We should have seen that 'Westworld' reveal coming back in Episode 1

With a show like Westworld, it's hard to get any reveal past avid Reddit theorists and media obsessives (hi, hello -- that is us.) Yet somehow, showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan managed to pull it off on Sunday's "Vanishing Point."

A running mystery (among the many millions) this season revolved around the Delos Corporation's ability to accurately copy guest cognition. The answer turned out to be so obvious in hindsight, we can't stop kicking ourselves for letting it go completely over our heads (literally.)

It's the damn hats! Duh. We should've known they'd be important based on the sheer amount of lingering shots and close ups putting cowboy hats front and center. A black hat is legit one of two thing on this season's promotional poster, damnit!

But the most embarrassing missed clue of all is the one Westworld put right in front of our eyeballs all the way back in Episode 1 of Season 2:

Yup, that's stacks upon stacks of black hats just chilling in the background right there. And they're inside the cabinets of Delos' super secret guest data research facility, visited by Bernard and Charlotte shortly after the Ford party massacre from Season 1.

Honestly every one of us should be getting our Westworld Theory PhD's revoked for this. Because to add insult to injury, Lisa Joy herself even spelled out the reveal clear as day during her Reddit AMA after the airing of Episode 4 (which was her directorial debut):

But clever clues aside, some fans were actually a bit put off by the hat reveal.

In a show that tends toward intricacy to the point of being flat out convoluted, the hat answer feels a little too convenient and implausible. It answered a question no one really needed answered, while simultaneously bringing unnecessary scrutiny to the logistics of how this sci-fi tech works.

For example: What does Delos do if people don't want to wear the hats, or lose them? What about all the guests we saw in the last season who weren't wearing hats -- like women in fancy dresses, where a cowboy hat would ruin the whole costume? Most glaringly, what's the equivalent of the cowboy hats in Shogun or Raj World, where there were many bare-headed guests?

Regardless, we at least have to give the creators credit for fooling one of the most eagle-eyed fan bases in existence. Hats off to you one this one, Westworld.