Now I’ve had time to think about it, the significance of the final shot is about perception. In act1, Dr. H saves Penny from the truck that Hammer caused to go out of control & Hammer gets the credit (”what heist were you watching?” ). Whereas the death of Penny is actually Hammers fault (the “hero” has no problem pulling the trigger) & Horrible gets the “credit” for it (a classic Joss inversion). The public perceives Hammer as good, so when good things happen around him, he is the one that causes them. Conversely, Horrible is “evil” so when bad things happen he is to blame. When the last number kicks in we are treated to images of the public perception of the new, uber-evil Doc, emphasised by the mirror image of the opening numbers portrayal of Hammer (news broadcast, newspapers, groupies etc). In the final shot we see (for the first-time) Billy, not Horrible, sitting at his computer screen. The blog is a place where he can be the person he thinks he is (or thinks he wants to be) & now this shell, with the thousand-yard stare & the broken heart is how he perceives himself. All in all the show explored classic Whedon themes, the nature of good, evil and humanity. Very Joseph Conrad & very, very well executed in 45 mins. Oh yeah, tophe, your a genius

After watching Act 3, I too sat and stared into space, attempting to reconcile all the thoughts and emotions pinging in my brain. And it begins…

Dismay, concern, grief, disbelief, irritation, anger, strong desire to stop thinking about it, followed by random search for alternate missed interpretations, possible reasons why Joss would want to go this dark, what's wrong with dark? wait! dark is always for a reason. what's the reason? Mulling over the various reasons, replaying Acts 1 & 2 in my head, revisiting Act 3, drawing parallels to other Whedon rug-pullers, small side-jaunt/day dreaming that there would be more Dr. Horrible to build back up the Billy that was torn asunder, as Joss has done with other characters, dismay about still being awake, tomorrow's a work day, for crying out loud…off on another tangent about the duality of man, SIR! and Capt. Hammer, and was Penny a strong female character? Was Billy a strong male character? What makes a strong character? Laundry list of characters thought strong. Re-examining Capt. Hammer, how cool was the aggressive declarative of “penis”, just flash-burning all those hammer euphemisms like tissue paper? Musings on the funniest lines (Like a pie!)(get outta town! how was that?), leading to musings of other favorite lines, compare/contrast, female characters without perfect hair…review all Joss characters, Buffy had perfect hair, hmmm, wonder why…holy crap, it's 2 a.m., please, PLEASE just turn off my BRAIN…

Why do these stories do this to me EVERY TIME?

Joss's stories have so many points, they form a sphere.

Ah, all the better for viewing them from all angles.

Wonderful!