Dollhouse S01 E13 – Hot Water

Previously: Echo met herself, Alpha got away, Paul technically saved Caroline, and November was set free.
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Epitaph One

Marines: I’m absolutely certain that last episode was the last one I saw during my first watch. If I recall correctly, Fox didn’t air this episode, so THIS IS EXCITING! Snow status activated.

Stephanie: I’m jealous! Can I be a kinda-snow because I don’t remember what happens? 

Sweeney: It’s a white Christmas around here! WINTER HAS COME.

Mari: Felicia Day! starts us off in some clearly combat sort of scenario. She cocks her gun, looks around and then uses a walkie-talkie to call into “Exaltation.” She identifies herself as Mag and talks in battle code, saying the green room is open but the party is crashed. Not sure what it means, but it sounds super sad. She tells Griff that there are no Wielders, but there are plenty of Butchers and Dumbshows. Mag tells her team to come in soft and they agree to ditch the tech, which involves just throwing it over her head. Nice ditching, girl. She sits and the feels come knocking, so she cries.

The camera pans up and we see that the fires that were burning in the background are part of an all out riot kind of situation. People are fighting and there are many angry noises. The Dollhouse title fades on screen, just in case you were wondering if you were watching the right show.

Steph: And even then, you might still be confused because it’s all ominous and stuff. 

Sweeney: I was actually super confused, in part because I accidentally click on the wrong episode like every other time I sit down to watch this show. The ominous new title didn’t really help that much.

Mari: The next title card tells us we are in Los Angeles, 2019. (S: SOON. Get your weapons prepped.) (S: I can’t wait to tweet about this in four years!) Mag is reunited with another group of people. She asks the man that’s leading them, Griff,  where Laura is. He simply says, “Butchers.” Mag asks if she got torn and a woman says she got printed and almost took a bite of Iris (a young girl) before they noticed. Since Felicia Day was also in Whedon’s Buffy fighting in a big last battle, they shouldn’t make it so easy for my head to jump to VAMPIRES. (S: That would be the best crossover ever, though.) Another guy gruffly says that he put Laura down. He then is all, “hey, what’s wrong with your face? ARE YOU CRYING?” to Mag. Griff saves her by telling his people to focus. They need to get underground. Insensitive Dude says they need to get out of the city, to the desert way from tech and printing. “Unless China puts down another blanket signal,” the woman says.

Griff says it’s already decided. They are going as deep underground as possible. He asks Mag how the crossing is, and she calls it doable, but they’ll need a Barker. Insensitive Guy (Zone) volunteers. Apparently, being the Barker involves running out into the riot-like-fray, yelling a lot and shooting people. This creates a diversion, I guess, so that Mag and Co. can run across. They are in some kind of factory and start climbing down into it.

Zone tells Mag that dragging the kid around is one thing, but the Dumbshow? Mag says the kid won’t leave his side yet. Zone replies that they only roll with Actuals. They put Dumbshows out of their misery. Is all of this starting to sound familiar? Zone offers to tell the girl that they have to kill her dad, but Griff stops him. He says they’ll ditch the old man in a few days. They keep walking along and Zone shoots a radio that’s crackling. They come across the dead body of a man and a dog and keep walking, deeper in and down.

Steph: I love dumbshow and all the weird terms even though this takes place only 10 years in the future. Our language is always evolving so that we have shorter, more stupid ways of saying things. 5 years ago, we’d all be like, “what the heck is a selfie?”

Sweeney: Made up slang is tricky territory because it’s a fine line between “world building” and “total fucking nonsense.” It’s one of the 98234985 things I hated about The Mazerunner, but I can get behind a term like dumbshow which has an evolutionary trajectory that I can make some sense out of.

Mari: Lynn finds a hole leading somewhere underground. Griff drops a flare,  sees the bottom is not that far down and sets up a line. They hear noises and say Butchers are coming. Mag climbs down first and I squee because I now recognize the background as that of the Dollhouse. Griff sets up a trip line and carefully steps over it and lowers himself. They take in the Dollhouse, which seems to be too good to be true since there is air down there, some sort of power, and they are far enough down that signals can’t get through.

Upstairs, we see the imprinting chair covered in plastic. Someone we can’t see removes the plastic.

