The end is tantalisingly close, but we've still got a lot of loose threads that need tying up before this season of Westworld can be put to bed. In this latest episode, we get a rare glimpse of William's hellish family life while Ford increases his control over a perpetually confused Bernard.
If you haven't got a clue what's going on, you can read our recaps on episodes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Now you're up to speed, WIRED's Andy Vandervell and Matt Reynolds will get to grips with the penultimate episode of season two.
Be warned, this article contains significant spoilers for all episodes of Westworld
Andy Vandervell: So, Matt, how mad would you become if you had Anthony Hopkins trapped inside your head? His riddles are enough to send anyone off the deep end!
Matt Reynolds: I would be pretty mad, but not as mad as I'd get if I found out I killed my only daughter because I thought she was an android. I have one word for this episode: intense. But in a really good way. What did you think of it?
AV: It was great, but we should probably talk about William. Ford has done a real number on him, eh?
MR: Yeah, I think it became really clear in this episode just how much Ford resents Delos. It feels like Ford just wanted to be left alone to be this super-eccentric storyteller but when he found out what Delos was up to, he realised that they couldn't be left to carry on.
I almost started to feel sorry for him, except when he got down to the whole infiltrating Bernard's head and trying to get him to kill Elsie thing. What do you think is his goal there, by controlling Bernard?
AV: I think it's clear Ford has a dim view of humans generally. The Ford philosophy is that humans have failed to evolve and hosts (his hosts) are the real future. With that in mind, all sorts of awful things are a-okay as far as he's concerned. Basically, he's an arsehole, just a really smart one.
MR: It's interesting how Ford's philosophy pulls in different directions, though. On one hand, he set Dolores on the path to destroying the park entirely and taking down any humans that stand in her way. But then he also gave Maeve the ability to leave in a much less bombastic way – and he hoped that she'd do exactly that. I think you're right, though, there's no doubt that he has more faith in hosts than he does humans. And who can blame him, when he's spent that much time with William?
AV: It's the park, though, isn't it? The park allows people to find their true selves and, as we've seen, they generally choose to be violent jerks. Given he doesn't seem to get out much, it's no wonder Ford has developed a pretty dim view of humanity. As for William, the way he's disintegrated mentally is pretty bleak.
MR: Yeah. Honestly, I don't quite get why he's so damn mean. Didn't this all start back in season one where he fell in love with Dolores and then got upset because she didn't remember him after she was rebooted? I feel like he took that pretty hard.
AV: The implication is that it took coming to the park to realise how much he enjoyed being powerful and subjugating others. I believe he used the phrase "shed my skin", the skin being the socially-acceptable personality he had in the real world. It's one of the key philosophies of the show, really. The idea that, free of judgement by friends and society, we'll get up to all sorts of shenanigans.
MR: That makes me wonder if there is so much value to Delos storing all of those human profiles in the first place. If we degenerate into cruelty so readily, maybe we're easier to copy than you would think? Anyway, I digress...
This episode we said goodbye to Teddy for the second time, when he turned his gun on himself rather than go along with Dolores' plans for destruction. Do you think this heralds the unravelling of everything that Dolores has been working towards this whole season?
AV: Whatever that is exactly... Dolores is a difficult character for me. Of everything we've seen this season, her journey is the least satisfying. That said, Teddy killing himself seems like it could be transformative moment for her. Will it change her plans? I don't think so, but I still have no idea what the plan is exactly. Bernard seems to think a host could do something incredible with the data. What do you think?
MR: I think that Dolores' driving force now is her sense of superiority over other hosts and humans, but I'm not sure how that will play out exactly. Here is my uninspired best guess: I think that Dolores will use the data on guests to create host versions of all of them and release them into the real world, and from there they start destroying human society from the inside.
But somehow that doesn't feel Westworld enough to me. It's just not very clever.
AV: Could Dolores do a Ford and implant herself inside the shell of copy? I wish I has a good answer too. I can only hope the writers have a better idea than us!
What I'm really interested in, though, is what Maeve was up to at then end. It seems like she has one more fuck you to Delos in her.
MR: Oh yeah, after Ford appeared in her mind she started accessing the network for some reason. Could it be that, through Maeve and the mesh network, Ford is tying to increase his control over every host in the park? It's interesting that, as much as he believes in his host's autonomy, he's never really been able to extract himself from their minds.
Speaking of mind control, though, what was going on with Clementine in this episode? It looked like Delos somehow tweaked her coding so she was able to access the mesh network and cause the other hosts to attack and kill each other. Am I understanding that right?
AV: Sounds about right. I do think Delos might get a nasty surprise, though. That might work fine on regular hosts, but I don't think it'll make any difference to Dolores. I can see an epic finale coming up next week.
MR: I am so ready for this – these last three episodes have set everything up for a massive final episode. Now I'm ready for some answers.
AV: Oh lord, please. Answers. We could all do with a few more of those.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
