Dollhouse Review Blog

The first season of “Dollhouse” never seemed to live up to its full potential. Part of that was the network interference that has been discussed on several occasions, but part of it was also the decision to spend much of the first season setting up the notion of Echo as something special.

Joss Whedon had some very interesting ideas for what to do with “Dollhouse”. There were several layers at work in the conceptual basis of the show, and it was mostly a meditation on identity and free will. The Dolls were a metaphor for those willingly handing over their lives to the corporate programming that tries to tell us who we want to be. On a fundamental level, the clients were the rich and entitled, and the Dolls were molded into whatever kind of plaything the clients wanted them to be. And of course, there was little or no concern for the individual that the Doll had been before the process began.

I’ve said before that this could be seen, very loosely, as a commentary on the entertainment industry. Considering that the genesis of the series was a conversation between Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku in the days leading up to the writers’ strike of 2008, during a period when the actors’ guild was also in the midst of contentious talks, it’s not surprising that this undercurrent was there from the very beginning.

After all, the Dolls are like actors. Actors are individuals that play the roles they are paid to play. But very often, the individual wants and desires of the actors are dismissed by those who want the actors to be defined and stereotyped by their roles. Eliza in particular had been branded the sexual bad girl, for example, and even many of her fans had little desire to see her portray anything else. In terms of the analogy, Eliza is Echo, trying to break out of the mold of expectation and display her individuality on her own terms.

These themes ultimately play out in an ever more complicated fashion, as questions of the truth of consciousness meld with the questions of identity. How connected is the human mind to the human body, and what happens to the value of a human life when the mind can be preserved, nearly intact, independent of the flesh? And when the ability to overwrite the control over a person’s body becomes available, how long would it take for that to lead to anarchy?

All great fodder for a science fiction series, and sure enough, the foundation for many of the elements that appeared in the unaired finale for the first season, “Epitaph One”. It was the promise of those concepts that made fans so eager to see the second season. But there were also some fundamental issues that lingered.

The show itself was often promoted based on Eliza’s sexuality, and as other characters entered the fold, there were huge questions of consent. Apparently Whedon had originally intended to explore these sexual aspects in more depth, but the network balked. Whether or not that would have mitigated some of the seemingly discordant examples of fan service in the first season is hard to say; I personally suspect that the audience would have been confronted with a more overt debate over consent if Whedon would have had his way.

Also, the first season was weakened by the fact that the only persistent characters in the story, the Dollhouse administrative personnel, were portrayed in a somewhat positive light. The audience was being told that we were supposed to like people that were prostituting the Dolls to dangerous and even psychotic clients. While it would eventually become clear that this particular Dollhouse was run by characters capable of redemption, the spin placed on those characters convinced many that Whedon was trying to justify or even advocate the treatment of the Dolls.

The second season tried to address these issues, and for the most part, it was successful. In the first season, Echo was mostly under the firm control of the Dollhouse; in the second season, Echo began to develop a composite personality, based on the unexpected residual effect of each and every imprint. Even better, Echo’s core personality was more and more similar to her original Caroline personality, exploring the notion that identity can be overwritten by societal programming, but never completely lost.

Echo’s struggle for control over her own destiny throughout the second season was in perfect counterpoint to the fans’ knowledge, from “Epitaph One”, that her campaign to bring down Rossum (the corporation behind the Dollhouse technology) was going to end in the downfall of modern civilization. Echo even became aware, in the brilliant episode “The Attic”, that this future apocalypse was all but certain. So one of the beautiful ironies of the second season was that interplay between Echo’s growing sense of free will and the destined downfall of the modern world.

Because it was very clear from the start of the second season that the renewal was a gift, and that the season was a chance to tell the “Dollhouse” story in a much condensed format, little time was wasted. The plot unfolded at a blistering pace, and while some plot and character elements simply couldn’t be resolved, the majority of the main arcs were handled with unusual deftness. It was, until the last few episodes, a thrilling example of just what a Whedon writing staff is capable of producing.

That is, until the writers introduced one plot twist that, in the balance, dramatically hurt both the season and the series as a whole. Close to the end, it was revealed that Boyd, Echo’s longtime handler and one of her closest allies, was in fact the secret mastermind behind Rossum. His reason for fostering Echo’s development of a self-directed composite personality? To prove that Caroline’s body, with some super-special immunity to the mind-wipe technology, would be able to provide Rossum and selected individuals with a means to survive the impending societal collapse.

Fans immediately recognized what the writers later admitted: that the Boyd reveal was never part of the original concept for the series, and so of course it didn’t track with his choices and actions in the first season. But even more frustrating, the reason for Caroline’s importance in the story (and therefore Echo’s importance) made no sense when the character arcs for Victor and Sierra were taken into account.

For most of the series, it was slowly hinted that the mind-wipe technology was flawed, and that the original personality was still resident underneath the imprinted personalities. The net effect was the eventual development of a composite personality that took the fundamentals of the original person, the imprinted abilities and knowledge, and combined them. Echo was the most developed, since she was being helped along by various means, but Victor and Sierra were also showing the same kind of development. Because they loved each other, there were connections made that the imprinting could not overcome.

By the logic of “The Hollow Men”, that never should have happened. Only Caroline/Echo should have had the innate ability to overcome the programming and develop an immunity to the mind-wipe technology. And while that was ultimately the way the other characters were treated in the series finale, “Epitaph Two”, it just wasn’t a satisfying way to resolve the development of Echo, Victor, and Sierra over the course of the series.

The second season of “Dollhouse” earned a Critical Myth rating of 7.8, well above average and a solid improvement over the first season (7.3). “Dollhouse” was also one of only two shows to improve over the previous season. This reflects how well the writers managed to condense the mythology of the series into essentially twelve episodes. Barring a few last-minute reveals that didn’t quite add up, thus damaging the cohesive whole, the season successfully placed the focus on the larger philosophical concepts that Whedon originally wanted to explore.

