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Dollhouse

Re: New Joss Whedon show

I think this week's episode felt hurried, no doubt as a result of having to wrap things up given the show's cancellation. Things didn't quite connect as fully as most other episodes have. So, I wouldn't consider this episode to be a favorite, but I didn't dislike it, just wished there had been a bit more time. How ironic, in a way, given the Boyd-Saunders scene from "Epitaph One" which was redone in last week's episode and how Saunders comments about them not having enough time.

Amy Acker is such a good actor. Clyde-in-Whiskey had such a significantly different set of mannerisms that it really did feel like a totally different person than Doc Saunders.
 
Re: New Joss Whedon show

The title tells us something: "The Hollow Men" is taken from the poem that included the lines, "This is how the world ends/Not with a bang but with a whimper."
 
Re: New Joss Whedon show

I think this week's episode felt hurried, no doubt as a result of having to wrap things up given the show's cancellation. Things didn't quite connect as fully as most other episodes have. So, I wouldn't consider this episode to be a favorite, but I didn't dislike it, just wished there had been a bit more time. How ironic, in a way, given the Boyd-Saunders scene from "Epitaph One" which was redone in last week's episode and how Saunders comments about them not having enough time.

Amy Acker is such a good actor. Clyde-in-Whiskey had such a significantly different set of mannerisms that it really did feel like a totally different person than Doc Saunders.
So, for those of us not lucky enough to have seen Epitaph One, was it (for want of a better word) encased within the Hollow Man episode? Would Epitaph Two be totally new to everyone that saw Epitaph One, or was some of the stuff we saw in the previews dealt with in Epitaph One? I have no idea what Epitaph One was about, aside from that it was set in the future to give a glimpse of where the series was eventually meant to drive to.
 
Re: New Joss Whedon show

So, for those of us not lucky enough to have seen Epitaph One, was it (for want of a better word) encased within the Hollow Man episode? Would Epitaph Two be totally new to everyone that saw Epitaph One, or was some of the stuff we saw in the previews dealt with in Epitaph One? I have no idea what Epitaph One was about, aside from that it was set in the future to give a glimpse of where the series was eventually meant to drive to.

The specific scene I referenced was the one with Boyd, having been told by Adelle to run in order to divert Rossum's attention, packing his bag while talking to Saunders. Saunders is crying and she tries to give him some medicine to help him deal with his injuries while he's running from Rossum. That scene is one of the ones shown in Epitaph One.

For being as general of a presentation and open to lots of development as it was, Epitaph One was a rather dense episode. I will type up a description of the episode and post it in a subsequent post momentarily.
 
Spoiler for Epitaph One, aka the unbroadcast season one finale of Dollhouse:
Epitaph One takes place about ten years in the future. The world is a mess with the Dollhouse's remote wiping and imprinting technology being used as weapons. Reference is made to China having previously laid down a blanket signal on the United States. The Dollhouse technology has been developed to be able to be transmitted through nearly any technology: tv, radio, telephones, etc. With one robocall, a foreign government can turn everyone who answers the phone into a mindless killing machine who works with one goal: kill everyone not imprinted to kill everyone. An instant, huge army that doesn't have to be transported into another country in order to attack.

Few people remain who aren't imprinted, and some who are still their original selves are trying to escape. They travel underground to hopefully avoid the reach of imprinting signals, and in so doing come across the L.A. Dollhouse. The place is empty and dark, but they find the imprinting chair and a list of memories preprogrammed in a sort of playlist. They load the memories up in one guy who've they brought with them that is a "dumbshow", aka he's essentially in a blank doll-like state.

The memories show the progression of how things went down.

We get the scene of Boyd and Saunders lamenting that they don't have enough time together because Boyd's going on the run.

We see Adelle confronted by another head of a Dollhouse who has his personality imprinted in Victor. He informs her that the Dollhouse now provides "full anatomy upgrades" for a high monetary fee. Adelle protests that active's bodies belong to another's soul, and he responds that it doesn't matter, soon it will all be made perfectly legal (a foreshadowing of the Dollhouse having a Doll for a senator seen in season two). He tells her that she can take Victor's body back from him, but that he is currently imprinted in dolls in many other Dollhouses having the same conversation with other Dollhouse heads and that if Adelle removes him from Victor, they'll know what side she's picked: with them or against them.

We see Adelle have a conversation with Laurence Dominic, whom she's removed from the Attic because everything's gone to hell and she needs his help. She informs him that there is a cure that would help block the imprinting process and that that cure is found in Caroline.

