tardis_stowaway (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tardis_stowaway) wrote2010-01-30 02:54 am
tardis_stowaway) wrote2010-01-30 02:54 am
Entry tags:
The end is where we start from: Dollhouse, "Epitaph Two"
Precisely at the moment the end credits of the final episode of Dollhouse finished, it started to rain. It was as if the sky was crying because there is no more Dollhouse. Damn you, Fox! Damn you, foolish audiences who never watched Dollhouse or tuned it out before it got good!
So that was the end. Like Dollhouse as a whole, there were some significant flaws and some things that didn't quite make sense, but on the balance it was excellent.
We didn't get any more flashbacks to solve the unanswered questions of how the Epitaph world came to be. I suppose that I'm okay with not knowing the exact step by step progression, although that would have been cool, but I'd have liked to see a bit of Alpha's transition from murderous, feared psychopath to huggable pal. Dominic and Whiskey/Dr. Saunders were grievously absent, and I had sort of hoped SenatorWesley Perrin would make another appearance before the end of the season. Everyone who did show up, however, got at least one or two shining moments.
Epitaph One upset me a lot with the implication that Victor/Tony and Sierra/Priya had broken up (not to mention the small matter of the downfall of civilization), so I was very pleased to see them start to patch things together here. Tony in the Mad Max getup was sorta cheesy, but I ultimately decided I liked it after my momentary terror that he had been wiped when he showed up with the weapons, hench-thugs, and body mods like a Reaver. (Speaking of Reavers, did the chase with the E1 gang driving away from the butchers give anyone else severe Serenity flashbacks?) The scene where Priya introduced young T to Tony brought a lump to my throat (even as I was wondering at the wisdom of burning all those circuit boards in a confined space...electronics tend to have all sort of nasty stuff you really don't want to be burning and putting into the air you breathe). They've come a long way from the innocent, pure love of Victor and Sierra as dolls, but I think this more complex, sadder, more adult love is still strong enough to survive whatever comes after.
Whedon was in true form, adding two more major character deaths on top of last episode's two. Topher's death cuts me deeper, since he has been completely turned around from my least favorite S1 character to one of my very favorite characters in S2. Still, his death was cathartic. A lot of him had already died when he saw his work destroy the world, and I'm sure more died every day during his captivity. I wish he had chosen the harder path of living through what comes after (I say chosen, because I am certain that if he wanted to live he could have taken a bit of extra time and figured out a way to rig the device with a timer), but I can understand his choice to go out a hero. RIP, Topher Brink.
Paul spent most of S2 getting on my nerves worse than S1 Topher. Still, I gasped when he was shot, and I'm sad for Echo's sake. At least he got a moment earlier in the episode of doing what he does best: looking good without clothes. His smirk when he revealed that he wasn't really mindless was pretty great too. Unfortunately, Paul Ballard proved capable of being sketchy even from beyond the grave. If I understood correctly, Echo imprinted herself with Paul's personality (courtesy of a wedge left by Alpha). Now she is in love with an aspect of her own self. WTF?
Meanwhile, I thought for sure Felicia Day (blanking on her character's name) was a goner when she got shot in the legs, and I thought that her allies were going to have to finish her off to protect her from a worse fate. The continued survival of all three from Epitaph One was a nice surprise.
Adelle Dewitt pwns all, even when the field of pwnage is growing produce. All bow down before her indomitable will and leadership. Her scenes with Topher broke my heart.
So Alpha is someone we hug now? That was hinted at in Epitaph One, but it was still disorienting in a cool sort of way. I am a little worried by how he left the hideaway to go where he would be subject to the un-wiping. Wasn't he a creep who kidnapped and slashed up a woman? How is this something better to return to?
Until the preview for Epitaph Two the other week, it honestly hadn't occurred to me that the show would offer any hope for the world in this finale for anything beyond a small group of survivors hidden away securely enough to wait until the rest of the world tore itself apart once and for all. Ever since Epitaph One, Dollhouse was pointed toward a truly apocalyptic future, strangely beautiful in its uncompromising bleakness. The return of everyone's minds doesn't quite make sense with how I thought the tech worked. Topher clearly isn't broadcasting everyone's personality to them but somehow uncovering something that was buried, and I thought the point of the Active architecture was that the original personality was not buried but gone. Oh well. Logical quibbles aside, I liked the resolution. It doesn't water down the horror of what the tech has brought upon the world or make things too easy, but it offers hope where there was none. The previously wiped people are going to wake up and think that they've woken up in the end of the world, and they won't be far wrong. However, to quote Captain Jack in Exit Wounds, "the end is where we start from."
