Holy crap, it's been a long time. I've been so busy with law school that I haven't had time to write here. I promise that I will do the post on Garden State, as well as a look at how the third season of Mad Men concluded (I really wanted to do a write-up of one episode because it serendipitously aired on the same day as a major event that complimented an event that occurred in the episode). But I had to get back here to discuss the latest, and some of the last, episodes of Dollhouse. While I was away, FOX announced that the show was canceled. They promised to air all of the purchased episodes, even the ones that had not yet been produced. The one, slight, upside is that, because not all episodes had been produced, Whedon and the writers were able to create an ending for the show. Small victories...
Anyway, in the two episodes tonight, the Senator Perrin story was brought to the forefront and took some very unexpected turns. Many people in the online community guessed that Perrin's wife was a sleeper doll, and the promos for the episode all but confirmed it. The truth was much more surprising: Perrin himself is the one with altered memories, but he isn't quite a doll. He was born Daniel Perrin, who came from a long line of politicians. But Perrin was a screw-up. He failed out of Yale, was drunken frat boy, and would never amount to anything. Rossum took note of the situation, knew that with his pedigree, they had someone who could easily get elected if he could clean himself up, and did the cleaning for him. His "wife" is really his handler. So why would Rossum create a politician who wants to bring Rossum down? The plan involves Perrin learning the "truth," that all of his tips about Rossum have come from its competitors in an effort to destroy them. Rossum looks like the victim of corporate espionage, and now Perrin is in their corner. A potential white knight for people like Echo, Victor, and Sierra has become a monster.
The path to this revelation was incredible, mainly because we got to meet Bennett, the D.C. Dollhouse programmer, played by Summer Glau. Bennett is kind of like a twisted River Tam; she is a slightly crazy genius with a somewhat stunted maturation and sadistic streak. She is somehow tied to Caroline, and blames her for an accident that left her with a dead arm (the flashbacks we saw don't completely mesh with what little we know about Caroline, so I don't know if what we know is misdirection or if what she believes is wrong, but we know she isn't a doll). We also saw Ray Wise as the head of the D.C. Dollhouse, which was good, but not as great as it could have been. Unfortunately, for as great as these episodes were, there were some line readings that were a bit clunky. I'm not sure if it was the writing or the acting, but every now and then, things felt off, which is strange because of the writers and actors involved. One actor who was awesome as usual was Enver Gjokaj. Adelle and Topher both went to D.C., and to cover for Topher while he was gone, Victor was imprinted with Topher's mind. Gjokaj was able to imitate Topher's voice, mannerisms, and expressions nearly perfectly, and it was a joy to watch. Now that this show is over, Gjokaj needs his own series. Seriously.
I am very sad that this series is going to end. It wasn't always as good as Whedon's other shows, but it is/was one of the better series in production and was consistently entertaining and humorous (not to mention heart-wrenching). Next week's episodes look to be great based on who will be returning. If you want to know more about the remaining episodes, check out this page from Ain't It Cool. I tried not to read too much, but I did see the name of the final episode, which, based on the name, should be very interesting.
Edit: Another great link. Hometown pride!
Up next: Jersey boy and girl (I hope)...
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