Monthly Archives: October 2016

 “This world. I think there may be something wrong with this world. Either that or there’s something wrong with me. I may be losing my mind.”  Delores

There are more pieces to the puzzle but I can’t make out the picture yet. The information is doled out a drip at a time and you have to catch it fast before it falls into the sand. You have to be alert if you wish to make it through The Maze.

BERNIE AND DELORES

Bernie has another chat with Delores:

“Do you know where you are?”
“In a dream”

What is the point of these conversations? Bernie must know what he’s doing and why but I can’t quite pinpoint it.

“Everyone I cared about is gone and I hurt so badly”, she tells him.
“I can take that away from you if you like.”

“The pain, their loss, is all I have left of them.”

This the same thing Bernie said to his wife last week about his son. She is definitely being affected by Bernie, almost by osmosis, his humanity is seeping into her.

“There is a game, a secret. It’s called The Maze.  The goal is to find the center of it. If you can do that then maybe you can be free.” Bernie tells her.

“I think I want to be free.”

She then finds herself back with William at camp. She still has her gun. How is he taking her back to the lab and putting her back without anyone knowing? Is this just all in her mind? Also, whenever the hosts are in the lab they are completely naked but when Delores is with Bernie she remains fully clothed.

WILLIAM AND DELORES

William wants to take Delores back to Sweetwater but Logan lays in on him so they bring her along on their hunt for their outlaw. Security notices that Delores is off course and not in her loop so they send someone to retrieve her.  When they arrive at Lawrence’s village ‘the sheriff’ approaches Delores. “You’re the farmer’s daughter who has gone missing. We need to get you back to your father”, he tells her.

“My father’s dead. I’m not going back” Delores says.  The sheriff becomes stern and grabs her arm but just then William comes along and tells him that she’s with him.  The sheriff relents and lets them go on their way.

Delores also runs across Lawrence’s daughter.

“Where are you from?” Delores asks.

“Same as you. Don’t you remember?” she tells her.

Then Delores hears a voice in her head – “Remember” – Is that Arnold’s voice?

The little girl is drawing in the dirt. It’s a drawing of The Maze.

William and Delores walk out into the night and have a heart to heart.

He asks where she’s headed but she doesn’t know. She is being pulled to something but doesn’t understand. William identifies with her. She knows she doesn’t want to go back to her old life.

She looks up at the full moon and she has a memory of lying dead on the ground and the clean up crew showing up and hovering over her. She faints into Williams’ arms.

William, Logan and the Bounty Hunter locate the outlaw holed up in a farmhouse. They storm the place and get in a shoot out.  Logan of course shoots everyone that moves but they manage to capture the outlaw.

The outlaw mentions an ‘Alonzo’ and this triggers Logan to shoot the bounty hunter. Logan says they’ve stumbled on a clue that will lead them to the best ride in the park. William and Delores are outraged. Logan even wants to shoot Delores but William points his gun at the outlaw. Logan acquiesces.

“Come on! Go black hat with me!, He pleads to William, ‘She will be just fine with a ride on the dark side and so will you!”

BERNIE / CULLEN / FORD

Elsie tries to explain to Cullen that they need more data to explain why the stray from last week committed suicide. Cullen wants her team to lead the investigation and Bernie doesn’t fight it. Elsie confronts Bernie, however about why he won’t admit that the hosts are acting oddly and that it may be a systemic problem.  Bernie assures her that this was a one off and that the hosts are not imagining things but that it is her imagination running away with her.

Bernie and Cullen continue their affair and Cullen tells him she’s nervous about her meeting with Ford. Bernie lovingly gives her some tips on how to act with Ford and makes her feel better.

“Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you can be quite charming”, she tells him.

Cullen finds Ford out in the park overseeing the implementing of his new narrative which is a large endeavor. They seem to be on a Mexican plantation. They are served lunch on a veranda overlooking the fields. Cullen tells him that the Board is concerned about the size of the changes being made for his narrative.

“You don’t like this place, do you?” Ford asks her.

Cullen tells him the story of how she came there with her parents when she was a little girl. She thinks she came to the very place that they are now having lunch. She loved it then but when she came to work there that she knew she wouldn’t like it.  Then she notices that their server has been pouring her wine for a while and the wine is overflowing in the glass.  He has gone still.  She notices every host has gone still. Ford has somehow stopped everything in its tracks.

