The Last Episode of Dollhouse

Alright, let’s talk about it dammit. That the final episode was wholly unsatisfying to me in so many different ways… I CAN’T STOP finding inconsistencies in that story. It’s just a goldmine of bullshit. Here are some of the highlights…
(yes that’s a spoiler alert!)

The Production:

First things first, how bad was that firefight scene in the beginning? One of the first things i liked about this show was the attention to detail in the fight choreography. The first episode showed Ballard in a genuinely engaging fistfight… i can 0nly assume they were rushed for time on this one because it felt like another show altogether. The quality was more on par with a B-movie on the sci fi channel. If you need to cut corners, fine… but it also dragged ON and ON, ending in Ballard getting killed. Which brings me to…

The Plot:

They killed Ballard. Didn’t they JUST use that plot device on us a few episodes ago? What, is he like Kenny on South Park now? “They killed Ballard! You bastards!” Well O.K., he didn’t exactly DIE last time, but Alpha fried his brain in that chair. Then they re-imprinted him with his own (older) personality on his new active architecture and for what? Just to kill him again in the beginning of the last episode? In arch-typical terms, Ballard was “The Hero” but they gunned him down like a stormtrooper. No it’s not enough that his imprint gets to live in Echo’s skull now. The hero never gets to complete his evolution to the sage.

SO many charcter-arcs were left unresolved. For as much time as they spent building up these character’s individual dramas and getting us to care, they sure hung us out to dry on reaching closure with any of them. The most glaring of which was the Victor/Sierra conclusion.

Do you REALLY expect us to believe that Victor would leave Sierra and their child for ANY reason whatsoever? You could argue that the new state of the world was a huge deal and caused Victor’s priorities to change, but they spent the entire duration of the show proving to us that they need to be with each other on some level that transcends their personalities. They were in love, no matter what or who they were imprinted with, and even when they were UN imprinted. One time Victor stood in the same spot all day because she told him to wait there for her.

So why would he leave her and their BABY to run off with his new cyberpunk homies (who drive around in Goliath from Knight Rider) just to have them turn on him in the same episode they’re introduced? Victor and Sierra’s arch-type “The Lovers” is sacrificed for some completely disposable plot-device, just like Ballard’s. Enver Gjokaj (Victor) has shown over and over again that he is a virtual chameleon of an actor, able to impersonate other characters in shocking detail! (his performance as Topher deserves recognition) Why not do something impressive with THAT instead?

Topher’s ending, on the other hand, probably disappointed me the most. He was my favorite character on the show. He cracked me up on every episode, and to see him so demolished in part 1 of this debacle (Epitaph 1) made me really sad. I was hoping that they would rectify some of that in Epitaph 2 but nope… they killed him off too. He figured out how to undo all this mess and heal the world, right? Isn’t that a good-enough reason for Topher to live happily ever after?

Oh that’s right he can’t… because the device can’t be triggered remotely. Why? Are you telling me that TOPHER: SUPER ULTRA MEGA GENIUS can wire up an electrical device to cause some kind of never-before-heard-of explosion that emits gamma rays or some shit that heals the whole planet in a matter of seconds but CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE A REMOTE TRIGGER? What could POSSIBLY be the obstacle here? Does it take a living soul to run it? Or hot human blood and you can’t find a thermos? What the FUCK? How about stupid string hanging from the switch and down the stairs or something? Or out Adelle’s window? He even had time to sit there and ponder that shit on the wall when he could’ve been running.

Don’t tell me Topher had PTSD and just WANTED to die. That’s no excuse for writing him that way. Killing off your main characters for reasons that can be avoided is the hallmark of bad storytelling. So is the Deus Ex Machina which is what Topher’s magic fix totally was.

Adelle: “You can fix all this?”

Topher: “Sure i just need to watch this video of Bennett real quick and BAM… solder right there. Done. Let’s push the button and save the world”

Adelle: “Where does the device need to be?”

Topher: “High up. The higher the better.”

Adelle: “How about the top of this building we’re in?”

Topher: “That’ll work!”

Adelle: “How can our friends here avoid being affected?”

Topher: “They need to be deep underground. The deeper the better.”

Adelle: “How about the bottom of this building we’re in?”

Topher: “That’ll work!”

So effing convenient. Zero thought was put into creating believable reasons for anything. Like how suddenly all was forgiven with Alpha. They never really explained that one. He’s just mysteriously nice now… which is plausible in the Dollhouse universe i guess but why is everyone all hugging him? “Aw hey, I’m sorry about cutting up your face and all…” HE should’ve been leading that cyberpunk crew instead of Victor and gone back to the dollhouse to raid the collection of imprints with them.

I feel like I have a head full of unreleased sneezes. If the show had always been this bad, it wouldn’t bother me so much. Because i would not have been watching it. But on the bright side, at least this time they were given a chance to wrap it up. We won’t be left hanging for years like we were with Firefly… although a well-written Dollhouse movie on a Serenity scale would have been worth the wait.

From everything I’ve seen, I am pretty sure that the show could have done a lot better if it had been marketed by people who understood it’s complexity and knew how to pitch it, but the ever-narrowing minds of the networks and their complete lack of patience has resulted in yet another knee-jerk reaction and another Whedon production taken down before it had a chance to really blossom… and a rushed last-episode that totally damaged the integrity of the entire vision.

Tags: dollhouse, science fiction, television

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 Uncategorized

1 Comment to The Last Episode of Dollhouse

Awww, curse you. I was teetering on being able to live with it, and then you went and had to be right about all the stuff I tried to ignore…

I blame Not Joss Whedon?