[SPOILERS] "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." Well, "Omega" is almost-certainly the last episode of the low-rated1 Dollhouse, unless you believe in miracles...Tim Minear wrote and directed this finale; his second Dollhouse shot through with some religious elements (after "True Believer"), and it was an effective and thought-provoking effort, let down by a flabby middle, occasional confusion, and a coda that I take issue with. But, broadly speaking, "Omega" was very enjoyable and answered many longstanding questions of the series. It also gave us enough resolution that I won't be too upset if a second season fails to materialize. Dollhouse felt like a twelve-part mini-series to me -- so, while the door is left open for new adventures, the finale doubles as a decent conclusion.
Following "Briar Rose", Alpha (Alan Tudyk) has kidnapped Echo (Eliza Dushku) and imprinted her with a fresh personality. Topher (Frank Kranz) and the Dollhouse staff try to figure out who Echo has become, and DeWitt (Olivis Williams) enlists the help of Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) to help them trace Alpha and get their actives back. Flashbacks acted as something of a pre-season prequel, too, as we discover that Alpha was "broken" in a similar way to Victor was, before his violent escape (in that he starts to exhibit sexual feelings for another doll.) Victor has been growing close to Sierra (Dichen Lachman), but with Alpha it was Echo whom he became infatuated with...
It's also revealed that Alpha's partner in a botched engagement (where he was imprinted as one half of a sicko Bonnie & Clyde-style outfit), was none other than "Dr Saunders" (Amy Acker), exposed here as an active codenamed Whisky. Later, at the Dollhouse, Alpha became upset that Whisky was overshadowing his beloved Echo in some people's affections, so he viciously slashed the face of Echo's "rival".
As punishment, Alpha was sent to be mind-wiped and diposed of in The Attic, but a malfunction of the imprinting system during a fight instead downloaded 47 entire personalities into Alpha's mind, leading to his escape from the Dollhouse as as psycho with a variant of "multiple personality disorder." During Alpha's escape, the real Dr. Saunders (an elderly gentleman) was killed, so the scarred Whisky was imprinted with Saunders' mind and her true identity kept a secret from herself...
To be honest, it was occasionally a struggle to comprehend what was going on in "Omega", mainly because things got very cloudy when Alpha took Echo to his "villain's lair", intending to imprint her with all her past identities -- so she'll become his female equal. He's come to believe that having numerous personalities has turned him into some kind of ascended being. To aid his plan to get himself a partner-in-crime, Alpha has kidnapped an innocent salesgirl called Wendy, whom he imprints with Caroline's personality (the persnality belonging to Echo's body), so that when Echo goes through the same procedure, we effectively end up with the lead character mentally dissected: the mind of Caroline awakening in Wendy's body, and the accumulated imprints of Echo's engagements stuck in Caroline's body. Is your head hurting yet? Mine is.
Really, "Omega" got too bogged down in metaphysics for my liking. I'm still not really clear on who Alpha imprinted Echo with when he stole her from the Dollhouse, to be honest. Not without rewatching the episode, anyway. It didn't help that Dushku spectacularly failed to convince as someone with multiple personalities. I know the actress has vocal supporters who claim she's a great actress, but I saw little evidence of that in Dollhouse. She did a faltering job all season just handling one new identity each week, so she had no chance when asked to bring all those identities together. Did you pick up on any of the former episode's characters, filtered through her performance, as intended? I know I didn't.
Tudyk did a much better job at flipping between different personalities (admittedly, it helped that we never knew any of his imprints), but even he didn't do full justice to the idea. Still, he was undoubtedly helped by the camera's willingness play herky-jerky with the frame to signpost a change of Id. There was no such visual trickery for Echo, oddly -- as Dushku could have done with it.
And then there's that ending. Now, I loved seeing Boyd (Harry J. Lennix) and Ballard partner up to find Alpha and Echo, and the moment Ballard "saved" Caroline by catching her "wedge" (the device where her mind is stored) as it fell off a steel girder was decent enough. And the decision to allow Alpha to escape and continue to be the show's main villain was fine with me...
But then, in the coda, we're supposed to swallow that Ballard has decided to join the Dollhouse as a handler, on the understanding that they give his neighbour Mellie/November (Miracle Laurie) her life back? No, no, sorry, I just don't buy it. Ballard's been a boy scout type who's 100% against the Dollhouse from the very beginning, and the finale's events should have just made him even more determined to shut these people down. Maybe we haven't been told the whole story or Ballard's opted to destroy the Dollhouse from the inside-out, but it just didn't sit right with me here. Would DeWitt seriously trust him? These people look more incompetent as the weeks pass by; constantly recruiting spies and selecting actives who clearly are unsuited to the process.
Overall, for all its flaws, I had fun with "Omega" and it certainly had some interesting things to say along the way. It's just a shame it felt crowded with flashbacks and ultimately became confusing halfway through, before slapping on a denouement that had me scratching my head. This episode was apparently heavily edited to fit into its timeslot, so I'm sure the unabridged version on the DVD release will be the preferred version for fans. But I'm not convinced it will rectify a lot of the problems I had with the story, and... well, as much as I really came to enjoy Dollhouse after episode 6... I'm not sure the show truly deserves another season. It kind of said everything it had to say, for me...
8 May 2009
Fox, 9/8c
Writer & Director: Tim Minear
Cast: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard), Allan Tudyk (Alpha), Olivia Williams (DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher), Amy Acker (Dr. Saunders/Whisky), Miracle Laurie (Mellie/November), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), (Victor), Harry J. Lennix (Boyd)
1. Tragically, Dollhouse's finale was watched live by a season low of 2.8 million people, not helped by the fact it aired the same day Star Trek was released in cinemas.
