Review and Summary of Epitaph Two: Return
Spoilers for Epitaph Two: Return
The Actuals and child-Caroline are on the route to Safe Haven. They are in the desert, one year after Epitaph One, and are attacked by Berserkers (Doll civilians who have been programmed to attack possible Actuals). They run, and arrive at a house, only to be kidnapped by unseen men.
They come to in a holding cell, surrounded by other humans and Dolls. Then we meet the Head of Rossum, a fat man pigging out on food, inspecting male bodies for a replacement. It seems that he constantly replaces his body, so he indulges in food. But one of the possible Doll-bodies turns out to be Paul Ballard—except he isn’t wiped. He takes down the group and then finds Caroline, who was in the holding cell with our original Actuals. She helps the group escape, and then shoots the Head of Rossum Corp. His last words: “We’ll only do this again.”
It seems like a neverending cycle—and Echo is tired of it. So on this invasion trip of Rossum Corp, she decided to strike back in a big way: by stealing back Topher. But it seems that Topher is crazy, just like he was in Epitaph One. Because he created the technology to remote wipe humans without Doll architecture, the guilt drove him crazy. Yet now he has a plan. He mumbles something about making everything as it was, so Ballard and Caroline convince Sierra (who has a child, T) and Adelle to return to LA Dollhouse for the Tech. But this means they need some help.
In comes Victor/Tony with his band of wild Tech Heads. Tech Heads are people who basically transformed their minds into an open computer, with silver implants surrounding their ear. They can implant any information/knowledge into their implants. Yet if they have “too much” they go crazy, so they keep these programs on a portable Flash USB drive on a chain around their necks. It seems dark, interesting, and cool-looking.
We learn that Sierra and Tony split after their child Tony, aka T, is born. Tony wants to fight the good fight, which means embracing the Tech, while Sierra wanted T to have a life without all of the Tech. There is much love-lost lingering looks between the two.
The team arrives at the Dollhouse to find Alpha running a group of peaceful Dolls amidst the chaos of a burnt down LA. Yet on the way, we have a casualty. In the Buffy series, Joss Whedon showed his appreciation for finale grief, always killing off a character (Spike, Tara, and Anya). For the Dollhouse, he killed off Paul Ballard. It was so sudden and abrupt that I had to hit rewind the first time around. Echo ignores the grief and seems tough, but we can all guess what comes next.
Topher discovers the formula for his plan, which helps him create a device which will replace the original personalities of everyone in the world. This means that the actual Dolls (Sierra, Tony/Victor, Ballard, and Caroline) will only remember everything up to their original mind-wipe.
But being within the cement, underground unit of the Dollhouse will prevent the Dolls from forgetting. Topher decided that he didn’t want to be alive, in case he thought of something else that would destroy the world. So he decides to go up with his bomb-mind-wipe-device, and save the world.
The world is saved, with several thousands of lives lost. Caroline begins to grieve over Ballard, and Sierra destroys the Tech Head programs. As a last ditch effort to save her grief, Caroline gets back in the chair one last time.
This is the most sentimental part of the show, and the easiest way to give some closure. She inserts Paul Ballards personality into her vault of personalities within her mind, keeping him close to her forever. The show ends with Caroline climbing back into her bed within the floor, and the screen goes black.
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