Epitaph One Recap and Review

Evidentially, the apocalypse has come. The world is burning, everyone is armed, and it's all the fault of tech. We find out we are in the year 2019. The butchers are after the actuals. The actuals need to get as deep underground as possible to avoid the butchers, who are trying to implant anyone who has not been already. Now, one can be programmed remotely; no chair is necessary. Answer the phone, and you become a zombie, out to kill anyone who still moves. The signals evidentially STILL do not carry underground, so the sewers are the safest place to be.

Epitaph one opens with a group of 4 actuals, a little girl, and her infected father, trying to find safety from the butchers. They stumble upon an entry to the Dollhouse, and think they've found paradise 8 stories underground, complete with air, power, and running water. Then, they find the chair, and figure out they may be in the place where all of the imprinting began. They figure out that THIS chair allows for selective imprinting, with complete control over everything, rather than the mass imprinting from which they are hiding. They place the infected guy, Mr. Miller, in the chair and start experimenting.

They begin by giving him one single memory. This memory turns out to be the conversation Adele was having with the potential client in the original pilot, explaining the concept of the Dollhouse and the Actives. The actuals laugh that the technology that ruined the world was originally for creating a more believable hooker. They implant "Mr. Miller" with another memory, which turns out to be Topher's original introduction to the Dollhouse. It turns out that the standing record for the imprinting process stood at 2 hours, until Topher came along and refined it. He got it down to five minutes top. We also find out that Rossum has been collecting personalities for quite some time now. They scan everyone who is scanned by any medical machine they manufacture, including CAT scans, MRIs, etc. They will soon have over a million personalities scanned.

Meanwhile, one of the actuals takes the little girl to the restroom. She finds the showers along the way, and enticed by the prospect of hot water after a year without, sends the girl off to pee while she undresses. The rest of the group responds when they hear screaming, and arrive at the shower to see their friend lying on the floor, her head bashed in.

Back in Topher's lab, Mr. Miller is imprinted with one of Echo's memories. Ballard is now her handler, and they're going to infiltrate the Russian mob. Ballard and Echo leave. In the elevator, Echo emerges, revealing she's maintaining her own memories while taking on those of the imprinted personality. Echo also reveals that the headaches are getting worse.

Down to a group of 3, the scared actuals return to Topher's lab. They tattoo the girl's back with her name, to identify her as an "actual", and as one of them. They agree to try and figure out how to use the original tech to stop its effects.

Mr. Miller flashes to a conversation between Dr. Saunders and Boyd. It is insinuated that the 2 are somehow romantically involved now, and Boyd must flee and go into hiding to save both their lives.

Suddenly, a ghostly Whiskey wanders in, her hands covered in blood. This is the scene that was released as a teaser on the internet.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Whiskey."

"What is your last name?"

"I don't know."

"Where were you born?"

"I don't know."

"How did you get down here?"

"I've always been here."

They want to shoot her, but suddenly, Whiskey asks if they are looking for Safe Haven. "That's a myth", they reply. But Whiskey tells them she can show them the way there, using the chair. They mention that the chair was getting them close. There was one girl, Echo, who seemed like she could withstand the imprints.

Flash to DeWitt talking to Victor. But he's not Victor. He's her boss, Mr. Ambrose, and “(body) upgrades" are a service they now provide. DeWitt is horrified. Ambrose tells her it will all be legal within a year, that they're all either a client or one of us. They now offer eternal life, and she can be a part of it or a casualty. Adele refuses to give away bodies that belong to other souls. Ambrose says he's in 10 other bodies in 10 other houses, and he'll know if she reclaims THAT body. It's time for Adele to make a choice.

Back in 2019, the little girl shoots one of the actuals, and frames Mr. Miller for the deed, while the 2 other actuals are off looking for food with Whiskey. They return to find the little girl screaming. Whiskey assures the 2 left that she can help them find safe haven.

Flash to DeWitt and Dominic, at some unspecified time. Dominic has been retrieved from the attic. DeWitt's brought him back to help her and Topher find a way around Armageddon. Dominic taunts DeWitt about what the Dollhouse lead to: fulfilling fantasies and providing escapes lead to technology that ended the world. DeWitt informs Dom that there is a block, a cure. He asks if Topher has it.

“No,” DeWitt responds, “Caroline.”

Flash to Victor and Sierra. I guess we know what choice DeWitt made. They're back to themselves. Sierra has an Australian accent. They're holed up and hiding out from tech in the Dollhouse. They’ve cut their lines and gone on lockdown. Sierra reveals her new birthmark: a tattoo of her name on her back so she'll always know who she is. Victor shows her a hidden stash of hard drives, "a back up of all of us, even Caroline."

Meanwhile, the remaining actuals give the little girl a gun, since their numbers are down to 3. They search for the hidden stash of hard drives and find it. The little girl points her gun and reveals herself as an imprinted person. She wants the chair to transplant herself into an adult’s body. Surprise, surprise. They're on to her. The gun was filled with blanks. They throw the little girl into the chair and use her to try to find the way to safe haven.

