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Dollhouse (TV series)

American television series

Dollhouse (2009–2010) is an American science fiction dramatic television series, created by Joss Whedon, about a futuristic laboratory that assigns different tasks to its various residents, who then have their memories erased upon the completion of their assignments.

Season 1

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Ghost [1.01]

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Adele DeWitt: I'm talking about a clean slate.
Echo: You ever try and clean an actual slate? You always see what was on it before.
[Dialogue whenever an Active is restored to "tabula rasa"]
Echo: Did I fall asleep?
Topher Brink: For a little while.
Echo: Shall I go now?
Topher Brink: If you like.
Topher Brink: She had fun, right?
Boyd Langton: She thought so.
Topher Brink: There's nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so, man friend. We gave two people a perfect weekend together. We're great humanitarians.
Boyd Langton: Who would spend their lives in jail if anyone ever found this place.
Topher Brink: We're also misunderstood which great humanitarians often are. Look at Echo. Not a care in the world. She's living the dream.
Boyd Langton: Whose dream?
Topher Brink: You see someone running incredibly fast, the first thing you gotta ask is, are they running to something, or are they running from something? And the answer is always both.
Paul Ballard: Dollhouse.
Lubov: What?
Paul Ballard: Dollhouse. Say it.
Lubov: Dollhouse.
Paul Ballard: Say it again.
Lubov: Your brains are--
[Ballard cocks his gun]
Lubov: Okay, dollhouse. Doll freaking house. I'll keep saying it. it's fun to say.Dollhouse, dollhouse, dollhouse, dollhouse.

The Target [1.02]

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Adele DeWitt: In their resting state, our actives are as innocent and vulnerable as children. We call it the "Tabula Rasa". The blank slate. Now imagine the imprint process filling it, creating a new personality. A friend, a lover, a confidant in a sea of enemies. Your heart's desire made flesh. And when the engagement has been completed, all memory of you and your time together will be wiped clean.
Boyd Langton: [Looking down on Actives doing tai ji] Look at them. Just a bunch of helpless children. Did the ones Alpha slaughtered even put up a fight?
Topher Brink: They wouldn't know how. Not without an imprint.
Boyd Langton: Why not default them with ninja skills or whatever?
Topher Brink: We tried that once.
Boyd Langton: And?
Topher Brink: Blood. Screaming. Dying.
Boyd Langton: Alpha.
Mellie: [After seeing Echo's picture] Pretty. Who's she?
Paul Ballard: Nobody, according to the FBI database. No record of her.
Mellie: Is she in trouble?
Paul Ballard: Maybe. She just got caught up with the wrong people. Either way, I'll keep looking until I find her.
Mellie: [As Ballard's walking away] Lucky girl.
Boyd Langton: [After handing Echo a gun] Do you know how to use this?
Echo: I've got four brothers, none of them Democrats.
Echo: [Accidentally walks into the path of Dominic] Sorry.
Laurence Dominic: Are you?
Echo: Am I?
Laurence Dominic: Sorry. Are you really sorry? A lot of people seem to end up dead around you. How does that make you feel? Oh, right. You don't, unless we tell you how, and what, and when.
Echo: I'm going to swim in the pool. [Steps around him and begins to walk away]
Laurence Dominic: If it were up to me I'd put you in the Attic or the ground. Yeah, like talking to you is going to make a difference. [Leans in to look in Echo's eyes] Yeah. There's nobody in there.

Stage Fright [1.03]

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Topher: Sierra should come into play in a minute.
Boyd: I'm glad they double tracked this. Who's handling her?
Topher: Joe Hearn. You won't like him.
Voice: Fifteen minutes to curtain.
Boyd: Echo's on in fifteen. Okay. Okay.
Topher: Oh my God. Are you nervous? Opening night jitters? Your little girl out there on the big stage?
Boyd: On a stage where the last little girl caught on fire?
Topher: Fair point.
Boyd: I mean, her singing's not a problem. It's not, right? I mean, she is a good singer. I think she's good. She wouldn't freeze up.
Topher: [Laughing] She'll be fine, Mama Rose.
Echo: You can fire me, but bitch, don't think that you can take me.
Boyd: Echo took the mission parameter and made it better. She seems to have the ability to think outside of the pieces that we give her and create.
Dr. Saunders: Create a new approach to the problem.
Boyd: It's impressive. I don't know what it means, but it's impressive. She really is special.
Dr. Saunders: Special isn't always a good thing here, Boyd.
Boyd : DeWitt's a business woman. Is she really going to harm her best Active?
Dr. Saunders: Echo wasn't always the best.
Boyd : You're talking about Alpha.
Dr. Saunders: I'm just saying, sometimes the best thing to hope for is "good enough."
Dr. Claire Saunders: You sent Echo on a high-risk engagement?
Topher: Doctor Saunders! How nice of you to annoy me.
Victor: [as Lubov] We're old friends from Navy. Friends from Old Navy. I worked retail, he'd come in, buy slacks.
Echo: You are having a breakdown. Not a shave-your-head-and-flash-your-junk wacky phase

