Tim Minear, consulting producer of Dollhouse, clarifies that the season finale of Fox's Dollhouse was always intended to be "Omega," the 12th of the original episodes ordered (not counting the original pilot, which was scrapped and cannibalized for parts). "Epitaph One," meanwhile, was a standalone episode that was never intended to be part of the original 13, but rather was created to fulfill the DVD deal for 13 episodes once the pilot was no longer usable.

Here's how Minear explains it on Whedonesque: "Okay. 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 stand-alone 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."