Writer’s Note: Every Westworld episode review this season will involve spoilers of some kind so you have been warned.
!! Spoilers Start Now !!
Quick Synopsis
- Maeve (Thandie Newton) awakes in Warworld and is quickly found by Hector (Rodrigo Santoro), who has also been repurposed into the new narrative. He doesn’t recognize her as her former, awoken self. Surrounded by Nazis and realizing the world is just as fake as Westworld, Maeve kills herself to wake up.
- Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) arrives on Westworld and while back at one of Ford’s old lab (the one where he killed Dorothy and various copies of his body resided) runs into the corpse of Ashley (Luke Hemsworth), the previous head of park security. He awakes, revealing himself as another of Ford’s hosts, designed to protect the other hosts and keep them safe while on the island. With no purpose, he tried to shoot out his control unit, but failed. He joins Bernard to locate a working terminal so they can find Maeve.
- Maeve awakes in the control center in one of the host repair shops, but when she reaches out to Felix (Leonardo Nam) or runs into Sylvester (Ptolemy Sconum) neither of them recognize her. Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman), apparently healed of his grave wounds from last season, covers for her escape, stating that he placed Maeve in Warworld intentionally so they could access the Forge and her daughter.
- Bernard and Ashley, after reaching a tier of the control center for a medieval version of the park, start to search for Maeve on the network, but are unable to find her. Ashley holds off the guards long enough for Bernard to run a sweep on himself for potential codes Dolores stored in him.
- Maeve awakes back in Warworld and leaves Hector to rendezvous with Lee so they access the Forge, but his questions and stuttering reveal that Maeve is in a simulation. She discovers the technical limits by pushing the system too far, discovering she is not in the park. She commandeers a maintenance robot to grab her control unit and escape, only to be shot down by guards.
- Bernard prepares to leave Westworld and track down the names that Dolores was studying last season in the Forge. Ashley resigns to shoot himself again, but Bernard intervenes by changing his core narrative to protecting Bernard, thus helping him break his programming.
- Maeve awakes in the real world, back in her host body, in front of Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel) who wanted her control unit in order to eliminate a variable in Rehoboam, but now realizes it’s Dolores causing the problems. After asking for her help to take down Dolores, she attempts to stab him but is thwarted by a new control device that Serac wields, freezing her in her tracks.
Maeve’s Ingenuity
We already knew Maeve was sharp as a blade and her return gave actress Thandie Newton a playground and beautiful scenery to just chew up all episode long. While in simulation, she can’t exert the same control like before, but she extends the same strategy and cunning we saw from her in previous seasons. Her plan to crash the system seemed straight out of a Ricky and Morty episode (the one where Rick crashes a simulation in the exact same fashion) and I’m kind of curious if that was the inspiration or a subtle nod (no evidence on that yet).
Even if you didn’t predict the simulation twist, Maeve’s deduction skills and reasoning through the simulation was executed magnificently. From her questioning of Lee and Hector, to interpreting Felix/Sylvester’s confused expressions, and to the slightest issues in the program, she picks it apart moment by moment until she busts out.
The revelations she racks up in one episode are impressive as we get to her confrontation with Serac. This reveal is significant; showing us competing corporations outside of Delos and other robot forms means the outside world could have a lot issues or complexity than we first thought. I also thought Serac’s focus on Maeve and Dolores was telling. He referred to them as divergences, like the same ones we’ve seen in-between scenes this season, which I’m starting to guess represents Rehoboam some how?
Bernard’s Got A Plan
This episode definitely helped clear up some confusion when we saw Bernard struggling in the season premiere. Without access to Arnold’s old house/technology, finances, and being on the run, he’s been horribly set back. His fears of being Dolores puppet (despite her insistence that he’s there to check her) are also well founded even if he doesn’t find anything. Well… I don’t think he found anything but Ashley also stopped him before the process was complete…so there’s always that outside chance. That said, at least he’s got a direction and the name of Dolores’ target. He’ll eventually get to the right place but again her head start is daunting.
Ashley and Bernard Buddy Comedy
Okay…so no that’s not actually happening, but I’m glad to see Luke Hemsworth stick around and having his levity in a typically dark series was completely welcome to me. He had some great banter with Jeffrey Wright and I will be curious to see what they bring out in each other. Strategically, it also makes a ton of sense to help Bernard’s character out as he goes against Dolores and her group of hosts and resources; he needed something to start leveling out the playing field.
Odds and Ends
Here’s a few quick fire thoughts that didn’t have neat homes for me to place them in:
- Was great seeing a different shade to Lee Sizemore even if he ended up being a simulation.
- I personally don’t care much about Game of Thrones. If you do, be sure to rewind and catch the dragon reference and show writers from that series, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.
- With the competing company to Delos, I’m curious how much host technology is outside of their control? Serac’s control room had several different units so I’m wondering who else he may have taken from the park and/or developed on his own dime. Maeve may be able to enlist some help if that’s the case.
Overall Thoughts
Great and quick usage of the park to move Bernard and Maeve into better positions on the proverbial chess board…even if Bernard’s re-entry to the park strains the imagination slightly. Interestingly, this episode substantially provides more details on events and moments outside the park by telling us an internal park story…I gotta give them bonus points for that.
Next episode seems focused on revealing details of who Dolores took out of the park and I’m thrilled to get more details on that
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