In the latest ‘Westworld’ recap, Delores crosses over to a new world, the Man in Black meets with Robert Ford and Maeve wakes up…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Over the last few weeks on ‘Westworld’, the episodes have started with a conversation of sorts between Bernard and Delores. He’s been exploring further and further into the psyche of one of the oldest ‘hosts’ inside this adult fantasy land but it’s been unclear if he’s digging for answers or planting more questions inside her robot mind.
This week the episode started with Dr. Robert Ford down in the archives — the basement where malfunctioning or retired hosts go to die — and he’s speaking to Old Bill, another aged, archaic robot from the past. There Dr. Ford tells a story about the time he got a greyhound dog as a pet and he let him off his leash in the park one day. You see greyhounds are bred to be race dogs and they spend their whole lives chasing a piece of carpet made to look like a rabbit, but they never quite catch it. So after releasing the dog from its chain, it chased down a cat in the park and tore it to pieces in front of a shocked and disturbed group of people.
The moral of the story was sometimes it’s better for a great beast to always be on the chase because it wouldn’t know what to do if it ever caught it’s prey. It’s a metaphor of sorts for this park — the hosts are the greyhounds and they are always chasing the dream of becoming self-aware, but if they ever got it, the park and the people inside would get torn to pieces just like that cat did all those years ago.
As far as Delores goes, she had her own adventure this week (more on that later) but she also had a conversation with Dr. Ford rather than Bernard. Dr. Ford quizzed Delores about her memories involving Arnold — the co-founder of Westworld who wanted to give the hosts consciousness before dying in the park — and she responds that she has no idea who that person is. When Dr. Ford digs deeper through her analysis mode, Delores says she last spoke to Arnold 34 years ago — the day he died — and his last words to her were orders to help him destroy Westworld.
Obviously, Delores never carried out those instructions and Arnold died but Dr. Ford wonders what she would have done if she followed through. Would she have been the hero and saved the day or been the villain? And which one of those is which? Does playing the hero involve saving or destroying the park?
Based on this lone conversation it appears Dr. Ford has some sort of agitation when it comes to Delores as if he knows she was Arnold’s favorite and she’s still part of the narrative playing out at the park. Perhaps the last remaining host from the days when Arnold was still creating hosts for the park.
Either way, when Dr. Ford left the room Delores spoke to no one in particular and said — “he doesn’t know, I didn’t tell him anything”. Could this be Delores speaking to Arnold in her own mind? Or maybe she’s saying that to Bernard? There have been a lot of theories that either Bernard or Dr. Ford is actually a host — based on this episode my money is on Bernard and he’s the one helping to develop her into a self-aware, conscious piece of machinery just like Arnold always intended. Or maybe Bernard is a host who has been uploaded with Arnold’s consciousness? Food for thought.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘Westworld’ titled Contrapasso…
Self-Discovery
The Man in Black continues his quest to find the center of the maze, but the person to help him get there is no longer Lawrence — the outlaw he “rescued” and has kept tied around a noose for the past few weeks, dragging him from town to town. After finding Teddy Flood near death, crucified to a tree after an encounter with Wyatt, the Man in Black realizes this is the real key to opening the next door.
Wyatt is the person who holds the next level of the maze — or so that’s what the Man in Black believes — and Teddy is on the same mission to find him. So the Man in Black kills Lawrence and drains him of his blood and feeds it to Teddy — an oil change of sorts — so he can recover and get back on the hunt with him.
To accomplish his goal, the Man in Black tells Teddy that Wyatt has kidnapped a rancher’s daughter (Delores), which puts him in a highly motivated state to find this dangerous killer.
The two of them end up in a town having drinks when the Man in Black is joined by none other than Dr. Robert Ford.
A few things are hinted at during this fascinating exchange — it appears the Man in Black was part of the financial backing that helped to open Westworld and maybe that’s why he’s given so much leeway inside the park. The Man in Black mentions the maze he’s searching for and how the real answers he needs were buried with the other creator of this park who died 35 years ago. He also says that perhaps Dr. Ford has created an adversary worthy of his attention in this mad dog murderer named Wyatt.
Dr. Ford also makes one interesting revelation — about how the Man in Black seems rather anxious to find the center of this maze he’s searching for. We learned an episode ago that the Man in Black’s foundation in the real world was responsible for saving someone’s life. Maybe the Man in Black is dying and this is his last ditch effort to upload his consciousness into a host the same way Arnold may have done before he died? That would tie up the loose end about Bernard really being Arnold and the Man in Black wants to join him.
Either way, Dr. Ford eventually lets the Man in Black continue on his path — maybe because deep down he never believes he’ll actually find the center of the maze no matter how hard he looks.
Satellite
Elsie is the one person inside Westworld who seems really concerned about the update that seemingly made the hosts wig out with all sorts of strange behavior. Of course, her boss Bernard shot down the theory a week ago when he said that nothing weird was happening except in Elsie’s mind.
Still when the chance comes to examine the host body of the Woodcutter, who nearly came after her before bashing its own brain in with a rock, Elsie can’t resist. She blackmails one of the “butchers” (the technicians who cut open and repair the robots) after finding video of him having a little “necro-perv” action with one of the hosts so she can do some digging into this robot.
