Previously: MELLIE. MELLIE IS A DOLL.
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Echoes
Marines: Seven episodes until we got a episode named something Echo-ish. That’s some self-restraint.
Sweeney: I only give them partial credit, since they named the girl with all the glitchy remembering stuff issues ECHO. Half points.
Mari: We’re nothing if not fair.
We flashback to Caroline and Adelle, making the deal we first saw in Ghost. All Caroline wants is to be left alone, but Adelle says they are past that. Caroline figured, what with the Stalker Van and being held in a room for two days. Adelle’s offer is Caroline’s life for Caroline’s life. Five years of it to Adelle and the rest for herself. Caroline asks if Adelle is speaking for herself or for the Rossum Corporation. Adelle insists that this is a good thing. Caroline knows what she saw and asks what started all this. Adelle pours her some water from a tea kettle and Caroline looks at it like Adelle just slid over an extra challenging Soduku puzzle. Nice acting choice there, Eliza.
Anyway, Adelle finishes this flashback by telling us that nothing is what it seems to be.
Lab. Two students walk in (one of them being Mehcad Brooks) (S: EGGS from True Blood. He was the worst.) and their conversation trails off as they see a man named Owen, sitting on the floor naked except for his socks and undies. Owen has a jar of flies in his hand. He opens it and gets really excited about the flies being free. When the girl touches Owen’s shoulder he looks at her seriously and says gravity is not the equation. He runs over to the window and slams his head against it. Mehcad Brooks tries to stop him, but Owen pushes him back and keeps slamming his head against the window. The girl and Mehcad Brooks melt into uncontrollable laughter as Owen keeps head-windowing. The shot pulls to the outside as the window cracks, pans back so we see they building is called the Rossum Building and pulls back again as Owen falls out of the shot.
Sweeney: This was awful. Definitely impressed that you actually watched the whole scene to recap because I had to look away.
Mari: Snark sacrifices.
Adelle’s office. A man is showing Adelle a vial of yellow liquid, telling her it’s one of two vials of a very promising memory drug. The other vial is missing. He doesn’t just need one active on this mission, he needs an army. Adelle has already arranged for it. Topher comes in babbling about a mistake with Foxtrot speaking Mandarin instead of Cantonese. Adelle motions to their client and Topher shuts up. He recognizes the man as Clive Ambrose, co-chairman of the Rossum Corporation, third richest man in the country and nominated for the Nobel Prize.
Stephanie: Thanks for helpfully listing all of Ambrose’s achievements for us, Topher. People on television always do this, but imagine how weird it would be IRL? “Wow… Marines! Fantastic writer of The Best Blogs, nail polish wearing Floridian, HR professional and best friend of Sweeney. Incredible to meet you!”
Mari: Well now, I never expect you to greet me any other way.
Topher figures that his presence means something very bad has happened. Clive explains that one of their premiere students at Freemont College, Owen Johnson, ingested a psychotropic modification of a phenethylamine compound, one of the memory drugs Rossum’s got in research. Clive shows us the vial again, to make sure we are putting all these science-y pieces together.
The drug, N-7316, breaks down natural inhibitions in order to awaken sleeping parts of the brain. They are still in the experimental stage, but as it stands, phase one is of the drug manifests like a recreational narcotic, complete with giddiness and light hallucinations. “Munchies,” Topher offers. I can’t not:
Stephanie: Appropriate.
Mari: Anyhow, stage two of the drug manifests as a complete loss of impulse control. Topher says it could be phases or it could be about body chemistry. He tangents off again, this time about how everyone reacts differently to drugs and that’s what’s exciting about them. Adelle gives him a look and Topher adds that he means all that in a purely scientific manner.
Adelle redirects the conversation and asks how the drug was released into the campus population. They don’t know, but one vial is enough to take out an entire student body. They don’t have an antidote and are hoping Topher can work on one. In the meanwhile, a team of Actives will secure the campus. Topher deduces that the Actives would be immune to the drug. Because he’s there, but the audience still needs the exposition, Clive asks how the genius who he’s counting on to prepare an antidote could possibly know that! Easy, Mr. Clive. As you explained earlier, N-7316 attacks the inhibitors in the hippocampus to break down the repressed memory blocks, but Actives don’t have any.
