[SPOILERS] The penultimate episode is a modern-day fairytale from Buffy writer Jane Espenson that takes the series into another unexpected avenue. In fact, this entire series has felt like a mini-series to me, featuring developments that you wouldn't have expected to happen so soon in the show's run. Maybe creator Joss Whedon knew the chances of renewal were always going to be slim, so he chose to tell a self-contained story in a dozen episodes?
"Briar Rose" is so-called because that's the name of the princess in the Brothers Grimm fairytale Sleeping Beauty; a story a little girl called Susan (Hannah Leigh Dworkin) hates, as Echo (Eliza Dushku) comes to realize while on assignment as a therapist in her group. The story, about a princess who pricks her finger on a spindle and falls asleep for a hundred years, until a handsome prince enters the overgrown castle to awaken her with a kiss, also has obvious parallels to the episode's main storyline – with princely Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) finally discovering the whereabouts of the Dollhouse, and devising a means to infiltrate the underground facility to rescue his very own "princess", Caroline/Echo.To do this, Ballad enlists the help of Stephen Kepler (Alan Tudyk), a fidgety expert in self-reliant environmental systems, who designed the Dollhouse so that it would be "invisible" to the outside world in terms of a carbon footprint. Stephen has OCD and extreme hypochondria, which makes him a comically unreliable partner for Ballard, who is finally in sight of his goal to expose the mythical Dollhouse.
This was actually another episode where Echo wasn't really a significant factor, beyond being Ballard's damsel-in-distress. Her early scenes as a therapist only existed to give the story its Sleeping Beauty allegory – which was a little too on-the-nose for my taste, but still effective enough. Throughout the episode there was also a subplot concerning the discovery of a dead body in a Tuson dumpster, a man who was apparently the latest victim of enigmatic rogue doll Alpha, so DeWitt (Olivia Williams) sends Sierra (Dichen Lachman) to inspect the body as a forensic analyst.
Indeed, while it felt like the Alpha subplot might be setting things up for next week's finale, it actually takes over this episode once Ballard's inside the Dollhouse trying to rescue Caroline from her sleep-chamber1, with Stephen using his computer skills to disable the building's security measures. Unfortunately, the twist that nebbish Stephen is actually Alpha fell awfully flat for me (as Tudyk's casting had been widely leaked online, and proved impossible to avoid because of fervent chatter.) If you managed to stay clean about this fact, I'm sure the shock was a joyous delight, but for me... I was waiting for nerdy Stephen to turn into a dead-eyed killer the moment we found him growing marijuana using hydroponics in his apartment.
Still, the episode didn't suffer too badly once the cat was out of the bag: Ballard and Boyd (Harry J. Lennix) had another of the show's really quite excellent fight scenes (if a little too long); Echo's latent memories had her side with Boyd over her "prince"; and we discovered that Alpha's intentions were to use Echo's body to imprint the personality and memories of an apparent lover. Of course, the question is, just who has Echo now become that Alpha loves so dearly?
Overall, "Briar Rose" was another highlight of the series. Dollhouse really does pack a punch in its big mytharc episodes; it's such a shame the standalone episodes are often quite dawdling affairs in comparison. There were a few nice background touches, too: Ballard ditching Mellie (Miracle Laurie), who tried to commit suicide after failing in her Manchurian Candidate-style mission, before her handlers rescued her; and Enver Gjokaj was very impressive as Victor, imprinted with Mr. Dominic's mind to try and explain a flashdrive sent to him2. It was a really good impersonation from Gjokaj, and the horror of someone waking up to find their mind's in a different body was nicely portrayed.It's the big finish next week (likely to be the last ever episode, if ratings are anything to go by), but I'm sure Joss Whedon will give us enough closure to make Dollhouse feel less like a show cancelled prematurely, and more a self-contained mini-series that told its story. I'm still fascinated by the slippery morality of the show (especially as most of the regulars are effectively the villains), I'm intrigued to find out just who Alpha has imprinted onto Echo3 to be the Bonnie to his Clyde, and I hope we get some clarity on exactly what went wrong with Alpha. It seems like he somehow managed to retain past imprints, sending him mad, and can now change his personality at will. Or, considering the fact the dumpster victim was the real Kepler, can he somehow consume peoples' personalities after killing them, without the need of the Dollhouse chair?
1 May 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writer: Jane Espenson
Director: Dwight Little
Cast: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Harry J. Lennix (Boyd), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Fran Kranz (Topher), Olivia Williams (DeWitt), Enver Gjokaj (Victor), Liza Lapira (Ivy), Miracle Laurie (November), Amy Acker (Dr. Saunders), Hannah Leigh Dworkin (Susan), Aisha Hinds (Loomis), Alan Tudyk (Stephen Kepler) & Judith Moreland (Renee)
1. One complaint about this episode was how ridiculously easy it was for Ballard and Kepler to get into the Dollhouse (just find a vent and crawl through a tunnel.) I know there are time-constraints, but it felt far too easy. And then they can wander around the Dollhouse inner sanctum, without someone seeing them on a security camera? Boyd really has to get a grip on things as head of security!
2. We discover that the flashdrive was sent to Mr. Dominic by Alpha, and contained photos of the Dollhouse HQ in Tuson. Oddly, the fact this confirms Alpha has been working alongside Dominic is never mentioned, but I assume that will feed into the finale. Did Dominic help Alpha escape, so he could track down the Dollhouse HQ for him?
3. And why choose Echo to embody his "lover"? It can't be that she was just the closest doll to hand, as Alpha intentionally let Echo survive his violent escape from the Dollhouse.
