Episode Discussion 1.09 "A Spy In The House Of Love" - Aired 4/10/09 (FOX-USA)

Echo and Sierra are turned into spy hunters in order to track down a Dollhouse traitor. Meanwhile, Mellie delivers surprising news to Ballard; and Adelle has a secret.

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Dollhouse Episodes

Everything about that episode won intensely.

God, as an Easter miracle, please give this ep over 4 million viewers.

Ok so this was...an AMAZING episode! So much done in one hour! This has become my #1 episode. THem being able to focus on 4 seperate dolls with each story resolving smoothly was nice. And two HUGE surprises! I did NOT expect to see Adelle being a client! And more so Victor being the one she has secretly been requesting for so long. It was also sad to her let go of him and knowing that it couldnt go any further.

And Dominic being the spy, I was somewhat surprised. And a bit sad since I did like him.

If the show does get picked up for a 2nd season, I hope we do get one or two episodes focused around the Handlers since I am interested in them. It was nice to finally see Victors handler and I want to see who Sierras new handler is. Also sad to see Boyd get promoted and have to step down as Echos handler. But it was nice to see how they imprint trust in the dolls to the handlers.

And seeing them wipe someone who is going to the attic was intense!

Fox better now cancel this show.

OH MY GOD.
THIS EPISODE WAS INSAAAANE.

I can't believe Adelle was Ms. Lonelyhearts! I almost cried when she realized her thing with Victor (who, by the way, was looking particularly hot in this episode) was wrong and just broke down in her bed with him. And I KNEW Ivy wouldn't be the spy...still, I thought it'd wind up being Dr. Saunders. I had no idea it'd be Laurence!

Also, BOO AT ECHO'S NEW HANDLER. Poor Boyd, watching Echo put her trust into Travis/Trevor/whatever his name was and his stupid mustache. I wonder if he'll still try to keep interacting with Echo, even without permission.

I officially need next week's episode RIGHT NOW...but I have to wait TWO WEEKS for it! Damnit, Fox!!

WOW!!! If this episode didn't get views attention I don't know what will!

This episode was amazing(9th time i've said that I know 😛)

The scene between Topher and Echo for me was jaw dropping and so was when Mellie revealed herself to Ballard.

I love Echo/November now as much as I do Sierra/Echo.

Victor/Adelle was very and this might sound creepy but actually cute and like real love.

Dominiques reveal was awesome but his "deactivation"(is that what you call it?) was really creepy! but does that mean he's dead? cause Topher has his lie in the cartdrige so maybe he can live again for all I know.

Sierra was great as usual.

When I saw "Ms.Lonley Hearts" I felt real bad for Victor.

I loved the scene with Adelle and Claire.

Can someone please explain the conversation between Echo and Dom in the van to me cause I didn't really get it did he mean that all the workers use to be actives cause that's what I thought when he said I think "Soon enough your gonna be doing the wiping" or something like that.

Now for the ending I got sad cause no more Echo/Boyd 🙁 Overall awesome ep 5/5

And I've changed my mind about what I said that next episode looks boring cause after seeing the promo I was wowed espicially when Echo said lines like "I should've stayed dead" which kinda made it awesome cause it's not actually the woman who died saying this but a program basically.

Dominic is still alive. When you are sent to the attic, all they basically do is mindwipe you and put you in a certain state of mind. They put all of his memories on the hard-drive and when Nasa or whoever he was working for try to locate him, they will reinsert those memories to him and basically use him like a doll for a short period.

And I think Dominic meant that he knew what Echo would become and when she gains full control of herself like Alpha has, she will wipe them like they wiped away her life.

charmingslayer said:

Can someone please explain the conversation between Echo and Dom in the van to me cause I didn't really get it did he mean that all the workers use to be actives cause that's what I thought when he said I think "Soon enough your gonna be doing the wiping" or something like that.

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He was predicting that Echo would take down the Dollhouse. And he seemed to be taking pleasure in that thought.

NSA or no NSA, I still think Laurence is working for Alpha.

Now, can someone explain to me why Laurence had a gun in his hand when they were wiping him? How did that happen? He'd been in custody for quite some time.

I was thinking the same thing about the gun. Only thing I can think of is that he got a hold of one of the guards' gun when they were trying to get him to teh chair. He was putting up a good fight.

Oh my God, I honestly had 4 "holy sh*t" moments in that episode.

1) When November revealed herself to Paul. My mouth literally dropped open and I may have uttered some profanities. That was incredibly shocking to me.

2) When Victor showed up at Adelle's place and we realized that she was Ms. Lonelyhearts. I did not see that coming. It was nice to see a side of Adelle as a human being, instead of just a cold, calculating professional.