“We know everything about our guests as we know everything a bout our employees.” Ford tells her. He knows she came here as a child, that she came to this very spot. He advises her to be careful with Bernard, “he has a sensitive disposition.” Ford tells her about starting this place with his partner, Arnold.

“Arnold always held a dim view of people. He preferred the hosts. In here we were gods and you merely our guests. Arnold lost his perspective. He went mad. I haven’t. As you well know, I’ve always seen things very clearly.”

Ford tells her he has seen many people come and go, some he got along with and some he didn’t but the park always moved along.

“I will ask you nicely. Please don’t get in my way.” He tells her very coldly.

Cullen is shaken. “The Board will agree with me.  They’re sending a representative.” She tells Ford.

“They already have.” He says.  Could he mean Blackie?

Then Cullen sees a massive turbine come out of the ground and start tearing up the earth all around where they’re sitting.  “I’m not the sentimental type.” Ford tells her.

BLACKIE AND HIS NEW FRIENDS 

This whole world has a story. I’ve read every page except the last one. I need to know how it ends, what it all means.”  Man In Black

Blackie and Lawrence come to the blood arroyo and find snakes but not the egg laying kind. That is, until they looked in the river and saw Armistice, bathing and covered with a body encompassing snake tattoo.

“Why haven’t I met you before? Where are you headed?” He asks her.

“To retrieve something of great value.” Armistice tells him.

Black knows what this means. She is planning on busting Hector out of jail. But he doesn’t have time for games. He makes a deal with Armistice. He and Lawrence will bust Hector out and all he wants in return is for her to tell him about her tattoos.

“Have you ever heard of a man named Arnold? He helped build this place. A place where you can do anything except die. Arnold broke his own rule. He died right here in the park, But I think he had one story left to tell. A story with real stakes, real violence. You can say I’m here to honor his legacy. Your tattoo is the key to the problem.”

She agrees. Black and Lawrence turn themselves in to get taken to the prison and they bust him out.

Armistice tells Blackie a bout the masked men in devil horns that attacked her town and killed her mother. She has been tracking them down and killing them one by one and using their blood to paint her skin.

Only one man left, the ‘head of the snake’. His name is Wyatt.

Black and Lawrence go after Wyatt and find teddy tied to a tree, tortured but still alive.

“Please put me out of my misery” Teddy begs.

“Sorry Teddy. Looks like misery is all you’ve got.” Black says.

Wyatt is part of Ford’s new narrative.  It seems every host is in on it.

MAEVE

Maeve and Clementine discuss the size of a guests penis. Yes, locker room talk! Then Maeve notices blood coming out of Clementine’s eyes. A guest seems to have gone on a mad shooting spree and kills everyone in the saloon including Maeve. The clean up crew arrives dressed in hazmat suits.

Maeve seems to be aware of them. She remembers being taken back to the lab and remembers being shot in the stomach. Before you know it she’s back in the saloon talking with Clementine again. She goes to her room and draws a picture of the man in the hazmat suit. She pulls up a board in the floor and she finds a whole pile of similar drawings. How long has she been remembering this?

THE FLOOR SHOW

Hector and Armistice ride into town just as they did in Episode two. They are accompanied by a couple of guests. They start to shoot up the town as Bizet’s Carmen plays. As usual they want the safe that’s in the saloon. This time Maeve pulls a gun on Hector when he enters the saloon. I don’t think this is part of the usual narrative. She takes him upstairs and to a room where the safe is.

“I’ll give you the combination in exchange for some answers.” Maeve says.

“You assume I have any answers. This world is madness.” Hector is obviously a chaos theory believer.

She shows him the drawing she made and wants to know what he knows about it.  Meanwhile, security sees a group of guests are coming into town so they decide to end the floor show early. So the sheriff with a small group of deputies start taking control.

Hector tells her the figure in her drawing is “the man who walks between worlds, sent from hell to oversee our world.”

Maeve remembers being shot in the stomach so she asks hector to stick his knife in her belly. He cannot bring himself to do it however, so she does it herself. The sheriff and his men start pounding on the door. Hector reaches into Maeve’s stomach and pulls out a bullet.

“Then I am not crazy” Maeve says.

The posse is about to come through the door and hector prepares to put up a fight but Maeve stops him.

“What does this mean?” Hector asks.

“None of this matters.” Maeve tells him and starts kissing him as the posse starts shooting through the door and presumably kills them both. Again.

