Here, all the main characters are united in their intention to break into Rossum's headquarters in Tucson, to find and kill the corporation's mysterious founder – unaware that their friend/colleague Boyd (Harry Lennix) is actually the target they're after, having been undercover at the L.A Dollhouse these past few years. DeWitt (Olivia Williams), Topher (Fran Kranz) and Boyd take Caroline/Echo (Eliza Dushku) with them because she can identify Rossum's CEO, but their plan hits a snag when it appears that Caroline (Echo's body's original persona), isn't gelling with the other personalities stuck inside her head, so needs to be tranquilized. Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) and Mellie (Miracle Laurie) are also involved in the assault, tasked with destroying Rossum's servers.Elsewhere, former-actives Anthony (Enver Gjokaj) and Priya (Dichen Lachman) decide to return to the Dollhouse to help their friends, but find the place abandoned after a violent attack by Rossum mercenaries. Discovering a note attached to the unoccupied imprinting chair in Topher's lab, Anthony takes a seat and becomes "Topher 2.0" – who helps Priya realize that Boyd's a mole, after they check footage from a secret camera Topher had installed in his office.
It's worth mentioning how well Dollhouse has managed its budget cut this season, as so many episodes have taken place in the standing sets of the Dollhouse itself, or otherwise in largely identical buildings and corridors. There hasn't been anywhere near as much on-location stuff this year, basically, but it hasn't really mattered, as the show has instead focused on its litany of "big ideas" and the characters. Much of "Hollow Men" was spent watching people creep around Rossum's HQ, or scenes with Gjokaj once again giving us a frighteningly accurate impersonation of Topher. Seriously, in some ways he does a better job than Kranz!
Attention was maintained by our anticipation that Boyd's cover was going to be blown, but also in learning exactly why he put himself undercover by Echo's side, and what his end-game is. The answers are given to us here, and while they're largely clichéd and ridiculous in the cold light of day, they're still fun and plausible enough for cursory enjoyment. Boyd's an insane megalomaniac who knows you can't put the genie back in the bottle, regarding the technology he helped create in the '90s. So, he wants to be the "destroyer" and not the "destroyed" once Topher's "remote imprinting" technology becomes weaponized and mass-produced.
It transpires that Rossum discovered Caroline has a unique biochemistry that might be capable of shrugging off imprints, so they intend to harvest her spinal fluid to create a vaccine against the imprinting process. That's actually not a very good explanation for why Caroline's been considered "special", although you do have to wonder why Boyd would hand Caroline over to DeWitt's house and put her through so many life-threatening dangers, solely to cultivate a "superego" he can nurture. I'm sure the end-result could have been achieved without such risks to Caroline's physical safety... but then I guess we'd never have a TV show. I'm prepared to let these nitpicks slide, though, but I know there are many wrinkles that have arisen because certain developments weren't planned from day one.
In some ways, I think "Hollow Men" was probably a victim of the rewriting that was done once Fox cancelled Dollhouse, as there were quite a few things that didn't make much sense, or could have done with a few more episodes to explain properly. For instance, "Saunders" (Amy Acker) made a return here as a villain, having assassinated Bennett last week, and it was revealed she's merely the latest host body for Clyde – a brain-copy of the English co-founder of Rossum, whose original psyche was exiled to the Attic. It's a twist that allows Acker to wear a man's suit and go toe-to-toe against Echo in a few fights, but Acker's performance didn't fit with what we knew of Clyde. It's inferred that "Clyde 2.0" has evolved to agree with Boyd's way of thinking, but that explanation just didn't work for me. Plus, Acker's mannerisms and voice were far removed from Adam Godley's twitchy geek we met in "The Attic", which was a pity.
But still, "Hollow Men" was very entertaining and mostly successful in its intention to be the "happy ending" we'll probably feel wistful for when "Epitaph Two: The Return" airs in a fortnight. I didn't think it was surprising or clever how Mellie was turned into a killer, with love once again proving stronger than her programming, forcing her to commit suicide rather than kill Paul -- but, the sight of Boyd being turned into a placid doll by Topher, then used as a suicide bomber to destroy Rossum's mainframe, was a fun reverse-twist on the Echo/Boyd relationship of "doll/protector" that started season 1.Overall, there's no denying that "Hollow Men" was a fairly standard finale-styled episode, not helped by the late demand to wrap-up Dollhouse's storylines years before they were designed to. But, it was enjoyable and occasionally interesting, if a little brittle when you analyze it. For instance, now that Boyd's been killed, it makes no sense that he appeared in the flashforward episode "Epitaph One" (set 10 years in the future) – but perhaps that's a big clue that the future we saw isn't set in stone, and we were only seeing one possible outcome? I guess we'll have to wait and see how Joss Whedon's team are going to bring their show to an end, when the conclusion airs on 29 January...
15 January 2010
Fox, 9/8c
written by: Michele Fazekas, Tara Butters & Tracy Bellomo directed by: Terrence O'Hara starring: Eliza Dushku (Echo), Harry Lennix (Boyd), Fran Kranz (Topher), Olivia Williams (Adelle), Enver Gjokaj (Anthony), Dichen Lachman (Priya), Tahmoh Penikett (Ballard) & Amy Acker (Clyde)
