Alan Tudyk makes everything better. Of his roles I’ve truly appreciated over the years as making the entire film or show better than it needed to be, this has to be the one that struggled the hardest. I don’t want to gush about him too much, but Tudyk is a great character actor with superb comic timing and great on screen charisma.

He made this episode.

First thing we see is a man doing some dumpster diving when he unearths a body. The body springs to life and grabs the man.

The Dollhouse keeps showing us cynics what uses they have. We all assume the majority of the engagements are that of sexual encounters, but yet again we see another possible use. Echo is sent to a child protective services location to read stories. Her imprint is the same as a troubled girl who lives there. That means at some point the little girl had a scan and Topher tweaked it to make Echo the little girl but grown up and having successfully lived through her troubled time, making her the perfect person to identify with the girl. It’s quite unique, noble and even practical. Ivy was appreciative of Topher’s work. The only catch would be how to get brain scans from little kids who are wards of the state, and then how do you justify tax dollars in buying actives to play the adult versions of runaways and cutters?

The important part was that Echo was reading Briar Rose. The story of Briar Rose is synonymous with Sleeping Beauty to most Americans, and in the Disney version of the story, Aurora’s name while in hiding was Briar Rose. It was her actual name in the Brother’s Grimm version. Regardless, the story is essentially the same. A princess is asleep thanks to a curse she tried to avoid her whole life. After a length of time, a charming boy (prince or otherwise) saves her with a kiss. The little runaway hated the story; too many continuity errors. But deep down it was that she didn’t like that the princess wasn’t smart and had to be saved. So Echo turned it around and told the girl to reread the story but to put herself in the part of the prince. She then asked for the knife she knew the girl was carrying.

Paul Ballard packs his apartment and makes like he’s moving. Mellie is devastated and he won’t talk to her. In fact, he’s kind of a jerk, but he has reason to be. She can absolutely not be trusted, has said so herself, and he needs to distance himself from her. She goes on a walk in a fit of sadness and is picked up by her Dollhouse handler in the van. Paul follows the van.

A mysterious thumb drive has arrived and everyone assumes it’s from the NSA for Laurence Dominic, so they pull his brain out and stick it in Victor. Dominic freaks out, a lot. They sedate him and pump him full of truth serum and he offers up the password “alpha” but as a single Greek symbol. It unlocks a ton of stuff, including news clippings from Tuscon, AZ. They’ve also created CSI agent in Sierra and sent her to investigate the murder of a man with the same pattern as the killings Alpha perpetrated. Echo is wiped after her social work gig.

Meanwhile, Paul has taken the building address into which November was taken to his friend Loomis at the FBI. With some checking he finds the man who designed the building, Stephen Kepler. Paul pays Kepler (Alan Tudyk) a visit. He’s a paranoid pot head, but also a genius. Paul finds out he designed the Dollhouse to be so off the grid as to be invisible. The building design reuses everything, so much so that you’d never know it was there, especially if it were underground. He talks the comically cowardly and scatter-brained Kepler to help him gain access and they are able to sneak in through some gratings and access hatches.

Kepler says he can shut down the security if they can get to a computer terminal so Paul finds a wandering Doll and asks them to follow him. He then has the Doll and Kepler switch clothes but they are immediately spotted by Topher. Paul tasers him and dump him back in his lab. Kepler says the security there is too tight so they go looking for another computer. They find one in the recently vacated Dr. Saunder’s office and Kepler gets to work. Paul finds the sleeping pods, opens up November’s but doesn’t wake her. As he opens up Echo’s, Boyd Langdon stands behind him with a gun. They fight, Echo starts having flashes of meeting and fighting Paul as well as trusting Boyd. The men fight and crash through Victor’s glass top pod. (Why these things are glass I have no idea, this is twice people have been hurt.) Victor screams and as the two fight else where is sent to Dr. Saunders.

Paul and Boyd fight for what seems a long time, each time Paul gets the upper hand, Echo does something to negate that. She doesn’t want to be taken, she trusts Boyd. Eventually Paul is subdued and taken to DeWitt. She wants to send him to the attic. The Doctor examines Victor and goes to get something when Kepler pops out in front of her and she whispers, “Alpha!”

(told you)

He slashes Victor’s face up and then terrorizes the Doctor a bit. He’s all serious now, no comedy left in him. He has Saunders call to Echo who shows up saying he looks familiar. He says he remembers everything about her. DeWitt gets a call from Sierra saying the body was that of a Stephen J. Kepler and that he wasn’t killed in Tuscon, he was killed in LA and the body was dumped in Tuscon. My guess is that the thumb drive was also a piece of software they loaded to allow Alpha to gain access to the security systems once he got in, AND it’s obvious he used Paul to get in. DeWitt looks at the security camera where he sees Alpha has taken Echo to the chair. Echo comes out of whatever Alpha did to her in the chair saying, “Oh I know you.” They exchange a long kiss. Alpha says, “I told you I’d come rescue you.” Echo says, “My prince.” They leave in the elevator.

I’m not going to say Alan Tudyk saved this episode. I’m not going to say the appearance of Alpha saved this episode, or the series. Honestly, when Alpha Zorroed up poor Victor, it was a little silly looking. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t menacing or violent like I’d expected. It was like he was drawing on Victor’s face with a crayon. It was quick and deliberate, maybe even clinical, but for a split second it wasn’t believable and I nearly lost all my reserved anticipation for the malevolence that was Alpha. He’s not a super smart, knife wielding Conan; he’s more like a spider or snake, waiting patiently and striking with an economy of motion we as viewers aren’t used to.

Or maybe it just looked weird and there’s nothing for it.

Also confirmed is that Boyd Langdon is a badass. Paul Ballard has subdued many a goon, body guard, henchmen in his time on the show, but Boyd handled him fairly well. Harry Lenix has always been the most identifiable character on the show and this only helps his case as being the most likable.

And what are we left with? At first we all thought that maybe this would be a big showdown between Alpha and Echo. Alpha had a vendetta against the Dollhouse and they would give Echo the most lethal imprint they’d have in order to save them. Turns out the two know each other and it doesn’t look good for DeWitt and company. But here’s the question. They call him Alpha, but who is he really? Is he his original personality AND all the imprints? What did he do to Echo? Is she Caroline with all Echo’s old imprints? Is she JUST Caroline and if so, how does she know Alpha? The last question is what will they do with Paul Ballard? I have a sneaking feeling they’re going to try to recruit him to hunt the two Dolls down, possibly with Boyd’s help.

We’ve got one more episode to go, teasingly entitled “Omega.” It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this. In the mean time I’m giving “Briar Rose” four out of five creepy doll heads. Mostly on the strength of Tudyk, Topher saying “frakked up,” the word “thrillian” and the phrase “I heart porn.”