The End Of This Week's 'Westworld' May Have Changed Everything In A Major Ways

This week's episode of Westworld was one of the most violent yet. Dolores, still on her messiah-like kick, took her faithful followers to Fort Forlorn Hope for what seems like the first of many stand-offs against those in charge of the park attempting to take down the host rebellion. Like the followers she collected last week, most seemed unaware that the game had changed. Rather than fully explain, Dolores is handing out knowledge on a need-to-know basis, that is until Teddy took matters into his own hands. Does Teddy betray Dolores in Westworld? Warning: Spoilers for Westworld Season 2 follow.

Since Teddy saw the truth about himself last week, he's been working through how he feels about it. In the meantime, he's been defaulting to his "Do What Dolores Says" programming. But he's just about done thinking. And he's starting to realize he doesn't have to follow that programming anymore, including not having to listen to Dolores.

One of the more confusing things about this season is that there is an easy way for Dolores to explain to everyone what's happening and the reality of the Westworld park. If she took them underground like she did Teddy, and let them all see the labs below, that would open many eyes. But her Wyatt persona seems uninterested in a true liberation of her people. As viewers saw this week, most of the hosts in the park aren't even people to her, let alone equals. They are pawns in a game she's playing, and most of them aren't "worthy" to make it to her final destination.

It's hard to reconcile this against the Dolores we saw when Peter Abernathy turned up along with Bernard. Dolores is still programmed to see Peter as her father and has memories of years of their loop together. While she's allowing those to die outside, inside, she's trying to keep her father safe.

At least this week we learn how Bernard and Charlotte get separated. She leaves him behind when she steals Abernathy away. Bernard, whose critical function shutdown is playing on-screen a little like someone who has multiple sclerosis, aka something that disables the nervous system, is left behind lying in the dirt. He's completely helpless, and in dire need of someone to repair him. Dolores knows his true nature, though she hasn't revealed it, and even seems to return to her kind self around him. When Amanda comes and drags him away towards the end of the episode, it's hard not to wonder if she knows the truth about him too or not.

But Peter Abernathy and Bernard are mere sideshows for the main event, the attack on the Fort. It's a slaughter, as one might imagine, with the humans armed with machine guns, and the hosts armed with 1890s rifles. But Dolores' ruthlessness carries the day, Since she has no regard for the lives of the hosts, she happily sets off all the nitro, killing everyone out front, and winning the day.

This is the first time we've seen the Dolores played back on the video in the season premiere, telling one of the Ghost Nation men not everyone can go to the Valley Beyond. To her, none of those they brought with them to Fort Forlorn Hope were going any further, and neither were those stationed there. They were simply means to an end.

This disregard for life isn't sitting well with Teddy though. When Dolores announces they won't be taking the survivors with them, and orders him to take them all out back and execute them, he hesitates before acquiescing. This marks the second time he's questioned spilling blood for her this hour.

But once out back, believing Dolores isn't looking, he chooses to not do as told. He tells them all to run. For the first time Teddy is choosing who he wants to be, a good, compassionate person. There's been too much blood already, he's done spilling it.

Dolores was watching though, and she knows. How badly will this go for Teddy? I can only imagine the worst.