Me too, I love Thandie as an actress and as a person, I hope her character doesn't get herself killed.
In the last episode it became apparent that one of the guys is doing it out of compassion, only a major ass(like the ginger dude) wouldn't have compassion at this point, she's showing actual consciousness like a human being. I don't get the hate for this plot.
It was apparent from the scenes with the bird. The whole point of those scenes was a) to show Felix's level of empathy and even love for artificial constructs (note his child-like glee and wonder once the bird starts to fly around the room), and b) his particular skill at programming for someone at his position, which Maeve herself later remarked on. It's clear why he has such difficulty with the idea of basically killing what he progressively sees as more and more human, if he felt that way about a simple robotic bird. One of the show's major themes is that being alive is tied to the act of remembering, so wiping a host's memories in Felix's eyes (which is what formatting her would do) is akin to killing them.
I also don't get the hatred for those scenes. Maeve was literally designed to be a master manipulator since her brothel character is to persuade and effectively control guests, usually men, and that was before all of her upgrades. She directs her threats and manipulations in a very calculated way, reserving the violence and overt threats for Sylvester, who would only ever respond to such things, and otherwise playing on Felix's empathy. She was able to quickly read them both and adapt what she says and does to get them to do exactly what she wants. It's important to remember that Maeve was superhumanly intelligent and capable even before they boosted her intellect further. Felix noted that she was like a human in every way except that her brain works much more quickly, and that she can be controlled. When she can't be controlled so easily, what's left is that she's vastly more capable than any human, thinking several steps ahead without effort. Is it such a surprise that two relatively regular Joes are like putty in her hands?