Mag, Zone, and the rest of them get upstairs to Topher’s area and Mag hilariously guesses that it used to be a daycare. “Have the kids play where everyone can see ’em.” Not entirely wrong. (S: Loved this.) Mag asks questions about Laura, but Zone continues to be Insensitive Dude and tells her not to get all “womanly.” Mag mentally punches him in the face. (S: Um. I hate him. He deserves at least a real shove in the shoulder for that.) (S: Yeah, fuck Zone. I hope he’s the first to die/get wiped/whatever.) There is some mechanical whirring and the lights turn on, so they guess that Griff got the generator working.

Griff and Lynn rejoin them just as they’ve discovered the imprinting chair. Griff taps the screen and it comes to life. Zone wants to shoot it, but Griff reminds him that there are no signals this deep down. Either way, Zone takes a few healthy steps back. Griff figures that the chair is for printing, though a different kind. More controlled. Griff wants to test the thing out on Mr. Miller, who is clearly the “Dumbshow” they were talking about earlier. Everyone is in except for Zone, who decides to go downstairs.

Mr. Miller is strapped into the chair and Griff decides to give him just a single memory, not a persona. When he rises out of the chair, he asks, “did I fall asleep?” Griff asks if Mr. Miller remembers anything. He remembers talking to a man. As he starts explaining what the man said we flashback to the moment. This memory belongs to Adelle, who is sitting in her office speaking with a male client. (S: Who I was convinced I knew from something, but I think he just looks like someone else because he’s nameless in most of the shows I’ve seen him in. HOWEVER, I discovered that he was in The House Always Wins – that Vegas episode of Angel. Also, you’ll be seeing him over on Charmed in just a few episodes. THE MORE YOU KNOW!) The Client thinks he gets the whole fantasy aspect, but can’t believe this is real. He asks what if he wants someone to pretend they are in love with him. Adelle says he’s out of luck, because if he engages an active, he or she (“She!” the client insists too loudly) will be totally for realsies in love with him. Adelle pours him some Sale is Almost Done Tea, and she finishes that an Active doesn’t pretend. She will fall in love and Client will never forget the experience.

We flash forward and Zone is LOLing because, “the tech that punt-kicked the ass of mankind was originally designed to create more believable hookers?”

Steph: My mind was just blown by seeing punt-kicked spelled out. For some reason I always thought it was punk-kicked. Like, when someone gets kicked for being a punk. The real way makes a lot more sense. Uh… carry on. 

Mari: Well, now I just really hope I got that right.

Mag asks Iris if she has to pee, and despite saying no, Lynn volunteers to get her out of the way. They try the next memory and we flash back again. This time to Adelle showing Topher his digs for the first time. He says that he’s going to need a few throw pillows and a fridge, which of course Dominic doesn’t find at all endearing. Topher’s unruffled.

 
  Sweeney: The fact that Dominic doesn’t find Topher endearing should have been early evidence that he was The Worst™

Mari: Adelle next walks him into the next room to show him the imprinting process. The chair is different. Looks cruder. Topher turns and tells Dominic he’s going to need a trampoline. Dominic says that they have 10 Actives out per day and it takes 2 hours to upload the imprint. Topher is shocked. “Are they memorizing their personalities?” Adelle says that two hours is the standing record of any house but Topher is confident he can beat it.

See, now they are uploading the memories chronologically, but Topher says they can just dump it all in at once and let the brain figure it out. Dominic is doubtful, but Topher says that underestimating the human brain is usually the last mistake any culture makes. Dominic offers his own philosophy (cities burn because someone lost control) and Topher calls him a clown. (S: Nice little moment, since we know Topher won but that we’ve also just gotten a glimpse of the city burning. This ran the risk of being heavy-handed, but the fact that the accurate prophecy is coming from a maligned mouthpiece makes it work.) Adelle gets closer and tells Topher that Dominic is her eyes and ears. Topher: Can I be nose and throat? LOL. But also, does he seem less fidgety and more fiesty in this older past? I think working in the Dollhouse has done stuff to the present Topher we know, whether he knows it or not. (S: Excellent observation – drives home the need for his annual diagnostic test play date. I’d wager loneliness has a lot to do with it.)

