The fact that the game asks questions at the start of each subsequent episode is the norm, and as for Bardie, I was thinking...When many of us finished "Ep2 v16 with Bardie" and started playing Ep3, then still (albeit formally, without any quests) Bardie in the 3rd episode was built in, and finally DM removed him, if I remember correctly, only in Ep3v4. But years go by, the "final" ver. (Ep3 v16) has already been released, in which Bardie is long gone, and how the game will behave in this case is an open question.
So, perhaps, the very occurrence of such questions (even if we assume that the player 100% passed "Ep2v16 with Bardie" and opened all possible scenes and renders) is really due to the absence of Bardie in the Ep3v16 build, but at the same time some variables "inherited" from the little asshole, in Ep3v16 may well be responsible for other events of the "Home" branch, which replaced Bardie and therefore in any case at the start of Ep3 the game will offer to answer some questions about Ep2. It would be great to clarify this point so I can put it in the
FAQ. Perhaps
vimmers knows more about this, he's one of the few who managed to get through the Ep2 content 100%.