Omega (112)

[GateWorld]

DOLLHOUSE - SEASON ONE OMEGA EPISODE NUMBER - 112 Alpha's dangerous past is revealed when he takes Echo from the Dollhouse, introducing her to her real self -- Caroline -- so that Echo may kill her original self. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >

[Amalthea]

That was brilliant! It's like Descartes on steroids! I love it! Please, please, please keep this show!

It was so awesome how they kinda told Agent Ballard the truth, but then when they showed us what really happened, it wasn't the whole truth, I guess you could say.

Oh, and Doll-ing criminals? Whose brilliant idea was that? It's the belief in the infallible nature of technology that created Alpha. And his handler wasn't too bright. Which is probably why they brought someone like Boyd in.

Dr. Saunders! She is just something else. I wonder how they removed the "male-ness" from his original personality and perspective on the world? Her acceptance of the whole thing is interesting too. She knows what she signed the contract, so she'll just go with it. I guess they could imprint Victor with the Saunders if Whiskey's time is up soon, though. So crazy.

Ok, so overall, a million thumbs up. Please Fox, give us more!!

[sparklegem]

Wow. Just wow. I'm still processing the episode and there's so much to say that I'm not going to write. Let me just put down a couple of things that stood out for me at the moment; I'll avoid trying to rumminate on the big significant moments of the plot and the big topics this episode brought up about identity and splitting your personality from your body.

I already gushed about Alan Tudyk in the Briar Rose thread, so I'm not sure what else I can say here, but OMG his acting was amazing! He just really brought Alpha to life. I loved "I'm bluffing" "Well, he may be but the rest of us aren't". In such a scary, intense character(s) he pulled off the little comedic bits well. I must say Omega was rather boring in comparison. I understand that there was a reason for it: I imagine they were trying to make Alpha look unstable where Omega was more cohesive and guided by Echo's groundedness (though I don't think Caroline's been very grounded this season). So glad he got away!

Did anyone catch what made the machine malfunction and create the composite in Alpha?

The burning question I still have that hasn't been answered is what happens to dolls in the attic when their contract is up. So, for example, they were going to attic Alpha, but does that mean the body just goes into storage until the contract's up and then they return the original personality? If that's the case, there's really no reason to store the body--they would just end the contract early. I can't imagine they tell the volunteers that there's a possibility they'll never wake up if their body malfunctions, though.

I gotta say Caroline handled that whole situation very well. I can't believe that after she saw how the system could fail and her body could be not
taken care of that her first instinct was still to uphold the contract. I would have been like ****-no, this is not what I signed up for.

I didn't really understand why the actor who played Topher referenced the relationship between Topher and Saunders in interviews because I didn't really notice much between them going on, but Omega made it clear that there is something. It suggested what questions we should be asking at least.

Topher had some really good lines. I absolutely loved his reaction to Ballard talking about a soul. LOL

Finally (maybe spoiler depending on validity of source)

Spoiler:

in the April Fool's video that Fox made on the Dollhouse set, Ballard was Echo's handler, and now I can see how that happens. Nice. Except that scene didn't really seem like part of the show, and obviously it's not part of the 12 episodes we've seen.

[ShadowMaat]

Did anyone catch what made the machine malfunction and create the composite in Alpha?

Alpha kicked his handler backwards into part of the computer system that controls the Chair. It caused a short and dumped EVERYTHING into Alpha's head.

The finale was... interesting. I'm glad to see that Ballard made the right call in freeing November although I wonder if that's really the last we'll see of her. Miracle Laurie was just lovely and it'd be a shame to lose her.

Whiskey was good as well. I wonder how much is programmed and how much she's remembering on her own? And why DID Topher program her to hate him? Does she have a pre-Dollhouse connection to him? That's what I got from his, "You didn't read the file" comment but I suppose there are a few ways that could be spun.