Written by Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Andrew Chambliss
Directed by David Solomon

It’s interesting to note that many fans also felt that the writers went a step too far with the Boyd reveal in “Getting Closer”, and that it hobbled the ability to bring the resolution of the season/series to a fitting and satisfactory end. It’s true that many writers manage to provide a near-perfect setup, only to struggle with the payoff. Joss Whedon has been more successful than others over the course of his career, but his writing teams are hardly immune.

Some have wondered if the existence of “Epitaph One” was the problem. Having set that future in stone, the writers were locked onto a path with a known destination. And with only twelve episodes to get from the first season finale to the basis for that apocalyptic future, the writers were facing down quite a challenge. In that respect, it’s amazing that they managed to make it fit together as well as they did.

Yet I think that “Epitaph One” gave them a goal to achieve, which served to tighten the focus for most of the season. The only problem came when they tried to get too cute with the twists and turns. The Boyd/Whiskey reveal did explain why Rossum lost control of the tech, but it also made it impossible for some of the dots to be connected. Many of the “flashbacks” in “Epitaph One” are left with only the slightest hint of context, and the presence of Whiskey in 2019 doesn’t fit at all.

Having now seen the series’ conclusion, set after “Epitaph One” and bringing the story to a close, I’m even less enamored of the Boyd reveal. The time that was spent making that work could have been used to make better sense of Caroline’s importance, Alpha’s role in the grand plan, and the preparations made in the wake of Rossum’s corporate beheading.

Ironically, while Caroline/Echo’s unique nature was touted in “The Hollow Men” (however inconsistent with the earlier hints that Victor and Sierra had similar developing immunity), it had almost nothing to do with the final solution to the wiping problem. It just explained, more or less, why Echo was able to lead the resistance. But was a specific explanation necessary?

After all, her immunity to the wiping process was already evident, and left alone, it also would have made more sense. Consider that the implication for most of the second season was that a certain percentage of Dolls would, over time, develop composite personalities that were, in essence, reflections or “echoes” of their original selves. The more a Doll was wiped and reprogrammed, the more likely the compositing would take place.

Left alone, this would have explained why so many of the Dolls survived to make it to Safe Haven, and why they would be able to resist the tech. It also could have formed the basis for the restoration of civilization: that there were some pockets still out there surviving, having developed composite immunity over time. Topher’s final solution might have still been the same, but at least it would have connected better than the ultra-specific explanation given for Echo’s development.

As it is, this series finale was merely functional. It didn’t have the stunning gravitas of “Epitaph One”. There wasn’t the same crushing sense of hopelessness. Part of that was the recognition that the only resolution, once Topher came on the scene, would be a successful mission to save what was left of the world. Topher’s final act of genius would, in one instant, wipe out the remnants of Rossum’s middle-management, kill the tech, and give humanity a chance to rebuild. Even with tragedy along the way, it had to end on that semi-optimistic note. I just couldn’t see Joss taking it the other, far more crushing direction.

The presence of two Caroline’s never seemed to pay off, despite early hints that there would be a purpose to it. The tension between Anthony and Priya was a bit unexpected, but it was a natural enough extension of Anthony’s appreciation of his tech-based mojo in “The Hollow Men” for it to make sense. Thankfully, the writers chose to allow Anthony and Priya to find happiness with their son; that’s a rare commodity in a Joss production.

The showdown with Harding and Ambrose simply did not work, largely because the actors were annoying and there wasn’t enough time to give the audience a reason to care. It was one of those moments that had to be there to ensure that the audience understood the link between “The Hollow Men” and this episode, but it just felt rushed. And Neuropolis was the sort of thing that sounds clever in the writing room, but is just corny on-screen.

I already mentioned the issue with Whiskey. Fans that never saw “Epitaph One” will never think to ask the question, but how did Whiskey go from being a meat-suit for Clyde 2.0 to the bizarre servitor of the Dollhouse in “Epitaph One”? There wasn’t even a hint of how that happened. And since the copy of Caroline only served to bring Zone and Mag to Safe Haven via Neuropolis, it just wasn’t a great payoff to Whiskey’s apparent importance in that prior episode.

Also, there was never a payoff to Dominic’s presence in the Attic, beyond triggering some of what happened in “Getting Closer”. I was hoping that “Epitaph Two” would tie up that particular loose thread, even in passing, and it never happened. It seems as though the trip to the Attic was to provide some necessary exposition and give the characters something of an early warning sign, and nothing else. Considering some of the implications from “The Attic”, that was a letdown.

While a lot of the problems were a lack of follow-through on previous plot and character threads, there was also a problem with execution. This series finale may have been too ambitious for its own good. Many of the action set pieces were terribly staged, and poorly directed. The writers tried to mitigate the issue within the dialogue, but it’s clear that the budget and shooting schedule issues got in the way of meeting the original intentions.

While I thought a lot of things didn’t quite work, and that the writers failed to live up to the promise of “Epitaph One”, there were things I did like. First and foremost, Topher’s final moments were an amazing turn for the character. Topher’s character arc was one of the best aspects of the series. As central as Echo was to the entire progression of the plot, Topher became one of the reasons to keep watching.

I also loved how well the writers handled the Echo/Alpha/Paul subplot. It was never overtly explained, but Alpha was clearly changed by the inclusion of Paul’s mind into his composite personality. And when Paul died, Alpha understood that there was nothing to be gained by having Paul erased from his brain like the rest of his mental menagerie. His final gift to Echo, a copy of Paul to upload into her mind for the rest of her life, was a beautiful payoff to “A Love Supreme”.

