

Season 2, Episode 6
Written by Tracy Bellomo
Directed by Wendey Stanzler
Original Airdate: 4th December 2009
“I’m afraid of Caroline. If she comes back, where will I go? I don’t want to fall asleep, even for a little while.“
Echo
REGULAR CAST
- Eliza Dushku as Echo
- Harry Lennix as Boyd Langton
- Fran Kranz as Topher Brink
- Tahmon Penikett as Paul Ballard
- Enver Gjokaj as Victor
- Dichen Lachman as Sierra
- Olivia Williams as Adele DeWitt
SPECIAL GUEST STAR
- Ray Wise as Stewart Lipman
GUEST CAST
- Alexis Denisof as Senator Daniel Perrin
- Nelson Franklin as Burt Styne
- Summer Glau as Bennett Halverson
- Stacey Scowley as Cindy Perrin
- Miracle Laurie as Madeline Costley
CO-STARRING
- Matt Riedy as Senator
SYNOPSIS
Echo remains restrained, enduring pain inflicted upon her with calculated precision. Her captor watches, waiting for resistance – prayers, pleas, curses – but finds only silence. Nearby, Perrin fights for his identity, begging to be spared from the blank slate that awaits him. His handler dismisses his desperation, insisting that he was nothing before he was remade, and should welcome the oblivion that follows.
Adelle arrives in pursuit of Echo, demanding her release, only to be stalled by protocol and bureaucratic deflections. Frustrated by obstruction, she shifts tactics, pressing Lipman with a veiled threat that forces his compliance. While she works the political angle, Topher engages Bennett, the architect of Echo’s torment. Their initial interactions are hesitant, marked by an awkward chemistry that suggests fascination rather than hostility.
Victor, infused with Topher’s personality, navigates his own mission back in Los Angeles, fumbling through uncertainty with Boyd at his side to anchor him. His task is crucial – extract the map that defines Perrin’s mind.
Perrin stirs in his confinement to find Echo lost in a memory that does not belong to her. In the vision, Caroline abandons Bennett in a ruined lab, leaving her trapped beneath concrete, pleading for help that never comes. Echo wakes with a fragment of this pain lingering in her – her left arm, rendered useless, mirroring the injury Bennett suffered. Watching from a distance, Bennett orchestrates her own affliction, fabricating evidence to shift blame onto Echo.
The pursuit continues. Echo and Perrin flee, removing their tracking devices in secrecy. Meanwhile, Topher and Bennett devise a means of shutting them down remotely, though Bennett hides a darker purpose within the plan – an unseen directive meant to turn Perrin into a weapon.
As Perrin reflects, questions consume him. Did he truly meet his wife as he remembers, or was their history a carefully constructed illusion? Determined, he vows to complete the mission he believes is his – destroy the force that created him. But Bennett’s interference escalates. The disruptor is activated, targeting only Perrin, leaving Echo trapped beneath his sudden aggression. Yet she refuses to succumb. The imposed memory fractures, and with renewed strength, she fights back.
Elsewhere, Topher pleads for Bennett to undo the damage, but she refuses, revealing the personal wound that drives her actions. Caroline had been her friend, yet had left her broken, discarded, forgotten. Topher forces her unconscious, working frantically to isolate the signal before irreversible damage is done.
Agents arrive, their presence escalating the chaos. Cindy intervenes, halting Perrin’s advance, attempting to pull him back from the brink, but his conditioning twists his response. He kills her, his mind fractured beyond repair. Echo struggles to stop him, but the moment passes too quickly. Victor/Topher discovers the pathway in time to disable Perrin’s imprint – but the damage has already been done.
With the final pieces in place, Perrin stands before the Senate, poised to expose the truth, but his programming asserts control. The words he speaks are not his own. He shifts the narrative, protecting Rossum, fabricating evidence, rewriting reality. Madeline, once a witness, is now rebranded as a patient lost in obscurity, erased by falsified documents.
Back in Los Angeles, the weight of defeat settles. Boyd reports Echo’s absence, while Ballard remains missing. Victor resists the return to vacancy, reluctant to let go of the identity imposed upon him. Adelle and Boyd assess the larger implications – Rossum has not only silenced criticism but ensured their reach extends beyond corporate control. Perrin is now positioned to ascend to power, the foundation laid for his future. The presidency, Rossum’s ultimate goal, is within reach.
In another place, Madeline steps back into servitude, her freedom revoked, as Bennett ensures she understands the depths of betrayal.
Echo, alone, walks the streets of D.C., untethered yet hunted, knowing her battle is far from over.
CONTINUITY
Victor as Topher reminds Boyd of them dismembering Nolan Kinnard, as seen in Belonging.
Topher tries to use the disruptor on Bennett under suspicion she is a damaged Active with a permanent imprint, similar to Whiskey, whose story was told in Omega.
Per Topher, “[his] latest ethical quandary was unhelpful,” referring to the events of Belonging.
As examples of Caroline or Echo having power over people, Bennett brings up Paul and Alpha. Paul became obsessed with Echo after receiving a picture of her in The Target while Alpha became infatuated with her after seeing her for the first time during her tour of the Dollhouse, as seen in a flashback in Omega.
Just like in The Public Eye, a point is made that Perrin will be used by Rossum to pass new laws and regulations, which was hinted at in Epitaph One.
The memory Bennet shares with Echo will motivate her to develop her own personality in Meet Jane Doe. It will also be shown in context in Getting Closer.
Victor will be imprinted as Topher once again in The Hollow Men.
Echo starts fearing being imprinted as Caroline. She’ll share this fear again in Meet Jane Doe and Getting Closer.
Topher knocks Bennett out for her treachery. He will keep obsessing over the events of this episode in Meet Jane Doe and will finally meet Bennett, get hit himself, and apologize in Getting Closer.
At the end of the episode, Madeline is taken to the D.C. Dollhouse and made a doll again. The L.A. Dollhouse will retrieve her in Getting Closer.
Boyd notes that Paul is missing. He will be revealed to be aware of his whereabouts in Meet Jane Doe.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
EPISODE
The Public Eye / Meet Jane Doe
STORY ORDER
The Public Eye / Meet Jane Doe









