Though the Season 1 finale of Westworld did a fine job answering many of the show's lingering questions, fans identified one major loose end in Maeve's (Thandie Newton) climactic moment. Faced with the chance to finally escape Westworld—on that shiny and luxurious guest train, no less—Maeve instead chose to stay behind in the park and search for her lost daughter.
Though this decision seemed to indicate that Maeve was defying her programming, and specifically the path assigned to her by Ford (Anthony Hopkins), viewers were split on whether this was a genuine moment of free will—her daughter, after all, is just another host to whom she's programmed to feel a biological bond. But according to co-creator Jonathan Nolan, this moment was not a red herring.
"The way we designed and shot it... that is the first decision she has ever made of her own free will," Nolan said at Paleyfest this weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. So that's one less mystery to obsess over during the long, long Westworld hiatus, since Season 2 will not debut until 2018. In the meantime, you can catch up with our predictions for that season right here.
