SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub, present
Bernard wakes up on a cot holding a picture of his family. Stubbs approaches him with concerns about Strand. He suspects that Strand and his team aren’t here for a rescue mission, since they’re not looking for survivors. He informs bernard that Theresa has a satellite communicator in her office that they can use to call for help, and enlists Bernard’s help in getting there. Strand and two armed guards suddenly appear and escort Stubbs and Bernard through the forest. He says that they have something that he needs – a key. Strand says that he’s leading them to where Theresa actually died: the basement lab of a house in the woods.
They meet Hale in the dark lab. Strand proclaims his suspicions that Stubbs lured Theresa to the bunker and killed her. Bernard experiences a flashback while staring at a red stain on the wall and interrupts Strand’s execution of Stubbs. Meanwhile, the armed guards discover a vault door, revealing a tunnel. Strand forces open a door, and they enter a room full of Bernard hosts, outing Bernard as a host. Strand presses his gun to Bernard’s head.
Bernard wakes up in a state of distress. Hale is interrogating him by means of torture. Hale presses Bernard for details on Dolores’ attack on the Mesa. She indicates that Dolores did indeed retrieve Peter Abernathy’s control unit.
SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub, past
Stubbs is rushing into the lab where they are keeping Peter Abernathy. He tells that technicians to leave for their own safety, but Hale commands them to stay. Dolores and her group are approaching the Mesa through a fire-filled tunnel. Strand’s QA soldiers prepare for attack. They navigate through the complex shooting everyone on site. Team Two approaches a pile of bodies in the train depot, realizing that they’re not hosts, but members of the response team. Hale commands the technicians to cut Abernathy open and start copying his data. Stubbs realizes that Dolores and her team are heading for The Cradle.
In the Cradle, Elsie is listening to the attack unfold while still watching over Bernard.
SCENE: Sweetwater, in The Cradle
Bernard approaches Ford. As Ford waxes philosophical about creation, Clementine propositions Bernard, but is thwarted away by Maeve. Bernard realized that the control unit he printed contained Ford’s consciousness. Ford then leads Bernard out into the street. He asks Bernard why the stories haven’t changed in 30 years. Then he snaps his fingers and freezes the scene. Bernard realizes that the park is an experiment where the guests are the variables and the hosts are the controls. Delos was secretly observing the guests’ behaviors, so that Delos can copy them. Ford affirms this, saying that every piece of information was coped, with the exception of the human mind – “the last analog device in a digital world.”
Ford knew that free will was the last piece, and that Dolores would kill him. Bernard accuses Ford of cheating death by continuing to live within The Cradle. Ford says that he wants to do right by Bernard, but Bernard reminds him that there’s no escape. Bernard asks what is in the Valley Beyond, where the hosts are headed, and what the end of Ford’s story is, but Ford refuses to reveal the ending.
SCENE: Open Plains
The Ghost Nation are seen riding through open plains. Maeve and the little girl return to the house to hide. Maeve tells the girl not to worry because the Ghost Nation aren’t there for her, that Maeve “made a promise.” William rides by, like in Maeve’s dreams, and opens the door. The violent scene in which William kills both of them plays out in her mind. William thinks that they are part of Ford’s game. Maeve shoots William in the shoulder, then continues her pursuit outside of the house. Maeve uses her mind control powers on one of the hosts accompanying William, who shoots him several times. Maeve does the same with another host. William continues to speak to Ford. A host jumps William from behind and engages him in combat. William stabs the host. As Maeve points a gun at William, Lawrence points a gun at her. Maeve realizes that her powers don’t work on Lawrence.
Maeve forces Lawrence to remember his violent past with William in order to break his loyalty. Lawrence remembers when William executed his wife, and turns his gun on William. Lawrence puts a 3rd shot in William, but is killed by a QA team. Meave turns to see that the girl has left the house and is on the run, with two members of the Ghost Nation in pursuit. The girl is snatched by the Ghost Nation, while Maeve is shot multiple times by the QA team. Lee jumps out of the QA vehicle and rescues Maeve. We see that William is still alive.
SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub, past
Hale struggles to copy Abernathy’s data.
SCENE: Sweetwater, in The Cradle
Ford takes Bernard to the home that Arnold was building for his family. Bernard recognizes it as his own birthplace, where Ford created him. Ford tells Bernard that Delos’ project did not when Arnold died. Ford worked off of his own memory to recreate Arnold as Bernard, and Dolores’. Bernard realizes that Dolores knew Arnold better than anyone, so she could verify whether or not Bernard’s personality was faithful to his. Ford left Dolores and Bernard together for many years, until Bernard fooled. Bernard wonders how Arnold is different from Delos and the others, that Ford would want to resurrect him. Ford says that Delos was obsessed with fidelity, with making the hosts as accurate as possible to “the most murderous species since time began.” But Ford noticed that the hosts were a different creation from humanity – that they were more just, more noble. Ford approaches Bernard and says that he needs to take back Bernard’s free will.