SIDE BYTES

William and Logan work for a company with stakes in the park. Logan seems to have been there many times while this is William’s first time. They also don’t appear to be friends in the real world.

One of the guests is part of Armistice’s gang and recognizes Blackie. “I’m a great admirer of yours. Your foundation saved my sister’s life”, he tells Blackie who seems quite perturbed at being recognized.

“Shut your mouth.  I’m on vacation.” Blackie snaps. Don’t mess with Blackie, son.

What’s palying on the player piano this week? The Cure’s “A Forest.”

Here’s what I found pertaining the episode title:

Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)

According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs, ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values.^[1][2]

Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it.^[1]

SIDE BYTES

William and Logan work for a company with stakes in the park. Logan seems to have been there many times while this is William’s first time. They also don’t appear to be friends in the real world.

One of the guests is part of Armistice’s gang and recognizes Blackie. “I’m a great admirer of yours. Your foundation saved my sister’s life”, he tells Blackie who seems quite perturbed at being recognized.

“Shut your mouth.  I’m on vacation.” Blackie snaps. Don’t mess with Blackie, son.

What’s playing on the player piano this week? The Cure’s “A Forest.”

The scenes between Bernie and Delores cannot be happening in real time. Did these scenes all take place before William and Logan arrived?

Here’s what I found pertaining the episode title:

Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)

According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs, ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values.^[1][2]

Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance, as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it.^[1]

FIVE THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Blackie is Arnold’s Brother.

2 Ford is crazy!

3 Bernie is a robot! (Ash is a robot! Ash is a goddamn robot!)

4 The Maze is a plan to make the park self sufficient, without human oversight. Ford intends to be God in this closed Universe. He’s Westworld’s Ben (Lost)!

5 Wyatt will turn out to be a robot version of Arnold.

This show has me really thinking and I love it. You definitely need two viewings of each episode to have a chance.

“You are mine. The people back there, they are mine. This [the axe], this is mine,” Negan

Well that was absolutely horrific. The wait is over and we finally found out who met their demise at the hands of Negan and his ‘nasty girl’ Lucille. No matter what you thought of this episode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan crushes it as Negan! (I had to go there) He is charismatic and scary. I mean absolutely nuts! Andrew Lincoln also gets kudos for delivering “bigly” in this season opener. The entire cast was exceptional and must have been completely dehydrated from all the crying after shooting this episode.

The episode picked up where last season’s finale ended. Someone is dead and we don’t know who but blood is splattered across Rick’s cheek. While sobbing is heard in the background Rick remains defiant.

“I’m going to kill you. Not today, not tomorrow. But I’m going to kill you.”

Negan, still holding his bloody bat, is stunned by Rick’s defiance. He decides to take him for a ride in his newly acquired RV. Riding into a fog, running over walkers, they slam into the windshield leaving a bloody splat.
“Remind you of anybody?”

Negan explains to Rick that he is no longer inn charge and that he now belongs to him. He takes Rick’s axe and tosses it out the door into a herd of zombies that have surrounded the RV. “Hey, Rick. Go get my axe.” he tells Rick. He throws Rick out the door and Rick can only push walkers away as they surround him. This truly horrifying. He manages to get to the ladder and climbs on top of the RV.

“Guess you thought you were all going to grow old together, sitting around the table in a happily ever after. No. It doesn’t work like that, Rick. Not anymore. Think about what happened” Negan tells him.

It is then that we finally see what we have been dreading. What we were so angry about being denied 7 months ago. Negan plays eeny, meeny, many, moe and you….are ….it……Abraham! Negan brings down his bat upon his head. Even when you know it’s going to happen you jump in your seat. Abraham straightens up and tells Negan to “suck my nuts!”.  Abraham goes out on his own terms with his defiance and with one last great line. He also sends Sasha a goodbye when he flashes the peace sign. I missed it, too. Watch again (if you can).

Negan swings Lucille again and again while Rosita and Sasha can only watch in mortified horror. He puts it together that Rosita and Abraham were an item and taunts her with his bloody Lucille. Daryl snaps. He jumps up and pops Negan in the mouth.

“That! Is a no no! Not one bit of that shit flies here!” Negan says.

Dwight wants to be allowed to kill Daryl but Negan says no.

“Now I don’t know what kind of lying assholes you people been dealing with. But I’m a man of my word. First impressions are important. I need you to know me. So back at it!”

