Dollhouse: Countdown to the Final Three

Since this is my first review of Dollhouse for the site, I'll just go ahead and get this out of the way; Joss Whedon = TV Master. There, now that that's out of the way...

Yesterday, I was able to catch up with one of my favorite shows and was definitely not disappointed. I'm still not sure how I felt about FOX's decision to put two hours of Dollhouse on a week, which is what made me get behind in the first place. It was definitely a little intimidating at first. But now that all that's over, we can focus on the awesomeness of that is this show.

It may be ending, but Dollhouse is going out with a bang! I can even count the number of times I went "OH!!!" or jumped in my seat last night during the show's final two hour block. It was just that good (Not that I ever expect less).

I was able to watch "Meet Jane Doe," "A Love Supreme" (featuring the amazing Alan Tudyk as Alpha), "Stop-Loss," and "The Attic." I'll try and make these summaries as quick and painless as I can without leaving any of the many, many major plot points out. Wish me luck...

"Meet Jane Doe" mostly focused on Echo's three months away from the Dollhouse after escaping. After being found by Paul, the two begin training to take down the Dollhouse from inside. Before going back, however, Echo decides to save an illegal immigrant (Galena, if I recall correctly) that she is responsible for putting in jail. She isn't exactly welcomed back with open arms by DeWitt (who is dealing with her own problems in the Dollhouse), but there is no denying Echo's popularity with clients and so she is, ultimately, allowed back.

"A Love Supreme" was one of the more interesting episodes. Echo is trying her best to reintegrate herself in the Dollhouse, but DeWitt's suspicions lead her to put Echo in solitary confinement to see if she can get any information out of her. She suspects Echo and Paul are up to something but can't prove it. Once Echo is cleared by Topher (who has really just discovered what Echo can do and is now part of her little gang of rebels), she is assigned to one of the many clients on her waiting list. We discover that these engagements have actually been set up by Alpha in order to kill every "lover" Echo has had. He later breaks back into the Dollhouse, sets all the actives to attack anyone who gets in his way, and gets to Paul in all of the chaos. His plan is to see what makes Echo love him, by electrocuting the hell out of him and reading his brain waves, of course.

In the process, Paul becomes brain dead and Alpha decides he'll just imprint himself with Paul's personality in the hopes that Echo will finally accept him. However, after a kick ass fight scene between them, all Paul's identity manages to do is let him escape as Echo can not bring herself to kill him after "Paul" asks her to through Alpha. The episode ends with Paul on life support and DeWitt fully aware of what Echo is capable of.

There wasn't much to "Stop-Loss," except Victor's full backstory and lots of action, but it was a fantastic episode nonetheless. The strength of Victor and Sierra's love is proven in this episode and we see just a small part of Rossum's evil plan to essentially take over the world. It ends with DeWitt sending them, along with Echo, to The Attic, which leads to...

"The Attic," definitely one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. It starts out running right off the bat. Within the first five minutes we see Echo escaping the attic and freeing Victor and Sierra. But before you have time to even think "Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Victor and Sierra are shot dead and Echo realizes that this is just her "Attic" nightmare. One of the best sequences ever!

The rest of the episode is very big on the mythology of the show. Echo meets up with Dominic (Reed Diamond), who we remember was sent to The Attic by DeWitt, and they team up to find Victor and Sierra through their nightmares by following Arcane, a prisoner of The Attic who goes around killing other prisoners. Once the four confront him, he is actually revealed to be one of the two creators of The Rossum Corporation who was duplicated and placed in The Attic by his partner who wanted full control. He explains that the minds of all those trapped in The Attic act as "human computers" that essentially run the Rossum Corp. That is the reason he goes around killing people in their nightmares, to destroy Rossum's main frame computer.

Echo discovers that the only way out is to die in her nightmare, which would disengage her monitoring devices, and then regain consciousness and take out The Attic workers, just like in her first nightmare. She tells Victor and Sierra that she will go and get help, but they insist that they are all in this together now. Then comes the big reveal; DeWitt didn't send Echo to The Attic because she had a personal vendetta against her. She sent her inside as a spy to discover how to take down the Rossum Corp. Now armed with this information and her army of rebels (including Paul, who Topher somehow manages to fix by removing something. What exactly is yet to be revealed), Echo decides they are only missing one thing, Caroline.

And with that, we are left waiting until January 8th (luckily not too long since FOX can't seem to wait to get rid of this show) to see what happens next. There are only three episodes left of Dollhouse, which I expect to be epic, including the series finale Epitaph Two: Return, which is sure to be a fan favorite.

This review was much longer that it had to be and I essentially forgot the main point I was trying to make in the process. Other than that this show is just freaking amazing and I don't get why more people aren't watching it. Oh well, easy come, easy go. But I for one will eagerly be awaiting the return of the final few episodes and hope that you will be too!