Susan is reading an intact copy of Briar Rose, like, it's nice that the orphanage is so well-funded to keep supplying her with fresh copies to destroy, as Rose Nylund tells Echo that Susan gets in fights all the time, and they've taken five knives from her on various occasions. For me, that picture kind of clashes with the very young way the girl is reacting to the Briar Rose story, but anyway, Rose Nylund goes on that Susan's mother died when she was very young, and she was left with her boyfriend, a small-time drug dealer who pimped her out for sex. If that's the case, he should probably ask Adelle for a job application. Echo makes some observations about Susan that are apparently quite astute for someone who's known her such a short time, although coming from Rose Nylund that may not be saying much. Echo mutters under her breath, "I've known her much longer than that," and goes off to take away Susan's grease pencil so she won't do any further damage to yet another copy of the book. And they're really kind of going overboard having the kid throw parallels at us like the pimping and the knives and all, which just bugs me further because the link between her and the Dollhouse is so contrived, as I'll get to in a moment...

...when Topher is explaining what's up with Echo to Ivy: Apparently, he took a scan of Susan's brain, added in experiences that would enable her to emotionally overcome her past and be a happy, healthy adult, and voila! Echo's current imprint. Yes, Echo is Susan, specially grown to be stable (not that she apparently knows this, despite what she just said to end the last scene) -- the perfect person to accomplish the twin goals of getting Susan to open up to her and showing her that she too can rise above her past trauma. It's a cute idea, but it makes no sense, because I know it's the Dollhouse but I still can't believe they'd subject a child to those painful brain scans, and also, who exactly is the client in this case? As I said, I realize they're setting up a parallel here, but the whole thing with the Dollhouse being involved with this girl isn't credible to me, so it just makes the framing device seem totally artificial and removes any resonance it might have had. I have no problem with the use of the fairy tale as a parallel, but I would have been a lot happier if they'd axed the girl's subplot and found a different way to do it. Topher says it was his idea, and he sold Adelle on it because "everybody wants to be righteous," but that doesn't explain how he even knew about the kid in the first place. Anyway, all you need to know is that Ivy and Topher are kind of -- gasp -- adorable together, so let's move on to where Topher gets a phone call that sobers him up but good: "Tell them to bring up Victor."