Of course the eighth episode of Westworld would be an hour of expository table setting. In this holy age of binge-friendly dramas, the next-to-next-to-last episode is an opportunity to tie up loose ends, clarify stakes, and put the characters on a path toward meaningful change. Which is to say that for a season of television to end on a high note, we get two episodes of all killer, preceded by one episode of all filler.
This episode sure delivered on the filler. Bernard’s “brain” got wiped. The William and Man in Black timelines were all but verified. Dolores had her umpteenth moment of self-awareness. And Maeve got robot controlling superpowers. I suspect in a couple weeks we will look back on Foreshadowpalooza 2016, and mine it for all of its little clues. But in real time, what a slog it was.
The theory:
Large chunks of the story are backstory “memories” within the mind of Dolores or other hosts.
The speculation:
Unlike speculation from past weeks, I don’t want this to be true, because the only thing with lower stakes than the lives of pseudo-immortal robots would be the dreams of pseudo-immortal robots. That said, Westworld’s writers have gone out of their way to remind us that what hosts perceive to be memories are often scripted backstories. That is to say the “memories” never happened.