It’s unlikely that the writers could have given the series a sense of full resolution with this episode. At best, the plot and character arcs would have been given some degree of closure, and for the most part, that’s what was accomplished. The rough nature of the resolution is largely a symptom of circumstance; the writers did what they thought was best with the time they had left. It’s probably no surprise that some of the choices wouldn’t quite work, and it’s unfortunate that many of those questionable choices were concentrated at the end of the run.

On the other hand, I’m still left with a desire to see where the story would go from here. I understand that Joss has said that he considers “Dollhouse” to have come to its end with this finale, and that there are no plans for a “Dollhouse: Season 3” comic book treatment. And this does work well enough as a firm ending. For my own part, I’d love to see how the world would recover from a long-term disaster on this scale.

Whatever the case, “Dollhouse” has come to its end, and Joss Whedon managed to tell a relatively complete story despite poor ratings, network intervention, and a flawed premise. I personally feel that the story as a whole mitigates much of the early criticism of the premise, though there are aspects that will always be put to understandable question. So perhaps it makes sense that “Epitaph Two” is a flawed but ambitious finale to a flawed but ambitious series.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 6/10

(Season 2 Final Rating: 7.8)

(Series Final Rating: 7.6)

Written by Tracy Bellomo, Michele Fazekas, and Tara Butters
Directed by Terrence O’Hara

It’s often the case that “episode by committee” results in a lackluster, scattershot final product. This is particularly the case when the episode is designed to bring a series to a relative conclusion, wrapping up several plot arcs with as much efficiency as possible. The final script may be the sum of the contributions of the entire writers’ room, but having a strong and deft hand bring it together can be a godsend.

That was the case with the previous episode, in which Tim Minear managed to take an over-stuffed hour and make it work, despite several flashbacks and plenty of twists. This episode was short on the revelations by comparison. And that was a major problem, because this was the episode that had to make complete sense of Boyd’s motivations, given the reveal that he was the secret co-founder of Rossum (and not Clyde 2.0, as I had mistakenly believed). The integrity of the entire series comes down to making that work.

Based on this episode, the logic is fleeting. Here is how I interpret the direct and indirect aspects of the story:

The founders of Rossum developed the Dollhouse technology, but Clyde quickly came to the conclusion that the technology would get out of control and lead to the destruction of civilization. Rather than destroy the technology, as Clyde would have preferred, the founder and Clyde 2.0 chose to accept the fact that the genie was out of the bottle and develop a covert program to find a way to survive the apocalypse of their own making.

Using their massive healthcare infrastructure, they selected candidates for their Dollhouses that had the potential for a natural immunity to the technology. They also hired technical experts who could take the technology to the tipping point, in the hopes that those same individuals would then have the knowledge and experience to develop a defense. Eventually, an anti-Rossum activist named Caroline came to the attention of the founders, and it just so happened that her biochemistry was perfect for development of a “vaccine” against the wiping technology.

Thus “Boyd” contrived to get himself placed as a handler in a local Dollhouse, ensured that Caroline became a Doll, and cultivated the eventual development of the Echo persona because it was a direct consequence of her natural anti-wiping immunity. While other Dolls had limited success in demonstrating resistance to full wipes, especially Alpha, Echo was unique in how her underlying personality as Caroline managed to serve as a foundation for the Echo persona.

In the process, “Boyd” came to feel that Adele, Topher, and Echo were all worthy of surviving the coming fall of civilization, and designed the “resistance scenario” to push Echo to full realization. The final endgame was to eliminate anyone not meant to survive who could interfere in the survival plan. Unfortunately for “Boyd” and his partner, their little plan didn’t account for the free will of the individuals in question, and they brought about their own destruction.

Ironically, what seems like a victory is actually the catalyst for the events seen in “Epitaph One”. In a way, “Boyd” was correct; being the source of the tech also gave them the knowledge base to counter the tech when the time came. Knowing the end was coming, their plan was reasonable enough; it was just tainted with massive self-interest. But Team Echo’s elimination of the founders (at least “Boyd”, and presumably Clyde 2.0 in the creation of the Whiskey seen in “Epitaph One”) only makes it that much easier for someone to steal and abuse the tech, and ensures that it will take that much longer to produce a solution without the Rossum infrastructure to facilitate it.

Clearly, if this is an accurate summary of the overarching story of “Dollhouse”, there is a terrific irony to it. Rossum’s founders, despite their self-interested brand of ethics, could be seen as semi-heroic, since they are trying to find a solution to a mess they created. By creating Echo, they are partly responsible for whatever she does in the future, good or bad. It definitely makes one think about the relativity of good and evil.

But that scope was also not part of the show’s original DNA, especially given that Boyd’s true identity was only conceived in the early planning stages of the second season. Joss and the writers were in a constant battle with FOX over the direction of the series, and it’s well documented that FOX was the one that pushed the whole Rossum conspiracy angle. Once something of that scope was shoe-horned into the series, it was a question of having the time and space to explore it properly.

As much as “Epitaph One” gave the writers a punch list of plot and character points to achieve by the end of the second, they had to take a roughly five-season plan and condense it into a total of perhaps 10 episodes, once they knew the writing was on the wall. It’s shocking how strong most of those episodes were, given what had to be covered. The “Boyd” scenario may have facilitated that compression, but it also doesn’t quite feel like the writers could make it all fit together. Too much of the overarching story is based on conjecture.

As a result, despite the relative resolution, the episode feels a bit incomplete. The cast does its best to make it all work, but many of the twists and turns don’t feel earned. To be fair, there just wasn’t time to earn each and every payoff, but this is where the decision to include the “Boyd” twist may have been a mistake. It introduced a major complication at the very end of the story, and there just wasn’t any time to explore the ramifications properly.

There is still one episode left, so it’s possible that “Epitaph Two” will provide enough perspective to smooth over some of the gaps. But it may be that this was the best solution the writers could conceive with the time they had left. If so, they deserve credit for doing everything possible to make “Dollhouse” a relatively complete story, but the cost was an episode that just doesn’t quite work.