Clive asks if Topher can help and he nervously chuckles that he can’t hurt. Adelle takes Topher aside and tells him to start with the imprints for the actives. Topher confirms that Echo is on an engagement (“old client, new fantasy“) and Adelle tells him to leave her there. Echo can sit this one out. But probably not, guys, because this episode is titled, “Echoes.”
Matt, who we also met in Ghost (he of the birthday party and symbolic necklaces) is leading Echo to a motorcycle. I have no idea what she’s wearing. I mean, I do. We see this outfit (or at least these thigh high lace socks) in the opening credits, but they are confounding. (S: But she’s in a skirt this time, which is an improvement over the last time we saw her with Matt and her pants disappeared.) Alice!Echo is not so sure about getting on the bike but Matt tells her she’s going to try a whole lot of new things that day. She squeals.
Sweeney: The show opened with that first Echo showing him up on the bike, so there’s something extra squicky about the fact that his new fantasy is to take her back down to nothing so he can show her how it’s done. A bonus serving of squick with your sex slave main course.
Mari: Paul’s Apartment. He’s making breakfast for Mellie who wanders in and wants to talk to him. They got impulsive and then she almost got murdered in his apartment so he must feel an obligation toward her. Paul interrupts to protest, but Mellie stops him. It’s not that she thinks he doesn’t like her, but they don’t fast-forward to the honeymoon because she almost got murdered. She calls that “having a bad day,” so she and I have very different standards for what makes a “bad day.”
Paul says he likes taking care of Mellie and she’s glad he does because she made a lot of freakin’ lasagna to get to this point. But also, she’s stronger than he knows. Paul thinks she proved that, but she says killing the Russian thug was luck, because he had two left feet. In an awkward segue, Paul wishes the guy really did have two left feet, because it would’ve been easier to identify his body. Mellie thought they did ID him (Russian Thug #1) but Paul is convinced it’s a fake name. He took his own set of prints and this is all making Mellie uncomfortable. She wanted him to investigate the Dollhouse, right up until she almost got her face murdered off. She asks him to drop it and let someone else handle it. He can’t say he will so Mellie leaves.
Freemont College. Stalker Vans pull up with a bunch of people. Victor seems to be in charge. Dominic introduces him to “Dr. Gawa” (Sierra) from the Center of Disease Control. Dominic gives a few instructions, but Tom!Victor pulls rank; he’s with the NSA. Under his breath, Dominic is all, “TOPHER.” I love Topher best so far when he’s messing with Dominic.
Stephanie: ME TOO. I find it difficult to dislike Topher, even with his questionable ethics, but annoying Dominic makes him even better.
Sweeney: In the first or second episode they gave him a few lines that highlighted a little too well where he sat on the questionable ethics and in those moments I found it a little easier to dislike him. I don’t know if there’s actually been less of that or if I’ve just been won over by his charms, but I now share this sentiment in its entirety. More annoying Dominic, please!
Mari: We cut to Echo’s engagement. She’s got Matt tied up and she’s very unsure of all this. Alice!Echo starts messing with the video camera, but she presses a wrong button and loses picture. Another wrong button turns the TV on and what do you know? News coverage of Freemont is what’s on. Alice!Echo sits to watch the news and a shot of the Rossum Building sends her into a flashback, brought to you by the Willow filter on Instagram. (S: LOL) It’s a brief shot of the lab, a man, and perhaps some animals in a cage. Alice!Echo says she has to go. She has to help him. Matt laughs because he thinks she’s joking. He’s not laughing when he realizes she’s not.
LA-LA-LA-LA-LA.
After the credits, we jump back to “a few years ago.” Caroline is in bed with a man and says she wants to go to that “thing up north” that night. Special Man laughs that they don’t have to go to every anti-war demonstration in the state. Caroline says they do and then they kiss because they love each other so.
