Dollhouse Death Watch - Special Announcement!

What has been buzzing the last few hours (you look away for 2 seconds!!) is:

DOLLHOUSE HAS BEEN ALL BUT CANCELED

or, er, pretty much...or something.

The facts are these:

TVWeek reported that Prison Break would be airing it's finale a week early and cutting Dollhouse's run a bit short. By 1 full season finale short, that is.

Why they ever confirmed all episodes would air, is a mystery.

Then Felicia Day all but confirmed this via her favorite internets hang out, Twitter.

And then, Jed Whedon via @DrHorrible tweeted and super-confirmed it.

But then Alan Sepinwall, said on his blog:
Day's episode, called "Epitaph One," was apparently filmed by the studio independent of the agreement -- or, at least, independent of what Fox network considers to be in the agreement -- and does not seem to be tied in to the story in "Omega." In other words, if there's a cliffhanger in "Omega" (and I don't know if there is), it's not going to be resolved in "Epitaph One."

Fox network won't decide the fate of "Dollhouse" until Upfront week, near the end of May, and the decision not to air "Epitaph One" has nothing whatsoever to do with renewal. It's unclear whether "Epitaph One" will turn up as a bonus on the season one DVD, or on Hulu, or even if it might be a bonus episode for a hypothetical season two. All I know for now is that it's not going to air on Fox as part of the first season run of "Dollhouse."

Very confusing stuff. So how will this affect the Dollhouse Death Watch you ask?

Hoenstly, if this is all true and episode 12 will be the last episode ever to air, then I think no one will win the DDW. FOX gets the last laugh! The hardcore S&M skeptics kind of won, because it didn't see the whole season (but they were voting for a 7 ep run, or cut very short.) My group, the Realists, kind of won. I always said they'd "do the right thing and not pull a Firefly" but then murder it without the slightest guilt and it wouldn't make a second season. Looks like their not even doing that much, though.

I should add that some hopeful people are still thinking the opposite: that the 13th ep titled "Epitaph One", would actually be a Season 2 Episode 0 bridge-type ep....and that by not airing it they may use it to promote season 2 some time in the Summer.

So how many people actually think Dollhouse will see a second season now?

UPDATE: Tim Minear dropped by Whedonesque to be all informative:

So maybe I can help clarify this somewhat. Because we scrapped the original pilot -- and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps -- we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome.

So that's slightly more clearish. But there were meant to be thirteen episodes aired, right? That was how this had been billed all along until just now. Sounds like Mr. Minear is trying to keep the crowds hopeful but I still think this train just made it's last stop at canceled-ville. Everybody off!