A title card reads: "12 hours earlier". Hooray, it's an interwoven timeline structure. Now that I'm behind on the recaps, that just feels like piling on. Anyway, Boyd and Echo are in one of the signature Dollhouse vans, and Echo is in a seriously over-the-top leather dominatrix outfit: corset, chains, slits, collar, and whip. She's explaining to Boyd that S/M isn't about the pain; it's about trust. Boyd: "In my experience, trust like that usually leads to pain." Echo says he sounds like he could use a session in her care. Boyd, amused, turns her down. Echo points out that she showed she trusts him by getting in the van.
In the Dollhouse parking garage, Boyd and Echo coming in pass Victor and his handler on their way out. The handler complains about being sent on another Miss Lonelyhearts gig. ("How pathetic is that old bag?") Victor objects mildly to the trashing of his beloved in a British accent. He sounds fond and indulgent. This whole conversation seems like an odd one to be having in front of the imprinted Dolls. After all, Victor's imprint Roger doesn't know he's an imprint being hired to do whatever the old lady wants. That's the point of the Dollhouse. If she wanted a gigolo, she could hire one. I assume the Dolls are programmed to accept a little fuzziness in their cover stories at the beginnings and ends of their missions-- later on, November doesn't freak out when she looks out onto the Dollhouse floor as Mellie, and they have to not freak out when they wake up in the chair and get herded into the vans. Anyway, Echo caps the conversation by snapping her whip at Victor's handler's ankles: "It's love. Show some respect." Boyd takes her whip and sends her in for her treatment. She shrugs: "Okay, sometimes it is about the pain."
At Echo's mindwipe, Ivy is handling the post-imprint script. Right after she finishes, though, Topher is there to critique it. He says it needs to be more pleasant, and to provide a counterpoint Dominic bustles in and orders Echo out of the chair. He asks Topher why they're behind schedule and Topher reminds him about his computer getting shot last week. Dominic yells at Topher and sends Echo off to see Dr. Saunders.
Outside of the chair room, Dominic delivers a report to DeWitt, and DeWitt hands him control of the Dollhouse, as she's been called in by Rossum. Dominic, looking worried, asks if she knows why. "Considering everything that's gone on here recently, I'm sure they want to pat me on the head and tell me I've been running a crackerjack operation. Maybe there'll be cake." Hee. Sarcasm sounds better in British. Dominic protests on her behalf that none of it was her fault, but Adelle says it was her responsibility-- and, for the next few days, it's his.
On the Dollhouse floor, Echo greets November on her way to Dr. Saunders's office. When she mentions Dr. Saunders, November gives the same response the Dolls always do: "She's nice." It's one of those creepy little touches-- a little Manchurian Candidate-ish. Dr. Saunders is the kindest, bravest, warmest person I've ever met in my whole life. A staffer interrupts and takes November off for a treatment.
In Saunders' office, Echo gets her exam, and Boyd decides to check in. He wasn't comfortable with the last operation, which seemed unnecessarily rough. Claire points out that unnecessary roughness is kind of part of the whole dominatrix gig, and lays out her theory that the kinky sexual missions can be philanthropic, too-- that having a deep inexpressible desire can be debilitating. Boyd doesn't buy it, and sarcastically tells her that she's got the sales pitch down and could sub in for Adelle while she's gone. Claire bristles a little at the disapproval: "I believe the system is flawed. Maybe irreparably. But not for the same reasons as you." Echo leaves the exam room, and Boyd follows.
Outside, Topher nervously flags down Boyd. He says, "In a couple of minutes I'm going to make a call to DeWitt. If you were to do something in those couple of minutes, like get some air, or run, I wouldn't know you had done that." He raises his eyebrows significantly. (Aww, Topher is looking out for his "man-friend".) Boyd has no idea what he's talking about, though. Turns out that Topher, while doing maintenance on the Chair after it had that run-in with Echo's gun, found a chip planted in it that would have given someone access to the imprints. He explains: "I make a cheerleader, they make it a cheerleader who kills people. Or an assassin who does cheers. Whatever: any Active, any time, with parameters we don't know about." Boyd translates that they have a spy in the Dollhouse. There's a beat, then: "And you thought it was me?" Topher shrugs: "Not in a bad way!" Boyd points out that Topher would have gotten in a lot of trouble for warning him if he had been the spy. Topher says he's boned anyway, and goes off to call it in. In the background, Echo waves enthusiastically at someone off camera.
