At least, unless you were paying close attention to the camera work, which Nolan claims is the key to it all. So from that point until the last time we saw her, it wasn't extremely clear where Maeve's true motivations rested. The troublesome part of that reveal was Maeve destroying the monitoring device Bernard was holding before he could say what the next part of the escape plan was, especially since it wasn't a move that she made of her own volition. Maeve thought for a while that she was the one working with all the pieces to the puzzle, until Bernard peeled yet another curtain back to show she was still being manipulated.
She can get off the train, at which point we shift to handheld camera which we'd held back on up until one moment with her and one moment with Dolores.Īstonishingly, Jonathan Nolan seems to be giving audiences a flat-out answer to one of the finale's more confusing sequences in his interview on the Vulture TV Podcast. Which is, she's not going to fulfill the sort-of script that she's been given take this train wherever it's going, do whatever else she's programmed to do.
She makes the decision, what we understand in the moment is actually the first real decision she has made all season. When Maeve gets onto that train, the Steadicam is leading her over, keeping pace with her. You might have missed one big visual clue here that co-creator Jonathan Nolan, who also directed the episode, explained:
It occurred after Bernard's shocking reveal that much of Maeve's seemingly independent actions this season were actually part of an updated narrative, and instead of escaping as originally intended, Maeve exits the train to seek out her daughter from her memories. Westworld's web of mysteries tied up some loose strands in the masterful and viewer-heavy season finale, though it also created more questions, and one of the most discussed scenes was Maeve's Big Decision on the train.