Present day. Mellie is in her doll state (November). She sits in the imprinting chair as Topher explains that he’s going to give her a shot. She just needs to remain very still and think about rainbows. We watch as he injects her with some of the N-7316. Adelle is standing just outside and it sounds like a very bad Topher-dub that reminds us that November is immune but she might help him find an antidote. While Topher monitors the progress of the drug in Mellie’s system, Adelle gives us more exposition about how the Rossum Corporation is the reason they exist and she truly believes in the work they are funding. She also says they only reason she doesn’t have Clive Ambrose’s job is because he couldn’t handle hers. Topher is delighted that she’s sharing. He makes a stop-it-you’re-on-TV comment along the lines of, “if nothing else goes wrong, I’ll totally solve this problem easily!”
Cut to Alice!Echo arriving at Freemont on Matt’s motorcycle, with her crazy socks. Tom!Victor and two of his men see her and asks if she’s lost. Alice!Echo is confused. She can’t say if she’s lost or if she goes to Freemont. Parts of it seem familiar. Victor is all, “mmmhmm. This one is crazy,” and asks Echo to follow him.
Boyd tracked Echo to Freemont and calls it into Adelle, who is all, “well, shit.” She tells Boyd that there is a major engagement going on there that Echo can’t interfere with. Meanwhile, things seem to be going well for Topher with Mellie:
Echo has been led to a frat house where they are keeping the infected. Dr. Sierra prepares to sedate Echo, but she has another brief flash of Rossum and pulls her arm away. Mehcad Brooks is sitting next to Echo. Dr. Sierra is distracted by another patient. Echo says she isn’t supposed to be there. She has to save some “him” she can’t identify. She has to get into the Rossum building. This peaks Mehcad Brooks’s interest because he thinks Rossum is behind whatever is happening. Echo repeats that she has to get into the lab, and she’s confident she can, if she just listens to herself.
This whole scene made me wonder about how Matt chose to imprint Alice. Or if we’re seeing more Echo than Alice here. Or if this is just something bumbled by Eliza Dushku. I get that Alice is confused, but she also seems to be using short sentences and generally behaving like a child.
Stephanie: I was thinking the same thing. Eliza Dushku is using the same acting style she uses for Echo. I’m not sure if it’s entirely intentional because her behavior was also very strange when she was playing Tie Me Up with Matt, way before she even got on campus. Whatever she’s aiming for, it’s not coming across.
Sweeney: Not that I’m rushing to defend Eliza’s acting, but in the earlier Matt/Alice scene, she definitely didn’t come across as being particularly bright. Alice seems to be, at best, incredibly naive. It doesn’t seem that far off that she’d be remarkably similar to doll!Echo.
Mari: But there should be a difference between a regular naive girl and person completely stripped of their personality, I think. Again, it goes mostly back to wondering just what the heck Matt asked for.
Anyway, Mehcad Brooks introduces himself as Sam and says he’ll help Echo get into the lab. He wants to find evidence that Rossum is to blame and get them sent to jail. Victor is bringing in No Eye Mansion Party For You girl and her freak-out provides the perfect distraction to walk past 10 people who probably should’ve still seen them leaving. But okay.
Sam leads Echo out of sight but they are cut off by Boyd who sternly asks if Echo would like a treatment. She says no and runs off with Sam. Boyd looks so confused and after a second he says to himself that he didn’t maintain control of that situation. He laughs us into a not commercial break.
Sweeney: This was just great. I don’t have anything to add, I just wanted to note how delightful this bit was.
Mari: Past. Caroline and Special Man are having dinner with another couple. Caroline passes around an ad for the Rossum Company and tells her friends about how evil they are. They test on animals and Caroline has a plan to break into the lab and film the animals in their cages. Then, they’ll post it online. She’s still working out the “how to get into the lab” portion of the plan. She can’t ask her friends to join, but this is something she has to do. Special Man is so proud of Caroline.
Sweeney: This scene was a lot less great. Every other line was dripping with, “They test on ANIMALS. And maybe other stuff.” We get it – they went after Rossum knowing only the tiniest fraction of the evil. Thank you for the subtlety, show.
Mari: Rossum Building Lab. The dolls are hard at work and Dominic is bored and bitter. Tom!Victor tells Dominic that the 14 subjects exhibiting erratic behavior are contained. Dominic is playing with his gun and starts laughing. Victor suggests going over to containment and Dominic backs away, holding his gun up. But that only lasts a moment.
