nothingbuttherain: Topher: How can you expect me to do this?Adelle: You’ll do it because you must. The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals have been compromised in some way. Everyone… except you. You, Topher, were chosen because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as playthings. This is not a judgment. You always take very good care of your toys. But you’re simply going to have to let this one go. Dollhouse, 2x04 Belonging This episode kinda made my heart hurt. For me, the sad thing—the thing that Adelle gets but has to bracket in order to package it neatly for Topher—is that “treating people as playthings” and “having no morals” are in no way neatly opposed alternatives. Topher has no morals in the traditional sense of the word—all he has is (a) code. But he’s as much a cog in the works as is Adelle. But Topher works for Adelle, and the power that she wields over him is the power to convince him that he is essentially powerless to his own lack of morals. But in a way, even as Adelle’s power fails—Topher goes on to make his own decisions, challenging his supposed lack of morals—the way he does so ends up simply legitimating the entire institution: the dolls remain dolls, no one is more free, the order of things does not change. In a way, the only way for Topher to prove he “has” morals is to prove that he is capable of enslaving others to the same institution that said that he was moral-less. Even though Dollhouse has been pretty wack this season, this episode certainly had its moments…

Topher: How can you expect me to do this?
Adelle: You’ll do it because you must. The cold reality is that everyone here was chosen because their morals have been compromised in some way. Everyone… except you. You, Topher, were chosen because you have no morals. You have always thought of people as playthings. This is not a judgment. You always take very good care of your toys. But you’re simply going to have to let this one go.

Dollhouse, 2x04 Belonging

This episode kinda made my heart hurt. For me, the sad thing—the thing that Adelle gets but has to bracket in order to package it neatly for Topher—is that “treating people as playthings” and “having no morals” are in no way neatly opposed alternatives. Topher has no morals in the traditional sense of the word—all he has is (a) code. But he’s as much a cog in the works as is Adelle. But Topher works for Adelle, and the power that she wields over him is the power to convince him that he is essentially powerless to his own lack of morals.

But in a way, even as Adelle’s power fails—Topher goes on to make his own decisions, challenging his supposed lack of morals—the way he does so ends up simply legitimating the entire institution: the dolls remain dolls, no one is more free, the order of things does not change. In a way, the only way for Topher to prove he “has” morals is to prove that he is capable of enslaving others to the same institution that said that he was moral-less.

Even though Dollhouse has been pretty wack this season, this episode certainly had its moments…