Thankfully, we got this ripping season finale, which moved us out of Westworld and more into the "real" world, with Maeve gang-busting out of the facility with two of her Host cohorts, and bringing Bernard back online in the process. They go out literally guns blazing, tearing their way through facility security guards in way that suggests this show is really some kind of Terminator-esque, Rise of the Machines origin story. But when Maeve finally makes it to the train, finally free of her false world, she turns back, newly resolute on finding her child (The one that's supposedly fake because of the memories planted in her).
That brings us to the central theme of the episode: Choices. Apparently the Maze is a metaphor for Arnold's process through which the Hosts can achieve consciousness, making choices that either brings them closer to or further away from gaining sentient status. Every Host in Westworld can achieve consciousness, but only through making choices, and in the case of this episode, that means shooting a whole bunch of people.
The Man in Black finally has Dolores cornered, and he forces her to explain the Maze to him, which involves her showing him a child's toy maze. The game belonged to Arnold's son, whom we learn was real and actually died of cancer, motivating Arnold to attempt and achieve consciousness within the Hosts. So when those Hosts kept telling the Man in Black that "The Maze isn't meant for you," they were right. But the Man in Black still wants the Hosts to fight back, to bring real world stakes into Westworld, and it's upon learning the Will is the Man in Black, and that we've been watching two stories occurring at different points in time, taking place side by side, that things really come full circle. The Man in Black/Will owns Westworld, and he has been on an epic quest to make the world he owns make him feel real pain. Dolores obliges him, breaking his arm, and telling him that Westworld belongs to the hosts, again a Rise of the Machines style proclamation.
But there are even more revelations to be had, as we also learn that Ford knew of Arnold's drive to achieve consciousness in the Hosts, and that Arnold did not want the park opened because he feared such an existence as sentient beings would be torture for them. So Arnold conspired with Dolores to kill all the hosts in Westworld, by creating a new persona to implant in her mind: Wyatt. Yes, the same Wyatt that the Man in Black/Will has been searching for this entire season. That storyline was a red herring, a legendarily murderous but ultimately non-existent character who is instead the embodiment of Arnold's desire to destroy Westworld before it had even begun, which meant destroying himself as well. Dolores shoots Arnold, and then herself, in the hopes that no one would be able to revive the Hosts without Arnold. So we now know the reason why Bernard was really built: As an Arnold replacement needed to run Westworld (This is probably the single most annoying thing about this show, at least for me. The ability to just build a super smart Host creator upon the death of the real one is just way too convenient to actually be plausible, even in a fictional world).
Ford has something up his sleeve, however, and it turns out his new narrative is exactly what the Man in Black/Will has been looking for: Real world stakes and real world danger. In order to become truly conscious, Ford explains to Dolores, you have to make tough choices, which in this case means shooting Ford in the back of the head, in front of Westworld's board of directors, no less. The Man in Black/Will looks gleeful at the prospect of being killed by one of the many previously decommissioned Hosts descending upon the board's party, and we are left waiting for next season with the prospect of a machine uprising, which is what Ford's new secret narrative turns out to actually have been all along. Ford admits to having to having been persuaded by Arnold's pleas to free the Hosts after the fact, and now claims to not only support their quests for consciousness, but to allow them to wreak havoc upon the real world.
Things are still convoluted to be sure, but we've finally gotten some satisfying explanations for this season's most maddening questions. What the Man in Black is looking for, what the Maze is, and what is going on in Dolores's mind have been wrapped up, leading us toward a very different season 2. The show started out as a sort of futuristic corporate drama, suddenly switching to a robots-with-feelings fight back thriller halfway through the season. The unexpected shift places the show on shaky ground, but things have been somewhat shored up with the season finale, with a lot more thrills (And hopefully Samurai World) to come.
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