Previously: Maeve got an upgrade and Elsie is probably dead.
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Trompe L’Oeil
Marines: Writing recaps is like riding a bike! I open a post, hit play and it all comes back to me… mostly. Of all the shows I’m picking back up after this last little recap hiatus, this one is the one I’m most worried about. It’s so much information! So many theories! So many robots! So many emotions! I’ll do my best to keep it straight, but wish me luck.
Jess: That’s exactly how I feel about heading back into these recaps. The best part of this show is that it keeps me humble, though. So I’ll get a healthy dose of that when I realize I don’t know shit or every time the show gets convoluted.
Mari: Yeah, that’s always. Here we go:
3D PRINTED ROBOTS.
With the screen still black, we hear a little boy call, “dad!” Bernard opens his eyes. He’s sitting next to his son in a hospital bed. Bernard says he must’ve drifted off. He picks up reading from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but doesn’t get very far before his kid is having sad feelings about being sick. Bernard promises he’s definitely going to beat this, and tries to go back to reading, but when you say things like “you are definitely going to beat this” on TV, bad things happen. Little Charlie’s heart fails.
Bernard startles awake from this memory or nightmare. He picks up a picture of him and Charlie from his nightstand and stares sadly at it.
Jess: Bernard’s voice invokes sadness in me.
Mari: Honestly, there is just something heartbreaking in the timbre.
HQ. Bernard is running through the diagnostic questions with Hector. Bernard notices that Hector had a blacklisted exchange with a guest. Hector recounts that a guest threatened to take a piece of him home in his carry-on. Bernard asks if anything about the exchange caused him to question his world view. Hector says the world is as doomed as ever.
Jess: Thank you, Hector for keeping it real. These robots are nothing if not honest. OR ARE THEY?! This show always makes me insanely paranoid.
Mari: For those keeping score at home, this show keeps Jess humble and paranoid.
Bernard shows Hector pictures of things like trains and cities and scientists. Hector gives the standard line that they don’t look like anything to him.
Another engineer interrupts to say they’ll be through their backlog by end of day, and when Bernard is done with Hector, there is a priority request for him from management. Bernard asks if the dude has seen Elsie, but apparently Elsie started her totally not suspicious at all leave today. You know. That permanent leave… in the sky.
Jess: Bernard’s not convinced.
Mari: That’s healthy suspicion, Bernard.
Lawrence and William play poker. William invites Dolores to join, and Lawrence says she’s probably still to angry at Lawrence for all the bad things he did to them. Truth is, the Confederados like to call this a war, but they are fighting poor folk armed with rocks. It’s a slaughter. He’d do the whole thing over again if he had to.
Jess: I am distracted by the curtains. They look like the material every basic girl wears to bottomless mimosa brunch complete with tassels. Someone get on that.
Mari: Lawrence reminds them that they were the ones teaming up with the Confederados. William says it wasn’t their idea. His friend wanted to see what was at the end of all this. Lawrence points out that his friend didn’t make it this far. William did. He might have more of an appetite for this than he thinks. At least once an episode, someone has to remind William that maybe there are some darker tones to his Good Guy characterization.
Jess: WILLIAM, I LOVE YOU SO.
Mari: -_-
Dolores sees something out the train window that startles her. She calls William over and soon Lawrence joins them too. We don’t really see what it is. At first I thought “light poles?” but not in the park. Lawrence explains that they are in Ghost Nation territory, the most savage tribe around. This is what happens to people who come without invitations. Oh, so, heads on spikes cool cool cool. Dolores is appropriately worried. Metal bars fall over the windows and Lawrence grabs a gun. Train is the only way through their territory. They’ll stop once they make it through safe.
Oh and now we pan out of the train and confirm: heads on spikes.
Jess: The curtains should have been a sign.
Mari: That bad things were about to happen? Fair.
Bernard tries to call Elsie, but no luck. He then finds Theresa and checks in with her, because she wanted to see him. She asks if he was going to tell her something before he left abruptly last night. He plays it off like he definitely had nothing to say and everything is great and he definitely isn’t investigating her or her department anymore. Theresa’s reactions go from sincere warm smile to watching suspiciously as he was walks away. Warmly suspicious.
Jess: I have that same work dress. I’ll never look at it the same.
Mari: Only wear it when you plan to betray your coworkers.
