Dollhouse

"Let the Tide Come In" - How Claire Is the True Representation of Dollhouse’s Premise - By Rebecca Levinger

The first season of Dollhouse promoted Echo with the tagline, “She can be anyone, except herself.” At first glance, this is certainly true of Echo’s story. She could be programmed to be anyone in the world, but she was really Caroline, the funny, outgoing, passionate activist, and her inability to be that person showed that she was actually nobody at all. Throughout the first season and for part of the second, even Echo felt that she was really Caroline.

But in a way, this statement proved not to be true. It was Echo, not Caroline, who defeated Rossum, despite describing the effort as Caroline’s war in “The Attic” (2-10). It was Echo who won (and lost) the guy. While Echo eventually incorporated Caroline, her initial rejection of her original personality allowed Echo to become an individual, one who would exist with or without the memories and persona of its host. By the end of the series, Echo wasn’t Caroline. Echo was Echo. Caroline was Echo.

So what happened to Dollhouse’s premise? Did Echo’s ultimate self-discovery and its implications—that people are able to transcend the expectations and limitations given to us by society—negate the show’s premise: that the Dollhouse was creating identity-less slaves? Maybe. Or maybe it simply moved the story of loss of self off of Echo, and gave it to another character: Claire.

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