Gray Hour [1.04]

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Boyd: They're eating lunch.
Topher: They're eating lunch together, man friend. The same three. Even the same table. They're grouping.
Boyd: Are you saying they remember each other?
Topher: No, no, no. The wipes are clean. This goes deeper than memory, into instinctual survival patterns. Flocking. A whole mess of sparrows turning on a dime, salmon trucking upstream. This isn't a book club, man friend, this is the herd.
Boyd: They're not bison, Topher.
Topher: They're a little bit bison.
Boyd: They didn't used to be.
Topher: They volunteered for this.
Boyd: So we're told.
Echo: [as Taffy] They're called breasts, and yes, they are exceptional. You mention that, when you blog about this later.
Walton: If she's the best, how come I've never heard of her?
Echo: [as Taffy] You've heard of Bonnie and Clyde, right?
Walton: Are you Bonnie?
Echo: [as Taffy] No. I'm not that stupid. Bonnie and her gun-crazy beau, you know what they wanted? It wasn't to be the best. The best lead the quiet, head down kind of life. No, Bonnie and Clydie, they wanted fame, notoriety, and boy did they get it. They also got dead. I'll pass on that. When this is over, feel free to forget I exist.
Ivy: [Reading from list] Pizza squares, ice cream bites, beef jerky? Okay, you may be the boy god of all things neuro, and I do worship at the altar of your genius, but I am not getting you all of this stuff.
Topher: Ivy, babe, add juice boxes.
Ivy: You're privilege abusing.
Topher: Do you want to know how to avoid spandrels when aligning rigid designators?
Ivy: Grape or apple?
Topher: That could lead to a coma state, or it could turn her into Carrie at the prom
Boyd: Give me the bag.
Cyril: Who are you?
Boyd: The bag.
Cyril: I can't do that.
Boyd: Give me the bag.
Cyril: I've got a buyer. He pays me twice as much as it's worth, so --
Boyd: [Takes out a large revolver]
Cyril: Okay, okay. You and me, we go in together. 50/50.
Boyd: [Pulls the hammer back on the revolver]
Cyril: I'll drop this!
Boyd: I'll shoot you.
Cyril: This is -- the worth of this! This is a piece of the Parth -- do you know how much that's worth?! That's millions! I'm going to turn it into dust. I swear to God.
Boyd: You drop that, I shoot you. Then you don't get paid or breathe.
Cyril: Okay. [Gives Boyd the bag and runs]
Boyd: [Catches the bag, then turns and shoots Cyril in the leg]
Cyril: You shot me!
Boyd: Barely.

True Believer [1.05]

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Dominic: I don't like it.
DeWitt: Good. It's your job not to like it, Mr. Dominic. But Senator Boxbaum is more than just a valued client, he's a well placed asset. Denying his request would have a steeper downside than acquiescing.
Dominic: It's not the job. I'm confident Langton can handle the ATF. It's Echo. Her field response has been wildly erratic lately.
DeWitt: She's demonstrated a talent for adaptability, which is precisely what's required in this instance.
Dominic: They shouldn't be adaptable, they should be predictable. If Alpha didn't teach us that much?
DeWitt: You don't like Echo, do you Mr. Dominic?
Dominic: It's not that I don't like her. It's sometimes I worry you do.
DeWitt: Your objections have been noted. Thank you, Mr. Dominic.
Topher : The actual procedure isn't any more complicated than laser eye correction, it ain't brain surgery.
Dr. Saunders: Actually, it is brain surgery. We're going to be turning Echo into a human camera, and in order to do that, she's going to have to be made blind.
Topher : Not permanently. [Dr. Saunders shoots him a look] In theory.
DeWitt: So this is it?
Topher : Yes. The latest in CSEVP: Cortical Stimulation for Evocation of Visual Perception.
Dr. Saunders: Brain camera for the blind.
Topher : Or that.
Dr. Saunders: One good sneeze could bring on a seizure.
Topher : Or even worse, a sneezure.
Topher : Doctor?
Dr. Saunders: Topher?
Topher : Hello.
Dr. Saunders: Hello.
Topher : So listen. Here’s the thing. I was looking -- glancing -- I noticed… Victor.
Dr. Saunders: You noticed Victor.
Topher : Mm-hmm. In the shower, and he’s… naked.
Dr. Saunders: Victor’s naked in the shower.
Topher : Right. Anyway, he seemed to be having a kind of… man-reaction.
Dr. Saunders: A what?
Topher : A, you know, reaction that a man -- person might have in the… you know, the… naked part. Shower. Victor.
Dr. Saunders: Victor had an erection?
Topher : I prefer man-reaction.
Dr. Saunders: Why?
Echo: [as Esther] [Hits Jonas in the head with a candlestick, knocking him out] Go!
Seth: Esther!
Echo: [as Esther] What is wrong with you?! You people are dying!
Seth: [Runs to Jonas' side] What have you done?
Echo: [as Esther] Start taking these people out of here. He swore to protect them. If he won't, we have to! Seth, the blind girl is looking you in the eye. Do you know what that means? It means God brought me here. He has a message for you, and that message is move your ass!

