Dollhouse (TV Series) Omega (2009) User Reviews

Wonderful Twist

[maine_310 · 8/10 · 9 May 2009]

Dollhouse has faced many challenges when it came to delivery. Not many series carry this type of burden when it comes to telling a story. This episode was much better than I'd anticipated. Last week when Echo went running off with Alpha, I believed maybe Echo and Alpha formed some kind of pact together and they had some kind of heated romance thing going on. The fact that Alpha planted Echo with a personality he favored for her was a different twist.

Alpha, played by Alan Tudyk, caught me off guard last week, I wouldn't have guessed that such a douche would be Alpha, but he proved to be more than crazy could handle.

It's funny when you think about it, even though he killed Caroline, he really didn't, she could easily be implanted into someone else.

Madeline seemed more like Millie there. Do you think she remembered a fragment of Paul, or was it just natural attraction. Paul also had guts, asking Mellie or November, for her imprinted name. What was he trying to accomplish? To see if she still remembered him maybe?

Paul Ballard fit in pretty well in the Dollhouse. He fought so hard to get the Dollhouse only to stay...? Maybe he liked the scenery. Did he buy Echo eh em... Caroline's freedom, what about Mellie? What about the rest of the dolls?

The Echo/Alpha twist was interesting, compliments to Alan Tudyk for his portrayal of Alpha as he seemed to have misunderstood Echo deeply. For someone who was smart enough to get to Paul Ballard, imprint dolls to give Paul a message, infiltrate the Dollhouse and leave without a chase, he seemed very dull when it came to the endgame, maybe that's love for you plays with your head. i had to point this out, what did think about Echo and Alpha have multiple brains, would your head explode if it's anything like a computer? And to only graze Echo with a shoulder bullet on his getaway? Maybe in his twisted mental, he still couldn't hurt her, much...

Finally a new revelation Dr. Claire Saunders played by Amy Acker is a doll! That was unexpected.

It leaves you wondering, who else could be a doll. Topher you think, Adelle? Maybe the entire place is run by dolls? That is something to leave you guessing.

I admired the flashback scenes among Alpha/Echo and Dr. Saunders (Whiskey).

I laughed when Alpha immediately sprung one on Echo, Love at first sight. At least we all found out how Alpha scared the Dr.'s face.

Dollhouse shows true promise on each weekly installments. Past episodes have left me wondering 'Where are they taking this show'? and others including this installment reminds me why I like to watch Dollhouse. With more episodes like this maybe the rumors of the shows cancellation might be just a memory. I am looking forward for more answers to this shows problematic equations.

This Week's Role Uproar Dr. Claire Saunders played by Amy Acker !!! For Hacking her doll file, only to not open it.

She found out she was a doll and dealt with it, that's enough!

Elizabeth

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Four out of Five Stars

Grade B+

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Dollhouse finale explains the beginning

[Miles-10 · 7/10 · 9 May 2009]

The season finale of "Dollhouse" goes back to the beginning. (Though there does appear to be another episode in July.) Somehow, this episode doesn't seem quite as good as last week's, but it certainly answers a lot of questions. As with "Firefly," Joss Whedon's earlier Fox TV series, the network suits would not let him show the pilot he originally planned, but Whedon has managed to slip scenes from his unscreened pilot into subsequent episodes. In this finale, he pretty much shows us how the story began at the same time that he reveals where the show might go next season—if there is a next season.

I would say that my biggest complaint about this episode is that the flashbacks were not clearly demarcated from the present. At first, the flashbacks had me confused because I did not realize what they were. But when I finally understood, many odd things about this show now make more sense—even as they remain extremely strange. From the first episode (that was broadcast), the character of Dr. Saunders, played by Amy Acker, with her barely treated facial scars, seemed inexplicable, but now she makes perfect sense within the weird universe of the show. It turns out that you can never be sure who is and is not a doll (or "active" as Ms. DeWitt, the director of the dollhouse, insists on calling them; but then why does she go along with calling it the "dollhouse" instead of the "activehouse"?).

In this episode—part two of the story that began the previous week—we again see that Alan Tudyk as Alpha has been the series' secret-weapon-waiting-in-the-wings all along; Tudyk could steal the whole show from nominal star Eliza Dushku just as he steals every scene he has been in with any of his fellow cast members.

