And so it ends. Thankfully this time Joss Whedon has the opportunity to actual finish the storyline of one of his original stories.

“Epitaph Two” ends what has been a fairy tale story of modern broadcast television in itself. It was merely a year ago that we were all commented on the fact that it was a minor miracle that Dollhouse was renewed for a second season. For the entirety of the second season, the writers took this idea to heart and made sure to move away from the episodic collection of random stories to evolve the show into a (half) season long cohesive saga that kept the viewer engaged the entire time.

“Epitaph Two” is no doubt a mass frantic race to the end of the story. Picking up right where we left off in “Epitaph One” (which was only available on DVD), we find Zone, Mag, and little Caroline trying to find their way to the Tuscon safe house, hopefully to find Echo again. Unfortunately, they have entered Neuropolis, the central mecca of insane corporate control that remained after the fall of humanity and the Rossum Corporation, and are quickly captured. While there, we find that Echo and Ballard let themselves be captured as a plot to extract Topher. Harding and Ambrose are even still around and have been jumping bodies for the last 10 years.

After a simple escape, we find that DeWitt has created a number of new houses, safe houses for actuals who have survived the carnage. From there, Topher talks about a plan to revert all the damage done years ago and restore everyone to their former state, but in order to do so, they must return to their former home, the LA Dollhouse.

NOTE: If you have NOT SEEN the movie SERENITY SKIP THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH Of course being a series finale, Whedon does not disappoint and of course will kill off yet another major character; it’s one of his defining writing traits. The way Ballard dies, though, is actually very reminiscent of Wash’s death in his other cancelled too soon drama Serenity. Paul, like Wash, dies suddenly and unexpectedly as he stops to help Mag who has been shot in the leg. There is no lead up, and there is no foreshadowing. Once again, Whedon kills off a character tragically with absolutely no time to remorse. Even the dialog afterward (“That’s all of us seal the door behind us.” “What about…” “That’s ALL of us.”) is the same dialog used in Serenity. War is inherently chaos, and Joss understands that in battle, you don’t have time for extended death sequences. Death is sudden.

In the end, while completely frantic in pace, “Epitaph Two” provides the closure for a storyline that never had the chance to truly grow out of it’s infancy. Topher sacrifices himself to prevent more harm to the world, and everyone wakes up from their nightmare, only to find an even bigger nightmare to rebuild. For a show that has spent the last 13 episodes showing the bleakness of everything, it ends on a hopeful note that maybe they can rebuild the world.

It’s been a good run of a series, though I wonder how much better it could have gotten with another season. Originally slated for five seasons, I’m sure we would have gotten much more backstory as to how the fall of humanity actually happened. Ironically, though, I think it’s the fact that the show was canceled which allowed it to finish it’s run on a very strong note. The first season, granted, was almost just a collection of random engagements with no true storyline arc advancement. On the other hand, season 2 has had the opportunity to move the storyline at a breakneck speed, concentrating not on the engagements, but the evolution of Echo and her mission to take down the Rossum Corporation. This last season has been filled with action, drama, and intrigue, something that couldn’t exactly be said about the first.

I’m glad that Whedon had the opportunity to complete a story line he created on his own terms. Somehow, I wonder if Fox felt some guilt over their treatment of Firefly, and the venomous hatred they received from the fans, not completely because of the cancelation, but the cancelation without any answers. Serial shows such as these live on engaging the audience over multiple episodes.

They are novels for the television age, and like a novel, you cannot simply cut out individual chapters and hope they will serve on their own. Great novels, and likewise great serialized shows, take time to develop a story, characters, and interest. ABC took that risk with Lost, and while some might argue it has gone on a bit too long without direction, no one can argue that ABC is committed to not leaving the story unfinished.

While Fox might still have some ire from fans of the Sarah Connor Chronicles and it’s unfinished story, they surely have built some good will back by allowing Whedon to finish his latest television saga.