Stephanie: Dominic is the worst forever, but Reed Diamond is pretty fabulous here.
Sweeney: Yes! It’s so fun watching all of these incredibly talented actors switch from the stern, serious stuff we’ve seen to all this drugged out absurdity. SOMEONE in the cast should have been taking notes.
Mari: Ahem.
Victor relieves Dominic of his heavy gun and Dominic is lead away. Victor calls Adelle and lets her know about Dominic. After the call, Adelle tells Topher that the drug isn’t being sold on campus– it’s spreading. Topher says it’s probably spreading through TOUCH and then touches Adelle to illustrate what “touch” means, in case we forgot. It’ll spread more slowly that way, but soon the campus will be fully infected. Adelle hurries Topher’s work along and he says he’s on it! “What are you doing besides being…” Adelle tries to help him find the word. “Sarcastic? Unfeeling? British?” Topher says no! Not any of those things! Adelle says that he does have to admit that she is very British. “I don’t say hard r’s.”
This crazy talk goes on. I just want to quote this entire scene. (S: There’s a wonderful moment when Adelle says, “I find lentils completely incomprehensible,” as she looks at her hands, totally baffled. The face acting and weird mannerisms are just as amazing as the nonsense dialogue.) (S: YES! MORE AMAZING ACTING!) Adelle wonders what Echo is doing at Freemont and Topher says that has nothing to do with the drug, meaning their “problems are huge and indomitable.” Adelle says she could eat that word or, you know, some crisps. Thankfully, Topher has a drawer of inappropriate starches. But are starches ever really inappropriate, Topher?
Sam takes Alice!Echo back to his dorm to change. He also grabs a map and shows her where the Rossum building is. He warns that she might not find this “him” she’s looking for. Echo says Sam might not find the evidence he’s looking for, but that isn’t stopping him. And them we get some awkward dialogue about how Sam’s a mama’s boy. Maybe that’ll be important later. Anyway, Alice knows that underneath is the way in and they have to find Lily Foundry.
Topher is on a call, explaining that the contagion is spread by touch and it’s imperative to get any Rossum operatives (non-Dolls) back to HQ immediately. Adelle is jumping on a trampoline in the background. Topher says that the dolls– he catches his mistake– he means, NSA, CDC folk are safe because… the government… does stuff. Adelle awkwardly climbs over the railing to where Topher is. He isn’t wearing any pants. Topher hangs up with Victor because he has another call.
It’s Boyd. Topher asks if he found Echo. Adelle steals the phone away and repeats the question. Boyd says it’s okay because he worked it out. He sets the phone on top of a piano and begins to play. Adelle puts the phone on speaker and she and Topher listen to the music gleefully. I did a super brief search to see if Harry Lennix is a piano player; all I found is that he once taught music in the Chicago public school system.
Stephanie: My search led me to a very dark video of him singing and playing piano. So let’s say yes to pianist.
Sweeney: If it’s made it to YouTube then it’s totally legit.
Mari: Echo and Sam are looking for Lily Foundry. A professor recognizes Caroline and stops her. She’s also infected, though, so when Echo doesn’t recognize her, she just laughs.
Dollhouse. Adelle and Topher are surrounded by very appropriate starches.
Adelle says Echo went to Freemont to let Caroline punish her. November, who was probably just sitting there thinking about rainbows for a really long time, asks, “are you ever going to shut up about her?” She’s crying beautiful tears. “Is she what you think about when you’re on me?” Topher and Adelle both look shocked, a little embarrassed, and Mellie!November sobs on. Topher clarifies for Adelle that November isn’t tripping, she’s glitching. She’s remembering. Suddenly, November stops crying and stands. She flashes back to Hearn attacking her in Paul’s apartment. We hear Adelle’s voice activating her and in the present she repeats the line, “there are three flowers in a vase.” Ruh-roh!
Sweeney: A ruh-roh without much sympathy. If Adelle gets her face murdered off by her unthinking programmed assassin, it would be a major case of THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS.
Mari: Flashback! Caroline obtained blueprints for the college. She’s found some utility tunnels that lead up into a conveniently empty room, good for storage, um, air circulation and definitely breaking and enterings. Special Man gets suddenly hesitant because everything just got a little more serious. Rossum is a powerful corporation and he doesn’t think Caroline should piss them off. Caroline doesn’t care.
