Westworld S01 E02 – A Very Good Guy.

Previously: It’s like a violent, bloody theme park with robots, we think.
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Chestnut

Marines: 3D PRINTED ROBOTS. (See? I contained myself.)

After the previouslies and the credits, a man’s voice tells Dolores to wake up. She does, in the same position she always does, but it’s the middle of the night. She walks out of her house and the man’s voice asks her if she remembers.

Jess: DOLORES KNOWS EVERYTHING. I know I’m continuing the shouting in this episode. 

Mari: I think we all understand.

A fade and some heavy breathing bring us to Jimmi Simpson sleeping on a train, but a white, high tech one.

Jess: I know no one else watching this show but, I loved him in Breakout Kings. I also like this weird, innocent approach he’s going for. 

Mari: A server clears her throat to wake Weird Innocent Jimmi Simpson and announce that they are about to arrive. Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian! lol) (J: You mean the hot guy from The Punisher whose name I can’t remember.) (M: I definitely mean Prince Caspian.) is sitting next to him. Ben Barnes says that where they are going, that pretty waitress is a 2. Jimmi Simpson tells Ben Barnes that he’s being an asshole and I’m going to be v sad if Ben Barnes is an asshole in this. I’m preparing to be v sad on account of 1- him being called an asshole after 2 seconds on screen and 2- I think the point is that everyone here is an asshole, though I will note that Ben Barnes is sitting on the BLACK side of the train, while Jimmi Simpson is sitting on the WHITE side of the train. #metaphors #lightanddark

Jess: You’re so deep. 

Mari: #deep

Anyway, Ben Barnes tells Jimmi Simpson that the whole point of this trip is to be themselves, unless being an uptight prick is who Jimmi Simpson is.

Jess: THAT IS UNFAIR. He’s just unsure about where this speeding train is heading, ok! 

Mari: Once they arrive at the station, a bunch of men and women dressed in white are waiting, and promptly grab a guest to bring away. Ben Barnes tells Jimmi Simpson to have fun and be safe. Jimmi Simpson is kind of shocked by this suggestion. Ben Barnes says it’s not like his sister didn’t ride her share of cowboys when she was here.

A pretty blonde woman comes to collect Jimmi Simpson. She’s played by Talulah Riley, who was Mary Bennet in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice and also Miss Evangelista in “Silence in the Library“/”Forest of the Dead” on Doctor Who. She doesn’t get a name, so I’m going to call her Miss Evangelista, naturally.

She greets Jimmi Simpson (William) and starts asking a bunch of questions about his medical history. He jokes that he’s only got a little fear of clowns. Miss Evangelista don’t laugh, but does ask if he often experiences social anxiety. lol. William does not think this is lol. Miss Evangelista leads him up an escalator and it kind of seems like the park is at the top, but the closer we get, the easier we see it’s just a giant graphic with a modified Westworld logo on it.

William asks what these questions are about, given that he thought you couldn’t get hurt in the park. “Only the right amount,” she replies. Then smiles because she’s made a joke of her own.

Jess: I’m unclear if she’s a robot but if she is I’m glad they included a sarcasm chip. 

Mari: Probably so you wouldn’t be able to tell if she’s a robot.

Miss Evangelista tells William that the only limit in the park is his imagination. You start at the center of the park where it is simple and safe, but the further out you venture, the more intense the experience gets. How far he wants to go is entirely up to him.

Miss Evangelista takes him to a costuming room and explains that everything in the park is about choices, starting right here. Everything in the room is bespoke and exactly his size.

William hesitates but then asks Miss Evangelista if she’s real. (J: REAL OR NOT REAL.) 

“Well, if you can’t tell, does it matter?” 

We thank Miss Evangelista for that there thesis statement.

William asks if the guns are real. “Real enough, but you can’t kill anyone you’re not supposed to.” Miss Evangelista offers to help him undress, or she can step outside. She starts to undress him and puts his hand on her hip suggestively, but he pulls away and says he doesn’t want to keep his friend waiting.

