Dollhouse S02E13 *Final ever Ep.* "Epitaph 2" [US] *Spoilers*

Richard Dower

Friday Jan 29th sees the very last ever ep. of Dollhouse
After a shakey start the show has been nothing but stellar!....it makes me want a third season, but i'm more then satisfied with what Wheadon & Co. did with this season and how they've wrapped things up.

Lets look forward to Friday and hope it goes out with a blast!

Sarn

I've watched 20 episodes up to S02E08 over the past two weeks. It is a shame that the show is being cancelled. Looks like I'll have caught up just in time to see its demise.

Richard Dower

As someone suggested, if you cut season 1 ep. 1-5 + season 2 ep. 1-3, you could create an amazing single season that would be as good as any show!

Richard Dower

Final episode almost upon us!

Richard Dower

YES!....it's out!, i'll have a speedy report/review this week....being the final ever ep.!

qwertplaywert

I'm not quite sure what to make of that. But it will be missed!

Gingervitis

Pretty well wrapped up, was hoping for a flashback or two, but decent enough, all the same.

Ending was a bit abrupt though!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Awesome ending... I really would've loved to have gotten another few seasons with the years leading up to that ending, but thought it was well wrapped up in general...
I'll miss Dollhouse...

Richard Dower

Topher, excellent....well acted, he had his redemption. Dunno....i expected more from the ep. - it was rather low key and alot of filler stuff. The whole Alpha thing was never explained though, and then he turns up in the DH all nice?

Twas interesting to see Ambrose and Harding, what about the other two head guys?, it was good but i felt like something was serously lacking, it wasn't really gripping or exciting.

It's as if the finale was wriiten on the fly...like ep. 5-11 had a continious story but ep. 12-13 was written or rewritten when the chop came down from Fox, if it had got a third season i doubt ep. 12-13 would have played out the way they did.

But tis all over, they set things right and society has to start again, but wouldn't tech still exist in Neuropolis?, what about China or other rogue nations?...but i guess if they are all wiped they wouldn't have a clue what or how the tech works.

3.5/5

Sarn

Hmmm, certainly different but at least it was an ending. I agree that there was something missing, but I guess fitting 10 years into one episode will do that. It makes me glad that they never had a post-apocalyptic season.

anotherlostie

Yeah, it all seemed a bit of a rush to me; too much happening and not enough time to explain it - the farm, Tony and his band of merry men, Rossum... I was very disappointed with how the episode panned out for Adelle - she WAS the Dollhouse, and yet she walked away at the end with the dolls and to me it wasn't poetic or poignant, unlike Topher's grand exit. Echo getting imprinted with a good memory of Ballard was a nice touch, but again why did Alpha become a nice guy?

I was also disappointed at not at least seeing the chaos in Rossum/ Neuropolis (ugh) when the proverbial hit the fan - it wouldn't bother me not seeing the new world, because you never do in these shows after resets, but something from the bad guys would have been nice, even a scene showing tech still existed somewhere. Harding getting a new 'suit' was a bit chilling as a succession of jocks were lined up for him to choose from. And having seen Summer Glau in the credits, I was expecting some form of resurrection, but all we got was a short video clip.

The other thing that bothered me was how dark the damn episode was, and I don't mean in tone! I had to turn up the brightness to max on my TV to see what was happening at the start.

Still I'm glad I stuck with the show after the ropey start, and it's one less TV commitment to have to make (until the next one comes along).

iguana

Sarn wrote: »

It makes me glad that they never had a post-apocalyptic season.

I don't think they ever planned an apocalyptic series. Afaik the plan was to have a couple of "Epitaph" episodes a series. The mid-season finale was to be Epitaph 2 and the season finale Epitaph 3. Dollhouse itself was intended to be 4-6 seasons so there would probably have been 10 or more Epitaph episodes.

I really, really wish someone had smacked some heads together when the first 2 episodes of this season were written. If they had started with E3, which started as a doll-of-the-week episode but had Topher create the remote wipe tech and some excellent Victor scenes and then gone into E4 with Priya's story they could have kept the ratings high enough to stay on the air.

Mr E

It was good, but not brilliant. Too much filler, and not enough explanation (Alpha, for example).

J-blk

Mr E wrote: »

not enough explanation (Alpha, for example).

Agreed. But I'm happy that it did have finality to it, rather than leaving things open ended - they didn't leave much in terms of loose ends.

As for Alpha, I agree that it was never really explained and confused me as well, but when the plan for the bomb was outlined and it was mentioned that the actives would go back to doll state, Alpha left, because he was worried he would be a psycho again. I took that to mean that probably the whole imprinting that was affecting everyone had some effect on him too and basically sorted him out... (or something? ).

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Stark

**** tbh.

ixoy

Wasn't impressed. Too much time spent doing a poor man's "Mad Max" future - the tech warriors bit was very uninspired. And did he really tell someone to "log off"? LOL.

The other story-lines seemed rushed. It meant that the characters arcs were closed very abruptly. Topher killing himself for redemption - sure it's nice, but really the bomb was far too convenient. I thought the minds were totally wiped and that only, in special cases, was the underlying personality preserved? So how did people get restored if they weren't backed up? Gah.

Other elements not too like including some crappy music and a rather poorly-directed gun battle as they went to retake the LA Dollhouse.

Sure there were bits to like such as deWitt being protective of Topher and Ballard getting his brains blown out, but there was too much rushed, too much poorly explained, too many cheesy moments to make it a worthy finale. Disappointing end.

