Summary: Group therapy isn't working for William who lashes out at others and claims he doesn't belong there. He's signed up for AR therapy where he has a transformative experience while communicating with his past selves. He decides to move past his sins and is then woken up by Bernard and Stubbs. Meanwhile, Maeve is back in the simulation and she gathers up Lee and Hector to get some allies to fight Dolores. She talks to a simulation version of Dolores to make plans. Charlotte continues to work against Serac in secret and disobeys his orders to destroy all information on the hosts by creating backups. However, Charlotte is found out and Serac sends men to capture her alive. Charlotte manages to escape, but she destroys Hector's pearl before she leaves, killing him. Charlotte goes home to her family and tries to escape with them in a car, but the car is detonated and her family is killed.
The Good: This had good elements in every storyline. William's story is the easiest to enjoy. With so many boring, lifeless hosts masquerading as compelling characters, William remains the only human (outside of Caleb) who has an arc that feels like it's worth telling. This episode does some good stuff with him. It was nice to pull back the curtain to his childhood, and it nicely allowed for him to get over his past to move onto his future. It's an easy story to understand, and there is enough creativity in the execution to make it pretty entertaining to watch. Charlotte's story is also decent. Her escape from Delos is action-packed and provides for some good fun. I also enjoyed seeing Charlotte become connected to her family, with there being a nice irony that host Charlotte grew to care more about Charlotte's family than Charlotte herself did. This of course leads to a big moment at the end of the episode where Charlotte's family is killed by Serac which does feel quite tragic. Maeve's story has its moments. The biggest being Hector's death which will presumably give Maeve the necessary motivation to work for Serac and destroy Dolores. The Bad: For the most part, this is still pretty sloppy stuff. It's so difficult to emotionally invest in any of the characters or stories this season. Everything feels flawed. Take Maeve's storyline. Maeve as a character is so, so boring right now. She doesn't have anything interesting to do and it feels like she is being used more for some "strong woman action sequences" rather than telling a story. These sequences have gotten dull fast and they aren't enjoyable to watch anymore. Her relationships with Hector and Lee feel so simplistic as well, so Hector's death didn't really effect me in any way at all. I feel a disconnect with the character and I can't say that there is anything about her that interests me anymore. Charlotte's story isn't very captivating either. As a character, she is really lacking. I'm still a bit confused why there is such a difference between her and the actual Dolores since they are the same conscience at heart. I also never really got fully invested in her relationship with her family. While the final moments of the episode are quite shocking and will inevitably change her character, I wasn't particularly captivated by anything that happened, and it didn't feel like the killer emotional twist it was meant to be. Serac looks very sloppy as a villain in this episode. It's absurd that he would have found out that Charlotte is a host solely from how she checked on her kid. There are so many other ways he could have found her out, not least from her awkward behaviour. It's just a sloppy piece of writing. Furthermore, we learn that Serac suspected her all along. So then he should have put countermeasures to make sure she didn't do anything that would work against him! It's ridiculous that he didn't and it makes him look seriously incompetent. Furthermore, he lets Charlotte get away which doesn't make him look good. Then, he detonates Charlotte's car and nobody sticks around to ensure she is actually dead. One or two of these little logic gaps is acceptable, but when so many stack up like this, the plot completely falls apart. The episode is heavily focused on setting up the season's final act. That would be acceptable if I was invested in what was going on. But since I'm not, it makes set-up episodes like this one feel even more unimpressive than they already are. The Unknown: What is Charlotte's next move? How will she respond to her family dying? What are Bernard and Stubbs going to do with William? How are the three of them going to affect the story of this season? Best Moment: Probably William revisiting his past. It was pretty effective character development and Ed Harris was superb. Character of the Episode: William. Conclusion: This was more solid stuff that moved everyone into place for the final 2 episodes, but the empty and uninspired feel of this season continues. I'm not very invested in the story right now so watching the final act be set up isn't as exciting as it should be. The show's poor character work continues to drag it down, and even though there is strong acting and good action sequences, I'm not finding myself enjoying these season even close to as much as seasons 1 and 2. I don't expect that I'll continue watching after this season since there hasn't been anything in these first 6 episodes to give me faith that this show is capable of producing great television. Score: 56
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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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