What storm does Echo sense is coming and how? Doesn’t Priya want to tell her family that she is alive? What happened to Victor to lead him to the Dollhouse? It seems like something went horribly wrong when he was in charge of an army unit.
Best Moment: Adelle and Topher, who seem to have very good scenes together, discussing the order to send Sierra permanently to Nolan. He plays the child to her angry mother. Both show off their moral distress and irritation with one another really well.
Epilogue: A very difficult episode to grade. The story was very good but in the wider context of the show I don’t think it stood up too well. For me this episode confirms that even with the best intentions, the idea of the Dollhouse is too traumatic and dark to be dealt with in a primetime show. The need for TV ready confrontations and drama don’t allow for the real human pain and conflict which the situations throw up.
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