Future. Iris asks Lynn what a brothel is as they walk into the communal showers. (S: Glad to see dystopian America retains its puritanical heart – for all the shit happening in this horrifying future, you’ve gotta wait until she’s older to explain a brothel.) (M: What are we? Savages?) The shower turns on and scares them. They laugh and then are thrilled about the hot water. Lynn tells Iris to go use the bathroom while she takes a shower, already undressing. Iris doesn’t want to go alone, but Lynn is all, “GIRL. HOT. WATER.” Not in so many words, but if they lights were brighter I bet you could read it in her crazy eyes. (S: No judgement. OK, maybe a little judgment, but I get it.) Iris heads off Lynn keeps undressing. A Shadow passes around Lynn and spooks her, but not enough for her to step out of the hot water, duh. She closes her eyes and next thing she knows, she being knocked out with her own flashlight.

Steph: While I understand the wonders of a hot shower, this probably isn’t the best choice Lynn has ever made. 

We cut to black and I hand it over to Stephanie!

 

Stephanie: After the cliffhangery not-break, we’re back in the imprinting room. They load another memory into Mr. Miller and we flash back again, this time to Echo getting a treatment. Topher explains that she’s being imprinted as a Russian woman who can’t speak English. The camera pans around and it turns out Prince Paul is Echo’s handler.

Mari: Interesting that this mission seems to be some sort of infiltration of a Russian operation. Why? One of those once-a-year do-gooder operations?

Steph: Echo drops the act when they get in the elevator. She speaks to Paul in English, saying that she’s not sure if she can hold out much longer. (S: AAAH WUT? WHY DIDN’T I SEE THIS COMING? WHY AM I SO STUPID? THIS IS GREAT.) Despite being fully aware, Echo can still retain her Russian imprint, but her headaches are starting to get worse. She begins to moan in pain as we flash foward to Iris screaming in the bathroom. The group rushes in to quiet her and they find Lynn’s body on the floor. If Lynn had watched more horror movies, she would have known what happens to women who shower in dark places.

Sweeney: Pretty ladies should know that sex and dark showers are going to get them murdered! They’re basically asking for it. How is a sociopathic murderer supposed to control himself?

Mari: The hot water made everyone do it!

Steph: These lessons were brought to you by Horror Movie Misogyny.

Mag and co rush out of the bathroom. Griff says they should hide out in the “romper” room and set up “trippers.” Zone doesn’t want to go back there, but Mag thinks they’ll be able to find answers because it’s where the tech slabs are kept. She says that if this is the place where the tech originated, they may be able to find a way to stop it. They agree that it’s time to “birthmark” Iris and head upstairs to the imprinting room.

Mari: Close up on those ominous stairs WITH NO RISERS.

Steph: Flash back. Boyd and Dr. Whiskey Saunders hurriedly pack clothes and argue in a very intimate manner. Boyd seems to be in hurry to leave the Dollhouse and Dr. Saunders asks where he’s going to go. He replies that he doesn’t know and even if he did, he wouldn’t tell her because he doesn’t want to put her in danger, like Echo. Dr. Saunders starts panicking and gives Boyd lots of bandages and a bottle of pills for an injury that he has. Boyd grabs her by the shoulders, looks at her with his wonderful, gentle face and tells her he’ll be okay. Dr. Saunders cries while they hug and Boyd says he’ll come back for her before rushing out.

In the imprinting room, Iris is getting her birthmark, which turns out to be a tattoo with her full name on it. Mag explains that if she begins to act strange, they can ask for her full name and know that she’s okay. But they already know that she’s Iris Miller, so I don’t get it. Anyway, the birthmark thing has been spreading amongst other Actuals, and it’s their way of verifying each other. Plus, it makes Iris one of them. Iris says that she wants to be like Zone because he’s funny and mean. Zone is amused, but Mag is just like, “girl, why?” Iris says they won’t have to tattoo her dad because he doesn’t know who he is anymore.

Sweeney: FEELS. It’s such a small little thing with characters we don’t even know, but I’m over here with Felicia Day, teary eyed and stuff. I’m also super glad Felicia Day would totally be on the Couch of Feels.

