First rewatch in several years
Here is my thought. The central question of the movie seems to be whether Ziegler was lying to Bill about the “ruse”. Whether the model died on her own, etc.
Under Ziegler’s assertion, the hosts quickly realized Bill was a fraud, and used Mandy to “scare the shit out of him.” But doesn’t the timeline not hold up?
Ziegler says they knew Bill was a fraud principally in two ways - that he showed up in a taxi, and the receipt in his jacket. However, when the hosts would’ve found the receipt in his jacket, the ritual had already stated, and Mandy was a part of it. There would have been no time to let her know / start the ruse.
I assume this point has been made in here before but wanted to put it out there to see everyone’s thoughts!