Summary: Charlotte and Theresa work together to expose the hosts as dangerous in an attempt to get rid of Ford. Bernard is fired for his inadequacies. William becomes even more attached to Dolores on the train. They escape from a shootout and start travelling together. Clementine is taken and Maeve discovers that she is being experimented on after Felix shows her where Clementine is. Maeve decides that she needs to leave. Bernard takes Theresa to show her something in Ford's office. Ford reveals that Bernard is a host and that this was a trap orchestrated by Ford. Bernard kills Theresa.
The Good: This was a much better episode. This episode allowed a single storyline to become the primary focus, creating a less messy episode which is notably easier to follow. Furthermore, there was less dependence on mystery and confusion in this episode. The Unknown is notably smaller in this episode and I think that's a very good thing. The mystery was becoming a real chore to follow as it just kept adding on, so to get an instalment focused on giving us some plot movement and answers is a very refreshing change. Hopefully the remaining 3 episodes follow this format, as this is something I would enjoy much more. The standout part of this episode for me was the Bernard twist. I had expected the reveal of somebody to be a host since the first episode, but I was really surprised it was Bernard. I had thought his memories and the call to his wife would have confirmed him to be human, but that all seems to just have been host backstory, which is really interesting. The reveal was brilliantly executed with many moments provided for fans who really pay attention to realize that Bernard is a host. The line of "what door" is a total giveaway that Bernard is a host, since he has been programmed to see some things hidden in plain sight. This also explains how when Bernard went to meet with Ford, Ford seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He simply entered the room through a door Bernard couldn't see. That's really good writing which was so hidden that I didn't even notice it for about 30 seconds or so. And of course, they add confirmation later on in the scene for everyone who may not have picked up on it and it's an equally great reveal as we hear Bernard say the scripted "that doesn't look like anything to me" when facing his own blueprints. The writing was something really special with this reveal and it does raise a lot of questions. I also really enjoyed Ford one-upping Theresa here. Theresa remained confident but Ford calmly and coldly asserted his dominance in a terrific scene, giving Theresa the slow realization that she wasn't long for this world. Anthony Hopkins just brings some wonderful life to Ford and plays his calm evil in such a captivating way that makes him a real joy to watch. Ford seems to be the man behind the curtain for everything in this show and it makes for such a lovely dynamic. Following his speech, Bernard's cold and straightforward murder of Theresa was really well done. Jeffrey Wright played the change in Bernard's demeanor so well to make him feel truly terrifying as he tragically murders the women he loved. Or at least thought he loved, though I'm sure Ford can just as easily erase Bernard's memory of Theresa. I also really liked the early scene with Charlotte proving Ford's hosts to be dangerous after the reverie update. It does help us understand what the exact problem is with the hosts. We have seen the hosts get aggressive and malfunction and now we learn that it's because they remember things. It was great to get confirmation for this and I was happy to see that we got answers during a tense scene that progressed the storyline. It was a relaxingly easy scene to watch where each character's motives were mostly clear. It was established that Charlotte was working with Theresa to attempt to shut down Ford, meanwhile Bernard was caught in the middle of everything and got stuck taking the blame. It was nice and easy to follow and gave more stakes to Ford's killing of Theresa at the end as he was simply taking care of her when she got in his way, just like he said he would back in "Dissonance Theory". Lastly, I am enjoying William's overall story arc. His attachment to Dolores is very uncomfortable and the show is doing a good job of establishing how William got himself in such an awkward situation where he fell in love with a host. The Bad: The dramatic wild west scenes continue to fall flat. They just exist to provide some basic action with zero tension to fill up some time in the episode. The train attack scene in this episode served literally no purpose and I found myself getting quite bored watching the scene, while waiting for more interesting things to happen. Charlotte is an astonishingly boring character. She just got introduced and has done nothing to make me get interested in her or care for her in any way. I really don't care to see more of her and I would be satisfied enough if Ford was to just take care of her as well. We need more explanation on how the employees of Westworld are able to just take Maeve around everywhere. Apparently the higher ups do pay attention so why don't they do anything? Do they just not notice Maeve walking around when she clearly shouldn't be? It's really annoying to have no explanation about who everything works behind the scenes. This has been a problem for several episodes now and it seems that we will never get a concrete answer for this. The biggest problem with this show is that it is completely devoid of emotion. I don't care about any of the characters much for the show to get an emotional reaction for me. All this show is capable of is shock, and that is all I felt during the ending scene with the Bernard twist and his murder of Theresa. Granted the writing was exceptional for this scene, but I didn't feel sympathy for Bernard with the host reveal and I didn't feel much for Theresa as she got killed by her lover. The show is alarmingly low on emotional engagement and that is a big problem which prevents this show from being anything more than very good. The Unknown: Is Elsie just written out of the show now? Is she dead? Did Ford have something to do with it because clearly he has the ability to manipulate things like having Elsie take a leave of absence. Did Ford make Bernard take out Elsie like he did with Theresa? What will William and Dolores find in the outskirts? Will Maeve actually escape Westworld? How does she plan to do that? How will Felix and Sylvester help her with it? How is Ford going to disguise Theresa's death? Might he possibly have her take a leave of absence and replace her with a host? How is he going to deal with Charlotte? Will he kill her next? I wouldn't put it past him to set up more hosts in his employment. Best Moment: The final scene was chilling and very tense. Anthony Hopkins continues to impress me as Ford. Character of the Episode: Ford. Conclusion: A much better episode with greater focus and less emphasis on mystery, though the show is still being hampered down with a lack of emotional engagement in its characters. Score: 65
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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