If the future is more just than today's world, Joss Whedon and Jane Espenson will be known as one of the greatest creative teams in television history. In regard to that, tonight's episode of Dollhouse will be a part of the supporting thesis.

I do love it when a plan comes together. The entire season has been building up to the events of "Briar Rose" and the episode did not disappoint. As is their favored mode, Whedon and Espenson went for a layered approach to tonight's story. As a matter of course, not a single scene was a wasted moment. Echo begins the day as a volunteer at a shelter for abused kids, but the story book she reads to them is reflected in the rest of the night's plot.

Back at the Dollhouse Victor and Sierra are put on the task of two related events, the latter to a murder in Tucson and the former to a mysterious flash drive delivered directly to the Dollhouse and addressed to the Attic-bound Mr. Dominic. Enver Gjokaj gets to do his best Dominic impression (which is actually really good) and the contents of the drive point to Tucson as well, which we learn is the location of the Dollhouse HQ. Both events proved to be an elaborate diversion.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight Dollhouse finally fused with Paul Ballard: Scowling (former) FBI Agent. Paul gets on the trail of an environmental expert played by Alan Tudyk (yay!x1,000,000) who was instrumental in the design of the Dollhouse itself. Every moment Tudyk was on screen was a great one. He really is one of the best character actors I have ever seen and he is thus horribly under-used. His twitchy, neurotic shut-in routine was hilarious.

But that's not the big twist. With his OCD friend's (forced) help, Paul sneaks into the Dollhouse at night in search of Caroline. After some sneaking around and tazing of Topher, Paul has a very brutal fight with Boyd. Boyd himself has made an interesting transformation. He started out being a disapproving caretaker and now he seems to be a full-on company man, lying to himself with every ounce of his being as a way to justify what his employer does. With Paul firmly in DeWitt's clutches it seems that everybody's favorite scowler has finally lost his crusade, but there are bigger problems on the rise.

Now, I know this entire column is just one big spoiler, but I feel compelled to put an alert here anyway. So, consider yourselves warned.

Alan Tudyk isn't playing a goofy, one-off character. He's playing Alpha pretending to be a goofy, one-off character he killed at the beginning of the episode. After slashing poor Victor's face, Alpha has a delightfully creepy conversation with Dr. Saunders. He uses her to lure Echo to the chair where he imprints her with an as-yet-unknown personality who apparently just loves Alpha. They saunter off together to the tune of some standard foreboding music. I'm excited to see who Echo has become and also to find out if the hidden messages sent to Paul through Actives were just a trick by Alpha or if they're really from a third party. My guess is more the former case, but you never know.

Best Moment: Alpha's reveal. I really didn't see it coming and it was that much more satisfying because of it.

Biggest Shock: Um, I guess my answer is exactly the same as the above. Funny how that works.

Episode Rating: 5/5- This is why so many people love the work that Joss Whedon and his collaborators do. It's top-notch storytelling as presented by some immensely talented people.