They haven't set up a situation like that.

See -- and I really *am* thinking hard about your points, and Emily's -- I still think it comes down to a simple matter of economics/client satisfaction. The clients have to be paying insane amounts of money, and when you have someone paying that much, they want a guarantee that their experience will be perfect.

Let's say a client wanted someone to go to the comic book store with. So the Dollhouse imprints an Active with my personality. Now, that Active is not going to have any problem going to the comic book store with this client; he'll enjoy it. Does the Active lack free will just because he wants to go to a comic book store?

If you're assuming that the imprints have free will, but also that they're just an imprint of someone who really, really likes doing [x activity], that's still not a guarantee that the imprint will do [x activity]. You can't program an imprint that would always, no matter what, definitely you betcha agree to have sex, IF you're also saying they have free will.

And the clients want a guarantee, given the amount of money they're paying.

The clients have to be paying insane amounts of money, and when you have someone paying that much, they want a guarantee that their experience will be perfect.

They are also assembling these imprints from existing personalities, which means they can probably tailor the probability of acceptance/refusal.

After all, if a man just wants a woman who will 100% sleep with him, he can hire a prostitute. This is a different kind of thing.

if a man just wants a woman who will 100% sleep with him, he can hire a prostitute

Except the prostitute knows she's been bought, and the client knows she knows etc.

An Active doesn't know s/he's been bought.

And now I'm wondering about male Actives and male clients--or female clients and female Actives

I think what Teppy is saying that sure they start by creating someone who would want to have sex (or go to the comic book store) with the client. But they are not going to rely on that tendency. So the Dollhouse also does a tweak to guarantee that so long as certain parameters are not violated the active will follow that desire - not get a headache not fall out of the mood for sex, not decide that even though they love comics they would rather go to a movie that day. [ On edit: should not attribute my guess to Teppy. But at any rate a reasonable guess given the incentives for the Dollhouse.]

As for the girl-hunter. I don't know whether it was the violation of the contract, or simply that the "no free will" is a programmed range of behaviors in response to another range of behaviors. When that is exceeded, then the active has a choice of how to behave, and since actives are valuable probably a healthy wish to survive.

In terms of titillation: it was a brief scene before the hostage negotiation. Given the context I think pretty obviously post-good-sex dancing and playing, along with actual sex flash backs were intended as titillation.

And now I'm wondering about male Actives and male clients--or female clients and female Actives

I was thinking about that. I'm sure that the boys are watching the show, thinking "oh, that's so awesome, a hot girl guaranteed to sleep with you no matter what" But, I doubt that they would think that it was so hot if a male active was programmed to sleep with a male client.

Also, there are some things that are programmed against their will, like the desire to return for their "treatment". Echo was having a good time with motorcycle guy, she suddenly stopped and returned to the van as if compelled.

Wasn't she filled with an urgency to have her treatment? I think that was kinda her will too, just...a choice she'd always make.

Perhaps that's too much semantic juggling. I'm not convincing myself.

Given the context I think pretty obviously post-good-sex dancing and playing, along with actual sex flash backs were intended as titillation.

Perhaps, but you said "as titillating as possible." It wasn't even close.

And the clients want a guarantee, given the amount of money they're paying.

We don't know that. The client may be paying vast sums precisely to get a hot woman who's likely—but not guaranteed—to fall for them if they play their cards right rather than a standard hooker who'll say she's fallen for them and not mean a word. I think the challenge of making it a collaborative fantasy would play a big part, as someone who doesn't care about the veracity of the emotions could certainly hire a top-notch escort and buy her some preparatory acting lessons for a lot less than $5 million.

Or, what Ailleann said.

OK, it was more the second that was as titillating as possible. The first was still pretty damn titillating.