Previously on Dollhouse...
Three years of my life are gone. Stolen by the Dollhouse.
She's not right.
She's perfect.
It's like they made her just for me.
I call it a disrupter.
The gentle hum lets you know it's working.
Who the hell are you?
You forgot me already?
If I don't stop Rossum, no one will.
You're not a doll.
What the hell was that?
Now we're going back to D.C.
so you can forget any of this ever happened.
Here we are.
What's interesting to me is that you don't call out to God.
It isn't a question of faith, it's just the vernacular.
Anyone in this much pain prays, or at least curses,
but we take God from you, too.
You really are a shell.
Why?
Now's not the time for why.
You're like this void, this feeble, simple world.
Just pain, over and over.
No reason, no end, no in-between.
You can't even pass out. We shut down everything
that stands between you and blinding, searing pain.
Of course I bluff.
It won't always be like this.
When we get to the "why,"
that's when it gets really bad.
Cindy.
Please don't let them do this.
Do what, Daniel?
It's already been done. Don't you get that?
I don't want to forget who I am.
Baby, you don't want to remember who you were.
Even though that part's always been there.
What are you talking about?
You already know.
You were a nobody before we found you.
Just a name.
Everything you care about,
everything you hold most dear, we gave you.
That's not true.
You know it is.
We took a spoiled, pampered, selfish child
and we made a man out of him.
A man the people could trust.
Why?
Well, we needed a senator. And you had the pedigree.
No. You didn't create me. I'm gonna expose you. You know that.
You see that righteous indignation?
Yeah. We gave that to you, too.
We spent three years building up your credibility.
When you finally exonerate Rossum
at the Senate hearings today,
no one will question you.
Why are you telling me this now?
Because it's funny.
And because you're not gonna remember in 20 minutes anyway.
Which is also why I think I can say, I can't stand you.
Having to be your wife,
letting you touch me,
pretending that when it doesn't disgust me,
it doesn't bore me,
that has been really hard.
It feels good to get that out.
This limo is nice, right? Very fancy.
You're probably used to it.
See, I am definitely not used to it.
Your sole purpose here is to hack into the D.C. mainframe
and acquire Senator Perrin's imprint.
This will require stealth, clarity of purpose, and above all, calm.
Ooh.
Mmm, good stuff. Drink? No.
Can I have one? Absolutely not.
Roger.
I don't like going outside of my comfort zone.
Our one and only chance for discovering Rossum's plan
is to pull it from the senator's brain scan.
There is no margin for error.
So I would suggest that you expand your comfort zone immediately.
It's just water. It'll help.
It takes a lot out of you.
We take a lot out of you. Do you know your name?
Echo.
Do you remember your real name?
Caroline.
You know. That's good. That helps.
And you know we took your memories.
Is Caroline in there?
Yes and no.
This is one of my memories of you.
This is the last time I saw you.
This is what you did to me.
Not just to my arm, to me. I want you to feel this.
There is something worse than pain.
Adelle.
Sorry to have kept you waiting for a few minutes.
Twenty-five.
Always so precise. And who's this?
My chief programmer, Topher Brink.
You're a little out of your jurisdiction, aren't you?
You have my Active. I'd like her back.
Jeez, lighten up, will you?
So serious.
It's a serious situation.
I trust we'll find her undamaged.
Well, here's the thing, Adelle. I'm really not in a position to help you.
Your girl got caught up in a major operation
and there are certain protocols that I just have to follow.
I just can't give her back to you.
I have to get approval, and that may take time.
You understand.
Of course I do.
Then why don't the two of you just fly on back to Los Angeles,
and the moment I get the go-ahead,
we'll ship your Active right back to you.
Does that sound like a plan?
Absolutely.
I'll need Mr. Brink to examine Echo.
Just to ensure my asset is intact.
Adelle, where's the trust?
Protocols.
Mmm.
I'll let my programmer know you're coming.
Business must be slow in LA if you're here. Who's minding the store?
We've got our top guy covering for me.
Only person in the world I trust.
What you're not getting, man friend,
is that this whole operation is dependent upon me.
