Recap / Dollhouse S 02 E 12

Season 2, Episode 12:

The Hollow Men

Sacrifices are made when Echo leads her crew to Arizona to dismantle the Rossum Corporation's mainframe.

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Tropes present in this episode:

• Big Bad Friend: Boyd Langton, head of Rossum.
• Blood-Splattered Innocents: Paul this time, when Mellie shoots herself.
• Buffy Speak
  Topher: I did this. I'm the one who brings about the thought-pocalypse.
  Adelle: Thought-pocalypse?
  Topher: Is brain-pocalypse better? I figure, if I'm responsible for the end of the world, I get to name it.
• Driven to Suicide: Mellie resists her sleeper programming long enough to shoot herself instead of Paul.
• Foregone Conclusion: Due to "Epitaph One", we already know that Echo and company do not succeed in preventing the thought-pocalypse forever.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Topher uses the weaponized imprinting technology that Boyd commissioned to wipe him.
• Hope Spot: In the final scene, outside the Rossum building, the gang think they've saved the world and stopped the "thought-pocalypse" from happening. Then it time-skips to show Echo and Ballard fighting a horde of the "butchers" from "Epitaph One", confirming that they only delayed it.
• The Immune: The reason that Echo is so special is revealed: she has a biological resistance to being completely wiped, meaning Rossum can harvest her cerebrospinal fluid to create a vaccine that confers immunity to the imprinting technology.
• Late to the Party: Victor and Sierra come back to the Dollhouse after it's been invaded by Rossum's strike team.
• Manchurian Agent: Boyd activates Mellie's sleeper programming to try and kill Paul.
• Neural Implanting: For the second time, Topher offers to augment someone's mind with additional skills. This time, they take him up on it.
• Outrun the Fireball: Echo during the destruction of Rossum headquarters.
• The Reveal: Boyd's plan is to use Echo's cerebrospinal fluid to immunize his "family" (the main cast, barring Paul Ballard) and the other Rossum higher-ups against imprinting technology, while leaving the rest of the world at his mercy.
• Shipper on Deck: Topher 2.0 offers to augment Anthony's mind with cooking skills, in case he and Priya end up getting married.
• Trigger Phrase: "There are three flowers in a vase, the third flower is green" appears again as Mellie's trigger. Adelle refuses to say it for Boyd, so he plays a recording of her voice instead. This briefly makes Paul think that Adelle is the evil one, until Boyd holds a gun on him.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Boyd. He believes that the imprinting technology will inevitably bring about the end of civilization so he's decided to do it first, and he is (in his own twisted way) attempting to safeguard the people he cares about through it.
• Would Hit a Girl: Clyde Randolph, but since he's in Whiskey's body, he doesn't feel bad about it.
• You're Insane!: Adelle to Boyd after learning about his plan.
  Adelle: You are spectacularly insane.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: It looks like the Dollhouse crew brought Rossum down and saved the world from the future Clyde foresaw... cue a ten-year Time Skip and this future happening anyway.