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.

Dollhouse 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 it as titillating as possible.

I understand the general rape-related arguments about the show, but I'm not sure how your post furthers them, Typo. Was there even a sex scene in the first episode? And in the second episode, while there was sex, I thought it was really brief. I won't say it wasn't shot to be titillating, but I see WAY more explicit and titillating stuff on network TV all the time. If anything, I thought it was restrained.

Emily, that's an interesting take I sure hadn't thought of.

Was there even a sex scene in the first episode?

Yes - during the mindwipe sequence there's a brief flashback to sex with her date/client.

(And just to be completely honest here, I found the first ep offensive enough that I did not watch it again when it aired nor have I seen the second ep. So it's possible that the sex was cut out of the broadcast version of the pilot.)

Let me clarify that the answer may well be yes, actually. There may be a victim of rape without an intentional act of rape, and indeed the Dollhouse clients know perfectly well what they're getting into. But the identity issue surely complicates it a little.

The sex was still there, Jessica. I thought I read in one of interviews that sex part was something he wanted to explore.

So it's possible that the sex was cut out of the broadcast version of the pilot.

Nope, it's still there.

Was there even a sex scene in the first episode?

I think it was mentioned that she had slept with motorcycle race client, but I don't remember an actual sex scene. I was very distracted when I watched it, though.