I think about this way too much because I'm still extremely angry over There Will Be Blood being deemed ineligible.

GRRM met with the writers about it awhile back.

Oh, for sure. The above comment isn't a criticism so much as me wondering where they go with the structure from here.

Ah, gotcha. I wasn't sure if it had been stated elsewhere in the show.

Wait, where are you getting the 8 to 9 months from?

I think it might've been a little cooler to let a random guest stumble across "the maze" and thus run into the MiB. Maybe not have that occur until a little later in the season, though the MiB could've popped up before, obviously. At least that way, there'd be a character intro into it rather than just a puzzle…

Ford's father. Bernard thought it was Arnold, which is why he called Robo-Pops that when he first stumbles upon them in the house.

If it wasn't HBO that almost certainly would have been what happened (along with looking cheaper). Part of me thinks it would have helped some.

Which makes me think Maeve is the new Dolores in the Wyatt narrative, so I wonder if it folds into Ford's plans somehow.

There was a moment in one episode that I realized, from Logan's point of view, he is playing Grand Theft Auto and his future brother-in-law is telling him how one of the bystanders on the street is smart and different and buddy, will they let him fuck it?

Yup. The "Start at the beginning" cut to William on the train was when I figured he and the MiB were the same.

The Abyss is actually the movie I double checked images from when making the above comment because my memory of him in that one is definitely the old, grizzled dude.

Pretty much agreed. And I will admit that, early on, I thought that using the hosts as main characters and not simply as "others" we wait to Wake Up and Rise Up was an inspired choice. I feel like they lost the balance a bit there, however, which is what has made the stakes nonexistent for some viewers.

Even in-universe I couldn't think of a different explanation, rebranding companies is a Big Deal (even if it's just a logo change), and you don't just keep the other one around.

I think there's a lot of little character decisions that lead up to the feeling your expressing—or at least there is from my vantage point. I don't entirely feel the way you do, but I find myself wishing there was more to William's character and that perhaps the MiB reveal (if that is indeed the case) had happened…

I think the problem is that that they didn't do enough to establish relationships between people like the Control Staff. When Bernard's true self is revealed, it should feel like a deep betrayal by his best friend and mentor, but the show actively avoided any real moments of humanity, so when it acts like it attempts…

I like the show a lot, but one of my problems with it is how they've given the name Arnold such a portentous feeling. Maybe it's just me, but it always seems a little ridiculous that they speak of this secret other creator and then only use his first name. I don't know. It's a hard criticism for me to describe at the…

In his defense, Ed Harris has looked "grizzled and old" for like near three decades now.

At this point, it would be funny if it turned out Delos had perfectly ethical plans for the technology and were just like "Fuuuuuuuuck. Can you believe we bankrolled Dr r/Frankenstein over here? This fucking dork."

My guess, which I've mentioned elsewhere so forgive the repeat comment, is that Teddy's fictional memories of Wyatt's massacre in the new narrative are built upon his actual massacre of the town, which results in Arnold's death, at the behest of Dolores.