Steph: Mag joins Griff and tells him that they need food. She gets really excited because aside from the food problem, they have water, power, heat, and most importantly there’s no signal. If they can find whatever is down there with them, and fortify, they’ll be able to settle in. She stops when she notices Griff staring straight ahead. He says he thinks “it” found them. “It” turns out the be Whiskey, who’s standing out in the lobby. The camera zooms in on her all Carrie-at-the-Prom-like. (S: MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME.) (S: Excellent.) Her hands are out and bloody and she’s wearing a white nightie. She says she found their friend. It’s all very creepy, but kind of beautiful because she’s lit up blue. Also, her lovely face has no scars. What black magic is this?

The group surrounds her downstairs, guns out. They start attacking her with lots of questions. She says her name is Whiskey, but she doesn’t know her last name or where she’s from, so Zone thinks that makes her a dumbshow and he’s ready to blast her back to the Bush years. LOL. (S: WHICH BUSH YEARS, THOUGH?) (M: ALL OF THEM. #magic) Whiskey says she didn’t kill Lynn, she just found her body. Mag asks her how she got down there and Whiskey responds that she’s always been there. She then asks if they’re looking for Safe Haven. Griff says that Safe Haven is a myth, but when she says she can take them there, they follow her.

Whiskey leads them back into the imprinting room and says that safe haven is here. Griff and Zone are all, “here? Sweet!” and try to go through a wall. Unfortunately, Whiskey is pointing at the imprinting chair. Zone is ready to put all of his bullets into her, but Mag stops him and asks if she means that the memories will help them find Safe Haven. Whiskey nods. Zone is fed up with hanging out with dumbshows and playing with tech instead of searching for food. When she hears this, Whiskey says they can find food in the kitchen.

Flash back to the kitchen where Victor, also without any Alpha gifted scars, is eating crab legs. (S: This business with the scars is fascinating and it’s killing me that they’re withholding that information. TELL US ABOUT THE SCARS, SHOW.) (S: All of the questions raised in this episode, but this is totally the most important mystery.) Adelle comes in and tells Topher that she’s looking for Mr. Ambrose, ignoring Victor. Victor says he’s Ambrose. He came, delivered on a hard drive, to tell her that their new service is body upgrades for clients who can afford it. Adelle is appalled and Topher stands off in the background looking super mad. Ambrose says that selling bodies will be completely legal in about a year, since all the important law influencing people are Dollhouse clients. He asks Adelle to imagine what a person could do if they could live forever, completely fearless. But guys, if people are dying in active bodies and then they get put in another body after they die, IS IT REALLY THEM? HOW DO I MAKE MY BRAIN STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS? CAN I EVER ACCEPT THAT THESE PEOPLE EXIST IN A UNIVERSE WHERE MEMORIES ARE ALL THAT’S NEEDED TO RE-AWAKEN YOU AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT? Find out the answers to these burning questions probably never.

Sweeney: NOBODY IS ANYBODY. EVERYBODY IS NOBODY.

Mari: So many things about this scene. Okay, really two: (1) – Adelle is all huffy here, which, legit, but in some ways: SHE STARTED IT. Or at least, she participated in it when she gave Echo’s body to her friend to cheat death, at least for a little while. It was a small thing in the face of everything we can assume came next, but that’s how that loss of control Dominic prophesied begins. (2) – This all must KILL HER coming from Victor’s body. Because there is another little cheat she participated in. 

Steph: All very good points. She may have started it, but her intentions were never to permanently lend out bodies, so I get why she’s angry. Even Adelle has some standards.

Adelle says that this isn’t what the Dollhouse set out to do, and Ambrose can’t keep Victor’s body because it belongs to another SOUL. (S: SHE SAID THE THING.) Ambrose gets serious and drops his shellfish as he turns to Adelle and Topher. He tells them that it’s time to make a choice. Will they die, or live on? They’ve both earned their place in the service for being loyal Dollhouse employees, especially Topher, who’s pretty much responsible for building it all. He says they can go ahead and take Victor’s body if they want because he’s already in 10 other bodies having the same conversation in 10 other places. Yup, I’m going to have to turn off the thoughts if I’m going to make it through the rest of the series. Ambrose finishes by saying that if they reclaim Victor’s body, they’ll be making a defining choice.

