Previously: Dolores got some much-needed pants.
—
The Adversary
Marines: 3D-PRINTED ROBOTS!
Maeve wakes up to a piano version of “Fake Plastic Trees.” She dresses and we cut to her walking to the Mariposa. A tired-looking Clementine joins her at the bar. Maeve asks if it was a late night talking or fucking. They only get paid for the one thing. (J: Maeve has such a way with words.) Clem says that she gets paid when clients are grateful, and it isn’t always about what’s between her legs.
We cut to Maeve escorting the man upstairs. He takes a swig from his bottle of liquor and asks Maeve if she isn’t going to take her clothes off. She drily says that she would, but she suspects that by the time she got down to her knickers, he’d be done anyway. That pisses Rough Tough Newcomer right off, and he slams Maeve up against a wall. He lowers his own pants, and Maeve calls him “big all over, except where it counts.” Naturally, this only makes Rough Tough angrier. Maeve encourages him to channel his anger into choking her. He hesitates a bit, but then really goes to town with the choking. To the point that we see Maeve closer her eyes in that scene…
…and wake up in Reprocessing. Felix is none too happy to see her away again. She sits up and says, “where were we?”
Jess: Maeve is so clever! with words, with violence!!
Mari: Definitely a woman of many talents.
Bernie asks if Elsie showed the transmitter she found to anyone else. Elsie says of course not, especially since someone down here in HQ must’ve done this. It occurred to her that maybe it was Bernie who planted it, but he’s been around for years, and if he were going to sell them out, he would’ve done it years ago. I mean, maybe. You can take time to be disgruntled– trust the HR lady on that one. (J: Revenge is a dish best served cold!)
Elsie says that instead of their hosts going crazy, someone is using them to smuggle information. Is that a glass half-full or half-empty thing? “We’re engineers,” Bernard says. “It means the glass has been manufactured to the wrong specifications.” Elsie chuckles. Bernie wants to know what information was being transferred out, but since the host bashed his head in with a rock, that will be difficult. They might be able to find who he was transmitting to, but they would need the exact time he was up there and his geocache was wiped. Bernie says not all of it. That particular host was an early model who used some early model geopositioning system. Translation: convenient data! (J: My translation: erase the cookies!) In order to access this older data, though, Bernie is going to need to go downstairs.
Basement of Don’t Go In There. The lights are still flickering and water is still dripping in this godforsaken basement. Why. (J: As a Floridian, this is exactly how I pictured basements. Creepy, broken places.) Bernard goes into an old, abandoned lab. Things are left in place as if people just ran from here and never looked back. Bernard starts up an older computer and uses it with his tablet to get the information they need. The stray host reached the peak at 23:07. He sends this over to Elsie. Bernard is ready to go, but the computer detects additional anomalies. They are coming from hosts that aren’t registered with the new system.
Parkside, life is happening in one of the villags. All of a sudden, all of the hosts go still. Ford is with a group of engineers or designers. Ford’s plans for extending the canyon would mean getting rid of this town. Ford says they’ve been disruptive enough. They’ll end the canyon just outside the town limits. He dismisses the team and says he’ll find his own way back. He tells the hosts to carry on, and everyone starts moving again.
As he walks through the town, Ford notices the symbol of the maze carved on a table.
Man in Black and Teddy ride along together. Teddy is side-eyeing the scalp MiB carries, also with the maze symbol. MiB asks Teddy what it looks like to him. Teddy says it’s an old Native myth. The maze itself is the sum of a man’s life. At the center is a man who had been killed over and over again and always clawed his way back to life. The man returned for the last time and vanquished all his oppressors in a tireless fury. He built a house and around that house he built a maze so complicated only he can get through it.
We started this episode with Maeve getting killed yet again and clawing her way back to life. What if that man in the middle of the maze is the hosts, killed over and over again? (J: WHOA. SO TRUE.)
Teddy and MiB come across two other riders who let them know that there is trouble in Pariah and the border has been closed. MiB asks Teddy how else they get over the border. Teddy knows a way, but it’s treacherous. He’s going, whether or not MiB does. He needs to find Dolores. MiB smirks and follows Teddy.