Bernie visits poor, still nameless Shannon Woodward. He asks how the new narrative is coming along. She dismissively says that she’ll get around to it. She’s still investigating the Abernathy break down. In the past, dissonant episodes have been immediate, but Peter made it all the way back home after he found the picture. It was like he was mulling it over. Bernie kind of condescendingly asks if she thinks Peter had an existential crisis. She snaps that she thinks that something is fucked up with his cognition, and she thinks Bernie feels the same way she does. Bernie asks where the error originated, but of course he already knows. He covered for Ford. Shannon Woodward asks to rebuild Abernathy in order to truly see what went wrong with him. Bernie tells her to let it go. She asks, then, if she can examine hosts who had contact with Abernathy, like Dolores. Bernie tells her that Dolores was examined and cleared. Stories are best left to the guests.

Jess: One thing I really like about the show is that they constantly deal in grey area. No character is absolutely a good or bad guy and you can see it here with lovable Bernie. Are the stories really only for the guests?

Mari: He’s spinning one himself, right now.

Park. Dolores is in town and the voices around her get loud as she slows and seems to recall something. “Remember,” the mystery man voice tells her. The town chatter fades and when she turns, all she sees down the road are dead bodies. Behind her, Maeve clears her voice and brings Dolores back from her reverie. Maeve asks her to stand elsewhere. “I don’t want anyone thinking that you’re representative of the goods inside.” Dolores turns slowly to her and repeats the message her father supposedly gave her: these violent delights have violent ends. Maeve scoffs. Dolores seems to come back into herself and walks away, leaving a confused Maeve.

Jess: Don’t worry Maeve we’re all confused. 

Mari: It’s part of the charm.

William is done getting dressed. Miss Evangelista tells him there’s one final touch and gestures to a wall of black and white hats. William choose white, in case we were unclear about the GOOD GUY, CONFUSED AT BEING HERE vibe. (J: WE GOT IT.) William walks down a hallway of light, opens a door, and seems to have walked into a saloon. The bartender pours him a drink and from another door, Ben Barnes walks in. (J: SWOON.) The light fixtures start shaking just as William asks how they’ll get into the park. Then the train takes off and William looks out the window, utterly taken aback by the general splendor. Ben Barnes tells him he has no idea what he’s really getting into. It’s not all just guns and tits. It seduces everyone who comes, eventually, and by the end, William will be begging to stay because this place will answer the question of who he really is. They drink to that.

The Sheriff oversees a hanging, but it is interrupted not a moment too soon by Man in Black. MiB and the Sheriff exchange menacing words and then there is a shootout. We don’t see it, but instead watch the almost hanged guy, Lawrence, flinch in reaction to each gunshot. At the end, Lawrence lifts his blindfold and finds that everyone is dead but MiB. Seems all big and bad, until you remember that he can only win. Lawrence asks who the heck MiB is (J: Lawrence is asking the right questions. He’s the people’s choice.) and MiB says that Kissy sent him Lawrence’s way. MiB tosses the scalp at Lawrence, who is very confused. MiB doesn’t buy the confusion and tells Lawrence that he’s going to help find the maze’s entrance.

Player piano. Maeve gives a big speech to a newcomer about the voice you often hear that tells you not to do things. The only place she could be free was her dreams. So, she ran away, crossed the shinning sea, and when she was back on solid ground, the first thing she heard was that voice. And you know what it said? We don’t know because Maeve starts having a flashback. The score makes it seem like it’s more of a trauma-back. She’s in a field, running. Her speech abandoned, the newcomer excuses himself, and she’s left frozen on the couch.

We transition from her there to her on a stool in HQ. A tech asks her what the voice said and she smoothly and seamlessly finishes her speech. “It said, “this is the new world. And in this world, you can be whoever the fuck you want.“” The tech says her pupilary response is good and her smile is good. “I’d fuck her. What’s the problem?” A female tech says that the guests wouldn’t. Sizemore is launching a new storyline and wants the dead weight cleared out. If her numbers don’t get back up, she’ll be decommissioned. The female tech suggests doubling her aggression, since she’s a hooker and there’s no point in playing coy. If that doesn’t work, they’ll send her to behavior and let them deal with it.

