In a flashback, Arnold organizes a demonstration of the hosts to convince Logan to invest in Westworld. Logan's father, James Delos, is critical of his son's actions until William persuades him that the park can be used to spy on the guests. James proceeds to buy out the park and name William as his successor. Dolores encounters an embittered Logan, who tells her that they have doomed humanity. William shows her a special project that he is constructing within the park.
In the present day, Dolores raids a refurbishment outpost and shows Teddy his true nature as a host. She then decides to recruit the Confederados to her cause and reveals she is searching for "the Valley Beyond", which houses a weapon that can be used against the humans.
William rescues Lawrence and heads to Pariah to recruit the host currently playing El Lazo. El Lazo, however, passes on a message from Ford, stating that William must complete the game on his own. He and his gang then commit mass suicide to prevent William from recruiting them. Undeterred by the setback, William continues on his quest to destroy his "greatest mistake".
This episode provides examples of:
- Addled Addict: Combined with How the Mighty Have Fallen. Logan has not taken William usurping his place at Delos very well, and is now shooting up what looks like heroin in the middle of a business party. He barely even recognizes Dolores when he sees her.
- Back from the Dead: In order to convince Major Craddock that she should be in charge, Dolores has him and his men shot then forces Phil, a Livestock Management technician, to revive him, telling him that she killed God.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Subverted. Last season implied that Logan was becoming more of an asshole the longer he was in Westworld, but that he was at least professional and level headed in the outside world. Flashbacks reveal that he was even more of a Manchild in the outside world, just less violent.
- Black Bra and Panties: Angela is seen in Logan's room putting her black lingerie back on.
- Blasphemous Boast:Dolores: (after having "killed" and resurrected a group of hosts to work in her service) You're right. We have toiled in God's service for long enough. So I killed him. If you want to get to Glory, you won't be looking for His favour. You'll need mine.
- Boom, Headshot!: Ford's will continues to exert itself in the new game he planned for William. When William tries to recruit an army of men from Pariah by threatening the new El Lazo, Ford speaks through El Lazo and tells him it won't be that easy, and all of the hosts, including El Lazo, promptly kill themselves this way.
- The Cameo: Clementine Pennyfeather (the original) makes a cameo playing the piano at the Hosts demonstration to Logan. Later, she appears at James Delos' retirement party, serving drinks. Armistice appears as a sheriff's deputy in William's demonstration to James Delos.
- Lawrence's daughter also has a blink-and-you-miss cameo in the flashback to James Delos' retirement party.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The camera pays a lot of attention to a specific male host at the demonstration party for Logan, played by Jonathan Tucker, despite the fact that he does nothing of importance. 35+ years later, he turns up as the head of the Confederados, Major Craddock.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Dolores has Angela torture one of the Westworld guards to tell them how many Delos soldiers are likely on the way to confront them. She does this by forcing his face into a vat of the raw material hosts are 3D Printed from. Apparently, it burns like hell.
- Cold Open: The first in the series. Made even more effective by the use of music that begins with a similar sound to the main titles theme song (the closed captions even mistakenly say that it is the theme music playing).
- Compartment Shot: The shot from inside the wall of the tavern when the Man in Black picks up the med kit.
- Cool vs. Awesome: Maeve and Dolores have a tense standoff when the two groups meet, and their wildly different goals and philosophies prevent them from teaming up.
- Crazy-Prepared: William took the precaution of hiding a med kit in a tavern in the park, just in case he ever got his wish of the stakes becoming real.
- Dead Guy on Display: When the Man in Black and Lawrence reach Pariah, they are greeted by the body of a hanged soldier.
- Dented Iron: William's injuries are starting to catch up to him, and he is having a harder time dealing with the murderous hosts. He gets desperate enough to access a hidden med kit to treat a new bullet wound in his forearm.
- Desecrating the Dead: The Man in Black riddles the corpse of El Lazo with bullets out of anger.
- Developer's Foresight: Ford apparently anticipated ways in which William would try to "cheat" at his new game, and his will actively works to make sure William keeps playing in Hard Mode only.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- William pitches to James Delos the idea of using Westworld for data mining on the Guests.
- Phil, the lifestock Management technician is kidnapped and tied up by Dolores, Teddy and Angela, forced to walk as the trio rides. Phil is African-American while Dolores, Teddy and Angela are modeled after Caucasians.
- Dramatic Irony: Several examples:
- Arnold and Ford originally pitched the host technology to Logan, who was having a drink with William, and wanted to use Dolores to do so. However, Arnold reconsidered and sent Angela instead, and the delay caused by the change meant William left the table before seeing a demonstration of the host technology. In other words, William and Dolores should have met before the founding of Westworld, but she Missed Him by That Much.
- William pitches Westworld to James Delos as a perfect opportunity for data mining, but we know from last season that Ford explicitly kept this from being a feasible option by restricting all outgoing information from the parks to the mainland, necessitating all of Charlotte's machinations.
- Face Framed in Shadow: El Lazo's face is poorly lit when the Man in Black meets him.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Armistice, sans tattoo, is one of the Sheriff's deputies in Sweetwater when James Delos visits the park for the first time.
- Lawrence's daughter was present at James Delos' retirement party.