Echo is in the arts and crafts room doing bonsai. She watches as Topher calls Dominic into his office and looks worried as Dominic pitches a miniature fit at Topher. Dominic storms downstairs, giving orders to put the whole Dollhouse on communications lockdown. He grabs Sierra and takes her upstairs for a treatment. Echo sees Sierra in the chair, and then watches Dominic push Topher around a little. Dominic and the imprinted Sierra storm past Echo, and Sierra comments that, when she worked at the Agency, she'd kill anyone who exposed her as much as Topher had.
Echo wanders into the chair room, and says that everyone is unhappy today. Topher, busy with rebuilding the Chair, is dismissive: "Someone put their tiny little thinking cap on!" Dolls not being very good with sarcasm, Echo carries on: "He was mad at you. Were you not your best?" Topher apparently thinks it can't hurt to have a Doll listen to him complain about Dominic, so he lets out a rant that ends with him pointing out that he has no idea how to catch a spy. Echo says she could help. Topher snorts: "Why would you want to?" Echo: "Why wouldn't I?"
Topher tries to put together a retort, then, a little stunned: "Did I just lose an argument to a Doll? Anyway, thanks, but you can't help." Echo, still blank and innocent but insistent: "You make people different." She climbs into the chair. "You can make me help." Yeah, that deserves a "whoa". Nice work... and credits.
On the second watch-through, it became clear that the whole teaser was an Echo POV. She's present even in the conversations that aren't directed at her. And she witnesses enough just in the teaser to put together the situation. Taken that way, it's an interesting commentary on how everyone, even-- when led that way-- the audience, tends to treat the Dolls like furniture. And maybe how that might not be very wise of them.
After the credits, we come in to a title card that says "Imprint: November". I'm not sold on the whole title card thing. I mean, "12 hours earlier", I can live with. Wacky timeline, check. Thanks for the heads up. "Imprint: November", though? November's right there. She's in the chair. Being imprinted. I get it. I guess they're just emphasizing the nifty structure of the episode, one imprint per act, interwoven timelines, but you know what's even cooler than a nifty structure? Doing a nifty structure and then trusting your audience to pick it up. Really, it's what I'm here for.
Ahem. Anyway, November wakes up as Mellie, complete with memories of a flight back from her mother's in Iowa-- a redeye with a crying baby. Jeez, after all the ethically murky acts the Dollhouse goes through, implanting memories of bad flights just seems like casual sadism. Bastards. Did they make The Pink Panther 2 the in-flight movie?
Again, ahem. I have managed to work two parenthetical recapper comment paragraphs in before November has actually gotten out of the chair. I'll move on. November gets out of the chair. (Yay!) Ivy goes to double-check something technical and November wanders out of the Chair room onto the catwalk overlooking Dollhouse floor. Echo waves up at her as Topher talks to Boyd. November realizes she knows her, but doesn't remember where. (Which either shows for the first time that the memory leaks go both ways, or shores up my theory that the imprinted Dolls recognize and protect one another.) Her handler comes out to take her to the vans.
November, as Mellie, is opening the door of her apartment when Ballard busts out from his place across the hall pointing a gun at her. He sees it's her and relaxes-- well, relaxes a little. The whole gun thing has also made Mellie understandable tense. He says it's not safe to talk out in the hall and asks her in. Once she's inside, he begins working on an impressive set of locks and deadbolts on the door. When he's done, he tells Mellie about the bug and says he wants to check her place, too. Mellie agrees and wanders into the living room, where Ballard has a full-blown Wall of Crazy going: news clippings, maps, pictures, sketches, bits of yarn and pushpins, the full Nash. Mellie is, still understandably, a little shaken by the fact that her sort-of boyfriend has become a classic paranoid in a matter of weeks. Ballard does some paranoid babbling that doesn't help the impression-- he's discovered deeper and deeper connections with everyone imaginable, and he thinks the Dollhouse is literally underground. Finally, he realizes he sounds crazy and Mellie is looking scared.