Not a brain constructing me, but Bond, James Bond me,
which is not so me.
Topher, all you have to do is stay calm.
This from the guy who had to dismember my last little outing?
You get into their system, you make the connect so that we...
You can get a look at Perrin's brain map.
I'm not up to this.
I suffer from acute agoraphobia. Or I plan to.
Bennett Halverson is the chief programmer at the D.C. Dollhouse.
She's a genius. I think she's a genius. So, you know, double it.
She's just gonna look at my 1.0 and his palms are gonna sweat,
and she's just... She'll know.
Have to track down Ballard.
You just run the house and wait for yourself to call.
It's starting. The clammy.
I'm busy right... I'm sorry?
Topher Brink?
Of course.
Hi.
Mr. Brink.
I'm looking for Bennett Halverson.
Can you tell me where... Or you can show me where she...
It's different, yeah, than LA. The...
Well, I suppose it would be. You probably have palm trees and tans.
We're four stories underground.
Not a lot of photosynthesis.
No, no. You're very pale. White. Pinkish white.
I mean, your skin. Your skin is like a pig.
Bennett... Because it's pink.
People assume that pigs are bad, but I love them.
I like them.
I hear they make good pets.
I'm Bennett.
You were looking for me.
For realsies? You're Bennett? Not Bennett Junior?
You merged gens with esthams to create next-gen proteins?
You stud!
I'm sorry if I... It was clammy hands.
Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed the report.
What's up with your arm?
It's...
Dead.
From the shoulder?
Nerves are severed.
You're here for your Active.
Yes. Echo.
You won't get her.
What?
She interfered with a Rossum directive.
It's unlikely that Mr. Lipman will let her go.
It's unlikely Mr. Lipman will have a choice. Can I see her?
Of course. She's still unconscious. Courtesy of your device.
Just a little project.
Hardly.
Is it weird that I asked about your arm?
Honestly, it's refreshing.
So, Adelle DeWitt flies 3,000 miles across country to pick up one doll.
Must be a special girl.
They're all special.
Oh, yeah. But this one, she nearly took Perrin from us.
I think our programmer wouldn't mind wading around in that brain.
And clearly you can't control her.
I think maybe you're just gonna have to walk away from this one.
Do you honestly think it's up to you?
Do you think anyone at Rossum will take your side? Harding?
You're not much of a poker player, are you?
You got no cards, Adelle.
And you don't know how to bluff.
One for the road?
Now, Stewart, you and I have similar goals,
and I would like to think we could achieve
a mutually beneficial compromise.
Well, compromise can be fun.
If you don't return my Active,
I will send someone to cut these off.
You will be killed horribly over a long period and never found.
Now look me in my eyes, Stewart,
and tell me if I've learned how to bluff.
Okay.
Compromise.
So, this is not my device. She's been tranqued.
It's probably one of the Handlers.
How do you work it? The disrupter?
How'd you know it was called that?
What else would you call it?
A signal goes out for 50 feet, but everywhere.
That's what messed up your senator and ruined your evil plan.
No.
If you route the signal through here, it becomes directional.
Not like a bomb, more like a Taser.
Huh.
Did you just try to tase me?
No. No. No.
That would result in... You'd be unconscious.
Why would I want that?
And it only works on Actives.
I'm concerned that you may have just tried to tase me.
No. I just...
You're really Bennett Halverson.
This conversation is becoming vague.
Okay. So we have... Had an Active, Whiskey,
and she was rendered unengageable,
so we... I made her into a doctor. And you, with the...
So I thought, maybe... Similar! Bennett, the real Bennett,
would use an Active to...
You thought...
That's idiotic.
Actives are beautiful.
Yeah.
And it's not my evil plan. It's not evil.
Wait. Hey. I'm just here for Echo.
My last ethical quandary was unhelpful.
Let mommy and daddy do the squabbling.
Bennett.
Yes, sir. Right away.
Looks like you got the girl.
Let me go check on... Is it Echo?
And then get everything signed.
Can I use your phone?
I just want to check in with my house.
