The episode starts with Topher panicked and covered in blood, repeating over and over, “I was just trying to help her.” There is then a flashback to one year before. Sierra is working on the beachside selling merchandise. Nolan (first seen in Needs) talks to Sierra about her artwork and encourages her to make him a piece. She agrees and time skips ahead where Nolan is now entertaining guests showing off the commissioned piece by Priya.

Echo is on the engagement talking Nolan up, and Victor poses as an Italian art dealer to further enhance the reputation of Nolan, hoping to seduce Priya. However this fails and in a confrontation that gets physical Priya rejects Nolan’s advances and leaves. Time skips forward to the present day and Sierra is now leaving Nolan’s place after an engagement. He takes a photo of Sierra with Priya’s camera and leaves the picture amongst multitudes of others from prior engagements.

Back in the Dollhouse, Sierra is drawing with paint. She draws a bird, but then uses black paint to draw darkness surrounding it. Victor points this out, and Sierra says she uses black because it is there. Echo senses something is wrong and ultimately takes the painting to Topher and tells her Sierra is affected by a bad man. Topher initially rebuffs this but, at Echo’s insistence, decides to look into it.

Topher goes to Boyd and asks about the client. Boyd is amused at Topher’s interest, but gives him the information anyway. Topher mentions he helped Sierra, as when she came to him she was apparently a paranoid schizophrenic. Boyd is curious about Topher’s request and he mentions Echo gave him the painting saying something was wrong. Boyd directs Topher to look over Dr. Saunder’s notes, where she initially came to the conclusion that the black “blob” was Topher himself. Back in the Dollhouse, Victor is taking all the black paint from the tables so Sierra would not have to use them anymore. Echo helping Victor in this matter has raised Boyd’s curiosity.

Topher has his doubts about Sierra/Priya and he re-examines Priya’s original brain scan. He comes to the conclusion that Priya was made to look like she was a paranoid schizophrenic by the psychological drugs that were in her system. After informing Boyd, he debates whether to tell Adelle, but she overhears and quickly tries to remove Nolan from the client list. However, Nolan, being an employee of the Dollhouse’s backer, the Rossum Corporation, tells Adelle he wants Sierra forever, and that if she fails to deliver, he will have her fired. In the Dollhouse, Boyd continues to supervise Echo and notices her pulling a leaf off a plant.

Adelle is now in talks with Mr. Harding (another high-ranking official in the Rossum Corporation) regarding the situation. He tells Adelle to do as Nolan says. Adelle protests but Harding points out her past indiscretions with Victor under the pseudonym “Miss Lonely Hearts”. Harding says that her use of Victor for personal reasons is the least of her indiscretions, and tells her once again to do as Nolan says. Back in the Dollhouse, Victor is trying to wash away all the black paint in the shower. Sierra spots this and they share a moment where they paint each other’s faces with the black paint. However Victor has a flashback of his time as a soldier upon seeing Sierra’s face, and collapses with Sierra holding him, saying that he doesn’t want to be in charge.

Adelle, now having no choice, orders Topher to imprint Sierra. She tells him that everyone in the Dollhouse was chosen because they were morally compromised, but Topher was chosen because of his lack of morals, and says that he will need to let this “toy” go. Adelle then calls Boyd to make sure the order is done. Boyd searches Echo’s pod and finds the leaf used as a bookmark for a novel she has been reading. He leaves to carry out Adelle’s order. However, as the pod closes, it is revealed that Echo has etched phrases into the inside of the glass in order to help her remember.

In a flashback, the Dollhouse is looking for a new Sierra. Adelle tells Topher that a 22-year-old paranoid schizophrenic is the target. Topher goes to a mental health facility (run by Nolan) to take Priya to the Dollhouse. Priya states she has been kidnapped to this facility, and is being poisoned in order to make her crazy. Topher thinks this is a part of her condition, and takes her into the Dollhouse where she becomes Sierra. Back in the present, Topher then imprints Sierra “for the last time” and sends her to Nolan. As Topher puts away the wedge that contains Priya’s original memory, Adelle tries to comfort Topher by telling him he had no choice. Boyd is now having a confrontation with Echo. He asks her about the leaf acting as a bookmark, as well as the book she has been reading. Echo tries to shrug this off, but Boyd asks her when she learned to lie. Boyd tries to warn Echo about her behavior and how she is pushing the staff and other Actives. Echo replies that a storm is coming, and the actives need to wake up because she wants everyone to survive.

Sierra is now at Nolan’s place. However, she soon reveals that she is actually Priya (not, as he had thought, the permanent imprint of his fantasy). Sierra tells Nolan how she is now free from his control. Nolan rebuffs this by saying he used her, but Sierra goes on to say she doesn’t remember any such time when she liked him, and is actually in love with a person she has never met (Victor). The confrontation begins to get heated, and Nolan tries to kill Priya. However, Priya knocks him down, making him drop his knife, and grabs it before he can reach it, killing him with multiple stab wounds. Topher arrives to help Priya; however, Boyd arrives shortly thereafter and tells them to begin covering Nolan’s death up. He instructs Sierra to pack a suitcase of Nolan’s belongings while Topher and himself would dispose of the body. Topher says he was just trying to help her (start of the episode) and Boyd replies that he had a moral dilemma. Boyd calls a friend in the police department to make Nolan disappear and then tells Adelle that Nolan left in a hurry and never took Sierra with him. Adelle seems pleased, and it is unknown whether she had a part in it.

Priya, back in the Dollhouse, is talking to Topher. She expresses her frustration at the nightmare she has been living and how Topher was supposed to help her. Topher apologizes and tells her he was deceived. She spots Victor and asks if her love for him is real. Topher says it is and that he loves her back. Priya then voluntarily gets into the chair to be wiped. Topher expresses his regret in not just letting her go free, but Priya says she would have gone to confront Nolan anyway. She then asks Topher, that if she is ever to be awoken again, that he not bring back memories from this day. Topher promises to do so. Priya asks if Topher can keep their secret. Topher says he can, but he’s not sure he can live with it. He then wipes Priya’s memory, and Sierra goes back to her Doll state.

In the final scene of the episode, Echo is seen in the middle of the pod room. In her book she finds an all access pass given to her by Boyd with a note saying “for the storm.” Sierra and Victor are sleeping in one of the pods together.

“Belonging” is the 4th episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Dollhouse and the show’s 17th episode overall. The episode was written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon and directed by Jonathan Frakes, the first in the series he has directed. It aired in the United States on FOX on October 23rd, 2009.

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