He wheels and brings his bat down upon Glenn’s head. Holy crap! Glenn manages to raise he head, his left eye bulging from his skull. He tries to speak but is unintelligible.
“Are you trying to speak? Buddy, you took a helluva hit!

“Maggie, I will find you.” Glenn manages to say before Negan and Lucille turn his head into mush.

The look of agony on Maggie’s face is unbearable. How did she not just fall over dead herself?

Rick lays on top of the RV remembering all this. Negan is yelling at him from inside that he better bring him his axe or he’s going back there and killing everyone.

Rick finally retrieves it and with Negan’s help via machine gun, he makes it back into the van.

Negan drives them back to the clearing where it’s now morning and everyone is still on there knees. Negan drags Rick out of the RV and throws him down in front of the group.

“That trip was about the way you looked at me,” he says. “I wanted to change that, I wanted you to understand. But you’re still looking at me the same damned way, like I shit in your scrambled eggs.” Negan says.

Negan tells his men to stand behind each member of the group and point a gun to their heads. He then has Carl come stand beside him. He wraps his belt around Carl’s upper arm, has him lay flat on the ground, rolls up the sleeve of his left arm and using a marker, draws a line where he tells Rick to use the axe to chop his son’s arm off. Negan playing God to Rick’s Abraham. Rick is sobbing uncontrollably begging not to do it. Michonne tries to please with Negan, “We understand.” But Negan says, “You understand! I’m not sure Rick does!”
Negan starts counting. Rick is begging. Even Carl tells him to do it. And just as you think he will, Negan stops it.

“You answer to me. You provide for me. You belong to me. Right?”

Rick says, “Right.” He is now a completely broken man.

“Now THAT is the look I wanted to see! Today was a productive damn day!”

To make matters worse, Negan takes Daryl with him. He likes his spirit but he also takes him for leverage. If Rick tries something foolish Daryl will be hurt or he will make Rick to the dirty work for him.

“Things have changed. Whatever you had going for you. That is over”

“Welcome to a brand new beginning, you sorry shits!” Negan then bids them ‘ta ta’.

Negan and his men leave but not before taking some Polaroid’s of Glenn and Abraham’s smashed skulls for their wall. They leave the gang a truck they can use to gather ‘stuff’ that they will need to give Negan and are given one week to come up with it.

The gang is left to pick themselves up and take their fallen comrades home. Maggie feels guilty that everyone was out there because of her but her first response is that Rick needs to get back to Alexandria and start preparing to fight Negan. Rick knows this is impossible. Sasha, Rosita and Eugene pick up Abraham’s body. This is about as solemn and gut wrenching as any place they have been to yet.

This changes everything. They do not have the manpower to take on Negan and his army. My feeling is they will need to team up with The Hilltop and the soon to be introduced colony The Kingdom to have enough people to take on Negan. I don’t see this happening for awhile though.

The episode was incredibly graphic in its violence but I feel it was necessary to not only make it clear to Rick and his gang but also the audience that this villain is different. He keeps his word. He has no problem taking the life of anyone. I felt the show in the last year or two had started playing it too safe. I had a real problem with the way they faked Glenn’s death last year. I also had a problem with the way they split up Negan’s entrance. I still feel they could have combined last year’s season finale with this year’s premiere into one episode. Of course, it would have made the season finale awfully depressing. Still, I’m satisfied with the way they are starting off here. I believe we have seen the worst possible thing right away and the rest of the season will be how they adapt to the new way of things. We will also get to know Negan and how he works. We know eventually, Rick will rise up again but it won’t be easy.

The show is in its seventh season and I feel like I have no idea what’s going to happen or who may die next. A show that’s been on this long and can still make you feel that way is rare. I’m willing to keep watching to see how this plays out.

SIDE BITES

The title of the episode is taken from the season finale of season one. They are in the CDC and Dr. Jenner has set the facility to self destruct. Rick convinces him to allow them to leave and tells him he’s ‘grateful’. Jenner tells Rick ‘the day will come when you won’t be.”

“It’s about change.” Delores

Each episode brings new intriguing information not only about the people who created this world but also the ‘hosts’ that inhabit it. Each episode is a piece of a puzzle and we are trying to piece it all together so that we may understand where the story is taking us. This is what seems to be happening to the host as well, especially Delores.

