Four episodes in, and things are getting even murkier in season two of Westworld. WIRED's Matt Reynolds and Andy Vandervell are back to discuss and dissect.
You can read their thoughts on episodes one, two and three to get you up to speed, but be warned that this article contains significant spoilers for all episodes of Westworld.
Matt Reynolds: Alright, what did you think of episode four?
Andy Vandervell: Well, it answered a whole bunch of questions we've been asking for a while, but this wouldn't be Westworld if it didn't pose plenty more. So let's unpack this. We now know: \1) Elsie is (or was) alive. Given the fluid nature of time in this show, it's hard to know whether she's alive now or just was at some point after she disappeared. \2) Delos/William are/were trying to re-create James Delos, the founder and owner, as a host and didn't work out well. \3) The woman we met at the beginning of last week's episode is William's daughter.
I'm pretty sure I missed some, though. What else, Matt?
MR: We also know that Bernard is up to some major shenanigans. It looks like he was able to control the drone hosts, and instruct them to kill a handful of Delos employees in that secret underground lab.
Is this firm evidence that Bernard was actually A Bad Guy all along, or is something else going on there?
AV: The poor guy is in a world of pain, isn't he? I think whatever he was before was all because of Ford. He was his tool. Now? That's the real question. Is he truly self determined, or is he still acting according to Ford's plan?
MR: Well, if William's encounter with the young woman at the end of this episode is anything to go by, we've still got a lot more to learn about Ford's plans for the park, and the people in it.
Do you think that we will ever see an appearance from Ford in this season? It seems that there are so many questions that point towards his involvement, but he's completely absent, even in flashbacks.
AV: I don't think so. We know there's this second control unit meant "for a human" which keeps that possibility open, but I can't believe they'd be able to keep a secret like that for obvious reasons.
More to the point, though, did this episode redeem Westworld in your eyes? Up to now, it's felt increasingly complex and a little incoherent at times.
MR: I'm a little torn on this one. I've been really enjoying this season so far, but I can't help but feel like the show is a little too complicated for its own good. It's not that fun when I'm reaching for my phone every half an hour to remind myself of a character that we haven't heard anything from in an entire season. Would it be so hard to hold viewer's hands a little more and remind us of important backstories every so often?
AV: Elsie is the perfect example. We last saw her early in season one after she discovered a secret broadcast station and then disappeared, suspected murdered by Bernard. Now we know she's tied up in a cave the whole time.
That said, I enjoyed the revelations of this episode immensely.
MR: The scenes with James Delos and William were particularly intense, but they also throw us a bit of a curve ball. I assumed that the top-secret Delos project was something to do with turning humans into hosts. But since that didn't work out so well with James Delos, it might be the case that's not possible at all.
So does that mean that Delos wasn't turning humans into hosts after all? Or does it mean that they started on that project, but realised it was bound for failure, and that's why everything went wrong with the park?
AV: Clearly William has doubts about the project, but I suspect Delos as a whole is very much committed to the endeavour and the rest of this series will revolve around that.
Here's where I think things are now. Delos stored a bunch of information in Peter Abernathy about its 'human cloning' project. This probably includes data it collected on guests. Bernard has it now and it's messing with his head.
Dolores clearly knows something about this project and believes she can exploit it to her own ends. William, meanwhile, I believe is intent on destroying the work and research because, as he said to 'cloned' James Delos, he doesn't believe it was a good idea after all.
Am I reading this right?
MR: That makes quite a lot of sense to me. But where does Ford's plan fit into all this? Is Ford deliberately leading William from beyond the grave, knowing that it's the best chance he has at destroying Delos' work?
AV: I think it's safe to say Ford didn't want Delos to succeed and he engineered the host rebellion to stop them and, ultimately, give the hosts freedom and self determination. But he also knew William is the one person with the knowledge and power to stop Delos.
If we assume William is a now a good guy, I feel like we need a proper bad guy. Outside of Charlotte Hale, who feels like little more than a corporate pawn, who is that? Dolores?
MR: Hold on a sec. Keeping an android version of your father-in-law imprisoned for 30-plus years while you indulge on a huge killing spree is not traditional good guy material. But I see where you're coming from there.
I'm still hanging on to a little bit of hope that Dolores isn't such an evil person. Or, if she is, that's the Wyatt bit of her programming, and also the fact that she's been around humans that have been teaching her that the world can be owned by anyone, as long as they're mean and clever enough.
Perhaps its Bernard that's the evil one? For a lot of this season I thought that he was suffering from some major malfunctions, but now it's becoming clear that he knows a lot more than he's letting on. How in control of himself he is, is another question...
AV: Yes, good guy is a tad generous, but he seems to be on a redemptive journey at least. I remain a member of 'Team Bernard' (and Maeve, obviously) and, as ever, an episode without her is a more boring place. I trust this will be corrected next week.
MR: Agreed. And I wouldn't mind if we delved back into those other parks, either. I'm getting little bored of deserts and drinking whiskey in poorly-lit courtyards, even if it's livened up with a little head-exploding scene every now and then.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