Theresa approaches a door and hears very loud grunting and moaning. She knocks. Tessa Thompson answers the door naked. Hector is handcuffed to the bed behind them. Theresa says she could come back a more non-naked time, but Tessa throws on a robe, powers Hector down, and says this meeting won’t take long. Tessa says that Theresa has always been good at her job, but the recent incidents with the woodcutter bashing his own head in and Ford going off on this wild new narrative ride are concerning. Tessa bums a cigarette and gets extra comfortable as she further explains that Delos has no interest in the hosts or storylines or any of that bullshit but in the code and the raw data and information that is collected in the park and housed nowhere else. It’s a data goldmine, and Ford has made sure that it lives in the park. I’m sorry, but can you imagine having a meeting with board member like this:
Mari: Tessa says Theresa is a smart woman and can probably figure out why they want to secure that data. Theresa guesses that they are gonna fire Ford, but Tessa edits a bit: they are going to politely ask him to retire. And when you do something like that to someone who can delete the entire worth of this project with a snap of his fingers, you have to be careful. It’s now Theresa’s job to make sure the data is secure before the rest of the board arrives. Also, she should probably rig some way to prove that the hosts are real dangerous. Theresa looks back at Hector significantly, but Tessa tells her not to go for something so obvious.
Jess: The amount of foreshadowing in this scene is too much. Does she not feel the presence of doom? By she, I mean both actually.
Mari: They are not nearly humble or paranoid enough.
We cut to Maeve waking up, beautifully. Dressed for the day, she heads to the Mariposa, passing by the usual town things like a shootout and a man hanging a wanted poster. The player piano has been providing the soundtrack, but when she walks into the saloon, Maeve closes the lid, stopping the music.
Jess: BANG, down goes the lid like the rest of these bozos once she figures out her next move.
Mari: She heads to the bar and sits for a bit before she’s joined by Clementine. They start their usual, programmed banter, but New & Improved Maeve trips over it a bit, realizing what she’s doing. Maeve breaks from script, asking Clementine what she dreams about. Does she ever dream she’s another person? Clem says not really, but she also doesn’t want to be a prostitute forever. She’s sending money to her family and saving money until she can get them out of the desert and head somewhere cold.
Clementine stops mid-speech, frozen. Maeve looks around and realizes all the hosts are frozen. She turns to the bar, nervously, and grabs a knife. Behind her, the Rubber Suited Men enter and wonder out loud which one they need to grab. “The one at the bar.” We wait as they continue to helpfully explain that this host must’ve done something bad if HQ is having them grab it in broad daylight. Of course, they aren’t coming for Maeve. One hot second after Clementine gave her feelsy host backstory, she’s grabbed and taken away. This cannot be good.
Train. Dolores and William have more #deepchats about what they are looking for. William says he feels like he is in one of those books he used read as a kid. Dolores doesn’t want to be in a story. All she wants is to live in the moment. They get real close as they are having these chats, having emotions in each other’s faces, so William picks this moment to break the news that he’s getting married when he gets home. Dolores storms off into another train car. William follows her to deliver more of his emotional speech about how he doesn’t have to pretend here in this pretend theme park, or whatever, and then they kiss.
Jess: I am torn on what to think about this. Idk William, IDK.
Mari: HQ. Tessa Thomas has gathered a bunch of the QA folk, including Luke Hemsworth and Theresa. Ford and Bernard walk in. Bernard asks what’s going on and Tessa and Theresa exchange a very not discrete look.(J: That look will be their downfall.) (M: Now look who is foreshadowing.) Tessa explains that they’ve found some buggy code following the most recent updates with the reveries.
In the adjoining glass room, Clementine sits, powered down. Theresa sends a QA tech in there to turn Clementine on. She comes to and starts her “not much of a rind on you” line. The QA tech decks her in the face and then starts beating her up as she begs the people watching in the next room for help. (J: Lord Jesus.) Theresa says that’s enough and Luke Hemseworth calls “freeze.” Clementine freezes and so does the QA tech– he’s a host too, coded to read as human. Clementine didn’t fight back because all the safeguards are in place. Theresa has Clementine reset and her memory wiped.
Clementine comes to again, but it’s so sad and weird to see her smile with tears in her eyes and bloody nose. She greets the Host QA Tech, but this time, when he moves to hurt her, she attacks. She bashes his head against the glass until he dies. Luke Hemsworth goes into the room and tries to command her to freeze all motor functions, but she doesn’t. She looks at herself in the glass, tastes a bit of her own blood, and turns towards Luke. Before she can take more than a step toward him, he shoots her.