Reprocessing. Felix is trying to explain the park, the hosts, and Maeve’s programming. Maeve insists that no one forces her to do anything. Felix is like “yeah… that’s your programming.”
Mari: I’m with her on the “how do you know.” Because THEY CAN TRICK YOU.
Felix says that these days, they are the same, for the most part. The main difference is that the processing power in Maeve’s head is way better, but has one major flaw. It’s under HQ’s control. Felix doesn’t know how Maeve is remembering or waking up, (J: I’ll tell you how. I, Robot prepared us for this! Of course the robots are going to take over!) but everything else was put in her head. He demonstrates this by showing Maeve her own dialogue programming on his stolen behavior tablet. Seeing it seems to jam Maeve up and she powers down.
Theresa and Bernard meet in her office. She breaks the news that Ford knows about their relationship. Bernard asks if it matters. They are consenting adults. Theresa is more concerned with the fact that they both lead departments that are supposed to keep each other in check. The board may question her objectivity. She breaks up with Bernard. He wants a little credit here. He can be objective. Theresa asks if he really can be, about his own team, or about Ford. He has to admit that Ford’s leadership as of late has been questionable. Bernie doesn’t think Ford is the problem, but Theresa says it’s not his job to assess problems in the park. It’s her’s. And she says they are done here. She broods a little after Bernie is gone.
Jess: Bernie, you’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Mari: Good pep talk.
Reprocessing. Felix is still trying to get Maeve back online. After some panicked button pressing, Maeve whirs back to life. She doesn’t miss a beat though, next asking Felix to show her the upstairs. Felix says no, but then Maeve just caresses his hand and smiles, because she knows he’s a sucker.
Jess: Seriously, Felix SHE’S PROGRAMMED TO DO THIS.
Mari: Felix and Maeve first walk by the room where they hose down the murdered hosts. Next, he takes her to where they 3D print the hosts. Next, they go up a maze of escalators into the place where the animals are being programmed. Next, a costuming and behavior area. Finally, he tells her they are in design. Felix begs to please go back downstairs now. He doesn’t want to get fired, and she would be decommissioned.
Right before the get into the elevator, Maeve sees the promotional video with Miss Evangelista. (In trying to find out what I nicknamed her originally, I learned that Talulah Riley was once married to Elon Musk. Huh.) Maeve watches the promotional video that includes shots of her with the little girl she’s been dreaming about. She’s overcome.
Jess: That’s me every episode, Maeve. Overcome with the amount of information you throw at us every time.
Mari: We cut to reprocessing where Maeve is asking how they have her dreams. Felix has to explain that the hosts get reassigned. They don’t rebuild them completely, just tweak them and drop them into a new role. As he’s explaining, Douchey interrupts. Douchey says he’s definitely going to tell QA about Felix’s obsession with Maeve. She springs into action, grabbing a scalpel and holding it up against Douchey’s throat before he can get very far. Douchey says that Maeve can’t hurt him and she’s like RLY? She threatens him a bunch more and mentions his name. It’s Sylvester. I have a feeling we’ve heard it before, but this time I think I’ll remember. Probably.
Hunger Games Room. This is the first time I realize that Theresa’s office is overlooking it all. She finishes up a call and lights a cigarette.
HQ’s pool and bar. Lee is lounging. Theresa finds him and tells him that he looks well for someone on sick leave. She turns down his offer for a drink with a “fuck you,” but takes a seat. Over the last 5 days, Ford’s changes have displaced over 50 hosts, which has created continuity holes all over the park. She needs him to plug them. Lee says that he’s “creatively flaccid” (wow, thanks for that) and can only give so much. The narratives Ford disturbed represented years of his life and something about his essence. Theresa asks if that’s where the “whoroborus” came from. Lee tells her to keep pushing him. He’ll quit. Theresa says he won’t. He’ll drink his cocktails, throw his tantrum, and then get back to work. If Ford can’t pull this off, the board will be looking for a replacement, but they won’t be looking here.
Teddy has led Man in Black to another camp of soldiers. Teddy says it’s less soldiers, though, so they can just shoot their way through. MiB thinks that sounds like a good way to get dead, but then spots two soldiers riding away from the camp and gets idea face.
