Frosstbyte

"I don't have a choice" doesn't mean "I don't have a choice." It means, "You're giving me an option I dislike, but my alternative is even worse." I read that first scene to mean that Caroline's alternatives were death or lifetime imprisonment or exile and that if she agreed to do five years with the Dollhouse, she'd avoid those consequences entirely.

Again, I think you have to run with this as part of the premise. She's there because she understood what would happen to her and decided it would still be better than the alternative. I think as Echo "awakes" we'll gradually get less comfortable with what the Dollhouse does to people, even though it's the core of the show. But I wouldn't expect that it will occur in the form of "ewwww she's really being raped isn't that terrible?!?" kinds of stuff.

Edit: For clarity, I don't think the Dollhouse caused the duress. If someone is pointing a gun at you and says "do this or I will shoot you" then you don't have any choice. I think the Dollhouse was an option given by them to avoid duress coming from another source, hence why I think there is ample consent. I could find myself entirely wrong.