In this episode things start to become a little more clear. Dolores has strayed far from her routine, under the care of William, and I guess Logan too, as they go on a bounty hunt that William insisted on. She’s still meeting with Lowe and while he may be guiding her away from her constant victimhood, she offhandedly says things that haunt and intrigue him. While the bounty hunt goes as it’s supposed to, Logan and William have very different approaches. William is ever as immersed in the story and the world, and chivalrously protective of Dolores, while Logan’s fun is had by treating the game as it is, invincibly shooting and killing at will. Things come out in the open a few times in their day, once when William realizes that the family he’s marrying into has a larger stake in Westworld than he was led to believe, and again when Logan realizes the bounty they collected is an Easter Egg that will lead them on a quest that is more to Logan’s tastes. While he has no problem being a murderous monster, knowing that the host he shot to free their captive and Dolores aren’t real and really don’t matter, William defends her as if she were an actual person. What’s interesting here is that he calls Logan evil.

The Man in Black continues his quest with Lawrence to the blood arroyo and finds that the snake they seek is the tattooed outlaw and member of Hector’s gang, Armistice. Rather than murder everyone, the Man in Black only kills two people, and they join the posse. In exchange for the next clue to the location of this maze he’s obsessed with, the Man in Black offers to single handedly raid a prison and free Hector. Whether Armistice understood what he was talking about or not, he espouses a bit about his motivations. He mentions Dr. Ford’s partner Arnold, who supposedly died on accident in Westworld, but believes there’s more to the story than that. Either the Man in Black wants to know exactly what happened to Arnold, to peel away the veil of Westworld, or thinks that there’s a storyline out there that offers real danger, remains to be seen. Part of Armistice’s posse are guests, and when one tries to talk to MiB (I’m tired of typing that all out) about his foundation, he’s threatened. MiB is obviously a premium player in Westworld and we’re finally seeing how and why that came to be. He frees Hector easily and gets his next clue, and he’s off to find the villain of Teddy’s storyline, Wyatt.

Maeve continues to be plagued with flashbacks of her escapade through Westworld’s underbelly. She barely functions as a host, and bits and pieces of her interactions with Clementine seem too familiar. A few things vex her: the strange masked men she remembers standing over her, and a wound she suffered from the last time the saloon got shot up, that she remembers despite being wiped. The answers begin to come when she draws out what she remembers, only to find that she’s made many of the same crude sketches before. The masked man eerily resembles a doll she sees a Native girl carrying, and a nearby soldier remarks that it’s a symbol of their religion. This leads her to have questions for Hector when he comes into town for the big finale. Somehow the natives regard the masked men as gods, but don’t see them as benevolent entities but puppet masters of the waking world. The final hint comes from the bullet fragment Maeve cuts out of herself. She isn’t crazy, this will all be (mostly) forgotten, they aren’t really going to die when the law men bust through the door, and nothing really matters.

Meanwhile Elsie is sidelined in her investigation into why an errant host tried to break a rock over his head, and Theresa is warned by Dr. Ford not to fuck with him in a most creepy way while construction of his new story arc gets underway. It’s a scene that highlights Ford’s awareness of literally everything that goes on in Westworld, and while he says he’s comparatively saner than Arnold, I think he’s just crazy in his own special way.

The last few minutes of the episode were perhaps supposed to be tense. Hector’s grand entrance and big finish were again cut short, because the Westworld staffers felt that the families returning to town shouldn’t be subject to the bloodbath. Armistice meets a defiant and violent death, the two guests in her posse were tackled and arrested (to be later compensated), and Hector and Maeve presumably get blown to smithereens. As I learn more about these hosts, I begin to get more and more annoyed by the guests’ presence and how they don’t have agency within their own world. Obviously we’re headed toward a shift but for as much as Westworld is touted as a living, breathing world, it’s still just a theme park.

Logan is a giant prick but his reckless abandon is a great contrast to William. Of course there’s more to the story of Logan’s family as Westworld investors, and I think his assholism will push William a bit too far. Is what happens in a fictional setting, a game, worthy of sundering a relationship...perhaps even a marriage? We can look at William as someone who plays in character, and cares about his immersion and the story. He reads all the quest text, knows the lore because he collects little fluff artifacts strewn throughout the world, and hates people who use “memespeak” in world chat. He may even actually use the sit emote in a tavern. Logan is the troll, the overpowered jerk who runs around in low level areas killing guards and new players, and harasses others in chat. In Westworld terms, sure the hosts are there at to serve at your pleasure but they have function and purpose to an extent. And they’re real enough: they bleed, they cry, they feel pain, or they appear to anyway. Isn’t that enough to keep someone “in character” or at least respectful of the immersion? Perhaps not. In a consequence free environment, what does it matter? I fear a great many people would run amok if it weren’t for whatever law and social structure we have, and all that goes out the window in Westworld.

The Man in Black still doesn’t have my sympathy, but at least now we’re gaining some insight into who he is. Obviously he’s been in Westworld a long time and he’s trying to squeeze the last few drops of enjoyment of his “vacation.” Or perhaps he’s trapped there?

And god damn it, can they cut Teddy a fuckin’ break once this season?