Present. Alice!Echo knows that they are near the entrance to the building. Sam steps on a drain and hey, what do you know? It’s stamped, “Lily Foundry.” We cut to them in the utility tunnel. They are really beating us over the head with how this Alice character remembers, but doesn’t really remember, and how can that be?? They find the ladder that goes up into the Rossum Building. Echo wonders if they have to fight, because she can’t even make a fist. Yeah. That whole spiel was cuter on Tara, Whedon.
Sam and Echo prepare to sneak past the guard. Sam goes first and while Echo waits, Dominic finds her. He hugs her and apologizes for trying to kill her. Alice!Echo says it’s okay, but he insists it isn’t. Sam comes back to grab Echo and they back away slowly. The guard Sam and Echo sneak past is also infected and fires his gun. Victor disarms him and then tells everyone with a firearm to turn it in.
And then, Sierra starts remembering. She flashes back to Hearn trying to rape her. Victor is next and in his flashback he’s dressed as a soldier. He’s trying to get a woman to come with him, but she won’t move. In the present, Victor grabs Sierra like he did the woman in his flashback. As he does, Sierra remembers Hearn on top of her. It’s heartbreaking. In Victor’s flashback, he’s blown back by an explosion. In the present, he falls back away from Sierra. Dominic is still tripping, stroking his arm like a kitten.
Stephanie: I don’t know if I’m supposed to cry or laugh during this scene. Everything about Sierra’s story is upsetting, but at the same time, Dominic is cracking me up. I’m very confused.
Mari: Dollhouse. Adelle and Topher are hiding. November is quiet so Topher sends Adelle to check if it’s safe yet. Adelle looks up, over the railing again, and finds Mellie!November crying on the floor, saying, “he dumped the stock.” Adelle and Topher climb over the railing and get November back into the imprinting chair. Topher explains that the drug is hitting the Dolls more slowly and in a different way. It’s breaking down and zipping right past their man-made memory blocks. The good news, though, is that the drug is breaking down and should be gone in a couple of hours. The bad news is that Owen died because he was exposed to way more than he could absorb. Way more than he would’ve taken. It was a murder.
Lab. Sam and Echo have made it and Sam gets straight to work, putting on gloves and retrieving a vial. In case we haven’t picked up on Sam’s shady behavior and the fact that he knew way too much about sneaking into this lab, he says, “right where I left it,” to no one but himself. He hid the second vial of N-7316. He douses a rag with some of the drug presses it against Echo’s face.
Past. Caroline and Special Man make it into the lab. It is indeed full of sad animals in cages. Plus, dead babies in jars. (S: And that would be my cue to LEAVE. They really don’t seem as disturbed by jar babies as they should be.) Special Man is filming, but he’s distracted by something he sees on a computer. He says really cryptic things about what the stuff on the screen means.. Special Man hands off the camera and tells Caroline to film the animals while he searches the computer. A security guard catches them and they take off running.
Present. Alice!Echo asks what Sam did. He apologizes and reveals his Villain Plan of taking the drug to another company for billions. He didn’t really expect to kill Owen, but he did drug him to get him out of the way. Owen was in on the plan, but then got cold feet. Echo tells him that even though he didn’t mean to, he still killed Owen. Sam’s all, “whatevs,” and leaves. Echo stumbles after him and as she does she flashes back to running away with Special Man. They sneak into an empty room and Caroline realizes that Special Man is shot.
Alice!Echo starts running after Sam in earnest, calling him a killer. She runs past Dominic who apologizes again for the burning alive thing and Sierra who is catatonic on a couch. Echo catches up to Sam outside on the lawn and tackles him. In the past, she’s over her Special Man, Leo, on the lawn as well, crying as he dies. Sam pushes Echo off, but when he stands, her runs right into Boyd who is better and back in perfect face punching shape. He punches Sam. In the face. He asks Echo if she wants her treatment and this time she says yes.
Past. Caroline is in a hospital bed. We hear Adelle talking to a man about how Caroline fits the profile and he was right to call her in. When Adelle makes it into the hospital room, Caroline is gone. She escaped through a window. Adelle isn’t very worried, though, and says she won’t get far.
