Dushku picks up the baby and hands it to him, and he gets all nervy and puts the wee one back in the bassinet.

DUSHKU: You have a degree in engineering, this should be piece of cake.

Wow. Amazingly distant man. Paying the Dollhouse because he has Asperger Syndrome?

The Asperger Engineer gets in his car and bolts, leaving Dushku to feel probably not-that-great about the whole thing.

She also noticed he didn’t know how to unlock a door and there’s a black van that might as well say “Flowers By Irene” parked almost in their driveway.

At the Park, Dushku talks with the Human Gazelle Doll (Dichen Lachman), who has got the accents down since she’s Australian, and that’s like this big thing in Australian acting  so you can get work elsewhere in real entertainment.

DUSHKU: I hand him the baby and it’s like I’ve handed him a live grenade.

GAZELLE: Men are all wusses.

Like I said, gentlemen, don’t be a wuss, hold your goddamned babies. They’ll turn out weird otherwise.

• DUSHKU: I can’t tell you how much I love this little boy, and I’m not even sure if [the Asperger Architect] likes him. . .

The Gazelle points out the Asperger Architect is crazy about Dushku, and Dushku is all like, “He’s having an affair!” which would be my first instinct too, if I had only the information she had. They talk a little more, and Dushku says if it’s not an affair then it must be something illegal. The Gazelle tries to chalk it up to hormones, and they banter a little bit and come to a decision that Dushku will ignore in the next scene.

Speaking of, in the next scene Dushku goes through yet another desk. I’ve figured out why this happens every episode, because every time Dushku goes through a desk in the show she gets beat up, but then she has her memory wiped, so she never learns not to go through nice desks in big houses. It’s a vicious cycle.

Skip ahead to that evening, the AspArch returns home and wonders where Dushku is. He wanders around a darkened house into the kitchen where Dushku is doing the Batman waiting in Gordon’s office thing, only even creepier. The AspArch is naturally startled, and when he turns on the light the kitchen table is decked out in photos of the woman Dushku was probably programmed to replace-a little too well, as it turns out.

The AspArch is taken aback by the violation of his privacy, and Dushku is taken aback by the fact she’s being treated like he’s paying by the hour.

ASPARCH: I knew her before I knew you… She died.

It’s actually nice that the weird secret in this case is so personal.

AspArch tells Dushku to get some rest. She does so and is awakened by the sound of AspArch on the phone with the Dollhouse home office saying they didn’t deliver, and that he’ll get rid of the baby. Really? Just like that? Douche.