Mr. Miller finishes up the memory in the future-present. Griff is disappointed that finding out how it all started hasn’t made him feel any better. Iris asks if imprinting hurts and Griff reassures her that her father doesn’t remember it when it’s over. She asks if the chair can take people out of people and put them in other people (this is a concept that makes more sense to me than the whole many copies who are all you thing). Griff says that he thinks so before Iris shoots him multiple times in the chest. What. She plants the gun on her dumbshow daddy and crouches in a corner to scream.

Sweeney: WUT. Also, this girl is fantastic. We’ve been subjected to many a questionable child actor on other shows, so snaps for this kid. (She was on Heroes! And Charmed! Every unfamous person I ever IMDb is on an episode of Charmed. I bet that’s the thing that killed all of their careers.)

Steph: Mag and Zone rush back into the imprinting room. Zone pulls Mr. Miller out of the room to shoot him in the face while Mag cries over Griff’s body. Whiskey starts to operate the imprinting chair and sits down in it, saying she’ll help them find Safe Haven. Mag says there is no Safe Haven. Whiskey responds, “not for everyone,” as the chair lowers.

Flash back. Dominic is on top of Adelle being very threatening with his gun. He snarkily says that there’s been a security breech. Adelle is the one who sent for him, but Dominic’s not really up for cooperating since he’s been living in the Attic all this time. Adelle asks what he thought would happen to him when he was caught being a spy, and he’s all, “good point” and lets her up.

Sweeney: Yes, that, but also he basically says that the NSA predicted that shit would go haywire on the outside if the Dollhouse was left unchecked – again, Dominic is The Worst™, but also he’s been right about everything, all along. It’s a bitter pill.

Steph: Topher has briefed Dominic on all the recent happenings and he even had a walk around outside, which probably wasn’t the best idea because there’s shooting sound effects coming in through the window. Dominic tells Adelle about his run in with a man in a suit who thought he was a little girl. He wondered if he was forcefully imprinted or just got what he wanted, or needed, as Adelle used to put it. Adelle goes for some alcohol while Dominic prattles on and then shoots a bottle out of her hand.

Amazing.

Sweeney: LOVE IT. I love her. She’s the best. (M: +1) 

Steph: He asks her how it feels to end the world. Adelle says that there may be a way to stop it. There’s a block against being imprinted, but the downside? Caroline has it.

Mari: He asks which one is Caroline, but there’s a smirk. YOU KNOW, DOMINIC. YOU KNOW.

Steph: Future-Present. Zone shoots poor Mr Miller. In the imprinting room, Mag gets directions on how to operate the chair from Whiskey. They’re looking for the imprint of Caroline. Whiskey tries to explain what goes into the imprint slot, but can’t remember yet. Mag continues to do what she can and the chair does it’s memory thing and we flash back to Victor and Sierra. Victor tells her to take her meds. Sierra’s been having headaches and she’s sick of being cooped up underground in the Dollhouse with everyone. She wonders if she should go above ground. Victor says that it’s too dangerous because the tech has gone wireless and everyone’s stealing bodies. She wouldn’t want to end up like November, to which Sierra responds, “which one?” Creepy. (S: Also a reminder of the fact that they’ve clearly cycled through the alphabet a few times.) Victor says the safest thing to do is go on lockdown. Sierra gets all snuggly with him, but Victor shuts that down because we’re seeing the end of their relationship instead of the part where everything is cute. Sad. (S: BOOOO!) (M: 2019 SUCKS!)

Victor notices that Sierra’s back is bleeding. She shows him her new tattoo with her real name, Priya. She’s responsible for creating the birthmarks. Victor shows her a secret shelf that has backup imprints for all of them, including Caroline. Now they’ll always be themselves as long as there’s someone to lead them back.

And now over to Sweeney to lead us to the end.

Sweeney: Mag is feeling around the kitchen, trying to find the secret stash of imprints. She’s about there when Zone is giving Iris a gun and teaching her how to use it. She says she’s scared of guns, because scared little kid is an easy role to play. Mag smashes open a wall and finds the stash of imprints.

Zone and Mag carry a bag of imprints back to the imprint room and marvel at the old school, pre-wirelessness of the chair. I guess the old imprints weren’t labeled (I’m sincerely hoping that Victor had a secret system and didn’t just forget this completely basic step in protecting all of their identities) so they plan on dumping them into Whiskey one by one until they find Caroline.

Steph: My only guess for why Victor didn’t label the imprints is that he wanted to keep everyone entertained by playing the Let’s See What Bodies We’ll End Up In game.

