I suspect that Alicia was being influenced in some way in that exchange with Duke. I mean, yeah, he was being creepy as hell, but that is pretty normal for him at this point. She seems to have acted against her will. Like you, I think that it is less likely to be Liz consciously influencing things after this episode. Either she is doing it unknowingly, or there is some game force pushing things back to the game’s story line. However, if that was the case, wouldn’t it have influenced Duke and the handful of others that don’t seem affected by it by now?

Really fun episode with Alicia back and I am looking forward to more direct confrontations with Liz and co. going forward.