-Major spoilers for both seasons of Dollhouse ahead-
Paul Ballard is a character who cops a lot of unwarranted flak, both from the fandom and In-Universe. He is often dismissed as insignificant, useless, overly-obsessive and just downright stupid. His pursuit of the Dollhouse and by extension Echo are both seen as unhealthy and ridiculous and he is often put down by fans and by characters within the show, all of which is a real pity and does a true disservice to his character and his characterisation over the show.
Due to Dollhouse’s short run coupled with its’ narrow focus on Echo, there is not a massive amount of background given to the other characters. We know virtually nothing about Paul’s life pre-Pilot, but the little we are told is somewhat revealing. In his first scene, we are informed that Paul was once a good agent, one of the FBI’s best. His life started to unravel when his wife left him, affecting his work and causing his performance to become erratic. It was at this point that the Bureau shunted him into a department which was intended to be a dead-end – the investigation into the Dollhouse.
This is actually a very important point, and one which should be remembered when discussing Paul’s obsession with the Dollhouse (and later with Echo, which I will also touch upon). Paul neither pursued nor discovered the Dollhouse on his own. He was assigned a case which many believed to be a dead end, mostly to get him out of the way and give him something redundant to focus on, where he couldn’t make trouble. However, as Paul discovers, the Dollhouse is very much a reality, a horrifying institution which deals in human trafficking, slavery and potentially murder. And Paul, being a Lawful Good type as well as a genuinely good person, can’t let the investigation go once all of this is discovered. He knows that the Dollhouse exists, he knows that innocent people are being trafficked and abused, and he refuses to let it lie, despite the Bureau’s insistence that he should. Paul’s obsession with the Dollhouse and bringing it down is actually an indicator to the goodness of his character, as opposed to the very negative light it’s usually shown in.
But what of his creepy obsession with Echo, you ask. Well, again, this isn’t your typical stalker-with-a-crush case. As with the Dollhouse investigation, Echo was sent to Paul. Paul had already been investigating the Dollhouse for months when Alpha sent him the photo of Echo, which changed the game significantly for Paul. Whereas before he knew that the Dollhouse was operational, all of its victims were nameless and faceless. Once Echo’s picture is sent to him, he suddenly has a real, living, breathing person to focus on, someone whom he can actually save, which is why she becomes such a focal point for him. The Dollhouse is no longer a faceless monster, it is a real place, holding a real person. And once he sees Echo in her Rebecca Miner persona, the reality hits even harder, as Paul now has definitive proof of what is going on behind the closed doors of the Dollhouse.
And it must be noted that Paul fights his obsession. When Joel Miner rightly points out that Paul is indulging in a fantasy, playing the role of the Prince going to rescue the trapped Princess, Paul takes a step back, looks at himself, and decides to focus on the real girl, the one who is flesh and blood and doesn’t stir up his ridiculous hero complex. He turns away from the fantasy and chooses the reality. Which makes it all the more devastating when Mellie is also revealed to be a Doll, shattering Paul’s world again and making it near-impossible for him to separate fantasy and reality anymore, to be a real person involved with a real girl, to lead any semblance of a normal life. The Dollhouse has infiltrated his life, and they will never allow things to return to normal for him.
Now, all this being said, Paul Ballard is not without his flaws. In fact, one of the reasons he is such a great character is because he is deeply flawed. As the title of this piece suggests, he is a classic example of an Idiot Hero, rushing in without thought, charging into the fray without a plan, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind him for people to follow. He is arrogant, headstrong and doesn’t often listen to others. He’s got a big, good heart, but he is often ruled by his emotions and has a hard time looking at things outside of his narrow black-and-white view. He also never knows when to quit, which both serves him well and becomes detrimental to his cause.
Despite what I’ve discussed, one of Paul’s biggest flaws is his obsessive nature. While there are valid and obvious reasons for both of his obsessions over the show (the Dollhouse and Echo/Caroline) the degree to which he immerses himself, the lengths he goes to in order to prove his theories and the obsessive nature of his investigation are all alarming at times, and they clearly have a detrimental effect on his personal life, his love life and his work life. He ends the first season with no job and seemingly no prospects. He has proved that the Dollhouse exists but ends up in a Cassandra Truth situation. His obsession has ruled his life for so long, he doesn’t quite know who he is without it, as evidenced by his lack of direction at the start of Season 2 and his uneasy truce with the Dollhouse.
I think one of the more interesting aspects of Paul’s character is that he is truly the only character to never trust the Dollhouse. Even when he joins them, it’s to try to take them down from the inside, to protect Echo and to save Caroline. He never views the Dollhouse in a positive light and is never swayed in his belief that what they are doing is wrong and immoral. He is also the only character to broach the subject of “souls”, to point out that while the Dollhouse may have the technology to “wipe” a person’s original personality, they can’t erase their soul, their true essence, all of which becomes insanely tragic and ironic when Paul himself is imprinted with his own personality. Confronted with the realisation that he is a Doll, Paul must learn to adjust to his new existence, and if Dollhouse hadn’t been cancelled, I think that particular event would have made for some amazing characterisation.
At the end of the day, Paul is actually a really well-written character, with depths that the fandom just doesn’t seem interested in looking into, which is a real pity, because if you can see past the hero complex and obsessive nature, Paul Ballard is a fascinating and endearing character, who – as with everything on this show – had a lot of untapped potential. It’s just a shame that so much of the fandom doesn't see this.
