Each week, Brian Grubb and Keith Phipps will attempt to unpack the latest episode of the HBO series Westworld, a show about an amusement park populated by lifelike robots that’s also about… other stuff.
The Horrible Truth About Bernard
Keith: This week starts with Bernard waking up, which seems fitting given how last week’s episode ended. He begins the episode in pain over what he did to Theresa and he ends it having lost that pain, its erasure his reward for doing Ford’s dirty work. It’s a contrast to what we learn about Maeve and her own resistance to having her memories wiped (more on that below). But I’m not sure Bernard would be so quick to surrender that if he thought it was gone forever. When he asks Ford if he’s been made to hurt others before, does he know the answer before he flashes on Elsie? I think something deeper’s going on here. Also, R.I.P. Elsie? She’s gone, right? She’ll be missed if so.
Brian: A few things:
– Ford tries to justify the backstory he gave Bernard by saying the pain gives him heart and heart makes him more “real,” but the biggest thing I took away from it all was how cruel it was, and how flippant Ford was about it. He created a robot to serve as his number two and he gave the robot a tragic story about a dead child that the robot has to live with forever under the impression that it’s real.
– Does Bernard, like, age? None of the other hosts appear to. Seems like it would come up after a few years at the company. “Happy birthday, Bernard. How old are you?” “87.” “Wow. You look… good.”
– The Elsie memory flash is interesting because it means at least two things: One, that Bernard has been Ford’s assassin before, and could have any number of bodies on his list. And two, that if he killed or kidnapped Elsie — this “vacation” story is a very thin and temporary cover, and makes me think Ford could be whipping up a Robot Elsie to take her place — and Ford “wiped” his memory, then Bernard could possibly remember Theresa, too. Both their relationship and the murder.
– Stubbs knows!
– It was very weird that Ford and Charlotte had their passive aggressive argument about the Clementine ruse and Bernard’s reinstatement while standing over Theresa’s dead body. Like, dang. Step out into the hallway for a sec. Also, shouldn’t someone have called the police? Because it seemed like they just had a butcher for the hosts do an autopsy on a human who died under mysterious circumstances and then everyone moved very quickly to “Now, about Bernard…”
– Hale and Lee the Writer are up to something with Dolores’ old malfunctioning dad and yet all I can think about it how much Lee sounds like Jimmy from You’re the Worst and how much I now wish Jimmy had been hired to write a narrative.
Dolores Finds Her Way Home
Brian: I know Dolores’s story is supposed to tie everything together. I know there are probably a few timelines she’s on, all of which was made even murkier by her freaking out and asking William “When are we? Is this now?,” which seems to imply her at least some of her flashbacks have been to a third period (giving us a Man in Black one, a William one, and an Arnold one?). And I know that the town she was at probably had plenty of significance related to Arnold’s past and whatever Ford is planning going forward, based on the church and the old training stuff and her memories of killing everyone. (I guess?)
The problem is that I find myself caring less and less about it each week. There’s so much going on in the show that is interesting to me (the Maeve stuff, the Charlotte/Ford stuff, Bernard being a secret robot assassin) that whenever the show cuts to Dolores and William riding around on horseback and talking about dreams and voices and what to do about massacres they’ve stumbled upon, I just start getting restless. It all seems needlessly confusing at this point. I was actually happy to see Logan when he showed up to grab them. I did not expect to ever feel that way about seeing him again.
What about you? Are you digging this more than I am?
Keith: I get where you’re coming from but I’m not quite there, largely because I find Evan Rachel Wood’s performance so compelling. The journey this character is on is fascinating even if it sometimes feels like we’re being driven in circles. Oh, another flashback (it’s a flashback, right?) Another chilling image that hints at dread possibilities. That said, some of the images Dolores runs into this week are pretty chilling, especially a complacent Maeve going through dance steps without any evidence of a rebellious impulse. In other words, I’m taking a wait-and-see attitude with this. If it all leads to an interesting place, it’ll have been worth it.
The Man In Black Tells All
Keith: We finally learn the Man In Black’s backstory this week, or at least as much as he cares to reveal to Teddy. Assuming he’s telling the truth — and I don’t think we have a reason to assume otherwise — it squares pretty well with what we already know: That he’s rich and respected back in the real world. It also squares with what we could safely assume about him: That, deep down, he’s driven by some pretty demanding demons. I always assumed that whatever he did to Maeve was just another random act of cruelty, but now it looks like it might have been a turning point for him. (To say nothing of it being a turning point for Maeve.) Also, not to get too deep into fan theory territory, but the identity of the survivor (or “survivor”) of Wyatt’s attack is significant. She’s the host that brings Wiliam into the park in episode two. (Hats off to this Esquire piece. That would have slipped by me.) Does this confirm two timelines or nah?
