Top Five Imprints: Victor (Dollhouse)

Half the fun of Dollhouse is scrutinizing the performances by the actors playing the Dolls, and as Victor, Enver Gjokaj is tremendous.  He quickly became one of my biggest incentives to watch, and ever since, I get excited when I notice his name in the credits for a film or a show.  Of the many characters he brought quite specifically to life on Dollhouse, these are my favorites.

Anton Lubov

We first meet Victor as Lubov, a low-level mobster meant to throw Paul off the Dollhouse scent.  Lubov thinks he’s harder, more suave, and more important than he really is, and he’s a lot of fun as Paul’s unwilling informant.  Plus, I love imprints discussing the Dollhouse without knowing they’re Actives – nice dramatic irony (retroactively here, since it’s after Lubov describes the Dollhouse as an “alligators in the sewers” conspiracy theory that we learn he’s a Doll.)

Agent Tom Voran

This imprint isn’t as flashy as many of Gjokaj’s roles – there’s no accent, and it’s not a dead-on impression of a castmate – but I like it.  Tom is 100% sleek NSA efficiency, buttoned-up and highly tactical.  After jittery Lubov and innocent Doll-state Victor, Tom’s low-key, self-assured authority is a big change.  Plus, we get tons of interaction with Dominic, who barely bothers to hide his contempt for Actives and visibly rankles when he finds he’s been outranked by a Doll.

Drew Chilton

This is a small role in a middling episode, but I’m sort of stunned by it.  Though the part itself isn’t much – an intelligent horse-breeder – Gjokaj’s physicality is the major take-away here.  Despite having the exact same 20-something body that he does with every other imprint, you’d swear Chilton’s in his 40s, at least.  His measured walk and careful, deliberating thoughtfulness suggest someone much older, and I have no idea how he does it, but his body seems more gone-to-seed.  It’s not, clearly, but it feels like it is, just from his posture and his gait.  So impressive.

Topher Brink

No-brainer here.  When I first saw the slow pan up to Victor as Topher in “The Left Hand,” the voice was so perfect that I was convinced I was watching Fran Kranz in a flashback.  The writing is maybe a bit more forced-jokey than it usually is for Topher, but Gjokaj has the Dollhouse programmer down flat.  The voice, the energy, the easy distractedness, the anxiety, the probing intellect – it’s all there, to the letter.  One of the best things the series ever did, no question.

Dr. Golson

Another small role I like.  As the in-house psychologist with a strong Jewish vibe and Freudian views on sex, it’s broadly drawn, but Gjokaj does it well.  I like his drive-by assessment of Sierra and his on-the-nose lecture to Adele; though he’s been imprinted to examine Echo, he shifts to “diagnosing” Adele’s issue with her, like he just can’t help himself from psychoanalyzing.

Relationship Spotlight: Sierra & Victor (Dollhouse)

 

Even though it has a rocky start and a rushed, break-glass-in-case-of-emergency ending, I love Dollhouse.  With terrific Whedon characters, intriguing mythos, adventurous storytelling, and thoughtful thematic work, it’s an ambitious series with a lot to like.  Since this is my first Dollhouse-related post, though, I have to go straight to my favorite aspect of the show:  the relationship between Victor and Sierra.

 

Honestly, it’s pairings like this that remind me what a sap I can be.  At first glance, you wouldn’t think much of them – they’re both brain-wiped victims, mindless blank slates to be imprinted with personalities at the behest of the rich and powerful.  They’re farmed out regularly, equipped with whatever skillful, quirks, or kinks needed for their engagement, and then re-wiped before being dropped back into the Dollhouse.  Their own identities are in storage, and their non-engaged everyday personalities are vacant, childlike, and mutedly content.

 

So why Sierra and Victor?  Because their love cuts through all of that.  Even they’re only vaguely aware of it themselves and entirely unable to articulate it (when asked to describe how Sierra makes him feel, all Victor can say is, “Better,) a quiet, innocent romance begins to grow between them.  Those who run the Dollhouse don’t get it.  They call it “grouping,” think it’s a problematic malfunction.  They try to fix it – the dolls are scrubbed (wiped more deeply to stamp out any ghosts in the cerebral machine,) and staff are instructed to monitor their behavior, but it doesn’t do any good.

 

Adele considers these hints of independent thought and feelings to be dangerous, an incursion that could spread to other dolls and pollute the livestock.  She’s right to be concerned; as Victor and Sierra grow closer, their feelings for each other (especially Victor’s for Sierra) continue to come through even when they’re imprinted.  When they’re both imprinted, their new personalities fall for each other all over again, but they don’t even need to see one another for the imprinted personalities to know they’re in love.  Since the Dollhouse is made to cater to its clients’ deepest desires and needs, it’s not exactly ideal to send a doll on a romantic engagement when they love someone else.

 

Not to mention, I just love how they are with each other.  It’s so gentle and sweet, the way they look at one another, the way they hold hands like they invented it.  I kind of like that, given the blank-slate nature of their doll personalities, the show can’t simply resort to make-out sessions or smoldering tension.  It doesn’t ignore the physical side (the situation first comes to Topher’s attention when he notices Victor in the shower with an erection, a development that surprises Victor at least as much as everyone else,) but it needs to get creative and find other ways to show their affections and burgeoning relationship.  I appreciate that.  Although Victor in his doll state is utterly powerless, he tries to protect Sierra any way he can by his limited means.  Sierra is slower to be very demonstrative with her feelings, but when she does, she starts to look out for him as well.  A heart would have to be a great deal colder and harder than mine not to be entirely won over by these two.