Westworld’s season came to a close in a one and a half hour episode last night. All honesty, I’m probably going to watch it at least one more time. The show is that dense that you can do that and pick up something new each time. The season will definitely garner a rewatch at some point in the future.
Maeve’s path to consciousness continues just as it had before. Only this time, more violently. It’s worth noting that, throughout her escape, not once does she personally pull the trigger on anyone. Threats and orders? Naturally. But she doesn’t get her hands dirty herself, relegating the wetwork to Hector and Armistice.
And they sure do rack up an impressive kill count between the two of them. Starting with the techs working on them, of course. I had actually forgot that the one Hector killed had been blackmailed by Elsie with the fact that he was sexing up the hosts. Didn’t realize it was Hector in particular, though Hector seems to have gotten a measure of revenge.
Maeve’s scenes contain a few revelations, other than her singular lack of violence. First and foremost, someone has used Arnold’s login to alter her narrative to seek escape. The second is that, despite being free and clear, she decides to go back for her daughter. And despite the fact that, just before reaching the train, she had declared that said daughter wasn’t really hers. likely a decision made from her rising consciousness. But the third?
There are multiple worlds, much the same as in the original films. Armistice’s heroic sacrifice happens to occur in the testing levels for what is most likely termed Samuraiworld or something similar. The fact that she survives several waves of security forces with her arm pinned in a door is expected. After all, Maeve upped their pain resistance and aggression. Cutting through her own arm, on the other hand, might leave her in play longer than Hector.
William and Dolores, meanwhile, find The Maze. William is frustrated, and falls back into abusing Dolores over it. It’s only after she finally realizes who he is that he finally understands that The Maze was a litmus test for consciousness. It brings meaning to all of the warnings he’d gotten that it wasn’t meant for him in the first place. He’s actually surprised to see Teddy show up to shoot him after he stabs Dolores. He stays down, to sulk, until Ford shows up. He invites William to the launch party for his narrative, after rubbing it in that he warned him in the first place. William brings up the fact that what he really wanted was for the hosts to have a fighting chance; the world feels hollow without stakes.
One of the side effects of Maeve’s jailbreak was that she had Vincent bring Bernard back online. He makes his way to the old underground, just as Dolores is brought there. We get to find out that Arnold originally had Dolores kill him specifically to stop the launch of the park. He realized that the hosts were capable of consciousness, and only his death could block the launch; the hosts could be reset. Ford then reveals that he’s spent the past three decades rectifying his mistakes, with a little arrogance thrown in for good measure. He also lays out Dolores’s original dress and the gun she used to kill Arnold; he’d figured she would seek it out again at some point.
Ford delivers a speech to all of the Delos executives, laying out the values of his new, and final, narrative. William wanders back to the graveyard with a bottle of whiskey, soon noticing something at the treeline. Dolores walks onstage, shoots Ford in the back of the head, and begins firing into the crowd of Delos board members. William, on the other hand, suddenly comes to the realization that he’s gotten what he wanted. Judging, of course, from the shot he took from the hosts emerging from the treeline.
Westworld quickly shot to being one of my favorites this season. It’s well acted, and features some slick writing; that’s usually what does it for me. And I’m glad that they were wise enough to leave loose strings; that was something Rome didn’t do, and suffered for.
Final Thoughts:
- Oh, man, I had to look up their full names to realize that “Bernard Lowe” is an anagram of “Arnold Weber”.
- I’m not entirely sure Ford is dead. There is an opportunity for him to have swapped with a host body double. Or something else like that… we’ll see.
- They’ve left things open enough that they can take this literally anywhere they want it to go. Surviving visitors and Delos execs struggling against the hosts in hopes of escaping? A likely possibility.
“One of the greatest shows of 2016 comes to a close in spectacular fashion”
4.5/5
“Great”
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