Writing: 1/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 6/10

Written by Tim Minear
Directed by Tim Minear

This is one of those episodes that comes along and hits you square in the mouth, leaving you reeling and wondering what the hell just happened. The sheer plot density of this episode is so extreme that it could take several viewings to catch all the references and connections to what has come before. In fact, it’s so dense that I’m not sure if it was a rousing success or a resounding failure.

It may not matter, given that the density of the plot is a direct consequence of the series’ cancellation. The writers had to compress the storyline in a major way, and that meant answering questions at a ridiculous pace. I’ll give the writers full credit for providing those answers. We have an enormous amount of context to parse out now, and the vast majority of it fits with everything that has been seen before. Any new wrinkles are sure to be addressed in the final two hours.

We now have the full context for everything that happened between Caroline and Bennett, and it turns out that Caroline is neither the angel she was originally portrayed to be nor the devil that she has been cast as more recently. In fact, Caroline was effectively damned by her own success. Her initial discoveries of the Rossum human experiments emboldened her idealism, and in the end, she was trapped by her own choices.

It’s interesting to learn that Caroline’s tenure in the Dollhouse was a direct result of the incident that destroyed Bennett’s arm. It ties the story up with a nice little bow. Of course, the assumption was that Caroline discovered the identity of the two individuals running Rossum through some sort of trickery, and that’s not at all what happened.

The revelation that Boyd is “Clyde 2.0” is a stunner. It completely changes the nature of the game. Yet, at the same time, it doesn’t feel like something that was decided late in the game to give the series a quick resolution. Boyd’s past history has always been very sketchy, and of all the main characters in Echo’s life, he had the least definition. And right from the beginning, he was framed in a way that led the audience to trust his intentions towards Echo without question.

In terms of the big picture, since the beginning of the series right through to “The Attic”, it was a reasonable assumption that Caroline was sent to the Dollhouse to ensure that her knowledge would never be revealed and she would never become a threat. And generally speaking, it would be logical to assume that Boyd reprogrammed Whiskey to kill anyone who tried to restore Caroline for the same reasons. Yet, why wouldn’t Whiskey have killed Topher or Ivy as well? Why just Bennett?

For that matter, Boyd was front and center for Echo’s entire development and has been aiding Echo’s little resistance movement all along. If the intention was to bury Caroline within the Dollhouse to ensure that her knowledge was never made public, to protect Rossum’s long-term goals for the world, why allow that to happen?

The implication is that Rossum’s surveillance of Caroline led Rossum to believe that she would be able to help them implement a completely different plan. A plan that required Caroline herself to be out of the picture, but the development of a Doll-persona that was based on Caroline’s underlying desire to seek out the truth. After all, as the parallel story structure of this episode demonstrates, Echo can be just as driven as Caroline, and a whole lot more ruthless.

The question is: if Boyd/Clyde 2.0 wanted Echo to emerge as she has, and wanted to help Echo, what was his true motive in doing so? It wouldn’t be to destroy Rossum, and it’s hard to believe that it would have been a desire to bring about the end of civilization. It could be something as simple as rooting out problematic individuals within the organization, but that doesn’t track, either. After all, most of the situations that led to the emergence of a resistance within the Dollhouse network were the direct fallout of Echo’s activities. Stop Echo from coming into existence, and there is no resistance.

So much of the rest of the episode was devoted to filling in the gaps between the “present” and “Epitaph One”. Some of the scenes are right out of the previous episode, so it feels almost seamless. I would expect that many other pieces will fit into the next episode. Topher’s eventual mental collapse could now come out of a combination of factors: his guilt over the development of the remote wipe technology as well as the loss of Bennett.

But those connections almost feel like a minor consideration now. The integrity of the entire story now rests on satisfactory resolution of Boyd/Clyde 2.0’s true intentions for Echo. Boyd has to have a reason for allowing Echo to exist. Anyone going back through the series from beginning to end should be able to see how Boyd’s true intentions make sense within the context of what was shown. If not, and if the writers just gloss over the inconsistencies, then all the work to line up the second season with “Epitaph One” will have been for nothing.

To be fair, that is a litmus test that the final two episodes will have to pass. This episode should be judged on its own merits. And in that respect, I think it comes down to whether or not the episode tried to deliver too much information too quickly. I think this took over-saturation right to the edge, but didn’t quite step over the line. And given that the density of the episode was born of necessity, not choice, I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

Written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen
Directed by John Cassaday

(Note: This review covers the second half of the two-episode event that aired on 18 December, 2009. A previous review covered the first half of the event.)

Just when I think I know where a story is going, Joss manages to throw a curve ball that changes the game. This is one of those cases where I was right to an extent, but I just didn’t see how all the pieces could fall into place. Thankfully, the writers knew what they were doing, and it’s clear that they had answers to basic questions waiting in the wings.

As it turns out, Adele was playing a dangerous game with Rossum, using her new Draconian methods to organize a resistance. She can’t hope to have this movement go unnoticed for long, but it shouldn’t need to linger. The damage is already done. It’s just a matter of determining whether or not this resistance simply fails or brings down severe unintended consequences on the world.

I was floored when the pieces finally started to come together. So Caroline, anti-Rossum activist, found out the names of the two people responsible for the plan to take control of the world through mind wiping. (It sounds silly put that way, but that’s what it amounts to in the end.) As a result, when Caroline was captured, she was effectively forced into becoming a Doll, as seen in the first season. This was meant to eliminate the threat that Caroline posed, but they never suspected that a Doll would ever exceed programming like Echo has.

Given Echo’s nature, she has now absorbed every skill she could possibly want or need to survive what’s coming. She also has a team in Paul, Victor, and Sierra. With the knowledge that the Attic “mainframe” has concluded that the future seen in “Epitaph One” has a 97% probability of coming true, all that is needed for the final mix to come together is the return of Whiskey. At that point, the stage would be fully set for the events alluded to in “Epitaph One” to take place.