DELORES

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think; was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, ‘Who in the world am I?'” Alice In Wonderland

Bernie continues to have private sessions with Delores. He brings her a present, a copy of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland. It’s a book he gave his son.
“Where is your son?” Delores asks.
“Somewhere you wouldn’t understand”, Bernie tells her.

We learn that Bernie’s young son died not too long ago and perhaps he has been using Delores as a means of therapy. But he is instilling ideas in her that are carrying over into her world in the story.

“You’ll stay in the loop?” Bernie asks her, meaning she will stay within her programmed story lines and she says ‘yes’ but we all know where this is headed.

In her story loop with Teddy, he tells her they will go away together ’someday’. Delores questions him, ‘why not today?’

“Someday sounds like something someone says when they mean never”, Delores says to Teddy.

She’s right. Her and Teddy will never go away together and find happiness.

WILLIAM AND LOGAN

William finally gets some action when he thwarts a prison escape and saves Clementine. In the process he actually gets shot! he complains to Logan who tells him, “You can’t get killed but it wouldn’t be much fun if they couldn’t shoot back.” William wants to go off with the bounty hunter after some bandits which Logan thinks is silly but he’ll go along. Before they leave William sees Delores coming out of the store. This time it’s him who picks up that rolling stray can and hands it back to her.

FORD AND THE NEW NARRATIVE

Ford’s new narrative for the park is going in motion and he’s carved out a huge section of the park for it. He gives Teddy a back story that will be a part of the new narrative. Teddy was a Union soldier and his commander was a man named Wyatt who went crazy and has now become the mad leader of some crazy cult of wackos.

When Teddy is next with Delores a posse comes along and tells them they’re looking for a guy named ‘Wyatt’ and that triggers Teddy to follow the new narrative. But as always, he tells Delores he has to go but ‘someday’ they go off together and find happiness. He rides off with the posse which includes some park guests.

They come across two men tied to trees, they’re bodies decaying and drawing robot flies. Shots ring out. They are being fired upon. One of the guests decides this is too much for him so he rides back with some of the hosts. Teddy, the sheriff and the female guest who has been riding with Teddy being bounty hunters also goes with them to chase Wyatt. After night fall, however, they are attacked by masked men who kill the sheriff and Teddy. Teddy gives the woman a knife and tells her to run. Needless to say she’s freaking out!

ARNOLD

“Arnold imagined the tiers of artificial intelligence as a pyramid. His base was memory. Above that, improvisation. Then self-interest. And at the very top… “He never got there,” Ford

Elsie, the young programmer, does some extra research into Walter’s behavior from the first episode. Walter is a bad guy and he went berserk and shot 6 hosts while drinking a bottle of milk. Elsie tells Bernie, that all six had previously killed Walter in previous story loops. Did he somehow remember this and seek revenge? Also, in the video of the incident, Walter is carrying on a conversation with an imaginary person he calls ‘Arnold’.

Bernie goes to Ford about this and Ford tells him that Arnold was his partner and that they started Westworld together. But Arnold had a different idea about what the park and the hosts could be. He wanted the hosts to have consciousness. They initially heard an inner monologue but this caused them to malfunction and act crazy. Humans that hear voices in their heard is not usually normal. But the hosts still respond to voice triggers. When Abernathy told Delores about the ‘violent delights” this seems to be a trigger that causes memories from the past to start popping up. Ford tells Bernie that Ford died in the park and that his personal life was marked by tragedy.

Could The Man In Black be Arnold?

ELSIE AND STUBBS

“The only thing stopping the hosts from hacking us to pieces is one line of your code.” Stubbs

Elsie (Shannon Woodward) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) head out into the park looking for a stray. A group of cowhands are stuck in a loop because the one guy who is allowed to use an axe to start a fire wanders off. It seems the programmers are very particular with what hosts get to handle deadly weapons. In the tent, Elsie finds numerous carvings that Stubbs identifies as the constellation orion. This hosts seems to have wandered off in search of the stars. They find him trapped in a crevasse. Elsie puts him in ‘sleep mode’ and Stubbs goes down to get him. He starts to saw his head off! It must be a security measure when a host malfunctions. Well this guy suddenly wakes up and climbs out. Elsie is terrified! The guy picks up a large rock and just when you think it’s going to kill Elsie. It starts bashing its own head in! It commits suicide. That is not standard procedure.

DELORES

It all comes back to Delores. In town she gets harassed by Walter who is trying to hook up Delores with one of the male guests. But when Teddy comes to her defense the guest backs off. “I wanted something easy, “ he says. So off they go to the saloon.

