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
