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Alpha and Omega; The Beginning and the End… or is it?

I know that a lot of you have been waiting a long time for my review of Dollhouse‘s season finale, and the reason you’ve been forced to wait is because I wanted to make sure that it was either going to be cancelled or renewed for next season.

Well, that wait is over.

So, in the final aired episode of the season, entitled “Omega”, we learned some new things, new questions were brought to bear, and some characters have received some resolution.

But was it good?

The answer is yes. It was good. But not great. I’m going to gloss over some of the goings-on in the episode and just really stick with the highlights. Alpha used to have a sort-of partner in the Dollhouse who was called Whiskey. Whiskey is actually revealed as the new Dr. Saunders. You see, they used to have an older male doctor named Saunders, but after Alpha killed him, Whiskey was imprinted with the same skills, but with a bit of righteous indignation that has her disapproving of the unethical practices in the Dollhouse. So, yes, at one point, Amy Acker was an Active. And now she is permanently Dr. Saunders. We also discover that Alpha saw some of himself in Echo; he saw someone with the ability to see past what she was imprinted to be. He was also a tiny bit obsessed with her, and in a fit of what can only be ascribed to jealousy towards Whiskey’s work being more appreciated than Echo’s, Alpha slashed up Whiskey’s face. That answers that question. But what’s really at work in this episode is that Echo was imprinted with a sort of ‘Natural Born Killers’-esque persona right before being whisked away by Alpha. After escaping, they take a poor young woman hostage and in Alpha’s secret lair (because psychotic super-villains need a secret lair) where he has a make-shift imprinting chair, he imprints this poor young woman with the memories and persona of Echo’s real self Caroline. To Alpha, who is in constant struggle with himself and his several different personality imprints, this is a way of Echo purging herself of the person who should have cared about her the most: Herself. When Caroline gave up her self to become Echo, it was for selfish purposes. Now Echo, who has now been imprinted in a similar fashion as Alpha has been, with dueling personas and now called Omega by Alpha, he is certain that she will take righteous retribution against her former self and kill her.

Alas, Alpha’s hopes are dashed as she turns instead on him, understanding that Caroline did the only thing that she could do in her situation. This doesn’t sit well with Alpha, and the climactic battle between Alpha and Echo begins. It doesn’t end in this episode, though, as Alpha escapes only to return again another day.

In the end, in accordance with the help he gave, Paul Ballard, now no longer a Fed, is hired conditionally by Adelle, and the condition being that one of the Actives is set free. Which one will he choose? The girl he means to save the most? Or is it the one in most need of saving? It turns out that it’s the latter. Saunders also asks Topher a very important and surprisingly poignant question as to why he made her to hate him so much. There isn’t really an answer, and that makes it all the more of a real moment between those two characters.

The ep was written and directed by faithful Whedon sidekick Tim Minear, who also co-created Firefly, and tried to get two of his own Fox shows off the ground like The Inside and Drive, both of which had the same potential that Dollhouse does, but Fox in their almost-infinite faithlessness prematurely gave those shows the boot. Minear is a great creator, but there’s just not a whole lot to really love about this episode, with the exception of Alan Tudyk’s performance and how Minear visually shows the war within Alpha.

I recently read a very smart blog about Dollhouse and how it should be saved for next season, because especially after the season finale shockingly reached a new ratings low for the show, it seemed to be destined for cancellation. And the crux of the writer’s point was this: It’s not a great show. Some episodes aren’t even that good. But because of the themes that it works with and the potential that this show has to explore some of those themes and the characters in more depth and detail, it should go on. Because one season does not a television show make. And I fully agreed with this writer’s assessment and even though this was not the most spectacular first season of a show that there ever was, neither was the first season of Buffy.

And look at that show’s second season, which still eclipses all other seasons as the best they did.

Thankfully, Fox decided to give Dollhouse another chance and did pick it up for renewal. This is very good news. However, according to reports out of the Fox camp, Dollhouse‘s per-episode budget will be cut rather significantly, and apparently it will be put back in the Friday Night Death Slot and it’s lead-in show will be the abysmal Brad Garrett sitcom ‘Til Death (a show that I actually thought was already cancelled!). And also thankfully, the original pilot and season finale for the show, the Whedon written and directed “Echo” and “Epitaph One” will be released on DVD, giving us enough reason to buy or at least rent the season, and maybe a more cohesive show structure will emerge.

So, for perhaps the first time, I say:

Thank You, Fox.

So until next season…

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