When she scans the host, Elsie finds something rather disturbing — hiding inside his forearm is a satellite transmitter. It appears the Woodcutter wasn’t trying to escape or go off his loop — he was trying to get to a high enough spot inside the park to send out a signal. Somebody is trying to steal the technology from Westworld.
Elsie brings this to Bernard’s attention and even he’s a little shocked to hear this news. Who could be trying to steal the artificial intelligence apparatus from Westworld? Is someone trying to make their own or something far more sinister?
Something I Can Never Have
Logan and William arrive at a town called Pariah — the city where a gang leader named El Lasso resides — and it’s there that a grand adventure will begin. Or at least that’s what Logan believes. Remember, the further you get away from Sweetwater, the more real these “narratives” start to become.
Inside the town, Logan, William and Delores, who is still tagging along, meet with El Lasso — who just happens to be Lawrence reborn as a gang leader in this town. It seems this narrative unfolded a day after the Man in Black executed Lawrence and this is the restart of his loop. Lawrence pitches Logan and William on a job — a stage coach robbery where they will steal nitro glycerin from some Union soldiers traveling through the area and it will then be sold to the Confederados — a group of rogue Southern soldiers who don’t want the Civil War to be over.
When Logan, William and Delores stop the stage coach, the encounter something up to this point that hasn’t happened before — resistance. Logan takes a punch to the mouth and just when it looks like one of the soldiers is going to shoot Delores (who can’t pull a trigger on a gun if you remember), William finally snaps to and shoots him dead before killing another soldier as well. William then turns the gun on the soldier hurting Logan and he saves the day.
Back in town, Logan and William are rewarded with a night inside a brothel with one gigantic orgy happening — and a orchestral version of the Nine Inch Nails song “Something I Can Never Have” playing in the background — while outside El Lasso double crosses the Confederados by dumping the nitro glycerin into some dead bodies for transport before filling up the empty containers with tequila. Unfortunately, he doesn’t spot Delores who has been watching this all unfold from just a few feet away.
Delores ended up there after she wandered through the brothel and ended up in a tent where a Tarot card reader was sitting and awaiting her arrival. When Delores pulled out a card, it was the maze — the same one that has been popping up throughout this story — and she continues to have flashes back to that church (the one Dr. Ford was covering up several episodes back) before she hears voices running through her head again. The voice sounds suspiciously like Bernard, but maybe that’s just because I believe it’s him/Arnold speaking to her.
Regardless now Delores knows that El Lasso is double crossing Logan and William but they’ve got other problems inside the brothel. Logan wants to go to war — he wants to ride with the Confederados and attack the Union army and just have a murderous good time but William wants no part if it.
This is when Logan reveals a few interesting tidbits including — Westworld is apparently hemorrhaging money and his company is thinking of buying the place and this is part of the reason for his visit. He also divulges that William is nothing more than a yes man who will never actually take any chances or make any waves and that’s probably why his sister is marrying him — because she knows he’ll never be any trouble to handle.
This angers William and he finally shoves Logan against a wall but then pulls back when he realizes that this is actually his boss in real life.
Still, the situation erupts enough that Logan grabs Delores and they are leaving Pariah but on the way out of town, the Confederado’s stop them after discovering that the bottles of nitro have been replaced by tequila. The Confederados attack Logan and beat the crap out of him (remember the stakes are higher and more intense out here) and it looks like they are about to do the same to William when he opens fire.
Before the Confederados can shoot back, Delores pulls her gun and takes out every, single one of them.
“You said people come here to change the story of their lives. I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.”
~ Delores
Empowered and full of vigor, Delores knows she can find this new world, an escape of sorts, but there’s a voice inside her head saying that she needs William. She grabs him and kisses him — but you have to wonder if Delores needs him or if this is the voice of God/Arnold/Bernard telling her that he could help the hosts escape this life of servitude. What role William might play is still unknown.
The two of them make an escape and race to catch the train out of Pariah — leaving Logan behind as well — but once they are inside, William and Delores run into Lawrence aka El Lasso as he makes off with the corpses full of nitro glycerin. Rather than shoot each other, the trio makes a pact to work together and this is the adventure William has been waiting to find ever since the day he arrived in the park.
We Need to Talk
Upstairs in the operating room where the technicians pull bullets out of the hosts and repair stab wounds, they are once again working on Maeve after her encounter a week ago. One of the technicians named Felix has been secretly working on a side project involving a dead bird (really a robot) and reprogramming it with his own behaviors. It’s an ill advised move, but one that Felix can’t help but want to explore.
At some time later, Maeve is back in the operating room and Felix is tinkering with his bird, who gets up and flies this time with no flutters or twitches from previous uploads. Felix is so pleased with his work but when he looks up, the bird has landed on Maeve’s finger — she’s awake and looking directly at him.
“Hello, Felix — it’s time you and I had a chat”
~ Maeve
Felix is tinkering with the software in the robots but maybe he’s managed to wake up Maeve when she’s already so close to becoming self aware? Either way, Maeve is up and moving at a time when she’s clearly supposed to be asleep and that can’t be good for anybody.
‘Westworld’ returns next Sunday night at 9pm ET on HBO for a brand new episode.