Man On The Street [1.06]

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Victor: I did something bad.
Echo: What did you do?
Victor: Nobody will tell me.
DeWitt: Why didn't you tell us you were setting up Hearn?
Boyd: He had to be clear. He had to be flush with success or he'd never have tried again.
DeWitt: You will never take action like that on your own again inside these walls. Am I clear?
Boyd: You're clear.
DeWitt: A bonus has been wired to your account.
Boyd: I don't need a bonus.
DeWitt: Well I need to give it to you.
DeWitt: Can you imagine at all why it is that you're not dead?
Hearn: You've probably got something worse planned. Are you going to erase my brain, turn me into one of your fantasy boys?
DeWitt: I find it a bit sad that you think of yourself as a candidate for anyone's fantasy.
Hearn: You know you're sweet on me.
[Dominic punches him in the ear.]
Echo: The dollhouse is real. They know you're after them and they're going to have you taken off the case. That's why they sent me.
Paul: Why are you telling me this?
Echo: We have a person inside. This person corrupted the imprint while the programmer wasn't looking, added this parameter.
Paul: Is this the person that sent me the tapes and the picture?
Echo: No. This is their first communication. Security inside is very tight.
Paul: Where is it?
Echo: You can't know that. You're going about this the wrong way.
Paul: I have to take down the dollhouse!
Echo: There are over twenty dollhouses in cities around the world. They have ties to every major political power on the planet. You cannot possibly stop them alone.
Paul: You're going to help me?
Echo: The person that sent this message is.
Paul: Why?
Echo: The dollhouse deals in fantasy. That is their business, but that is not their purpose.
Paul: What is?
Echo: We need you to find out. We'll contact you again, if possible with the same body. But you have to let the dollhouse win, make them back off. You have to trust me.
Ballard: Tell me about the dollhouse.
Joel Mynor: The Dollh... Uh, it's pink, and it opens up, and there's teeny furniture, and you put the boy doll on top of the girl doll and we learn about urges.
Joel Mynor: She never got to see this house. So, every year on this date I pretend she does. I get to see that look on her face, and I get to show her our extraordinary home.
Paul: And then you sleep with her.
Joel Mynor: Well, it is a fantasy.
Paul: I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Mynor. But it doesn't make you anything other than a predator.
Joel Mynor: Well, I'm sure I'm in serious need of some moral spankitude, but guess who's not qualified to be my Rabbi?
Adele: There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is green.
Professor: Forget morality, imagine it's true, right. Imagine this technology being used. Now imagine it being used on you. Everything you believe, gone. Everyone you love, strangers, maybe enemies. Every part of you that makes you more than a walking cluster of neurons, Dissolved at someone else's whim. If that technology exists, It'll be used. It'll be abused. It'll be global. And we will be over. As a species we will cease to matter. I don't know. Maybe we should.

Echoes [1.07]

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DeWitt: Are you making any progress?
Topher: I'm working! What are you doing, besides ... being ...
DeWitt: Being what?
Topher: Wait a minute.
DeWitt: Sarcastic? Unfeeling? British?
Topher: It's an animal.
DeWitt: Where?
Topher: No! The word!
DeWitt: Still you have to admit I am very British. I don't say hard ... 'Rs'
Topher: You know what I like? Brown Sauce? What's it made of? Science doesn't know!
DeWitt: It's made of brown.
Topher: Brown...mined from the earth by the hard scrabble brown miners of north Brownderton!
DeWitt: Oh my god, I find lentils completely incomprehensible.
Topher: Our problems are huge and indomitable.
DeWitt: Ooh, I could eat that word. Or a crisp. Do you have any crisps?
Topher: You haven't seen my drawer of inappropriate starches?
Dominic: [drunkenly, with gun pointed at Victor] Hey, I'm fine!
Victor: All right. Easy, buddy.
Dominic: I know how to solve problems.
Victor: You bet.
Dominic: [his hold on the gun goes limp] Oh, man, this is so heavy. It makes my arms tired.

Needs [1.08]

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Dominic: I's easy to be attached to your assigned active. In fact it's necessary, but don't think of them as children; think of them as pets.
Dr. Saunders: Is that supposed to be funny?
Dominic: When your child Starts talking for the first time, you feel proud. When your dog does, you freak the hell out. Any Developmental progress an active makes is a threat to the house and a possible first step toward another Alpha.
Victor: [as Anthony] Who are you?
Echo: [as Caroline] Hey! I woke up in a five-star floor coffin just like you, buddy.
Attendant: Good morning. We're having banana pancakes today.
Tango: I like pancakes.
Victor: [as Anthony] We're all going to die.

