Brilliant episode. One thing bothered me: why do I feel pretty damn sure that Priya wasn't given any choice about winding up back in the Dollhouse this time either? If she did remember, if they let her go free, Rossum would surely track her down, find out about Boyd and Topher and Evil Scumbag's death, dismemberment, and flushing down the bathtub. She's safer in the Dollhouse. But does that matter? I don't think she was right to choose the wipe; she didn't deserve to have to kill someone, absolutely, but she did the right thing. I didn't understand why she didn't want to remember. I didn't understand what she was doing in the Dollhouse afterwards.
Topher was brilliant. When she asked him if she was allowed beer in here and he flashed back, clearly, to imprinting her as his 'friend' on his birthday and having a beer with her, and said - "uh, on special occasions", he was clearly about ready to cry. Realising that the fake friend he was enjoying himself with only existed because Priya, a person, with a right to the body that she had never ever signed away, was gone.
He's not a sociopath; sociopaths don't learn, they just don't have the empathy and that's it. But he does have empathy, he just never bothered to use it because other things interested him so much more. That's why he interests us. People with no empathy, like the rapist scumbag one tick shy of a murderer, don't interest us except as horrors.
You'll notice that the people who are willing to hire dolls are clearly ethically compromised, or else regret it, this season? Serial Killer, who didn't hire dolls because he was using horse tranquillizer to make his own, but he's the same kinda guy; Professor Dirtbag, who's aware he shouldn't bone his students but can't get over the desire to, so hey, let's try creating one; rapist scumbag, obviously; Rossum high mucketymuck, serial killer's uncle; all of these are scum. The father who hired Echo to wetnurse his baby and love the little boy too, so someone would love him, but who realises that this was the wrong thing to do and deeply regrets it; you can see he decided to do it while his decision-making powers were deeply compromised by grief, and even then, all he was trying to do was to make sure someone loved his baby. But basically, hiring a doll identifies you as either a bad person or at least doing a bad thing, this year.
Adelle clings by her fingernails to the "meaningful consent" given by the dolls; when that last shred of justification is taken away, she has to face what she is doing, and she balks. But then she gives in; it's not just that she'll lose her job; she'll wind up in the Attic beside Dominic. She can't face that.
It did cross my mind that when scumbag pig demanded she imprint Sierra permanently and Adelle agreed, that, well, SURE she could imprint Sierra. And then later phone her. "There are three flowers in the vase." This problem could be solved in a number of creative ways; why didn't Adelle do that? Though Topher's solution was much better. Priya was robbed. Give Priya herself back; the only ethical solution. I wasn't sure why Boyd thought the result didn't turn out too well. I thought the creep needed to die, and now was dead; the result was perhaps inconvenient, but bad? This was what had to happen.
Of all the people in the series - Victor, Sierra, Boyd, Ballard, Adelle, Topher, Mellie/Madeleine (though didn't Mellie seem like more of a person than Madeleine? She would have had to become less dependent to survive, though), Dr. Saunders - the only one whose story doesn't really interest me is Echo's. But perhaps another Echo-heavy episode would cure that. Not sure. Dushku was quite endearing, and hilarious, as Kiki in 2.3 ("If only!")
Sorry they're not showing it during sweeps; since that surely means they've already made up their minds, and we're not going to get the back half of this season.
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