Dollhouse 1x13 Review: Or Have Your Senses Taken Leave of You?

“Epitaph One”
Written by Joss Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jed Whedon
Directed by David Solomon
 
The Story
Ten years in the future of the current storyline, the world has become an apocalyptic nightmare because of Rossum’s Dollhouse technology. It seems the point at which everything started seriously going downhill was when Rossum decided to sell doll bodies permanently to their richest clients, instead of giving them back to their original owners after their contracts end. Cities are overrun with “butchers” (people programmed to murder anyone on sight, like fast, intelligent zombies) and “dumbshows” (blank slate doll type people), and the “actuals” (people who are still themselves) are struggling to survive. Any technology that can carry a signal or emit sound could be used to broadcast a mindwipe or butcher signal at any moment. One band of survivors finds the Dollhouse, deserted but for Whiskey. They keep getting picked off one by one, and it ultimately turns out to have been the seemingly innocent little girl, who has someone else’s mind in her. The two other survivors catch her and put Caroline’s mind in her so that she can lead them to somewhere called Safe Haven, where there’s no tech and everyone stays who they are.
 
I kind of love that the show went this route. I don’t imagine they would have done it if they had the ratings to be confident in getting renewed for multiple seasons, so there is at least one advantage to early cancellation in a show with a premise like this, I guess. I also love that the show doesn’t let the Dollhouse tech be okay. Society cannot remain stable if this technology exists. It’s like nuclear bombs, but worse somehow. Inevitable collapse.
 
Things I Liked

• Hi Felicia Day!
• “Butchers” and “dumbshows”
• Oh hey, the reasonable guy is the same actor who plays Uncle Zach in Vampire Diaries
• Everyone assuming Topher’s station is a daycare because of his toys
• Topher immediately mouthing off to Dominic two minutes after he first arrives at the Dollhouse
• “Mr. Dominic is my eyes and ears.” “Can I be your nose and throat?”
• Yeah I definitely remember shipping Boyd/Saunders
• Tony/Priya! Future Tony/Priya! Which means they’ll be okay in the present in S2
• Adelle taking care of Topher

 
Things I Didn’t

• Rossum deciding it could hijack people’s bodies and give them to rich douchebags permanently
• Sad, crazy Topher
• Terrifying rope ladder that goes farther up the skyscraper? How is that the way out?

 
The Characters
Wait, so what’s going to happen to “Caroline” in the little girl’s body? How was it Caroline’s plan to leave a copy of herself for anyone to upload into any body? Are they going to leave her in there? Are all the copies supposed to be willing to cease to exist if they figure out a way to restore the original factory settings to the body in question? She couldn’t have just left a map or something?
 
Overall Rating
4.5/5