As for the Man in Black, William is firmly of the belief that Emily is a Host built and sent by Ford to torture him and get him to play the “game” by the rules, and does not believe her story of coming to the park at the invitation of Charlotte Hale. However, she proves to be an apt gunslinger when she saves his men from walking into a honeypot, and William gives her a chance, allowing her to explain her motivation for meeting him that night over the campfire. She reveals she is there to apologize for blaming her mother’s death on William and stop him from throwing away his life in a suicidal mission in the park. They agree to head to the beach in the morning and wait for Delos reinforcements, but when Emily wakes up, she has been deserted (minus one man to keep an eye on her), and she realizes William still does not believe she is really his daughter. Or he does believe her, and he does not care.
At the Mesa, Charlotte and Stubbs make sure Peter Abernathy does not escape again when she orders a tech to use a bolt-gun to nail the Host down to a table, ignoring his cries of pain in the process. Stubbs clearly feels like he has lost all control, especially when the first Delos team drops in by parachute, and are led by a man with an Irish accent who claims to know a lot more about the park that the head of security ever has. The new guy takes command even as they head to the map-room which has just become functional again and see Dolores’s train heading right for them.
Lastly, we have Elsie and Bernard, who followed the train tracks back to the Mesa earlier in the episode, and have made their way inside, though QA does not yet know they have arrived. They try to connect to the park systems but find out the “Cradle” system is still working against any hacks they make to fix whatever Ford did, and they realize they will have to go into the Cradle itself to fix things. So they make their way to the Cradle chambers, and inside Elsie confirms she is still shut out, and that the Cradle seems to be actively working against any human programmers trying to fix the park, and also seems to be sending out signals and story information to the Hosts. To see for himself what is going on INSIDE the Cradle matrix (for lack of a better term), Bernard has Elsie plug him directly in, which involves removing his Host brain and leaving his body basically a shell, while his mind wanders around inside the Cradle. Once inside, Bernard makes his way through a digital Sweetwater, which looks to be operating normally, only he sees a very familiar dog roaming around. He follows the mutt inside the saloon and finds a familiar figure draped in shadows playing the piano. As Bernard looks on in shock, we see the reflection of Ford look up, and welcome his friend right before the episode ends.
WORLD OF THEORIES:
Bernard’s body is open! And Dolores is at the Mesa, as is Teddy, and now even Ford is a potential contender for the mind that could be plugged into Bernard’s body, and be the actual person who claims “I killed them all” in episode 1 of the season. I’m very excited!- Every scene in the “Cradle” is full WIDESCREEN, meaning extra black bars at the top and bottom of the picture. I went back and checked and every interview with Dolores and Bernard this season is also full WIDESCREEN. I think Dolores is going to get into the Cradle with Bernard and start messing with his head…
- Could new, bad-ass Teddy be too much for Dolores to handle? She seems a little disturbed when he executes her prisoner so callously…
- Did Maeve really let her daughter’s mom did so easily at the hands of the Ghost Nation? And does the Ghost Nation think she is a on a similar path to them because she too is looking after humans in her care instead of killing them?
- If Ford is alive in the Cradle and still pulling all the strings, does that mean everything in the park is still his design, and no one, not even Maeve or Dolores, truly has free will?
- I cannot be the only one who thinks that was not the last we’ll see of Akane or Musashi, though it might just be wishful thinking on my part as I really loved those characters.
Loved the Ford reveal at the end and the potential implications of his presence in the Cradle. Cannot wait to see where they go from there, especially with the Bernard stuff. I’m also very excited to see so many characters meeting up at the Mesa as the convergence of characters usually means we are getting into end-game. Only thing that is missing is Maeve vs. Dolores, but we have 4 episodes left, so it could still happen. Either way, I was very happy with this week’s showing, and I hope they manage to keep it up for next week! See you back here then!
