A million dollars? Ok, that makes it even worse. Cause, yo, I may not have had a baby, and I am not dissing midwives. but for a million dollars, I would have to be a secret-baby delivering virgin billionaire's sheik's alien bride and she would have to have some pretty excellent pain-free telepathy skills. Which did not appear to be the case.

I'm wondering if the birth scene was supposed to be complementary to the addiction counselor scene in the original pilot script. The actives were supposed to have a certain number of pro bono jobs that were touchy feely to keep them from going ballistic. And, I'm guessing, to make us believe the Dollhouse isn't all bad because they allow them to work pro bono. But I could be misremembering the pilot script and drawing very way out conclusions.

SailAweigh, I think you're right. I'd forgotten about that completely.

Like Sail, I just figured it was a pro bono job. So many bits and pieces of the unaired pilot have leaked out into the actual episodes that I forgot that the pro bono work hadn't yet; possibly the showrunners did too (or possibly it in fact had and we just haven't seen it yet because the order the eps are airing in has gone all wonky).

Even if it was pro bono, the Dollhouse is still pure undiluted evil. IIRC from the unaired pilot, the pro bono was all the doctor's idea and the PTB agreed to it only because she convinced them that it'd benefit them in the long run (the doctor seemed to care for the Actives themselves; the PTB didn't give a shit about anything except their own bottom line).

Another scene in this episode which I think slipped under the radar - Adelle is on the phone to somebody, presumably her boss, who's giving her orders. If she's got a boss, it's a bigger operation than we know.

JZ, the episode order is nearly unwonky now. The next episode was shot as episode 6, but is now 5. Then episode 6 airs, then -- I think -- it's back to the originally intended order. Some episodes were knowingly shot out of order, which is the point we're about to get to.

I really liked Victor in this episode. Much more than Paul. In fact, I was feeling mad at Paul's behaviour. The show has succeeded at getting me to separate my sympathies for the Actives and their bosses. I guess I should be behind Paul, but that part really isn't working. Even though I think the Dollhouse is evil incarnate, somehow his quest isn't grabbing me. And I like Tahmoh, so that's not my hurdle. He's just bitter and dead and I'm not sure why he has this little obsession.

Maybe if he started getting cozy with his next door neighbour.

I need to see that Paul has something on the Dollhouse besides the idea that it exists. The Caroline pictures came after he was already convinced, so where the hell did this absolute conviction come from?

He's just bitter and dead and I'm not sure why he has this little obsession.

I think this is why I can't warm up to him. Other than purely altruistic "this is wrong," (and very few people do things for purely altruistic reasons) why is he so hot on this? What's his stake in it, other than rubbing the other FBI guys' nose in it? I want a personal reason for his interest and I'm not seeing it. Did a sister/brother run away and he's always wondered? An old school friend disappear? He thinks the actives are all really cyclons and he wants to exterminate them? Give me something I can relate to. Make me sympathetic to him other than watching him flail around for nothing week after week.

Yeah, as I said on the podcast - I keep forgetting Paul is even in the show. If I didn't know he was the male lead from following the show online, I would have thought Victor or Boyd was. He seems to pop up and it's, like, "Hey! My name's Paul! I'm completely obsessed and crazy! Where's the pretty girl? SHOW ME THE PWETTY!".

I would have liked this episode more if the previews hadn't given away the whole wiping bit. The plot was fairly interesting, if, as mentioned, a bit laden with anvils.