Yes. Of course.
Wasabi peas.
I'm excited and scared.
Finally!
Everything good there?
Everything's great, me... Man.
Except I've got a long white beard from waiting. Put the signal through.
Solid. I see what you see. Yeah.
I still don't know how I'm gonna get Perrin's brain map running,
but you can use this link to route it.
Dude, Halverson's fine.
What? Wait. Who? What?
Bennett!
She's, what, like, distinguished?
Like, young and fine! I poo you not.
Are we into her?
We may be fierce on the subject.
Oh, God. I wish I was there. I mean, what's she like?
Totally shy, librarian energy through the roof.
Glasses? Glasses on a chain.
For the win!
Dude, she has a dead arm.
Like, dead? Like in a sling with a glove?
Imagine John Cassavetes in The Fury as a hot chick.
Which you know I often have.
Oh, no.
What? Did you lose the connection?
Dude, she's probably an Active.
You're so untrusting.
Brie.
Brie!
Don't go. Don't go.
We have to go. Come on. Come on.
Don't leave me.
I'm not gonna leave you. We're both going. Now.
Bye, Caroline.
Bennett? Bennett? Are you okay?
What happened?
Here, come here. Come here. Look at me. Look at me.
Can you tell me what happened?
It was Echo.
Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Bad.
Where is she?
She took Perrin.
Brie, wait.
I'm not Brie. I'm Echo.
Echo, what did they do to you?
She did this. But not to me.
She? I don't understand. Who is "she"?
Don't leave me.
Sorry, sister. I stay, we both get nabbed.
Caroline!
She wanted me to know how it felt. It feels bad.
You're not making any sense. Were they imprinting you?
You don't seem... Finished.
How do you know when you're finished?
Listen. I think someone on the inside is trying to help us.
They showed me the way out. Put it in my head so we could escape.
We haven't escaped. They're coming. They always come.
Because of this.
What is that?
It's how they find us.
GPS tag?
We have to cut.
I don't think I can.
You will. I'll show you how.
That's where Senator Perrin will sit.
He's gonna make an opening statement,
and then the hearing will begin. Okay?
This is the press area here,
so just be prepared for a couple dozen camera lenses pointing at you.
Couple dozen?
Don't even think about that.
Just focus on your testimony.
Where's the senator now?
He's following up on some last minute evidence we received.
He wants all the ammunition against Rossum we can get.
Excuse me one moment.
- Hello? - Perrin escaped.
I see. Can you explain how that happened?
Bennett was attacked by that LA Active, Echo. They're together.
Has he been wiped? No.
That is very unfortunate.
We tracked their GPS. We dispatched a retrieval team.
I've already sent you the coordinates.
You need to be there when it goes down.
On my way.
They won't stop looking.
We won't stop running.
Pull everybody in. I want every team on this.
Well, figure it out!
Perrin has to be at that Senate hearing in four hours,
or Rossum will have our heads.
To be clear, this little project is your problem, not mine.
Well, I'll remind you of that when we're bunk-buddies in the Attic.
Hey, listen to this. She's got a great idea.
Well, it's your idea. It's based on your idea.
No, no, no, no, but you should tell them. I can't take the credit.
Spit it out!
We might be able to reconfigure the disrupter
to incapacitate Echo and Perrin without actually locating them.
Explain.
Topher's disrupter sends a signal using a universal frequency
which affects every doll, but only within a limited range.
If we use the neuro-electro bio-links,
we can redirect the loop to target a specific brain.
In English.
Okay. I do the English part. That's new.
Okay. Okay, okay.
We can plug my disrupter into the bio-link system
and send the signal from here and put them to sleep.
A painful, bleeding sleep, but sleep nonetheless.
Right? She's a genius. She's so good.
Well, it's your tech.
How long will this take to accomplish?
Not long at all.
I can have Echo's brain map uploaded into Bennett's system.
I just need Perrin's. I gotta have a target.
Give him whatever he needs.
Topher Brink, meet Daniel Perrin.
Whoa.
It may be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Selective strain replacement takes a delicate hand.
This is more than just an alteration.
