Dollhouse got cancelled, so we've only got a few episodes left and Joss is really ramping things up. In episode 11, a whole heck of a lot happens. We've just been plunged into the beginning of the big showdown and, among other things, there has been one particularly big revelation. For a few episodes now, there's been the question of the identity of the man behind Rossum. Our heroes are working hard to find out his identity.
Next comes the spoiler-y bits, though I'll try to not give everything away.
I've been following Joss long enough that I can see his patterns, so when a certain character who's been gone suddenly reappeared, I knew she was there for a reason. When she entered a scene right after two other characters had a "moment," I knew no good could come of that. Sure enough, she killed one of them.
But, the biggest thing came later, in the last few seconds of the episode. The whole time we've been leading up to seeing, through Caroline's eyes, the identity of the man behind the curtain. Caroline finally walks into the office and meets him. I was immediately confused because, in keeping with Joss's M.O., this dude should have been someone we know, and he wasn't.
Then comes the turn. She meets him again (there's logic here with the technology), and this time, he is a character we know. Not only that, but the reveal comes through her memory, while in "real time" she's alone in a room with none other than that same character. Next come the credits, leaving that moment just hanging there for a week. Joss is a cruel, cruel man sometimes.
During the first season of the show, I was pretty neutral. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. Now that it's been cancelled, the stakes are higher and everything is bigger, more focused, and more urgent. I knew Joss had it in him, it's just a shame that we had to wait until it was already too late to see it.
I can't wait to see what he does next week.
5 comments:
Hmmm, maybe Joss has a pattern of ramping things up at the end and therefore the audience loves him then. Maybe he should ramp it up earlier since only the loyal-est stick with him through more than one season??
I'm not sure if it's a pattern - Firefly didn't feel like it got off to a slow start, neither did Buffy or Angel.
I think it's more that he was overconfident with Dollhouse. With Buffy, there was the strong possibility that the first season was going to be the last, so Joss brought his A-game and got people hooked. With Dollhouse, it just seemed like he was too certain that he'd have many seasons to harvest the seeds he planted in the first season.
Ali, you could be right. As writers we're always being told to "hook 'em quick," but he didn't seem to feel he needed to.
Beyond that, though, he never got me to buy the premise. A secret organization with hundreds of clients who know all about them? Why wipe someone's memory to make them a hooker? Or even a killing machine? The interesting part, to me, is why these people would sign away 5 years of their lives. ANd we don't see any hint of that until late in the first season.
Even the ramping up now isn't much exciting me. Which is sad, because I usually love his stuff.
Just wait for the movie to come out, I hear they're getting that one guy to play the bad guy.
Oh John, they totally aren't getting THAT guy. He'd be all wrong.
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