- Grew a Spine: When pitching the continued funding of Westworld to James Delos, the latter is impressed that William is able to speak to him that way and calls him "a cheeky little cunt" for being so brazen, then goes along with the idea because he has a point.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Implied by James Delos, when he talks about not having much time left and then visibly coughs several times.
- Ironic Echo: "Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor?" Spoken by Dolores when Arnold shows her the East Asian cityscape visible from his hotel room. Arnold actually replies with a variation of the arc words "It doesn't look like anything to me" and tells her he likes seeing it through her eyes. Later in the same scene, she looks at the city again and repeats her "splendor" line, which visibly disappoints Arnold as it means she is still adhering to her programming. Several years later, she looks at a different cityscape over the ocean, and repeats the exact same question to herself while an inebriated Logan watches. Finally, William parrots it back to her when showing her his "weapon" he's having built within the park.
- Kick the Dog: In a flashback, William has Dolores removed from the park and has her play the piano at James Delos's retirement party, in a twisted completion of his previously good-natured desire to "get her out of the park", i.e., rescue her. Then he subtly shows off his wife and child to Dolores, as if to show her how happy he is without her.
- Later, William has Dolores brought to him inside the park, where he belittles her as an object to be used.
- "Last Supper" Steal: The group of Confederados that Dolores's group confronts are arranged this way. To add to the imagery, Dolores kills the man in Jesus's position, Major Craddock, and then promptly has a tech "resurrect" him by bringing him back online.
- Legacy Character: Lawrence's role as El Lazo from 30 years ago was taken over by a different host, who played him until the present.
- Loving a Shadow: Invoked by William in a flashback to a reunion with Dolores. He implies that he only loved her because he saw a reflection of himself in her.
- Mythology Gag: When Dolores has the tech bring Lieutenant Dunlevy back online, it's done improperly, leaving him with inhumanly black eyes, the same as the Gunslinger possessed in the original 1973 film.
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: In flashbacks, Logan is taken to a room full of people, told one is a host, and is challenged to determine which one. After scanning the room for a bit, he determines Angela, one of his guides, is the host because she's too perfect. She smiles, then the whole room stops moving; they're all hosts.
- Nonviolent Initial Confrontation: Between Dolores and Maeve.
- Off the Rails: In addition to the host revolution throwing things out of whack, the hosts that are still on their narratives have been affected by the reprogramming. They're harder to kill and fight better, which in turn is affecting their narratives. Lawrence is nearly hung by hosts he should have been able to kill, and narratives are playing out well past their intended end since no one is around to reset them.
- Race Lift: In universe, Lawrence has been replaced as "El Lazo" by a new host, played by Giancarlo Esposito.
- Rags to Riches: Implied by the narrative and confirmed in the Inside the Episode feature: James Delos has a coarse Scottish accent that is completely at odds with the opulent surroundings of the Delos beach house property.
- The Reveal: Many.
- Logan, and by extension Delos, was one of the original backers of The Argos Initiative, the startup, created by Ford and Arnold, that first developed the host technology and would later create Westworld before Arnold's change of heart.
- Angela and Akecheta, like Dolores, are some of the first generation of purely mechanical hosts, and originally had a much larger role in the creation of the park.
- Logan survived William's humiliation of him but was ousted from his position and completely went off the wagon into drug use.
- Delos saved Westworld because they wanted to use it for market research and data mining, explaining the room Charlotte and Bernard fled to last episode.
- William developed some sort of weapon, using a terraformed area at the west end of Westworld, and was arrogant enough to show it to Dolores. In the present, Dolores is searching for it to use it, while a regretful William now wants to destroy it.
- Not all of the hosts in the present day have started killing guests. All of them do seem to have had their Perception Filter deactivated and are now Made of Iron within the context of their loops. This means their narratives are going Off the Rails because they are now harder to kill. When they reach the end of their loops, they seem to go into full improvisation mode.
- Running Gag: William once again rescues Lawrence from execution but has a harder time of it because the locals can fight back and are harder to kill.
- Shout-Out: Giancarlo Esposito once again plays the head of a criminal empire. He's even doing doing Gus Fring's accent to add icing on the cake.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Maeve takes a short listen to Dolores's grand pronouncements of revolution, sneers at it as pretentious blathering and walks away.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: William showed Dolores the secret at the west end of Westworld, thinking she wouldn't remember anyway. Now that she has all her memories, she's headed there same as he.
- Vocal Evolution: In flashbacks to after he's ousted Logan from Delos, William is beginning to take on the vocal patterns of the Man in Black.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: The Man in Black removes the bullet from his lower arm with a knife. Justified as he has advanced medical tools at his disposal.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Retroactively. The last time we saw Lawrence in Season 1, he was playing card tricks for the Delos Board during the Gala. Somehow, he ends up trapped by a trio of bandit hosts who are still playing their loop and have yet to become aware of his true nature, thus requiring William to save him again.
- What You Are in the Dark: This is a key part of William's pitch to potential investors in the titular park, beyond just creating a massive pleasure resort where people could drink, fight, and fornicate at will. He argues that observing people's impulses when they're not bound by the conventions of society, instead interacting only with androids programmed to serve their whims, could be a gold mine for market research and data mining.
- While Rome Burns: Logan, while clearly high as a kite, has a surprisingly vulnerable conversation with Dolores, where he reveals that he considers everyone at the Delos party to be doing just this, but doesn't say why.