Mari: Honestly, I’m rooting for this bad bitch right here.
Theresa says that in all of the hosts they examined with the new update, they weren’t resetting properly. The problem with the reveries is the risk that the hosts will remember past experiences and act on them, putting the guests in danger. Theresa blames Bernard because either he didn’t write this code or he didn’t vet it properly. Tessa thinks they are way past a rollback and they need to rebuild all of the hosts over the next six months. Bernard asks if she truly wants him to lobotomize all the hosts. (J: Simplify it for us, Bernard.) Tessa clarifies: not him. Unless he has something to share, like maybe someone else who wrote the code ahem ahem, he’s fired. Bernard doesn’t rat Ford out. Theresa can’t even look at him. He leaves.
Christ, we’re back on the train for more feelsy speeches. William wakes up to find Dolores drawing on one of the tarps covering goods on the train. She starts to say that it’s okay if he regrets last night, but he kisses her and says more shit about how this park is letting him see his true self. Thank all that is holy, the speech about what they dream of is interrupted by the train screeching to a halt. There are boulders on the track– a trap set by Confederados. The Confederados shoot up the train and wait.
Jess: Get us off the train and away from the curtains.
Mari: I love that this is what bothers you most.
One of the train car doors open and someone rides out, waving a white flag. Once they reach the leader, we see that it’s the dead body full of explosives. From the train, Lawrence shoots the corpse and sets off an explosion, using the distraction to escape on horseback. The Confederados are hot on their heels, though, and there is a lot of riding and shooting and riding and shooting. At one point, Dolores turns back to shoot an enemy, but gets knocked off her horse in the process. William grabs her, and they keep riding and shooting together.
Jess: At least William is growing a backbone.
Mari: Things are looking bleak when suddenly the sound of the gunfire is interrupted by the whoosh of arrows: Ghost Nation. The natives slaughter the Confederados and William, Dolores, Lawrence and the other explosive corpses get away.
After riding some more, Dolores tells William to stop. She walks to the mountain ledge and looks out at the sight– it’s what she was drawing on the tarp on the train, the place she’s been dreaming of. It’s real. William tells Lawrence that this is where they part ways. Lawrence warns them that if they cross the river, they’ll be heading into unclaimed territories.
Jess: UNCLAIMED, UNTETHERED JUST WHAT WILLIAM WISHES TO BE.
Mari: #deep
HQ. Felix and another clean up surgeon are working on Maeve. She comes to and grabs Felix’s wrist, so he tells the other lady that he’ll finish up here. Once she’s gone, Felix whispers to Maeve that she can’t keep coming back down here so often or someone is going to notice. Maeve disregards this and asks where Clem is. Felix grabs his tablet, but Maeve takes it from him and sees that Clem is here, in the bodyshop. She demands to be taken to her.
Maeve and Felix walk through the bodyshop until they find Clem. Sylvester is working on her with Theresa looking on. Sylvester catches a glimpse of Maeve, but continues on, drilling into Clem’s brain through her nose. Maeve cries as she watches.
Jess: I cannot. My brain knows they’re “robots” but I CAN’T.
Mari: Yeah, drilling up through someone’s nose is always going to be a strong NOPE.
Bernards interrupts the procedure to ask for a word with Theresa. They walk and talk to a different part of HQ. She coldly thanks him for his professionalism, insisting this isn’t necessary. Bernard is like, bitch please. It was glaringly obvious to Bernard that the whole demonstration was orchestrated by Tessa and Theresa. “If your programmers were any good, they’d be working for me.” Damn. Tech burn. Bernard also drops the bomb that he knows that Theresa was responsible for the stray and for the data transmissions leaving the park. He doesn’t care, though. He thinks part of what Theresa was saying was right. The host’s variation is tied to memory, and they are all on the verge of some kind of change. Bernard wants to show Theresa something.
Jess: He’s going to show her something alright.
Mari: Bodyshop. Maeve is creepily quiet and Felix and Sylvester are nervous about talking to her. Sylvester says that he didn’t want to retire Clementine, but if he said no, TPTB would get suspicious. So really, he retired Clem for Maeve! Maeve is like cool, ’cause now you and Felix are going to help me escape. Sylvester says that literally everything in this place, including the skin on Maeve’s back, is designed to keep her here. Escape would be a suicide mission. Maeve calmly says that she’s fucking great at dying, and if they don’t help her, she’ll kill them too.
