Short review: Meh.

Long review after the jump, where spoilers live.

Don't get me wrong, there were some great scenes, some good lines here and there, and it's always fun to see Enver be Topher. Mellie's death was touching, Boyd's end was perfectly fitting and still sad, and Amy Acker turns out to be a pretty convincing guy. But there were more disappointments than rewards here for me. The highlights:

Are we supposed to believe that Whiskey was Clyde while she was hiding with Boyd? (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but what happened to Claire?) Or are we to believe that she, out of all the possible bodies/dolls available, was spirited from LA all the way to the home office just so Clyde could have that body? Before this ep I had no sense she was anything but Dr. Saunders. And wouldn't Boyd be really pissed that Clyde emptied out Boyd's girlfriend and moved in?

Also, if she's Clyde now that means that once again Amy Acker's soul was wiped clean and replaced with an evil one. Except this time it happened off camera, so we didn't even get to see her go.

Didn't buy Boyd. He's been too rational, too intelligent, too moral up till now, and his sudden slip into crazytown seemed forced. Might have helped if he had shown a little desperation over trying to bring things to a head before the tech got out there. He had to have known how the others would treat him and his plans — he's been by far the most perceptive, empathic character on the show — so seeing him suddenly oblivious to how he had to have known they would take his plan was horribly forced. Couldn't he had tried to earnestly convince them? Maybe some anger, even? We were never even really told whom he was racing against. His own company? Other dollhouses? The government? Who?

(I did love how he "cracked" the door security, though )

Why no mention of Alpha? He clearly had the same physiological quirk as Caroline. Was he an early test that went wrong?

I was wincing through the spinal fluid scene. She was moving around an awful lot for someone getting spinal taps. How was Echo not paralyzed afterward, much less doing the crouching tiger thing?

As soon as Paul and Mellie were sent off on their own I knew she'd be dying soon. (Me, if I were Ballard I'd have been screaming "There are three flowers in a vase! The first flower is red! No, dammit, um, second flower! Second flower!")

No problems with the Adelle or Topher scenes, or Priya and Anthony.

The lower budget was also more apparent here, much more so than in previous episodes. Bashing the server coolers was unimpressive, the explosion looked more like the Buffy high school greenscreen blowup (complete with running star in front) and we didn't even get an exterior visual, no smoke, nothing, just the tired heroes reacting and suddenly Echo/Caroline appearing casually on the sidewalk.

But this is mostly nitpicking and open to opinion. What really bugged me, what I found unforgiveable about this episode, was that we had this big buildup over integrating Caroline back with Echo. It's been the undercurrent for the whole season. Would Echo die? Would Caroline fight for control? Would they integrate, come to terms, become a new third person? How would this show, which has produced some of the most brilliant and subtle examinations of what it means to be human, deal with Echo's sacrifice to bring Caroline back? What would we learn about the self, the soul?

Nothing, actually. What we got was a somewhat harsher Echo, a Caroline with skillz, and no real sign of which one, both or neither was in there.

I'm sorry, I was expecting something huge, like the superBuffy fighting Adam with ease at the end of S4 or the dramatic "everyone's a Slayer" end of S7. I expected a mental battle of wills or some sign that she's more than she was before. I wanted to see that even though she's the result of Boyd's machinations that she's become more than he expected, more than he could plan for. I wanted to see Echo's worst fear realized — Caroline back in full control of her body, Echo gone — and then see Caroline come to terms with the fact that Echo was needed for the mission, or (worse) that Echo was a better person. I wanted Caroline to sacrifice a little of herself to bring Echo back. I wanted to know that Echo and Caroline were working together, or maybe even that Caroline took over but then stepped aside to let Echo emerge for the good of the mission. Maybe Caroline is still Caroline, but there's some Echo in there guiding her. Or something better; this show has been amazing at twists that this jaded TV-watcher didn't see coming, I have no doubt they could come up with something believable, surprising, triumphant, tragic, and deeply emotionally satisfying.

What I got was her charging up and down empty halls, getting into fairly standard fights and muttering sullen defiance. Woo. She did absolutely nothing in this episode (other than supply spinal fluid) that couldn't have been done equally well by Anthony. There was no use of any of her other personalities/skills, no sign of warring minds, and no emotional payoff.

That's why I was disappointed.

I'm still looking forward to the final episode, "Epitaph Two," written by "Epitaph One" writers Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, and Andrew Chambliss. But this one, despite some excellent bits, was a letdown.

I tend to see viral videos either right after they get posted and the Internet has yet to notice, or months (or years) later. I'm sorry I missed this for so long. Any response from Pixar yet?

'So Fox decreed that they should be paid more for their programming based on the innovative business model "We Want More Money For The Same Product Because We're Pretty Sure We Can Make You Do It."And Time-Warner (and locally, their Bright House partner or affiliate or henchman or whatever the relationship is) is resisting, based on their own tried and true business model, "We Ain't Paying You Jack."

