We open in a really remote mountain cabin where Echo is acting as a midwife to a couple who I assume have reason not to bring in a real one. I'm trying not to imagine the many colorful scenarios that could lay behind this because it's a short teaser-like scene. After a lame lesbian joke we get to what's significant. Echo says, "All this scary painful stuff you won't even remember." "I want to forget. I want to forget." Amen, sister. But seriously, part of the point of all this is that we all do sometimes want to forget. How high a price are we willing to pay to forget who we are?
The baby pops out and then we go into the memory wipe, flashing through images of the baby and the mother wanting to forget, accompanied by that lovely, gross noise. Echo completes her treatment routines.
In the cafeteria, Echo's eating what looks like a stuffed yellow bell pepper. Yum. Sierra joins her at the table at Echo's invitation and they exchange bland small talk. Sierra says at one point, "I try to be my best." That's what the Echo in Jenny's drug hallucination said that led her to the arrow she crammed in his neck. I think it must be part of the Dollhouse philosophy, along with exercise and eating right and massage and tai chi, because it's doubtful Sierra heard it from Echo. That's interesting.
"Are you your best," Echo asks. "I'm not sure how to know that." "I think if you always try, that's best. Right?" she asks as the camera pans to Victor, also at their table. "Every day is a chance to be better," he replies. Yeah, all that sounds like meditation affirmations or something. But they are talking together socially, even if they're parroting what they've been told. That's interesting too. At least they're not talking about the weather, so they go beyond my small talk capabilities.
CreepyChris agrees that it's interesting. He's been noticing the three of them eat together at the same table every day. He tells Boyd that they're not remembering each other, they're just grouping, flocking, herding and other animal things. This goes "deeper than memory, into instinctual survival patterns." "They're not bison, Topher." "They're a little bit bison." Heh.
Madam is hitting up a client for more money for special circumstances. She's telling him that of course it's all confidential, and only the computers know the details of your arrangement. Total BS. I want to see one of the clients at the "confessional," inputting the details of his wishes, with the entire Dollhouse staff listening to it as they prep.
Before he can comment, Madam's phone rings. It's obviously one of her bosses, a senior partner, if you will. And we don't hear his end but he's calling about Ballard, seeing if the Victor operation is going smoothly. She's not as cool with her boss as with a client, but tries to reassure him that Ballard needs closure, which is something the DH is good at. He hangs up on her before she's done. Classic.
The client is up for the extra money, saying this is not for him but a gift. And the audience heads blindly into the mission with the Active, not knowing what the mission is. Which is cute considering that that's the way it's supposed to be for everyone but the Active. And good because we spend the next several minutes assessing and reassessing the job as it turns from one thing into another and another. It's kind of awesome.
Echo is Taffy, dressed like a slut--I mean, escort-type girl. She's primping in the mirror, it seems, adjusting the bra just right and sticking lipstick in her high-heeled, leather boots. "Blue skies," she says when she's satisfied. Then she struts out to make out enthusiastically with one dude while another two watch or try not to alternately. They talk about how his uncle hired her to entertain at his bachelor party. Just to keep them straight in my head, I'll give them spoilery nicknames. The "bachelor" is Bomber. So he must be the guy getting the Active as a gift, right? The other two are Prof and Tech Guy.
All this is happening in a fancy hotel where they like people to be slightly tasteful in public, so a security guy asks them to stop being tacky and go up to their suite with some free champagne. They giggle and head up. Cut to Taffy with a cut lip and disordered clothing, running down the hall and calling for help. So did the client call for some rape fantasy or did something go wrong again? Bomber and Tech Guy weave out after her, in no big hurry, shirts hanging open (thank you). Taffy finds that same security guard and he says he'll help her.
The guard takes her through the kitchen and into his secure office and closes the door behind him. So scenario number 3 passes through my mind. Maybe he's the client and has a rescue fantasy and rest was just set-up. Or he's a pervy jerk who's going to try and work this to his advantage. (I would have scowly babies too if I ever had them.) It turns out that it's hotel policy to hush up these unpleasant incidents -- brrrr -- by paying off the victim and getting her to sign a release. Taffy just wants out of there, but he's offering $10,000. She wavers, declines, then knocks the guy out cold. Whoa!
She's sticks in an earpiece and says she's in. Her "assailants" are on the way to her now. It was all a set-up; none of it about prostitution at all. Well done, show.
Credits.
We're back and in the middle of a kickass heist movie. Taffy's the team leader calling the shots. Tech Guy's a worrier. He worries that she didn't kill the guard, but Taffy half throttles him and says she learned the hard way not to second guess a client because she likes to get paid. She exposits to us all about the Gray Hour, when the security is down next door so they'll be able to break in unnoticed. Prof asks a stupid question and she replies, "That's 6 seconds we can't get back." It's all snappy and fun. Bomber blows their way through the wall to a vault door in the next building.