He tells her she should go back to her mom's, but she doesn't want to. First, she's in Iowa and sets her up with losers she dated in high school. Also, she realized she was running away from her life. She takes off her coat and starts tidying up the scattered takeout boxes that are TV code for "obsessed man living alone". I would just like to point out that this obsessed dude living alone is a perfectly competent cook, thank you very much. Ballard tries again to talk her out of it-- he says he realizes he's obsessed and paranoid, he can't sleep, and sometimes he can't even remember why he wants to find the Dollhouse so badly. Mellie says that's why he needs someone to keep him grounded. When Ballard asks how she'll do that, she kisses him, and suggests they both head to the shower.
They're kissing on the way there, and Ballard starts undoing her top button when she freezes. Ballard tries to figure out what's wrong. In a calm, blank voice, November says, "I have a message for you from inside the Dollhouse." Ballard thinks she's joking for a second, but she stays serious, and she uses the word "imprint", which he knows from his research and Mellie, presumably, does not. She says the person sending the messages thinks his control will be discovered soon, and warns him that Mellie is a Doll sent to spy on him. Ballard thinks they got to Mellie and mindwiped her, but November corrects him: "They did this long before you met me. Mellie exists because of you."
Ballard is shaken and pissed. November says, "Now you understand how dangerous their technology is." She warns him not to tell Mellie anything about the investigation, and also not to let her know he knows she's a Doll: "If they know you know, they'll kill you, and they'll have Mellie do it." Damn. This leads to an explanation of Mellie's trigger. Ballard says, "You can't just destroy my life and give me nothing!" He asks, again, where the Dollhouse is, but November gives the same answer Echo did: "The Dollhouse deals in fantasy, but that is not their purpose. Investigate their purpose." She says this is the last time he'll be contacted by Doll. "Who sent you?" Ballard asks desperately, but November shakes her head. "I'm not imprinted with information you're not supposed to have." She warns him again not to tell her, and then Mellie is back. It's her turn to try to figure out what's wrong, but Ballard says it's nothing, and they start kissing again.
It's an act break, so I'm allowing myself another parenthetical: One of the things that this episode does really well is highlight the self-deception it takes to use a Doll. Adelle's sales pitch is right-- the Dolls don't lie. But the client is the one who has to convince themselves, and that takes a willful act of denial to maintain the illusion. Ballard finds himself thrust into that position, in a way that, seriously, sucks beyond the telling of it. Again, nice work.
A title card reads "Imprint: Sierra". Shockingly, Sierra is in the chair, being imprinted. Dominic is in there with Topher, asking if it will work, and Topher says he mixed in all his best secret agent bits. Dominic says he can't get in touch with DeWitt, and he's worried their spy might have gone after her. He presses Topher for a list of people with access to the chair, and it's a long one: Ivy, the handlers, Dr. Saunders, the staff... oh, and some Dolls wander in. Dominic shoves Topher back into the chair, which was the part Echo saw. As Dominic and Sierra head out, Topher asks what's going to happen when Adelle gets back. Dominic says, "Her wrath is going to come down on me. Then, I'm coming for you." On the way out on the catwalk, Echo overhears Sierra's line about killing Topher.
In the Fortress, Dominic briefs Sierra. They need the NSA's files, and Topher has broken their RSA encryption (Ahem. Holy shit. I mean, obviously the computers that can fit a working model of the brain onto a hard drive aren't standard issue, but if Topher can just sit down and crack NSA encryption on them, they don't need to run the Dollhouse to make tons of money.) but only on the internal network, which means they need someone on the inside to actually retrieve the file. Sierra says it's a tall order-- just so they understand how awesome she's going to be when she does it.
She dresses in a white ruffled blouse, zips up some heels, puts on a short black wig, and head out. She's on a train headed down the coast, and sits down next to a short Asian woman wearing exactly the same outfit and hairstyle. Sierra politely asks if she can borrow a pen. When the target recognizes that Sierra is dressed as her double, her eyes barely have time to widen before Sierra stabs her with a sedative hidden in a pen, steals her ID card, and scans her retina with a cell phone.
