With Maeve tracking her down, Dolores goes south of the border with Caleb, while Bernard, William and Stubbs enter a very new world.

It’s pleasing to know that even this far through its third season Westworld can surprise and delight, with a stunning pre-credits sequence that brings back two characters we haven’t seen for some time and a decapitation before the theme music has kicked in.

By the end of this penultimate episode we’re set up for what will hopefully be an explosive climax, and it’s only right that Aaron Paul’s Caleb is finally getting some resolution to his back story. For the last half dozen weeks we’ve been teased with flashbacks to his military past, and at last we discover what has been erased from his mind. Unusually for Westworld, it’s easy to follow, makes perfect sense in the context of the wider story, and leaves the Breaking Bad actor with a steely resolve to bring the system down.

Dolores and Maeve get the confrontation we’ve been waiting for all season, and it’s a messy, close combat, hand to hand (ultimately hand to stump!) scrap out in the dust, while trying to avoid the added peril of sniper rifles and incendiary drones. It’s a good action sequence, with director Helen Shaver (former Poltergeist: The Legacy cast member) putting her leads through some impressive moves.

Ed Harris’ Man in Black and Jeffrey Wright’s Bernard are also back in play, encountering a world that has gone to hell. They, like the other hosts, all have different motives and desired endgames and are now deciding who their enemies are and who they should be siding with. No Charlotte Hale this week, but she’ll be back for the finale.

Verdict: With one hour left, Westworld has all its characters in play, and at this stage I genuinely wonder what the resolution will be. We know that the show has been renewed, but who will be left standing to fight the next round? 8/10

Nick Joy