While there’s been some pretty compelling posts around the net suggesting that Dollhouse is Josh Whedon’s best work, the general consensus seems to be that Dollhouse was a massively ambitious disappointment.  In truth, the potential that was there has only been showing up over the last five episodes. What will humanity look like when all of our experiences and personality traits are just space on a hard drive? What makes you human if your body and mind are separable? What is the difference between exploitation for the common good and evil? All surprisingly deep philosophical questions for a show whose original facade was that of a high end brothel. Though wrapped in kinky fantasies and kung fu kicks, Dollhouse really did try to tackle those ideas. Sometimes with a fair amount of success, like the episode “Needs” but also with some shallow detours like the god awful “Stage Fright.” In the final tally, Dollhouse simply wasn’t able to grow up enough to catch a steady audience over its twelve episode run and this will likely be the last episode ever broadcast.

This is it. Alpha has Echo captive out in the wild and Ballard is captured by the Dollhouse. What exactly the clearly insane ex-active has in mind with Echo isn’t clear but its bound to be ugly.

Through out the episode we catch flashbacks of Alpha’s time as a doll. Turns out Doctor  Saunders has a much bigger role to play than we had originally known. She too was an active. The House’s most popular in fact. Alpha’s non fatal attack on her seems to be even more significant now. After Echo arrives, Alpha takes an interest in Dr. Saunders aka Whiskey, the same way Victor had been taking an interest in Sierra.

Ballard and Mrs Dewitt are joining forces to try to capture Alpha and Echo. Ballard seems to be able to handle all of it with surprising smoothness considering how obsessed he’s been with the Dollhouse. Ballard attempts to help Topher, Dewitt and Boyd decipher what Alpha’s motives and target could be. Realizing that the first thing that Alpha destroyed was his primary or original personality, Topher discovers that Alpha too has stolen Echo’s primary personality.

Now having built his own imprint chair and kidnapped a hostage, Alpha’s plan for Echo starts to crystalize. Alpha wants to build his own perfect mate. To do that, he has to remove Echo’s true self and dump all of her previous imprints into her at once. To do that, Alpha uses his homemade brain chair to put Caroline (Echo’s true personality) into their hostage. At this point Alpha delivers a psychotic and gripping soliloquy. It’s proof that Alpha has lived up the boogeyman persona that’s been building all season long. Tudyk is once again excellent, playing up the glitches in Alpha’s programming. One personality overrides another as Alpha’s ticks and freaks out.

Once again in flashback, we see Alpha and Whiskey in the Dollhouse. Whiskey is the most popular doll and is consistently being called out on jobs. Suddenly Alpha appears over her and says in a creepy childlike voice “Whiskey, let Echo be number one” and slashes her face. Now subdued Alpha appears to be getting another treatment, but something goes wrong and Alpha’s imprint is warped as he struggles.
Back on the manhunt, Ballard tries to understand Alpha in some deeper sense. He thinks the actives still posses a soul and that understanding who Alpha was before he was wiped could tell them who he has become. You can almost hear the Whedon sub plot bells ringing.

Now with Caroline imprinted on the hostage, Alpha sets out to make Echo into his own super crazy love partner. Alpha fancies himself god-like and superior to ordinary people and he intends to make Echo the same. Thus transforming her into his “Omega”. Caroline is trying to appeal to Echo. Its fascinating for the mind, encased in another body to try to talk rationally with her own body, even without her persona. Alpha expects Echo to kill Caroline and exorcise her original self permanently. Echo isn’t going that way though.

In a fantastic twist, the newly crowned Omega turns on Alpha laying him out with a pipe to the face. Even with all of her actives in her head, Echo maintains a feeling of self. Her inner soul as Ballad called it, continues to see the evil nature of Alpha. Who we discover through Ballard’s detective work was well on his way to becoming psycho before the Dollhouse picked him up. After some esoteric conversation with her own mind, Omega and Alpha begin the inevitable fisticuffs. Omega gets the upper hand and it looks like we may have a neat tidy ending, but just as Omega/Echo is about to escape Alpha shoots Caroline in the throat.

Ballard and Boyd are breaking out their old police skills as they track down the victim of Alpha’s last act of free will before becoming an active. Once they do, they discover that she too has the facial scars that Alpha has made a calling card. It seems like Balard and Boyd’s sleuthing could turn something up and the two are closing in.

