It is revealed that Theresa and Hale are both secretly stealing Ford's research for the board so that they can oust him from the park without fear of him destroying his work in retribution. They engineer an event to demonstrate that Ford's updates make the hosts violent and uncontrollable in their narratives. Bernard is blamed for the update of untested faulty code and fired as a result. William and Dolores develop romance. The train is then attacked by the Confederados, forcing William, Dolores, and Lawrence to flee. They are saved when the Confederados are ambushed by an Indian tribe called the Ghost Nation. Dolores and William part ways with Lawrence. Meanwhile, Maeve finds her friend Clementine retired by the staff. The former decides to use Felix and Sylvester to escape the park. Bernard takes Theresa to Sector 17; inside a hidden lab she finds design plans that reveal he is a host. Ford appears, reiterates to her that he has complete control over the park, regardless of what the board thinks, and has Bernard kill her.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: The Clean Up Crew freezes Westworld and walk directly over to the bar where Maeve is, discussing how Management wants a female host who's messed up somehow. She grabs a knife to defend herself...and they take Clementine instead.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:
- Theresa sarcastically asks if Bernard disposed of Arnold as well. Ford denies this...because Bernard hadn't been built then.
- Hale as well
"I like you. Well, not personally, but I like you for this job, which is why I'm gonna give you another chance to get a handle on this particular bitch of a situation." - Beneath Suspicion
- Hale switches off Hector after she's made use of him, but apparently he was still relaying their entire conversation to Ford, including the plot to force him into retirement.
- Theresa doesn't suspect anything when Bernard has her Come Alone to investigate what Ford is up to. When she asks if they shouldn't take a security team, he asks who can they trust? Turns out she can't trust anyone.
- Call-Back: The same Crash-Into Hello gunfight in "The Adversary" occurs as Maeve walks down the street. This time a guest who's slow on the draw is involved, but his opponent doesn't fire and so is killed. This reminds the audience that the hosts are Three Laws-Compliant, setting us up for The Reveal that they are anything but. Maeve also reacts to the gunshot this time, showing she's become more self-conscious of the world around her.
- Catapult Nightmare: The episode begins this way when Bernard awakens after dreaming of the death of his son.
- Cellphones Are Useless: Theresa tries to call for help when she realizes she is in danger, but there is no reception.
- Chained to a Bed: Theresa finds Hector chained to a bed in Hale's hotel room.
- Decapitation Presentation
- A guest threatened to cut off Hector's head and mount it on his car. He's programmed not to notice the anachronism, so just responds with threatening banter of his own.
- The Ghost Nation tribe have put heads on poles along the railway, to show what happens to uninvited visitors. Like the ones in the train William and Dolores are in.
- Did You Actually Believe...?Theresa: Do you really think the Board will stand for this?Ford: The Board will do nothing. Our arrangement is too valuable to them. They test me every now and then. I think they enjoy the sport of it.
- Dissonant Serenity: Bernard removes his jacket and tie, placing them neatly on a chair before brutally smashing his ex-lover's head against the wall.
- The Evils of Free WillFord: I have come to think of so much of consciousness as a burden, a weight, and we have spared them that. Anxiety, self-loathing, guilt. The hosts are the ones who are free. Free here under my control.
- Fake Memories: Like the hosts, Bernard's nightmare of his child's death is just a programmed memory. Apparently the Skype call he had from his wife in episode 3 was faked as well. Conveniently this was a Back Story that would make Bernard throw himself into his work and avoid the outside world due to the emotional pain.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Bernard takes Theresa to Ford's secret house. When Theresa asks how the hosts don't see the house, Bernard explains that hosts can be programmed to be unable to see things they shouldn't see. Theresa then opens a door that Bernard only saw as a blank wall. Soon afterwards Bernard is revealed to be a host by Ford.
- Forced to Watch: While pretending to be an unwitting host being led about by Felix, Maeve has to watch Sylvester give Clementine a lobotomy.
- Gatling Good: Confederados use a Gatling gun on William and Dolores's train.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Partially averted with Theresa's death. It's shown in the background, so the blood splatter can be seen, but not in great detail. Played straight when Clementine bashes an unnamed Host's head against a glass wall until both shatter.
- Instant Death Bullet: When Clementine refuses a verbal order to deactivate, Stubbs fires a single bullet into her heart region, which is enough to take her down.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Hale calls for a meeting with Theresa while she's finishing having enthusiastic sex with a host. The scene implies as much contempt for Theresa as for the host she's using.
- Irony:
- Bernard is a Host that no one knows is a Host (not even himself) and his entire job is working to make all of the other Hosts seem more human and steadfastly unaware of the illusion they are complicit in.
