Strand, Charlotte and Stubbs discover Bernard is a host and interrogate him about Dolores's attack on the Mesa. In flashback, Bernard finds Ford's persona among the other hosts' backup memories in the Cradle. Ford reveals that Westworld was an attempt to digitalize consciousness and reach immortality. Ford imprints himself on Bernard's control unit and exits the simulation where he has Bernard aid in Dolores's takeover of the Mesa. Angela kills herself to destroy the Cradle while Dolores finds Peter and extracts his control unit.
In the park, Maeve hides with her daughter from Akecheta but is found by William, who thinks she is another test sent by Ford. She turns his men against him until Delos forces arrive, kill Lawrence, and incapacitate her. The Ghost Nation ride off with her daughter. Lee has Maeve returned to the Mesa, where Dolores warns her that her memories of her daughter are a means of controlling her. In the present, Bernard reveals Peter's control unit is in the Valley Beyond.
Tropes:
- Batman Gambit: Angela seems literally full of Suicidal Overconfidence when confronted by Engels, convinced she can seduce him long enough to detonate his grenades. She's right.
- Behind the Black: During the shootout in the Mesa, Teddy doesn't see Coughlin coming at him from his left side.
- Bilingual Bonus: "Les Écorchés" is French for "the skinned".
- Big "NO!": Maeve when the natives snatch her daughter.
- Brain Uploading:
- Ford made a copy of his mind before being killed by Dolores, which Bernard uploaded into the Cradle. This copy then uploads himself into Bernard's control unit so he can force Bernard to execute the next phase of his narrative.
- Averted with Bernard, whose memories and personality were designed by Ford and Dolores from their own experiences with Arnold.
- Character Death: Lawrence, Angela, Engels, Goldberg, Coughlin and Peter Abernathy all die in this episode.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Bernard is forced to experience the sensation of waterboarding by Costa after Hale finds out he's a Host.
- Conveniently Timed Distraction: Dolores is about to cut up Hale when gunfire interrupts her. She sends Teddy to sort it out and goes for Hale again. Then Dolores' father regains consciousness which makes Dolores stop again. Hale escapes soon after.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Dolores has her men kill and strip the QA Response Team sent to investigate the train crash, giving a fair number of them modern weapons and body armor.
- Dying as Yourself: Peter Abernathy regains his senses for a few minutes when Dolores finds him, allowing him to have a proper goodbye before she pulls his control unit to get the decryption key stored in his head.
- Elevator Escape: Hale and Stubbs flee from Dolores into an elevator.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: The Delos Security Team configures their body armor to react to the Hosts' neural network. When a Host is in proximity, the vest vibrates and lights up in the direction of the Host, telling both the wearer and (conveniently) the audience where the action is about to happen.
- Human Shield: During her shootout, Clementine shields herself with a Delos soldier.
- Internal Reveal:
- Charlotte, Strand and Stubbs learn that Bernard is a Host. They've likely deduced he was responsible for Theresa's death after Charlotte interrogates Bernard by putting him in Analysis Mode.
- Stubbs and Bernard learn Delos' true goals with the park.
- Is That the Best You Can Do?: Engels screams "Is that all you got?!" during his Darkened Building Shootout with Dolores' men.
- Kubrick Stare: Lawrence puts it on after remembering what the Man in Black had done to his family.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Just barely averted by Hale. Dolores is a second away from cutting into her skull just like she cut into Peter's when reinforcements show up.
- Loophole Abuse: Used twice.
- Maeve discovers her mind control doesn't work on Lawrence, so she opts to restore his memories of William's abuse.
- Ford can't return to the real world in a Host body himself as his mind would degrade like James Delos. Instead, he possesses Bernard, and uses the backdoor in Bernard's code to influence him.
- Mercy Kill: Dolores offers this to Maeve but the latter refuses since she has given The Promise to her daughter.
- Mexican Standoff: Lawrence and Maeve, though the latter points her gun at the Man in Black.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Maeve can't force Lawrence to turn on William, so she instead gets him to remember how William mistreated him and his family in his previous loops, which convinces Lawrence to shoot William of his own free will.
- Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: When one of Coughlin's men discovers the hidden door behind some cupboards, he doesn't tell right away what he found. Instead he calls attention to it by saying "Ma'am, something you should see."
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Teddy kills Coughlin this way.