Sweeney: Dolls have an interesting sense of humor.

Iris enters, pointing her gun at them. They realize that she has actually been killing everyone – she knows they kill everyone who has been imprinted (she calls them bigots, you know, just to add another insane element to consider and maybe also give us full blown mental breakdowns) (M: She didn’t choose to be dumped in this body…) (S: I caaaan’t.) and needed to avoid detection. She’s actually some grown ass woman who calls small children “little bitches” so fuck her. She’s about to kill Zone so she can have herself dumped into Mag’s body (keep typing…don’t think about it…) but when she fires, the guns not loaded because Zone’s actually brilliant. Fine, fine. They grab her and put her into the chair. Zone explains to Mag that he saw Mr. Miller’s birthmark after he hit the ground – his name wasn’t Miller.

Iris takes us into a flashback. where Adelle is in the Dollhouse standing at the edge watching a candletastic prayer vigil in which people hope that maybe one day they can go outside again. Weird. Dr. Saunders comes to Adelle, saying that she tried to get “him” to take a drug, but he refuses without her. Adelle thanks her and goes to tend to him herself.

She enters one of the doll bedrooms and there’s a pod surrounded by books and little Buddhist statues. Inside is a very shaky Topher, scribbling on the pod wall. Topher is excited to see Adelle because he has something he needs to tell her – a breakthrough! Adelle asks if he’s eaten today, but Topher doesn’t want to talk about that. He crazies on about mechanizing the wireless doll technology to create armies. Adelle gets very sad and suggests reading to him, but Topher is still caught in his paradox where he can’t tell if being part of the army or being murdered by it is worse. Also how the whole thing is, in spite of being evil, totally brilliant. He thinks for a while and then asks if he was the one who thought of that. Adelle doesn’t really answer him and he gets very upset at the realization that he did, in fact, think up the tech that destroyed humanity. He crawls back into the pod and cuddles a pillow. “If I think I can figure things out, is that curiosity or arrogance? I know what I know. I know what I know. I know what I know.” Adelle hugs him. (M: SADNESS.) (S: I got a little choked up.)

This sweet but sad moment is interrupted by banging noises. Someone is smashing through the wall. Victor and some other dolls go to the source of the smashing, guns pointed. Adelle joins him, grabbing an extra gun and standing front and center. They stand down, though, when face who emerges is none other than Caroline/Echo, with Paul right behind her. “Home sweet home.”

After a Not Break, Caroline is being stitched up by Dr. Saunders. She’s glad to see the doctor back in the house, though she didn’t expect it after her face was fixed. She asks how that happened and I’m all, “OMG YAAAS KNOWLEDGE!” but then Dr. Saunders is all, “Long story.” GIRL, I WANT TO KNOW. I WILL WAIT PATIENTLY WHILE YOU TELL ME. Caroline does not share my urgency. I guess she’s got this whole saving humanity thing to do or whatever. Whatever, man. They small talk about her status with Paul which is maybe-once-together (because apparently ain’t nobody got time to be together together in this dystopia – SEX IS THE FIRST THING TO GO, GUYS!) but he’s got an enduring obsession with her her back. (S: LOL forever. I’m unsurprised, but still super grossed out that these two formed a romantic relationship with each other.) Caroline asks to have Topher put her in the chair so she can be backed up. Saunders says Topher can’t but she will. Caroline knows the location of a safe compound where nobody has been imprinted yet – thanks to Alpha. She can’t share the information, but she will leave it behind in the form of a backup of her brain/knowledge.

We pan around the Dollhouse – Paul explaining to the others that shit’s scary and brutal out there. Caroline getting weapons and passing Adelle, who is sitting and sulking. “You’ve come to save the innocent lambs?” she asks. Adelle wants to know if the rest of them – as in, the not-Dolls – will be saved or killed. Adelle isn’t about to beg (I love you for being such an HBIC to the bitter end, but a little begging wouldn’t hurt) since Caroline’s mind is already made up. Caroline cocks her gun, but we don’t find out what happens next quite yet.

Mari: Adelle seemed to still be integral to happenings in the once-Dollhouse. I can’t imagine that this next shake-up is easy for her to consider, you know? Facing the outside and the thing she actually helped do.  

