Adelle DeWitt quotes from Dollhouse

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

Eternal life.

DeWitt

Nice adjective. Excellent noun. Is there more?

Boyd

Is that something we offer, now?

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...

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.

Echo

[as Margaret] Addie?

DeWitt

Yes?

Echo

[as Margaret] Will I see my whole life flash before my eyes?

DeWitt

Every single moment...

Good news on the coma front?

Topher

Uuuhhhhhhh... yeah. Good news is that he's in a coma.

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.

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.

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?

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

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!

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!

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.

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?

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

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.

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.