Dollhouse, 1x13, “Epitaph One”

Episode Title: Epitaph One
Writers: Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen

Director: David Solomon

Grade: A+

This was certainly a wonderful episode. It’s also a tricky animal. On the one hand, I can see why FOX didn’t want to air it, outside of their stated business reason—it was extremely dark, and the tone was very different from the previous episodes. On the other hand, not airing it may very well lead to a lot of confusion between those who have seen it and those who haven’t, especially if some of those who haven’t seen this episode perceive talk of it as “spoilers.”

I was really quite amazed at how well the writers were able to get across the main points of what had happened/was happening without having to resort to a lot of drawn-out exposition. I had very little trouble understanding what was going on, and yet I didn’t find myself rolling my eyes at someone giving a two-minute monologue on the state of the world. Nicely done.

For whatever reason, the personal relationships that had me most intrigued were Adelle/Topher and Claire/Boyd (and what that means for Claire and Topher!).

Adelle was like a caring, desperate mother with a mentally damaged child. I've seen mentions here and there that people think Topher and Adelle are being set up as a romantic pairing, but I don't really see it. Even their interactions in “Echoes” seemed pretty platonic to me, and she seemed downright maternal both in the flashback to when they first met in this episode and in the episode where Topher got to program a doll for his birthday. I’m oddly fascinated by how their bond will develop into what we saw in this episode, because she seemed to love him dearly.

The idea of Claire and Boyd having a relationship someday has been at least mildly hinted at on the show already, but then so has Claire and Topher. I’m very curious as to what the future Claire/Boyd pairing means for Claire’s relationship with Topher. I’ve always felt like there was a romantic component to their relationship, but it’s not at all clear whether it was something that happened when she was whoever she was before she became Whiskey, or whether it was something that happened with Whiskey or one of her imprints, or whether it’s something that has yet to happen in the present timeline, or even whether it’s just something Topher wants but can’t have (I kind of hope not, because that smacks Wesley/Fred/Gunn all over again, and with the same actress in the middle to boot).

There were a lot of hints (and anvils) about the show’s mythology in this episode, too, but after all the excited speculation I did for the BSG finale that didn’t even come close to paying off, I tend to not pay terribly close attention to that sort of thing and just take it as it comes.