The third and final chapter of Joss Whedon’s awesome online musical, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is online right now. Just a quick reminder that the third act only stays online in a free format for 24 hours. At midnight tonight all three acts go the way of the dodo, and then you’ll have to pay to get them. Most likely, the dedicated of you have already picked them up off iTunes, and eventually a DVD will be coming out. Expect more details on that at Comic-Con.

For now, you can head over to the Act III page to view the denouement of Whedon’s little project, or head over to the iTunes store to get each act for $1.99 (or all three for $3.99).

So how does it end? Well, let’s just say (in the words of Stephen Colbert), I called it! What did I call? We’ll get to that in a minute in our review and recap below. You can look back at previous reviews recaps of Act One and Act Two.

Compared to the previous acts, Act Three is practically an opera, with music taking up most of the fifteen minute running time (13 actually, the last two minutes are credits). Through the news (with singing newscasters played by Buffy scribes David Fury and Marti Noxon, both of who appeared in the musical episode of that show), we learn the mayor will be dedicating the building Captain Hammer got for Penny, as well as unveiling a statue of the city’s hero. What better a place for Dr. Horrible to strike?

The dedication ceremony moves forward with one of the series’ funniest numbers, “Everyone’s a Hero” which really reveals how much of an ass Captain Hammer is. If you didn’t think Nathan Fillion was pulling off this character before, wait until you hear that one song. Of course, it’s not long before the statue is unveiled and - surprise! It’s Dr. Horrible, who freezes Captain Hammer and gets his own song.

As usual, not everything winds up perfect for Horrible, and just as he’s ready to deal the killing blow, his freeze ray breaks down (“That’s not a good sound.”). Hammer strikes back, picks up the death ray and gets ready to use it on Dr. Horrible. But something else goes wrong, the death ray explodes, and Captain Hammer feels pain for the first time, causing him to run off like a little girl.

Unfortunately, Penny (Dr. Horrible’s dream girl) was hit by shrapnel from the exploding gun (I called it! Joss never lets this kind of girl live). Her death provides Dr. Horrible with the murder he needed to get into the Evil League of Evil, and prompts his decent into full-blown evil - after all, what good is there in the world without Penny? As Dr. Evil celebrates his triumph with the Evil League (and Bad Horse who is actually a horse!), the final note reveals Billy, out of costume and sad, singing alone in front of his computer camera. Fade out. Roll credits.

So, that’s it for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog... or is it? Well, it is over with, but hopefully Joss Whedon will decide this project was enough fun that he’ll do it again, either with Horrible returning or with another of the pantheon of characters he created, any of who have a story that could be interesting. Hell, Moist alone could be interesting enough in Whedon’s capable hands.

Tell us what you thought about Dr Horrible below!