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Ballard has a very limited social life outside of work. In "[[Man on the Street]]", he reveals that he was once married, but presumably now he is either divorced or widowed. He becomes close to neighbor [[Mellie]], who is as besotted with him as he is with his search for Caroline, but he is never shown with other friends or family. Instead, Mellie provides him with emotional support as he searches for Caroline and the Dollhouse.
 
Ballard has a very limited social life outside of work. In "[[Man on the Street]]", he reveals that he was once married, but presumably now he is either divorced or widowed. He becomes close to neighbor [[Mellie]], who is as besotted with him as he is with his search for Caroline, but he is never shown with other friends or family. Instead, Mellie provides him with emotional support as he searches for Caroline and the Dollhouse.
   
In "[[Man on the Street]]," Paul Ballard closes in on a definite Dollhouse client, [[Joel Mynor]], through close analysis of his outgoing finances, including annual payments to the [[Mayfair Fund]]. He catches him, but is thrown when he sees Echo as [[Rebecca Mynor]]. Echo escapes with [[handler]] [[Boyd Langton]], and Ballard forces Joel Mynor to confess about the Dollhouse. Dollhouse director [[Adelle DeWitt]] later sends Echo to take care of Ballard, and after a drawn out fight, Echo gives him a message from a man on the inside of the Dollhouse who compromised her [[imprint]] and Ballard becomes aware of the global scale of the Dollhouse's activities. Echo then shoots a cop with his gun to get him suspended so that he will investigate the Dollhouse through other means. Ballard hands in his badge and gun, but resolves to pursue the Dollhouse and Echo.
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In {{e|Man on the Street}}, Paul Ballard closes in on a definite Dollhouse client, [[Joel Mynor]], through close analysis of his outgoing finances, including annual payments to the [[Mayfair Fund]]. He catches him, but is thrown when he sees Echo as [[Rebecca Mynor]]. Echo escapes with [[handler]] [[Boyd Langton]], and Ballard forces Joel Mynor to confess about the Dollhouse. Dollhouse director [[Adelle DeWitt]] later sends Echo to take care of Ballard, and after a drawn out fight, Echo gives him a message from a man on the inside of the Dollhouse who compromised her [[imprint]] and Ballard becomes aware of the global scale of the Dollhouse's activities. Echo then shoots a cop with his gun to get him suspended so that he will investigate the Dollhouse through other means. Ballard hands in his badge and gun, but resolves to pursue the Dollhouse and Echo.
   
 
In "[[Echoes]]", Mellie goes on vacation while the Dollhouse recalls the Active [[November]]. In her absence, Paul discovers the Dollhouse has been spying on him, and receives a phone message from a temporarily resurfaced Caroline in "[[Needs]]".
 
In "[[Echoes]]", Mellie goes on vacation while the Dollhouse recalls the Active [[November]]. In her absence, Paul discovers the Dollhouse has been spying on him, and receives a phone message from a temporarily resurfaced Caroline in "[[Needs]]".

Revision as of 09:00, 4 December 2009

Portrayed by Tahmoh Penikett, Paul Ballard is a character of Dollhouse. The official casting descriptions call him "an FBI field agent, he's been chasing the urban myth of the Dollhouse long enough to have lost any shot at promotion. He becomes obsessed with, and twisted romantic foil for, Echo."[1]

Character development

Background

Paul was assigned to the case designated "Dollhouse" fourteen months prior to the events of the first episode, "Ghost". In the course of his investigation he has physically threatened a senator, disrupted a seven-year human trafficking investigation (the "Borodin case") and been arrested for trespassing on Prince Amoudi's yacht.[2] His coworkers speculate that he was given the Dollhouse case because it is a dead-end and he is a sub-par agent, not because anyone in the FBI thinks the Dollhouse really exists.

Paul also finished divorcing his wife during this period.

Dollhouse

Despite facing contempt from his colleagues at the Bureau, Ballard possesses a single-minded determination to expose the Dollhouse. Scenes of an intense boxing match between Ballard and an unknown sparring partner are cut in with the introduction to his investigation, underscoring his feelings about the case. Even so, he will later describe himself in this time before he learned of Caroline as just doing his job. As a part of this job, he singles in on Lubov from the Borodin family of Russian mobsters as a lead to connect the family's human trafficking to the Dollhouse.