Sierra uses the stolen ID card to walk past security, apparently banking on the fact that white people really do think all vaguely Asian-looking people look the same. In Sierra's case, even in the wig, she's Asian-looking only in the vaguest sense possible. Inside, she opens her camera to retrieve a contact lens that has apparently been printed with her double's retina patterns, which is a pretty neat trick. Finally, she passes through a final check into a file room, opens a drawer, and retrieves something that looks a lot like a blank sheet for an overhead projector with some shiny bits on it. She squints at it for a second, peels something off of it with her fingernail, and heads out.
On the way past the check, an alarm goes off and the security guard moves over to sweep her with a wand. She goes along with it for a second, then grabs his arm, punches him out, and flips him over. In the elevator on the way out, she pulls the sheet out from under her blouse, frowns, and flicks something else off it with her nails. "Even Mossad doesn't double tag," she says, sounding a little impressed. (If the countermeasure to their tagging system is scratching it off with a fingernail, maybe they should reconsider.) As a general alarm goes off, she hurries in to her double's office and plugs something from the computer onto the clear sheet, which lights up with text and a blurry picture. While she's trying to read it, a security guard comes in and ushers her out for the general sweep. Walking out, she calls for extraction. She draws some attention for going the wrong way, and has to run from security and find an alternate path to the roof, where a helicopter is waiting. She yells into her radio, "I have a name, but they're closing in." Act break!
Another redundant title card: "Imprint: Victor". Victor wakes up and is informed that Catherine is waiting for him. As he heads out, Topher and Ivy snipe about who's responsible for the Chair running slow. Victor and his handler pass Dominatrix!Echo in the garage, as we saw. In the van outside his destination, his handler tells him to have fun and stay out of trouble. Rougishly, he says he promises nothing. An old lady answers the door and he delivers his bouqet of roses, which she says are her favorites. As she's putting them in a vase, Victor smoothly walks out the back door, climbs in to a gorgeous vintage Porche, and drives away. He pulls up at another house, calling for Catherine, and finds her on the deck out back. She turns around, and...
Holy shit, it's Adelle.
I'm going to need a minute.
Okay, I'm back.
Adelle's face softens visibly when she sees Roger!Victor, and they kiss.
Yeah, I'm going to need another minute.
Adelle's phone rings, and she sees tenses again when she sees it's Topher, but Roger grabs the phone and offers to throw it over the ledge. Adelle agrees: "It's a very slippery phone. I've often complained about that." Victor tosses the phone off the deck and into the ocean. Adelle starts to have second thoughts, but Roger cuts right to the chase.
Roger: "You're trying so hard to relax-- which makes me want to know why you're trying so hard to relax."
Adelle: "Am I that transparent?"
Roger: "No, but I have X-ray eyes."
Adelle says things are rocky at work, and Roger apparently knows about the Dollhouse. Adelle complains that she used to head a division that grew new organs out of stem cells, and then she could tell people what she really did. Victor asks if the Dollhouse is really that bad: "Isn't it just helping lonely people?" Which is a perfect set-up for some Whedonian irony from Adelle: "Pathetic, self-deluding souls." (Again, this episode is about the self-delusion it takes to use a Doll. Adelle clearly wants to lose herself in the fantasy but can't.) Victor ends it by asking if they should take this elsewhere.
Elsewhere, apparently, is a fencing match in the living room. Wow. This is one of those character touches that's so perfect it seems obvious once it's happened. Of course Adelle fences. She would have held the top seed at her small liberal arts college's team. A couple times a year, her sheer intensity would intimidate an opponent straight off of the mat. And there's no one to fence against anymore, and she misses it.
So they fence, and Victor takes the first point. On the second, Adelle's slash cuts Victor across the arm. He looks at it for a second, then comes at her hard, ignoring the boundaries. It's violent enough that I start to wonder whether this is an assassination attempt by the person who's been messing with the imprints, but during the fight he tells her, "This is what you wanted, or you wouldn't have cut me." He disarms her and pins her to the wall with his point at her throat. Then he lowers the sword and kisses her, hard.
