The Man in Black rescues an outlaw host named Lawrence to help him on his quest to find "the center of the maze". Traveling as a reluctant "plus one" for his best friend and future brother-in-law Logan, William finds himself enamored with a young rancher's daughter, Dolores. Meanwhile, a chance encounter between Dolores and Maeve leads to Maeve slowly realizing that she is a host as she is haunted by memories of a previous "life" in Westworld where she was a widow with a daughter who one day found their home under siege from Indians... though it is William that ultimately kills both mother and daughter. As Dolores finds a gun outside her homestead and flees, past and future begin to merge as Dolores begins reliving her first meeting with William.
Meanwhile Lee Sizemore unveils an ambitious new "narrative" arc for Westworld which is soundly rejected by Ford, who has his own idea for a new "storyline" for park visitors.
This episode provides examples of:
- Battle Discretion Shot / Sound-Only Death: We don't see how the Man in Black guns down all the men from the posse as the camera remains focuses on Lawrence' blindfolded face the whole time.
- Blown Across the Room: The waiter in Lawrence' hometown when being shot by the Man in Black.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- That gun Dolores finds will go on to play a big role in the plot.
- Early on, Maeve mentions that whenever she has a nightmare, she counts down from three, and wakes up. Later, Elsie mentions that the hosts aren't actually programmed to have nightmares, they're just past memories that are explained as such. Maeve has a nightmare of a previous life where she was murdered by the Man in Black, and she counts down from three to wake up from it... and does so in the middle of an examination by Delos host technicians.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: In his final costume decision, William has a choice between a white hat or black hat. Clearly, he sees himself as the good guy. Logan prefers black.
- Concealment Equals Cover: Averted. When the Man in Black is gunning down a posse, one gunman dives behind an adobe wall. He switches to the shotgun round in his revolver and shoots the guy right through the wall.
- Establishing Character Moment: The scene of William and Logan arriving in Westworld quickly establishes Logan as a jerk and shows the tense relationship he has with his future brother-in-law. William on the other hand is shown to be reluctant to partake in the park's pleasures, but he eagerly puts on the white hat.
- Intimate Open Shirt: When William first arrives in the park, the Host showing him around starts unbuttoning his shirt to help him get changed, and makes it clear she's available for anything else he might want. Somewhat uncomfortable with this, William rebuffs her.
- Little "No": Dr. Ford rejects Sizemore's new story line with one.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Maeve has first her aggression, then her cognition and perception dialed up. She then wakes up during an operation, holds off the technicians at scalpel-point and goes exploring, seeing far too much in the process. The techs knock her out and drag her back to the operating room. Thinking it's due to an error on their part, they're more interested in covering up what happened than reporting it.
- "Reason You Suck" Speech: Ford's criticism of Sizemore's proposed story line, capped off with a contemptuous remark that his story misses the true purpose of the park and says more about him than it does about anything else.
- Refusal of the Call: Logan warns William not to talk to the hosts in town unnecessarily since many of them are actually narrative starting points and will try to rope the guest into an adventure. When William disregards this advice, it results in a host prospector urging them to go on a treasure hunting trip. Logan declines by stabbing the host in the hand.
- Second Episode Introduction: Guests William and Logan first appear in the second episode.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The hosts have organic components, and at one point Maeve gets an MRSA infection in her innards from the mistreatment and abuse she receives from the guests.
- Tantrum Throwing: Sizemore displays a hot temper when being presented with an Indian host with an abnormal big nose. He starts throwing things around shouting "Start the fuck over!"
- Tempting Fate: Elsie muses that nightmares are actually memories, and comments on what that might mean."Can you imagine how fucked we'd be if these poor assholes ever remembered what the guests do to them?"
- Wham Shot: Dolores is compelled to walk to a certain spot and unearth a gun which has apparently been buried there for quite some time.
- What You Are in the Dark: Westworld deliberately invokes this. As we've seen already, the results aren't always pretty.
- Would Hit a Girl: The Man in Black.