Poor, poor Victor. I had the most terrible urge to say, "Why so serious?" when Whiskey was seeing to him. I hope they aren't going to make HIM go crazy next season. Or send him to the Attic. He's still my favorite Doll, even with the scars. I just wanted to cover his ears when Whiskey was lashing out at him about being ugly and not his best.

Still no clue what the point of it all is meant to be.

[huntress]

Hotdamn that was gooooooood. Oh please, please let us have a second season. Quite a few questions haven't been answered and there are still so many stories to tell. I also wondered about Whiskey. Who was she before she became a doll? I had to laugh when Topher tried to explain to Ballard what Alpha is "Look you can't profile Alpha. He is like Soilent Green. He is people" So Alpha is something like the ultimate schizophrenic with 48 whole personalities. O_o I also wonder what happens to the people who are sent to the attic. I guess the body is dumped and the only thing that is left is the imprint.

[Shan Bruce Lee]

well JW def left it open for a second season... I still doubt it'll happen though.

[pjt]

This was just great! The soul in the jar full of fireflies? And why did Ballard free Mellie? Why not Caroline? Because it would be unsafe for her outside with Alpha still on run? We again got more questions than answers, so if Fox axes the show, they should rot in hell for dozens of eternities.

[ShadowMaat]

O_o I also wonder what happens to the people who are sent to the attic. I guess the body is dumped and the only thing that is left is the imprint.

Hmm... I assumed they were in some vegetable garden in the Dollhouse. Didn't occur to me they might keep the wedge and dump the body.

I wonder what it says that Alpha got the personality dump and went crazy but Echo took it all in stride.

[Amalthea]

This was just great! The soul in the jar full of fireflies? And why did Ballard free Mellie? Why not Caroline? Because it would be unsafe for her outside with Alpha still on run? We again got more questions than answers, so if Fox axes the show, they should rot in hell for dozens of eternities.

I think he did it because he knew he wouldn't be able to work there if she was there. It would definitely freak him out way too much.

[kharn the betrayer]

The soul in the jar full of fireflies?

blatant angel+firefly reference is blatant

since didnt stop it from being awesome though

I so wish this show would get renewed especially since it ended on a cliffhanger(with Alpha being free still and Helo being a member of the dollhouse)

also what was up with the female bounty hunters...while that scene was funny it kind of led nowhere (except the cutting room floor it seems)

[knowles2]

It was cool. Bounty hunters are stupid, honestly you just have to see the kind guys they usually sent to tackle, they are not exactly the best of the best of the criminal underworld, it not surprising they did not get near Alpha.

As for Alpha I was kinda disappointed, I was expecting someone with a plan a vision. May be what he said is the doll house aim to ascend to a higher plane of existence who knows, like he believe he has. I think he got protential to evolve into a good character, unfortuantly it looking like we will not get that chance.

So FBI guy inside there organisation now, perfect undercover position to.

I am still confuse about the whole whiskey thing through, So if I right Dr Sounders work for the house, was killed by Alpha but his knowledge and personality was downloaded in to the most popular doll in the house Whiskey. And Alpha attack her out of jealousy. I thin that right is not it.

Alpha and Echo fight scene was cool.
Charlotte was pretty cool.
Echo at the end when she say Charlotte. What a cliff hanger.

So who we think the mole is at the moment.

[LoneStar1836]

This was just great! The soul in the jar full of fireflies? And why did Ballard free Mellie? Why not Caroline? Because it would be unsafe for her outside with Alpha still on run? We again got more questions than answers, so if Fox axes the show, they should rot in hell for dozens of eternities.

Because it was the right thing to do?

Though I would think freeing Caroline would make her a target for Alpha so that probably factored into it.


So I wonder if this is how Boyd came to be working at the Dollhouse? Something similar to how Ballard has now come to be there.

blatant angel+firefly reference is blatant

It was rather blatant but I still liked it nonetheless. It fit with the episode even though it was a snarky reply from Topher to Ballard's snark.