Dollhouse. Things have returned to normal. Dominic comes to see Adelle and they are both very uncomfortable. Dominic says the actives are all back and safe. Adelle hands Dominic back his gun. Adelle guesses that Dominic is going to recommend sending Echo to the attic, but he says that’s entirely her call. Adelle snaps and says that they were drugged and acted like idiot children, but they need get over it. She dismisses him. At her desk, she monitors security footage and watches Echo walk calmly through the Dollhouse.
Paul’s apartment. Mellie is locking her door and she has two suitcases with her. Paul’s on the other end of the, “I HEARD YOUR DOORKNOB” thing for once, as he asks if she was going to tell him about leaving. She just needs to get away. He understands and doesn’t want to know where she is going, just in case. But she knows where to find him. She leaves him with a small smile.
Stephanie: No more pasta for you, Paul.
Mari: Adelle is in her office and so is Sam. She pours him some tea, to relax him. He’s pacing like we saw Caroline once do. Adelle explains that she isn’t with the government. She’s going to make him an offer that would solve his mother’s financial difficulties and after five years, leave him capable of providing for her, all his own. Sam considers it and Adelle smiles.
I did not like this one as much as Man on the Street, but it had some fantastic moments. Basically, anything that didn’t have Alice in it was A+. A big part of the mystery of the Dollhouse so far has been who is behind it and how it operates. I’m amazed that in episode SEVEN, we get a name, face and a little background on the responsible corporation.
My heart went out to all of the Actives this episode, even Echo. I think perhaps part of the issue some people might have with this series is that it can be very subtle, especially when dealing with some of the doll stuff. Here we get the main dolls reliving traumatic experiences and while that may not be subtle, the show doesn’t talk to death what it means. Echo’s traumatic moment is what got her, Caroline, to sign up for the Dollhouse. And I mean, they rely so much on this concept that people “volunteer” for this, but they seem to grab people at emotional weakness. In both Sam and Caroline’s case, it seemed less like a true choice and more like a coercion.
Sweeney: 1430 for all of this. Excellent observations. Even as I question whether this show was really prepared for the full scope of the ethical quandary they dove into, I love that they are, at the very least, continuing to present it as that. I love the complexity of it. It’s especially ripe for what we do here – I think my experience of the show is genuinely enhanced by the fact that I’m getting to pick through all of this stuff week on week. (Even if 75% of the comments are rot13.)
Mari: Victor’s moment was the less telling, because we don’t know when or how it happened, but it may color some of his storyline down the road.
Sierra and November break my heart. While Caroline (and probably Victor) are remembering things from their life, Sierra and November’s traumatic moments are tied specifically to being actives. Being Mellie has traumatized this human being and it isn’t as simple as “wiping” that away because clearly it still lives somewhere in her head. Somewhere in Sierra’s head is the rape. I find it hard to even.
AND YET, this episode also managed to be very funny. Just like Whedon to inject humor here. Topher and Adelle were great together and I’m only sad we didn’t get to see more of Drugged Boyd.
Stephanie: I really enjoyed this one too. It has a lot of Whedony humor that’s been missing from the previous episodes. The premise of this series doesn’t always allow for comedy, so it’s nice when it happens.
The best part is that we’re officially shifting out of the Echo’s mission-of-the-week format and into more character focused stories. All of the other dolls and the inner workings of the Dollhouse are always a lot more interesting than whatever Echo’s up to on her own. The fact that the Caroline flashbacks tie into more information on how the Dollhouse acquires their actives make her scenes a little more tolerable.
Seeing Adelle loosen up a bit with Topher is amazing, but the standout in the episode for me is Dominic. It’s delightful to see a serious character excel at comedy. I laughed whenever he was on screen.
Next time on Dollhouse: Echo wakes up with her real personality and stages a jail break in S01 E08 – Needs.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a miniature adult who still gets offered the kid's coloring menu at restaurants. I like to pretend I'm an illustrator, but mostly I spend my time complaining about TV on Twitter. My life dream is to have my consciousness placed into an android body so that I'll have more time to watch/read things.
