This episode was billed as Sierra’s story, so it was no surprise that almost all the scenes focused on her. Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek TNG’s own Number One, William Ryker!) directed, while Keith Carradine guest starred in what might be a role he reprises later as one of the executives higher up the Rossum food chain than Adele.
Basically, Sierra became a doll as a result of the ruthless, obsessive machinations of a wealthy doctor who is well-connected with those in control of Rossum Corp. She was a free-spirited artist who caught the eye of Dr. Kinnard, who first commissioned a large painting from her and then arranged a show for her. We learn at her gallery opening that the guests are mostly, if not entirely, dolls and Rossum employees—an elaborate seduction strategy for a man who has “done so much” for their company. When Sierra tries to leave with Victor, Kinnard shows his true colors as a potential abuser/possible socio-path.
Topher uncovers the truth of Sierra’s condition because Echo tells him there is a “bad man” who makes her sad all the time. He reevaluates her original scan and realizes she was not the schizophrenic she had been billed as, but rather someone made to seem that way through medication administered by Dr. Kinnard. When Adele confronts Kinnard with these findings, he tells her to imprint Sierra permanently—to love him. One of the Rossum executives tells her she must give him Sierra or lose her job, and Adele tells Topher the same thing. Topher imprints Sierra, all right…with her real personality. When Kinnard attacks her, she kills him in the struggle. Topher follows her, and Boyd follows him, and together they work to cover up what really happened to the good doctor….
I was maybe a third of the way through watching this one when I said out loud, “Finally! A real episode of this show!” To me, at least, this episode was exactly what I expected this show would be most of the time: emotionally charged, highly tense, and hinged upon a moral dilemmas that has no easy answer.
Like last week’s episode (which I liked a lot better than the previous one), the focus here was not Echo but rather the ensemble, and I think that is part of what made it a stronger episode. As complex and strange as the dollhouse itself is, it should be what the show is about; not one particular doll, however “special.” Echo was the instigator for Topher’s investigation. Beyond that, she wasn’t really involved. Boyd had a couple moments where he follows up with her state of mind—catching her reading and using a bookmark; asking her when she learned to lie; and showing us (but not himself) the messages on her sleep-pod ceiling—but they were just that: moments.
I especially enjoyed the interplay between Adele and Topher, and Topher and Boyd. Adele’s comments to Topher, that everyone was there because they had been morally compromised, except him, who had no morals, was priceless. Her having to decide between the well-being of one of her charges versus all of them (and her own life, or at least mind) was an ugly decision to have to face. I couldn’t blame her for giving in, but I do think this altercation might have sewn the seeds for a rebellion by Adele later. And what Topher did shows that he is not, perhaps, as amoral and disconnected as Adele thinks. Have the events of the past months, Alpha’s attack and Dr. Saunders’ disappearance and Echo’s composite event and continuing evolution, actually affected him? Or was he maybe not so aloof and godlike (in the sense that he sees the dolls as literally dolls, toys) as she had always thought?
And then Boyd…ah, bless them for giving me more Boyd. He is just such a better handler than Ballard. He doesn’t get wrapped up in the “right” and “wrong” of the situation. Like he thought it was funny that Topher was actually bothered by something the dollhouse was asking him to do, because, really, the whole situation should bother anyone with a normal moral compass. Such as, for example, Paul Ballard. But Boyd didn’t stop Topher from discovering the truth about Sierra’s presence there (and in fact helped), and he sure as hell didn’t shrink away from hauling in surgical saws and sulfuric acid to help discreetly dispose of the body. You know whose back-story I want now? Boyd’s. Didn’t he come from law enforcement or some shit? And yet he has shady people he can call when he needs a body dealt with? What? Awesome. No wonder Adele hired him. And then promoted him to her head of security.
The really best part was that I’m not sure Adele didn’t know exactly what had happened. Er, well, maybe not “exactly.” But part of me suspected that she went along with the whole thing hoping Topher might cross-program Sierra with, say, something like Echo’s bodyguard assignment, where at the first sign of anything shady her assassin skills come to the forefront. She certainly didn’t push Kinnard’s fortuitous “sudden removal to a foreign country.” I was definitely glad to see that there are some lines the people at the dollhouse will not cross.
To me there was also an amazing sweetness in this episode with the continuing development of the Sierra/Victor love story. In her own mind once more, Sierra (Priya) can remember that she loves someone, but not who, but she recognizes him immediately when she sees Victor. And the two of them are always drawn to each other even in their tabula rossa states now. The implication, I guess, is that love is deeper than the mind.
In all, an episode that proves how good this show can be, makes it even more perplexing why it’s not always this compelling, and makes me hope these last two installments have been harbingers of a trend toward wider-lens and emotionally powerful storylines.
