Hey! Try emailing me at my fsr address, commenting in the middle of this seems a bit weird now :)

You'd expect Bella to be looking at ONE of the two guys she's emotionally connected with, but yet she's staring out at the audience instead! There are two others in the scene. Edward - the person she's obsessing over, Jacob - the guy protecting her, the one that brings her back to a semblance of herself. Does it feel like she's connecting to either of those? Hell, does it feel like she's even connecting to the people she's staring out at?

At least the guys pull off their parts well.

...stupid length limits. Anyway!

As for Topher and Saunders, I think Topher definitely felt guilt over the Doctor's death, but it seems to extend more to Whisky than to the doctor himself. Possibly Topher blamed himself for not seeing that Alpha was a danger, maybe he had previous attachments to Whisky (seriously, at this point I'm planning on going back and re-examining every scene with this pair in it so that I can figure this out!) and maybe Whisky was exaggerating about her being programmed to hate him. However, after rewatching that part, Topher seemed to be surprised at her comment, but his immediate response was that she didn't open it. Maybe he thought if she opened it, she'd understand why he wanted her to hate him, why he thought he deserved it.

I'd like to believe that Topher was already that smart. I like the idea that there are unknown dolls among the dolls, but I don't want the entire establishment to end up having handlers just outside the door. It cheapens it somehow, takes the easy way out. I think Topher was really just that good, but perhaps his motives for joining the Dollhouse weren't just about working where he can do work his grad-school professors hadn't even dreamed of yet. Maybe the imprint he used on his birthday was even Whisky's original personality (with a couple of minor adjustments, or Whisky may have known what was going to happen and embraced it as an alternative to her future), we just don't know yet. That's part of the fun :)

I'm definitely of the opinion that Alpha was only the initial nudge that sent Ballard information, but he was unable to get back into the Dollhouse without help and so couldn't get in to tamper with the dolls. He had the intelligence to remote wipe, and even the equipment, but he couldn't get in to tamper with the imprints being put in place.

I also don't think that Dominic was the mole that Ballard was getting information from. When Mellie said (in her November spy state) that the person was captured/compromised, she couldn't have known that someone was onto Dominic. The timeline was wrong, Mellie was imprinted and after that, Topher talked to Dominic about finding the NSA chip. In order for Mellie to have had that information hidden as part of her imprint, this would have needed to be known well before she was imprinted so that Topher's version could be altered. It just doesn't add up. Couple that with the imprint constantly referring to itself as part of a group (though that could be the NSA) and it just isn't logical.

I think I broke IntenseDebate, so second half to follow..

I'd love to take a look, the theories you're positing are pretty damned interesting and it'd be fascinating to see what other ideas you have under your belt. Given the rumours we're hearing about Dollhouse possibly getting a season 2, you may even get a job out of it! :)

Definitely, Saunders/Whisky mentioned something like that early on (which I had forgotten until you mentioned it again), saying "sometimes you just hope for good enough". Couple that with her reaction to Victor when he says that he's not his best and you see more evidence (don't you just love Whedon?) that the soul and the person you are deep at your core is never wiped, nor are the experiences you've had. If that's followed on from, I wonder what it means for Sierra and her experiences with both the man that trapped her in the Dollhouse and her handler's evil deeds.

Roll on Monday, I love hypothesising but it's more fun when you know you're going to find out the right answer later!

It certainly sounds like she's there forever, and I hope we find out why! That dementia idea would be a great reason, imagine being able to avoid mental illness like that (but you'd also be losing yourself anyway, which may not be the best compromise. At least you'd never experience the horrible realisation part though)

If she saw the details of her imprint she could know exactly what he put into her, but it didn't look like that sort of detail was on the screen. I think what you said first would be more accurate, where she has accepted her life as a doll. The reason I'd say that one is that after all that anger during the episode and her yelling at Victor, she shows that she's accepted who she is by doing something that was a tradition for the original Dr. Saunders, she hands Victor the jar of lollipops to choose from.

I'm starting to feel like I should watch this episode again, to make sure I got every single nuance! Not that that's a bad thing, the ability for a show to give you more each time you watch an old episode is definitely something to be praised, but it makes remembering all the details hard!

I definitely think there's something else between Topher and Whisky, but I'm not sure what. Whisky doesn't know who she was though, Topher even says that she didn't open the file to see her original life. I'd say you're right about some aspects, Topher and Whisky had a tie, but perhaps he programmed her to hate him because he blamed himself for her predicament and thought he deserved to be hated. It may have come from an older tie, or simply because Alpha broke on his watch and he didn't notice the danger.

As for why Whisky didn't get any plastic surgery, perhaps the technology to completely erase scars wasn't around a couple of years ago. Also, they needed to replace Dr. Saunders with a new doctor and with no guarantees that Whisky would be perfect after trying to repair them, they decided it would make more sense to just reprogram her as the doctor instead.

Alpha sent him the initial information about Caroline (the DVD and the photo), yes. The information sent via actives with hidden aspects to their persona (Echo as the ninja assassin revealing that there is a Dollhouse and November as Mellie informing him that Mellie is a doll and cannot be trusted) couldn't have been him though, as he'd need to be inside the Dollhouse to have corrupted the imprints. That group (the dolls kept referring to themselves as part of a we, with an insider tampering with the imprints) is still a mystery, one that they'll hopefully get to explain!

There does seem to be that distinct circular feeling alright. I wonder how long it'll take for Dan and Serena to get back together now that Lily and Rufus have broken up again. The new show's called "Lily", but apparently it may not be as locked in to be picked up as once thought. However, with the success of Gossip Girl, I'm sure they'll keep it, at least for 12 episodes

Hopefully more people like you will show up and watch the final episode! Even better would be if they watched it live, but watching it is watching it! Also, catch up on the interim episodes, they're well worth it