The end result must be that Adele, Topher, and most of the Dolls in the Los Angeles branch must remain intact and in operation, with Caroline/Echo and Paul escaping to find Safe Haven (and, perhaps, a changed Alpha). After all, Victor is eventually imprinted with a copy of Clive Ambrose, and at that point, Adele and Topher are still considered loyal Rossum employees (unless, of course, that scene from “Epitaph One” took place in the three-month gap seen in “Meet Jane Doe”).

It seems abundantly clear to me that while the series timeline was accelerated to hit all the high points, this is where the story was meant to go. It just would have gotten there at a slower pace, had the show been a hit. I just love the idea that the entire series is going to feel complete when it’s over, thanks to the capstones of “Epitaph One” and the impending “Epitaph Two”. It’s now very clear that the second season was all about wrapping up loose ends, one step at a time.

I can see the story taking two different directions, both arriving at the same point. The first is the most likely: that the circumstances of this resistance, combined with Bennett’s desire for revenge, will force Adele to send Caroline/Echo and Paul out. This would explain how both Echo and Adele could see themselves as part of a resistance, yet still see each other as adversaries. This would leave Echo’s conversation with Dominic in the virtual “mainframe” world as a potential plot point for resolving things in “Epitaph Two”.

The other direction would be harder to pull off with the short time remaining. It might be that Adele and Echo try to use Dominic and the revelations about the Attic to their advantage sooner rather than later. This might introduce a weakness in the Rossum system security that fails to give the resistance a path to victory, but eventually allows someone else to come in and take control of the technology. After all, we don’t know how Rossum lost control of the tech, only that it happened.

Beyond the massive continuity and mythology connections, this episode is also one of the most visually impressive episodes of “Dollhouse”. The guest director (John Cassaday of comics fame, who worked with Joss on “Astonishing X-Men”) had a clear sense of visual communication, and the imagery helped to communicate the familiar chaos at the heart of the Attic. On nearly every level, this was yet another triumph for this surprising second season.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

Written by Andrew Chambliss
Directed by Felix Enriquez Alcala

(Note: This review covers the first half of the two-episode event that aired on 18 December, 2009. This review was written without prior knowledge of the events in the second episode. A subsequent review will cover the second half of the event.)

While FOX may be using December to burn off as many episodes of “Dollhouse” as possible, it is having a terrible effect on fans of the show. There has been a marked improvement in the overall treatment of the series premise and the pace of the plot, and both enhancements make it clear that the show had enormous potential. More and more, I believe that the slow and inconsistent start to the first season, as well as the questionable choice of the story’s starting point, undercut the series from the get-go.

There are still some episodic elements left, but for the most part, this is now in full serialization mode. Every situation folds into the larger context in some way, shape, or form. Not only does this episode pay off a number of elements related to Victor and Sierra, but it also touches on the world seen in “Epitaph One” and Echo’s journey of self-discovery. (The writers said the entire second season would be informed by and tie into “Epitaph One”, and they were absolutely right.)

As it turns out, Rossum not only has the Dollhouse network primed and ready to help take over the world through mind control, but they also have an entire mercenary army in development. Some of the same control technology is at play, which provides a pragmatic example of how Echo’s development has made her something far beyond Rossum’s control. But it also underscores the fact that the vast majority of the human population has no defense against the technology about to be unleashed.

It’s good to see Victor’s back story, and I liked all the connections made to “Belonging” and Priya’s ordeal. I was surprised to see that Topher intentionally left Priya with the memory that she wanted erased because of the Victor/Priya aspect; that continues to show that Topher is developing a human sense of morality. It’s a fair bet that it is this very quality that will ultimately drive him insane.

While I liked the connection between Victor’s past and the overall Rossum conspiracy, I found the big picture to be more intriguing. Boyd and Topher make a move without Adele’s authorization, and they seem shocked when her response is swift and harsh. They don’t seem to understand the full implications of what happened during Adele’s restoration. Shouldn’t they have recognized that Rossum would be watching far more closely than before?

Despite Adele’s actions in this episode, I still think she is trying to do what is best. I think she’s more aware of Echo’s unique characteristics than she has led Boyd or Topher to believe, and that her decision to send Echo, Victor, and Sierra to the Attic speaks to a hidden agenda. After all, while she is deeply upset that her perfectly programmed lover spurned her because of his love for Sierra, she must recognize that this level of association between Dolls is unusual. It is also not too far removed from Echo’s pre-awareness state from the first season.

My suspicion is that Adele understood that allowing Echo to free Victor and Priya would have forced Rossum to re-take control of the Los Angeles branch. Given Adele’s protective stance towards her Dolls, that would be unacceptable. Therefore, the only alternative is to take swift action of her own, to demonstrate that she has no intention of letting her house get out of order again.

Adele has to know that the process typically used to prepare Dolls and others for the Attic is unlikey to work the same on Echo as it has on others. If Victor and Sierra are, in fact, in a pre-awareness state, then it probably wouldn’t work completely on them, either. So Adele’s true goal may be to place Echo in a situation that will unleash her potential once and for all.

The upshot for Adele, at this point, is fairly limited. After all, once Echo’s tenure in the Attic is over, there will only be two episodes left before the return trip to the future in the series finale. That’s not a lot of time to explore consequences. So I think this is all about plausible deniability. When Echo emerges from the Attic (and it seems fairly obvious that she will), Adele and her house wouldn’t necessarily be punished for it.

