Quick thoughts on Dollhouse - Epitaph One

[boomqueen]

In search of episode reactions to Epitaph! What did you guys think?

Brief thoughts:

I think it's REALLY interesting (and telling about Joss's capacity for darkness/bleakness) that both the Buffyverse and the Dollhouseverse have had dystopian future storylines where all the hard work and effort of our kick-ass heroines didn't/couldn't stop the inevitable wave of huge evil from happening.

I loved Fray for it's future-vamp world and for Fray the character. I enjoyed the crossovers in Buffy season 8, particularly Buffy's moments of self-awareness and despair at realizing that the future was still full of vampires and that slayers were still needed to fight them. So, yay for cool sci-fi ideas, and yay for the inevitable snark, but Fray was BLEAK.

Epitaph One seems more like an extension of that line of storytelling than an extension of season one of Dollhouse. The technology that the Dollhouse creates explodes beyond the morally gray wish fulfillment it was originally intended for, into a highly developed and instantaneous military weapon (the instant imprint transfer process having been possibly conceived by Topher?) that creates drone armies and the world explodes in war and devastation.

Just as in Fray with "lurkers" for vampires, there were a lot of clever future!slang Joss-isms like "butchers" and "empty's" to describe the remaining heroes/villains/victims.

I loved getting to see Felicia Day, the adorable little girl from Heroes and my girlfriend Janina Gavankar as stand alone characters for this episode. I REALLY loved getting to see self-sacrificing future!Whiskey who had stayed behind to ensure that others could find their way. I enjoyed all the mini-flashbacks into the space between season one and the end of the world: Echo and Paul working together, Topher and Adelle having to decide whether to be complicit in even worse decisions, Boyd running with Claire's help, Dominic holding Adelle accountable, so much!

My favorite scene of the entire episode was Topher's breakdown. He is the character that I have always needed to be held accountable for his atrocities the MOST. I was completely riveted watching him walk the line between pride/fascination and fear/shame with the power of the technology he wielded. Awesome scene.

That's what I've got off the top of my head. What did y'all think?

Comments

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

I really, really liked it! And I don't even watch Dollhouse. But a couple of people made 30-second vids to this ep in my Itty Bitty Viddy Ficcy Thon a few weeks ago and it intrigued me. Especially because of Molly from Heroes and Amy Acker. And I loved that I have never seen Dollhouse but I could totally understand the ep from the context. I love dystopian future storytelling!

One of the most powerful scenes was when that woman Adele? comforted Topher when he realizes what he's done. I don't think she's always a warm woman but I totally bought that she cared about him and I could imagine her doing this regularly. Reminding him what he's done. Gosh.

Felicia Day was wonderful. As was Adair Tishler. I totally bought her as Echo/Caroline at the end. I love the look on her face when she says, "I hope I made it." I hope she did too.

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's fascinating! And awesome that it stands on its own enough to work as a unique self-contained story.

Yes, that is exactly the scene I am talking about. Those two are the most ethically dubious on the show, so seeing them both accountable and powerfully distraught over how things had turned out was intense!

I'm still way behind on vid-watching but I'm looking forward to track ones down for this episode.

[sundancekid.livejournal.com]

So yes, Topher's scene was the very best.

What confused me was -- did the thing Topher invented where a phone call programs everyone (and then sold to the Chinese?) cause all this destruction, or the way that kidnapping people to make them dolls became legal, or both? Which came first? How are they related? It's not the apocalypse if the DETAILS aren't right, yo.

[boom-queen.livejournal.com]

My interpretation was that kidnapping people to become dolls was the first step in things going really wrong--and the first wake up call to Adelle/Topher that things were headed in an even worse direction--but what completely destroyed civilization was the phone call programs that Topher invented because that's when EVERYONE got programmed/reprogrammed and total chaos and war broke out.

btw, I shared the statement It's not the apocalypse if the DETAILS aren't right, yo with Sam, and I don't think it's physically possible for either of us to adore you more.