The Beginning of the End: Dollhouse

Dollhouse: Season 2, Episode 11 “Getting Closer” (A-)

So it’s certainly awful that this show got cancelled, but wow. I’m so ridiculously excited for the next two episodes, and this installment just showed me that there’s real reason to be excited. This show is plummeting towards its end, and things are getting crazy, which is absolutely spectacular and so incredibly thrilling. This episode was fantastically melodramatic in the same way that “Twin Peaks” was, adding to its intensity by being utterly over-the-top in its depiction of sentimentality and the fate of the world. This episode is great for the ground it covers but also drops two major bombs in terms of shocking, entirely unexpected revelations. We’ll get to those. First, the story of Caroline and Bennett is wonderful to know, and it’s great that Bennett was so deeply and crucially incorporated into everything though she was only introduced a few episodes ago. A moment of silence is required for Bennett Halverson, expertly portrayed by the most reliable of Joss Whedon regulars who delivered, in my opinion, her best performance yet in this episode. River Tam was amazing, sure, but this was even better. Now on the other two twists. Before another Whedon brunette came and stole the show, Amy Acker was the best part of this series. Having Whisky back was a great thing, and her betrayal and execution of Bennett only seconds after she and Topher finally had a moment was stunning and completely shocking. It’s just like a similar twist at the end of the first season of another sci-fi series, only this one really came out of nowhere. It makes much more sense once the second twist was revealed, which is that Boyd is the man at the top of Rossum. That’s pretty hard to believe considering he was the one truly good, nice guy through all of this, and having him be in charge of everything doesn’t really compute. Still, I’m so intrigued that I just have to know what happens. I can’t possibly wait until Friday to find out.