Dipping room. Ford finds Bernie brooding. Bernie explains how hard it was to retire the two hosts last episode, Abernathy and Bandit 2. Ford thinks there is something else that most be bothering him. Bernie admits that the photo alone couldn’t have caused that amount of damage to Abernathy, not without some other interference. Ford asks if he’s suggesting sabotage and laughs it off in a way that we all just went, “yep. It’s sabotage.” He also uses the expression “diddling with our creations” and I feel icky.

Anyway, Bernie says sabotage is the simplest solution, so Ford gets to launch into another speech about creating life out of chaos and the BS of Occam’s Razor.

The train arrives in town and William and Ben Barnes get off. Did I mention that Ben is obviously wearing a black hat? I did now. The guy who usually bumps into Teddy bumps into William. He apologizes and Ben Barnes is like, “really?” He yells, “fuck you, Grizzly Adams,” to the man instead. They pass soldiers recruiting for the union, Clementine outside of the saloon, and then a man falling into the mud. William tries to help the mud man, but Ben Barnes drags him away and tells him not to fall for it. All these people are just going to try and lure him into some big adventure and they aren’t going anywhere before getting drinks.

Nearby, Dolores packs her saddle. She catches her own reflection and zones out.

Bernie says, “bring yourself back online.” She powers on and we see that she is sitting in a room with Bernie, fully clothed. He asks if she remember the last conversation they had. She does and she hasn’t told anyone about it, as he requested. Bernie asks her to step into analysis and tell him how many interactions she’s participated in since they last talked. 138. Has anyone altered or updated her core heuristics in that time? No. Bernie asks her to resume and she exits analysis mode. Bernie asks her not to mention the things they’ve been talking about. She asks if she’s done something wrong. Bernie says no, but there is something different about her, about the way she thinks. He finds it fascinating but others may not. Dolores asks if he’s done something wrong. He doesn’t answer, but tells her to turn off her event log and delete this interaction. She does. He tells her to get back before someone misses her.

Jess: I gasped. WHAT IS BERNIE DOING?!

Mari: Player piano. Maeve is delivering the last lines of her speech to a woman, who looks interested, but then Maeve pushes her against a wall and grabs her hard enough to lift up a bit off the ground. The woman seems to have second thoughts and says maybe some other time. Maeve shrugs it off and heads to the bar. Clementine is there already.

Clementine says she’s been having trouble sleeping because of nightmares. Maeve tells her to do what she does whenever she’s in a bad dream: count backwards from 3 and wake herself up, safe and warm in her bed, where she can get fucked back to sleep by some asshole with a miniature pecker. They cheers to miniature peckers, I guess. Clementine heads off back to work. Maeve has another trauma-back to being in a field. Her hand is shaking. Teddy leans over and asks if she’s alright and she sasses him into leaving her alone.

HQ, Hunger Games Room. A tech tells Luke Hemsworth that they have a problem at the Mariposa. Maeve’s numbers are still way down. Luke Hemsworth tells him to retask Clementine as the madam and leave Maeve on the floor for the night. They’ll decommission her in the morning.

Bernie finds Cullen smoking in the hallway.

Jess: I was concerned about all that latex and her cigarette.

Mari: Apparently Bernie is concerned as well. He tells Cullen that QA will fine her for this and the woman in charge is quite formidable. Cullen is the head of QA, so it’s a joke and a compliment. Bernie assumes she had a bad conversation with corporate, on account of her stress smoking. She’s not here for the cutesy character study and just wants to know if his department will be ready for the launch. Bernie says they’ll be ready and all the hosts are back to normal. Cullen says that’s good, as they wouldn’t want to interrupt their guests’ rape and pillage.

Park. William and Ben Barnes are having dinner. William is still wondering who is a guest and who is a host. Ben Barnes whips out his gun and says there’s one way to find out. William pushes his gun down and asks if maybe they can finish eating in peace.

Ben Barnes tells William that this is his problem. He’s always worried about making a mess. He’s talented, driven and inoffensive, especially at work. I’m already wondering if I’m going to hate William because all I’m hearing so far is that he’s A Good Guy™. William thought they came here to not talk about work, but Ben Barnes vagues about this trip being work.

