Plot
At the beginning of the episode Echo is working as a volunteer at a children’s home. She reads the children the story of “Sleeping Beauty”, whereupon one girl flies into a rage and says the whole story is rubbish. Staff have to take her away. Echo apologises to the director for causing the outburst – but she did not read the story without reason: she wanted to draw Susan out.
At the same time Agent Ballard is packing some of his things into boxes in his apartment; it looks as if he is moving out. Mellie, who happens to drop by, sees it the same way. She asks him what is going on and where he wants to go, but he only answers that the two of them are not good for each other – which she of course will not accept.
She tries to change his mind, but he does not respond. Then Mellie says that she has never said anything to him that she did not mean one hundred percent. He replies that this is exactly what makes him move out.
In the Dollhouse a USB stick has been delivered for Mr. Dominic, who no longer works there. Boyd and Adelle wonder whether it is a delivery from the NSA. Unfortunately the experts have not yet been able to access its contents. Boyd suspects it is protected so that only Dominic can open it – whereupon Adelle suggests simply asking Mr. Dominic.
At the orphanage Echo talks with the director about the girl who lost her temper earlier, Susan. The employee explains that Susan has been placed with several foster families but ran away every time. She has often stolen knives and threatened other children with them. Susan’s mother died of an overdose, and her mother’s boyfriend wanted to make money with the girl.
Echo suspects that the girl lies to everyone – her therapists and the people around her. The director is surprised by this, since Echo has only known the girl for a few minutes. As she walks away, Echo whispers: “I’ve known her a lot longer…”
A conversation Topher has with his colleague in the Dollhouse makes clear why: Echo’s imprint is that of the girl, only grown up. Echo is, so to speak, the version of Susan that would exist if she grew up normally. The young scientist is very proud of this achievement, which was entirely his idea.
Meanwhile Mellie is out on foot, crying, and for a moment it looks as if she is about to throw herself off a motorway bridge. But her handler picks her up and brings her back to the Dollhouse. What nobody notices is the silver car following the van. When the van drives into the Dollhouse’s underground garage, we see that Ballard is in the other car. He has found the Dollhouse.
At the orphanage Echo gets closer to Susan. The girl is destroying the book of fairy tales Echo read from. They talk about running away. Echo tells her life story, which of course closely resembles Susan’s. The girl seems to begin to trust her.
Ballard has once again visited his friend at the FBI. He tells her about his latest findings: that Mellie is also a doll, as is Lubov, his informant – the imprint Victor had at the beginning. He also shows her the picture of a young man who specialises in creating self-contained living spaces with electricity, water and everything else. Ballard is sure that the Dollhouse is exactly such a space beneath another building.
In the Dollhouse Mr. Dominic has meanwhile been transferred into Victor’s body. When he realises this, he starts screaming and understands that his own body is in the Attic. He asks whether Adelle really believes he will help her under these circumstances. She orders Dr. Saunders to give him an injection.
When she does, Dominic says “Whiskey” and then calms down. He gets a second injection with a drug that, according to Adelle, is meant to make him more cooperative.
At the orphanage Echo is still talking with Susan, who has started crying because the young woman has seen through her. Susan says she had four chances to run away from home but did not take them. Echo tells her that this is completely all right, because her stepfather was much stronger than she was, and that it is fine to let others rescue you.
They come back to the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. Echo tells Susan to read it again and to see herself as the prince who came to the rescue at the last second after all. Then Echo is picked up from the home.
Meanwhile Ballard visits the young man whose picture he showed his colleague. Stephen, as he is called, seems a little nervous, and when Ballard pushes him into his apartment it becomes clear why: he is growing cannabis there. The agent ignores this, however, and asks him directly about his knowledge of building such spaces.
It becomes clear that Stephen is a little odd. He talks about the earth and keeps drifting off the subject. When they get back to it and Ballard tells him he is looking for something, Stephen becomes nervous and says he does not talk about former clients. He becomes frightened, even after Ballard assures him he is not in trouble.
When Stephen keeps refusing to talk, the agent pulls out his gun. The scientist becomes a little more forthcoming and says he could get inside. But he has never left his apartment and therefore does not know where the Dollhouse is. So Ballard tells him he is coming along, since he is the only one who can help him.
In the Dollhouse Boyd and Adelle question Dominic. They show him the USB stick, but he says it is not from the NSA, because they would not communicate this way. Boyd asks who else it could be from, and Dominic and Adelle say in unison: “Alpha.” Adelle orders the stick to be cracked. With Dominic’s help they crack the password.