Jess: Office politics, we get it.
Mari: Bernard brings Theresa to Ford’s house of old hosts. He explains that this place isn’t on any park surveys because they use hosts to do the surveys. They wouldn’t be able to see this place if they were staring right at it. Theresa asks what’s behind a particular door. Bernards stares right at it and asks, “what door?” She opens it and goes in and he follows behind her.
We recognize this place. Bernard has questioned Dolores down here a few times. There is a 3D printer here, one Bernard tells us is newer, but slower than the ones they have at HQ. Ford has been creating hosts and telling no one. Theresa examines some papers on a table including prototype plans for the little boy host and for Dolores. Theresa sees something that concerns her and asks Bernard what it is. She hands it to him and he looks at a drawing of himself. “It doesn’t look like anything to me,” he says, and Theresa’s head snaps to look at him.
Jess: I do the same at work when I’m assigned a new processing job.
Mari: I like that you find ways to relate your everyday life to a robot theme park.
Ford makes his grand entrance, explaining that “they” can’t see what will hurt them. Their existence is blissful.
Jess: What a creepy but graceful entrance.
Mari: Theresa calls Ford a monster. Bernard starts freaking out. (J: Bernard is me through out this show. “What the hell are you talking about?!”) He insists he can’t be a host. His wife. His son. Ford tells him that’s enough, and he powers down. Ford delivers a speech about human intellect and consciousness, and how he’s spared the hosts most of that. They are the ones who are truly free… under his control. Theresa says that Bernard broke from his control and brought her here, but Ford asked Bernard to do so. Bernard has powered back up and while he looks confused, he says nothing. (J: You know nothing, Bernard.)
Theresa is still pushing Ford, telling him that the board won’t allow this to go on. Ford says the board won’t do shit. This arrangement is too valuable to them. They test him, every once in a while, and this time they sent Theresa. Unfortunately, to set everything to rights, it requires a blood sacrifice. He built all of this with Arnold. Did Theresa really think he was going to let her take it away?
Theresa finally reaches the appropriate level of OH SHIT. She fumbles with her phone, but it’s offline. Ford gets creepily close to her and whispers in her ear the reminder that he built all of this. He tells Bernard to take care of their guest who has grown weary. We watch him remove his little glasses, a move that we’ve watched so many times but seems so menacing now, especially with the big DUN! from the soundtrack man.
Jess: The soundtrack really pushes things over the edge. Bernard is surprisingly the clean up man. But can he pick up all the right pieces?
Mari: Bernard puts his papers down, removes his jacket, removes his tie. Theresa cries out, begs him not to as he gets close. The shot pulls out so that Ford is in our foreground and we see, from further away, as Bernard bashes Theresa’s head agains the wall and then snaps her neck. He looks down at her emotionless for another beat, and then redoes his tie. Ford says they should be getting back. They have a lot of work to do.
From the beginning, too, we were promised that hosts couldn’t hurt people. We asked so many questions about the logistics and safety of the park. Despite the safety promised, we’ve seen things get more and more seemingly dangerous as guests head further out. That promise of danger has been lingering and while poor Elsie was nabbed last episode, here we get an honest to goodness robot killing a human.
Everything is violent, I can’t decide if Ford or Delos are the biggest villains, but honestly I hope a robot kills William next.
Jess: “Playing God” has also been a major theme throughout the episodes. Who is really holding the strings of the park? Is it the customers who pay, the hosts, the team, WHO IS IT? I DON’T KNOW BECAUSE I BARELY UNDERSTAND WHAT’S HAPPENING. But, with the reveal of this blood sacrifice, it basically throws the dark into the light and I don’t know who else has to go but, William better not go (side eye to Mari). He’s the only real redeemable if not dumb character left so far that’s not a host.
Next time on Westworld: Maeve continues with her uprising in S01 E08 – Trace Decay.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Jessica Moro’s voracious appetite for books is matched only by her love for cake and reality tv. She’s always looking for new reads, especially books that have surprising twists and happily-ever-afters that are good for the soul. You can find her letting her reading freak flag fly at www.bookcrack.com, covering New Adult reads on USA Today's Happy Ever After, on Twitter and Facebook.
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