Interesting Notes

• The episode begins with a quick flashback to “Epitaph One” scenes, many of which I’m sure will confuse the hell out of any viewer who has never seen it. The episode itself even assumes you have seen it, as it makes no efforts to explain what has been happening.
• How does Mini-Caroline remember and know about the safe house?  Did they make a print of her mind a long time after the apocalypse?
• In ten years, both Echo and DeWitt, and even Topher show obvious signs of aging, while Ballard, Pryia, and Victor do not?
• “World still needs heroes kid.” “Wow, did you really just say that?”
• Even Alpha has lost the will to fight, and would rather live in peace with a bunch of empty state dolls in the LA office.  There must have been some serious battles and bonding between him and Ballard as you could see the sadness in his face when he learns of his death.
• “Because we’re not freakshows…well ok maybe I am..and Echo…and Tophers a little off” – Alpha
• When was Ballard’s imprint taken? Was it after the fall or was it the imprint from when Alpha destroyed his mind? It seemed like it was a later one.
• What happens in a year? What will they find? What happened to Rossum? Were there any Rossum survivors? Can’t they rebuild the wiping technology again? What will Alpha become?
• While the series ends on a final note, there is still the obvious opportunity for new stories in the form of mini series and movies. What happens in a year, for example? Echo and her team will still have to go around the world to hunt down and destroy the last of the Rossum technology.

After last week’s setup, The Hollow Men is the effective end of the Dollhouse storyline. I say effective because there is obviously one more additional epilogue next week which will round out the end of the series. But for the most part, though, this episode works as the end of the book.

Boyd has been manipulating our characters since day one, with the master intent of creating an immunity to remote imprinting, a technology he had Topher create in the first place. But we have to run into the issue of the chicken or the egg. How did he know Topher would be able to create that tech? Did he assume that someone else could have done it eventually (such as rival)? Maybe they have had the tech for some time, but they haven’t been able to perfect it, requiring a multi year manipulation of Topher to create a working system.

Boyd shows the extent of his insanity not by his mad outbursts, but his incredibly calm matter of fact demeanor. You have to give Harry Lennix credit for his vacant looks as DeWitt and Echo attempt to reason with him. You can tell on his face that he has moved beyond moral implications and has a zealous attitude towards bringing on the destruction of the world on his terms. It’s what every mad scientist dreams they could be.

Whedon, as usual for series ending type arcs, kills off yet another character in Mellie. I thought it was a bit confusing that she was able to break though her sleeper programing for such a second, long enough to take her own life to save Paul. The whole sequence felt as if it were just there because Whedon wanted to kill off a character. There was almost no repercussions from it. Paul follows Boyd thinking DeWitt ordered the strike for about 20 seconds before Echo reveals him as the founder. I would have almost thought they’d go on for a bit with Boyd using Paul to do his bidding.

With the revelation of Boyd, you can’t help but have to think back to the very start of the series and his introduction as her handler. He masterfully planned her life for the last two years in order to find the extent of her ability to block imprints. Did Boyd have something to do with Alpha? Was Alpha the first attempt by Rossum to create an immunity to imprints?

This finale episode tries to pack in a lot of different content into a very short amount of time, and at times it feels rushed. There are even a few instances of sudden convenient plot syndrome, namely when Victor and Sierra are able to reach and infiltrate the Tucson installation so quickly and Echo’s sudden escape from an exploding sub-basement.

I look forward to next week to see the final ending of this story. I would surmise it will pick up where Epiloge One left off. If you have yet to see that, go rent it because I’m sure it will be worthwhile as you are watching Epiloge Two.

Interesting Observations

• Rossum keeps tabs on all medical records of all people they come across (Google? Centralized federal/international medial databases?)
• Boyd “hacked” the pads by just using his master key
• “We’ve been betrayed, by my best man friend!” – Topher 2.0
• Boyd: “Topher, Think!” Topher: “That’s what got us here in the first place, I’m going for mindless destruction now.”
• “I’m the Tinman, she’s the Lion, and you’re hte head of the Lollypop Guild who’s a traitor” – Topher
• The Thoughtpocalypse, The Brainpocalypse
• DeWitt’s face lights up when Priya talks about Anthony getting “enhancements”
• There were conveniently no guards at the server room?
• 10 Years later, we still have Paul and Echo fighting to survive. Obviously the Tucson facility is merely one building and one mainframe. Surely Rossum’s systems are distributed such that all the other houses still had the schematics

After a few weeks off, Dollhouse is back with a vengence, and Joss Whedon is up to his usual tricks and style. Take lots of backstory flashbacks, throw in some death of major characters, and end with a huge reveal that was, to me, unexpected.