Lubov (in reality, the Active known as Victor), is a dead end at first, but Ballard is spurred on by a messages from a mysterious source, potentially the rogue Active Alpha, who sends him a video of Echo as Caroline prior to joining the Dollhouse. The young college graduate gives a face and a name to the people Ballard is trying to rescue, and he goes from determined to obsessed. Even the overwhelming ambush Lubov unwittingly sends him to does not deter him. The Dollhouse has sent Lubov to provide Ballard with closure on the Dollhouse case, but he can no longer gain closure without resolving his search for Caroline. Caroline becomes the focal point of his investigation. His source continues to send him information about her in "Gray Hour," and her face is a signal for Dollhouse involvement in "True Believer."

Ballard has a very limited social life outside of work. In "Man on the Street", he reveals that he was once married, but presumably now he is either divorced or widowed. He becomes close to neighbor Mellie, who is as besotted with him as he is with his search for Caroline, but he is never shown with other friends or family. Instead, Mellie provides him with emotional support as he searches for Caroline and the Dollhouse.

In "Man on the Street", Paul Ballard closes in on a definite Dollhouse client, Joel Mynor, through close analysis of his outgoing finances, including annual payments to the Mayfair Fund. He catches him, but is thrown when he sees Echo as Rebecca Mynor. Echo escapes with handler Boyd Langton, and Ballard forces Joel Mynor to confess about the Dollhouse. Dollhouse director Adelle DeWitt later sends Echo to take care of Ballard, and after a drawn out fight, Echo gives him a message from a man on the inside of the Dollhouse who compromised her imprint and Ballard becomes aware of the global scale of the Dollhouse's activities. Echo then shoots a cop with his gun to get him suspended so that he will investigate the Dollhouse through other means. Ballard hands in his badge and gun, but resolves to pursue the Dollhouse and Echo.

In "Echoes", Mellie goes on vacation while the Dollhouse recalls the Active November. In her absence, Paul discovers the Dollhouse has been spying on him, and receives a phone message from a temporarily resurfaced Caroline in "Needs".

When November (as Mellie) returns in "A Spy in the House of Love", Paul shows increasing paranoid and obsessive behaviour. In an intimate moment with Mellie, her hidden imprint activates and she delivers the message from the Dollhouse and that Mellie is really the Active known as November; Paul is instructed to play along as if unaware of the deception.

In "Briar Rose", Paul callously breaks up with Mellie and tells her he's moving away. He then follows her until a handler picks her up and drives her back to the Dollhouse. After tracking down Stephen Kepler, original architect of the Dollhouse, Ballard and Kepler infiltrate the underground complex and try to free Echo. Ballard's partner turns out to be Alpha, who betrays him and escapes with Echo. In "Omega", Ballard teams up with Boyd to track Alpha down; in exchange, the Dollhouse pays November's contract off and releases her from service. Although Ballard's insights about Alpha and the limits of the imprinting technology lead him to his quarry, Ballard and Boyd are unable to capture Alpha. They instead rescue Echo and the imprint wedge with Caroline's original personality.

Ballard appears to be an independent contractor working with the Dollhouse as of the end of Omega. As seen in flashbacks in "Epitaph One", Ballard becomes Echo's handler; this occurs in "Vows", shortly after Ballard promises blank-state Echo that he will help her to restore all the dolls to their original personalities.

Original introduction

In the original pilot, the rogue active Alpha, gives Agent Ballard a picture of Caroline/Echo, his first solid lead in his pursuit of the Dollhouse. Adelle DeWitt discovers this security breach and engages Echo to silence Agent Ballard. [3]

Paul also has an interaction with an informant, Keene, about the Dollhouse, where he insists on its existence, although Keene tries to convince him that it's a myth. Keene is in fact Victor who was also sent by DeWitt to throw Paul off of his pursuit of the Dollhouse and was renamed to Lubov when the first season went into production.

Relationships

Mellie/November

In the begining episodes, Ballard's relationship with Mellie is very one-sided. He accepts her awkward advances, including multiple offerings of baked leftovers, with graceful indifference. However, as the first season progresses he becomes more receptive to her interest and aid (asking Mellie to 'break in' to his apartment for medication).