Paul Ballard is a character who cops a lot of unwarranted flak, both from the fandom and In-Universe. He is often dismissed as insignificant, useless, overly-obsessive and just downright stupid. His pursuit of the Dollhouse and by extension Echo are both seen as unhealthy and ridiculous and he is often put down by fans and by characters within the show, all of which is a real pity and does a true disservice to his character and his characterisation over the show.
Due to Dollhouse’s short run coupled with its’ narrow focus on Echo, there is not a massive amount of background given to the other characters. We know virtually nothing about Paul’s life pre-Pilot, but the little we are told is somewhat revealing. In his first scene, we are informed that Paul was once a good agent, one of the FBI’s best. His life started to unravel when his wife left him, affecting his work and causing his performance to become erratic. It was at this point that the Bureau shunted him into a department which was intended to be a dead-end – the investigation into the Dollhouse.
This is actually a very important point, and one which should be remembered when discussing Paul’s obsession with the Dollhouse (and later with Echo, which I will also touch upon). Paul neither pursued nor discovered the Dollhouse on his own. He was assigned a case which many believed to be a dead end, mostly to get him out of the way and give him something redundant to focus on, where he couldn’t make trouble. However, as Paul discovers, the Dollhouse is very much a reality, a horrifying institution which deals in human trafficking, slavery and potentially murder. And Paul, being a Lawful Good type as well as a genuinely good person, can’t let the investigation go once all of this is discovered. He knows that the Dollhouse exists, he knows that innocent people are being trafficked and abused, and he refuses to let it lie, despite the Bureau’s insistence that he should. Paul’s obsession with the Dollhouse and bringing it down is actually an indicator to the goodness of his character, as opposed to the very negative light it’s usually shown in.
But what of his creepy obsession with Echo, you ask. Well, again, this isn’t your typical stalker-with-a-crush case. As with the Dollhouse investigation, Echo was sent to Paul. Paul had already been investigating the Dollhouse for months when Alpha sent him the photo of Echo, which changed the game significantly for Paul. Whereas before he knew that the Dollhouse was operational, all of its victims were nameless and faceless. Once Echo’s picture is sent to him, he suddenly has a real, living, breathing person to focus on, someone whom he can actually save, which is why she becomes such a focal point for him. The Dollhouse is no longer a faceless monster, it is a real place, holding a real person. And once he sees Echo in her Rebecca Miner persona, the reality hits even harder, as Paul now has definitive proof of what is going on behind the closed doors of the Dollhouse.
And it must be noted that Paul fights his obsession. When Joel Miner rightly points out that Paul is indulging in a fantasy, playing the role of the Prince going to rescue the trapped Princess, Paul takes a step back, looks at himself, and decides to focus on the real girl, the one who is flesh and blood and doesn’t stir up his ridiculous hero complex. He turns away from the fantasy and chooses the reality. Which makes it all the more devastating when Mellie is also revealed to be a Doll, shattering Paul’s world again and making it near-impossible for him to separate fantasy and reality anymore, to be a real person involved with a real girl, to lead any semblance of a normal life. The Dollhouse has infiltrated his life, and they will never allow things to return to normal for him.
Now, all this being said, Paul Ballard is not without his flaws. In fact, one of the reasons he is such a great character is because he is deeply flawed. As the title of this piece suggests, he is a classic example of an Idiot Hero, rushing in without thought, charging into the fray without a plan, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs behind him for people to follow. He is arrogant, headstrong and doesn’t often listen to others. He’s got a big, good heart, but he is often ruled by his emotions and has a hard time looking at things outside of his narrow black-and-white view. He also never knows when to quit, which both serves him well and becomes detrimental to his cause.
Despite what I’ve discussed, one of Paul’s biggest flaws is his obsessive nature. While there are valid and obvious reasons for both of his obsessions over the show (the Dollhouse and Echo/Caroline) the degree to which he immerses himself, the lengths he goes to in order to prove his theories and the obsessive nature of his investigation are all alarming at times, and they clearly have a detrimental effect on his personal life, his love life and his work life. He ends the first season with no job and seemingly no prospects. He has proved that the Dollhouse exists but ends up in a Cassandra Truth situation. His obsession has ruled his life for so long, he doesn’t quite know who he is without it, as evidenced by his lack of direction at the start of Season 2 and his uneasy truce with the Dollhouse.
I think one of the more interesting aspects of Paul’s character is that he is truly the only character to never trust the Dollhouse. Even when he joins them, it’s to try to take them down from the inside, to protect Echo and to save Caroline. He never views the Dollhouse in a positive light and is never swayed in his belief that what they are doing is wrong and immoral. He is also the only character to broach the subject of “souls”, to point out that while the Dollhouse may have the technology to “wipe” a person’s original personality, they can’t erase their soul, their true essence, all of which becomes insanely tragic and ironic when Paul himself is imprinted with his own personality. Confronted with the realisation that he is a Doll, Paul must learn to adjust to his new existence, and if Dollhouse hadn’t been cancelled, I think that particular event would have made for some amazing characterisation.
At the end of the day, Paul is actually a really well-written character, with depths that the fandom just doesn’t seem interested in looking into, which is a real pity, because if you can see past the hero complex and obsessive nature, Paul Ballard is a fascinating and endearing character, who – as with everything on this show – had a lot of untapped potential. It’s just a shame that so much of the fandom doesn't see this.
GraceK
Love all of this .
