The Target (102)

[GateWorld]

DOLLHOUSE - SEASON ONE THE TARGET EPISODE NUMBER - 102 Echo is made to be the perfect date for an outdoorsman, who turns on her and makes her the target of his hunt. Boyd recalls his arrival at the Dollhouse and the brutal escape of Alpha, a former Active. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >

[Aussie_86]

Suprised i'm the first one to post.

This episode was MUCH MUCH better than the last episode. I actually gave a rats ass about the characters in this episode!

Hope it keeps up this momentum. I like the fact that it might be 'Alpha' that hired this week's client, and the occurrences of this episode were all orchestrated to 'wake' Echo up. It will be interesting over the next coming weeks to see her as she 'wakes' up.

[Madwelshboy]

I agree that it was better, but im still not feeling the show, maybe my expertations were just to high to start. The in the wood part of this episode wasnt really that interesting in comparison to the flashbacks, and untill the twist at the end it seemed rather pointless. I think the handler is whats currently keeping it to gether. However i think that there is some potensial with the show, the 'Alpha' storyline for example, and the FBI guy.

[pisces27]

I thought it was much better than last week but it's still not grabbing me. At this point I'm more interested in the handler than Echo.

[ShadowMaat]

I loved it! Funny to think that I might be easy to please; I always figured I was a hard sell. LOL!

I kinda wish they hadn't telegraphed that the Middleman was a scary evil frakker right from the start because it might have made it more interesting when he turned on Echo, but it was still good and it was WONDERFUL to see him again in all his delicious arm-porny glory.

I thought the background stuff we were given was much more smoothly handled this time around and helped to build a better sense of what's going on and where we are with all the characters. It also, unfortunately, pretty much confirmed that Echo is going to stay smack dab in the center of things, which is the only real disappointment, IMO. If you're gonna have all these dolls it might be nice to SEE them once in a while.

I like the plot development with the Handler, both his backstory and the bit of role reversal that occurred. I think it was a nice touch.

Ballard's story is probably going to feel a bit awkward to me until he finally catches up with the Dollhouse, but seeing as SOMEONE is now leaving him a trail of breadcrumbs that will probably start to pick up speed soon, although I have to say, I don't trust the "lovestruck" neighbor chick at all. She's far too sweet and innocent to be real. LOL!

If the casting rumor I heard about Alpha is true

Spoiler:

Alan Tudyk

that would be awesome. Sure, I was hoping it'd be the Middleman, but that obviously didn't happen and this would be way cooler. His story seems to be taking some interesting developments, too. Training up others and playing "dad" to a bunch of psychopaths? Ha! Well, I assume there was more than one, anyway. Guess we'll see.

[knowles2]

This episode had grabbing the audience kind story. I clearly see why this was suppose to be the pilot or should of been the pilot.
Overal the central plot was nothing exciting, but that was not the purpose of the episode, it was just their as the delivery method for the flashbacks and introduction of Alpha and awakening of the other personalities.

This episode actually introduce us to the universe, which I thought pilots were suppose to do.

Here we got the dark side of cooperation, darker is always better than the good samaritan they were playing at last week, we got the enemies of the cooperation, the dumb and the dumber FBI duo, hopefully we will see those to again, which I thought was pretty funny. And we got introductions for who I believe the central character should be the minder.

Why the entire ploy of out door adventure was to wake echo up, which it seem it did. I wonder if he going to try that with the other dolls, I would not like to be in the house if that happens.

If this was the first episode I would have much more confident of this show surviving, this episode grabs my attention, unlike last weeks, people will want to come back to see who Alpha is, however as it was not, So I still predicting this show will not survive the first season, the pilot is where you grab the audience, the rest is where you keep hold of them, it got a up hill struggle to regain the audience attention. They will give JOSS Whedon his entire season through and may be even air all the episodes, if he asks nicely.

