The more I look at it, the more I think the show is (or should be) about identity rather than human trafficking.

I hope so. I'm way more interested in identity than human trafficking.

When a character shows up in the first episode with a huge scar across her face, there's backstory.

I totally did not notice the scar at all. Maybe I was just distracted because it was Amy Acker.

And I'm doing what I suppose Joss wants the fans to do -- sit and ponder identity -- "Who is the 'real' person -- the person who signed up, or the imprint?" -- instead of getting our rage on over the skeevy gender aspects of the show.

Ha, exactly. That's what I'm getting at, though. For all intents and purposes, the imprint IS the Active's identity for that short period, and I hate seeing it constantly wiped away. Sure they consented before they joined, but it's like the way you can't give legal consent if you're intoxicated. There's no room for consent once your original identity, the one who consented in the first place, is replaced with ephemeral identities that have no rights.

So I think the issue is that I see the imprints as real, but you don't.

I totally did not notice the scar at all.

There were actually multiple scars.

Sure they consented before they joined, but it's like the way you can't give legal consent if you're intoxicated

But they weren't intoxicated when they gave consent. It's the imprints who parallel intoxication, so can they refuse?

It's the imprints who parallel intoxication, so can they refuse?

No, and that's my problem. They don't seem to have any idea what's going on; they're not supposed to be told what they are or that they're not who they think they are. I have no idea what they think is happening when they get in the chair for their "treatment," but they clearly don't know they're about to be mindwiped. Both times, Echo's persona was looking forward to doing stuff after the treatment.

Then I don't get your drunk parallel. Are you saying that drunks (imprints) should have the same right to refuse what they contracted to sober?

I'll admit my parallel is faulty. Because I consider the imprints separate people, not intoxicated versions of the original people. They just happen to be in the same body.

yes, the inhaler technique bothered me as well. I don't have asthma, but I know how an inhaler works and there were times Eliza didn't even really have it up to her mouth and she certainly didn't breath deeply.

I don't want to come off as terribly negative about this show -- there's a lot of potential there, and I love the risky concept of the show. It's terribly brave, and I want, want, want it to succeed.

How did they get the imprint of someone who died? Did they get the imprint, and later the person died? I'm getting far too hung up on the implausible logistics of the Dollhouse. I'd think the Actives would end up with multiple personalities because of bits left over, because I can't accept they could record and erase repeatedly without bits being left over.

The thing with the refrigerator didn't strike me as being gender-oriented at all. I was just thinking, "I hope that poor actress isn't claustrophobic. I wonder if they're pumping air into the thing?"

Did they get the imprint, and later the person died?

I assume so, because it didn't seem they'd known she'd commited suicide.

The woman in the refrigerator will remind many comic book readers of Green Lantern finding his girlfriend killed and stuffed in a refrigerator, specifically, and generally it's used as a term to refer to the killing or depowering of female characters as nothing more than a plot device to get a reaction from the male character(s).

Women In Refrigerator list.

Huh, never heard of it before. I only think of people in fridges in a kids-locking-themselves-in way.