Teddy then tries to teach Delores how to shoot a gun. She cannot pull the trigger.
“Some hands aren’t meant to pull a trigger, “ he tells her.

She isn’t programmed to handle a gun. She is to be fought over but not to fight for herself. So when Teddy rides off after Wyatt, Delores arrives at the ranch by herself to hear screams, as always. Her parents are being attacked and murdered. She happens on them and finds Walter there with the new male guest she encountered in town. She looks down at her dead father and she begins to see Abernathy laying there, the host that used to be her father. Walter drags her into the barn, the way the Man In Black did in Episode one. As he prepares to rape her she begins to see Blackie standing there, no Walter. Her mind is seeing the past incarnations of this loop. Only this time, she has a gun. “Do you remember?” She points the gun at Walter. “Kill him”, she hears in her head. She fires. She guns him down.

Who has pout these thoughts in their heads?

The last scene has William and Logan sitting by a campfire when Delores comes wandering in and fainting in Williams’ arms. Looks like the start of a new romance.

SIDE BYTES

There are some scenes between Teddy and Delores that just involve them. There are no guests around to witness it. They are programmed to play this out solely so that they appear more real to the guests.

There was a scene between Bernie and his wife (Ex?) talking about there son. “This pain is all I have left of him,” he says. Ford knows he is still mourning and warns him not let it affect the way he treats the hosts. Of course, Bernie is already crossing lines with his private sessions with Delores.

Bicamerlasim – is a hypothesis in psychology that argues that the human mind once assumed a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be “speaking”, and a second part which listens and obeys—a bicameral mind.

This is how Arnold set up the hosts originally and they went insane. This is what seems to be happening now. But why? Maybe Blackie isn’t Arnold, maybe Arnold is still alive somewhere in the park like a ‘phantom of the opera’ style character?

FIVE THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Ford is really strict about those hosts being naked when they’re in the lab. He doesn’t want anyone to forget that they are not real and fell no shame, in fact, have no feelings to hurt. This point was strongly made in this episode for a reason. Did he forget this fact when he was younger? Did this lead to tragedy? Arnold’s death?

2 Bernie is the sabatour, perhaps, unwittingly.

3 Delores is the key. She’s the Original. There must be something in her programming that will start Armageddon. Is she the center of ‘The Maze’?

4 Those markings under the skull of the guy Blackie killed and scalped.  They must be under every hosts’ skull.

5 Teddy was Maeve’s husband in a past loop.

“Wake up, Delores”

Delores wakes in the middle of the night and walks outside away from the house.

“Do you remember?”

This is essentially, the cold open. This scene bookends the episode.

New Arrivals

“This place has the answer to the question you’ve been asking yourself; Who you really are.”Logan to William

We get to see a little more about how guests arrive and get situated to the park. Two men, William (Jimmi Simpson) and Logan (Ben Barnes) arrive by train and are greeted by lovely women as they exit.

“Are you real?” Williams asks.
“Well if you can’t tell does it matter? She answers.

William is taken to a room where he can pick his wardrobe, his gun and other parts of his costumer. It’s made clear that his vacation has begun and he can linger in the dressing room with his host for awhile if he wants. But William, it seems, is a goody two shoes. He passes because he doesn’t want to keep his friend waiting. The last thing he has to choose is, of course, his hat. Black or white? William chooses white and enters a room where his friend is waiting, wearing, of course, a black hat.

“How do we get into the park? William asks and at that moment they start moving. They are on the train that will lead them to Sweetwater.

These characters echo the parts that Richard Benjamin and James Brolin played in the 1973 film. William is the kind and gentle newbie while Logan has been to Westworld several times and is completely comfortable indulging his every whim.

While Logan is in bed with two women and one man (I assume there are all hosts but who knows), William is in his room with Clementine the young prostitute. He again resists indulging explaining to her that he has someone back home. These two men couldn’t be more opposite and as William tells Clementine, they aren’t friends.

The next morning William notices Delores. She comes out of the grocery store and drops a can that rolls away from her. We’ve seen this scene twice before in episode one. Teddy picks it up and hands it to her the first time, The Man In Black the second and now it’s William that goes over and hands it to her. It’s a tip off that William will seek her out in future episodes.

