After a few establishing shots that let us know we're in cactus country, we focus on another hot item, specifically a guy who's been on a number of random shows I kind of now regret not having watched. He's swilling beer in front of his trailer while a well-dressed unseen visitor keeps him company. The guy apparently blew a large fortune on one particular Doll -- three guesses as to who that might be -- and now is destitute and pining for a woman who doesn't even exist. Hot as he still may be, it's a pathetic existence he's living, so it's probably just as well when Alpha pulls out a wicked-looking knife and slits his throat. Farewell, attractive Doll-addicted trailer trash, we barely knew thee. Credits.

Oh, did I mention? ALPHA!

When we return, we get a number of shots of a straitjacketed Echo in confinement, amid which Victor's voice asks her about her headaches and whatever, Victor's glasses are cute but this is the slowest part of the episode, so let's cut outside to Boyd watching Adelle ask Ballard if he's absolutely sure that Echo didn't say anything about her absence to him when he found her. Ballard heatedly affirms that, prompting Adelle to drop her voice to a stage whisper as she opines the odds of an Active surviving out in the wild in Doll state are miniscule indeed, "but we all know Echo is special." Ballard gets off a reasonably good line as to her method of information-gathering -- "So if she floats, she's a witch" -- but Adelle isn't impressed as she says they'll continue the interrogation the next day, and every day after that until she's convinced that Echo wasn't exposed to "dangerous elements." If it weren't already obvious that she's full of shit here, I'd ask what she considers a "dangerous element" compared to some of the clients she regularly serves. She goes to consult with Victor, leaving Ballard to wonder what she thinks she's going to get out of Echo. Boyd duhs that she doesn't expect to get anything -- it's Ballard she's trying to crack, and she's succeeding, so he'd better stop being such a pussy...

...but while most of this is true, Boyd apparently missed his bet on one part, for Adelle has gotten heated herself as she tells Victor, who's imprinted as, I think, a psychiatrist, that she knows Echo is hiding something despite his conclusion that she's in completely normal Doll state. Whether he really can't see it or if Topher tampered with his imprint is for you to decide, but he goes on that "if she did something naughty," she's unaware of it. Sierra then passes in the other direction, wearing a silver lamé dress and white stole, and Victor takes the time to note appreciatively, "She, however, is naughty and completely aware of it." Heh. Adelle asks him to stay on point, prompting him to inquire if she prefers men to keep their natural urges to themselves. She denies that, saying she finds it useful in her line of work to identify with people's urges, but as they reach the chair, he counters that that may be her sales pitch, but in reality she's very tightly controlled. This declaration gives Topher no end of delight, and Victor keeps it up, saying that Adelle as a woman is chastised for any hint of sexuality, and it's no wonder she despises Echo, as "she gets to be the virgin and the whore, and for both she's celebrated." It's all Topher can do not to roll around on the floor laughing, so it's probably just as well that he doesn't know about the Miss Lonelyhearts thing, because if he realized the irony of Adelle getting this speech from someone she took great pains to bone repeatedly, he'd probably wet himself. Anyway, Victor gets his treatment, leaving Adelle to complain that that was a "tiresome exercise." Topher, understandably rather smug at her failure, points out he told her it wouldn't work: "Brain science is all about hardware and software. There's no mystical in-between." Adelle chooses not to get into a philosophical discussion with her new enemy, and instead merely asks why she's getting the headaches. Topher sighs that he agrees with Victor -- there's nothing physically wrong with her, and it's all in her mind. She wonders if the scans he's taken of her brain back that up, and he attitudinally asks if she'd like to see them. She gives up in the face of his disdain...