Dollhouse's Epitaph

Last night, Dollhouse got to do what few cancelled shows are able to: air a series finale. And not a season finale that maybe sorta not really can function as a series finale, or a pseudo series finale that clearly leaves room for another season, but an actual end. And while, much like most of this season, the final hour felt like it could have used a whole lot more episodes to tell the story (at the very least two hours would have been nice), it still gave closure for all of us fans still watching.

Picking up where the DVD-only Epitaph One ended, Epitaph Two began in 2020 with Epitaph One survivors Felicia Day, Zone, and little-girl-imprinted-as-Caroline making their way to Safe Haven in a postapocalyptic world where tech has gotten so out of control that most of the world has either been imprinted or lives in the blankslate mode of unimprinted dolls (if you can follow that sentence, you're definitely a fan). Thankfully, they quickly meet up with the rest of the gang, so unlike Epitaph One we get to experience the finale through all of our main characters (well, minus Boyd and Whiskey).

So where are they ten years in the future? Well, it seems Boyd's vaccine survived even if Rossum headquarters didn't, and they were able to protect themselves from imprint-palooza. Echo and Ballard roam the world shooting down various incarnations of Harding and Clyde (guess Boyd was the only Rossum bigshot not to back himself up), Priya/Sierra had a kid, and Tony/Victor got so obsessed with mental upgrades Priya wouldn't even tell the kid Tony's his dad. Topher got the darkest future, driven crazy while forced to work for the Rossum survivors on a way to imprint the rest of the world.

I'm still not sure I understand why Rossum wanted to create an apocalypse in the first place. I think Boyd thought it was inevitable so just wanted to survive it, but that doesn't explain the rest. Anyway, the plot begins when Echo and Ballard find Topher, who believes he can make the world right again, as long as he can return to the Dollhouse. So return to LA they do, where the zombie-like Butchers stand guarding the entrance and holy shit shoot Ballard in the head. And Echo doesn't even react, just moves on. Crazy.

More surprises await inside the Dollhouse, where Alpha is waiting....to greet them? Yes, somewhere in the past ten years he became a good guy, and sane. This was one of the places where we really did miss seeing what happened in those ten years, since Alpha as a good guy just isn't as fun as bad Alpha. And forgive me if I'm forgetting, but wasn't Whiskey still in the Dollhouse when Felicia Day left at the end of Epitaph One? How come she couldn't show up in the finale (other than a commitment to an ABC show that may never actually air)?

Thanks to a video of Bennett (nice touch), Topher figured out how to make his pulse bomb, but had to be there to release it himself, giving the typically heroic death to a complicated character. While the rest of the world woke up (did they fall asleep?), our gang was forced to remain in the Dollhouse so they wouldn't forget the past ten years, except for De Witt, who was assigned to lead the new world order. It was a little like the Buffy finale, when all the Potential Slayers were awoken and Giles restarted the Watchers Council to teach them what to do. And with a year to reconnect with Ballard, now imprinted into her increasingly crowded brain, Echo lay down in the pod to rest.

All in all, it was a satisfying finale that tied up most loose ends and left everyone in a secure place. But I wouldn't say it was a great series finale in the level that Buffy's was. With that ten year gap standing in the way, I couldn't help but feel that I didn't really know the characters as well (even if they certainly didn't look ten years older). Since they barely figured into Epitaph One, there's a lot of missing pieces in this story. And with so much plot happening so fast, it definitely felt a bit rushed (after ten years, Topher saves the world in like 30 seconds). Plus, after hiding it well all season, Dollhouse's low budget showed itself pretty clearly in the unconvincing apocalyptic world.

Still, the rush that was the second half of this season, filling each episode with so many crazy reveals and so much character growth, will surely help cement this as a cult classic-to-be on DVD. You can't fault Fox too much, as most networks wouldn't have granted the second season in the first place, and certainly not allowed it to air all its episodes without too long a break (remember what ABC did with Pushing Daisies' final 3 pisodes?). Dollhouse had plenty of flaws and was never going to be a mass-audience success, but it was surely one of the most original shows to ever make it on TV. I'm certainly glad I stuck with it, and if you didn't, check it out sometime.