The episode also continues from the previous episode in raising questions about slavery (technically, indentured servitude) as well as the sci-fi implications of downloading and uploading personalities into different bodies. The metaphysical issue raised on this show is whether, when people's personalities are removed from them with this sci-fi gimmick, they are strictly empty shells or are still themselves but have merely forgotten. On the slavery issue, Eliza Dushku has a great line that goes something like, I am currently experiencing 38 personalities simultaneously and none of them thinks that a person can morally consent to slavery. This echoes-or should I say "amplifies"-the sentiment expressed in the previous episode by Agent Ballard.

Ballard, an advocate of the view that the dollhouse's personality extractor cannot really wipe out who the person used to be, is vindicated dramatically when he proves that Alpha was originally a violent criminal and that he has simply reverted to being who he is. The people running the dollhouse clearly are wrong in believing that they can completely erase who a person was. They apparently recruited several of their actives from prisons, assuming that once their minds had been extracted, they would be neutralized. Alpha was the worst case scenario. Throughout the season, Topher, the scientist who runs the mind extracting equipment, has been fruitlessly trying to figure out what went wrong with Alpha. He has assumed that it was something in the programming of his device. When Ballard suggests that it might be important to know who Alpha was before he became Alpha, Topher scoffs, but it turns out that Topher's failure to consider that possibility is why he never found an answer.

All of this raises an ancient issue: Many ancient peoples have toyed with the idea that we are more than one entity. Modern science has also considered evidence that our seemingly unitary minds are actually made up of sub-entities. Thus, the sci-fi device in "Dollhouse" only removes part of the cast of characters within a person, leaving others to soldier on, subdued but not unexpressed. When sci-fi looks at issues such as this, it is doing what sci-fi does best. As Ray Bradbury said, to look into the future is to see answers to questions we haven't asked yet. (How appropriate, then, that Whedon was recently given the Bradbury Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.)

Alpha and Omega

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 24 October 2017]

Following on almost directly from the previous episode Alpha and Echo have fled the Dollhouse, the latter has been imprinted with a personality that had previously been used by Whiskey. They aren't alone; they have kidnapped a woman and take her to a facility, built by Alpha, which contains an Imprint chair similar to that in the Dollhouse. Here Alpha uses it to place the woman's consciousness on a 'wedge' before implanting her with Caroline's… she is understandable confused to wake up and see her own body (Echo). Alpha then proceeds to imprint Echo with all of the personalities she has adopted during her time at the Dollhouse and rename her 'Omega'.

While this is going on we also see what is being done to find them; this includes filling Agent Ballard in on the details of what went wrong with Alpha and exactly what he did. We also learn how Whiskey became an unknowing Dollhouse employee… or more to the point we learn that a long term character is actually a doll.

This was another really good episode with some great twists. The best of these twists was learning that Dr Claire Saunders is actually the doll previously known as Whiskey… something that has been hinted at before. The reveal was brilliantly executed as a character most people would expect to be Echo turns out to be Whiskey. Amy Acker does a great job in this roll; given that she appears in most episodes I'm unsure why she is listed as a 'guest star'. There is another fine twist at the end when we see a doll being released from her contract… this scene shows that those who agreed to join the Dollhouse for five years genuinely don't know that any time has passed and appear to be who they were before. Alan Tudyk is great as Alpha, making us believe that this is a really unstable and very dangerous character. The episode includes a good amount of action, some of this fairly gruelling as we see Alpha cut Whiskey's face amongst other things, there is also a fight between Alpha and Echo. Overall this was a really solid episode that answered some questions and raised others.

Finally gets it right

[mortenh-1 · 10/10 · 9 May 2009]

With this possibly penultimate episode "Dollhouse" finally delivers on all the promise it's shown until now. Engaging, mysterious and thought provoking. Tim Minears script somehow manages to reference both "Blade Runner", "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", "Buffy the vampire slayer", the bible and even one of his own (unproduced) feature scripts, while still ending up with something that is utterly unique. Amy Acker, Fran Kranz and Allan Tudyk delivers stellar performances. And the next episode promises to be somewhat mind blowing to bad it'll be 12 or so weeks till we get to see it, i hope there is some miraculous way this show can get renewed.

Now this is more like it!