Spy In The House Of Love [1.09]

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DeWitt: Everyone has their first date. And the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship, and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then, once you're married, it's about hiding your sins.
Topher: I found this in the chair.
Boyd: And?
Topher: This chip let someone access the primary imprint protocol, which means they could have altered my imprints. I make a cheerleader. They make a cheerleader that shoots people! Or an assassin that does cheers! Or any active, any time, with a parameter we don't know about.
Boyd: We have a spy.
Topher: Inside the dollhouse.
Boyd: You think it's me? You think I'm the spy?
Topher: Not in a bad way.
Boyd: They find out that you talked to me before you called DeWitt, they'll fry you.
Topher: Yeah. I didn't really think that through.
Echo: Everyone's unhappy today.
Topher : Somebody put her tiny little thinking cap on!
Echo: He was mean to you. Were you not your best?
Topher: If it hadn't been for me, there'd still be a security breach. You'd think the security head would recognize that! Typical middle management hack. He's mad at me for not discovering it before it happened, but I'm not a counter-intelligence agent, so I can't catch a spy. And you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Echo: I can help you.
Topher: Why would you want to?
Echo: Why wouldn't I?
Topher: Did I just lose an argument to a doll? Okay, thanks, but you can't help.
Echo: You make people different. [Sits in imprint chair] You can make me help.
Boyd: We're pimps and killers, but in a philanthropic way.
Echo: What's in store for you, you don't have much to smile about.
Dominic: After you beat me to a pulp they're going to erase me. But first they're going to erase you.
Echo: I can take care of myself.
Dominic: I know. That's why I'm smiling, because one day you'll be erasing them, and even after all this they still won't see it coming. Sooner or later, everybody gets theirs.
DeWitt: Congratulations, Mr. Langton.
Boyd: For what?
DeWitt: For becoming our new head of security.
Boyd: I appreciate the offer, but I'd prefer to stay with Echo. I need to take care of her.
DeWitt: Apparently you don't. It seems she's the one taking care of us.

Haunted [1.10]

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Boyd: So we can give you life after death?
Topher: Only if we really like you.
...
Boyd: Life after death. Where does that end?
Topher: Same place it begins. Death.
Mellie: If you say 'adorabubble', I'm leaving.
Paul: [chuckles] I wasn't going to, but I love the fact you thought it was the next logical word.
Echo: [as Margaret] This is... soooo... stunning! Really! Last thing I remember is coming here a month ago for that dreadful process of yours.
DeWitt: Well, if we'd spoken in the meantime, I'd've been able to tell you about the last three weeks of your life, but...
Echo: [as Margaret] Well, this way I don't have to remember dying.
DeWitt: Undoubtedly a plus.
Echo: [as Margaret] God, it's all a plus! More life! And this body! [almost feeling herself up] Nice work, Addie! I'm pointing to the sky! [they both laugh] A shame it's only a loaner.
DeWitt: That was always the deal.
Echo: [as Margaret] I swear I've never felt this good. Did being young feel this good?
DeWitt: I seem to recall it was rather nice. Wonder why we gave it up?
Echo: [as Margaret] Please! You're what, ten years younger than me?
DeWitt: And oddly fifteen years older. [firmly] Just remember -- it's temporary.
Echo: [as Margaret] Just a chance to indulge my curiosity. See my own funeral. Who wouldn't want that?
DeWitt: To hear what the world really thought of us? To count out the number who love us?
Echo: [as Margaret] Addie. Are you all right?
DeWitt: Well, let's see... my friend just died.
Echo: [as Margaret] [smiling] Come on. We've got a funeral to go to. Then, maybe, you can help me wrap this up.
DeWitt: Wrap this up... your life?
Echo: [as Margaret] Well. I thought maybe I'd solve my murder.
[Boyd walks into DeWitt's office and says...]
Boyd: Eternal life.
DeWitt: Nice adjective. Excellent noun. Is there more?
Boyd: Is that something we offer, now?
[looks around and hesitates as Adelle's secretary walks in with Adelle's morning tea, haltingly continuing]
Boyd: Because... If it is, thats... You realize...That's the beginning of the end. Life everlasting. It's.. it's the ultimate quest. Christianity, most religion, morality.... doesn't exist, without the fear of death.
DeWitt: I'm not planning on presiding over the end of Western Civilization. This is a one-time situation.
Boyd: You know that you're asking her to voluntarily die, when the time comes.
DeWitt: Well, if she resists I have a new head of security who handles that kind of thing.
Boyd: Mmmm. Yes, ma'am. [turns and begins to leave]
DeWitt: You can still help Echo, you know... Tell me your take on this.
Boyd: First instinct. Follow the money.
DeWitt: That's not easy.
Boyd: It is when the money runs. I've looked into the horses. One of them -- King's Ransom -- was a Derby contender not long ago.
DeWitt: So the husband stands to make a bundle.
Boyd: So does the buyer. I thought I'd send someone to look around the stables... A breeder, with a naturally curious streak....?
Boyd: One other thing, Miss DeWitt. Are you aware of this 'Topher' situation?
DeWitt: [smiles] Yessss. There's no need to address the issue with him. I allow him one of these "diagnostic" tests every now and again.
Boyd: Well, I guess Topher can make friends...
[as they continue talking in voiceover, we see Sierra bringing a Twinkie with birthday candles to Topher in his office]
DeWitt: Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And sometimes the people who most need to reach out are the people least capable of it. In any case, it only happens once a year.
DeWitt: Tell me you weren't tempted, even a little, to not come back here today.Just to disappear in this body.
Echo: [as Margaret] Maybe a little. But I've had my turn. And the people I love are moving on... besides.
DeWitt: Besides?
Echo: [as Margaret] I know you, Adelle. You're too much like me. [smiles] I wouldn't have gotten as far as the airport.
[long pause as the machine warms up]
Echo: [as Margaret] Addie?
DeWitt: Yes?
Echo: [as Margaret] Will I see my whole life flash before my eyes?
DeWitt: Every single moment...

