Non-Fiction
Dollhouse Season 1, Episode 11: “Briar Rose”
The penultimate Dollhouse episode attempted to offer almost everything viewers have ever wanted out of this show while promising that, truly, everything else we ever wanted was coming up next week. What wonders await!
We finally get to see the much-talked-about Alpha and witness his legendary genius and cruelty. We finally get to see Paul locate and infiltrate the Dollhouse. And we finally get to see Echo do something we’ve been wanting to see her do since this all started: tell Paul to GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!
Okay, maybe I’m the only one gratified by this. But Paul’s creepy obsession with Caroline/Echo eroded away any sympathy or affection I had for him in the beginning. Early on, it seemed that Paul was very zealous about the Dollhouse itself and that finding the name and picture of one of the victims merely gave the quest a human face. Instead we were treated to wet dream sex fantasies and constant, boorish exclamations of how He Was Going To Save Her.
I had also thought that by giving him a relationship with Mellie (before it was revealed to be a big, crazy lie) he was going to realize that he didn’t need to fantasize about some pretty victim but instead focus on the sad (yet very attractive) woman who so desperately wanted his attention. But all of that was for naught. And when Paul states before going in that he is specifically NOT going to save Mellie and then, when inside, again specifically refuses to save her in favor of Caroline, I felt at that moment that I wanted to shoot him with a very large gun, but not before stabbing him in the eye.
Is there anyone in this show who I can feel good about?
The show’s answer seems to be: no.