[Joxerlives · 9/10 · 10 January 2012]

OMEGA

The good; Got to say I didn't see the Whiskey twist (is that a drink?) coming at all. Utterly brilliant, this storyline lifts the series up and helps it go off on a high. Such a dumb gag but it always makes me laugh out loud when Alpha 'watches his step'.

The bad; How stupid must the Dollhouse be to use criminals as Dolls? Although wouldn't it be wonderful if we could reprogramme paedophiles and psychopaths so they were no longer either?

Packing heat; both Boyd and Ballard (the latter switching to a Colt 45 for some reason) plus November and Sierra Echo;6 Boyd; 8 Dominic; 8 Sierra; 4 Victor; 2 Ballard; 9 November; 1

Echo kissage;2

Kinky dinky; Lovely though she is I never really thought of Amy Acker as turn-your-head-gorgeous in the same way as Eliza Dushku, Charisma Carpenter, Sarah Michelle Gellar, (they tried to make her into AI's glamourpuss in season 5 but it didn't really work which is why we got more Mercedes McNab as Harmony who IS turn your head gorgeous),but here she is a revelation, I was firmly convinced that it was Eliza doing the slinky dance to Roy Orbison's dreams but WOW! Also Echo's push up bra and Daisy Duke denim short-shorts as part of her white trash princess look. Bounty hunter Sierra seems to have an instant attraction for Ballard.

Notches on the Dollhouse bedpost; Echo; 3 definite, 1 possible November; 1 Ballard; 1 Victor; 1 Adele; 1 Sierra 1 possible Topher; 1 possible

How'd they get away with that? Killing the girl implanted with Caroline's memories is hideous. Alpha's idea of kidnapping a string of girls, implanting them with Carolines' memories and then killing her over and over again is too horrifying for words. Meeting 'Alpha's' first victim is also very disturbing but not half as much as his bloody rampage in the Dollhouse, especially how he kills his handler. He also refers to Crystal being a 'woman at 13'.

This weeks fantasy; Sierra and November are bounty hunters, Echo is Crystal and her composite personalities

Total number personalities; Echo; 21 Sierra; 10 Victor; 6 November; 3

Total dolls; add some Whiskey to the mix! 8-Echo, Sierra, November, Victor, Mike, Tango, Alpha, Whiskey

Topher is a bit geeky; He refers to Solyent Green (Angel also a Charlton Heston fan)

Bondage; Sierra tied up; 1 Ballard; 1

Knocked out; Echo; 2 November; 1 Sierra; 1 Victor; 1 Topher; 1

Kills; poor Wendy is killed by Alpha Sierra; 2 kills Echo; 1 November;1

Dolls injured; Echo winged by Alpha's bullet.

Capt subtext; We finally learn November's real name and she is released from her contract (love Adele's very genuine hug for her). I guess whatever was between her and Ballard was quite real for him to pick her over Caroline? The heartbreaking scene where Dr Saunders tells Victor he's broken and no one will want him any more hardly needs explaining (thankfully the lollipop scene makes up for it). Why did Topher programme Dr Saunders to hate him? Perhaps because of his own self-loathing? Or did the original Saunders already hate him?

Know the face? 7 Whedon alumni-Mark Shepherd, Amy Acker, walking action figure, Eliza Dushku, Jim Piddock, Gregg Henry, Alan Tudyk

Missing scenes;. Very important, if you have the DVDs be sure to watch them to find out what happened to bounty hunters Sierra and November and how Alpha got away.

Reminds me off; Echo/Crystal and Alpha/Bobby on the run are very Badlands/True Romance/Bonnie and Clyde. But above all they remind me of Spike and Dru whom Angel once described as "Bonnie and Clyde if they had 100 years to get it right" The idea of violent prisoners being 'cured' by brainwashing sounds a bit 'A Clockwork Orange'? Ponder the fact that this series has a character called Ballard (and indeed Dawn was reading 'Empire of the Sun' for school in the later seasons of Buffy). Alpha digs out the tracker on the back of Echo's neck much like Dark Angel. Caroline refers to Return of the Living dead as Xander did in Buffy. Topher talks of souls in jars which may be an Angel ref. Alpha's madness is similar to Glory whilst the way he kills his handler is reminiscent of Buffy killing Gnarl in season 7. The track 'Dreams' which Whiskey dances to is also used to good effect in Blue Velvet.