Briar Rose [1.11]

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Stephen Kepler: [standing in front of several marijuana plants] Carrots! Medicinal carrots! Personal use medicinal carrots that were here when I moved in and I'm holding it for a friend!
Stephen Kepler: [after watching Ballard stun Topher] What the hell was that?! Was that some kind of joy buzzer stun gun? I mean, officially I deplore violence, but that was totally worth the loss of karma points!
Stephen Kepler: Would you look at this place? I mean, first of all feng shui up the yin yang, also I designed parts of it but I did not design the stone cold foxes in the small clothes and the ample massage facilities. I mean, don't get me wrong, I heart my porn, but this is cool!
Paul: This is a bad place.
Stephen Kepler: Bad people, maybe. Good place.
Stephen Kepler: The stairs lack risers!
Paul: What?
Stephen Kepler: The vertical part that makes the back of each stair is called a riser.
Paul: I know what they are!
Stephen Kepler: No, no, wait! Please. Sometimes when I go on stairs that don't have risers I get this feeling, this awful sensation, that something's going reach out and grab my ankle, like a claw or a tentacle!
Paul: This is life or death!
Stephen Kepler: It could be a hand! An ordinary hand!
Echo: Oh, I know you.
Alpha: Of course you do. [passionate kiss] I told you I'd come rescue you.
Echo: My prince.

Omega [1.12]

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Echo: You think we're gods?
Alpha: We're not just humans anymore. We're not multiple personalities. We're many personalities. Uh... one of my personalities happens to be a multiple personality, but that doesn't make me a multiple personality. I'm looking for a little nuance here.
Echo: We're not gods.
Alpha: Fine, Übermensch. Nietzsche predicted our rise. Perfected. Objective. Something new.
Echo: Right. New, superior people. With a little German thrown in. What could possibly go wrong?
Echo: My brain hurts.
Caroline: How do you think I- Hey! That is my brain! Give me back my brain! I want back in my brain!
Echo: What is this thing? What are we going to do to her?
Alpha: Everything, nothing, but not to her. She won't be her. We won't be needing this, will we, honey? Wendy is going away. She won't be here in minute.
Echo: Wait, so it's like, a magic trick? We're gonna make her disappear?
Alpha: We're going to put her in a wedge. We're gonna wedge her.
Echo: I don't get it.
Alpha: Of course you don't! [pause] The mind that you have been given is so primitive that it is amazing you can perform basic motor functions or form words.
Caroline: You have to put me back, you have to put be back in that wedge. Because we need to get... [picks up a nametag] Wendy back in her body.
Echo: Why do you have to go back in the wedge? Why don't you come home?
Caroline: I did sign a contract.
Echo: I have thirty-eight brains. Not one of them thinks you can sign a contract to be a slave. Especially now that we have a black President.
Caroline: [surprised] We have a black president? OK, I am missing everything.
Paul: So this is it. This is where you steal their souls.
Topher: Yeah, and then we put them in a glass jar next to our fireflies. Why is there a tall, morally judgmental man in my imprint room besides him? [points to Boyd]
Whiskey/ Dr Saunders: But why did you decide it was so important for me to hate you? I think that's strange.

Epitaph One [1.13]

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Topher: If I think I can figure things out, is that curiosity or arrogance?
Topher: An entire army... in an instant... just from a phone call... that is genius! Why didn't I think of that... [to DeWitt] Did I think of that?... Oh God...
Mag: You wanna be the one to tell the little girl we gotta plug her dad?
Zone: Sure. Hey, kid, guess what?
Griff: Stop it.
Iris: [as Caroline] Great, puberty all over again.
Zone: [to Whiskey] Let's blow this bitch back to the Bush years.

