Dollhouse S2E12: The Hollow Men

Mistah Kurtz- he dead.

The Hollow Men

A penny for the Old Guy

I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us – if at all – not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer -
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

All right, so for those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, this post is about the latest (and penultimate) episode of Dollhouse, so: SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. (There are also other Buffyverse spoilers, obviously.)

I watched the episode for the first time with Ian on Sunday night (Monday early morning, I guess), and I couldn’t help but notice similarities to what has happened in Joss Whedon’s other works (as well as other random things), so I thought I’d note them and also ask if other people saw other references or were reminded of other things. Here goes then:

“Caroline, you are definitely interesting. At least on a microscopic level.” This line reminds me of Dark Angel, when they try to pull some bullcrap about how Max’s DNA is special because “there is no junk DNA.” Uh, what? What the heck is considered “junk DNA”? What about telomeres? We don’t even understand the regulatory role that many segments of what was once thought to be “junk DNA” — it’s possible that none of us have any “junk DNA” (which, for this argument, I’m interpreting as “superfluous DNA that does not affect the phenotype”) for all we know. But going back to Dollhouse: I was thinking, there’s not going to be something just amazingly special about Caroline, is there? That would be … special. A stupid plot device. You get the idea.

(I’m sorry, but I need to take a moment to comment that Adelle looks totally badass with that automatic rifle.)

“But if I turn evil, shoot me.” Angelus, anyone? When they remove his soul, he tells them that Connor (if I remember correctly? It’s possible that he says this to multiple people) is in charge of killing him if he gets loose and/or something else goes wrong. And Cordy tells Angel something similar during one of their training sessions as well. I think the dialogue is along the lines of, “So what do I do after [disabling move]?” “Oh, you don’t need to know that. That move will hold the attacker long enough for me to get to you and save you.” “What if you’re the one I’m fighting?”

“What did you do with her?” “I guess I just sort of evicted her.” TOTAL SPOILER FOR ANGEL. This is just like what happened to Fred; Illyria pushed her out of her body.

(I have to take another moment here and say that Ripley (of the Alien series) is awesome. Also, I have a question: did Topher really take the time to reprogram Anthony’s personality with both new fighting skills and new memories so that he knew that he was supposed to come out the other end enhanced with those fighting skills?)

“You’re here ’cause you’re my family. I love you guys.” Barney, I think. “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family….” Yeah, um…this was totally cheesy and Boyd’s line felt so fake.

“Look at you, Topher. Risking your life for the cause, choosing morality over self-preservation.” This vaguely reminds me of Anya, because she ran away at the end of season three, but stayed for the apocalypse at the end of season five, as well as season seven.

(Taking another moment: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It makes no sense that Mellie is able to override her sleeper protocol.)

“The entire process is designed to extract your spinal fluid without killing you.” That extraction device is definitely similar in design to the device that was used to extract blood from humans in the alternate reality that was in “The Wish” (and “Doppelgangland”).

(Last aside, maybe: Why the heck is there more blood on Ballard’s face when he runs into Boyd than there was immediately after he got splattered with Mellie?)

Overall: This episode was less good than the last few, and I’m really not sure how I feel about the explosive ending (in that I don’t buy it, not that I’m not sure whether it was the “right” thing to do or anything). I am still excited to see what happens in the final episode; I’m hoping that it will connect some of the flashbacks from “Epitaph One” and show us what happens when Echo and Ballard return to the dollhouse to save everyone.