It will go down as one of his most controversial and perhaps his gutsiest. But in the end even he had to go back to the oldest of tropes with white hats versus black hats. Moral ambivalence can only go so far in network television.
In fact starting out I was more than a little concerned with Dollhouse’s second season. It was a tired story with a wink-wink guest star in Jamie Bamber (Helo and Apollo together again!) The producers soon discovered (and trusted) that the show works best when we see the doll tech being used in seriously fucked up ways. Take the remote wipe and activation that put a serial killer personality in Echo in the episode “Briar Rose.” Strangely enough, that episode also had BSG-alum Michael Hogan playing one of Rossum’s cronies.
The show also worked best in exploring the history behind the current actives. The most affecting episode revealed Sierra’s origins. It’s the closest Dollhouse has ever come to Sopranos in getting rid of a bad guy, but it leads to something that becomes a twisted calling card. Thanks to the Sopranos knockoff, it gives Sierra even more incentive to return to the Dollhouse. The place of their greatest transgressions can sometimes be the dolls’ only safe haven and refuge.
So the rest of the season brought the house under attack. First by a resilient and charismatic senator played by Alexis Denisof who turned out to be a doll created and funded by Rossum. Great twist as it stands but what with the recent Supreme Court ruling, I’ll be damned if it wasn’t prescient. As if Joss doesn’t get enough titles now he has to be a prophet.
But it was also one of those episodes that give me that masochistic creepifying nauseated vibe I get when we saw poor November pulled back in because she went against Rossum. It’s a sobering scene to see her face in defeated tears as she is turned back into an active. In a sense how her journey ultimately ends later on in the season is a mercy.
From there we get a build up of momentum leading to the Dollhouse taking on those that created them. In the process, Echo becomes able to control and access all the different personalities that have been imprinted in her. For instance, she can access a master thief if she needs to break in, or a weapons expert if she’s blowing up bad guys real good. So in essence she’s like the current incarnation of Chuck without the endearing nerdiness.
That falls to Topher who undoubtedly had the most compelling arc of any character of the show. In “Epitaph One”, the “bonus” episode available on the first season DVD, we discovered that Topher went insane from what at first appeared to be guilt from being the main architect in the human race’s destruction. But the writers were smart enough to trigger this collapse with something a bit more intimate and personal. So naturally Topher has to fall in love with his intellectually equivalent but attractively much, much better foil played by Summer Glau. Dead arm and all, she’s still hot. I don’t know if it was the intention of Joss but I automatically thought of Dr. Strangelove with Glau’s character, Bennett. Cerebral and cold, she’s the brilliant yang to Topher’s yin. And just like that symbol they find harmonious balance in the middle. Briefly before she is taken cruelly away. By Whiskey of all actives.
Dollhouse saved some of its best stuff for last giving viewers privy to the deepest areas within the house. None deeper than the dreaded Attic where defective actives are sent. At first, I thought it was a place of permanent stasis where brain activity is taken down to the essentials: breathing, sensory perception, basic cognitive function. But it’s worse. The brain is set at constant hyperactivity with the actives reliving their worst nightmare over and over, increasing their adrenal levels and in consequence their brain power. The Attic isn’t just a detainment center…it’s a power plant. But powering what?
That’s what Echo is sent to investigate by the Dollhouse owner, Adelle, no less. In it Echo discovers the first founder of the Dollhouse technology and how he was banished to the Attic by his greedy partner. We also meet up with Dominic, the poor undercover CIA-spook turned virtual guerilla fighter in the Attic’s nightmare world. At the end Echo and the others are safely taken out of the Attic, but more importantly they finally have an inside track into Rossum’s inner walls.
Where they end up leading was a point of contention for fans, but for myself I wasn’t surprised Whedon went there. He did the same thing in his comic book, Fray, which focused on the Vampire Slayer of the future, Melaka Fray—betrayal from one of her closest allies. So when it happened, it didn’t faze me. What did surprise me, though, was the anger from fans and critics alike at how out of left field it was. Perhaps. But Angel losing his soul was pretty far in the outfield, too. And we’re talking about the bastard that killed Hoban Wash.
