I don't think it's so much about Anthony Hopkins popping out, it's more what people have said earlier - the lack of people to root for. I was rarely rooting for Ford. But many of us enjoyed rooting for young William, waiting to find out who the man in black was, seeing the behind-the-scenes factory areas being utilised, the romance offered by Dolores, the whodunnit-ness of things... this season has been lacking in most of these areas. Maeve is awake now but the fascination of her becoming self-aware is gone and we won't get that back too soon. Instead we have her chasing off after her daughter, but it seems to have too many distractions with little progress so we end up having "bit part" episodes like the one just now featuring Sakura. Dolores going badass also leaves too little of interest for many as we no longer have the wonder, just the war. I think the enjoyment in the first season was mostly surrounding the birthing of the situation, but now that we have reached that point we're not sure if they can give us anything that will match it. I almost wish that the final season ended in a reboot of the systems and then we start over.

I'm still really enjoying the William + Laurence episodes and have hope Maeve will get somewhere soon. I have a lot of interest in what will come next but I'm not sure I'll have as much interest at the end of the season. This will likely not be a Game of Thrones, but it could still hold me as long as Lost (watched the whole thing). Let's just hope it won't be another Heroes (gave up on second season).

I feel like I'll enjoy things a lot more if we can get a bit more innocence back into the show. We had good guys before, just trying to make their way through. It seems everyone is a badass these days and it can be tiring.