We see Tony (Victor) and Priya (Sierra) have a conversation. The LA Dollhouse has cut itself off from the rest of the world and locked themselves inside hoping to wait out the hell that's playing out on the surface of the planet. Something's happened between Tony and Priya (we don't know what), but they're not as close as they once were. Tony beseaches Priya to take her medication, but she says that if not taking it is the price of remaining herself, she's willing to pay it. Priya comments about how sometimes she feels like going to the surface and taking her chance, but Tony warns about how she could end up like November. My guess about some of the not fully explained in this scene is that the medicine Priya declines to take is whatever is made out of Caroline's spinal fluid and that the way it works is that in order to prevent them from being able to be overcome by an imprinting process is to tear down the barriers between all their past imprints blurring them into one multi-mind like Echo, and that Priya's refusal of the medicine is because she wants to remain Priya alone and not become Sierra with all her past imprints. That's my guess, but it's not exactly spelled out.

We see Whiskey, with her scars now repaired, back under the Doc Saunders personality tell Adelle that Topher won't take his medication. Adelle goes to visit Topher, who's living in one of the Doll's pods with tons of his stuff piled all around. He's muttering to himself writing on the wall. He's nearly lost his mind and barely coherent. Adelle tries to comfort him. And in one of the most painfully emotional scenes in the entire show, Topher tells her he's figured out how wipe and imprint people through the telephone. He realizes that that's how things went so bad. He begs Adelle to not answer the phone (there's no actual phone call, he's speaking anticipatorially). He then comments that such a development in the imprinting technology is genius and questions why he didn't think of it before. And then it dawns on him: he did. He realizes that he created the tech that destroyed the world. He starts to lament about whether when he tries to figure something out if it is an act of curiosity or arrogance. He starts crying, "I know what I know" over and over again, and Adelle holds him close until a bang comes from outside.

She rushes out to find Tony and several of the others holding guns at the ready -- Adelle takes one too -- and they're trained on a cinderblock wall that is the sole entrance into the Dollhouse. From the otherside Echo and Paul Ballard break through. Echo is there to rescue them and take them to a location that is safe from imprinting, which is something that Echo credits Alpha for having established. Echo wants Topher to make a backup of her personality since she knows where they're going, but Whiskey tells her she'll have to do it because Topher never goes up to his office anymore. Echo plans on leaving a copy of herself behind in case anyone makes it to the Dollhouse can use it to follow where they're going. Echo and Adelle have a bit of a conversation about whether Echo is only going to save the dolls or if she's going to save everyone; Echo cocks a gun, but that scene ends.

Back in the future, the few people who've stumbled upon the Dollhouse eventually encounter Whiskey, who's only in a Doll state, though she knows enough to help them with imprinting the memories and the back up Echo to know where to go to try to get to safety. The put the backup of Echo in a young girl's body, who turned out wasn't the young girl anymore but someone else who had been displaced into the young girl's body and was intent on killing them in effort to try to get out of the little girl's body. Once Echo is in the little girl, she recognizes jubilantly Doc Saunders, until she finds out that Whiskey is just Whiskey now.

"Butchers" -- people who've been imprinted to kill those who aren't imprinted to kill -- break into the Dollhouse. The remaining survivors flee, but despite them trying to get Whiskey to come with them, she refuses stating over and over again that she "has to stay" (or maybe it's that she "has to wait", I can't remember exactly which phrase). As they survivors flee, Whiskey activates some gas system in the Dollhouse either putting the Butchers and herself to sleep or killing them, which exactly isn't revealed.

The survivors, led by Echo climb up the elevator shaft to Adelle's former office. There, they see out the window to all the other skyscrapers now broken and shattered. On the wall of the office is a bunch of pictures taped to the wall under the banner "Always Remember". There are pictures of Victor, Sierra, November, and Echo in amongst the pictures. Echo takes the picture of herself off the wall momentarily and comments that she hopes she finds herself alive when they get where they're going. They depart the office by climbing up a rope ladder out the window that must've been left there from when Echo led the dolls out of the Dollhouse.

And that's where Epitaph One ends.
 
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Wow, thanks VL, what a ride that would've been before watching S2. Seems like most of what we saw in Hollow Man and the previews for next week fit perfectly. Seems like maybe Whiskey/Dr Saunders' arc was changed a bit, but, that's OK, I'm quite happy with that change.
 
It's still worth watching.

I wouldn't say S2 has been a perfect match, but they tried to leave things in Epitaph One fairly open.
 
Well, I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's finale. Of course, I wish it could've been longer, but I love what we got.
 
Agreed, I thought it ended well all things considered. I had the Season 1 DVDs so I was able to watch the episode Epitaph One, which turned out to be important since the finale, Epitaph Two obviously picked up right where that left off. I heard there were lots of folks who watched last nights episode that never saw the unaired Epitaph One were like "WTF is all this? Who are these people?" but what can you do...
 