Cut to Teddy and MiB walking into camp in uniforms. They see a bunch of maimed soldiers. Teddy knows this is Wyatt’s handiwork because he would never straight up kill. He liked to be more “creative.” Unfortunately, one of the soldiers recognizes Teddy. Teddy was the one who ambushed their outpost in Escalante. Teddy draws his gun, turns, and tells Salty Soldier that he has no idea what happened at Escalante. And then he shoots the soldiers down dead. MiB shoots another 5 or so, but then they are easily captured because you know, camp full of soldiers.
Jess: Who is this Teddy and what have you done WITH THE REAL TEDDY.
Mari: Pool. Tessa Thompson walks out and just beautifuls up the joint. (J: She really does though.) Lee is immediately taken and joins her at the bar. (J: He’s immediately not creatively flaccid.) He asks her what her “poison” is. She says she’s been here often enough that she knows the park is all the poison she can handle. Lee does that annoying thing where someone feels they can size you up and starts guessing things about you. But you know, Westworld themed, because he guesses that her favorite narrative is “The Final Burial of Salvation.” Lee says it’s his business to read desires and satiate them, as he’s the head of narrative. Tessa asks him what his favorite ride is. Lee writes them, he doesn’t partake. Plus, he doesn’t exactly work in a culture where they can let loose. Tessa would’ve thought that the head of narrative could do whatever he wanted. Lee boohoos that his creativity is constrained, what with QA breathing down his neck and Behavior programming the hosts to go off script. Tessa Thompson seems very interested in the fact that the robots can go off script. Lee says it’s just little gestures, things meant to make them seem more life. “Really, it’s just a vanity project for the meglomaniac who started this place.” Lee doesn’t know why the suits at Delos put up with it.
Lee orders another drink, but he’s cut off. In fact, the bartender has a message from Theresa: tortured artist only works for artists. Sober up and get back to work. (J: DAMN THERESA.) Tessa takes that as her cue to leave. Lee grabs a whole bottle of booze and stomps away with a “fuck this job.” I’ve felt that way before. (J: Same. Same.)
Elsie finds Bernard at his desk with the news that she’s close to finding their saboteur. She thinks that once the corporate overlords know that they’ve uncovered corporate espionage, they are going to be grateful. Elsie intends on accepting that gratitude in the form of a title bump, room upgrade and unlimited Mesa Bar access. She might even request Theresa’s quarters since hers will be the first head to roll. Bernard tries to defend Theresa, but Elsie won’t hear it. It sure seems like a lot of stuff is slipping through the cracks under her watch.
Bernard heads to the Hunger Games Room and speaks to one of the QA workers about the inquiry he placed. The QA Lady says that as expected, there are no employees or guests in the section of the park he asked about, Sector 17. It’s been designated off limits for future narrative development.
Bernard heads topside to visit Sector 17 himself. The music would lead us to believe this is spooky bad news. (J: The music was sooooo good this episode. It perfectly backed up every scene and made my anxiety so much worse.) Bernard quickly comes across a house and watches as a man exits and gathers some firewood. Bernard lets himself into the house and finds a whole ass family living there, including the little Bored Boy, who I also called Robot Boy, so idk Bored Robot Boy. Bernard asks if the father is Arnold. Father asks who the heck Arnold is, and probably more importantly, who Bernard is and what he’s doing here. Father grabs at Bernard, who tries to command him to freeze all motor functions. Nothing happens, and things don’t look great for Bernie, until Ford is suddenly there. His verbal commands slow Father right down.
Jess: I thought Bernard was a goner but I’m glad Father is asking the right questions.
Mari: Jess’s favorite thing is people who ask questions.
Bernard asks who these people are. Ford calls them ghosts, so Bernard guesses that they are first gen hosts. I think it’s like saving your first generation iPod. (J: hahah, insert laugh track.) (M: *bows*)
Ford calls Bored Robot Boy over and tells him to turn the other cheek. His face splits apart and we see his first gen insides.