But as I’ve said before, it must be remembered that this part of the story does not end well. The future is dark and apocalyptic, and it is because Echo’s efforts in the “present” fail. She doesn’t stop Rossum. It may be that the series will end with the familiar characters, at least those who have survived, finding a place of sanctuary and safety. It could be that Alpha’s “safe haven” is a place where people can be given some degree of immunity to the mind-wipe technology. Whatever it may turn out to be, we know it will be only a sliver of hope, not a happy ending.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 7/10

Written by Jenny DeArmitt
Directed by David Straiton

(Note: This review covers the second half of the two-episode event that aired on 11 December, 2009. A previous review covered the first half of the event.)

When you already know the game is lost, sometimes you give up. You just phone it in and wait for the next season. But sometimes, it’s just an opportunity to throw caution to the wind and swing for the fences. “Dollhouse” may be going, but it is not going quietly.

The first season’s climactic encounter with Alpha always felt a bit like a prelude, because while it set the stage for Echo’s evolution into a distinct personality, it didn’t resolve as strongly as it could have. This episode finally pays off Alpha’s intentions towards Echo, and it is not pretty. It also throws quite a few assumptions out the window, at least in terms of the pacing and the content of the rest of the season/series.

After the previous episode, I was sure that Echo’s true nature would be hidden for a little while longer. When Topher was brought into the conspiracy, I thought it might have been the payoff for his displeasure with Adele, a grasp at atonement for his role in creating the most dangerous technology imaginable. There is something poetic about the notion of Topher using the last of his sanity to ensure that Echo is fully prepared to face the consequences of his actions.

So I was shocked when Alpha’s latest assault on the Dollhouse resulted in Adele’s discovery of Echo’s true nature. It felt like it happened too quickly, especially right after the three month leap that took place in the previous episode. If anything, this is a clear sign that Joss and the rest of the gang recognized their likely fate, and chose to cram as much of the story into the episodes they had left.

It is, in the end, a minor point. If it hurts the flow of the season, that won’t be fully apparent until the next couple episodes. It doesn’t undermine the strength of this episode and its connections to the grand scheme of the series. It’s still all about the nature of mind and body, and how the status quo arrives at the world seen in “Epitaph One”.

Alpha is right in this respect: he helped to make Echo everything that she is. The difference, it seems, was the end result of the imprint compositing process. Alpha’s gestalt personality is an amoral psychopath (albeit with a rapier wit and an interesting sense of style). Echo, on the other hand, appears to be Alpha’s polar opposite. Echo’s inherent morality, mated with a desire to do what she thinks is best for a given situation, is a potent combination.

This incident might change that dynamic. Had the series continued into future seasons, I suspect Alpha would not have uploaded Ballard into his mosaic of imprints. Alternatively, if it did happen, I doubt the consequences would have been evident so quickly. My suspicion is that Ballard’s less obsessive love for Echo, as well as his sense of morality and understanding of Echo’s method of control over her own imprints, will allow him to exert an unexpected level of control over Alpha himself.

I suspect this because in “Epitaph One”, there is a stray comment that suggests that Alpha was eventually an ally for those seeking to survive the fall of civilization. While it could be that Echo simply defeats Alpha and then makes use of his resources, I think it’s more in keeping with the concepts inherent to the series if Echo and Alpha end up on the same page because Ballard takes command of Alpha.

After all, if Echo can take possession, so to speak, of Caroline’s body as a composite personality born of persistent imprints, then it stands to reason that any truly strong imprinted personality could do so. The headaches could be the result of Echo’s need to fight for control; when a particular imprinted personality is accessed, it could give that personality an inroad to challenge Echo.

In “Alpha”, it appeared that Alpha was having trouble maintaining dominance. As assured as he was in this episode, that earlier instability suggests that Ballard may have the right circumstances to survive as the dominant personality in Alpha’s body. He was able to push through for a little while, when he begged Echo to kill him. Even if Ballard doesn’t take control of Alpha, he could force a shift in Alpha’s base personality, thus mitigating the madness and the amorality.

For that reason, saving Ballard may be a futile effort. If Alpha ripped away Ballard’s mind, leaving Ballard’s body little more than a shell, what could really be done? The process seems to have gone far beyond turning someone into a Doll, so it doesn’t seem likely that a new personality could be imprinted. The question is whether or not Ballard’s original mind is still resident. If Alpha only made a copy, then it might be possible to restore Ballard if the damage can be undone. Of course, it might take someone like Bennett to make that happen, which would be interesting, to say the least.

Beyond the personal fallout for Echo, there’s now the question of what Adele might do. It’s not at all clear. She just managed to take back control of her house from her superiors, and that was based on perceived weaknesses in house security and personnel management. It’s hard to imagine that the house wouldn’t be under some form of surveillance, so Alpha’s incursion and Echo’s autonomy shouldn’t be a secret for very long. This will be a real test of Adele’s true motives.

This episode continues a six-episode winning streak, starting with “Belle Chose”. That alone makes this season a vast improvement over the first. I still think that the series has been fundamentally flawed, in terms of the disparity between sexualized promotion/presentation and the fundamental issues raised by the content, but the bulk of this season has been quite a ride.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

Written by Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, and Andrew Chambliss
Directed by Dwight Little

(Note: This review covers the first half of the two-episode event that aired on 11 December, 2009. This review was written without prior knowledge of the events in the second episode. A subsequent review will cover the second half of the event.)

This episode feels like a natural pivot point, summing up the fallout of the first half of the season while setting the final stretch into motion. By jumping ahead in time, the writers make it possible to bring the story closer to the beginnings of the apocalypse seen in “Epitaph One” while maintaining the connective threads to what has come before. It is all a fairly logical progression of the various plot and character beats, even if it seems like some elements are glossed over to make it all work.

It’s now quite clear that Echo is a distinct personality, as implied in the previous few episodes, and she has developed the ability to call upon the knowledge and muscle memory of her former imprints. It’s not an easy process, and it is having a physical toll in the form of headaches, but it’s not clear if there is a solution. After all, Echo is essentially immune to the wiping process, which means that any fix through that technology would be temporary at best.