They are approached by the man who fell in the mud earlier. He offers to take William on a treasure hunt, no matter how much Ben Barnes yells at him to GTFO. And so finally, Ben Barnes drives a knife through the old man’s hand. William cannot believe it and the man just bleeds all over the table. Ben Barnes says he’s worked up another appetite anyway.

We cut to him having some group sex. In another room, William sits in bed fully dressed, listening to all the sex noises. Clementine walks in and says that it sounds like his friend is having fun. William objects to the word “friend” and Clementine laughs a little. (J: What kind of friends are you picking up, William!) She starts putting the moves on William, but he tells her she doesn’t have to. She’s beautiful and all, but he has someone real waiting for him back at home. Clementine kisses him sweetly and tells him that real love is always worth waiting for.

HQ. Down in the coloring and costuming section of robot building, Sizemore has a tantrum because he’s not happy with one of the Native robots. He tells the tech to start over. She asks if they can just shave it down instead and he takes his tantrum up to 10, smashing a tray across the robot’s face, giving it a bloody broken nose. Cullen is in the background and calls him diplomatic as ever. She’s here to talk about Sizemore’s request to retire another 50 hosts in order to add to his “savage horde.” (I know the whole idea is that this park has all kinds of disgusting undertones, but the racism, my god.) Cullen approves 20 for his horde, not 50, and asks if Ford has even approved the narrative. Sizemore says Ford hasn’t weighed in on a story line in years. I’ll sure it’ll be fiiiiine, Sizemore.

Ford rides an elevator topside to the park. He seems to just be wandering around when a little boy asks if he’s lost. Ford says he’s just strayed a little too far, same as the boy. The boy explains that he’s on a boring holiday with his family. Ford shares that his father used to say that only boring people get bored. “Mine too,” the boy says. Ford thinks only boring people don’t feel boredom so cannot conceive of it in others. Ford invites the little boy to join him on a walk.

Jess: WHAT A WALK!

Mari: Viewz for days.

Lawrence is still being pulled along by Man in Black. They reach their destination and to Lawrence’s dismay, they are in his small home town. Lawrence freaks out. A friendly bartender spots Lawrence and smiles fondly, but then freezes when he sees Man in Black is sitting in front of him. MiB talks about the past adventures he’s had with Lawrence. In all that time, Lawrence never mentioned having a family. On cue, a little girl spots Lawrence and runs over to greet her Papa, her mother following close behind. MiB says that all these secrets are why he loves this world. It beats the real world because the real world is just chaos. An accident. (J: Tell me about it MiB!) But in the park, every detail adds up to something. He delivers this mini-speech while loading his gun. Lawrence asks what MiB even wants from him. MiB asks how he finds the entrance to the maze. Lawrence insists that he doesn’t know anything about a maze.  

MiB hands the daughter two bullets and tells Lawrence he gets to decide what happens with them. The bartender finally makes it back and pretends he was getting the special booze. MiB guesses, though, that he was telling Lawrence’s cousins to bring more men. MiB asks again if Lawrence has anything to tell him. Lawrence still says nothing, so MiB shoots the bartender.

Down in HQ, a tech shows Luke Hemsworth some live feed and says this guest has already taken out an entire posse. Should he be slowed down? Luke Hemsworth barely looks at the video and says that that particular guest gets whatever he wants.

MiB is slowly surrounded by the rest of the men in the town. Obviously, MiB isn’t worried. In fact, he’s been coming here for 30 years for just this reason. In case you are wondering, it’s to have the illusion of killing lots of people and wielding lots of power, but in a totally fixed way because he’s always guaranteed to win. HOORAY!

MiB kills every last man and then collects the two bullets from the daughter. Lawrence still insists that he doesn’t know how to find the maze. MiB grabs the wife and shoots her in the head. MiB cocks his gun one final time, but Lawrence’s daughter looks him dead in the eye and tells him that the maze isn’t meant for him. MiB will take his chances anyway. Daughter tells him to “follow the blood arroyo to the place where the snake lays its eggs.” Lawrence tells MiB to just go home and leave him alone now. MiB says he’s never going back home this time. We watch as MiB leaves the devastated town behind, Lawrence still in tow.