Brian: Hmm. It might, right? If so, and the Man in Black is just Old William, that’s a heck of a memory dude has. Unless that particular host was his concierge on other trips.
Anyway, I’m glad we know a little more about his backstory but I was kind of hoping it would be less “The real world is pain and I’m here to understand that and find my true self” than it was “I’m just some evil rich guy who likes killing robots.” This way is better for the story, long-term, I guess, but it felt a little on-the-nose. Maybe I just didn’t want a backstory for him at all. I don’t know. R.I.P. William’s wife?
Maeve Tries To Slip The Chain
Brian: This was, if nothing else, a big episode for Thandie Newton slashing people’s throats and/or shooting people devilish, knowing looks, often while nude. Especially the latter. It happened like five or six times, usually when Sylvester started whining about something, which he did a lot, for reasons that were not entirely unreasonable (tinkering with company property to turn a robot madam into a superhero who has designs on escaping is at the very least a fireable offense), but in a way that was just insufferable as all hell. The show worked very hard to make him unlikable, so his throat getting slit was cathartic, even if it raised a bunch of questions. (Felix, who can barely make a little birdie fly, can alter core code now? And if it was done under Maeve’s direction, there’s no safeguard in place to prevent hosts from getting smart enough to do that themselves? Isn’t it odd that the two butchers roped into Maeve’s plan share names with famous cartoon cats? And so on.)
But the bigger issues with Maeve right now are probably a) her becoming the Neo of Sweetwater, b) us learning her history and how it all ties into the Man in Black, and c) her attempting to recruit an army until her memory went haywire during the Man in Black’s monologue, resulting in New Clementine getting her throat slit, too. I can’t say I’m exactly sure how that all worked, but I can say that Maeve running around altering the other hosts actions was kind of cool and it would be a very fun power to play with in real life. I would eat so much free pizza. I don’t know why “free pizza” is the first thing I jumped to when dreaming of unlimited power. Apparently I have simple desires.
Point being: Is Maeve gonna kill all those park employees who went to collect her? Is that what’s happening here? Or is she gonna pause her plan and let them take her in, risking that they could notice her altered code?
Keith: I don’t have answers to those questions, but I am enjoying how Maeve controls the other hosts by essentially “writing” their actions as if she were composing prose for a piece of fiction. It’s another meta touch about the act of storytelling in a series filled with them. She’s a character who’s seized control of her own story, but also perhaps discovered that aspects of storytelling are out of her control. You can reshape words but you can’t reshape language itself, and it might not be within her power to will herself out of the park, no matter how high Felix pumps her stats.
And, yes, I just caught the cartoon cats reference this week too! Want to unpack it a bit? Felix The Cat is crafty while Sylvester is inept. That sort applies to the show’s Felix and Sylvester, but not really. Maybe it’s best not to read too much into it.
Can I just add that, nothing against New Clementine (which is how she’s billed in the credits), but I miss the old Clementine. Between Clem, Theresa, and Elsie (right?), we’re losing some compelling supporting characters at an alarming rate. And yet Lee shows no sign of getting killed off no matter what stupid things he does.
What’s Going On With Wyatt?
Brian: So as far as I can tell, this is what we know about Wyatt: He’s some sort of “be-all, end-all” villain-type who has a horde of horned bullet-resistant goons that roam the uncharted edges of the park; he has a history with Teddy that is mysterious and that caused two soldiers to freak out and take Teddy and the Man in Black hostage upon spotting them; he may or may not have been created by Ford specifically to thwart the Man in Black and prevent him from continuing the Arnold-related quest he’s on. This last one is not based on much evidence, admittedly, but feels to me like something Ford would do.
Most importantly, and this is something I’ve said before and will continue saying until someone addresses it, he should have a much more evil-sounding name than “Wyatt.” Like “The Conquistador” or “Hell Chad” or “Hell Chad the Conquistador.” Something like that.
Keith: With you on this. Even “Two-Gun Wyatt” or something would help. Then again, it helps to manage expectations. Like, if Wyatt turns out to be moderately scary he’ll have exceeded the expectations created by his name. “For a guy named Wyatt,” we might say, “he’s pretty badass.” Certainly his henchmen are pretty badass. Whether or not their boss can live up to the build-up remains, like so much of the show as it enters its first season’s home stretch, to be seen.
