Joss Whedon on Dollhouse’s 13th episode

In an interview on Tuesday, Joss Whedon explained why 20th Century Fox made a 13th episode of Dollhouse, and teased its contents:

The decision had to do with the studio saying, 'We need another episode for our package, and we can't afford one,'" Whedon said. "'Can you do a clip show? Can we show the unaired pilot?' I'm like, 'No, you can't. It wouldn't make any sense. Besides, we cannibalized it for parts. Most of it's in other episodes.' And they were like, 'Well, we really have to have 13 for foreign.' And I said, 'I'll tell you what. I'll shoot a post-apocalyptic thriller that's all on our sets in six days with a cast of four other people, then we'll pepper it with different bits from our regular cast, and we can do it all during the schedule. It'll cost you half. I can do this.' And I was so in love with the idea that I just came up with off the top of my head, and that's what it turned into. It's one of the best episodes we've ever made (SCI FI Wire)."

That actually makes a lot of sense, and makes me want to see "Epitaph One" even more!

With all of the obsession surrounding the series ratings on Fox in the US, I haven't seen much about how the series is faring overseas.

A post apocalyptic future episode makes me wonder what way he was going with the series.  Does Echo fail to bring down the Dollhouse, or does she succeed and bring about a dark future that ruins humanity?

It sounds like "Epitaph One" is the episode we discover, or at the very least get strong clues about, the purpose of the Dollhouse.

What do you think it is really about?