Taffy is the safe cracker, and she starts making love to the vault door while the others wonder why if she's all that they've never heard of her. She's all, you've heard of Bonnie and Clyde and they're dead. "When this is over, feel free to forget I exist." She goes down on the vault door and it opens up for her. Wouldn't you?
They're in a storage facility for controversial, counterfeit, or stolen works of art. Prof is there for the I.D. Bomber asks, "What are we taking out of here, huh?" "The Parthenon." "Isn't that kinda big?" Ha.
Now we're at Ballard's house. He comes in favoring his bullet wound, carrying the Alpha envelope (he must take that everywhere with him) and some prescription drugs. He finally notices he's not alone and pulls his gun on Victor, who's freaking out that he's a marked man for talking to the FBI. He wants protection; Ballard wants to know why he set him up to die. Victor says it was a tip from a man with a Georgian accent. "Russia, Georgia, not Sweethome." Ballard puts down his gun all, it's Alabama dumbass. Victor begs for witness protection, and Ballard tells him to stay here and he'll see what he can do.
Back in the vault, they're actually looking for a missing Elgin marble, not the whole Parthenon. Tech Guy's acting like an ass, all worrying about the guards and getting in Taffy's grill. Bomber's trying to get into Taffy's pants, and the Prof decides to steal the marble for himself. As he's running for it, he stabs Tech Guy with a sword and closes the vault door behind him. Oops.
Taffy calls Boyd to set him on Prof. Boyd says he'll finish the job. Then the call is interrupted by a burst of static, and Taffy drops the phone and her face goes blank. "Did I fall asleep?" Uh-oh.
CreepyChris is talking to one of his assistants/trainees/grad students? (Ivy) about some dumb errand he wants her to run when they see Echo's vitals implode. He freaks and tries to call her but she's not answering.
Echo is sitting in the vault mumbling "should I go now" over and over and underwhelming her fellow thieves. Bomb guys turns from charming to asshole in 5 seconds flat, slapping her in his frustration. Meanwhile, outside the building, Boyd takes back the art and shoots Prof in the leg to keep him from taking off.
CreepyChris explains the problem to Madam and Mr.D. She chides him for trying to call an Active in the field without her permission -- focus Madam. They replay the phone call and figure out what happened. Echo's been remote wiped, and CreepyChris can't fix it or do that himself. He's big into the "it's not my fault" of it. He compares the wipe to birth, saying it's traumatic when it's not happening in the comfort of the Dollhouse. "Right now Echo is experiencing extreme sensory overload, and that could lead to a coma state, or it could turn her into Carrie at the prom. Either way we have to help her. She can't help herself." Aww. Okay, from here on out I'll call him Topher, and he's no longer my favorite character to hate. I think I'll switch to Mr.D.
In the vault, Bomber is trying to get through to Taffy, not realizing she's no longer in there. He gets her to say that she's Taffy and can get them out. "I try to be my best." Tech Guy says, "Taffy's gone, man. She's not coming back."
Cut to Sierra in the chair already dressed in leather. Taffy 2.0 is up and running.
Echo is looking around at the art while Tech Guy bleeds and Bomber runs around trying to figure out what to do. Looking at a Picasso or Picasso-like painting, she says, "This one's broken." Tech guy laughs, "Yeah? Look who's talking." Echo feels her face. "On the inside," he clarifies. Echo says, "She makes me feel funny." Tech Guy has stopped worrying and gotten philosophical instead. He talks to her about art. "That's what art's for, to show us who we are. This one is saying how we start off whole, and somewhere along the line the pieces start to slide. We get broken." Bomber is not into that idea. "You can either get broken, or you can be the one doing the breaking."
Taffy 2.0 is upset her Parthenon job went to someone else, but she learned early on not to second guess a client, so fine. But she finishes with a disgruntled, "But I learned how to lap dance." Ha! Madam and Mr.D are good at playing to the Active personas as real people. They start to strategize.
Meanwhile, Topher is still freaking out about the remote wipe. Ivy is wearing flower-patterned, lacy nylons, high heels, and a party dress under her lab coat. What's with that? She listens as Topher rants about the artistry of the wipe. "This isn't a lone gunman. This is a conspiracy." Talking about the level of detail and breaking through their firewalls, etc. It made me wonder if Ivy was going to be the inside man or something, but then I'm naturally suspicious.
Boyd is watching over Prof and waiting for Taffy when Topher calls to see if Echo was acting okay earlier. Boyd wasn't told what was happening. He calls Madam to bitch about it, and she says there's nothing he can do but prepare for an unhappy outcome. Yeah, I'm sure he'll get right on that. Or...he'll go interrogate Prof for ways into the vault. Which is at least as good as Taffy 2.0's plan of calling Echo when Echo ain't taking no calls. But there's no time for anything else.