On the stick is a picture of a statue. Adelle recognises it: it stands in Tucson, where the Dollhouse headquarters are. Boyd searches the internet and finds that a body cut open with a knife was found in Tucson that same morning.
In the evening Ballard and Stephen drive up to the building beneath which the Dollhouse lies. Stephen is still not really keen on the plan of simply breaking in, but Ballard makes clear there is no other way. He blackmails him with his cannabis plantation, and Stephen gives in. The men look for an entrance and find one.
Meanwhile, in the Dollhouse, Sierra has been imprinted as an FBI forensic expert who is to take a closer look at the murder in Tucson. At the same time Echo comes back and is wiped.
Stephen and Ballard break into the Dollhouse, with much complaining and fear on Stephen’s part. They push further and further in and, guided by Stephen, reach the rooms of the Dollhouse just as bedtime begins. They consider how to proceed; since the whole Dollhouse is under surveillance, it will not be easy.
Ballard leads a doll into a side room and orders him to undress. Stephen asks whether he wants to disguise himself as a doll, but Ballard makes clear that this is his plan – only he will not be the doll. Shortly afterwards the two leave the room. Stephen curses quietly to himself as they walk a few steps.
Then Topher crosses their path. He greets Ballard with the words “Hello, person I don’t know.” Ballard says something about security and then knocks the scientist out with a stun gun. They break into the lab, where Stephen immediately sits down at the PC, but then realises that it only holds Topher’s private files. While he watches dolls walking past, Ballard inspects the chair.
The two men push deeper into the Dollhouse and almost run into Dr. Saunders. They manage to hide, though, and keep looking for the right PC to hack into the system. Stephen does not manage it, and Ballard goes off on his own to look for the dolls’ sleeping quarters. He finds one of the rooms and shortly afterwards Mellie, or November, as well as Caroline, or Echo – the one he has actually been looking for.
Echo opens her eyes, and behind Ballard Boyd’s voice rings out. He orders the agent to hand over his gun. When Echo speaks to Ballard, he tries to bring her to her senses, which of course does not work. Boyd and Ballard fight, watched by Echo, who keeps having flashbacks to earlier imprints.
Meanwhile Stephen finally manages to hack into the system and tries to get into the sleeping quarters. He clicks his way through the Dollhouse system.
Dr. Saunders has meanwhile found Victor, who also took a few blows in the fight between Ballard and Boyd. She takes him to her treatment room to dress his wounds. Then, as if from nowhere, Stephen appears with a scalpel in his hand. He slashes Victor’s face. Dr. Saunders can only say one word: “Alpha.” He looks more closely at the scars on Dr.
Saunders’ face, and it becomes clear that he is responsible for them. Alpha asks her whether she always wanted to be a doctor; she says yes, and he says that is a lie.
Meanwhile Ballard is brought to Adelle’s office. She asks whether he really thought he could simply walk into the Dollhouse when everyone knows it does not exist.
Alpha asks Dr. Saunders to tell him about their first meeting, which she does. Alpha was brand new in the Dollhouse and she examined him. He asks whether he was healthy, and again she says yes. He says he finds that very interesting and wishes they had more time. But Dr. Saunders only says that they do not have any time.
In Adelle’s office the three of them – with no idea of what is happening outside – argue about the Dollhouse. Ballard accuses them of slavery and kidnapping, and says that perhaps they should not have given him so much information if they did not want him to find them. He tells Boyd that he knows perfectly well that the Dollhouse’s activities are wrong. Adelle asks Boyd what he thinks should happen to Ballard.
With the scalpel at her throat, Dr. Saunders calls Echo to her room. Echo says she knows him. Then Alpha leads her up the stairs to the first floor.
The conversation between Adelle and Boyd is interrupted by a phone call – it is Sierra. She has examined the body in Tucson and tells Adelle that it matches Alpha’s pattern. The victim was not killed in Tucson but in L.A.; the body was only taken there afterwards. The victim is Stephen Kepler, a specialist in building self-contained living spaces.
Meanwhile Adelle watches on one of her monitors as two dolls move behind a closed door. She realises that Alpha is not in Tucson… he is in the Dollhouse. Shortly afterwards Echo is seen waking up in the chair and kissing Alpha passionately. He only replies: “I told you I’d come and rescue you.”