This is an imprint married to an existing consciousness.
It's amazing you didn't end up with a schizophrenic.
I have a theory that the human brain can hold multiple imprints
and still function.
A composite?
Not a composite.
Something new.
The original Daniel Perrin is all there.
I just made him better.
We'll need your Active's map.
Uploaded.
Oh.
It's very nice.
She was kind of a hooker.
Mmm-hmm.
How about, while I build the magic bullets,
you work on adapting your gun?
Right.
You can use the whole workspace over there.
Let's hope when we zap them, they're not driving down the freeway,
or flying a biplane or something, huh?
Yeah.
You know, you probably don't even need to make delivery files.
I bet we can just plug this baby straight into your bio-feed.
I know. I just thought I'd upload some sweet dreams to pass along.
Compensate for the searing, searing pain.
Oh.
I like that.
Incoming. Is that it?
It's me. The him me. I'm giving the word to myself.
And what's the word?
It ain't grease.
The he-we did it. I rock. We rock.
The I, other me, has accessed Perrin's brain map.
That may be the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
And wow.
We can't stay here too long.
It's real. It's all real. They didn't program this.
I grew up here.
I wish they had.
Why?
They didn't create me, only parts of me.
How can I ever untangle it?
Does it matter?
What do you mean?
Does it matter who you were?
All that matters is who you decide to be,
who you can be.
You make it sound so easy.
It is. It's all up to you.
What, the voters don't get a say?
The voters will say yes.
I don't know.
At this stage, it might seem a little cynical.
Like I was trading in on the family name.
You would be, but it wouldn't be cynical.
You use what you have. Just think of all the good you could do.
Even if I decided to run,
do you have any idea how much dirt the opposition could throw at me?
I saw what you were doing when I walked into this party.
But everybody's got a past.
It's the future that the voters care about.
You show them that, all will be forgiven.
Where did you come from?
Salina, Kansas.
And don't say, "I'm not in Kansas anymore,"
I've heard that one.
I know exactly where I am and who I'm talking to.
Did it really happen? Was she ever here?
Or was it something programmed into me in some basement somewhere?
It doesn't matter. She was right.
They made me into something better.
You try to be your best.
Yes.
Even if I could, I don't know if I want to be the man I was before.
I understand.
You do, don't you?
I'm afraid of Caroline.
If she comes back, where will I go?
I don't want to fall asleep, even for a little while.
You're awake now. And so am I.
That's what they didn't expect.
They were gonna use me as cover,
but they didn't get a chance to reprogram me.
They've created someone who can bring them down,
and that's what I'm gonna do.
There's still time. We can make it to the hearings.
We can expose them.
And then we can be who we are.
We can be who we decide to be.
Okay. Fire on ready.
Daniel? Daniel?
I got nothing on Echo.
That's unusual.
I think your senator's filibustering.
Wait a...
What did you do?
No!
Daniel, stop!
They're in your head. You don't have to listen.
You don't have to be what they tell you to be. You can...
Belong to you.
What do we see? Who is it?
I'm looking at a triggered sleeper. He's not set on stun.
And how's the other one?
Still alive, but spiking on every front.
I don't think she can match him.
Get our new girlfriend to switch him off or bye-bye Echo.
Roger that.
You hacked into my system.
You stole Perrin's brain map.
You're trying to kill Echo.
So we're even?
Not even! Not even close!
Shut him down, now.
Do you know who Echo really is? She's a friend.
Friend? That shell?
I was her friend. I was her best friend. This is what I got for it.
This is my gift from Caroline.
This isn't about Caroline.
This is about Echo. They are the same!
Caroline has power over people,
and however well you wiped her, she clearly still does.
She has no power over...
When was the last time that you described a doll as your friend?
I know about Alpha and Ballard.
You're saying she doesn't have some power?
I'm saying shut Perrin down.
It's for the best.
You were so close to perfect.
You still with me?
Bennett on board? 'Cause I don't see...
Bennett's out.
I killed her?
I hit her. It hurt.
We can't just flip him back.
We can if we isolate the neural path.