Now I want to figure out where the quality Dollhouse fic hangs out. I haven't read from this fandom before, but this ep left me craving fics to fill in the gaps and explore the future.
So that was the end. Like Dollhouse as a whole, there were some significant flaws and some things that didn't quite make sense, but on the balance it was excellent.
We didn't get any more flashbacks to solve the unanswered questions of how the Epitaph world came to be. I suppose that I'm okay with not knowing the exact step by step progression, although that would have been cool, but I'd have liked to see a bit of Alpha's transition from murderous, feared psychopath to huggable pal. Dominic and Whiskey/Dr. Saunders were grievously absent, and I had sort of hoped Senator
Epitaph One upset me a lot with the implication that Victor/Tony and Sierra/Priya had broken up (not to mention the small matter of the downfall of civilization), so I was very pleased to see them start to patch things together here. Tony in the Mad Max getup was sorta cheesy, but I ultimately decided I liked it after my momentary terror that he had been wiped when he showed up with the weapons, hench-thugs, and body mods like a Reaver. (Speaking of Reavers, did the chase with the E1 gang driving away from the butchers give anyone else severe Serenity flashbacks?) The scene where Priya introduced young T to Tony brought a lump to my throat (even as I was wondering at the wisdom of burning all those circuit boards in a confined space...electronics tend to have all sort of nasty stuff you really don't want to be burning and putting into the air you breathe). They've come a long way from the innocent, pure love of Victor and Sierra as dolls, but I think this more complex, sadder, more adult love is still strong enough to survive whatever comes after.
Whedon was in true form, adding two more major character deaths on top of last episode's two. Topher's death cuts me deeper, since he has been completely turned around from my least favorite S1 character to one of my very favorite characters in S2. Still, his death was cathartic. A lot of him had already died when he saw his work destroy the world, and I'm sure more died every day during his captivity. I wish he had chosen the harder path of living through what comes after (I say chosen, because I am certain that if he wanted to live he could have taken a bit of extra time and figured out a way to rig the device with a timer), but I can understand his choice to go out a hero. RIP, Topher Brink.
Paul spent most of S2 getting on my nerves worse than S1 Topher. Still, I gasped when he was shot, and I'm sad for Echo's sake. At least he got a moment earlier in the episode of doing what he does best: looking good without clothes. His smirk when he revealed that he wasn't really mindless was pretty great too. Unfortunately, Paul Ballard proved capable of being sketchy even from beyond the grave. If I understood correctly, Echo imprinted herself with Paul's personality (courtesy of a wedge left by Alpha). Now she is in love with an aspect of her own self. WTF?
Meanwhile, I thought for sure Felicia Day (blanking on her character's name) was a goner when she got shot in the legs, and I thought that her allies were going to have to finish her off to protect her from a worse fate. The continued survival of all three from Epitaph One was a nice surprise.
Adelle Dewitt pwns all, even when the field of pwnage is growing produce. All bow down before her indomitable will and leadership. Her scenes with Topher broke my heart.
So Alpha is someone we hug now? That was hinted at in Epitaph One, but it was still disorienting in a cool sort of way. I am a little worried by how he left the hideaway to go where he would be subject to the un-wiping. Wasn't he a creep who kidnapped and slashed up a woman? How is this something better to return to?
Until the preview for Epitaph Two the other week, it honestly hadn't occurred to me that the show would offer any hope for the world in this finale for anything beyond a small group of survivors hidden away securely enough to wait until the rest of the world tore itself apart once and for all. Ever since Epitaph One, Dollhouse was pointed toward a truly apocalyptic future, strangely beautiful in its uncompromising bleakness. The return of everyone's minds doesn't quite make sense with how I thought the tech worked. Topher clearly isn't broadcasting everyone's personality to them but somehow uncovering something that was buried, and I thought the point of the Active architecture was that the original personality was not buried but gone. Oh well. Logical quibbles aside, I liked the resolution. It doesn't water down the horror of what the tech has brought upon the world or make things too easy, but it offers hope where there was none. The previously wiped people are going to wake up and think that they've woken up in the end of the world, and they won't be far wrong. However, to quote Captain Jack in Exit Wounds, "the end is where we start from."
Now I want to figure out where the quality Dollhouse fic hangs out. I haven't read from this fandom before, but this ep left me craving fics to fill in the gaps and explore the future.