And then they totally do it.
So, Adelle's constructed fantasy person can read her perfectly so she doesn't have to talk about things, and wrests her out of her own control-- sometimes at swordpoint. Yes, I beleive it.
Afterwards, Victor tells Adelle, "You are perfection. If I could make a woman, I'd make you." He goes on to say that if he were a Dollhouse client, he'd order one of her, with a spare for when she's in the shop. Adelle is clearly a little wierded out by the possibility: "I think the universe might collapse under that one." Victor laughs and says he doesn't intend to become a client: "I want the real you." "I want the real you, too," says Adelle. And once again, Dollhouse provides 500% of the USDA recommended daily allowance of dramatic irony.
"The irony is, I think you're the most real person I've ever met," says Adelle. "That's not irony. You know, people always get that wrong," says Roger. Meta-irony! If it gets any denser it will tear a hole through the fabric of the universe.
Adelle cynically complains about the layer of lies surrounding relationships: "When you're dating, it's about hiding your flaws. Then you're in a relationship and it's about hiding your disappointment. Then you're married, and it's about hiding your sins." (Which adds another layer to the theme of self-delusion. At least according to Adelle, the mental steps required to pretend that someone else is what you want them to be aren't that different from using a Doll.)
Roger suggests that they run away and buy a bar near a beach. Adelle gets into the fantasy for a while, saying they won't have clocks or computers or sexy businesswoman shoes. (Victor: "I'm keeping my sexy businesswoman shoes.") But finally the impossiblity of it crashes down on her and she tells him they can't have that. She kisses him desperately and tells him to trust her, and we fade to black.
Afterwards (again), Victor is alone in bed. Adelle walks in, fully dressed and looking shell-shocked. She sits on the edge of the bed and cries as Victor holds her.
During the act break, I ponder the possibility of a spin-off where Adelle and Roger!Victor own a bar on the beach, and maybe a houseboat. They fence and drink rum-based cocktails. Adelle has a jury-rigged version of the Chair in the basement for emergencies. They fight crime.
Last title card: "Imprint: Echo". When she wakes up, she goes right to business, asking Topher for personnel records, security logs, access to the mainframe, and some clothes. "I can't catch a spy in my pajamas."
Once she's dressed, she barges in to the Fortress and hands Dominic a list of people she wants to interview. Dominic says he's got it handled already, but Topher pushes the idea and Dominic asks how she's programmed. Topher says she reads body language, knows advanced interrogation, and has a little Sherlock Holmes thrown in. Dominic gives in a looks at the list. Echo wants to start with Topher, which freaks Topher out. He reminds them that he discovered the leak, and Echo says that means he's either dangerously incompetent or trying to throw them off his trail. Dominic is tickled: "I'm sorry I ever doubted your programming abilities."
In Echo's interrogation of Topher, she asks why he's at the Dollhouse. He's says, basically, that he's there to do cool stuff. "I don't want to brag," he says, and Echo raises an eyebrow. "Okay, I want to brag. I'm kind of a genius." Then he asks, kind of defensively, "You don't really think I'm incompetent, do you?"
Echo answers with a question: "So it matters what people think of you?" But when the camera swings back across the table, it's Ivy answering the question. (Thus giving me two Whedonverse flashbacks in under a minute. Spike totally did the "I don't like to brag/ I love to brag" thing in his very first episode, and this intercut interrogation structure is right out of the Firefly episode "Safe". It was funnier in Firefly. I think my favorite part was Jayne just sitting there looking surly. Or possibly Zoe being as tight-lippped as possible intercut with Wash gushing enthusiastically. "That curve at the top of her thigh, definitely. Or above that, that's nice too. Have you ever been with a warrior woman? What was the question again?")
Ivy complains about being treated as a snack fetcher and, in the process, admits she has the expertise to work the equiment without Topher knowing. She realizes what she said, but Echo leans in and says, "I'm not trying to incriminate you. I'm just trying to nail down your feelings about the Dollhouse."