Do you know how many... Then shut up and work!
I'm already working!
I wouldn't hold your breath on the shutting up.
No, I wouldn't.
Split up.
Senator Perrin. Sir, come on.
Where is he?
Gone. Something else is here.
Oh, God. Doll-speak.
Watch her. I'm gonna go get the senator.
Daniel, please answer me.
Those things I said before, none of them were true.
I wanted to hurt you.
They programmed you to love me,
but the truth is, no one programmed me to love you. And I do.
I love you, baby.
Come with me.
Things can be just like they were before.
We can be happy again.
Like before?
Yes.
And ever after.
That's right.
Daniel, stop! Daniel. Daniel!
She's got me locked out on this end.
Who's your backdoor man?
We'll just pretend I didn't say that.
Yeah.
Found the worm! Step on it.
Squished.
Oh, God. Oh, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Cindy. Cin!
She's broken. We have to go.
I killed her. I just did this.
No, it wasn't you. It was them.
Daniel, we have to go. You can still stop them, but they're coming.
If we don't go now...
They'll just make us forget.
Forget that I killed her.
They killed her.
If you let them make you forget, then you killed her.
Can you live with that? Or can you trust me?
Where's Mrs. Perrin?
I apologize to the committee for my...
My wife is dead.
I don't want to be here right now, but I'm honestly afraid
I may not have another chance to tell the truth.
I was looking for a conspiracy,
and I found something more horrible than...
The Rossum Corporation
is the most powerful medical research company in the world,
but they are something else as well.
For the past several years, the Rossum Corporation has been a target.
A target of a consortium of companies that would stop at nothing
to undermine Rossum and take its place in the medical community.
They set me on Rossum's trail,
and when I discovered the real truth,
they put a bomb in my car.
The car Cindy took to stop by the family compound.
I...
Just stand right there. That's a good spot.
My wife was a victim. There have been hundreds of others.
This woman, Madeline Costly, is a victim
of their manipulation and her own delusions.
What?
There is no Dollhouse.
There are no sex slaves, no underground fortresses.
Madeline Costly spent the last three years
in a mental institution in Canada.
No. No! You know I was there!
I have the documentation to prove it.
In fact, I have documentation on all the companies
involved in this travesty.
There is abuse here.
Not the lurid pulp fantasy they drilled into this unstable mind,
but something more insidious,
something that has cost this country more than millions,
and has cost me...
Everything.
This hearing is adjourned until further notice.
Daniel! Daniel! Daniel, please.
Madeline, these men are from the FBI.
They need to speak with you.
No. Echo's just gone.
And we're certain she wasn't apprehended with Perrin?
My sources say no. They don't have her.
And Mr. Ballard?
Still no word.
Are we sure this is such a great idea?
I mean, I am sensing tension of the palpable sort.
Just lie back.
Finding him obstinate, are we?
Yes. This is so weird. Yes. This is so weird.
But seriously, just a few more days.
I could help analyzing Perrin's brain map.
It wouldn't be a second opinion.
It would be the same opinion twice.
There's more to analyze? I thought we now knew the senator's function.
To inoculate Rossum against further scrutiny.
More than that.
He's talking about new regulation which, inevitably, he'll oversee.
Rossum will be creating their own laws.
Good throw, Boyd,
but still doesn't win you the giant stuffed panda.
It looks like Bennett somehow rigged his S&S
into his higher functions. Meaning?
Let's just say it's an awful lot of ambition for a junior senator.
I was gonna say that.
Did I fall asleep?
For a little while.
Shall I go now?
For the love of God, yes.
So what are you saying? They're manufacturing a president?
Wouldn't be the first time.
Delightful.
Well, before the fascist takeover, we need to find Echo.
She's lost in the world in doll state, utterly helpless.
I want every resource engaged in her recovery.
And Madeline?
Poor girl.
I'm afraid there's nothing more we can do.
You don't have to be afraid.
I know how you feel.
I know what it's like to be betrayed, to be abandoned.
She's out there.
They're all out there, and we're left behind.
Alone.
No one should be alone.
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