Breaking the programming; Echo as a conglomerate of her personalities breaks away from Alpha's crackers plan, possibly because most of her imprints (Margaret from Haunted, the Dominatrix, Esther from True Believer etc) were good people mixed with her base personality of Caroline. By contrast most of Alpha's imprints were bad people mixed with his underlying personality of a psychopath.

Questions and observations; Ballard's plan to get rid of the bomb squad is truly inspired. Interestingly despite the bad blood between them Tanaka doesn't arrest him. Great double bluff, we think that Caroline is being let go but actually it's November whose real name is Madeline Costly. More episodes like this and Dollhouse would be a far superior series to what it was. Marks out of 10; 9/10 really good

Some great moments, but not a great episode on the whole

[gridoon2024 · 8/10 · 16 October 2010]

"Omega" contains several great moments in its 47 minutes, from humorous ("What is a tall, morally judgemental man doing in my imprint room? Besides him? (Boyd)") to chilling (Alpha & Whiskey making one poor fool's fantasy come dangerously true) to informative (the events leading to Alpha's "snapping" and killing spree). But on the whole, I can't say it fully met my expectations. Alan Tudyk's performance is entertaining ("One of my personalities is a multiple personality, but that doesn't mean I have a multiple personality!"), but I thought Alpha would have some sort of super-brilliant long-term plan, instead of just building his own "chair" so that he can pour all of Echo's previous imprints into her brain to turn her into a "superior being" (and a match for him). The cliffhanger (if it can even be called that) is especially disappointing. On the other hand, the teaming of Boyd and Paul seems like a promising idea. Special kudos for their work in this episode must go - apart from Tudyk - to Amy Acker and guest star Ashley Johnson, whose role gives new meaning to the phrase "talking to yourself". *** out of 4.

Deep dialogs, strong performances, oppressing ambiance but poor editing and even worst ending

[igoatabase · 8/10 · 9 May 2009]

Before watching this episode I hadn't high expectations for it because I knew the show wouldn't change even for the finale. So I shouldn't even mention that Topher was annoying as always and living on his own planet, like an addict who wouldn't be able to see what's happening around him. However it wasn't the only thing that disappointed me. The other problem was the editing. It was so bad that it actually reminded me of Harper's Island. Some scenes were practically butchered and they kept switching between bright and dark ones. When you're just warming up your feelings, they cut the scene. I suppose they just tried to include far too many elements into the finale and it leaded to that poor result. So all the breadcrumbs I mentioned in my previous review found their way to this last episode. However I have to admit that it wasn't that painful and in fact I enjoyed the flashbacks even if they could have been done way better. Last but not least the ending reminded me of bad episodes like True Believer because I disagree with the fact that recurring dialogs can become a trademark. The last word pronounced was just pitiful. The character didn't have to say it.

But beside these issues Omega was a good episode. First it was quite dark and scary even if some outdoor scenes in bright day light ruined the ambiance. I specially liked the room where many scenes occurred, it reminded me of the spaceship from The Matrix. The other great thing was Claire Saunders. Indeed the writers decided it was her time to shine. Before I didn't quite notice her because she was shadowed by charismatic characters like Victor but now I think Amy Acker can be quite proud of her performance. I only knew her as Penelope on How I Met Your Mother and just thought she was an other pretty face but she's also a talented actress. However the gem in this episode was the dialogs. I'm still not convinced by Eliza Dushku but Echo said interesting things about identity. Alpha's lines were also quite interesting and in fact they convinced me to learn more about the topics covered. In fact they reminded me how deep and human they're. I specially enjoyed the references to Nietzsche's work, even if I didn't understand them all, and the discussions dealing with multiple personalities, like if dolls were modern versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. All these elements made the episode far much more philosophical than the others. It's a bit like The Matrix trilogy, there're many ways to comprehend it. It can be seen as a simple action-packed science-fiction franchise or a deep reflection on human condition and the dangers of technology.

For my last comment I would like to point out how Paul Ballard developed as a character. I always criticized him but now I'm starting to like him. It's probably his arc with November that convinced me to do my best to appreciate what he has to offer to the show. I'm glad I opened my mind because his last scene with her was quite good. However I still believe they made major mistakes when using it but overall he managed to bring something interesting to the show. Let's also not forget the very convincing Alpha. I can hardly imagine the hard work Alan Tudyk had to accomplish to give such a strong performance.