Vic_Mackey

J-blk wrote: »

As for Alpha, I agree that it was never really explained

My take on this was that Ballard's imprint was enough to stabilise him. He was even talking in much more calm, mesured tones. Like Ballard.

tman

Fairly disappointing finale, but I guess they did the best they could to wrap things up given the little time they had left...
Gutted that there won't be any more DH now, and a new Joss show will most likely be years away.

iguana

ixoy wrote: »

Wasn't impressed. Too much time spent doing a poor man's "Mad Max" future - the tech warriors bit was very uninspired. And did he really tell someone to "log off"? LOL.

I really felt the tech-head stuff could have been left out. There was so much to squeeze into 40 minutes we didn't need a whole new storyline to be introduced and wrapped up during the episode. The main reason I think it was left in, is that these were Maurissa Tancharoen's big scenes and pissing off Jed's wife wasn't an option.

Richard Dower

Yeah....it seems Maurissa has acting aspirations, i suspect we'll see her in more Wheadon projects.

Sherifu

It was a bit weak considering the episodes that went before it. 3/5

ziedth

first off i thought way more people would have been killed off given joss wedons track record.

Second I'm now thiking topher may also have been underused as an actor because he did his scenes really well.

On the whole it was a decent enough ending, the tech viktor story wasn't needed but i'm sure would have been decent spanned out. Alpha was great to see him in it but I think i would have prefered a line of dialogue to at least explain him.

All in all, i'll miss it. Great show taking out all the filler.

LFCFan

Very understandable that the final episode seemed rushed, because it was. I watched the first episode of Dollhouse last Summer some time and thought it was muck. Was bored one day and started watching the rest and got to love it. Great idea and very well acted. I thought Victor was excellent playing Topher!! Pity it didn't get more series. It just goes to show that if TV series have anything in it that is slightly more intelligent or needs thinking, it won't last. Outside of basic whodunnit's, crime, canned laughter comedies and 'reality' TV shows, it's very hard for anything to survive :-(

Richard Dower

^ well put LFC!....i enjoy mind candy shows like DH, but to be fair i do enjoy the mindless fluff stuff as well.

Piste

I thought the last episode seemed rushed, but it's understandable seeing as they got cancelled and had to be like "oh sh!t, how do we wrap this all up?!".

I sorta liked the way Ballard was killed quickly and unceremoniously- makes a change from so many other series where a big song and dance is made about a main character dying. Also I never really liked him all that much anyway :pac:

The whole Sierra/Victor thing was so sweet, it was nice to see that develop, they went from lovey-dovey to nagging each other- just like a real relationship!

I have to say I didn't like the Boyd twist, it seems like they were just looking for a suitable character who could conveniently have been the founder all along and Boyd sort of fitted it. There was no real explanation of his motives either- just a load of "hahah look at me I'm KER-AZY!"

I didn't think Whiskey was properly explained either. How did she get back to the Dollhouse between the 2nd last episode of season 2 and epitaph 1? And what whappened to her between epitaph 1 and epitaph 2? Is it implied that she was killed in the gas attack at the end of epitaph 1?

Stark

Piste wrote: »

The whole Sierra/Victor thing was so sweet, it was nice to see that develop, they went from lovey-dovey to nagging each other- just like a real relationship!

"Oh Victor, make love to me".
"Hold on, I just have to find where I left my sex drive".

JenniFurr

Stark wrote: »

"Oh Victor, make love to me".
"Hold on, I just have to find where I left my sex drive".

Good stuff, that could've actually been thrown in there and it wouldn't have seemed amiss with the "log off" comment.

The whole Sierra/Victor storyline with the tech heads could've been left out or at least made their post apocalyptic attire a bit less cheesy. A disappointing end to a decent-ish show and I don't really take the "they needed to cram as much in for the finale as possible" excuse, there was cancellation written all over the show since the first season started. They were lucky to get a second season and they knew it and they still didn't give it a great ending.

Rob30888

I finally got round to watching the final episode last night. Good, but slightly disappointing overall. As many have said, it understandably felt very rushed, but there still seemed some totally unncessary parts of the episode that left me very confused, the whole tech-warrior thing for example. I was also surprised there was such a satisfying conclusion which overlooked the obvious - there are presumably still people out there (particualrly in Neuroplois) who know about the tech and it's only a matter of time before they cop on to the fact that Topher has an imprint somewhere and he can be used again to turn everyone into a Doll...

Either way, great show and a fitting conclusion. RIP Dollhouse.

iguana

Rob30888 wrote: »

I was also surprised there was such a satisfying conclusion which overlooked the obvious - there are presumably still people out there (particualrly in Neuroplois) who know about the tech and it's only a matter of time before they cop on to the fact that Topher has an imprint somewhere and he can be used again to turn everyone into a Doll...

We can maybe assume that all the original Rossum guys had changed body after body like the fat guy in Neuropolis who didn't look after his physical health as he could just change at whim. So when Topher's bomb went off they all died as their bodies reverted to their original owners. They still exist on wedges but Adele and maybe Alpha will work to destroy them.

Richard Dower

^ fair point, i would have assumed given Alpha saying destroy the chair/tech that part of this would be destroying the wedges....and Tophers backup with it.

Solid point about the Rommum guys, in fact anyone not in their original body!, if your original body is dead you die as well!

ziedth

I never thought of that either,

Strange they didn't work it into it.