Snerk. Because we don't need a repeat of the previous post, but we can always use more snerk.

Love BSG.

LOVE IT.

Meanwhile, I'm really wondering WHY somebody would agree to have their memory wiped. I mean, was this a deal they made so that the mob wouldn't eliminate them? And when they agreed to it - how could you really understand what you were getting yourself into?

Maybe they were suicidal?

Love BSG.

My BSG love is ginormous. It has its own zip code.

Meanwhile, I'm really wondering WHY somebody would agree to have their memory wiped.

We learn early that the Wolfram & Hart Prostitution Division Dollhouse made something serious go away for Echo, in return for her, and pardon the expression, services. Whatever the problem was, it was big enough to rattle a young woman into putting her life on hold for five years to disappear entirely, and surrender her mind and body.

And when they agreed to it - how could you really understand what you were getting yourself into?

You really couldn't. But then, I don't see the Dollhouse as fundamentally any different than human traffickers that force real-life desperate women into lives of prostitution. The only difference is the price tag.

There's a lot of unknowns here: We have no idea if the Dollhouse ever intended to honor its deal with Echo or the Actives. Which, if still unsavory, at least puts them ahead of if they intend to keep them until they're no longer useful, or simply eliminate them. We don't yet know of any "released" Actives floating around.

We also don't know if, at contract's end, what state Echo's mind would be (assuming she doesn't come to on her own.) Would her memories be set back to when she joined? The Dollhouse's intentions are murky right now.

The only Active we know of who's personality (or at least A personality) has asserted itself on its own is Alpha. And that proved messy. Even if the Dollhouse intended to put Echo back together again, we have no idea if that's really possible. From what we've seen, I'm inclined to doubt.

Do the Actives remember the Dollhouse after the implanted personality is removed? Or is it a big Where am I, Who are you people thing each time? Or don't they care?

Echo seems to remember she wants to swim, doesn't she? There's probably a default of home.

I'd like to return to the issue of why the rape of Echo in Dollhouse is so problematic.

Suppose she was being raped with the use of normal roofies. And the first two shows had scenes of Echo posed unconcious, nude, with as much of her showing as you can get away with on TV. And they play chicka-chicka-boom music, and she sighed happily in her sleep while being raped. And the angles are chosen to make sure the whole rape scene is as titillating as possible. I don't think anyone would be defending it - even if the point of the show was about how bad rape was.

Well in the actual Dollhouse they've taken advantage of it being fiction to make the roofies more sophisticated. Echo actually falls into lust or love or limerance with the client, and enjoys the sex. But by most definitions she is being raped. And there are ways to make that happen without being titillating. But the show chooses not to do that. In the imaginary show with a plot built around real roofies there are all sorts of ways to handle in NOT make it titillating. If titillation was not the object, the actual rape scenes would probably be shorter, but if the plot neccesitated an extended scene there are still ways not to make it titillating and exploitive. Hell, movies-of-the-week about rape, often very badly written, usually can manage that much. Dollhous has deliberately chosen a form of rape that is harder to handle non-exploitively, but seems to put less effort than an after-school special into making it non-exploitive and instead makes in as titillating as possible. Yes having the guy trying to kill her immediately after sex is good after-school special type anvil. But it is not like they dont make it totally exploitive until then. And even after, a lot of the shots of Faith-I-mean-echo running are monsters point of view in the bad sense: they are still finding excuses to emphasize her hotness while running for her life. The she-has-agency ending where she saves herself and her handler is all well and good, but does not really make up for the fact that a lot of the prior part of the episode was designed to give 14 year old boys stiffies.

Also, I'm not really reassured by the Joss interview where he seems to think that what is problemaic about show is that it deals with prostitution, without showing any understanding that rape is involved.

One day Eliza Dushku might surprise me by doing something she didn't intend to look sexy doing onscreen, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

As much as I hate to throw myself into this -- and let me be clear that I have no desire to argue personal squick or button/trigger-pushing -- I'm not sure that the situation is that clear-cut. What if we hypothesize old-school (by which I mean, I know that this is not necessarily how DID(?) actually works, but since we're talking fiction...) multiple personality disorder -- if one of the personalities has consensual sex, has another personality been raped?

I don't follow TV online other places (although I will occasionally read stuff if it's linked here) but have others drawn the same rape connection that we have? Because I came to that conclusion all by myself, but I'm sort of surprised that Joss hasn't commented on it or that the few linked things I've read haven't mentioned it.