3) When Dominic was revealed as the spy. I didn't think it was Ivy, but I sure as hell didn't guess it was Dominic.

4) When they wiped him and had his body sent to the attic. That was freaking intense and I wouldn't be surprised to be seeing that scene in my nightmares soon. For all of us wondering what exactly the attic was, they went into some nice detail for us here.

Also, am I the only one that noticed that at the end, when Echo was connecting to her new handler, she wasn't really connecting with him. When he asked her if she trusted him, she was starting at Boyd when she responded "With my life". In my estimation, she remembers who he is and still trusts him, even though he's no longer her handler.

This was, by far, the best episode of the season. While I'm not overly excited about the previews for next episode, this show has earned the benefit of the doubt with me. I'm confident that it will be well done.

If my thoughts seem jumbled and incoherent, it's because they're all swirling around in my head. 🙂

Wow. Really, all I can say is that THIS was the awesome Joss episode that I was waiting for 😀

I did like last week's episode (and honestly thought that this one was going to be a little lame in comparison) but I was SO wrong. Great writing and I agree with Primal Slayer-- I can't believe how much happened in just one hour!

Okay, so I have to start with Adelle and Victor. Did not at all see that coming! It's an interesting twist for her character, I think she's the last person I would expect to "hire" the Dolls for personal reasons. I also think that it was nice to see a more human side of her though, and her breakdown with Victor (or "Rodger" I should say?) was really touching-- it made me like her a little bit more. I'm also starting to see the wheels turning for future storylines: Adelle having feelings for Victor (or some version of him, anyway) I could see the writer's playing on later on.

I wasn't all that surprised to find out that Dominic was the spy: thrilled, actually. It was the only person that made sense to have as an insider. I did like the scene with him and Echo in the van (again, I think his mini-speech will be brought up later on), and his brain-wipe scene was yikes! The Dolls are always so laid back when they're put into that chair, it's a totally different spin on the idea of the Dollhouse when you see that sort of scene. I am glad that we finally found out what the mysterious attic is though, that was starting to drive me crazy :silly:

It was good to see some more scenes with Claire in them. I didn't realise that she was living in the Dollhouse, good to know. Also as a kind of sidenote, Sierra's secret agent scenes I was very impressed with. I wasn't sure if I liked her character all that much up to this point (only seeing a few episodes with her in it), but seeing her in action really made me like her again.

And Echo. Wholey wow! Some great one-liners for her tonight, but more importantly I really like that she is starting to become a little more aware of what's going on around her. Having her volunteer to help "save the Dollhouse" was a little ironic for her character. And her "I'm not broken" line seemed a little too real for me to let it slip my mind: perhaps Echo's non-Doll personality is starting to come through more than we think? Just a thought, I did love the delivery of that line though.

Very sorry to see that Echo has a new handler, but I could see it making for some really neat scenes from here on out with her and Boyd in the future.

Giants Rule 04 - Definitely noticed the "with my life" thing too, I'm thinking that's a classic Joss 'Yes, you DO see something there' moment. What a way to end a great episode 😀

I did find one fault with it though: TWO WEEKS until the next one? That stinks with a captial "S" as far as I'm concerned 😉

Who does Echo refer to and mean when Sierra and her are in the beginning.
Sierra-What's happening?
Echo-She made a mistake and now she's dead.

This is the best episode out of the whole show. If anyone had any doubts about the shaky start, this episode got rid of them. I have to admit , I was not a big fan of " man on the street" even though thats when the "Joss" episodes started kicking in. I do admit though that episode definitely set up alot, but i felt "Needs" was alot better. This episode by far set the bar. Hopefully itcan stay consistently good like that.


I havent seen that many twists and turns since Evil Cordy =)

I was surprised to see Adelle as a doll client, and I was sad to see Echo get a new handler.

I thought for sure that Saunders was the spy and was gonna pull an Illyria and kill everyone. Its sad though how she has no friends =(

I wanna know moreof her backstory.

charmingslayer said:

Who does Echo refer to and mean when Sierra and her are in the beginning.
Sierra-What's happening?
Echo-She made a mistake and now she's dead.

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Actually she said "...and now she's sad."

I think she was referring to Adelle.

Wow.

Too bad I can't just say that and toddle off.

I can't decide if I'm happy or sad we have a two week break.

It will give people lots of time to force their friends to watch this one. And maybe me time to see it 12 more times, maybe with YC next week! *crosses fingers*
And surely will give me time to get hubby to catch up.

but then.....