After the second-to-last ep I wasn't too thrilled -- that one felt very weak, and certainly didn't live up to its lofty title -- but Epitaph 2 was great. Remarkably well-crafted, considering it had to create a convincing new world for us while simultaneously wrapping up an older one. Themes of atonement and lost chances, a bittersweet end to a love story and a much better end to another, a remarkable amount done with deft implication.
 
I heard there were lots of folks who watched last nights episode that never saw the unaired Epitaph One were like "WTF is all this? Who are these people?" but what can you do...
Yeah, that'd be me. I thought "Epitaph 2" was disjointed and tried to fit WAY too much story into too short a time. Now I guess I understand why...
 
Spoiler for Epitaph One, aka the unbroadcast season one finale of Dollhouse:
Epitaph One takes place about ten years in the future. The world is a mess with the Dollhouse's remote wiping and imprinting technology being used as weapons. Reference is made to China having previously laid down a blanket signal on the United States. The Dollhouse technology has been developed to be able to be transmitted through nearly any technology: tv, radio, telephones, etc. With one robocall, a foreign government can turn everyone who answers the phone into a mindless killing machine who works with one goal: kill everyone not imprinted to kill everyone. An instant, huge army that doesn't have to be transported into another country in order to attack.

Few people remain who aren't imprinted, and some who are still their original selves are trying to escape. They travel underground to hopefully avoid the reach of imprinting signals, and in so doing come across the L.A. Dollhouse. The place is empty and dark, but they find the imprinting chair and a list of memories preprogrammed in a sort of playlist. They load the memories up in one guy who've they brought with them that is a "dumbshow", aka he's essentially in a blank doll-like state.

The memories show the progression of how things went down.

We get the scene of Boyd and Saunders lamenting that they don't have enough time together because Boyd's going on the run.

We see Adelle confronted by another head of a Dollhouse who has his personality imprinted in Victor. He informs her that the Dollhouse now provides "full anatomy upgrades" for a high monetary fee. Adelle protests that active's bodies belong to another's soul, and he responds that it doesn't matter, soon it will all be made perfectly legal (a foreshadowing of the Dollhouse having a Doll for a senator seen in season two). He tells her that she can take Victor's body back from him, but that he is currently imprinted in dolls in many other Dollhouses having the same conversation with other Dollhouse heads and that if Adelle removes him from Victor, they'll know what side she's picked: with them or against them.

We see Adelle have a conversation with Laurence Dominic, whom she's removed from the Attic because everything's gone to hell and she needs his help. She informs him that there is a cure that would help block the imprinting process and that that cure is found in Caroline.

We see Tony (Victor) and Priya (Sierra) have a conversation. The LA Dollhouse has cut itself off from the rest of the world and locked themselves inside hoping to wait out the hell that's playing out on the surface of the planet. Something's happened between Tony and Priya (we don't know what), but they're not as close as they once were. Tony beseaches Priya to take her medication, but she says that if not taking it is the price of remaining herself, she's willing to pay it. Priya comments about how sometimes she feels like going to the surface and taking her chance, but Tony warns about how she could end up like November. My guess about some of the not fully explained in this scene is that the medicine Priya declines to take is whatever is made out of Caroline's spinal fluid and that the way it works is that in order to prevent them from being able to be overcome by an imprinting process is to tear down the barriers between all their past imprints blurring them into one multi-mind like Echo, and that Priya's refusal of the medicine is because she wants to remain Priya alone and not become Sierra with all her past imprints. That's my guess, but it's not exactly spelled out.

We see Whiskey, with her scars now repaired, back under the Doc Saunders personality tell Adelle that Topher won't take his medication. Adelle goes to visit Topher, who's living in one of the Doll's pods with tons of his stuff piled all around. He's muttering to himself writing on the wall. He's nearly lost his mind and barely coherent. Adelle tries to comfort him. And in one of the most painfully emotional scenes in the entire show, Topher tells her he's figured out how wipe and imprint people through the telephone. He realizes that that's how things went so bad. He begs Adelle to not answer the phone (there's no actual phone call, he's speaking anticipatorially). He then comments that such a development in the imprinting technology is genius and questions why he didn't think of it before. And then it dawns on him: he did. He realizes that he created the tech that destroyed the world. He starts to lament about whether when he tries to figure something out if it is an act of curiosity or arrogance. He starts crying, "I know what I know" over and over again, and Adelle holds him close until a bang comes from outside.

