What Happened This Week On 'Westworld' Season 3: "The Winter Line"

After a strong premiere episode that felt like a soft reboot, Westworld returns to its roots with the second episode of season 3. And while some may welcome the return, the end result was a bit of a wash. The show is quickly falling back into old habits, dumping tuns of cryptic exposition on our heads and forcing Thandie Newton to call people "darling" every ten seconds. To the episode's credit, it doesn't keep us dangling for too long, and actually provides us with some answers – something past episodes have struggled with. But is that enough? Let's find out what happened this week on Westworld season 3.

After sitting last week out, Maeve (Thandie Newton) returns, and she's in a whole new park. Call it World War II World, or Nazi World if you want. And hey, Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) is there, too! But wait, there's a twist! It turns out neither of them is really there. Because Maeve isn't in a park at all. She's in a simulation. You know, like The Matrix.

Just kidding. Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman), everyone's least-favorite Westworld character, seemed to meet his demise last season. But he returns here...sort of. Maeve eventually catches on that the real Lee is dead, and this guy she's dealing with here is part of the elaborate simulation she's currently stuck in. In any case, I really hope this is the last we see of Lee.

It's apparently really easy to sneak into Westworld. All you need to do is...rent a small fishing boat. Bernard returns to the island, and he has a plan: find Maeve and get her to help him in his inevitable battle against Dolores. Of course, Maeve is a little busy elsewhere at the moment.

Just in case you haven't figured that one out yet, let there be no more doubt: Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) is indeed a robot. And he tried to blow his robot brains out, but missed. Bernard is able to repair him, though – and then turn Stubbs into his personal bodyguard. Tough break, Stubbs.

Back in 2016, word surfaced that George R.R. Martin actually pitched Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy on a potential Westworld/Game of Thrones crossover. Nolan and Joy turned the idea down at the time, but it looks like they kept the idea in their back pocket. As Bernard and Stubbs are roaming the halls of Delos, they pass a room where one of the Game of Thrones dragons –  Drogon – can be seen chilling out. And that's not all. Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are also there, playing technicians who are talking about potentially running off to Costa Rica with their giant dragon robot.

That would be Engerraud Serac (Vincent Cassel), who is rich and also clearly evil, like most rich people. He's the one who put Maeve in her simulation within a simulation, and eventually, he pulls her out into the real world. Like Bernard, Serac wants to recruit Maeve to stop Dolores. But while Bernard doesn't have an entirely concrete plan worked out yet, Serac does: he wants Dolores dead, and he wants Maeve to be the one to kill her. And Maeve doesn't appear to have much choice in the matter at the moment.