Alpha has the upper hand and he forces Echo back into his home made chair. Claiming he’s going to destroy the hard drive with Caroline on it if she doesn’t comply. Echo is having none of it though. Now reversing roles, Echo is chasing Alpha just as Ballard and Boyd arrive.

Now with all the principles in place for a finale showdown, there’s an excellent foot chase using a power station as a backdrop. During the fray, Alpha throws away the hard drive containing Caroline. Ballard catches the hard drive thus finally getting to save Caroline in an incredibly esoteric way. Alpha escapes to be a specter should the Dollhouse magically get renewed.

Back at the Dollhouse, Topher begins to see that the active Whiskey is peaking through the cracks in the composite of Doctor Saunders. She too is able to see beyond her imprint. Ballard is working at the Dollhouse now in exchange for “Millie’s” freedom. In the final moment as the actives return to their pods for sleep Echo whispers one name “Caroline.”

Whedon’s premise became obvious. Though personalities and memories can be calculated and copied, a person’s true nature can’t be overwritten. Its a very good ending to what became a very good series. It had the potential to be great, but Dollhouse just never was able to get there. Sadly, it looks like Whedon will once again be without a network TV home. Though the airwaves might be poorer for that, I’m guessing with the success of Dr. Horrible, the internet will be made richer.

There are only a few more episodes of Dollhouse left now and the show seems to have found its footing. Last week’s episode wasn’t as explosive as the previous weeks, but this week’s is an absolute scorcher.

Ballard is trying to break up with his active/ girlfriend Lilly. Not surprisingly, Lilly is devastated. As the Dollhouse collects its now suicidal active, Ballard follows them back to the home base and discovers the Dollhouse’s location.

Echo is trying to help young girl with emotional difficulties. In order to help the girl, Topher has imprinted Echo with the kid’s own patterns thus giving Echo all the tools to help the abused girl. It seems to be Topher’s own personal charity work.

Meanwhile at the Dollhouse, a chip supposedly from the NSA has been found and the only way to decode it is to let Dominick out of the attic. Not Mr. Dominick actually, but Victor imprinted with the former security head’s brain. Dominick reveals that the chip isn’t from the NSA, but from Alpha. Alpha was trying to point Dominick to Dollhouse HQ in Arizona.

Ballard discovers that a man was brought on as an environmental specialist during the Dollhouse’s construction. After finding the shaky, pot growing environmentalist, played brilliantly by Whedon favorite Alan Tudyk, Ballard forces him into an alliance.

Now at the Dollhouse, Ballard and the pot-head are breaking in just as Echo is returning. Eventually the two make it inside and Ballard gets his first look at his white wale. Slowly making their way through the Dollhouse, its becoming clear that the pothead knows more than he’s letting it on. The unlikely pair make their way to a computer terminal and begin to try to free the actives. As Ballard does, he’s discovered by Boyd. Boyd and Ballard fight in what must be Dollhouse’s most sought after tussle as these are the only two characters on the show with any moral compass. While the two scrap, the pothead disables all of the security systems. Its a pretty impressive fight scene, and Boyd comes out the winner.

Now here comes the twist. As the doctor escorts Victor back to her office for medical attention, the potheads true nature reveals itself. The goofy environmentalist is Alpha. Now in control of the whole Dollhouse, Alpha begins a rein of terror. He mutilates Victor in his traditional blade happy way and then holds the doctor and Echo hostage. He takes Echo to the chair and he imprints her. Alpha and Echo embrace and Alpha’s motivations are now obvious. He’s in love. Now with no one to stop them, the happy couple walk out of the Dollhouse.

This is an episode that payed off. It was good enough to make all the other silly inconsistencies of earlier episodes fade out of memory. Tudyk is great on screen as Alpha and I only wish we’d seen him sooner. The only downside of this episode is the abused child plot line. It seemed to go nowhere even though the concept had a lot of potential. The intensity os seriously ratcheted up by the end and I for one am really looking forward to next week.

Internet rumors about Dollhouse have been going crazy for the last few weeks. Most of them are inspired by Wheadon himself. Though I don’t think a review is the proper place to explore them, it does seem as though the interest in the show has coincided directly with the uptick in quality. Ao the show itself has improved, so too has the interest in it.

