March 4, 2020 Westworld

Although this episode maintained the high aesthetic standards of the ones preceding it, I have trouble summing up what this one was “about”. We caught several of our main characters in the middle of their respective narratives and, except for Maeve, no one had a single episode character arc. People compare this show to LOST and in a lot of ways, I agree with that comparison. One thing that LOST excelled at was it let you know whose story was being covered in a given episode. So far, Westworld is casting a large net every episode when it comes to POV characters, allowing the story to advance through many different points of view. This is fine, but sometimes you end up with episodes like this one. Episodes like this where we find out a couple of tidbits we’ve been wanting to know and basically serve to position characters where they need to be later on in the season. You can practically feel the writers’ hand moving William and Delores’ party to smack into the Man In Black’s party at some pivotal time and place, can’t you?

Here’s what we found out:

The Man In Black is most likely not a host gone wild. He’s probably a very wealthy person in the real world.

Clues for the maze may be more figurative than literal.

Maeve has been having flashbacks for a while now (there were many drawings in there), but it looks like now she’s got an idea on how Memento her way to… freedom?

Hosts don’t reset at night if they are with newcomers

In lesser news, Wyatt’s men didn’t chop Teddy to bits. They just strung him up, with stab wounds all over his body, in the desert. That’s probably worse.

Here’s where we are with individual characters:

Delores: On a bounty hunt mission with William. Bernie has given her the notion she can be free if she completes the maze.

On a bounty hunt mission with William. Bernie has given her the notion she can be free if she completes the maze. Bernie: Still running secret meetings with Delores. Spilled beans about the maze to her. Helped prep Cullen for a hacienda sit-down with Ford while wearing only underwear.

Still running secret meetings with Delores. Spilled beans about the maze to her. Helped prep Cullen for a hacienda sit-down with Ford while wearing only underwear. William: Protective of Delores and starting to get into the Westworld groove. May be tempted to play black-hat next week.

Protective of Delores and starting to get into the Westworld groove. May be tempted to play black-hat next week. Ford: Will not be stopped by Cullen, the Board, or anyone else! To do what? No one knows!