Season 2

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Vows [2.01]

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Echo: I remember everything. Sometimes I'm someone else and then I come back, but I still feel them. All of them. I've been many people. I can hear them, sometimes suddenly. I'm all of them, but none of them is me. Do you know who's real?
Ballard: Caroline
Echo: I want to find her. I want to find all of them. Real them. They can be found. We are lost, but we are not gone.
Klar: Well, it's Paul Ballard. Special agent in charge of bugger-all.
Whiskey: What if she went over your head?
Langton: I'm very tall.

Instinct [2.02]

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Topher: Perhaps triggering lactation was a bridge too far.
Echo: All of these things that happen to me, I feel them.
Ballard: I know, Echo. I know you remember everything.
Echo: Not remember - feel. I was married. I felt love, and pain, fear. It's not pretend for me. They made me love my little boy and then they took him away. They make it so real. Every time, they make it so real. Why do they do that?
...
Ballard: If you want, I'll tell Topher what's going on with you and he can fix it. He'll come up with a way to wipe you and you won't remember a thing. You won't have to feel sad anymore.
Echo: Feeling nothing would be worse. It would be like before - asleep. I'm awake now. I don't want to go back to sleep.

Belle Chose [2.03]

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Adele: Good news on the coma front?
Topher: Uuuhhhhhhh... yeah. Good news is that he's in a coma.
Adele: I beg your pardon?
Boyd: Just show her what you showed me.
Topher: [Shows Adelle a brain scan] This is a brain. A healthy brain. Frankly an... overly smart brain... it's my brain. And this is Terry Karrens' brain. [Shows Adelle another brain scan] See these dark areas? How they extend all the way out to here? You know why that looks like that? That's because Terry Karrens doesn't use that part of his brain. And that'd be where you find stored such things as empathy, compassion... an aversion to disemboweling puppies. Basically, this is what some of your more famous serial killers' brains look like.
Adele: You're quite certain of this?
Topher: Certain enough that I have serious ethical problems trying to wake him up.
Boyd: Topher has ethical problems. Topher.
Topher: Heh. Way to land it.
Franklin: [points at Ballard] You're new. [looks at Echo and smiles] And, of course, you're always new.
[Echo looks confused]
Franklin: [to Ballard] And who are we today?
Ballard: ...She's Kiki.
Franklin: Of course she is.
Echo: [as Kiki] Who's gonna pay for this?
Franklin: [chuckles] Isn't that cute. On la casa.
Echo: [as Kiki] Free?!?
Franklin: Oui, oui.
Echo: [as Kiki] Did I win a prize?
Franklin: You are a prize.
[Echo squeals girlishly and follows the attendant to get her new wardrobe]
[Ballard is told to go sit and wait for Echo to get her new outfit. He sits next to another Dollhouse agent who is reading a magazine]
Dollhouse Agent: I won't even do this for my wife.
Ballard: I was trained at Quantico.
Boyd: I'll cover your engagement, you're staying here.
Ballard: Why?
Boyd: Turns out we have a sudden need for an FBI profiler. I suggested you.
Ballard: For what?
Boyd: To interrogate a possible serial killer.
Ballard: Serial killer. [looks at Echo, who has come out in a short skirt, knee socks, a bright pink tank top, and pigtails] ...Thank God. [rushes out]
Echo:[as Kiki] Okay, so I probably never should have taken this course to begin with, but I figured it was mid-evil lit, not advanced-evil - how hard could it be? So, I skipped 'Intro to Evil' or whatever. But how is it I get an 'F' when this guy that we're reading, Chauncy, can't even spell?
Topher: Victor's loose, doesn't have GPS and apparently he's a serial killer.

Belonging [2.04]

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Topher: Do you know where you are?
Priya: I'm in hell.
Topher: You're in Los Angeles. I can understand the mixup.
Priya: That's him. What's his name?
Topher: Victor.
Priya: I love him. Is that real?
Topher: Yes. Yes, it's real. He loves you back.
Topher: [to Adelle] Aren't we supposed to care for these people? Doctor Saunders would never have allowed-!
Adelle: [While drunk] Which Doctor Saunders would that be? The avuncular physician so brutally cut down not five feet from where you were standing? Or the last woman to whom you gave a permanent imprint - the other wounded flower you restored by offering her a new life - who apparently found you so unbearable she had to flee the city. Is it that one?
Adelle: [to Topher] 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 had no morals. You have always thought of people as playthings. This is not a judgment. You’ve always taken very good care of your toys, but you’re simply going to have to let this one go.
Adelle: I would no sooner allow you near one of our other Actives as I would a mad dog near a child, given that you're a raping scumbag one tick shy of a murderer. I can't recall do you take sugar?

