SPOILERS: Dollhouse Episode 1.01

Pilot
Airdate: ???

Adelle meets with a Client and lays out the rules of the program: no harm may come to an Active, and the Active must not be told that he or she is “working” but must believe that what they are doing is as real as they think it is.

Boyd, one of the handlers, and Topher, one of the programmers, watch as a group of “Dolls” eat lunch together for the third time in a week. This “grouping” behavior is noteworthy because it would seem to indicate that they remember each other, that their memories are not, in fact, wiped clean. And it appears Echo is the the instigator.

We also learn from their conversation that the “Dolls” volunteered to be a part of this project for five years, at the end of which they will have no memory of what they did during those five years and walk away wealthy people. Boyd has some moral issues with this concept, but Topher argues that everyone is “programmed” whether they realize it or not.

Someone named Alpha tortures someone named Paul who, it appears, has been working with Alpha to bring down the Dollhouse until he decided to hold out for a better offer. Alpha and Paul are both specifically interested in Echo who they think may be evolving past the programming.

Through a series of vignettes, we see Sierra as a blank doll with stilted understanding and conversation; programmed as a badass safecracker; and a razor-sharp socialite.

We discover that Adelle (posing as Katherine) is having an affair with Victor.