Priya Tsetsang

Priya Tsetsang is an Australian immigrant and the original personality of the former Los Angeles Dollhouse Active designated Sierra. Replacing an Active of the same name, Priya was turned into an Active against her will after she had rejected the advances of Nolan Kinnard. In 2010, Priya helped Echo rescue Anthony Ceccoli from Scytheon and discover Rossum's darkest secrets inside the Attic. From that point on, Priya took part in the Anti-Rossum Corporation movement, during which she would give birth to a son, who was named after his father. 2020 saw Priya reuniting with Anthony inside the Los Angeles Dollhouse where she would remain until 2021 to avoid being wiped by Topher Brink's reversal bomb.

Before the Dollhouse

An Australian immigrant, Priya arrived to the United States unable legally seek employment as she had been unable to obtain a work visa. Therefore, Priya supported herself by working as an amateur artist, selling her paintings from a kiosk located at Venice Beach. (S2: "Belonging") It was at her kiosk where Priya met Nolan Kinnard for the first time, sharing several conversations with him, but didn't see him as her "type". (S1: "Needs"; S2: "Belonging") Priya sold enough paintings to support herself and occasionally did original commissions, such as the one she did for Nolan Kinnard. (S2: "Belonging")

After painting an original commission for Nolan Kinnard, Priya attended the art showing that Kinnard put on at her behalf, even though she hadn't requested it. At the showing, Priya met an imprinted Echo and Victor for the first time; instantly taking a liking to the latter and making plans to leave with him. In her attempt to leave, Priya is confronted by Nolan, ultimately slapping him in front of the other patrons and yelling that she could never love him. (S2: "Belonging")

Shortly afterward, Priya is kidnapped from her home at gunpoint, and taken to the mental institution where Nolan works, where he drugs her to appear a paranoid schizophrenic. Topher Brink is then brought into evaluate her, with Priya pleading for help to which Topher promises to do so, making her one of the L.A. Dollhouse's charity cases. From that point on, Priya would become known as the Active designated as Sierra, replacing the previous Active of the same name. (S1: "Ghost", "Stage Fright", "Echoes", "Needs"; S2: "Belonging", "Stop-Loss", "The Attic")

In the Dollhouse

Echo witnesses Priya becoming an Active. Topher reassures her that "Sierra" will be just fine, although the procedure to map her brain and install the Active architecture before making her a doll is more painful than subsequent wipes and imprints will be. (Ghost)

For information on Priya's time as an Active in the Dollhouse, see the article "Sierra".

When Sierra (as Priya without her memories) leaves the Dollhouse during the "Fulfillment Exercise”, she confronts Nolan Kinnard. It is here she learns Nolan pulled a lot of strings to have her placed within the Dollhouse because she rejected his advances, and now he can have her at his leisure. (Needs)

With prompting from Echo, Topher eventually figures out what Nolan has tricked the Dollhouse into doing, but Adelle DeWitt's attempts to sever their relationship with Nolan are unsuccessful due to his money and influence with their Rossum sponsors. Instead, the Dollhouse is ordered to imprint Sierra permanently as Nolan's lover. However, Topher imprints her as Priya and tells her of all that has happened. She then confronts Nolan—saying that she knows about everything he's done to her and that she still does not love him, and in fact loves someone else (Victor). The confrontation leads to a fight and ends with Priya mortally stabbing Nolan in the chest.

She then calls Topher who shows up, followed by Boyd, and the two men cover up Nolan's death.

Later, Priya is talking to Topher in his office. She questions going back to being a doll and wonders if she will be happy. While looking out the window, she can see Victor down below. Priya tells Topher that she loves that man and asks if that is real. Topher confirms that it is. She then decides to go back to being a doll. Before she is wiped she asks Topher to not re-imprint her with the memories of killing Nolan when her time is done. Topher says he'll do as she asks. She asks if he can live with that secret and says that she couldn't but fortunately doesn't have to. (Belonging)

Post-Dollhouse life

In S2: "Stop-Loss", Echo has Topher break his promise to Priya by restoring Sierra to her Priya personality, with memories, so that she may assist Echo in rescuing Anthony Ceccoli, formerly Victor, from a Rossum facility. On their escape, the three are imprisoned in the Attic. Within the Attic, they become the first individuals ever to escape (S2: "The Attic"); inside, they managed to acquire information on Rossum, which led the LA Dollhouse's senior workers and awake actives to assault Rossum's headquarters in Tucson in S2: "The Hollow Men".

S2: "Epitaph Two: Return" shows Priya and Anthony in "Epitaph Two" have a son together, and name him Tony after his father. At some point, as shown in stored memories in S1: "Epitaph One", Priya begins to develop really bad headaches—a trend apparently happening to the other former Actives as well—but will refuse to take any medications claiming the pain is worth the price of being her true self. Priya is responsible for the idea of the "birthmark" which is tattooing one’s name on their back to always know their true identity—this method is later used by the Actuals. Subsequently, she abandons the Dollhouse complex; her picture remains on the "To Remember" wall in Adelle’s old office, though the meaning of this wall is unknown.(S1: "Epitaph One") She and Anthony later split due to concerns about his tech addiction.(S2: "Epitaph Two: Return")

Along with Echo, Ballard, DeWitt, and her son, she makes a homely existence for herself in Safe Haven, in the shadow of Neuropolis. Three years after her split with Anthony, she is later reunited with him and his band of tech-heads and some resistance fighters; the group, en masse, return to the Dollhouse to enact Topher's plan to reverse the effects of the wipes globally. Echo helps Priya to understand that Anthony's decisions were all made out of love for her; the two reconcile in S2: "Epitaph Two: Return" and remain underground while the effects of Topher's restoration-wipe take effect over the world, so as not to be reset to their memories on first being installed with active architecture.

Behind the scenes

"Epitaph One" co-writer Maurissa Tancharoen notes that Dichen Lachman came up with Priya's surname "Tsetsang".

Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen state that Priya's absence from later flashbacks might indicate she went on to start the "actuals" resistance.