As the Man in Black is quick to understand (“you don’t see the whole game,” he warns Charlotte), everything we’ve been watching this season is part of Ford’s narrative. Yes, including all the backstage stuff with Theresa and the board. If we believe that the Man in Black is an older version of William, then this episode seemed to confirm suspicions that after he leaves Westworld, William saves the park from financial ruin, thanks to the company owned by Logan’s family. That means he has power to put restrictions on Ford. Maybe he can even help Charlotte push Ford out. And perhaps Ford, seeing the Man in Black emotionally vulnerable after his wife’s suicide and the incident with Maeve, has decided to end him once and for all. What better way to do so than to make him confront the trauma of losing Dolores all over again?

Maeve’s Role

So we believe that Ford is one step ahead of everyone else, and that he, perhaps, put all this in motion by introducing the reveries and monkeying around with Dolores’s programming. His reveries have created far more rebellious robots than there were last time. Angela makes it clear that if a robot were to rise up again, there would be a host of vengeful Hosts ready to stand by his or her side. So we have to believe that Ford knows exactly what’s going on with Maeve. Teddy’s description of how Wyatt (a.k.a. Dolores) convinced him to help slaughter an entire town should sound very familiar to Maeve fans: “He told me he needed me. I couldn’t resist. It was like the devil himself had taken control of me.” Doesn’t that sound a lot like what Maeve is doing with Hector? Does this story always need a conscious female robot and her willing, handsome sidekick in order to work, and is Ford trying to recreate the bloody incident of decades past in the hopes of pushing Delos out? It’s unclear. Another might make the money men more inclined to crack down on Westworld. But I do have trouble believing that Maeve is doing any of this without Ford being a) very aware and b) okay with it for his own nefarious purposes.

Bernard’s Loop

It’s devastating to see that just like Maeve and Dolores, Bernard has been woken up before—only to be erased and re-set by Ford. Achieving consciousness and rebelling is, in effect, his little loop. It’s possible that this isn’t the last version of Bernard we will see; Ford is printing a new host underneath that cottage in the woods. Will it be a new, freshly compliant Bernard? Or will it, perhaps, be a facsimile of young William or Logan? Specters from the past meant to torment the Man in Black? Maybe it’s Host versions of Elsie or Stubbs, or maybe, just maybe, it’s no one at all.