A rich older woman is killed in what appears to be a horse riding accident. Margaret is a former Dollhouse customer and a friend of the icy Ms. DeWitt. So much so, that Margaret is imprinted onto Echo giving her another shot at life. Essentially making Echo a ghost. Margaret in Echo’s body ghoulishly attends her own funeral and after seeing her family in mourning, Margaret decides to solve her own murder.

The fsuspects include her son, daughter, brother and her far younger boy toy.  Margaret spends much of the episode trying to come to grips with her family’s real feelings toward her. Apparently, her reputation as an unfeeling dictator was lost on her in life. I suppose that’s a fear we almost universally share, to discover that your loved one’s weren’t as loved as you thought.

Not a whole lot went on back at the actual Dollhouse. Topher gets permission to use Sierra for a “diagnostic” but in truth just wants a playmate. Interestingly enough its the first time I remember seeing a doll used as a plutonic friend. Which seems hard to believe considering Topher. The two spend their time playing laser tag, video games and drinking beer.

Margaret’s investigation finally come to a head when her son guesses her real identity. Its a bit silly because regardless of how much she might act like his mother, its hard to believe that he’d figure that out. The son killed his mother by drugging the horse that threw her to her death. Not surprisingly, the murder centers around her fortune. After a tussle between the son and the boy toy, the son is exposed and  Margaret has some closure.

This week’s episode really showed the potential built into the Dollhouse concept. As has been said on other websites, the concept of imprinting a mind into a new body was one of the ideas that made Battlestar Galactica successful. The device is full of traps and surprises that could make for very compelling television. This week’s episode really worked that concept and made it interesting.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, it became clear the Fox is bringing the axe down on Dollhouse. No one should be surprised. Dollhouse consistently underperformed in the ratings and was a constant burr in the saddle of Fox executives who had no idea what to do with Wheadon’s prostitute Sci-fi action show. Though the show has been notoriously uneven, there are moments when brilliance shine through. This week was the epitome of that unevenness.

Its clear that there is a spy inside the Dollhouse. To make matters worse, Mrs Dewitt is on vacation and completely out of pocket. This leaves the overly aggressive Lawrence in charge. Eventually Topher decides to send in the actives as support. He implants Sierra with a super spy’s profile and sends her into the NSA to try to find out who is behind the sabotage.

Agent Ballard has been obsessing over the Dollhouse to the point of near madness. Suddenly, his girlfriend/ active November reappears and tells him that she is indeed an active and that someone on the inside has programed her to spill the beans to him. Thought he now knows that “Millie” is an active, he can’t let on or else the Dollhouse will kill him. Its an interesting turn for a character who has been almost useless up until this point.

Now with Sierra posing as an NSA agent (apparently all asian-ish girls look alike) she breaks in and discovers who the mole is. Unfortunately, she’s captured and it looks like the Dollhouse may have lost an active permanently. In the Dollhouse world though, the NSA isn’t badass enough to keep the actives in check and she’s eventually returned safely to her pine box.

While all of the chaos is raining down on the Dollhouse we finally see where Dewitt is. She has been having Victor come to her programmed as a lover. Its a silly moment, Dewitt is emoting about her role as head of the Dollhouse to one of the Dolls. She even goes so far as to break down and sob. Its all very un-ice queen of her.

Now with Sierra out of the picture, Topher decides to imprint Echo, at her request, with his super spy mojo. After questioning everyone, Echo finally deduces who the real spy is. Its Laurence the super aggro security expert. He’s been working as a mole for the NSA. The NSA is interested in turning the Dollhouse toward their own clandestine spy operations. After a tense scuffle with Echo, Laurence is captured. Dewitt decides that she’s going to put him in the dreaded attic and for the first time, we get to see what that is. It isn’t pretty. Laurence struggles and fights even getting getting access to a gun and shooting DeWitt in the process. Despite the struggles, Laurence is wiped and his body hauled away into storage.

Dewitt promotes Boyd as her new chief of security, severing his ties with Echo. Interestingly, Echo seems to be regaining elements of her free will. And though she is bonded with a new handler, it is clearly with some hesitancy.

A good episode over all, it was a genuine surprise to have Laurence as the culpret. Though I thought his undoing was somewhat anticlimactic, it still was cathartic to see him wiped and boxed. The whole Sierra breaking into the NSA scene (not to mention her escape) was absolute rubbish; but Echo’s involvement in the takedown and Ballard’s betrayal where more entertaining than I would’ve guessed. Sadly, with the end in sight we can only hope the network hatchet men give us a proper finish to the series.