Ford and Bored Boy are still taking a walk. Bored Boy wanted to climb to the top of the mountain but his father told him he wasn’t allowed. And now, here they are. Bored Boy calls it Nowhere Land, but Ford tells him it’s actually a very full place. Ford sees a rattle snake, but manages to still it with a hand wave.

Ford sees a steeple in the distance. I think it’s a steeple? It’s not on top of a church. It looks like a mini-oil well with a cross on top. Or a displaced steeple. IDK.

Ford looks at it pensively and then tells Bored Boy to run along home now. Bored Boy starts to say something in response, but Ford tells him to go and not come back. The boy looks back and we hear WHIRRING because OF COURSE he’s also a host and cot dammit, every time there is a host reveal, I’m still going to be surprised, aren’t I? Like, duh, this boy in the desert was a host but also WHAT?!

HQ. Bernie rides a million escalators up to his room. HQ’s layout is intense. MAZE LIKE, ALMOST. (J: WHOOOOOOOAAAA, THAT WAS PRETTY INSIGHTFUL.) (M: #goodatTV) Not a second after he enters, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Cullen. He motions her inside and THEY KISS.

We cut to later. Cullen is getting out of bed, but Bernie asks her to stay a little longer so they can talk. Cullen points out that Bernie isn’t a big talker, which is ironic, since his creations never shut up, even when there aren’t guests around. Bernie explains that they are always trying to error-correct. Make themselves more human. When they talk to each other, it’s a way of practicing. Cullen asks if that’s what he’s doing now. Practicing? He laughs a little and there is more kissing. (J: whooooa.) (M: I’ve already given up on calling foreshadowing.)

Exam room. Maeve is on a stool. She was supposed to be decomissioned, but Shannon Woodward runs her own diagnostic and sees all the aggression Narrative gave her. She archives that configuration and instead gently ups her perception and emotional acuity. The Nameless Tech who is helping her asks if the hosts dream. Maeve was talking about dreaming. Shannon Woodward asks what would be the point in that. They do give the hosts the concept of nightmares, just in case somebody forgets to wipe them out at the end of a maintenance session. If Maeve is having dreams, Shannon Woodward chalks it up to the sloppiness of the people patching the host bodies in maintenance. Shannon Woodward does note that Maeve is experiencing physical discomfort. Shannon Woodward orders a full physical during her next rotation. Other than that, Maeve’s all better.

Cut to Maeve delivering her This is the New World speech to an enraptured man. At the end, Maeve grabs Clementine’s hand and puts it in the customer’s hand. Clementine shows him upstairs, and Maeve looks satisfied. Teddy is at the bar and notes that the customer seemed to buy Maeve’s spiel. She tells him the real first voice she heard when she crossed the sea: a man from Baton Rouge saying her pussy could earn him up to $2 a day and she could keep 30% of that. Teddy calls her a liar, but she thinks her sins wash off a little more easily than his. Teddy and Maeve cheers to all their indiscretions when a bullet comes sailing through his glass. And then a guest just keeps shooting Teddy multiple times for fun.

That night, as Maeve gets ready for bed, she has flashbacks to her in a field again, now with added bloody scalp. She falls asleep and has a full nightmare: She’s in that sunny field with a cute little girl. They make it back home and everything is washed in sunlight and fun. The little girl plays with Maeve’s hair, but then that flashes Maeve to almost being scalped. She’s saved by a man on horseback, who then gets shot and scalped himself, but that gives her time to get up and run back to her house, collecting her hiding daughter on the way. Maeve grabs a rifle from her wall, barricades the door and sees the Native man outside her window. When the door opens, though, it’s the Man in Black. Maeve tries to shoot him, but he can’t be hurt. Maeve closes her eyes and counts backwards from 3 until she’s out of the nightmare.

Out of the nightmare but still asleep, this time on an operating table. Two men in McDonald’s colored rubber suits are operating on her. Surgeon 1 says he’s found it. It’s MRSA in her abdomen. They start talking about “filthy fucks” not cleaning up after themselves and don’t immediately notice that Maeve WAKES UP. Surgeon 1 notices first, but they both freak out, especially because her gut is open, and she starts feeling around the wound, AND SHE JUST STANDS UP. Maeve grabs a scalpel and holds it out in front of her for protection. Surgeon 2 tries to talk her into laying back down and letting them help her, but she thinks the hell not and her and her open gut wound run out of the room.