Don't build me up like this and then make me wait two weeks for more! If nothing else, if I have to dwell on this Travis guy too long, my irrational dislike of him is going to turn into a homicidal rage.

But still, WOW. It certainly makes up for last week's "eh".

I'm going to be LATE but happy!

KILL TRAVIS! Kiiiiiiiiiiilll Traaaaaaviiiiiiiiis!!!!!!!!

*starts waving matches threateningly in Travis's direction*

The plot was actually a decent one, for once. However, this should have been like episode three, I think. There were a large number of holes when you got to the details (Topher wasn't at all freaked out that a doll was becoming self-aware?) and Adelle and Victor is just wrong however you splice it...

But the general plot was good. Except for Travis.

And the wiping of Dominic was way cheesy. They should've done it completely silent... no music, no nothing.... and kinda... bright looking. Think white room in W&H. Would've been more effective, I think.

Also, if they're gonna control Mellie, then why wouldn't they have her just say "here's the address, here's who's running it... blah blah blah" rather than "you need to look for it, they're after you, oh noez!"

But, yeah. 🙂 The plotline, as I said, was good. 🙂

Ok i've watched the ep like 3x now and i'm wondering...
Who the heck is Travis?

Travis is Echo's new Watcher person.

I get that, charmingslayer (about the wipe), but I think the idea of what's going on... if everyone was so calm about sending someone to the attic, even if they were screaming, but the effect was silent so we couldn't hear, and everyone around Dominic was as calm as possible... it would have been better.

Better than "OMG, we forgot to take a gun away from this guy who clearly doesn't want to be wiped" and "I can stand around for 20 minutes despite a gun shot to my kidney and there's nothing wrong with me, not to mention I don't even wince without any kind of anesthesia as someone fixes it."

Don't get me wrong, I thought this was a decent episode for Dollhouse, and certainly much better than last week's, but... it sure isn't perfect.

Oh ok thanks for telling me I completley forgot about this guy.

Oh now that I think about it I kinda think your right.

Did anyone else like November's handler cause I kinda did.

Ooooh.....thought it was fantastic! Last week's needs didn't really do a huge amount for me (with the exception of the Vierra storyline), but this one....gah! Loved it.

Yeah the whole Dominic thing was a little warped, with the gun and whatnot, and it did seem weird that he would be as...I wanna say reluctant but I think I mean fighty while they put him in the chair. And the Gun....yeah...honest, where the heck did that come from? But otherwise I didn't see him as being the spy, so that one was so left field. Knew it wasn't going to be Ivy though....it would have been far too obvious for her to be it. I'm not sure exactly how he's thinking Echo's going to take down the Dollhouse, he think she's going to be another Alpha, but I would think by now he'd see that she'd probably have more finesse with it. Imprints to Ballard though....why do I think that it's still not Dominic that put them there? Maybe he was ultimately working for Alpha without realising it, I don't know. But the purpose doesn't seem to fit.

Speaking of Ballard, is it still a bit of a goose chase to send him after the "Purpose" of the Dollhouse? It was a little heartbreaking to watch him find out Mellie is November, I can't see how they're gonna tie this up. At the same time they're feeding him information, but also telling him to back off? It doesn't make any sense. While I hope this is a longer arc, we're probably running out of time and I wanna see this wrapped up.

Adelle as Miss Lonelyhearts? Nice little twist, I loved Victor as Roger, although sometimes I couldn't tell if he was supposed to be English or Australian (though I assumed English, because that would make more sense). Definitely my favourite Doll. It makes sense though doesn't it? Adelle's gotta keep her game face on, but she's got needs as well... (sw) It makes her more human which is nice. We don't really get to see her be vulnerable so it makes me like her a little more (though I like her enough to begin with). Anyone else think they stole Sierra's NSA disguise from Adelle's wardrobe? Just me? Nevermind 😉

It was great to see Echo taking it all in, trying to be helpful. I loved the "I'm not broken" line came back into play. I definitely prefer watching Echo be Echo rather than her being Caroline. In my perfect world, Caroline would just disappear and Echo could reign surpreme as her whole identity. But it was sweet seeing her want to help Topher take down Dominic in a way. And how she does seem to keep an eye on everything that happens. Boyd being promoted! Noooo! I think in the end Echo will still ultimately trust Boyd more than anyone else, and Boyd will play favourites. I love their relationship though....damn you Adelle and Travis!

My brain is gonna explode soon....so I'm gonna stop there! Awesomeness and a half. So glad that the intensity is picking up after Needs rather than slowing down. That's what I like to see!

I'm not done yet, but I like how Eliza is less skinny. 😉 Welcome back my fav Eliza.