- Hale tries to frame Ford, making it look like his tampering has led to a host that can kill humans. Turns out Ford has created just such a host, by design. Hale uses a robot for sex, then it turns out Theresa has unconsciously been doing the same.
- I Surrender, Suckers: The Confederados attack the train carrying William, Dolores, and El Lazo. After they perforate it with gatling gun fire, someone is sent out carrying a white flag. The Confederados gloat at first, but when the guy gets close they realize it's just a corpse... one of those El Lazo pumped full of nitro. Boom.
- Just Following Orders: After Maeve witnesses him lobotomizing Clementine, Sylvester argues that refusal would only make his superiors suspicious, and someone else would do the job anyway.
- Killed Off for Real: Theresa is murdered by one of Ford's robots.
- Killer Robot
- Clementine is savagely beaten by another host. After her memories are wiped, she attacks the host even though he's been coded to read as human, implying that Ford's modifications make them dangerous to humans. However Bernard later calls Theresa on the fact that her programming was deliberately tampered with to bring this about.
- Maeve flat-out threatens to kill Sylvester if he doesn't help her escape Westworld. If she's bluffing, Sylvester doesn't look ready to call it.
- Most importantly it turns out not all the hosts are Three Laws-Compliant when Ford uses Bernard for the cold-blooded murder of Theresa.
- Landmarking the Hidden Base: The 'operations area' is revealed to be built into one of the iconic red-rock mountains.
- Up to this point, it looked just like a natural formation, until it was revealed that hosts only see what they're supposed to see. This goes for the audience as well since the pool area was also on the top of one of the central mesas, hidden until now.
- Mad Scientist: While Ambiguously Evil before, Ford shows his true colors when he reveals he's been secretly building his own hosts, including Bernard whom he uses to murder Theresa. He regards humanity with disdain, comparing them to a beautiful yet vain peacock who can't fly and so scratches around in the dirt. Rather than regarding his robots as a superior alternative however, he uses them as pawns to control his perfect world.
- Musicalis Interruptus: In-Universe when Maeve slams down the lid of the self-playing piano in anger.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: An Invoked Trope by Ford. By keeping most of the data in Westworld without it being backed up anywhere else in the world, he prevents Delos from forcing him out through the implied threat of destroying the data if they do so. The so-called corporate espionage was actually Delos trying to secure their own information.
- No Time to Explain: Used as foreshadowing. Bernard does not attempt to explain to Theresa why they are exploring Ford's secret cottage, as he is programmed by Ford to blindly lead her there.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Maeve tells Sylvester quite plainly that the choice is help her escape or die.
- Oh, Crap!: When Theresa hears Ford use the exact same words, "blood sacrifice," as the board's executive director used in front of her (and a supposedly inactive host) making her realize the hosts are essentially in Ford's employ as spies, among other things.
- Perception Filter: Bernard tests Hector by showing him photographs of the modern world. He can't see any of them because he's been programmed not to. Later Bernard can't see the door to Ford's secret lab, because he's been programmed to see it as a wall. This is actually foreshadowed in the previous episode when Ford suddenly appears next to that wall the last time Bernard visited the cottage. While at the time it seemed he was standing in the corner, it's now apparent he just walked through the door that Bernard couldn't see.
- Relationship Upgrade: William explains to Dolores that he's due to marry Logan's sister back home. Dolores is upset and flees to another carriage, but William follows her and explains that what he feels for her is more real than anything he's felt for his fiancee or any woman. They share a Big Damn Kiss and make love.
- Robotic Reveal: Clementine is beaten up by a tech, but when their program is frozen both Clementine and the tech freeze in place. This foreshadows the reveal that Bernard is also an android.
- Robosexual: Hale is using Hector as a Sex Bot. William and Dolores spend a night together. Theresa is horrified to find that the man she took as her secret lover was a robot all the time.
- Taking the Heat: Subverted; Hale fires Bernard, but with the implication that he can save his job if he lets Ford take the blame for the robot malfunctions. When Bernard refuses it seems this is from loyalty to Ford and anger over Theresa's betrayal, but it turns out he's Just a Machine under Ford's control.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Bernard discovers he's a Host under Ford's control.
- Villainous Rescue: The Ghost Nation attack the Confederados chasing Lawrence, William and Dolores.
- Wham Episode: The Head of the Behavior Department is a Host. Theresa is killed.
- Wham Line:Theresa: Bernard, what's this door here?Bernard: What door?Bernard: [at the sight of his own datasheet] Doesn't look like anything to me.
- You Monster!: Theresa calls Ford "a fucking monster".