Echo sits with Tech Guy looking at a landscape painting of mountains. "I like sky." "Yeah, the blue kind. You mentioned." Ha again. Echo doesn't remember her name. "When I'm there, my name is something else." Tech Guy now goes beyond philosophical to nihilistic. He has a suicide kit because he doesn't want to go to prison. Prison is "a place with no sky." "When bad guys get caught, we don't get to see sky." The Dollhouse is full of light, but is there sky? I don't think they can see outside. Echo asks, "Am I a bad guy?" "You're a talking cucumber." Echo doesn't like that. Bomber doesn't like Tech Guy's way out. He takes his needle away and rescinds the no kill order, arming for a fight.
Topher talks about a programmer in Tokyo, Takahashi, who wants his job. But he's a hack. "Only one person I know who could achieve a remote wipe. And he's dead." Okay, why on earth would they give Alpha the knowledge of the imprinting process? Seriously.
Taffy 2.0 is trying to call Echo because she wants to talk her through some complicated way of opening the vault door without setting off the alarms, but Echo is not answering and the Gray Hour is over. Echo says, "I don't like this room anymore. Where are the better rooms?" Echo outside the Dollhouse is hilarious. That line reading was perfect.
She finally finds her phone and answers it. They've still got some time as all the security stuff goes online one at a time, so Taffy 2.0 talks her through her plan. It turns out that the cleavage adjusting and lipstick in the boot thing were less lascivious than it seemed earlier. She was stashing tools of the trade on her person for emergencies. I don't understand the whole trick with the door, but the upshot is that Echo followed directions very well, but no longer had the hands of a safecracker so it didn't work. Alarms go off, lights go off, and it all turns a pretty blue in the vault. Bomber kills the phone in frustration.
Back in the Dollhouse, Taffy 2.0 goes for her treatment. C'est la vie. Mr.D's going to put Boyd on standby in case he needs to take Echo out before she's captured, but Madam tells him to send somebody else, thinking that Boyd won't be able to do it. Topher asks about Echo as Sierra comes in with Mr.D, not even changing clothes before getting back on the chair. That confused me at first, but I guess it's to ward off any cognitive dissonance she would get if she "woke up" in different clothing than she was wearing when she went in.
Tech Guy is giving Echo pointers on how to avoid being shot by the guards, but Bomber sticks a gun in her hand and tells her to shoot the bad guys, be broken or do the breaking, etc. She's all, so we're not the bad guys? Poor Echo, it's all very confusing. When the door opens, Bomber decides to have her start shooting first, so the guards can aim at her while he shoots them I suppose, so he threatens to shoot her if she doesn't start firing.
Echo sees the suicide needle on the floor nearby, grabs it, and shoves it in his neck, just like Jenny did with the arrow to the Middleman, when she was trying to be her best. He falls out in the open and starts shooting, and the guards outside the door shoot back. Echo goes right back to Tech Guy to try to help him. He throws a smoke grenade type thing and tells her to run for it. Aww.
Boyd's on the way to the hotel security office. Echo comes out of the vault supporting Tech Guy. "He's broken. Can we fix him?" Aww. "I'm not broken," she says to Boyd. He agrees, "No, you're not."
Back with Ballard. His place is in West Hollywood, where "two guys in an idling car isn't news" he informs a worried Victor. Turns out though, that Ballard didn't find a new identity for him, he actually dropped a dime on him all over town. (I just realized I've been calling him Victor forever, and his persona has always been Anton Lubov. Oh, well. Retroactive spoiler alert.) Ballard's upping the stakes. He tells Anton that he can get a lot of information from a dead body, like whether it was killed by Russians or not. He either suspects he's being played by Victor or by Victor's bosses, or he's just in a pissy mood, I don't know for sure.
Victor is feeling betrayed. "Put on your mean face, act tough, but you'll care, Agent Ballard. That's your problem." And he's out.
Echo goes back in the chair, unremembering everything that happened after the remote wipe. It seems painful. Madam is telling Mr.D that "Michaelangelo believed his sculptures already existed inside the marble, waiting to be formed." Then she tells him to hand over the art and Prof to the client right away. Topher reports that Echo is fresh as a daisy or whatever, no memory of what happened in the vault. He says it had to be Alpha right? She has him sign a paper to up his security clearance and agrees. He's using the "gifts we gave him." Again, I'm intrigued. Did he move beyond regular Active to some sort of Dollhouse employee?
In the Dollhouse, Echo walks, swims, and sits on the bottom of the pool in solitude for a while as Sia sings "I Go to Sleep." She showers, exchanges smiles with Sierra, and looks at herself through a misty mirror. She traces over it a few lines that seem to shape the cubist face she saw before that was broken, then quickly wipes it out.
More, more, more.
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