Echo is imprinted to act as a counselor to Susan, a troubled girl who has been returned to a state facility after being rejected by multiple foster families. Susan had a horrific past, prostituted as a child after the death of her drug addicted mother. By imprinting Echo to be an ideal version of Susan's future, Topher hopes to guide the girl away from her hostility toward a productive future.
While Echo engages in her mercy mission, Langton brings a package to Adelle - a USB drive, hand-delivered for Laurence Dominic. The drive is password protected, so the only way to retrieve the information is to retrieve Dominic. But this gift has come from a most unexpected source.
Paul Ballard gains a source of his own. He manages to identify the location of the Dollhouse, and finds Steven Kepler (Alan Tudyk), the man who designed the closed system to allow the house to operate off the grid. Ballard bullies, blackmails, and threatens Kepler until he agrees to take him into the Dollhouse. What Ballard doesn't know is that all of this is according to somebody else's well-laid plans...
CHARACTERS
Echo: When confronted by Langton and Ballard, each of whom tries to enlist her trust, she has flashes of past engagements involving both of them. She recalls Langton trying to save her even when wounded, and she recalls fighting Ballard. Her instinctive trust in Langton wins out and, as a doll who is "evolving," she is able to assist him at a critical moment.
Doll of the Week: "Susan" is a counselor for troubled youth. She is intelligent and very observant. She is able to connect with the troubled young Susan, in large part because her past so closely mirrors the girl's own.
The Handler: Ballard appeals to Langton, telling him that he knows the Dollhouse is "wrong." The words don't wash off Langton, but he retains loyalty to Adelle. However, it is clear there are lines he won't cross. He won't necessarily interfere with Adelle acting in ways that cross those lines, but he won't grant his personal sanction either.
The FBI Agent: Ballard may not actually be crazy, but his obsession with the Dollhouse does drive him to some disturbingly ruthless actions. His treatment of Mellie is painful to watch. She may not be "real," so to speak, but her feelings are real, including her pain as he calmly destroys her in minutes. It's all the more painful, recalling the pain of the real woman behind "Mellie." He is just as ruthless dealing with Kepler, though thanks to Alan Tudyk's performance, those scenes end up being more comical than disturbing.
THOUGHTS
Tudyk, so much fun to watch in Joss Whedon's earlier Firefly, returns to the Whedonverse as Kepler. His scenes with Ballard range from hilarious to merely highly amusing. I love his introductory scene. As Ballard pushes him into the apartment and sees his prodigious personal supply, Kepler spouts every "the-pot's-not-mine" cliche in the book, not even noticing that each of them contradicts the other. With so many of the performance and writing beats for this character acting as direct callbacks to his Firefly role, Tudyk's casting proves to be superbly well-judged.
Briar Rose is a very busy episode, juggling three separate plot strands. It is also a very good one. You can see the show building toward its season finale, taking all the pieces that have been carefully laid on the board and putting them into play. By the end, all of the plot strands have been expertly woven together. Two of the plots have converged on a story level. The third strand, the one that grants the episode its title, resonates thematically with the main plot.
"Susan" reads Susan the story of Briar Rose, a girl cursed to 100 years' sleep who is rescued by a prince. Ballard goes into the Dollhouse believing that Caroline is his Briar Rose, and that he is her prince. It's a given that Ballard's extremely simple and naive worldview is wrong. But the episode's final note, which again resonates with the Briar Rose story, is a genuine surprise.
That surprise is coupled with a truly gripping final Act. The result is another terrific episode, one which more than makes up for the dreary installment that preceded it.
Rating: 9/10.
Previous Episode: Haunted
Next Episode: Omega
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