It was all about the soul and what makes a person a person. Alpha couldn't escape his "soul" even though he had destroyed his memory wedge when he originally escaped the DH. He liked to cut up people before the DH acquired him, and that was something that was forever who he was even though his original personality had been stripped from him. He could never "ascend" beyond who he was at his core. Or at least that's what I got out of it anyway. And him trying to justify his blood lust as some kind of valid excuse for worship to his ascended state of being a "god" was pretty demented.

It was cool. Bounty hunters are stupid, honestly you just have to see the kind guys they usually sent to tackle, they are not exactly the best of the best of the criminal underworld, it not surprising they did not get near Alpha.

I read that they ran over time and had to cut the stuff with Sierra and November.

Original script...which is an interesting read.

I am still confuse about the whole whiskey thing through, So if I right Dr Sounders work for the house, was killed by Alpha but his knowledge and personality was downloaded in to the most popular doll in the house Whiskey. And Alpha attack her out of jealousy. I thin that right is not it.

My interpretation was that Alpha became fixated on Echo. Whiskey was the house's top active. He didn't like that so he cut her up rendering her useless.

Topher tried to see what went wrong with Alpha. All hell broke loose and Alpha killed his handler, Dr. Saunder (the guy doc), etc. Whiskey was damaged goods so the Dollhouse made her the "new" Dr. Saunders.

So who we think the mole is at the moment.

Who knows. Maybe there never was one. Other than Dominic who was just keeping tabs for the NSA.


Good ep. Tim Minear is one of my favorite Whedonverse writers. Now if FOX will just renew this for another season, even if it's for a short order of 13 eps.

[kharn the betrayer]

It was rather blatant but I still liked it nonetheless. It fit with the episode even though it was a snarky reply from Topher to Ballard's snark.

it was awesome even if the angel reference was toward my least favorite season by far :E

[ShadowMaat]

When Alpha became fixated on new Doll Echo and overheard the comments about Whiskey being #1, he snapped and tried to remove Whiskey from the equation so that Echo could be #1. He was caught and taken for "treatment" but before he could be wiped and/or before Topher could check over past imprints to see what went wrong, Alpha snapped again (or at least stopped pretending to be docile) and kicked his handler into a bank of computers which caused a short and instead of letting Topher individually check all the imprints it instead downloaded them all into Alpha's head. THAT is when things went REALY bat**** and Alpha went on his killing spree, which included the death of the original Dr. Saunders.

Now... whether all Dollhouse employees have a wedge of their own or whether Topher merely made a composite "doctor" based loosely on Saunders, I dunno, although I'm guessing it was a composite based heavily on the original Saunders and since the Dollhouse was in need of a doctor and since Whiskey was no longer fit for active duty outside the Dollhouse, the decision was made to imprint the doctor personality onto Whiskey and call her Saunders. Probably saves on paperwork and negates the need to change the name on the door and whatnot.

How much of Whiskey-Saunders is Topher's imprint design and how much is Whiskey herself remembering stuff I dunno, but the imprint is definitely a bit odd and I'm guessing most of it is Topher's doing... which only makes me more curious about the whys behind it. Hopefully we'll find out more in S2.

Hope that clears things up.

As for the jar of fireflies thing... Gotta say, it went right over my head. LOL! Didn't watch much of Angel so I probably miss a LOT of stuff like that. Now, if it'd been a Doctor Horrible reference I might have clued in, but other Joss stuff? Not as likely.

[LoneStar1836]

As for the jar of fireflies thing... Gotta say, it went right over my head. LOL! Didn't watch much of Angel so I probably miss a LOT of stuff like that. Now, if it'd been a Doctor Horrible reference I might have clued in, but other Joss stuff? Not as likely.

In season 4 of Angel, Angel voluntarily had his soul stripped from him and put in a jar. Course without a soul he turned into an evil, sadistic badass.

I keyed in on the word fireflies (Firefly one of Joss's other shows) before I thought of the connection to Angel....