This was another great episode of Westworld. I was really happy to see Grace come back this episode. I was pretty sure we would see her again, but I still had my doubts. The last episode I described her as the “Man-in-black of Raj world”, and that turned out to be way more accurate than I expected by the end of this episode.
I am excited to see what happens with her and her daddy for the rest of the season. I am not sure if they will get along. I have a feeling they will not be on the same page about what is happening in the park. We will find out.
The beginning of this episode in “the hatch” (LOST reference) was pretty awesome. As soon as we started panning around the room I was reminded of Desmond from season 2 of lost. I also immediately had the sense that we were with Jim Delos, and he had been turned into a robot. That was immediately confirmed for me when I saw his hand shaking as he tried to pour his coffee. It was a great sequence. I loved almost everything about it.
I think there is some question about exactly what is going on here. I believe they did a series of interviews with Jim the person after they made his red ball of consciousness but before they created the robot version. When William showed up he was re-enacting one of those interviews to see how robot Delos would react.
He said the same thing every time, which I suspect is what he said as a person. Which makes me wonder how much free-will the robot Delos actually has. Is this scripted in his programming, or are they just making sure the artificial brain acts the same way as the real brain once did. I thought when we saw the sequence repeat over and over there would be some slight changes to the script as Delos was ad-libbbing. However, that didn’t appear to be the case. Maybe this was a test script that they created in order to have Delos be introduced to the concept that he was now a robot. However, when that fact was given to him his new brain could not make it work and he would start to glitch out.
I am not sure I understand the rationale behind the program. I thought maybe they would just let the robot version believe he was the actual person. Why did they need to go to the trouble of making sure he knew he wasn’t actually human anymore. However, when he doesn’t age for several years I guess he would catch onto it anyway, so maybe better to address it now instead of letting it come up down the road.
I am not exactly sure what the criteria was for him to be able to get out of the hatch… but I guess that really doesn’t matter. I can’t believe they burned the whole thing down every time it failed. That seemed a bit excessive and overly costly. Burn the robot, but leave the sweet furniture. And that fish didn’t do anything wrong.
The rest of the episode was centered around Bernard and the long lost Elsie. We all assumed she was still alive somewhere, and we were proven right. Bernard had her stashed away in a cave because she was a risk to Ford’s plan. “She knew too much.”
Her and Bernard go into a secret drone lab where we get just ask confused as Bernard is. It was an effective sequence, but it was one that I feel like I should watch a few times to make sure I understand what (and when) this stuff is going on.
The main takeaways is that Bernard was a cold-blooded killer and curb-stoped a dude. He also saved the red ball of some human consciousness. I have a feeling that is going to come into play later. I don’t know who’s consciousness that is, but if I had to guess I would say Arnold. No real reason why that would be the case…. it is just my feeling.
We also find out that this lab is the exact same one where Daddy Delos has been re-created time and time again only to be burnt in the hellfires of his circular prison. For some reason this time he has been left alive and he has clawed his face off. He is looking very scary and demonic and he is coming after Elsie until Bernard steps in and shows his ninja skills. Ultimately they burn Delos one last time.
So what did we learn?
They were trying to figure out a way to make humans immortal by taking a snapshot of their consciousness and implanting it into a host body. They store these snapshots in little red balls. They haven’t been able to make the human-to-host transfer work, despite years of trying.
That tells us that any host walking around (even Bernard) is operating via a computer program and not a human consciousness. Even though Bernard looks like Arnold, presumably there is not a red Arnold ball inside of his head.
That is all I have for now. I don’t know what to expect in the next episode. It could go anywhere. I’m sure we will get back to Delores and the sack-head gang, as well as Maeve in Samuri World.
The storylines I am most looking forward to are finding out how William and Grace (Emily?) are going to combine forces? What is her end game? Is it the same as daddy’s?
I want to find out what is up with the Ghost Nation. Why are they capturing humans and keeping them?
This has been a great season so far. It is setting up for a solid ending.
Filed Under: HBO, Television, Westworld