Dollhouse

The mysterious lost episode, televised only to international audiences, takes a gamble on the less budget, more concept approach. But does it pay off?

Spoiler warning: If you haven’t seen Epitaph One, here you will find many spoilers. But if you have - this is the place to discuss not only everything that has come before and how this relates to it: but everything that may come after and how they can possibly follow this.

In your world it might be Tuesday, and everything might be lovely. But in the Dollhouse universe, the year is 2019. And apparently we’re all screwed. But how did it get that way - and what does this mean for the series? What’s your view?

In general

Crikey, what a corker of an episode. It was the episode that Fox told Whedon they needed, for international distribution deals and DVDs - but wouldn’t pay extra for (because they’d already stumped up for an extra pilot) - so it had to be something that could be done with the existing sets, minimal cast changes and inexpensive things. But boy, what they managed to do with it.

A decade into the future, and everything’s gone completely arsebiscuits - and all thanks, it seems, to the Dollhouse technology.

The episode kicked off following a set of freedom fighter types, proudly and fiercely proclaiming themselves as "actuals" - people who have never been imprinted. They appear to be fighting against dark forces, (something to do with China, apparently) they shot their way through a street battle, then delved deep down into what used to be the Dollhouse.

There, some died, some killed, some were discovered and some destroyed … in a way that would only make sense if you had 10,000 words to spare and had seen it already. Long story short: the characters fighting against the personality implants and movable skill sets were more interesting than the characters working with them.

Also, the characters were more interesting to hold on to - particularly Felicia Day as one of the actuals, though many of the regular cast members were brilliant too. They engaged. Properly, honestly, engaged. Not because it was Eliza-light as an episode: though that was a bonus, but because they were real people wanting real things. And that makes an awfully real amount of difference.

What the future holds

Not great things, it must be said. Interestingly, while Haunted itself was not one of the later half of the season’s greatest episodes, some of the plot threads here pick up on the ideas that were first introduced there (unsurprisingly as Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, credited on this, also wrote on Haunted, along with Jane Espenson) - notably the idea of a living personality belonging to a real person being transplanted into one of the dolls in a rather sinister eternal life scenario.

By characters

 By the time we see Victor again, housing the personality of one of the posh owners of the Dollhouse, he appears to be unslashed. Dr Saunders/Whiskey too. Hurrah for the unslashing drug someone’s invented!

 Topher has gone completely mad. The knowledge of his part in the apocalypse raging outside has driven Topher into a deep dark hole of despair and insanity. Perhaps a new un-inaning drug could be next from the unslash people?

 Adele DeWitt seems to have to spent at least some of the last 10 years atoning for her previous life and becoming more of a likeable character. Which is nice.

 Echo/Caroline/38 Other Personalities seems to be in charge of leading the saved, or the consciously-imprinted, or the actuals, into Safe Haven. Goodness knows where that is, but it’s somewhere that can be reached by climbing out of Adele DeWitt’s office (which was, we note, on the 20th floor, far above the underground position of the Dollhouse as mentioned in a previous episode).

Other

 Dr Saunders (Claire/Whiskey) and Boyd appear to be in love. Which is nice.

 However, Boyd seems to have done something that’s causing him to be on the run from the Dollhouse and/or the people now nefariously in charge of it. Which isn’t very nice (for him), but is, at least, intriguing.

 Victor and Sierra survive the existing model of the dollhouse, with apparently their own personalities (not a corporate doll-personality, in the case of Victor) - which is also nice.

 Alpha may have reformed, if someone’s reference to him as being someone who has saved people from being wiped at Safe Haven. However …

 Whedon has suggested in a number of panels and interviews since, that any memory belonging to a doll may not be trustworthy. Basically, since some or all of what we saw in Epitaph One might be doll-memories, or memory-constructs, they may not be a dependable source. However; since we cannot know which of the employees of the dollhouse may be, or have been dolls for sure, and which memories belonged to who, then Whedon’s pretty much given himself a steel exit-tunnel for any plot hole he may find himself in in the future. He’ll have to pay the dry cleaning bills for the grammatical mess he’s made us get into on the way, though.

And in conclusion

I admit, I started this season wanting to love it a lot more than I actually loved it. But I end it, as a fan, being glad I started and stuck with it. The standalone episodes were interesting, as the less budget, more concept approach seems to work - which is excellent, because less budget was one of Fox’s conditions for the show’s return.

But what’s going to be interesting is seeing how the show can bridge the gap for both the people who have seen this 13th episode; international viewers, people keen enough on the show to have bought the DVD set that will include it - and the people who haven’t, ie anyone watching it on regular US television. How they will tie the two audiences together and continue moving in this much more satisfying direction is going to be interesting to watch.

And the more ensemblish way that can be done, in my view, the better - because seriously, when you’ve got an ensemble this good, why place so much of the burden on one small set of shoulders?

But that’s just my view, and what do I know? What was your view - and how do you view what’s to come?