Flash to the remaining dolls, in a prayer circle, underground. Adele goes to see a now insane Topher, holed up in what used to be a sleeping pod, working furiously on equations. He's figured out that his technology lead to all of this. His improvements lead to the improved technology that allowed one robo-call to transform an entire city of people, millions programmed to kill anyone who is not programmed. Then, you have a war with 2 sides: those who answered the phone, and those who did not. Which is worse? Pick up the phone, or don't? Be part of the army, or one of the hunted?

"Why didn't I think of that?” Topher babbles. “Did I think of that? Did I?"

DeWitt embraces Topher and sobs. Topher wonders if his intelligence was curiosity or arrogance.

Flash to the sounds of a wall being broken down. The dolls gather round, terrified, with guns drawn. It's Caroline! She’s back to save them all! And she's with Ballard. Caroline says it will be rough getting everyone to the compound. She says the tech “they” need doesn't travel there. No one there has been imprinted, and it's all thanks to Alpha. Caroline has Saunders make a back up copy of her, in case anyone else ever needs to find the compound. Caroline says that for security reasons, she has to keep the compound’s location a secret; she cannot share its specific location with anyone.

The actuals imprint the little girl with Caroline's personality. They tell her it's 2019. Caroline is glad to see Dr. Saunders, but is disappointed to see that she is Whiskey. But she thanks Whiskey for helping the actuals find her. She then tells them that there is a cure. Caroline, in the little girl's body, leads the actuals off to find safe haven just as the butchers arrive.

The group escapes through the elevator shaft, passing through what used to be DeWitt's office. They pause to look at a wall covered with photos of the former actives, and the little girl plucks down the one of Echo/Caroline. She wistfully comments that she hopes they'll find her alive. They ascend out the window and up a hanging ladder. Whiskey stays behind and sets off a gas that annihilates the intruders.

"They really thought this was what we needed?

"No...Kids playing with matches....and they burned the house down."

I absolutely LOVED this episode, and I think it is well worth owning the DVD set just to see it. (For folks who Netflix, the unaired pilot and Epitaph One are both on disk 4 of the set.) Joss Whedon has said that he wrote this episode when he thought the series would not be renewed for a second season, and he wanted to give the fans something that could be a coda for the series. He also wanted an episode that could be honored should the series live on. Joss has hinted that season two will begin to explore Echo’s resistance to imprinting and the fallout of what Alpha did to her in Omega.

I liked the way that Adele stayed true to her altruism until the very end. Adele has always seemed to see the good that a project like Dollhouse could accomplish, while kind of ignoring its darker side. She seemed totally blindsided by the fact the technology she embraced for its potential to make the world a better place ended up being society’s demise.

I loved exploring the evolution of Topher. We saw Topher fall to rock bottom from his arrogant pedestal in the sky. Topher is the proverbial science geek. He is utterly, absolutely brilliant, yet somehow still socially stuck in adolescence, the eternal gawky lad who spends Saturday nights with his computer and video games. By the end of the episode, we see that his own disregard for others’ souls had lead to his descent into madness. His inanimate equations caused all of this; maybe they can cure it as well? And DeWitt has developed a very maternal relationship with Topher, watching over him and comforting him in his doldrums. It’s almost as if she feels some sort of culpability in Topher’s present state.

I must admit that I was confused by the Boyd/Whiskey scene. Did it mean to insinuate that Boyd was not as “pure” as the first season implied? Hopefully, season 2 will help make that scene make more sense. I wasn’t surprised at all that Whiskey was the one left behind. Whether she was Whiskey or Saunders, she was the one soul that couldn’t seem to survive outside the Dollhouse. She seemed to have no life either before or after the Dollhouse. Like she said, she’s always been there, and she’d always be there. Her purpose in life seemed to be to protect both the Dolls and the Dollhouse, no matter what persona she was wearing at the moment.

I loved the dark version of the future that Epitaph one presented. It honored the human spirit and its ability to persevere under the worst of conditions. No matter how hard it tries, Evil will never be able to overcome Good. DeWitt refused to join the dark side, and instead, holed herself up with her wards, doing her best to protect them from what she had gotten them into. Caroline, the proverbial heroine, resisted the “infection” and managed to lead a charge against the bad guys, saving many a soul along the way, then risking life and limb to come back and save those she left behind. She had tried to lead everyone to safety, out of the Dollhouse, once before. Now, she was back to achieve her ultimate goal. I loved the fact that Alpha, the original victim of the imprinting technology, was instrumental in saving the world from its effects. I hope we have several seasons ahead of us, all building up to the vision Joss presented in Epitaph One.

We still have about six weeks until the new season premieres. During that time, I plan to re-watch Season 1, in order. I’ll be recapping and reviewing here as I go along. You’re welcome to do the re-watch with me. Every episode I watch just makes me look forward to the new season in September.