Episode 10 - The Attic
28 March 2012
Synopsis: Echo learns how the attic operates, its prisoners trapped in an eternal nightmare. She meets Laurence Dominic who is busy fighting a mysterious man named Arcane who keeps killing people. They track him to Victor and Sierra’s minds and capture him. He turns out to be Clyde, the original creator of active technology and founder of Rossum. He explains that the Attic is Rossum’s computer, using human brains as processors. Echo works out a way to escape and return to Adelle. Meanwhile Topher installs active architecture in Paul’s head in order to imprint his personality and revive him.
The Good: By exploring an unfamiliar world, and one so key to the whole story, this episode keeps you gripped throughout. That’s not to say it was always great but the concept of the Attic had been built up strongly as a place to fear and that meant you took it seriously as a viewer.
The recurring nightmares and surreal images floating around people’s heads gave this an entertaining and intriguing quality too. The opening scene was excellent, sucking you into seeing Echo’s rescue attempt fail before you realise this is her nightmare. Then we trawl through Echo’s confused psyche and on to more expected nightmares for Victor and Sierra. The creepiest part though was the Japanese man forced to eat his own legs forever. The gruesome images helped distract from the obvious plot device he served.
The return of Laurence Dominic made sense and again Epitaph One tipped us off about that. The explanation for who Arcane was and why he was killing people made good sense. The Attic functioning as both Rossum’s torture chamber and their mainframe is a clever idea. By giving the torment a practical function it makes Rossum seem like power hungry immoral people rather than implausibly sadistic.
Paul’s return to the land of the living was expected although becoming an active to do it was an interesting twist for the man who is the furthest removed from the Dollhouse. I’m not joking when I say his acting was strong when he shows his brain coming to terms with its reordered state. I think they could have dwelled longer on the tears welling when he learned he was a doll.
In the end the plot finished in a strong place. Adelle really was working against Rossum all along and now all of our characters are on the same team which is a much easier place for the show to function from. We even have the setup of learning more about Caroline next episode which is a good hook. There is also of course the knowledge that their efforts will ultimately fail (because of Epitaph One). It gives the whole scene a strange pathos to those of us in the know.
The Bad: But, like all of the last few episodes this suffers because we are in a rush.
Working backwards, Adelle’s switch from good guy to bad guy and back again would obviously have been more of a shock if it hadn’t happened so swiftly. It’s not the fault of the producers of Dollhouse that FOX aired the episodes back to back but it still hasn’t been a long time to get used to Adelle being on Rossum’s side. It is sad for me to have to point out that her journey is pretty similar to Angel’s in season five of Angel. There he affected turning to the dark side to infiltrate the Circle of the Black Thorn before telling his friends that he really intended to take them down. To see the same plot used again on another show which was cut short does on some level leave me unimpressed.
Echo’s journey of course feels rushed and again one ends up feeling that “The Attic” would have been a two or three episode arc if the show had been allowed a longer run. So certain things end up being glossed over quickly. Why was Victor fighting himself? Why was Clyde able to take on the form of the muscle-bound Arcane? They managed to catch Clyde in Sierra’s mind very quickly before of course Echo’s escape from the Attic which also seemed easier than it should have been. Not to mention that Victor and Sierra could be revived with no trouble either.
Even the nightmares themselves, for all their creepiness ended up feeling like afterthoughts. There just wasn’t time to explore their significance or impact or generate a feeling that the characters were in any real jeopardy. Clyde’s big info dump was of course convenient too, giving Echo the information (in theory) which she needs to take down Rossum. Of course the humans used as computers while their brains are hooked up elsewhere is a familiar idea too (The Matrix) don’t you think? Again I have nothing against using ideas from other art, it’s only when you can spot more than one influence at a time that I start to question it.
The Unknown: Who was Clyde’s friend who helped found Rossum? Whose body is Clyde 2.0 in now? What did Caroline really see? What did Topher take away from Paul’s mind? Did Boyd really have problems at home? Where did they get the imprint of Paul’s personality from? Did he have a scan at some point? If so he shouldn’t remember what happened with Alpha? Where they able to get it from his brain or from the chair some other way?
Best Moment: The opening scene was a strong twist. It was particularly effective if you watched it immediately after “Stop-Loss” finished.
Epilogue: As Dollhouse races toward Epitaph Two, filling in the events which we assume will lead to a catastrophe there are winners and losers. The winning part is seeing the show answer its critics from season one. The show has found a way to make us care about Echo, to get everyone on the good side of this immoral business and to flesh out a mythology which is bustling with potential. But I think the individual episodes suffer because of the tremendous rush. Although this looks on paper like a complete standalone episode covering the Attic it actually felt very convenient and tensionless to watch.
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