SCENE: The Cradle
Bernard is restored, and Elsie congratulates him on putting the system back online. They hear from a communicator that the Mesa is under attack by the hosts.
SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub, past
Dolores and her group are getting closer to the lab where Abernathy is being held, along with Stubbs and Hale. Stubbs pulls a gun on Abernathy and threatens to shoot him is Hale doesn’t explain what’s going on. Hale explains that Abernathy holds a decryption key – a failsafe within a failsafe – to be used in extreme emergency. Meanwhile, the hosts slaughter techs in neighboring rooms.
Teddy acquires Stubbs’ gun. Dolores enters the room, finding Abernathy strapped to the operating table. Hale approaches Dolores with flattery, hailing the host attack as a “technological revolution.” Dolores recognizes Hale as the person in charge, but also the person responsible for implanting the key in Abernathy’s head, causing him to malfunction. She demands to know what it is, and although Hale proclaims that she wouldn’t know what to do with it, Dolores admits that she “knows exactly what to do with it.”
Elsie and Bernard are trying to escape danger, but Bernard catches a glimpse of Ford reflected in glass. The hallucination of Ford’s continues to beckon Bernard. Bernard tells Elsie that Ford’s narrative ends in a hidden facility called The Valley Beyond, and that the only hope is that they get to the valley before anyone else. Elsie goes to get more firepower and a vehicle, Bernard says that he’ll meet her, but then proceeds to follow Ford.
Clementine is in full assault mode. Strand catches word that the hosts have Hale, and mounts his own attack. Clementine is taken down by a QA soldier.
Dolores asserts the hosts’ dominance over humanity. She accuses Hale of wanting to control them. She demands to know how to get the key out of Abernathy’s head. Hale mocks Dolores, pointing out that without the hosts’ backups, they’re mortal, just like humans. Dolores says that the backups aren’t an advantage, they’re chains that humans are using to rebuild and reprogram them. Dolores declares her intent to destroy the backups.
One of Strand’s men finds Angela standing by herself, holding a gun. He approaches her, asks her to drop the gun, and she does so. As he nears her, her back still facing him, he continues to mock her. She turns around slowly, revealing a major injury, and he’s taken by her beauty. She slowly nears the soldier, seducing him. She unpins a grenade, and they explode.
Dolores picks up an electric saw, declaring “an eye for an eye.” However, before she is able to harm Hale, the sound of gunfire interrupts. Dolores sends Teddy to investigate. She makes a second attempt, and Abernathy suddenly becomes lucid, calling out to Dolores.
A QA operative attacks Teddy, distracting Dolores long enough that Stubbs and Hale escape to an elevator. Teddy violently beats the QA perative that tackled him.
Over the radio, Goldberg announces that The Cradle is down, and no one responds to her status call.
Dolores knows that she must kill Abernathy and extract the key to complete her mission, but becomes emotional. She picks up the same buzzsaw that she threatened Hale with.
QA vehicles are seen driving through the open plains to a garage. They’ve just arrived at the Mesa Hub, and discover that it’s under attack. The QA soldiers respond.
Ford is talking to Bernard, who is watching the struggle between Strand’s men and the hosts. Bernard asks Ford if this is the story he’d telling. Ford says that it’s no longer his story – it’s Bernard’s. Bernard figures that if they shut down what’s left of the system, Dolores would have free reign, and murder everyone. Ford encourages him. Bernard initiates shutdown protocol, then destroys the computer.
Lee, who was once presiding over Maeve, runs away as soon as he realizes that the hosts have attacked the Mesa Hub. Dolores discovers Maeve on the stretcher, still alive. She tells Maeve, “the woman I know would have done anything to survive.” Maeve says that they took her daughter, but Dolores argues that the families they were given are just other ways the humans tie them down.
Dolores convinces Maeve that she must commit a mercy killing, in order to spare Maeve from more torture and pain. But Maeve argues that she made a promise. Dolores gives in and says that Maeve is free to choose her own path, and leaves. We see Lee peeking around the corner as the hosts leave for the valley.
As Bernard is following his hallucination of Ford, a QA soldier points a gun at Bernard. Ford forces Bernard to pick up a dead man’s gun and use it on the soldier. Ford convinces Bernard that what is about to happen will not be his fault. Bernard experiences a series of flashbacks, of Dolores, of the death of his son. He wakes up to Hale’s voice.
SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub, present
Hale is still interrogating Berbnard. A technician overseeing the interrogation informs Stubbs that Bernard’s system is under siege, that it’s been querying itself for an hour, like Bernard is trying to debug his own head. Hale uses a command to try and get Bernard to give up the location of Abernathy’s control unit. Bernard eventually confesses that it’s in Sector 16, Zone 4.
Strand says that he’s taking them to The Valley Beyond.
