Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-25396609-20191102162031/@comment-35434444-20191103203040

Before I forget -- I'm calling it right now, Winter is either Salem in disguise (unlikely but not impossible because https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM-UnV9TEzY) or otherwise under the influence of Salem and is doing the Saruman thing on Ironwood to weaken his mind and turn him into her puppet too, granting her basically unlimited access to the vault housing the relic, weaken Remnant's defences worldwide by embargoing Atlas' dust, and sow mistrust between the four nations.

Given her machinations against the gods, she's clearly demonstrated that she knows how to play on people's emotions, and get them to betray their better judgement, and gain control of the most powerful offices in the world. It's quite remarkable she wasn't introduced earlier in the story by doing something like this during the Vytal Festival -- it would just tie her character together so perfectly in across every dimension.