The Public Eye [2.05]

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Echo: You just woke up a lot of people. And they all think you're a bitch.
Senator Daniel Perrin: Stop I love her!
Echo: I know. [Punches Perrin] Luckily I don't have that problem.
Senator Daniel Perrin: At those hearings, you will hear a most innocent word. A word that will take on a new and grim meaning. A word that will become synomous with human trafficking, prostitution and unconscionable abuse of Neural Technology. Directly traceable back to the Rossum Corporation. That word is "Dollhouse."
DeWitt: Once a Sleeper Active's protocol has been triggered, the thing you're facing will neither be reasoned with, or stopped.
Bennett: Keep you mind on your work, please. The moment you start wondering about the people upstairs, they'll start wondering about you. That is nothing you want.

The Left Hand [2.06]

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Bennett: What's interesting to me is that - you don't call out to God. It isn't a question of faith, it's just the venacular. Anyone in this much pain prays, or at least curses. But we take God from you too. You really are a shell.
Bennett: No, no, you're very pale. White. Pinkish-white. I mean, your skin. Your skin is like a pig.
Topher: Okay, so we have had an active, Whiskey. She was rendered unengageable. So we - *I* made her into a doctor. Uh - and you - so I thought maybe - similar - Bennet - the real Bennett would use an active to...
Bennett: You thought... That's idiotic. Actives are beautiful.
Topher: Yeah.
Echo: We haven't escaped. They're coming. They always come. Because of this [Touches the back of Perrin's Neck]
Senator Daniel Perrin: What is that?
Echo: It's how they find us.
Senator Daniel Perrin: GPS tag?
Echo: We have to cut.

Meet Jane Doe [2.07]

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DeWitt: It feels like ages ago that we actually weighed a request against an active's chance at survival. Let alone well being.
Langton: We've always put them at risk. We just don't lie to ourselves about it now.
DeWitt: You sound like Harding.
Topher: Well I punched her in the kisser - not what I was intending to do there, by the way - and knocked her out cold, which she might have been impressed by if she hadn't been out cold.
Topher: I think they're trying to build a portable device that would be able to imprint anyone without any active architecture in place. Any innocent on the street with a new personality.
DeWitt: That's unnerving.
Topher: What's unnerving is - I figured out how to do it.
Topher: You are the coldest bitch on the planet!
DeWitt: That is the last time you will ever speak to me like that, or at all unless spoken to. You're off R&D and back on programming. You will imprint these dolls with dedication and precision. And you will follow every single one of my commands as if they were your hearts deepest desire.
Topher: And what happens if I don't?
DeWitt: I would hope that, as some who does care for you, that you will never find that out. I rule this house! I won't let *anyone* challenge that, ever again!

A Love Supreme [2.08]

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DeWitt: One wonders how she managed. Out there. Alone. The odds of an active in an infantile state surviving outside the Dollhouse unprotected. I suppose we must take into account the fact that Echo is special.
Ballard: You're punishing her for surviving. It's complete lunacy!
Topher: I am obsolete. This must be what old people feel like, and Blockbuster.
Langton: Alpha do not do this. There's a part of you that knows this is wrong.
Alpha: There are many parts of me that know this is wrong. None of them care. And six... they just find it funny.
Alpha: You're in for a ride. You're not going to get loose. One of my imprints was an Eagle Scout, another one was a sailor. There's a dirty joke in there somewhere.
Alpha: For months you shared the same room. You never slept with her. You could have, but you didn't. If that's not love - Are you gay?
Ballard: No.
Alpha: Then it's love. DeWitt thought so too.

Stop-Loss [2.09]

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Echo: Everything's slipping away from me. Before it was memories. But I figured out how to hold on to them. And now that I have something real - people I care about - they're slipping away from me too.
Topher: What did I just tell you?
Victor: 5 years would seem like... 5 seconds.
Topher: Welcome to the future, where cars fly, robots serve our every whim, and genetically engineered dinosaurs rule the Earth.
Ivy: It's pretty much the same as when you left.
Victor: The war - is it...?
Topher: Still going.
DeWitt: Do you think anything goes on in my house wihout my knowledge?
Echo: I don't know. It seems like a lot went down without you knowing.
DeWitt: Yes. While I'm not surprised that Paul... and Boyd managed to keep your secret. But *Topher*? He can barely keep his belch to himself.

The Attic [2.10]

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Langton: What do we know about the attic?
Topher: No one comes back, Boyd.
Langton: But why? What do they do to them in there?
Topher: I don't know: experimenting, torture. They're testing the limits of the human mind. The brain is kept in a fear induced adrenaline fueled overdrive state like a problem you can't solve. Either the nightmare lasts forever or...
Langton: Or it doesn't last at all.
Nolan: You know, this is a scenario I've never tried. Rigor mortis - the new Viagra.
Topher: I've done nothing wrong. Apart from the things that got you your job back.
DeWitt: You gave us extraordinary technology which will be used soon. The question is whether you have anything more to offer. Whether you can accept radical change, or buckle under pressure.
Topher: I don't buckle. Occasionally, I swashbuckle.
DeWitt: Yes, you're quite the pirate hero. Swinging in and dismembering Nolan Kinnard. If you try and keep secrets from the corporation, you may have every expectation of being chopped into pieces yourself. How do you imagine that would feel?
DeWitt: You didn't come to the Dollhouse because of Echo. You came because you work for Rossum. That means your option tend to slim to three: carry out Rossum's work without question, the attic or death. The moment you stepped into this house, you, in effect. gave us your life. And you must decide if that is to be put to good use, or laid to waste. I have seen the future, Mr. Langton. And it is not for the weak.