It’s interesting to see Ballard struggle with the knowledge that Echo is now her own entity. Ballard’s ongoing mission to take down the Dollhouse network is now complicated by his personal interest in Echo. He doesn’t want to be the kind of person who would use a Doll, even if he already has, yet he has struggled with his attraction to Echo all season. Now the question emerges: does Echo have the right to Caroline’s body? What rights would Echo have in any real sense?

This is a classic science fiction question, usually reserved for artificial intelligence. If computer software becomes so advanced that it appears to have free will and the ability to exceed its programming, there are plenty of arguments for treating that new intelligence as a being with rights. But in this case, this is the result of the melding of deliberately generated false human personalities. Echo is more than the sum of her parts, and she was “born” within Caroline’s body. Does she have equal right to Caroline’s body, especially in Caroline’s absence? Or is her every action just as much a violation as the actions of the programmed personalities?

This is not an idle question. With Topher’s creation of the technology that will allow innocent people to be reprogrammed remotely, the separation of mind and body becomes real. It leads directly to the situation in “Epitaph One”, where there is a constant question of identity and integrity of self. If someone like Echo can emerge out of the programming, it’s not as clear cut as “original” and “program” anymore.

Even so, Echo herself seems to understand that she is still influenced by the demands of her programming. While the imprints give her an array of skills and a knowledge base that makes her a powerful asset, it also comes with all the rest of the baggage. All those romantic engagements leave her with an aggressive sexual appetite and a desire to be loved (and in love, one would imagine). It sounds like fan service on the surface, but it’s actually a logical consequence of the process that led to Echo’s creation.

With Ballard and Boyd still working together to bring Echo back to the Dollhouse in the hopes of bringing it down, there’s some small sense of hope for a positive outcome. The audience is given reason to think that it will be a challenge, but that it’s possible for the right people to win in the end. Of course, we know that’s not the case. “Epitaph One” made it plain that the future is far from bright, and that whatever gains are made are minor victories in a lost war.

Topher is already crushed by the fact that he has given Rossum a means of taking control of the world, and it’s evident that this will begin his downward spiral. Being betrayed by Adele can only contribute to the descent. He’s already well aware of the fact that Bennett is more than capable of unleashing his invention on the world. I’m not sure it would take much more to push him over the edge.

I understand that Adele did what was necessary to take back control of her house, but the price was high, and I’m not entirely sold on the idea that she would be given back her old job so easily, even after handing over the plans. The hierarchy has no vested interest in doing so. The house was running efficiently under the new management, and Echo was still at large. Perhaps she is still being watched carefully, and that explains her cold attitude regarding Echo. She may be playing a part. Even if that is the case, why wouldn’t she be forced to ship out Sierra and the others Dolls selected for Dubai?

I was pleased by something that Boyd said to Adele. Adele is uncomfortable with how the Dolls are being treated. She doesn’t like the fact that the Dolls are seen as expendable, as though it is perfectly moral to allow the Dolls to be hurt or killed if the client so desires. Boyd chides Adele, pointing out that they have always known what kind of business they were in, and what it meant. It’s just that they can’t lie to themselves about it anymore. I never bought into the notion that the writers were trying to say that the characters were right to do these things, so this was a nice confirmation.

Some have suggested that this, with a little retooling, would have made a much better starting point for the series. I can understand the sentiment. It resolves one of the main problems with the first season by giving Echo a distinct personality. It’s something that the story has been building towards since the first episode. I can understand how the writers would see that process as an interesting story in and of itself, but I wonder if this iteration of the status quo would have been a more popular choice.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Written by Tracy Bellomo
Directed by Wendey Stanzler

(Note: This review covers the second half of the two-episode event that aired on 04 December, 2009. A previous review covered the first half of the event.)

After the laundry list of revelations in the previous episode, it seems almost impossible that this follow-up would be able to match the intensity. That’s the typical drawback of two-part stories: the set-up is usually more interesting than the subsequent resolution. In this case, it’s less about revelation and more about consequence, which was the best direction to take.

That’s not to say that revelations were not at hand. There was a solid explanation for the connection between Bennett and Caroline, something that could tie back into the very first scene of the series premiere. During the first season, it was revealed that Caroline’s activities against Rossum as an activist brought her to a point where her only option was to become a Doll. Now we get some insight into that past.

The initial implications suggested that Caroline was an innocent, forced into this life of rape and degradation by circumstance. Her innocence is no longer a surety. In fact, Caroline could have been a domestic terrorist of sorts, even if her target is, in fact, an evil corporation that actually commits heinous acts of evil. Bennett appears to have been a victim of Caroline’s extreme methods, and there was definitely some betrayal involved.

It goes a long way towards explaining Bennett’s fractured psyche. How she then became a card-carrying member of Rossum’s Dollhouse network, complete with more amorality than Topher can handle, is a big question. Was she working for Rossum before the lab incident, or was she undercover for the activists? My suspicion is that Bennett chose to work with Rossum, despite Caroline’s misgivings, and that led to the lab incident.

I must give Summer Glau kudos for her nuanced performance as Bennett. Beyond the usual unusual characteristics, there was a fragility that might have been missed by a less capable performer. In some scenes, it seemed as though Summer had chosen to emulate Sigourney Weaver, which was a nice touch.

The reveal of Rossum’s plan was more or less what was expected. Perrin’s gambit was nothing more than a means of pulling in all the documented evidence against Rossum, and everything supporting the existence of the Dollhouse network, so that Perrin himself could officially squash it in the public eye. November’s role was to put a face on the cover story, and she will likely become a weapon against Caroline/Echo in episodes to come.