Mari: Bernard wonders how they are still operating. Ford admits that he maintains them himself. They are the only hosts left in the park that Arnold built himself. That’s why he hasn’t wanted to destroy them. That, and the obvious: this is a replication of one of Ford’s only happy childhood memories. The boy is a childhood version of Ford himself, we can infer. Arnold made it and gave it to Ford as a gift, saying that all great artists hide themselves in their world. Of course, Arnold’s version was kinder than reality. Over the years, though, Ford has made his father more true-to-life. We watch as Father pours himself a drink.
Bernard says he’s… troubled by this. I mean, yes, you just walked into Ford’s childhood trauma so fair. Oh, but Bernard is more leaning toward the unmonitored hosts in the park thing. Ford says they are harmless. Surely he can be indulged a little connection to his past. If Bernard could see his son again, wouldn’t he want to? Bernard says he’s g2g.
Hunger Games Room. Stubbs tells another QA-er to keep their eye on Pariah, which is running close to capacity tonight. And then Lee shows up to pee all over the park model as he yells “fuck Ford and his new fucking narrative.” Theresa catches him and asks if he’s filing a complaint. A still drunk Lee says that he’s declaring that this is his park and he’ll do with it as he pleases. Theresa figures this is as good a time as any and introduces Lee to Charlotte Hale, executive director of the board. It’s Tessa Thompson. She’s here on behalf of Delos to oversee certain transitions in administration. (J: DAMNNNNNNNN THERESA.) I was gonna make a comment about how awkward this all was, but really, if you are peeing on work property, it was only ever gonna end in awkward.
Bernard is back in his office conducting research. He asks the computer how many first gen hosts there were. 82. How many were designed by Arnold? 47. Bernard wants all the names of first gen hosts sill in rotation, alphabetically. He looks at the list and though we get a little glimpse, we cut away from the scene.
Best believe I hit rewind and pause, though. Number two on that list is Abernathy, Dolores. The two hosts that flank her are not ones I recognize.
Soldier Camp. Teddy and Man in Black are tied up, but we see that Teddy is trying to work free of his bindings. Teddy’s about to get branded a traitor with nothing other than the maze symbol.
Elsie is still investigating, and the more she does, the worse you feel right? Like this is the kind of detecting the shit out of things that ends badly. Now, she’s found that the transmitter was transmitting to a Delos satellite. Not only that, but Elsie thinks the voices some of the hosts have been hearing? Someone has been broadcasting to the hosts.
This is such a neat, solid explanation for something that has just felt really intangible throughout the whole show to me so far. I mean that I just kind of accepted the voices in their head and it wasn’t something I thought to question further. I was so busy questioning a million other things. I love this, though. I love that they tied the transmitter with the voices and this idea that someone could be reaching out to the hosts without the humans knowing. (J: Like literally where the hell is this story going.)
This all also ties in to the whole bicameral mind theory. The voice of god in your head and all that. Even though that system was abandoned ages ago, someone is still relaying, and Elsie knows from where. She’s just gonna go check out that location totally alone and hang up the phone before Bernard can finish telling her to be careful, so I’m sure everything will be fine.
Ford is walking along in the park when Bored Robot Boy finds him and asks his traditional “are you lost?” Ford says nope. He thought they could play catch with Jock. Bored Robot Boy looks a little sad and then leads Ford to a suspiciously murdered dog.
I’m confused about timeline because it’s either suddenly night time or we aren’t parkside? I don’t know. It’s dark where Elsie is and she has to explore this creepy ass abandoned theater by flashlight. Oh my god, there are dolls heads just look at me straight in the face, why is this happening. Elsie finds the relay hidden under the stage. She starts up the computer and tells it to access previous users.
Theresa is in her room, smoking and staring at herself in a mirror. There’s a knock at the door and it’s Bernard. He’s here about some anomalies he found in the park. Bernard ignores an incoming call from Elsie as he tells Theresa about everything he’s found out today leading to some causes for concern about Ford. Another call from Elsie. This time Bernard picks up and she’s got some news: Theresa was the one smuggling the data out of the park. There’s more, but Bernard says that he’s going to have to call Elsie back.
Jess: ELSIE IS GOING TO DIE.
Mari: No TV character could survive this.
