Elizabeth’s back Guest-Clacking for us again, after sharing her thoughts about Southland’s fit for TNT.
Now, like Joss Whedon’s other shows, it’s come to an end. And like the end of all other Joss Whedon shows, we’re left not quite sure what the hell just happened. The biggest plot hole in what turned out to be the series finale is what happened after Echo blew up Rossum headquarters in Tucson. When Topher found Rossum’s production room, the company hadn’t gotten the remote-wipe devices to work. But we don’t even get a “too bad they already sent a working version to the New York office.” The whole point of blowing up Rossum headquarters was to keep the tech from getting out and the world from devolving into chaos, so it seems like a pretty big oversight not to bother explaining why Echo’s big plan failed so spectacularly.
In general, though, there are even more plot holes in the last few episodes than usual (the fact that the story likely had to be rushed in anticipation of the show’s being canceled didn’t help). The whole idea of a “vaccine against imprinting” based on some neurochemical anomaly in Caroline isn’t really more than vague bullshit. Then there’s the idea that in order to repair Ballard’s brain damage, Topher had to remove his connection to Caroline/Echo … even though the show never made any further references to a real change in their relationship.
And there’s the question of what Boyd’s real agenda was all along. It makes sense that, as the secret co-founder of Rossum, he’d want to keep an eye on Caroline, but we don’t hear about any long-term plans he might have had—even the idea of making an imprinting vaccine to use on the people closest to him seems like something he just came up with to respond to a new situation.
But enough nitpicking. It was fun while it lasted, and the continued thread of Rossum executive Harding surviving in multiple consecutive bodies is a nice touch (and yes, a perfectly realistic depiction of how people would use this kind of technology.) One of the real questions we’re left with by the end of the show is the question of what they would have done over the next few seasons.
The idea of returning to the “epitaph” future, or showing different futures, at the end of every season is intriguing, but once Echo and everyone else blew up Rossum it’s not clear where the plot would have gone next. Sure, they could have tried to drag it out more, but then we would have gotten the same kind of stalling from the first half of season two. Much like Lost, Dollhouse would have needed a more coherent long-term vision that it didn’t yet have in order to work—or in order to get consistent ratings. So now, like Firefly, we’re left dreaming about what could have been, and what Whedon’ll come up with next time.
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on Feb 01, 2010 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
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I think the amount of plot crammed into this season, plus filling in some of the gaps between 2010 and 2020 (including how Alpha became sane again), could’ve made a very satisfying additional season, at least. And an Epitaph 3 at the end of Season 3 could’ve shown us a little of what life was like after Topher sacrificed himself, in terms of the outer world, the people stuck for a year in the Dollhouse to preserve their memories, and even what the pulse did to Alpha.
I don’t know… I”ve been pretty critical of the finale, but I don’t have a problem with this. There was a line in E2 from Harding, I believe, that cutting off the head of Rossum only made things worse, which, to an extent makes sense. In fact, one could argue, all Terminator style, that because of our heroes and their end goals, that they actually caused the apocolypse. Maybe Boyd was working more altruistically than we had thought, and was the force, unknown to all, that would have actually been able to avoid the inevitable.
As far as the tech itself goes, just because you destroy the tech, and don’t have access to the two biggest contributors, doesn’t mean that smart minds can’t recreate it with enough of a head start. Another Terminator trope.
I have to admit I didn’t watch the show since word came out that it was cancelled. As with “Caprica” I was opting not to watch until everthing was/is out – hearing now that there are many plotholes doesn’t really make me want to start watching again.
Overall I don’t really think “Dollhouse” lives up to “Firefly” but maybe that’s just me.
I think if you go in with the knowledge that after the break they were told they’d been cancelled and thus needed to start the end game, you will enjoy it more than not. There definitely were episodes in the end that left me yelling out loud (in a good way) and some amazing character development worth seeing.
Quoting Ivy…
“…doesn’t mean that smart minds can’t recreate it…”
In other words, all of this has happened before and all of it will happen again.
I feel like you’re criticizing what more they could have done based on the assumption that this is what they would have done regardless of getting the ax. I believe they only had a handful of episodes left to do before they got the official word they were cancelled and did what they could to create the kind of crisis that would lead to Epitaph One — a red pill episode that was never meant to air or explicitly be the future because they never thought they were going to be picked up.
[spoiler]
Like Ivey wrote, it was explained enough when Harding questioned Echo if the tech would have gone out of control had they not chopped the head off the snake. Plus they already had the technology because they had Topher’s blueprints and only lacked one simple key change that Topher figured out, and could eventually be solved by someone else. The vaccine is real and was in use — it’s why Safe Haven had to be near Neuropolis because they’s raid the place for more (and tech) when they could. When it’s ten years later you don’t need to go into the minutiae of it all, the shit has hit the fan and China wiped LA out.
[/end spoiler]