Plot
At the beginning Echo visits Agent Ballard. She explains that she has a message for him from the Dollhouse: he has something the Dollhouse has, and vice versa. Echo starts kissing Ballard. At first he pushes her away, but then he gives in. Just as he is lying on the couch with Echo, Mellie appears. A conversation between the three of them follows, in the course of which Mellie tells him that Caroline is dead.
The next moment Echo lies rigid and pale beneath him, as if dead. Ballard tells her to come back, but she does not move. Mellie then accuses Ballard of leaving her in the lurch and letting her get hurt… and the agent wakes up. It was all a dream.
In the Dollhouse the Actives’ sleeping pods open, watched by Adelle. In her office the staff are meeting while the boss sums up the current situation. Among other things, a doll is said to have broken off an engagement and the security system is said to have holes. During the discussion the name “Alpha” comes up again, along with the fear that the other Actives could turn into a similar case if they are not fully controlled.
Everyone is told to watch their charges more closely and to report or follow up every little thing – because it is not only the dolls who must be protected, but the Dollhouse too.
Shortly afterwards Echo, Sierra, Victor, November (Mellie) and another Active named Mike wake up with their natural personalities. Echo tries to free herself from her sleeping pod, as do the others. They are confused and do not know where they are. They try to work out why they are locked in this room; their theories range from lab rats to aliens.
Through the large glass doors they see the normal dolls going about their daily routine and decide to follow them. On Victor’s advice they pretend that nothing has happened and behave exactly like the other Actives.
Meanwhile Agent Ballard searches his apartment for bugs and cameras. He finds a camera in the air vent.
In the Dollhouse the five who have woken up sit at breakfast with the other Actives. They try to be as inconspicuous as possible and imitate the dolls. Because of an injury to her hand that she got while freeing herself from the pod, Echo is taken to Dr. Saunders. The young woman is shocked by the scars on the doctor’s face and asks more questions, especially when she notices that Dr.
Saunders takes her seriously and knows that she is not like the other dolls. In the breakfast room Mike gives himself away and is led off by two men.
After the meal the group goes to the showers with the others and meets Mike again – but he has completely changed. He explains that he had a treatment, and it becomes clear that he has been returned to his doll state. The remaining four try to talk to him, but he does not respond, so they let him go.
In her office Adelle is informed that the four Actives have woken up. It is clear that she knows about the group’s state and does not want to take any further steps. The whole thing seems to be planned.
In the meantime Victor overpowers a guard and steals his staff key card. Together with Sierra he leaves the protected area for a very bare corridor. When they are stuck there, Victor asks the young woman whether she remembers anything. Sierra says she cannot remember. Victor, however, has the feeling that something bad happened to her and that he feels sympathy for her.
Echo and November join them, and together they escape through the stairwell. Suddenly Sierra stays behind – she has memories of her life. She talks about men with guns who brought her to the Dollhouse. Victor promises her to find those men.
The four come across a room full of clothes. They notice that each of them has a clothes rail of their own there. While they look through the clothes, November discovers a pram. She remembers that she has a little daughter named Katie. Then a guard surprises them and they hide among the clothes. In such a tight space it becomes obvious that there is a certain tension between Sierra and Victor…
Freshly changed, the group reaches the Dollhouse garage. While they hide from an arriving car, they try to grasp their memories. Sierra says that a man named Nolan brought her to the Dollhouse. Meanwhile Victor breaks open the box with the car keys so the four can take a car. Adelle watches them from her office.
Dominic orders the car the group takes to be followed… but Echo jumps out and says she cannot go. She has understood the Dollhouse’s system and wants to go back to save the other dolls. The other three drive off.
Echo tries to get hold of a weapon and is surprised by an employee. A fight follows, which the employee finally loses; she lies bleeding on the floor. Echo takes her keys and a pistol.
Agent Ballard visits a young man named Jimmy because he wants the camera he found checked. At first Jimmy plays dumb, but Ballard makes it unmistakably clear that he needs his help. The young man takes a closer look at the camera and explains that it should not even exist yet, so advanced is it.
Meanwhile Sierra, Victor and November drive around looking for clues about their lives. November thinks she knows where Katie is. When the other two say it will have to wait, the doll decides to go on alone.
Echo has broken into Dr. Saunders’ office and searches the files kept there. While Adelle watches her, the power goes out. The boss is sure that Echo – or rather Caroline – has something to do with it. By now Echo has reached Topher and threatens the scientist with a gun. She demands an explanation of how the dolls are imprinted.
At first she does not believe him, but then she asks him what year it is and realises that she has been there longer than she thought. She wants to see the chair.
Sierra and Victor visit Mr. Nolan. They confront him with the fact that he brought Sierra to the Dollhouse and ask why. When his only reason is that she said “no” to him – and nobody does that – Victor knocks him down. Nolan realises that Victor is not Sierra’s handler. Victor explains that they have broken free of the Dollhouse and now think for themselves again.
After a stupid remark Nolan gets a second punch in the face. When he threatens them with security, Sierra and Victor flee.
In the Dollhouse Topher explains the imprinting system to Echo in more detail. He also tells her that she was not kidnapped but became a member of the house voluntarily. She can no longer remember this, which Topher attributes to the imprinting. Echo asks him what he made of her the last time she sat in the chair.
He answers: “You, the way you were when you came here. Just without the memories – which you’ll get back when your contract runs out.” He also mentions that she will be paid a lot of money for it. Echo learns that her current state is a test and asks whether the things she feels are real or programmed too.
Topher tells her they are real because they come from her. He promises to make her normal again. But Echo demands that he sit in the chair first – which he does.
He tries to explain that she cannot imprint him because he has not been wiped. Echo starts the chair, pushes Topher into it and demands that he let the other dolls go. She does not believe him when he says he cannot – and then Adelle is standing in the doorway. She explains to Echo that she is the boss and that Echo signed up back then because she wanted to forget what she had done. She refuses to let the other Actives go; Echo, however, would be free.
Sierra and Victor are still fleeing from the guards and end up in a small room where they hide. Victor says he can remember Sierra – feelings he connects with her. Someone hurt her, and he could not prevent it. Sierra remembers it too and wonders how she could have trusted that man. She says she remembers Victor protecting her and taking her to bed in the evenings. The two kiss.
Meanwhile November is looking for her daughter. She passes a school but walks on and finally stops at a cemetery. She falls to her knees in front of a grave and begins to cry. It is Katie’s grave.
Echo plans to get all the Actives out of the Dollhouse. In the next scene the dolls walk together through a tunnel into the dazzling daylight. Echo follows them, holding her gun to Adelle’s back. But as soon as she is outside, the young woman collapses unconscious – as do November, Sierra and Victor wherever they are. Staff bring them back.
Flashback: at the meeting at the beginning of the episode, Dr. Saunders suggested giving the Actives what they need. Certain experiences release wishes, longings and ideas, including from their original personalities. They decided to give the dolls concerned their own personalities and see what happens. By living out their own wishes, these open holes in them close, and they can be wiped normally again.
In the final scene Agent Ballard listens to his voicemail. It is the voice of Echo – or Caroline – explaining that she found his name in a file and is firmly convinced that they know each other. She says she is somewhere underground and asks him to find her.