Plot
State of emergency in the Dollhouse: Topher has found a chip suggesting that there is a spy in the house. His first suspicion, that it is Boyd, is quickly dispelled, and Topher has no choice but to inform DeWitt. She, however, is away for 48 hours, so the scientist has to talk to her deputy, Dominic.
Echo watches the scene with interest – as she does the fact that Sierra is taken for treatment by Dominic shortly afterwards and that Dominic and Topher argue loudly. The doll seems to be taking in her surroundings very attentively. After Dominic has left the lab with Sierra, Echo goes in and tells Topher that there is an unhappy mood in the Dollhouse today and that Dominic is angry with the young scientist.
Topher launches into a monologue about the current situation, and Echo offers to help him. He declines. Echo says that he changes people, sits down in the chair and says he can make her helpful.
November is imprinted as Mellie again and brought back to her apartment. Just as she is about to unlock the door, Agent Ballard comes out of his apartment with his gun pointed at her. He takes the young woman into his place and explains that the Dollhouse has been watching and spying on him. In the living room he has covered a whole wall with evidence and ideas for his theory, which intimidates Mellie a little.
Ballard explains that he keeps finding more clues and connections, and that he assumes the Dollhouse is underground. He is pleased with his findings, but when he notices that Mellie is unsettled by them, he calms down a little. He suggests she go back to her mother’s. She refuses for several reasons.
Ballard explains that the Dollhouse now dominates his whole life; he cannot think clearly, sleep or eat. Mellie offers to help him get his feet back on the ground. They kiss passionately, but suddenly Mellie stops and stands there silent for a moment. Ballard is a little unsettled – then his girlfriend moves again: she has a message from the Dollhouse. Her name is November.
Ballard realises that Mellie is a doll too and is shocked. November explains that she helps to spy on him and to plant clues; Mellie only exists because of Ballard. She warns him not to tell Mellie, or he would be killed. Mellie is no ordinary doll but a sleeper: inside her sleeps a personality that can be awakened by a simple code and then kills.
Ballard tries to get more information out of November, but she only repeats what Echo told him a little earlier: the Dollhouse deals in fantasies; that is its business, but not its purpose. He is to find out its real purpose. Then the personality switches back to Mellie.
A short flashback to Sierra’s imprinting: Dominic had her made into a secret agent to track down the spy in the Dollhouse. This leads to the argument Echo saw earlier.
Dominic briefs Sierra on the current situation: Topher has found an NSA bug in his technical equipment. Sierra confirms that she has to get into the NSA building to solve the case.
A little later she takes a train and sits down next to a young woman who looks just like her. She drugs the woman and steals her ID card – she is an NSA employee. Sierra gets into the building without any problem. With the stolen card and a scan of the employee’s eye she works her way into a vault and steals a film sheet from it; what is on it cannot be seen.
On the way back a guard stops her; she beats him up and escapes into the lift. She goes into the office of the employee she overpowered and discovers that the sheet becomes readable when connected to the computer. But before she can read all the information, a guard asks her to leave the building because an alarm has gone off and all employees are being called together.
She flees with the sheet through the stairwell, pursued by security staff who shoot at her without warning.
Victor was also imprinted that day. His name is now Roger. It becomes clear that he is being taken to a woman to keep her company over the weekend. He knocks at the front door of an older lady and goes in – but leaves again through the back door and gets into a car of his own. A little later he arrives at his real client: it is Adelle, whom he calls Katherine.
At that moment Adelle’s phone rings; it is Topher. She explains that her employee thinks she is at headquarters. Roger drops the phone off the balcony. Roger knows what Adelle does.
In the next scene the two are fencing, and she accidentally wounds Roger. He fences back aggressively but kisses her passionately after the scuffle. They end up in bed, where Roger says that if he were ordering a doll, he would choose her. A conversation about relationships follows, and about what it would be like if reality did not exist.
It is clear that the subject touches Adelle deeply and that she knows Roger is not real. She tells him he is exactly what she needs, but that it simply cannot be.
The next morning Adelle comes into the bedroom completely distraught. Roger asks what has happened, whether it is something to do with the Dollhouse, but she just collapses in tears in his arms.
Meanwhile Echo has been imprinted in the Dollhouse. She seems to have been given the same imprint as Sierra, because she asks for staff records and talks about catching a spy. She goes to Dominic, who is very surprised. Topher explains that Echo is a spy catcher. He tells how Echo offered her help and he accepted.
Dominic reluctantly agrees to cooperate. Echo then questions all the Dollhouse staff, and each of them reveals a little about themselves and their thoughts about the company.
Meanwhile Sierra calls Dominic and accuses Topher’s assistant Ivy of being the spy. Dominic makes clear that she will be tortured and then turned into a doll. Echo interrupts him and asks how long he intends to keep playing this game. Dominic is a little surprised, especially when Echo names him as the spy.
She explains it simply by his body language and his non-verbal reaction to Sierra’s call. In addition, a phone call was made from inside the Dollhouse: Dominic told the NSA about Sierra’s arrival so that false evidence could be planted. As Echo keeps building her case, Dominic attacks her with a gun. A fight follows, during which Dominic admits that he is the spy.
Echo has a flashback to the situation at the cult’s farm, where Dominic tried to kill her once before.
Adelle is back in the Dollhouse and is briefed on the current situation. She questions Dominic about his motives. He explains that the NSA placed him there to protect the Dollhouse – so that it would not be discovered or become too powerful. Adelle orders Dominic to be wiped and sent to the Attic. He is to be “kept” in case the NSA asks about him.
In the last scene Dominic, screaming, is strapped into the Dollhouse chair. In the scuffle a shot goes off and Adelle is hit. But she plays it down and gives the signal to wipe him.