This time it's Boyd answering: "We're pimps and killers. But in a philanthropic way." Echo realizes she trusts him, but can't figure out why.
Then she's interrogating Dr. Saunders, where she points out that Claire hasn't left the Dollhouse in weeks. This worries Echo, who says, "Such intense focus on your work can leave other areas of your life neglected and open to exploitation. Do you have any friends outside the Dollhouse?" We never hear her answer, though, because Dominic's phone rings. He says Sierra's been extracted and she has the mole's identity.
When he comes back, Dominic is dragging Ivy into the Fortress. She's protesting her innocence, but Dominic has the file. He threatens her with the Attic, and has Topher fill in the details, which means we finally find out what it is, too. Topher: "It's a mental sock. You know that feeling when you have a name on the tip of your tongue but you can't get it out? It's like that, but with every thought you ever have." Creepy.
At the desk, Echo is looking at the file that implicates Ivy. She asks, "How long?" Dominic thinks she's asking when DeWitt will get back so they can proceed with putting Ivy in the Attic, but Echo corrects him: "How long do you think you can keep this up? You work for the NSA." Dominic scoffs-- he points out the file as evidence, and asks sarcastically if Ivy's body language is saying she's innocent. (In the background, Ivy points out that her language language is saying she's innocent.)
Echo goes on, saying that when the call came in, everyone else tensed up, wanting to know who betrayed them, but Dominic relaxed. Echo thinks that's because he knew what would be in the file, and that it would get him off the hook. She says he contacted the NSA and had them plant the file for Sierra to retrieve. Dominic points out that the Dollhouse was on lockdown the whole time, but Echo says the Fortress itself wasn't, and that a call went out from there. While Dominic is protesting that anyone could have snuck in, Echo admits she didn't have enough evidence, which was why she was stalling-- she needed one more sign. "What was that?" asks Dominic. Echo says, "Twenty seconds ago, you unsnapped your holster."
Dominic draws and fires, and he and Echo fight. As they do, Echo tries to convince him it's useless to fight now that he's blown-- he can't get away from the Dollhouse. Dominic has a plan, though: If he kills Echo, he can say that she went off mission again and can go back to the original plan of blaming Ivy. Of course, he'll have to kill Topher and Ivy, too.
Topher and Ivy, meanwhile, are cowering under a couch. Ivy thinks they should help. Topher says he contributed when he gave Echo kung fu skills, but Ivy can jump in any time. Meanwhile, Echo and Dominic keep fighting using the shards of the window that got broken when Dominic shot it. (In a touch of practical badassery that I frankly wish se'd seen more of from him, Dominic rips off the sleeve of his suit and wraps his hand with it before he picks up his shard of glass.) Finally, Echo reverses a thrust from Dominic and dangles him out the window, saying, "I'm not broken."
(Which makes me wonder a little about the nature of her imprint. She didn't freak out when Dominic told her she was a Doll. She just objects strongly to being called a broken Doll. Did she know the whole time? Was she just Echo with some skills added in?)
Later, Adelle is back. She's interrogating Dominic while Echo stands in the background. She says she trusted him with a gift, but he doesn't think it's right to call the Dollhouse a gift. Adelle asks about the people they've helped, and Dominic tosses back with the people they've hurt. Adelle challenges him to name one, and he looks back at Echo. Adelle, astutely, points out that that's an odd position for a man who has repeatedly tried to kill her himself.
The philosophical debate over, she moves on to tactics. She wants to know why the NSA wants them, and Dominic says he was assigned to make sure that Rossum didn't self-destruct. They're worried about what happens when Rossum loses control, which he says means he never lied about his methods or his goals. He says if it wasn't for him, Ballard would have found them by now. Adelle doesn't think the NSA are the right people to step in, but Dominic calls he naive-- for believing in the Dollhouse, and in him.