Meanwhile, millions of affected customers are fearfully watching the two monsters battle, crushing buildings in their wake, with only one terrified thought: "Am I going to miss the Sugar Bowl because of these idiots?"

In a nutshell, Fox wants money for its previously free programming. Time-Warner (and locally their partner Bright House) doesn't want to pay. Both mega-companies have been flooding the local airwaves, TV and newspapers with ads claiming the people are on their side and demand that the other party to back down.

Personally, I'm not too bothered by the Fox/Time Warner smackdown and wouldn't be affected if Fox disappeared from my TV. I'm not a football fan, most of their programming actively bothers me, and I can watch the last episodes of Dollhouse on Fox.com, Hulu.com, or get 'em from iTunes a day later. Worst case scenario, I have to wait til summer and buy the DVD set. That's about it for me and Fox-owned shows these days, although I have plenty of friends who would miss Glee and Fringe. (Note that FOX News would not be affected, dammit)

But hey, guys? The people are not on your side. Honest. We distrust both of you more or less equally. We know that you are not providing us with entertainment out of the goodness of your hearts, and that you need to stay profitable to do what you do. However you work that out is fine by us, but we know already that no matter what happens, our rates will go up. We are not your friends or your grassroots army. Please stop trying to rally us as a way to bully the other guy. Just work it out, let us know what the hike will be and let's move on with our lives.

Be sure to read the rest of my column, which suggests ways to make do without Fox. It's surprisingly easy, something both companies might want to think about.

It started when Canadian musician Dave Carroll was on a United Airlines flight, waiting at O'Hara in Chicago. People on the flight pointed out the baggage handlers on the ground tossing around guitar cases, which turned out to belong to Carroll and his band Sons of Maxwell. Carroll's pleas fell on deaf ears and he discovered upon arriving at his destination that his custom Taylor guitar, valued at $3,500, was severely damaged. There followed a year of Carroll's attempts at getting United Airlines to even acknowledge the incident, much less pay for the $1,200 of repairs that still didn't quite restore the guitar to its former sound.

Finally Carroll told the last representative, a Ms. Irlweg, that he would write and produce three music videos about his experience and release them into the wild.She may have been less than impressed. That was then.

His first one, "United Breaks Guitars," (above) was a happy little ditty that sticks in your brain. It went viral in a big way, pulling in millions of views, getting picked up by CNN and MSNBC and boosting Carroll's career (and adding a secondary one as frequent guest speaker about customer service) and humiliating United Airlines. United finally came forward with offers if he'd pull the video, but he refused, asking that if they paid anything they should give it to charity or to another inconvenienced musician. He promised three songs and three songs they would get.

The second was released a few months later, dedicated to the United Airlines rep:

The third has been promised and I'm eagerly awaiting it. This is what the Internet was made for. The military uses and the porn thing were just sidelines; the real power of the web is to give a single person the voice to outshout a major corporation.

And to spread cool videos around. The songs are available from his band's site and from iTunes, by the way, and you can get more details of the continuing saga at his website.

- Dexter will kill Trinity.

- Dexter will kill Trinity, but in such a way as to set things up for an uncomfortable 5th season such as, say, stabbing him to death on the table during the morning meeting at the precinct.

- Dexter will try to kill Trinity and then discover, to his shock, that Trinity is, in reality, former president Warren G. Harding.

- Dexter will try to kill Trinity and fail, only to have

I really don't see where anything more need be said.

Tonight the surviving members of Monty Python's Flyng Circus reunited on the stage at Ziegfeld Theatre in New York (with a cardboard cutout of the late Graham Chapman) to answer questions from the audience. Which they did, in one or two instances, but only when they couldn't ignore them outright, make up different questions entirely, or mock the questioners and each other. My only complaint is that it was too short, but it was great fun watching them crack each other up.

If you have no idea who best-selling mystery author Richard Castle is, you haven't been watching ABC's "Castle" starring Nathan Fillion. And if you haven't, shame on you. Aside from the fact that Fillion is in it, "Castle" is a refreshing change from the endlessly intense police procedurals and CSI: Whatevers that load up the screen. "Castle" is attitude-TV, the latest progeny of the Rockford Files-Columbo-Murder She Wrote school of detective shows where the actual crime is secondary to watching the stars be wiseasses at each other as they solve it.

Castle is an internationally famous mystery writer who has killed off his main character and needs a new idea. Enter NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, working on a case in which the murder scenes resemble scenes from his books. Castle discovers his new muse — hard-as-nails, intelligent, beautiful Beckett — and uses his pull with the mayor to  hang around the department for "research." Just about everyone on the show shines, but if nothing else watch it for Fillion's charm and the novelty of finally seeing him on a show in its second season.

