Dollhouse Isn’t Really Over

Dollhouse , Joss Whedon ’s weirdest show , started out being about people who can be anybody . But last night , every one of the show ’s characters was so distinctly define , so much themselves , that their personality are imprinted on our brains forever . raider …

The penultimate Dollhouse instalment was the cheesy action thriller , with tons of twists and turn that make no good sense and characters jumping out of danger into more risk . But the final episode , “ Epitaph Two : Return , ” was pretty much the opposite — it was a substantial character - found drama with almost no plot spin to utter of , after the initial solidifying - up . There was exactly one big McGuffin in the episode — Topher ’s pretty miraculous scheme to restore everyone ’s minds to the default option factory configurations — and it was inaugurate jolly early . I ’ve watch this episode double already , and I sort of liked it the first clock time — but it play right smart better the second time around , when you ’re less caught up in “ what happens next . ”

In fact , the biggest surprisal last dark was the lack of surprise ( if you ’d seen “ Epitaph One , ” at least . ) I was half await one of these characters to plough out to be secretly imprinted as Harding or Ambrose in the final number , but no — everything was pretty much exactly what it seemed . Which is probably for the best , since character resolution is really what we deserve . ( Although it would have been pretty uproarious if Echo had turn and germinate some random extra in the head because he slipped up and said something Harding - esque . )

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All you Paul Ballard - haters got served last nighttime . He was at his inviolable best , and Tahmoh Penikett had a blast with it . From the “ speechless - show ” fake - out to the minute of corniness that backfires , to the bit where he shows that he really does understand Echo considerably than anyone else , it was all gold . And then he got the Wash treatment , just as we were totally in love with him . ( I ’m prepared to give the show a free passing play on the fact that we were told , just two instalment ago , that Topher had erased Paul ’s connexion with Echo . It ’s been ten geezerhood , those pathways have had a farsighted time to re - launch themselves . )

And it was slap-up the way the show used the “ Mini - Me ” version of Caroline to give that Echo hump Paul back — the way she breathes “ Paul ” when she sees him for the first sentence in the episode , the way she confides in him that Echo likes it when he ’s corny . It ’s a neat touch , and the raillery between the two Carolines was pretty precious as well . You could see why scumbags like Harding want to be in multiple dead body at once ( although , interestingly , Harding only seems to occupy one body at a clip . Maybe he ca n’t stand to be around himself ? The little glimpse of Neuropolis , the ratty stay of Rossum ’s empire , was the unaired thing we got to reliable dystopian awful / awesomeness . )

And the scene where Echo initiate counseling Priya about her human relationship with Tony , and it turns into her talk about Paul and that , in turn , leads to her toss out , was potent material , and I actually got choked up . It ’s a shame , in a way , that we did n’t get to see more of that fire from Dushku earlier on . At any rate , I in the end believed in the Echo - Caroline romance , which we ’ll never get to see now . ( And it ’s not entirely clear to me how Paul becoming one of the 100 multitude in Echo ’s head is much recompense . If this show has proved anything , over and over , it ’s that there ’s more to us than just our mentality patterns . Still , it was a keen last touch . ) And maybe Adelle was right about Echo — perhaps her large job was that she never had any fancy of her own .

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Tony / Victor as post - apocalyptical Mad Max warlord was one astonishing final translation for Enver Gjokaj . berm pad ! And weird boldness data point spikes ! It was nice to see one last encephalon plug from this show — and the keychain full of USB ovolo drive with dissimilar skillsets was really cute . It ’s decent to think there ’s a synthetic alternative to Echo ’s lifelike ability to hold wad of imprints in her oral sex — without going ball like Alpha . I was less confident by the Tony / Priya relationship this clip around , maybe because Dichen Lachman seems just a little too subdued and doubtful when she ’s playing Priya . ( She was frequently capital as Sierra . ) Still , after rooting for Victor and Sierra ’s love life to conquer their judgement - wipe for so long , it was great to see them get a well-chosen ending at last . And yay for “ Can I help you fire stuff ? ” More family bonding should involve pyromania .

And speaking of Alpha — he come awfully close to stealing the instalment last Nox in just a few scenes . “ Did he just call me a luddite ? ” somehow became the funniest seam ever when he state it . Everyone who saw last year ’s stuffy “ Epitaph One ” eff already that post - apocalyptic Alpha had become a hero , but realise it was something else . He was still Alpha , still psycho and tweak , but he ’d finally found a world where he was sane than everyone else . His eerie equanimity , his weird rapport with Adelle and Echo , were great . And the number where he asked why anyone would want to ruin Tony ’s pretty aspect — when he ’d done just that , back in “ Omega ” — was priceless . ( Dear Christopher Nolan : Alan Tudyk should be the new Joker . making love , Everybody Who make love What ’s Up . )

I really do n’t have much to say about Mag and Zone this time around — Mag was pretty sidelined , although she did get a few nice moments , and Zone was slimly more vexatious and less amusing than he was in “ Epitaph One . ”

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And then there were Adelle and Topher , the show ’s two superlative characters in my book , playing out the dynamic we first witnessed in “ Epitaph One , ” which we got to see building up in some of the later episode of this season : Adelle showing her maternal side as Topher turn into a entire River Tam - esque crash . But there were so many subtleties in there , as Topher ’s cunning playfulness came out in eldritch ways .

The big where he ferment to Adelle and says , trustingly , “ Your job is wayyyy hard , ” make out to be a uniquely Whedonian mix of peculiar and tragical . And Topher got to have one last view with Summer Glau , sort of .

And you bonk , Summer Glau got to give us the final takeaway Dollhouse message :

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We literally become what we do , not what we ’ve done , or what we will do . We ’re comfortably defined by our military action in the moment .

For a show that was so much about memory , and the great unwashed who ’d been rob of their past and given fake yesteryear , this is a majuscule final takeout food message . What matter is n’t who we ’ve been , or who we think we might be in the future — the only way we can really know who we are is by looking at our action in the here and now . ( I was sort of remind of Angel ’s “ If nothing we do matters , then all that matters is what we do . ” ) Last night ’s installment is full of lots of defining choice from people who had made different choices in the past — like Tony turn his back on his fellow technical school - capitulum , Alpha giving Paul back to Echo , Topher sacrifice himself to undo his mistakes , and Adelle opt to become a sheepman to confused multitude once again .

( Oh , and was it just me , or were the strawberries a full Kaylee shout - out ? )

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“ Epitaph Two ” was never move to be as exhilerating and bewildering as “ Epitaph One , ” unless the writers just threw system of logic out the windowpane . I mean , we could have see Adelle suddenly transformed into a cruel Tina Turner - esque leader of a Modern Bartertown , and Paul becoming a savage leader / bandit who no longer care about anything but amassing more slave daughter . But it ’s probably just as well the show decide to go out with a more character - found conclusion instead of a gibe - bang “ What the Hell just fall out ” finale .

It ’s grueling not to palpate like the story of Dollhouse is n’t really over , though — like , the original problem still continue . The technical school is out there , and it ’ll be used again , as long as anybody understands it . Despite all the ways you’re able to erase people ’s mind , it ’s really hard to get free of an thought . And what kind of repressing world would you need to have , to ensure that nobody ever uses psyche - wiping engineering again ? Also , as various people point out , the world is still not going to be a pretty place after all the people get their own minds back . So there ’s actually stack of scope for this story to go forward , in some form or another , in our head if not on screen or in rule book .

We ’ve been imprinted with these people ’s lives and personalities . There ’s no work back .

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