This episode spends a lot of time flashing back between three years ago when Caroline first attempts to take down Rossum. We see how Caroline infiltrates DeWitt’s office and finds her and Bennet Halverson’s files, curiously marked priority.  Later on, we see how Caroline ends up finding an introverted and shy neuroscience student Bennet in Arizona and befriends her, even becoming her roommate.  Eventually we find out that the memories we saw in The Left Hand of Caroline coldly leaving Bennet to be captured were actually taken out of context.  It is curious that for some reason Bennet saw her actions as betrayal when in reality Caroline saved her.  Also curious, is why was Bennet so enthusiastic about joining Caroline to take down the company she was interning for, and why was she so interested in destroying the building, despite Caroline’s discovery of human test subjects? Whedon, as his style, finds way to misrepresent scenes to guide the viewer into a false character interpretation.  You can never know what half-truths lie when you watch a Whedon show.

Back to the present, we find that the gang is about to have their hands very full as they prepare for the attack by Rossum to take back the Dollhouse.  I found it showed a mark of compassion as DeWitt released all her actives from their contacts by restoring their original personalities. The question is will these released actives come into play later?  They all still have their active architecture in their heads, and with Rossum’s ability to remote wipe and program, what’s to stop them from taking them back?

While this is going on, we find that the gang has kidnapped Bennet so she can rebuild the original Caroline data drives, which Alpha destroyed. Joss provides us with plenty of adorable scenes between Topher and Bennet as they rekindle their strange, violent, and sweet relationship to each other. Despite their standings, they are both quite in love with each other, and their interactions are very cute. The chemistry between Summer Glau and Fran Kranz is very apparent and works well.

As they prepare to lockdown, we find out that Boyd has been keeping Dr. Claire Saunders (aka Whiskey) hidden away with him for the last several months, and he is now bringing her back into the fold to help fight Rossum.  Her return is met with a lot of surprise by the gang, especially DeWitt who seemed actually amazed to see her again.  During this exchange, we find out what exactly Topher took from Ballard.  Rather than have him a vegetable, he used the synapses that made up his love and care for Echo to bring him back to life, effectively destroying his emotional connection to her.

From here we fall into another one of Whedon’s tale tell twists with Dr. Saunders.  While observing Topher and Bennet, she has a heartfelt talk with Bennet, commented that Topher truly loves her.  It’s from there that she strikes, shooting Bennet in the head in front of Topher, revealing that she was a sleeper agent, that she still had deep seeded hatred for Topher, or likely a combination of both.  While Bennet was not exactly a regular character, there is a lot of meaning to have her die so unexpectedly, scaring Topher deeply.  Is this the start of his eventual decline we see in Epitaph One?

Topher and company have little time to mourn as Rossum starts their attack and begins to take the building.  It’s from here we see that Boyd has not actually left the Dollhouse, but we find out though our final flashback that the man in the shadows, the original partner of the Rossum corporation, is in fact Boyd himself.  In true Whedon form, he once again spends countless episodes getting his viewers to see Boyd as a caring, father figure that we all trust, only to reveal that he was in fact the mastermind behind everything.  To be honest I never saw that coming at all.  I had just assumed the hidden partner was one of the actives we’ve seen before.  In the same way we suddenly go from despising DeWitt to embracing her, we suddenly go from embracing Boyd to despising him.

Joss Whedon is pulling out all of the stops these last few episodes.  It’s fortunate that he has the opportunity to end his show relatively on his own terms this time around, and I’m sure he will keep us on our toes up until the very end as Whedon has nothing to lose.  The show is already canceled, and as such…anything goes now.

Interesting Observations

• Joss Whedon tosses in a lot of verbal foreshadowing into the flashbacks.
• “There are lots of things I want to be.” – Caroline talking about her career goals
• “Are you saying she’s evil?”  ”Worse…an idealist”  - DeWitt, interestingly has the same impression of Caroline that everyone else does.
• DeWitt “I’m sure i’ll be kicking myself come holiday bonus time.” Bennet “I’m sure you’ll be dead by then.”
• Don’t say i got beat up by a one armed girl.” – Topher after getting a split lip
• Why was Bennet so adamant about helping Caroline?
• Victor and Sierra run off together before the lockdown.  Will we see them again?
• DeWitt put Millie’s imprint into November, to make sure she is loyal.
• “I always had a crush on you, even when I thought you were a dude….this is better.” – Topher to Bennet
• “You have a lot to answer for…you forced me to come to arizona…I loathe arizona.” – DeWitt to Caroline on her capture
• At the end we meet the current incarnation of Clyde 2.0 (or 5.0 as it were)
• The company itself was apparently named after the Czech play Rossum’s Universal Robots.  This play actually invented the word “robot” and revolves around a world where artificial people are created to serve humans, at least until they rebel.  Joss Whedon, you are the master of hiding details in plain sight.