Adelle's calm snaps back into place, and she talks over Dominic's head to Echo: "Get what you can from him about the NSA, then have Topher prep him for the Attic." Dominic snorts that she's signing his death warrant like it was a business transaction, and Adelle demurely agrees. He says the Agency will come looking for him, and Adelle says when they do, he'll be there to tell them he's just fine. The situation seems to sink in for Dominic, and Adelle goes on: "What, did you think I'd show you mercy, or rage? Three years by my side; I thought you'd know me better than that." Dominic: "You're a piece of work." Adelle, distantly: "That's what they tell me."
In the van with Echo, Dominic is slouched in a corner, smiling grimly. Echo says he doesn't have much to smile about. Dominic cocks his head and says, "After they beat me to a pulp, they're going to erase me." He pauses, then finishes, "But first they're going to erase you." Echo says she can take care of herself, and Dominic says he knows. "That's why I'm smiling. One day, you'll be erasing them. And after all this, they still won't see it coming. Sooner or later, everyone gets theirs." You know, if we'd seen more grimly nihilistic Dominic, I might have liked him better.
After the break, we see the struggle and the flashing lights that Echo and Sierra saw in the teaser, but now we see it's Dominc being forced into the chair, with a foam pad stuffed in his mouth. In the struggle, Dominic grabs one of the handlers' guns. (My notes here read: "LD grabs gun and goes for HIS OWN HEAD OMG.") It goes off in the struggle and hits Adelle in the gut. Boyd tries to check on her but she waves him off. Topher and Ivy set up the wipe, and Adelle gives the order.
Adelle staggers out onto the catwalk. Topher comes out, gingerly holding a drive containing "the unabridged Laurence Dominic". Topher notices Adelle bleeding from the gunshot wound to the abdomen and freaks out, but Adelle is still just wondering how she didn't see it. Topher says no one saw it, but Adelle points out that Topher suspected enough to imprint Echo to help.
Topher admits he can't take credit, and tells Adelle about Echo having the idea. Adell looks fascinated and a little proud. Topher asks if he should try scrubbing Echo again, but Adelle says no-- she just saved the Dollhouse. She tells him to watch her, because she might be useful. Then, changing the subject, she says that Miss Lonelyhearts told her to shelve the Roger imprint. Topher jokingly asks if a hunky octogenarian swept Miss Lonelyhearts off her feet, but Adelle bitterly says that it was nothing so dramatic. "She finally realized the indiscretion was unwise."
Dr. Saunders sews up Adelle's gunshot wound in her office. Adelle refused anasthesia. (I don't mean to take away from the aura of totall badassery that Adelle's giving off, here, but-- maybe the Dollhouse handlers should look into stepping up their sidearms to a calibre with a little more stopping power.) Claire tries to talk to Adelle about it, starting with, "I know you were close..." but Adelle just puts her shirt back on and says, "I worked closely with him. There is a difference." Claire says, "It's okay to feel something." DeWitt replies, "That would imply I'd lost something." Claire: "Didn't you?" Adelle looks out at Victor on the Dollhouse floor and says, "Nothing I can't live without."
When she leaves Dr. Saunders's office, Boyd reports to her that he's doing ongoing background checks, but right now it looks like it was just Dominic. Adelle promotes him to head of security. Boyd protests that he wants to stay with Echo and take care of her, and Adelle watches Echo thoughtfully for a second while she says, "I think she's taking care of us."
In the chair, Echo is being imprinted to a new handler-- an mustachioed Asian man named Travis. During the script, though, Echo's eyes still fix on Boyd, who stands with Adelle, watching.
Whew. That was eventful. And some incredible chracter work on Adelle. It does leave me with some questions, though. Topher said the chip would allow someone to alter imprints. The altered imprints we've seen were Echo and November's messages to Ballard, so I guess we're supposed to assume that was from Dominic. Dominic said he was genuinely working to keep Ballard away from the Dollhouse.
Now, he could have been lying to try to get some mercy from Adelle, but that doesn't seem right. There are two alternatives I can think of. One, Dominic wasn't the one altering the imprints and that whole plotline isn't really settled. Or two, Dominic was risking his neck by playing a very deep game with Ballard, and the messages weren't intended to help him find the Dollhouse at all, but to get him to go along with his suspension quietly, and then to deepen his paranoia. That seems like small gains for high stakes. I guess we'll see if that gets cleared up at all.
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