This is not the Doll you're looking for...

The geek world was ablaze… and dare I say it… atwitter… when news of Joss Whedon’s return to television hits the data stream.  After depriving us of our dear departed Firefly, we would finally be reunited digitally with our master– the almighty Whedon.   We waited a year, dealing with all sorts of bizarre rumors and more interference from the bane of Fanboy existence, the malevolent Fox Network Executives.

Finally… FINALLY the show premiered against all odds  AND…

it was the biggest disappointment since Episode 1 came out.   Although at least no one spent 4 months camping out on the sidewalk of a movie theatre to see Dollhouse.   The show wasn’t bad.   It just… wasn’t Joss.   Where was the incredible dialogue?  Where was the genius plot twists?   Man cannot live on Eliza Dushku’s breasts alone. (But I am willing to give it a shot.)

Pictured here: the head of Fox Network during pilot season

Slowly the show got better; feeling more like the Whedon of old.   But with such a short season order, and the clear hatred Network Executives have of Whedon shows, it seemed like a case of too little, too late.  Against all odds, Dollhouse held on for a second season, though Fox curiously chose not to air the season finale.  Instead fans had to shell out for the DVD release, which coincided with the San Diego Comic Con.   As of the second week of August, the “lost” finale, Epitaph One is available on iTunes.

Having watched it, I have to say… my mind?  Blown.

Make no mistake.  Dollhouse is neither Buffy, Angel nor Firefly.  For one thing, it’s darker in a more pragmatic way.  And it lacks the humanity that those shows BLED.   Sure, there is one similarity.  Like Buffy and Angel, Dollhouse discusses the nature of the soul, albeit in a very different way.  They all conceive of a soul as an abstract concept, but Dollhouse doesn’t merely question it’s nature, but questions it’s existence.   It’s scarier in a more perverse and scarring manner.

It has been argued by me that Dollhouse should have been allowed to die a quiet death.  Some have argued otherwise. While I still think it’s ridiculous to suggest that Dollhouse is Joss’ greatest work, I believe that Epitaph One proves that I am wrong about the show.

It should be noted that the finale is NOTHING like the rest of the season.  For one thing, most of the Dolls from the show barely make an appearance.  The only semi-regular face that sticks around is that of Dr Claire Saunders/ Whiskey, otherwise known as Angel actor Amy Acker (sorry about the unfortunate alliteration).

one sexy drink of Whiskey

The episode flashes back and forth from ten years in the future to the end of the Dollhouse and the apocalypse that ends the Modern Industrial era.   Basically, the rich and the powerful have been using the Dolls to fulfill their wildest fantasies.  But as seen in the Dollhouse episode, Haunted, there is another potential use for mind imprinting technology.  It isn’t such a big leap for an ego-driven mind to conceive of using Doll bodies as functional immortality.   And against the wishes of the head of the Los Angeles Dollhouse, Adelle DeWitt, that’s exactly what happens.  DeWitt is informed that humanity has become the private livestock of the ultra powerful who now control the nation’s government.   DeWitt forms a resistance which fails miserably. Imprinting technology has wiped out most of humanity.  However Caroline, now back in her original Echo body, manages to find a Safe Haven with former FBI agent Paul Ballard.  It is implied that at least some of the characters managed to find this paradise.

While the flashbacks are perhaps the most honest and cutting of the sequences, the majority of the episode centers around a group of apocalypse survivors who run across the abandoned Dollhouse, and the last remaining original Doll, Whiskey.  The episode centers around Mag a member of the survivors, played by Joss’ new favorite actress, Felicia Day (Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog).

Totally stole Willow and Fred's thunder.

While surrounded by death, Whiskey offers them one last hope at finding (the too-simply named) Safe Haven.

What I love about this episode is that it goes in a completely different direction than seemed to be originally intended, while still arriving at a logical conclusion.  OF COURSE the powerful would choose to use technology this way.   Not all of them, but surely there are those who are so selfish that they would do anything to become functionally immortal.  I do hesitate to mention that there are certain political implications here.   On the one hand, you might infer that the story shows the evils that capitalism can lead to (i.e. dead homeless people), but like all great stories, you can also infer that giving away ones civil liberties to a constantly expanding central government can only lead to disaster (i.e. Eliza Dushku loses her boobs).  Different people can watch it and interpret it completely different ways.

The episode itself seems to be a bizarre mix of Mad Max, the last Resident Evil film and a touch of Serenity, but it works.  My one fear is that when Dollhouse returns, it will simply resume it’s original programming like Epitaph One never happened.   Hopefully this isn’t the case, and that the second season will continue bringing us closer to this Days of Future Past concept.

Whatever the case, I’m back for season 2.   Things might just be getting interesting from here on out.

PS: check out my new articles, including Ult Comics Spider-man and a review of Desolation Jones, which I HIGHLY recommend you get Jason to order for you.  See you monday for Books By Their Cover.