And so goes the first season of Dollhouse. If Fox has any decency, this show will be back, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed next autumn. "Omega" did a good job of digging into the philosophy behind the show, adding nuance to the moral debate of the nature of the Dollhouse and those who choose to be its Actives.

The central theme of this episode was the idea of a "core" personality, that deep down everyone has an essential seed of self that shines through no matter what's put on top. We finally get Alpha's origin story and it makes his inherent villainy make sense, even if it does rob the show of some of the moral ambiguity of the Dollhouse itself.

DeWitt explains that, in its experimental phase, the Rossum Corporation tested the chair technology on convicts. Alpha spent his pre-Doll days as an aspiring serial killer. As a consequence, even his tabula rasa form had an affinity for sharp things.

Speaking of which, we get confirmation of last week's suspicions that Dr. Saunders is, herself, an Active. She used to be the most requested Active in the Dollhouse, codename Whiskey. The original Dr. Saunders was a kind, old man. When Alpha finally went nuts he took a pair of bonsai scissors to Whiskey's face and killed Dr. Saunders v. 1.0. In the struggle to wipe the newly-violent Alpha, Topher's full diagnostic ends up shoving every one of Alpha's old imprints into him at once. Now Alpha has 48 distinct personalities competing for consciousness. As he puts it, "I'm not a split personality... well, one of them is... I'm looking for nuance here!"

Alpha has constructed his own imprint room in an abandoned power plant with the intention to turn Echo into "Omega", a composite personality just like him. I have to admit, Alpha's motive is pretty awesome. He feels that his original personality abandoned himself when he agreed to be a Doll, so the first thing he did when he went crazy was destroy the wedge on which his "true" self was stored. Of course, he's still got a little serial killer left in him, so he sees his composite personality as an ubermensch kind of ascension.

But when he imprints Echo with the "Omega" composite, she doesn't see it the same way. Alpha wants her to kill a kidnapped girl with Caroline's personality imprinted on her, but she fights Alpha instead. It seems that the crusader at the core of Caroline's personality lives on in Echo just like the killer lives in Alpha.

Back at the Dollhouse, Paul ends up helping his enemies track Alpha down. What results is a detective-like partnership between Paul and Boyd. It fits, given their shared history as law enforcement types, but the whole setup felt a little like a police procedural show wedged into a sci-fi program. Long story short, Echo rescues Caroline's wedge, Alpha gets away. I guess that's good, as it opens the story up for a second season.

By the end, a lot of this first season's concepts felt tied up. If we get a much-deserved second season, there will be a lot to build on. We'll have weekly episodes of Paul Ballard: Scowling Dollhouse Contractor (and hopefully not "Paul and Boyd: The Buddy Picture"). Dr. Saunders is now a self-aware Active who seems to be OK with that. Paul requested that Mellie, aka Madeline, be released from her contract. And Echo, she's back in her pod, ready to be an Active for the duration of her agreement, with the caveat that she remembers Caroline.

Best Moment: Seeing Alpha as a Doll. Alan Tudyk is so wonderfully creepy and mad scientist-y in the modern day that it adds an extra level of menace to see him so "harmless".

Biggest Shock: All the Whiskey business. It's a nice twist on the whole debate of volition and identity. She isn't her old self or her Doll self, but she now fully inhabits the new Dr. Saunders.

Episode Rating: 4.5/5- I think the Paul and Boyd stuff could have been done better, but the rest of the episode was a great capper to the season. Some of the big questions have been answered but plenty of potential remains. Here's hoping Fox has good sense.