Dollhouse – “Epitaph Two”

For the second time in a week, I’m going to be writing about what could be the broadcast finale of a show I adore and, once again, I’m going to kinda trash that episode (although at least I know there are still two Teds floating around somewhere; for Dollhouse this is the end).

But before I get into that, I should go back a little bit. The reason why there hasn’t been any Dollhouse coverage is that, until a couple weeks ago, neither of us were Dollhouse viewers. I watched the Pilot and was not impressed, nor did I really see a lot of potential for improvement. Gradually, I began to hear that the show had gotten suddenly and dramatically better, but I ended up putting off a full catch up until early January. And, during the process, I was completely converted. Pretty much from “Man on the Street” onward, I began to buy into what Joss Whedon and company were trying to do. I think the second season has been phenomenal and that especially “Stop Loss” and “The Attic” deserve spots in the time capsule.

Which is why I’m especially sad that I just wasn’t feeling “Epitaph Two,” the return to the post-apocalyptic future brought on by the Dollhouse’s mind-wiping technology. There were a lot of balls in the air, since the episode had to show us the Felicia Day crew from “Epitaph One,” catch us up with everything the main characters had been up to since the apocalypse, resolve all their character arcs, and, oh yeah, save the damn world. I feel like we probably could have spent a whole season in this world (not that such a scenario would be my preference), given how complex and fully realized it is, and how much seems to have happened to our favorite band of mad scientists.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we catch up with FD, the guy, and little girl Caroline on their way to Safe Haven. It turns out that its a little too close to “Neuropolis,” the corporate dystopia-within-a-dystopia that popped up where Rossum HQ used to be. They’re kidnapped by some bad guys looking for a “dumb-show” (Dolls to you and me) to occupy, but Paul and Real Caroline have infiltrated. They bust everyone out and worlds collide as the Epitaph crew heads back to hang out with our main characters.

So what’s happened to everybody over the last ten years? Caroline is still kicking ass and it seems like Paul, despite losing the part of his brain that has feelings for her, has rediscovered them, but the two of them aren’t together. Meanwhile, Priya and Tony are together and had a kid, but Tony became a “techhead” to fight evil, which Priya was unhappy about. Adele is still leading and Topher is still kind of a basketcase. He had been kidnapped by Rossum folks in order to make something that could wipe everyone without needing any tech at all, but instead, Topher came up with a plan to restore everyone to the way they were before.

And here’s where the trouble starts. I obviously don’t want Dollhouse to end with civilization in ruins and no hope for humanity. But, at the same time, within about 40 minutes, we suddenly discover Topher’s magic idea, everyone rallies around it, and he pulls it off. It felt like the show hadn’t exactly earned the happy ending and, again, if there had been more time to flesh all of this out, I could see it working. Instead it felt lazy and tacked-on, especially for a show that, in the past, hasn’t been afraid to get dark.

Not all of the character stuff worked for me either. The Priya/Tony storyline was fairly tired, especially compared to how awesome they were in “Stop Loss.” Ballard getting shot was pretty shocking, and, despite her shortcomings as an actor, I actually thought Eliza Dushku sold the hell out of her big freakout, but having her add his personality didn’t really make a lot of sense. Can all the personalities in her brain hang out like that? Is the bank robber talking to the hostage negotiator? Again, it felt like a bit of a cop-out.

Things picked up a little bit when Alpha showed up. We had gotten hints into his transformation into a good guy, but it was still cool to see Alan Tudyk play it that way (and, allow me to take this opportunity that, while I’d still rather not have The Joker in the next Batman movie, if they do decide to recast the part they’d be crazy not to go with Tudyk, who tore it up here). Still, it felt even more random than everything else since there was really no reason for it. It was also nice to see my favorite season 2 character, Summer Glau’s Bennett Halverson, pop in and do her best Pierre Chang impression.

So, in the end, Ballard and Topher died, Priya and Tony reconciled, and the world was saved. But for an hour so busy and jam-packed, I was very unsatisfied with the whole thing. There was none of the sci-fi mindbending weirdness that the show’s gotten so good at, the character moments all felt hollow and rushed, and the ending felt random and unearned. For a show that’s as thought-provoking, subversive, and dark as this one to end with such an overt deus-ex-machina is a little disappointing.

Jonah’s Score: 50

TUIW Grade: C

P.S. Some time later this week, once I’ve had a little more time to digest everything (and obsess over Lost) I’m going to try to make a post about the series as whole and where it stands in the Whedon pantheon.