Patton Oswalt was wonderful.

Who is Patton Oswalt? Was he the creepy commemorating-his-dead-wife-by-paying-for-a-mindwiped-whore-every-year guy?

And should I know him from other stuff?

I wonder whether there really is someone on the inside trying to undermine the dollhouse or if it was part of Echo's programming to throw Ballard even further off the case.

I think there has to be someone on the inside, otherwise the show really has no place to go, plotwise, except repeating the same skeevy stuff over and over.

So angry about Sierra's child abuse, btw. Not letting that slide. Angry.

Glad to know you've made it all better for her. Except, oh yeah, you haven't.

I'm right there with you. The scene with her handler almost made me run into the bathroom. It was revolting.

Except, on the other hand, if I am to buy into the "it's rape" when the dolls have sex, then the whole thing is rape.

Well, YEAH.

t edit I truly don't see the hotness of Ballard (he falls in my category with Sean Bean, Nathan Fillion, etc., where I *so* don't get it even while scores of people around me drool), but I really REALLY love his "Bitch, PLEASE" face. As seen during the conversation with skeevy anniverary whore-buying guy.

Who is Patton Oswalt? Was he the creepy commemorating-his-dead-wife-by-paying-for-a-mindwiped-whore-every-year guy?

He's a stand-up comic and also a writer. He wrote a very funny piece for The Onion on the KFC all-in-one bowl. He's also a proper science fiction/comics geek. He's best known as the voice of the rat in Ratatouille.

He's best known as the voice of the rat in Ratatouille.

That puts all the emphasis on "Bouncy the Rat" in a whole new light.

Patton Oswalt is the source of my current tagline.

But the thing is, I don't think the "dead wife" sex is presented as OK. I think it is intended to be skeevy. (Echo's wanting to "finish" is the reaction of a very damaged person.) I don't think it is analogous to some of the earlier stuff, cause I don't think it is made appealing.

I thought they made it appealing. They spent a lot of time letting Patton Oswalt plead his case, and then they had a happy-smiley ending. Echo wanted to "finish" the happy-smiley home.

I read the end as "We're playing this as good and wholesome, can you maintain your outrage?"

I was rewatching and I forgot about the guy who wanted to be wwith another guy. that cracked me up.

I was also kind of creeped out by Topher asking Echo "ready to play?" particularly after the whole "game" thing with Hearn. I'm sure that it was deliberate, but ew.

I think the intention was to say "look, sometimes we help people" but I'm not sure.

The skeeviest thing for me in the whole episode was defintely Sierra's abuse. It was intentionally set up to feel like child abuse and I thought they took it much farther than they needed to get the point across.

They're not helping that guy. They may think they are, and he may think they are, but I don't see how having him relive this moment every year is helping him.

His impulse is understandable. It's turning it into action that's a problem -- hiring a fake wife, getting an emotional reaction from her, and then sleeping with her.