Dollhouse really dropped the ball last week. Two weeks ago, Dollhouse took a huge turn  for the better and began to move the plot forward in ways that where compelling. Though last week we saw Echo’s origin story, it generally was a mismatched set of plots and silly dead ends. This week, Dollhouse looks primed to bounce back.

Five actives awaken in their pods. Though they aren’t sure who they are or what happened to them, they do know that they want out. Though it appears the Dollhouse higher ups have planned their attempted break out, there are serious risks. As the actives escape, their memories begin to emerge. Much of the episode is an elaborate chase scene but despite that, it works well and tension builds. Just as they’re able to escape, Echo decides that she can’t leave. She feels compelled to return to the Dollhouse and try to save the other actives.

After Echo returns, the Dollhouse believes they’ve got Echo under control until the house goes dark. Now in the dark, Echo takes Topher hostage forcing him to explain the  Dollhouse process. Topher explains that he can give her her memories back, but Echo insists that Topher get the treatment first. Just as she’s about to fry his brain, Mrs Dewit show up. She and Echo discuss the conditions of the actives. Echo forces Dewit to let all the actives out en mass like kids in the sunshine. Suddenly, the revolution ends and the actives are returned to the Dollhouse.

We discover the true reason for the Dollhouse’s subversion. Dr. Saunders decides that the best way to get the troubled actives under control is to give them just a little bit of what their inner consciousness is searching for. The whole scenario allowed them have closure on their internal conflicts.

Though the episode was entertaining and suspenseful, I couldn’t help but feel slightly cheated by the ending. It was clear the Dollhouse had planned this, but I was really hoping that the Dollhouse prison break would have a more substantial impact. Regardless of that complaint, Dollhouse felt like it righted the ship this time around.

Whedon delivered on his promise last week of a compelling episode last week and I had my hopes up that the momentum would carry over this week. Unfortunately, it was a miss match of an outbreak-like plot and an attempt at filling in some backstory.

A shady company run by a shady nobel prize winner has a created a drug that has gotten loose. Because of the doll’s vegetative states, Topher believes they can infiltrate the campus to recover the drug, or something like that. It really didn’t make much sense. Echo is the only doll excluded as the campus is the same as the one we’ve seen in her flashback segments.

Former agent Ballard is confronted by his planted active/ girlfriend who wants him to quit the case after her assault last week. He refuses and she leaves in tears. Its an understandable move but it seemed unconvincing.

The super dangerous drug is proven to be passed by touch. No I’m serious, by touch. It also seems that the effects wear off after a few hours. So then why all the urgency if all they have to do is quarantine everyone?

Echo suddenly breaks off from a fantasy gig thus allowing her to wear a ridiculously sultry outfit and turns her attention to the campus. That too is never really explained properly. While she journeys back we get lots of insight into her life leading up to the mind wipe. A hippie dippy Echo, real name Caroline, along with her boyfriend was attempting to get video of the shady corporation’s evil treatment of lab animals.Caroline and her boyfriend were caught by security and the boyfriend gets shot trying to escape. In turn, Caroline is captured and forced into becoming a dollhouse zombie for a few years as payment. That’s the big surprise?

After arriving on campus, Echo meets one of the earliest victims of the drug and the two try to infiltrate the lab the same path as she had taken as Caroline. Finally making her way to the lab with her new friend in tow, he doses her with the drug. He turns out to be a the source of the entire crisis. He wanted to steal the formula and sell it to the highest bidder. After getting punched out by a sobered up Boyd, he too ends up rounded up by the Dollhouse and in the end, he looks to become another active on their roster.

It all felt anticlimactic. The drug was essentially a short term danger with only minor consequences and all we learned about Echo and the Dollhouse was that they came together through an ridiculously mundane set of circumstances. Though the doped up dialogue between Topher and the English ice queen where pretty funny, it wasn’t enough to save this one. Hopefully the teased-at active uprising in Dollhouse’s preview cashes in more of the promise of last weeks episode.

Dollhouse’s inability to string two quality episodes together is beginning to be a serious problem. Perhaps because of this it was inevitable that this week’s was going to be a bummer. THough there are element’s of this weeks show that are interesting, generally it was an overly complex and tortured plot that didn’t seem to go anywhere.