So Echo and her staunch Dollhouse crew destroy that which spawned them thanks to a bit of cruel karmic justice. But like Ian Malcolm says, life finds a way. That is if life consists of nefarious technology that robs you of that independent life. And so that sets the stage for ten years later and “Epitaph Two.”
Longwinded way to get there, no doubt. But also I think a clear example of how overloaded with info the season turned out to be. Of course, impending cancellation kind of encourages some abridgement of plotlines, character arcs, and the like.
Ideally, it would have been fascinating to see each season show how the choices and consequences from decisions in the present day impacted the season finales with how the future apocalypse of worldwide wipes and actives came about. Each season would present a through line thematically and plotwise to the season finale over at best five or six seasons. The narrative would have developed more organically. But you take what you can get from clusterFox.
So in critiquing the finale I would rank it as the least of Joss Whedon’s series enders, but still pretty effective if pat in its resolutions. I got a bit of delayed satisfaction in seeing Tamoh Penkitt’s character finally and suddenly buying it. Again, no surprise. He killed off Anya in Buffy and Hoban Wash…it still hurts.
We also get the token Whedon sacrifice with Topher. I really, really loved the maternal relationship Adelle developed with him. The way she defended Topher’s brilliance despite his incoherent musings showed a lioness fiercely protecting her cub. And even if Adelle found new sustaining redemption in being an earth mother, she could still be cruelly defensive if she had to be.
Along with the deaths we got the surprising dysfunction, none more so than the emotional divide separating Sierra and Victor. While Sierra had recovered her original personality of Priya, Victor voluntarily remained Victor much to Priya’s chagrin.
Victor joined a resistance movement of actives. Believing the only way to fight fire is with fire, he kept his Dollhouse architecture in tact. So while he’s off playing John Connor, Priya is at the safe zone–alone–raising their son–angrily alone.
It wouldn’t be a Whedon finale without the cameo appearance. Buffy’s finale brought back Buffy’s brooding love, Angel, played by David Boreanaz. Here Alan Tudyk returns as a reformed Alpha. Fans kind of cried foul at this as well, but rationalize it as not being as fun being a raging psycho when the human race has become nothing but raging psychos.
Finally, we have the token Whedon hero in Echo. It’s nice seeing Eliza Dushku as a badass babe again with probably her best job emoting since her guest spot on Angel as Faith the Vampire Slayer. There’s kind of a bittersweet resolution to her overall arc and wonders of wonders things end somewhat happily for the survivors.
But I’ll be honest I’ve gotten a lot of emotional catharsis from Joss Whedon’s finales in the past. Spike going out a hero and getting loving admiration from Buffy was the emotional high point of Buffy’s finale. I wept like crazy when Wesley went out asking Illyria to lie to him by bringing back “Fred” one more time. And, of course, leaf on the wind…watch how I soar…squish. But this one left me feeling fairly numb, and I think a lot of it was the inconsistency Dollhouse has always had. It tried to do too much in the limited time it had. But with the proper premise and support I really think the show would have been something special.
Surely it put Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj on the acting map. And it’s always nice to see Joss Whedon back on the tube. But the show in looking back seems more like a favor to Eliza Dushku than anything he was really passionate about. Maybe it’s not a fair comparison, but there are still comic books coming out set in the Buffy and Angelverses and Firefly/Serenity. Whedon’s pretty much said all he has to say on Dollhouse. So hopefully whenever we do see Joss again after his side trip to Dr. Horrible 2 , we’ll see a television show with some real passion and verve behind it supported by a network (preferably cable) that will help him bring his vision to a reality. J.J.’s the hitman right now. It’s time for Joss to get a taste.
TallGent
Loading ...