Down in Reprocessing, Maeve is looking at her own personality profile on Felix’s stolen behavior tablet. She’s high on charm and coordination and relatively high on intelligence. 14 is as high as they’ll let any host go. Maeve wants an upgrade. Sylvester tries to talk himself out of it, but Maeve knows he can do it. She knows that he erases hosts so that the other McDonalds Rubber Suited men can have sex with the hosts. Sylvester gives in.
Bernard, gone from Theresa’s room, calls Elsie back. The rest of the story is that while Theresa was using the broadcast to retask the Stray, someone else has been using it too. This person has been using it to break and rewrite loops for the older model hosts. These hosts could lie to them and maybe even hurt them. The best she could tell, Arnold has been issuing the modifications, even though he’s dead. Whatever Arnold had going on with Ford, it doesn’t seem to be over. Elsie says she’s going to transfer all the data and meet Bernard back in his office.
In Ford’s office, he’s questioning Bored Robot Boy, aka Robert. He asks Robert what happened to the dog. Robert says he found it that way, but then Ford orders Robert into analysis mode. Was he lying? Yes, he was. Robert killed the dog after the dog killed a rabbit. Robert heard a voice who told him to put it out of its misery. Arnold’s voice. Arnold said Robert was to help the dog by killing it. If the dog was dead, it couldn’t hurt anything anymore.
Okay, so Arnold is pro-kill the people that hurt others. It’s fine, it’s fine. No robot uprising here.
Elsie is still in the horrible abandoned theater. She hears a crash and calls out, assuming it’s Bernard. She calls out again and in a smaller voice asks, “Arnold?” Someone places a bag over her head and we cut away. I’m sorry, Elsie. I hope this has taught us all a lot about going into abandoned theaters alone to investigate things by flashlight.
Sylvester has hacked his way into Maeve’s profile. She wants a tad less loyalty and definitely less pain, thank you. Felix notices something, though. Someone has already been making changes to Maeve, upping her paranoia and self-preservation. Sylvester takes a look and notes that it’s someone with a ton more privileges than they have. Sylvester wants nothing to do with this, but Maeve threatens him some more. She tells Felix again to take her intelligence all the way up.
Jess: Work that level 14 charm, Maeve.
Mari: Listen, Felix, Sylvester, I feel you on not wanting to lose your job, but when a robot is like “max me out on intelligence and make sure I feel no pain!” maybe just… maybe just don’t do what the robot says. Maybe make a run for it, rat yourself out to the people in charge, and spruce up your resume later.
Jess: Seriously, how does no one else notice how awful these specialists are.
Mari: Maybe they’ll notice when the robot uprising starts.
Felix does what Maeve asks.
There was a lot of interconnected storytelling as well. We hear Felix telling Maeve that the hosts are tweaked and never rebuilt and we see this best exemplified in Teddy. He’s been tweaked, his backstory changed, and the way that plays out here is super clear. Good Guy Teddy is now Murder a Camp Full of Soldiers Teddy, so.
I don’t think I noticed until the end that Dolores, William and Logan were all missing. Sad to say, but I didn’t care much? I really like Dolores, but I’m not digging her storyline with William.
It’s interesting to me that we have all these people who were probably previously understood to be the Bads: Man in Black, Logan, perhaps even Ford with his God complex. In this episode, we have the Man in Black taking a backseat to Teddy’s rampage, Logan absent, and Ford humanized with the discovery of little robot family. In an episode called The Adversary, there is a looming threat of other danger: Arnold, covert operations, an empowered Maeve, and people who grab curious women in the dark.
Jess: I think this is the episode that finally put a forward motion on the information dump that’s been thrown at us. I was ok with the missing characters (except Logan) because this episode was filled with those that fall in the grey. These are the ones that have flipped their script and are going in a direction that is surprising. Maeve is shining as the star of this show. She’s so smooth and in control, but has this undercurrent of devastation. Is it her daughter, is there more? Bernard and Arnold are also intriguing. What’s their real dynamic? Would Bernard be able to go behind Ford’s back if he had to? I think that as an episode titled Adversary, it showed that Westworld breeds no friends.
Next time on Westworld: Theresa and Charlotte team up against Ford in S01 E07 – Trompe L’Oeil.
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.