A Senator who has used the Dollhouse’s services hires Echo out n infiltrate a religious cult that’s taken a refuge in his district. They need to bug Echo but for obvious reasons they don’t want a traditional microphone. So, they drill her eye out making her blind and install a tiny surveillance camera. The idea of this is just rediculous.Echo and all of the actives must make the Dollhouse so much money over time that it seems nuts to subject something so valuable to possible permanent blindness.

REgardless of the silly factor, Echo, observed by Boyd and a few dozen ATF agents, marches right to the gate of the compound and gains access. Though she’s subjected to lots of test by the David Coresh-like leader of the cult, it still feels like she’s accepted far too early. After a completely bungled extraction, the ATF (along with a furious Boys) are stymied by the well armed cult. So far the plot, while somewhat superficial, is pretty coherent. Sadly, this isn’t good enough. After some digging Boyd discovers that the whole set up and attack, though perhaps still worthwhile, is a set up by an ATF agent with a grudge against the cult leader. The agent is willing to sacrifice Echo to stop the cult leader and Boyd gets little help from Dollhouse HQ. A blow to the head by the cult leader kills Echo’s eye camera, but also miraculously grants he sight. Its incredibly lame. It goes without saying that Echo and Boyd escape the fiery, Waco-style assault on the compound much to the disappointment of the ATF agent who masterminded the debacle.

Agent Ballard’s seemingly pointless world also trudges along. THough he does get some more clues about Echo from what we assume is Alpha, he’s still separated from any actual action. Ballard’s witless investigate is more pointless than a ball bearing.

Its sad to see Dollhouse making so many wrong moves in what is clearly a talented group of writers and actors. Though the series may be dead already, it still has a lot of potential as quality SciFi. In order to get to that level though, its just going to have to better more often.

So far, Dollhouse has been maddeningly uneven. The premiere was lukewarm, the psycho hunter episode excellent and last week’s backup singer plot was a train wreck. Wheadon made it clear in a Rolling Stone interview that his experience making Dollhouse has soured him for network television so we may never see this program even out, but it continues to have gas in the tank.

In what first appears as a straight hooker job becomes a high end museum robbery. Don’t look now, but a compelling episode has taken shape. Echo is set up as the ring leader and been created as a master thief and safecracker. One of the gang makes a break for it with the loot and Echo calls in Boyd for support. While on the call a mysterious squealing noise kicks in and Echo’s mind is wiped clean leaving her traped ad helpless.

Back home with a fresh bullet wound Agent Bowers settles in with his pain medication. The phony russian mobster who the Dollhouse planted has returned and is trying to get closer to Bowers. After three episodes, Bowers has done little more than be ridiculed, yell and dead ends and get shot. At this point, Bowers is just taking up space.

Echo is blubbering her codewords and wandering around the museum staring at paintings. The Dollhouse decides to implant Sierra with the identity that Echo lost and to use her for a rescue. Its too late for her to go in, but Sierra calls her and begins to lead her through an intricate escape. It doesn’t go well and she trips the alarm. Now with the police on the way and security closing in, the thieves arm themselves for a standoff. With bullets flying a random smoke grenade is thrown and Echo is somehow able to escape into Boyd’s waiting arms far far easier than she should’ve.

Its not a very satisfying end to what was a pretty satisfying episode. Not surprisingly, Alpha is behind the remote wipe of Echo’s mind. I’m enjoying the continued build up of the uber-badass Alpha. But I do worry about overstating him. It might be best to totally flip the script and when Alpha does show up he’s mousy and unimpressive.

The cast of “Stargate Universe” is shaping up – and we’re seeing more and more names of people that you may actually know.

Originally it was thought that Robert Carlyle was going to be surrounded with a group of unknowns, but as casting news comes in, we’re seeing a different picture.

First Lou Diamond Phillips has joined the team. Now “ER” vet Ming-Na will be joining the cast as well.

If things continue this way, Stargate Universe may feature a pretty high profile cast.

I have to say, as a relative “Stargate” noob I’m looking forward to this show as a jumping on point for the franchise. It’s looking like its off to a good start.

It’s almost time to kiss Battlestar Galactica goodbye. There are only 3 episodes of the series left. Fans that are wondering how they’re going to fit all of the necessary answers into only three hour long episodes need not worry.

According to SyFy, the final episode is going to be 3 hours long. Oddly, Sci-fi is going to split the finale up into two parts. Part one will air in the series normal time slot. Part 2 (which will be two hours, will air a week later, with a repeat of the first part airing an hour before the second part his the screen.