Getting Closer [2.11]

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Echo: She could kill you with her brain.
Adelle DeWitt: Caroline Farrel left quite a trail of unhappiness in her wake, and not a few bodies.
Echo: Are you saying she's evil?
DeWitt: Worse. An idealist. I shouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out her wedge had got up and walked out on its own.
Topher: Then maybe we could work on the one memory I'd like to erase. Bennett... I'm so sorry I hit you. I didn't want to. God, how I didn't want to.
Bennett: Well, I was trying to kill your Active at the time.
Topher: Eh. You had your reasons. Still... that face. Slugging it. Not my first instinct.
Bennett: Oh, I didn't think it was.
Topher: Some form of contact, but not...
Bennett: [They go in closer to almost kiss but then] Who's on that wedge?
Topher: Huh?
Bennett: Who are you trying to resurrect?
Topher: Uh... This person.[Chuckles] It's stupid. Does it... Does it matter?
Bennett: It might.
Topher: It's not like it's Stalin or somebody.
Bennett: I didn't suppose that it would be a historical figure. Who is it?
Topher: Ivy's right, we actually don't know what dumping Caroline into Echo's brain will do. Your original self comes home to find the house party that's going on inside your head. She might fight back.
Echo: She'd lose.
DeWitt: All right, pull Caroline from the Vault. Put Echo in the chair.

The Hollow Men [2.12]

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Topher: I did all of this. I'm the one who brings about the thought-pocalypse.
DeWitt: Thought-pocalypse?
Topher: Is brain-pocalypse better? I figure, if I'm responsible for the end of the world, I get to name it.
DeWitt: I gave the plans to Harding, I'm just as culpable.
Topher: Thanks Adelle. You handed someone a piece of paper. I invented it. Which means I have to destroy it.
Langton: We like to keep the medical records of everyone who crosses our path, especially the interesting ones. Caroline you are *definitely* interesting, at least on a microscopic level.
Langton: The wedge must have been damaged.
Topher: No! Bennett fixed the wedge. She *died* fixing it!
DeWitt: Then maybe Echo and Caroline aren't getting along.
Langton: Topher think!
Topher: That's what got us here in the first place. I'm going for mindless destruction now!
Topher: I'm the Tin Man, she's the Lion, and you're the head of the Lollipop Guild who's a traitor.

Epitaph Two: Return [2.13]

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Alpha: Because we're not freak shows. Well, okay, maybe I am, and Echo. Topher's a little off, but Adelle, she's a class act all the way.
Topher Brink: I'm so close, so close to solving both problems. They would have no idea.
Echo: Close to what? Wiping everyong?
Topher Brink: The opposite. A reflection like an echo. Put everything back the way they were. Minds back the way they were... I can bring back the world.
Paul Ballard: The point is Topher thinks he can flip it. Create a pulse to restore all the wiped minds.
Zone: Yeah? He also thinks he's a little teapot short and stout.
Adelle DeWitt: [Rising] Topher Brinks is a genius! And you will keep a civil tongue in this house or we'll put your tongue in a stew.
Caroline Farrell: Good to see you've mellowed.
Echo: [Realizing there are Actives in the Dollhouse] Aw Hell!
Alpha: Nope. You have to keep digging if that's where you want to end up.
DeWitt: Explosion?
Topher: It does the work for you.
DeWitt: You said it could only be activated manually... You're not coming back.
Topher: Small price to pay... I didn't want to cause any more pain.

Quotes about Dollhouse

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  • Fox forgot to cancel my show... Very awkward. They looked and said, 'Oh, this is our bad. We forgot to cancel your show. You're going to have to make more.'
    • Creator Joss Whedon, discussing Dollhouse coming back for a second season. [1]
  • And they wanted a show, a first episode that absolutely laid out the structure of the show, which is - Echo is at the Dollhouse, she is imprinted for an engagement, she goes on the engagement, she comes back from the engagement into the Dollhouse. This is how it works.
  • Well, you know, there was sort of this celebration of human perversion. It was kind of part of it because ultimately some of their engagements are sexual in nature. That's been very much downplayed because it makes some people uncomfortable. My mandate was to make some people uncomfortable - unfortunately some of those people run the network.
  • I always hold to the premise that the first six episodes are the first six pilots.

Cast

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