She rushes out to find Tony and several of the others holding guns at the ready -- Adelle takes one too -- and they're trained on a cinderblock wall that is the sole entrance into the Dollhouse. From the otherside Echo and Paul Ballard break through. Echo is there to rescue them and take them to a location that is safe from imprinting, which is something that Echo credits Alpha for having established. Echo wants Topher to make a backup of her personality since she knows where they're going, but Whiskey tells her she'll have to do it because Topher never goes up to his office anymore. Echo plans on leaving a copy of herself behind in case anyone makes it to the Dollhouse can use it to follow where they're going. Echo and Adelle have a bit of a conversation about whether Echo is only going to save the dolls or if she's going to save everyone; Echo cocks a gun, but that scene ends.

Back in the future, the few people who've stumbled upon the Dollhouse eventually encounter Whiskey, who's only in a Doll state, though she knows enough to help them with imprinting the memories and the back up Echo to know where to go to try to get to safety. The put the backup of Echo in a young girl's body, who turned out wasn't the young girl anymore but someone else who had been displaced into the young girl's body and was intent on killing them in effort to try to get out of the little girl's body. Once Echo is in the little girl, she recognizes jubilantly Doc Saunders, until she finds out that Whiskey is just Whiskey now.

"Butchers" -- people who've been imprinted to kill those who aren't imprinted to kill -- break into the Dollhouse. The remaining survivors flee, but despite them trying to get Whiskey to come with them, she refuses stating over and over again that she "has to stay" (or maybe it's that she "has to wait", I can't remember exactly which phrase). As they survivors flee, Whiskey activates some gas system in the Dollhouse either putting the Butchers and herself to sleep or killing them, which exactly isn't revealed.

The survivors, led by Echo climb up the elevator shaft to Adelle's former office. There, they see out the window to all the other skyscrapers now broken and shattered. On the wall of the office is a bunch of pictures taped to the wall under the banner "Always Remember". There are pictures of Victor, Sierra, November, and Echo in amongst the pictures. Echo takes the picture of herself off the wall momentarily and comments that she hopes she finds herself alive when they get where they're going. They depart the office by climbing up a rope ladder out the window that must've been left there from when Echo led the dolls out of the Dollhouse.

And that's where Epitaph One ends.

Vacant Look, may I please reprint your synopsis on my website? We never reviewed that episode, since it never aired, and I think our readers would really like to know what happened. It answers a lot of questions.

I'll give you full authorial credit, of course.
 
I heard there were lots of folks who watched last nights episode that never saw the unaired Epitaph One were like "WTF is all this? Who are these people?" but what can you do...
Yeah, that'd be me. I thought "Epitaph 2" was disjointed and tried to fit WAY too much story into too short a time. Now I guess I understand why...

Yes, if you've seen "E1" then things make much, much more sense -- and then I think you'll find that "E2" actually does an amazingly good job for the time they had.
 
Vacant Look, may I please reprint your synopsis on my website? We never reviewed that episode, since it never aired, and I think our readers would really like to know what happened. It answers a lot of questions.

I'll give you full authorial credit, of course.

Sure, go ahead.

It's a shame that Fox didn't broadcast E1. I remember watching it after I got the first season on DVD and feeling really kind of blown away. It really did say that the show was going somewhere. Of course it would've been nice to have more than just 13 episodes to be able to take a bit of a longer look at where it was going, but I'm glad that we got at least what we did.
 
Sure, go ahead.

It's a shame that Fox didn't broadcast E1. I remember watching it after I got the first season on DVD and feeling really kind of blown away. It really did say that the show was going somewhere. Of course it would've been nice to have more than just 13 episodes to be able to take a bit of a longer look at where it was going, but I'm glad that we got at least what we did.

...and it's up! Check it out here http://www.republibot.com/content/e...epitaph-one-season-1-episode-13-season-finale and thank you very much for letting us reprint it!
 
A couple of things. As I read it right now, in the attribution at the beginning, you have this website listed as "B5.com" instead of "B5tv.com", which it should be. ;)

Second, I'd suggest probably editting out the part...

...My guess about some of the not fully explained in this scene is that the medicine Priya declines to take is whatever is made out of Caroline's spinal fluid and that the way it works is that in order to prevent them from being able to be overcome by an imprinting process is to tear down the barriers between all their past imprints blurring them into one multi-mind like Echo, and that Priya's refusal of the medicine is because she wants to remain Priya alone and not become Sierra with all her past imprints. That's my guess, but it's not exactly spelled out.

...as Epitaph Two has Victor say that he and the others like him have to use those flash drives they have hanging around their necks in order to upload various skills to their brains because they can't just imprint a bunch of personalities and switch between them like Echo can. So, that would rule that little theory I had typed up back before Epitaph Two had aired as having been an incorrect theory.
 
Well, I liked Epitaph 2, and it made sense to me, even though I have not seen Epitaph 1. I do wish it could have been two hours, though.
 
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