Through the first season we saw newly-inspired Castle write his new book, "Heat Wave." And then ABC and Hyperion Books actually published the thing, which presents a problem.

We've been told, over and over, that he's a world-class writer, right? So there's a certain level of expectation for the book. Can we, reading it, believe that a best-selling writer wrote it?

The answer is yes, but that writer is Dan Brown.

The concept of the book itself is just what I was hoping for. Clearly inspired by his own situation, Castle wrote about Det. Nikki Heat and the world-famous reporter (Jameson Rook)  who's allowed to follow her around thanks to a favor from the mayor, as they work to solve the murder of a big shot developer. You can see where bits and pieces from the show crept into his writing, even whole scenes at times such as the high-level poker game Castle tricked Beckett into, and that's a 208-page easter egg for the fans. It's written from Nikki Heat's perspective, so it's like you're seeing what Castle thinks Beckett is like (or at least an idealized version of Beckett). The dialogue is crisp and funny, the plot is as good a mystery as any I've read, and the characters have their own personalities hiding within the cliched mystery-novel conventions.

But the style of the book gets on my nerves. Like Dan Brown, "Castle" not only tells you what someone is doing, but why they are doing it, every step of the way, like color commentary.

Kimberly gave her the name of a doctor, Cory Van Peldt. Yes, it was the truth, she said, and yes, it was the same doctor she's seen this morning. Heat had her spell his name and wrote it on her pad along with his number. Kimberly said she met him when she went in for a facial assessment two weeks ago, and they had this magic thing. Heat was betting the magic was in his pants and in his wallet, but she knew better than to say so. She prayed Rookhad the same sense.

As long as things were in a hostile vein, Nikki decided to press on. In a few minutes she would need Kimberly's cooperation with the photos and wanted her to think twice about lying, or be so rattled that she'd do it poorly if she did. "A lot of things can't be taken at face value with you."

Instead of someone telling you a great story, it's more like they're telling you about a great story they saw. And that's how "Heat Wave" is written, start to finish. Rarely are we ever granted the luxury of just reading what's happening and using our own imaginations to wonder about motivations. Over and over we are told, not shown.

Thing is, Dan Brown is a hugely best-selling author for some reason I can't understand, so Castle's "Heat Wave" may be exactly what America wants on its bedside table.

I love the show. I love the characters. I love the concept of the book, the people in the book, the meat of the book, basically everything about the book but the book itself, which is kinda disappointing. I think Fillion coulda done better.

You can decide for yourself, ABC has several chapters online for free. Personally, when it comes to TV tie-in novels, I prefer Lee Goldberg's "Monk" books. But this was a decent effort and a nice complement to the series, as well as a great thing to take to Nathan Fillion autograph signings.

Edited to add: What I really want to see now is Beckett, on the show, reacting to reading this. It's a pretty obvious wish-fulfillment story and a hell of a come-on…

"Heat Wave" is available in hardback, for  the Kindle and other eBook readers, or as an audiobook, which, amazingly, is not read by the author. ABC, what were you thinking?

If you saw the Emmys last night, along with Neil Patrick Harris' amazing performance as the host and the revamped show that finally seemed to start treating awards ceremonies the way they should all be treated — with respect, humor, and John Hodgman providing color commentary– you also saw the first time Dr. Horrible ever appeared on broadcast television. At least, outside of a news show reporting on the death of TV.

I almost missed the damn thing.

It was the accountancy part! If there was ever a safe time to hit the bathroom, it should have been the accountancy part! But no, NPH had to make it all "fun" and "entertaining," as he did throughout the rest of the show. There were some clunkers — the fan getting lousy seats got old even before she was on the screen, the presenter banter was only slightly better overall, and the reality show montage and the ultra-violent Family Guy clip just forcibly reminded me why I don't watch reality shows or Family Guy. (Isn't Dirty Jobs a reality show? Why isn't Mike Rowe winning Emmys?) But overall this was the most entertaining Emmys broadcast I've seen in years. Light-hearted, respectful, and it combined the genres to make the show move faster (something I, ahem, suggested last year).

The fans seemed to agree: despite predictable winners and competition from the Giants/Cowboys game, the 61st Emmys saw a million-person jump in ratings from last year.

I think it was Dr. Horrible's doing. Somehow his evil plan backfired and saved the industry. And in recognition of that, and of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog winning its own Emmy, I'm giving one away. Post a comment below and tomorrow night at 9 pm EST I'll pull a name at random and send that winner a Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog DVD, just for the hell of it.

One entry per person, must be 18 to win, must be a mailing address in the U.S. or Canada (unless you're willing to cover shipping charges). Begin!

Note: Winning entry has been drawn,. will announce after I get a response from the winner I just e-mailed.