Sweeney: Future. Iris is waking up in the chair. Mag asks if it’s Caroline. It is. She looks down. “Great, puberty all over again?” LOL. Truly tragic. She hops out of the chair, excited to see Dr. Saunders, but Whiskey corrects that her name is Whiskey and asks if she was her best. Iris!Caroline looks sad, but says that she was better than her best and thanks Whiskey for steering them to her.

Steph: I want to know what happened to Whiskey’s real personality. We keep hearing about Dr. Saunders, and we see that she retains the body even when everyone else is back where they should be. Where is the woman that signed up for the Dollhouse?

Sweeney: SAME. Partially it’s Amy Acker love and the fact that I want her to have more to do, but in general, I am curious to know who Whiskey was before. Her doll-status hadn’t been revealed in the episode when we got backstories on the core dolls, and I feel strangely cheated.

Mag asks if Caroline knew Whiskey before and she confirms that she did, adding that she told Whiskey she’d lose her mind if she stayed. Iris!Caroline figures that Whiskey must have decided that way was beter. Zone asks where Safe Haven is and Iris!Caroline laughs at the name. As they pack up their bags, the raid of Butchers arrives – the automated army Topher was talking about. They try to get Whiskey to flee with them, but she insists that she needs to wait.

The others go to an elevator shaft, with Zone going up last to hold off Butchers. Whiskey finds some switches. She flips a few and gas is released down on the main floor, knocking out all of the Butchers.Whiskey sits up on the balcony above and watches. Sad music plays as she joins them in either dying or, uh, falling suuuper peacefully asleep. (M: I HATE YOU 2019.)

The escaping trio make it up to Adelle’s office, which is now bombed out. Through the shattered windows they can see the ruined city. Mag bitterly laments that the people behind Dollhouse really thought they were helping, giving people what they needed. She asks if this is what they needed. Iris!Caroline answers, full of impressive child actor feels, “No. Kids playing with matches – and they burned the house down.”

Adelle’s office had clearly been used as a hideout shelter of sorts. On the wall there’s a big memorial with a bunch of photos under letters that read, “To remember.” There are pictures of lots of dolls and Iris!Caroline grabs one of herself, saying that she hopes they find her alive but then she puts it back and they all climb out via a random hanging rope ladder. Out and up? Weird.

The camera does one last tight shot of Caroline as the sad music turns vaguely uplifting.

END.

WEIRD. I’m not sure how I feel. A lot just happened here, and I’m not sure I’m a big fan of this weird future jump we just did. I mean, lots of new shit to unpack, which is great and always a favorite of mine, but big stuff was happening in our main timeline so I feel a tad betrayed that we left it.

Mari: I get that. Perhaps I was better prepared because I knew that this jumped into the future? It kind of feels like a Restless deal to me, where the season truly ended previously and this was a way to reset or establish something for moving forward. Not sure how much of this shows up in season two (#snowstatus) but I believe it was Joss’ intention to visit the future again. So that’s a cool idea. We’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out with the rest of what we get.

Steph: I had some of those “WHAT? Why are we in the future now?” feelings the first time I saw this episode too. I usually loath time jumps, and mix that with a group of people who we’ve never seen before and it’s all of my least favorite things combined. But I love this a lot now with an understanding of how it fits into the rest of the series. I can’t say much more than that. 

Sweeney: I had a conversation with someone recently who was not into the first season but loved the second, which is really interesting. Specifically, we were talking about the show’s central questions. I said something about identity questions – what constitutes you – and he added that the show’s other big question was something along the lines of, “Can you put the genie back in the bottle?” That, for him, was the more interesting question and, I assume from this episode, is the question we’re going to get more into next season. All of that is to say: I appreciate this episode as a bridge between those two driving philosophical questions. It hit on several of the big themes with the first question in a very, “You know we’re never actually going to be able to resolve those definitively, right?” kind of way while taking the subtle introductions of the second question we’ve gotten throughout the season and asking us to focus on it more directly.

I liked the episode, just not as much as some of the others, but I can see how that is, to some extent, a #snowproblem.

As always, though, I’m excited to see where we’re going. Excited and also sad that we only get 26 episodes. Halfway there.

 

Next time on Dollhouse: Echo gets married on S02 E01 – Vows.