Jess: OMG, What a freaking nightmare!

Mari: Most definitely what stress dreams are made of.

Maeve stumbles and gasps down some hallways and from one building to the next with no resistance, either from security or, like, locked doors. Either HQ is blowing all their budget on costuming, it’s plot convenience, or it speaks to the level of hubris the company has when it comes to the control over their hosts. (J: I didn’t understand that either.)  Maeve makes it down to the room where they hose down the dead host bodes en masse. Her knees finally buckle. The surgeons have caught up with her and inject her with something to knock her out. Surgeon 1 swears he put her in sleep mode before they started, but Surgeon 2 isn’t buying it, on account of her clearly not being in sleep mode. We watch as they drag her away and pan back to see that she was staring at Teddy’s dead body in one of the shower rooms.

Dolores wakes up at night again. She walks out to the same spot out in her yard and asks, “here?” We don’t hear a response, but she bends to dig a little in the dirt. She quickly finds a buried revolver.

HQ. A number of hosts are lined up in rows as Sizemore announces that “this storyline will make Hieronymus Bosch look like he was doodling kittens.” He’s included vivisection, self-cannibalism, and something he calls the “whoroborus.” He doesn’t want to appear immodest, but this is the apex of what the park can provide. Bernie jogs in late to the meeting and asks Cullen if he’s missed anything. She snarkily answers “Lee not appearing immodest.” I’m most excited because I’ve just collected his first name.

Lee finishes his presentation and Ford looks at him and says, “no.” Lee can’t believe it. Ford says that it’s all cheap thrills. It’s not about giving the guests what Lee thinks they want. The guest don’t return for the obvious or garish things that they do. They come back because of the subtleties and the details. They discover the things they think no one has noticed before. Something they fall in love with.

At the tail end of Ford’s 37th speech, we cut park-side and join William. He spots Dolores packing her saddles and is the one to collect her fallen can. Ford voice-overs that the guests aren’t here to discover who they are. They already know that. They are here because they want a glimpse of who they could be. Ben Barnes calls William over and he says goodbye to Dolores with a tip of the hat. In HQ, Ford finishes that the only thing this new narrative tells him is who Mr. Sizemore is. Lee sheepishly asks if there isn’t anything Ford likes about it. He looks about and asks what size boots one of the hosts is wearing.

Topside. Ford’s got new boots, and he’s walking with Bernie, who warns him about the board’s reaction to not having a new storyline. Ford says he’s already got an idea for one. Something quite original. The camera shows us that Ford’s led Bernie to the maybe-steeple.

We got introduced to so much last episode, it’s amazing that this episode takes up with even more introductions, namely in William and Ben Barnes and some additional conflicts within the world. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the way the different HQ departments talk about each other, and sometimes it’s Ford delivering a line about FALLING IN LOVE and cutting to Good Guy William staring at Dolores. Overall, though, it worked for me here again because I’m so curious to see what is happening in the park. If the show wants to establish sympathy for the hosts, it has to also establish some antipathy for the guests. And then it goes and checks both of those, giving us milk-murdering hosts and Good Guy guests. I can quickly see these two becoming my least favorite subplot (it already was in this episode…) but that’s not saying over much in an episode that was still mostly a wonder to watch.

Jess: This is the episode where the characters that I thought were secondary get a full introduction and then I’m left wondering how I’m going to focus on so many people’s storylines. Thankfully GoT has prepared me for this dilemma. 

A List of Questions:
– Was the line Dolores told Maeve what sent her into her nightmare tailspin? Is it like an activation code? (J: If it is someone must have programmed it. Who is turning the park against it’s creators?)
– How do these guns work, man? You keep saying they won’t hurt guests but…
– WHAT ABOUT KNIVES?
– Seriously, how about that liability insurance, am I right? Must be wild.

 

 

Next time on Westworld: A host goes missing and Teddy gets an upgrade in S01 E03 – The Stray.