If you haven't seen the most recent episode of Dollhouse, stop now! MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead!

For months now, fans of Joss Whedon's FOX series Dollhouse have been wondering about the identity of the villainous Alpha, a Doll who went rogue and has been wreaking havoc ever since. Though it was inevitable that in this age of the Internet some would already know the secret (more on that later), for plenty of others it still came as a shock. Alan Tudyk, known for working with Whedon as the goofy and lovable space pilot Wash in Firefly and Serenity, seemed to be playing a similarly comedic role in last Friday's episode "Briar Rose," that of paranoid Dollhouse designer Stephen Kepler. And then, without warning, Kepler turns full-on evil, slashes Victor's (Enver Gjokaj) face, kidnaps Echo (Eliza Dushku), and scrams. Hello, Alpha!

I recently sat in on a conference call with Tudyk, during which he talked about his experiences on the set, what to expect in the season finale, and what it was like to work with Joss Whedon again.

When asked if he was excited to play a role so different from what he's done in the past, Tudyk says, "Absolutely. [Joss] set me up really well because he didn't tell me he was offering it to me. He laid out, like, 'The role does this, and he does this, and he's a composite of these people.' He like gave me a full scope of the guy, that he was this person who was obsessed with Echo and was 43 people in one and has all these skill sets crammed into one but, because he's 43 people in one, he's mad. But he can do many things because he is also 43 people at once, and that he's sort of God-like in his own mind. And I was like, 'Oh my God, that sounds so amazing, who's playing that?' 'I want you to play it.' It was really cool."

Playing a character imprinted with 43 interchangeable personalities can be something of a challenge, and Tudyk jokes that it gave him a "stress rash." In discussing this Friday's finale, "Omega," Tudyk says, "You see the effect of what 43 people is on one person. Alpha has a little bit of difficulty controlling them. We all have inner monologues, you know, different voices that sort of chime in throughout our day, [giving] different opinions on situations. He's a little less in control of his opinions. They are full people who all want voices and so it takes an effort to maintain order in his brain."

Article Author: Arlo J. Wiley

Arlo J. Wiley is an aspiring filmmaker who has a deep love of movies, music, television, and most other artforms. He is also totally obsessed with Joss Whedon and the Beatles. You kind of need to know that.

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