I was a little disappointed, however, to discover that the implied threat against the Los Angeles branch was mostly connected to Bennett’s personal vendetta. While there were indications that the Los Angeles branch had developed a reputation within the Dollhouse network, and that it’s unusual Dolls were common knowledge, there didn’t seem to be a point to it all. At what point does Adele’s lack of control over her branch become a liability to Rossum? One would think that the line had been long since crossed.

Whatever the case, the groundwork is definitely being laid for the future seen in “Epitaph One”. Rossum has eliminated much of the public concern, Bennett mentioned technology that allows the imprinting to take place over an existing mind (instead of wiping a mind first), and Caroline/Echo no longer reverts to a blank slate. In fact, it seems very clear that the gestalt imprinting remnants have developed into an Echo personality that is distinct from Caroline. To say that this speaks directly to the theme of identity is an understatement.

Echo’s situation now reflects the classic argument: is our personality ingrained within us on a fundamental level, or is our personality the sum of our experiences? Echo’s evolution suggests that there is an argument for the latter, but it’s telling that Echo’s personality seems to be aligned with Caroline’s activist roots. It may be that Caroline was always still in there at the core, even if Echo doesn’t have Caroline’s memories.

Considering that the writers were never expecting a miracle and wrote the second season as something of a 12-episode arc with a capstone episode taking place in the same future as “Epitaph One”, this is essentially the mid-point of the season. This does feel like the tipping point for the season. Hopefully FOX will honor its promise to air the final episodes, because after this, there’s every reason to think they will be worth the wait.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 8/10

Written by Andrew Chambliss
Directed by David Solomon

(Note: This review covers the first half of the two-episode event that aired on 04 December, 2009. This review was written without prior knowledge of the events in the second episode. A subsequent review will cover the second half of the event.)

“Dollhouse” has been flirting with a purpose since the beginning of the series, and seemed to find it with the combination of “Epitaph One” and the first four episodes of the second season. The immorality of the Dollhouse is no longer a matter of debate; the writers are openly addressing the fact that the technology is being abused to subvert free will and eliminate identity. One gets the very strong impression that this is much closer to the kind of show Joss Whedon was trying to create.

Being the first part of a two-part story, it’s hard to evaluate this on its own. But it does have its own share of revelations, so it’s worth looking at it in isolation. This is the episode that reveals the truth about Senator Perrin, and it is completely in line with something I raised in reviews for the first season.

It makes perfect sense that Rossum and the Dollhouse network would want to take control of key government figures, and use those connections to protect their own interests. Senator Perrin cannot be the only example of a government official under Rossum control. It’s also telling that they left the basic personality and memories intact, changing only the aspects they needed for their long-term goals.

It’s that goal that seems a bit hard to fathom. The current “crisis” appears to serve two different but complementary interests for Rossum. First, it allows them to control the amount of information that reaches the public, while setting up selected individuals (such as the Los Angeles branch) as the only group that can been traced (using November). Second, it forces the Los Angeles group to take action to protect itself, therefore exposing those who would be willing to break protocol to do so. This gives Rossum the justification they need to act against Adele and her people.

In essence, Senator Perrin is a programmed agent for Rossum, designed to sniff out any leaks in the Dollhouse network. The extent of his research is a direct measure of the risk of exposure. But with everything feeding into his office, it is also the easiest way to contain the problem until it reaches a certain “critical mass”.

And that is the one thing that doesn’t quite add up at this point: why would Rossum ever let the situation go this far, to the point where November is making public statements and Perrin is making the link between Rossum and the Dollhouse network? It seems like a foolish risk to take. Even if it were somehow designed to place all the blame on the Los Angeles branch, the documented evidence linking to Rossum has been mentioned to the press.

One possible scenario is that Perrin was meant to reveal this much, so that it would prompt justifiable action against the Los Angeles branch. Once the action was taken, Perrin could be eliminated (or exposed as a Doll) and his documentation destroyed, leaving only information pointing to the Los Angeles personnel. Rossum could then claim that they were being blackmailed by the Los Angeles Dollhouse, which could be claimed to have been the only one.

If it is all about the Los Angeles branch, then the resolution would have to be strong enough to allow the Los Angeles branch to survive, perhaps by holding enough cards to bring down others. Or it may have nothing to do with the Los Angeles branch at all, and there may be a completely different endgame in store. Whatever the case, this is one of the most interesting situations to date.

As good as the intrigue was, it also represented a bit of an evolution for Echo. Echo has been slowly but surely integrating all of the lingering pieces of her former personalities, but there has been an inherent conflict between her “former selves” and her current identity in every case. This time, it seems like her saucy call girl persona (complete with super-revealing wardrobe) somehow managed to semi-consciously make use of skills from previous engagements. If that trend continues, Echo is going to be remarkably formidable. (And if nothing else, should Caroline be restored, there is now every reason to think that she would retain all these attributes.)

In other words, the second season seems to be more than just the process of how Caroline regains her core personality. It also seems to be the process of how the Dollhouse inadvertently causes the end of the civilized world, while also inadvertently creating the perfect resistance leader to bring the world back out of chaos. After all, if the integration process continues on the same pace, Caroline/Echo would be all but immune to remote wiping/reprogramming.

As if that wasn’t enough, this episode also introduced the uber-disturbing (and disturbed) character of Bennett, played by Summer Glau. Bennett appears to be the DC branch’s version of Topher, but with a lot more mental instability and an obvious cruel streak. What she might know about Caroline should prove to be quite a revelation, but it’s also possible that her intentions towards Caroline/Echo could jump-start the whole memory integration process.

This episode was simply stuffed to the gills, so much so that every moment is worthy of consideration. I especially liked the conversation between Paul and November, where she pointed out that his insistence on saving her was just another kind of control over her choices. The irony, of course, being that the Dolls are never quite themselves again, so November’s personal choice to board that plane may not have been her choice at all. The writers keep coming back to that same central question: do we really know who we are and what we want? The disturbing truth is that the answer may be “no”.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10