How ever if I was FOX I would give SCC a other season and Dollhouse and announce both asap, such a bold move will regain the trust of the scifi audience a lot of them will not bother until the 2 season because they know most their shows get cancel before that happens. This will increase viewer numbers plus give the scifi promotion tool.
It be one heck of a challenge to scifi through. Especially with them looking to re-establish their Friday line up.

[Killdeer]

I liked it. It was better than last week's. The Alpha mystery is especially intriguing. Just what exactly happened to make him snap? And why did he try to have Echo killed this episode when he left her alive earlier? Or is he trying to force her into becoming like himself? Or is there some other reason he's targeting her?

It seems, however, that these memories or personalities are not being "erased" as the Dollhouse TPB think they are. They're just being suppressed somehow.

I wonder if Echo's handler reported what happened in the woods - that she remembered something from when Alpha attacked. I'm thinking no.

Also, the confrontation at the end was interesting. What is so special about Echo? I wonder if they know why Alpha's after her?

[Easter Lily]

I'm liking it and am sufficiently intrigued to want to see more. Although there's not a lot of laugh out loud moments, there's still plenty of Joss Whedon cleverness imprinted on this.
My thinking is that the lack of witty banter is in keeping with the artificiality and bleakness of the premise. And of course, I love a good mystery.

I'm fascinated by the possibilities and the complexities that are being offered already in these episodes. The handler/active relationship is very interesting as is Alpha's psychotic rampage and his possible interest in Echo.

What is equally interesting is the suggestion of a rival/competing? organization which provides people with alternate identities. There's potential there. It also sounds as if the Olivia Williams character is not the Ms Big and that there are others pulling strings in the background.

Certainly some Pretender touches here and there.

[ShadowMaat]

I think it's like Coraline Caroline said in the pilot ep- you can wipe the slate clean but you can still read the words. I figure they may wipe the dolls, but some little bits still stick around.

Do you think Alpha formulated the drug that Crazypants gave to Echo that had her catching echoes of herself? I can't remember if he said whether or not his "father" gave it to him.

I'm thinking Alpha knew Echo would kill the guy, although if things had gone bad I wonder if he would have stepped in to save the day or if he'd have decided that she wasn't "good enough" if she couldn't handle that guy.

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Does anyone know what the "Soldiers of the wheel" thing was about?

[ShadowMaat]

Does anyone know what the "Soldiers of the wheel" thing was about?

"Shoulder to the wheel." *thumps shoulder* It means to work hard. Kinda like putting your nose to the grindstone. Just one of those phrases that gets said.

[knowles2]

"Shoulder to the wheel." *thumps shoulder* It means to work hard. Kinda like putting your nose to the grindstone. Just one of those phrases that gets said.

On the other hand it could be a clue for the ARG game (Alternate reality game ) that is currently under way.

[dosed150]

the thing about this show is there are only 2 characters i can ever feel sympathetic about echo and that cop, whatever happens the others are all complicit in something worse than slavery and should probably be serving quite a few life sentences

[the missing 7]

this ep was wayyyy better then the first

there may be hope

[Noxchild]

the thing about this show is there are only 2 characters i can ever feel sympathetic about echo and that cop, whatever happens the others are all complicit in something worse than slavery and should probably be serving quite a few life sentences

Indeed.

I had planned on giving Dollhouse 6 episodes to catch my interest, but it turns out that 2 is my limit.

This show is too twisted, brutal, cruel and ugly for me. There is only one moral character, Ballard, but he won’t shut down the Dollhouse for at least 5 years, it’s clear.

The ex-cop (Boyd) is a man without a conscience (as are all the people who work in the Dollhouse). He repeatedly delivers a slave, a helpless child, to her rapist. And he doesn’t blow the whistle by calling in the FBI and police. Echo’s handler is a sleazy jerk who hired himself out to be an enslaved prostitute’s bodyguard, and he’s the most humane character within the Dollhouse.

I guess Joss is proud to be making a show as sick as Dexter.

I won’t be watching anymore. As a Firefly fan, I was really looking forward to this before it began, but it’s not for me.