“We just wanted something extraordinary.”
Those are the words creator Joss Whedon used to sum up what the DOLLHOUSE team set out to do in the season’s thirteenth episode “Epitaph One which was just recently released exclusively on DVD and on iTunes.
Now comes the tricky part: What exactly does one do for an encore after the series virtually everyone had written off gets a renewal so unexpected that Whedon called it “the biggest surprise of my career”… and you’ve already revealed how it’s all going to end.
“Had I known episode thirteen wouldn’t be our last, would I have done something different?” he pondered during our recent chat with him. “Maybe. Because we really did tease out a lot. But I didn’t think we were necessarily done, I just thought the best thing we could do is just take a baseball bat, swing as hard as we can and leave nothing to for the ride back, because who knows?”
That said, Wheton assures us that, “What happens next is really exciting.”
Fortunately for us, he went on to elaborate beyond that rather coy tease! “We’re trying to do something that’s much more cinematic and visceral and really live inside the story,” he says in previewing the new season, which debuts September 24 at 9PM on FOX (Global in Canada). “This season, I’ve really ratcheted up the way I work. We’re shooting in HD, so we’re able to move faster, do more, and make the second season more like the latter half of the first season.”
In other-words, “Epitaph One’ is just the beginning. “The insane unaired thirteenth episode will inform what we do the whole season. It really helped give us a direction and understanding of what we want from the actors, and what we think the audience wants to see from this ensemble.”
Direction? Understanding? Yes, yes, that’s great and all… but how about some answers dammit!
Not surprisingly, Whedon is somewhat tight-lipped when it comes to how in fact himself and his merry band of writers are going to live up to the ridiculously cool post-apocolyptic future that was painted in “Epitatph One.” But did offer, at a DOLLHOUSE set visit during the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour that the series will pick up exactly three months after the events of last May’s season finale, fans can expect more three-dimensional dolls and — best of all — a special guest appearance by BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’s Jamie Bamber.
Who won’t be the only familiar face this season.
“Last year I had to be careful that it didn’t seem the show was a party for my friends,” explained Whedon, who ultimately changed his tune after a weekend spent at San Diego’s Comic Con, realizing that, yeah, it sort of is a party for his friends (see: Felicia Day, who will be back in the second season premiere) “Ultimately it also saves time if you have someone you know who can get the job done.”
So does that mean CASTLE star Nathan Fillion should be waiting by his phone? “I’m trying to sabotage the show, it’s not working, but I’m trying.” 