- No-Sell: Maeve's telepathy doesn't work on awakened Hosts, such as Lawrence, presumably because they aren't obeying the narratives anymore and thus the Hive Mind can't be used to influence them.
- Pet the Dog:
- Sizemore saves Maeve from being finished off by security and has her brought back to the Mesa.
- Later, despite the potential threat Maeve poses to her, Dolores doesn't kill Maeve even though her injuries would make it impossible for her to defend herself from Delos Security, instead leaving her a weapon to decide her own fate.
- Ford takes over Bernard in order to eliminate the surviving members of Coughlin's team when Bernard can't bring himself to do it. He also spares Elsie again by sending her to find a vehicle.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
- Delivered by Angela to Engels after removing the pin of one of his grenades he kept at his belt:Angela: Welcome to Westworld.
- Subverted with Coughlin who delivers one to Teddy but the latter can free himself in time.
- Delivered by Angela to Engels after removing the pin of one of his grenades he kept at his belt:
- The Promise: Maeve promises to her daughter to come and find her. By the end of this episode she is far from it.
- The Reveal: While Delos' dirty little secret has been shown already, it takes the facsimile of Ford to spell out for Bernard the true purpose of the park as Delos have reformed it: to find a way to copy human minds into host bodies by making the hosts as close to human minds as possible. Ford states the endeavor has so far been All for Nothing as the copied human minds are flawed imitations that die in the real world while the original humans are gone for good. He even admits that he hasn't cheated death despite being stable, since he can only exist inside the Cradle and would degrade just like James Delos if he had physical form, passing himself off as just a tune composed by someone else.
- In the meantime, Bernard comes to the realization that Delos wants to make copies of the guests using the recordings of their actions in the park as a source.
- Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Peter Abernathy's "One fire burns out another's burning...." is a quote from Romeo and Juliet. We also hear an aborted "You cataracts..." from King Lear. His original persona
- Taking You with Me: Angela sacrifices herself to kill Engels and destroy the Cradle.
- The Tease: Angela states that her cornerstone was to always leave guests wanting more.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Teddy beats Coughlin to death, and then keeps punching him repeteadly.
- Too Dumb to Live: Used twice.
- Engels finds Angela in the Cradle, gets her to disarm, then allows her to walk right up to him when she begins to tease him. She pulls the pin on his grenade and kills them both along with the Cradle.
- Coughlin seems to think it's a good idea to brawl with Teddy, who is a superhuman host. Then, when his military training lets him get an edge, he chooses to try to deliver a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, which gives Teddy time to overpower and beat him to death.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The Man in Black and Maeve miraculously arrive at the homestead at the same time for a final confrontation. Quickly afterwards, the Delos forces join them.
- Uncertain Doom: William is shot multiple times, in both arms, his right leg, and abdomen. He's still alive when he's last seen, but bleeding out and unable to stand.
- The Vamp: Angela puts on the sexy seductress act, which was her basic drive, to lull Engels into lowering his guard and then activate one of the grenades on his combat vest.
- Engels: Goddamn, you're pretty.Angela: Not just pretty. Perfect. Just as you built me to be. Sexy, but not threatening. Accommodating, but not unchallenging. Sweet, but not boring. Smart, but not intimidating.Engels: You're in pretty bad shape, pussycat.Angela: (starts moving toward Engels, seductively) Perhaps. But I can still do... what you built me to do. Do you know what my cornerstone was? The one key drive your marketing people had them... program into my core? Always leave them wanting more.
- Villain Override: Ford's copy is capable of directly controlling Bernard when he refuses to follow Ford's commands. His previously established backdoor into Bernard's code probably helps.
- Virtual Ghost: The "Ford" who resides in the Cradle is this. He freely admits that he didn't cheat death because he's just a copy of the now-dead original and would degrade in the real world.
- Wait Here: Maeve tells her daughter to wait in the house together with The Promise to come back for her.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Coughlin, Engels, Goldberg.
- Wham Episode: You actually might wonder if you're watching the season finale by mistake.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: William continues to erroneously believe Ford is influencing everything on his journey. When he meets Maeve, he naturally assumes that Ford is making him deliberately relive his murder of her. Her shooting him and taking control of his companions dumbfounds him.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Stubbs becomes convinced that he and Bernard have become expendable, as Strand and Charlotte are not making any obvious attempts to rescue any guests from the park. It's averted for the moment. Strand and Charlotte's hostility is based on the assumption that either Stubbs and/or Bernard murdered Theresa.
