Just wrapped up episode 7, wherein we learn THERE IS ANOTHER LEVEL TO THIS GAME. And that's one of the problems with the writers: they love their mazes, their labyrinths, their 'oh aren't we so clever!' explanations. It wasn't Rehoboam that was the mastermind, it was Solomon - and that was actually Serac's brother; see, he came up with the plan, yada yada yada. You can buy it in the first and second season because it's wrapped up in the park; it's a closed system, as it were. Here, they're just trying really, really hard to get that #1 record again, and it shows.
Plus, giving Caleb this weird memory-altered past really ruins him. He worked because he was just this random lowlife who had an interesting backstory that it seemed like Dolores just happened to run into (rewatches show this is not the case). His journey was one of enlightenment, of seeing the world like Dolores did in season 1. But then they go too far in making him into Dolores, by crafting this intricate and manipulated history for him that undercuts the progress he made; now, he did this because it was all someone else's plan. His agency is gone. Ironic, really. And they just sorta turn Dolores into the Joker, who is so smart she's 10 steps ahead of everyone and literally everything that has to go right for her goes right.
Cool fight between her and Maeve, tho.
