I am using knockout.js to display a list of employees. I have a single hidden modal markup on the page. When the "details" button for a single employees is clicked, I want to data-bind that employee to the modal popup. I am using the ko.applyBindings(employee, element) but the problem is when the page loads, it is expecting the modal to start off as bound to something. 

So I'm wondering, is there a trick/strategy to do a late/deferred databinding? I looked into virtual bindings but the documentation was not helpful enough.

Thanks!