...sending us back to Boyd, who's explaining to Ballard that Topher says the chair process is like childbirth, but he thinks it's akin to watching someone die. Considering what I've heard about giving birth, I'm not sure those two are mutually exclusive. It's November in the chair, and after Sierra expresses her impatience at how long it's taking her "partner" to get prepped and then passes the time by hitting on Ballard, November rises up and snarks to Sierra, "If you're done molesting the furniture, can we get these guys?" It's the little smile Boyd gives Ballard that really sells the moment.

Back at Psychotic Break Headquarters, Echo removes the tape from Wendy's mouth and notes she's not screaming anymore, and after Alpha has a "Shut up/No, you shut up/Why don't you both shut up" exchange with himself, he takes a little private moment with the wedge, and I am completely over Echo's dimwitted imprint at this point, so let's move on to Alpha informing her that there's only one person who can hurt her now. "And that's what we're here to take care of." I think I sufficiently embarrassed myself in the last recap, so you know this has nothing to do with Alan Tudyk, but in an episode where so much ended up on the cutting-room floor, I find it hard to believe this scene survived. Anyway...

...let's cut to Ballard asking who Alpha went to after the day he had his event. Topher tells him it was just a random killing spree, and I'm sorry to sound harsh but I think it's ridiculous to think that, given that he so obviously and purposely spared Echo's life. He thinks profiling Alpha, who has forty-eight different personalities, is an exercise in futility, but Ballard still thinks knowing whom he first targeted will be helpful, so Topher tells him it was his handler, half his staff, and "Dr. Saunders." Ballard mistakenly thinks he means Claire, and Topher lets him believe that, so Ballard asks again -- who did Alpha go for the first moment he had a choice? Topher's got his back to us, but we can still see his go rigid with realization, and he turns and breathes, "Himself." He explains that he raided the "self shelf" -- the storage unit in which he keeps all the Actives' original personalities -- and removed and destroyed his. Ballard asks, then, where Caroline's original self is, and Topher goes to retrieve the appropriate wedge -- but it's been smashed. He glumly says that was the backup, and Ballard urgently asks, "Where's the original?"