Ballard does not show romantic interest in pursuing a relationship with Mellie until Mynor points out that there is "no room for a real girl" in his Caroline-rescue fantasy. This comparison throws his situation and feelings into sharp relief, Ballard initiates a romantic and sexual relationship with Mellie. She is cautious of his obsession with finding Caroline, but he insists that he is thinking only of Mellie.

Ironically, Caroline was not fantasy and Mellie was not reality. Unknown to Ballard, was an Active sent by the Dollhouse to keep Ballard distracted and spy on him. The Mellie imprint was programmed to love Ballard. When this was revealed to Ballard, he continued his sexual relationship with her to maintain the secret. Ending it roughly a few episodes later, he traced a dejected and suicidal November as she was returned to the Dollhouse for treatment.

After allying with the Dollhouse to find Alpha, Ballard secured November's freedom. Apparently a willing doll, she remembered nothing of Ballard. Although he learned her true name, he declined to give his name to her in return, so that she could return to a normal life.

Caroline

Ballard receives pictures and video of Echo before she joined the Dollhouse. He quickly fixates on her as an innocent victim of a nefarious slaving scheme. Whether or not he imagines a romantic connection remains to be seen. Ballard's desire to save Caroline is initially fruitless, it seems; discovering Echo in "Briar Rose", she is not as grateful as the fully-aware Caroline might have been and resists his attempts at rescuing her. Later, Ballard is able to save the falling imprint wedge which has Caroline's personality stored on it - this is as close as he has come to "saving" her.

Echo

Ballard is obsessed with rescuing Caroline, also known as the doll Echo. A spy inside the Dollhouse uses Echo to communicate with him in "Man on the Street," and indicates that he or she will continue to send messages via Echo in the future. In "Briar Rose", When he finally comes into contact with the blank state Echo (failing to distinguish Echo from Caroline fully enough), although she recognises him, she is scared of him. Echo recalls her fight with him n "Man on the Street" and jumps to the defence of Boyd, with whom Ballard is engaged in a fight for Echo's custody.

Alpha

The rogue Doll has been providing Ballard with information about Echo (including a photograph and video of a younger Caroline) anonymously. Ballard originally believed that Echo herself sent the picture.

It subsequently lead him into an ambush in Stage Fright during which he was injured. Ballard's aggressive tactics with Lubov and determination to discover the truth regarding the Dollhouse may very well be the reason Alpha has decided to aid Ballard. The two finally met in Briar Rose. Alpha was posing as Steven Kepler, a contractor hired to build the Dollhouse. He abandoned Ballard and escaped, taking Caroline.

In Omega, Ballard joined with Boyd to capture Alpha. Although he failed, he offered to continue to help the Dollhouse stop Alpha if, in exchange, they complete November's contract. November's original personality was restored. Although she introduced herself to Ballard, he declined to give his name and permitted her to re-enter her original life.

The Dollhouse

Ballard considers the Dollhouse to be slavery of the worst kind. Even given that the dolls are volunteers, he believes that people cannot sign away their free will unconditionally. He also appears to harbor doubts that the dolls are willing volunteers at all (a suspicion confirmed by Alpha and Sierra's origin stories; however, November does appear to have given consent, and with other dolls this question remains unrevealed).

Ballard also does not believe that imprints are the sole determinants of personality. As he said in Omega, he believes that a person's soul cannot be manipulated or imprinted. Dollhouse staff do not buy into his beliefs; Topher openly scoffs at what he sees as irrational religious mysticism, while Boyd is skeptical but open-minded. However, Ballard's views lead him directly to Alpha's secret lair; along the way he exposes disturbing signs that Alpha's original personality somehow survives despite having been wiped and denied by Alpha himself.

Ballard doggedly pursues the Dollhouse despite its cost to himself and his career. He grows increasingly paranoid in the face of the overwhelming size, scope and sophistication of the conspiracy.

Trivia

Notes & References

  1. Dos Santos, Kristin (2008-03-26). Dollhouse Casting Alert!. eonline.com. Retrieved on 2009-01-03.
  2. DarkUFO (2008-08-07). Dollhouse Episode 1.01 - Ghost - Casting Sides. spoilertv.blogspot.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-03.
  3. Part of the meeting between Echo and Paul can be seen in a preview clip on the official Fox Youtube-channel.