The Man In Black

“The maze. How do I find the entrance?” Man in Black

Ed Harris is absolutely chilling in this role. Perfect casting. He rides into the scene of a hanging. He tells the sheriff and his men that he needs to speak to their blind folded prisoner. The posse doesn’t take it too well, as expected, and Blackie proceeds to slaughter them all. He addresses the prisoner, Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.) as an old friend as with most of the hosts he runs into. He tosses the scalp of the guy he took at the end of episode one to Lawrence. There is a design on the inside of the cranium.
“It’s the maze, the deepest level of this game. You’re going to help me find the entrance.” Blackie tells him.

Blackie is leading Lawrence on a rope into a little Mexican village. They stop at the cantina where the proprietor seems to recognize them. Lawrence is greeted by his wife and daughter. Blackie seems to know this is Lawrence’s home. They sit at a table and Blackie takes out his gun and loads it. He wants to know where the entrance to the maze is. Lawrence pleads ignorance. A group of men form around them, friends of Lawrence’s. Blackie blows them all away.

“You know why this beats the real world, Lawrence? The real world is chaos, an accident. But in here, every detail adds up to something.”

Lawrence still refuses to tell him. Blackie kills his wife and threatens the little girl. But suddenly the little girl looks up at him, unafraid.
“The maze is not for you”, she tells him.
“See Lawrence, always another level.”
“Follow the blood arroyo to the place where the snake lays its eggs.” she instructs.
Blackie then rides off with Lawrence in tow.

“This time I’m never going back” Man in Black

Maeve

“This is the new world, and in this world, you can be whatever the fuck you want”     Maeve

As Delores walks the streets of Sweetwater she keeps hearing a voice “remember”. She starts remembering the slaughter in the streets that took place in episode one. Who is this voice? Who planed it in her program? Ford? Bernard? She runs into Maeve (Thandie Newton) and she leans in close to whisper in Maeve’s ear, “these violent delights have violent ends.” She walks off but it seems to have triggered something in Maeve.

When she begins her seduction of a young newcomer her usual story turns odd. She begins recalling a past life. An Indian attacks in an open field. The young man awkwardly takes his leave of her and she is pulled from the field and back to the lab. The guests are not having sex with her. So the young female technician technician makes some adjustments and sends her back out. She seems better but when chatting with Eddie (James Marsden) at the bar, he is suddenly shot down. She is visibly shaken. Later that night she has a ‘nightmare’. It’s that same memory. She is with a little girl, maybe her daughter, and they are living out in the open land when Indians attack, killer husband. She grabs her daughter and runs back to the house. She gets a shot gun and readies to defend herself. But it isn’t an Indian that walks through the door. It’s the Man in Black. She shoots at him but of course he isn’t harmed.

She starts counting backwards as she had told Clementine earlier, when you have a nightmare just count backwards and it will end. Only this time she wakes to find herself on a metal slab back at the lab. The lab technicians are freaked out. They have cut open her stomach to make a repair. She grabs a scalpel and runs out of the room. She runs through the complex and outside. She of course, is terrified. What is this place? Then she happens into a room where some techs are washing down a pile of bodies. She sees Eddie, lying there, naked and full of gunshot wounds. She crumbles to the ground.

Did she recognize Eddie?

Bernard

“Wouldn’t want anything disturbing our guests from their rape and pillage” Cullen

A few interesting tidbits.

Bernie pulls Delores into the lab for private conversations. She is ‘The Original’ and he sees something special about her. It seems he feels he can get info from her about what’s going on inside the park, insight about the hosts that only she can offer.

She tells him what her father, Peter Abernathy whispered in her ear:

“These violent delights have violent ends” (from Romeo and Juliet)

This is what she then whispers in Maeve’s ear. So when Delores tells Bernie she has not repeated this to anyone she is lying.

“Have I done something wrong?” Delores asks.

“Have you done something wrong?” she pushes further.  Bernie doesn’t answer.

We also learn that Bernie is carrying on an affair with Theresa Cullen, the park Operations Manager. How will this complicate things?

Ford

“You can’t play God without being acquainted with the devil.” Ford

Ford knows that Bernie covered for him. His ‘reveries’ triggered some malfunction in the hosts that seems to have been fixed.  But the Peter Abernathy issue is different. Bernie doesn’t feel that the photo was enough to cause Peter to malfunction in the way he did.

“Sabotage?” Ford says aloud what Bernie is hinting at.

At one point Ford ventures out into the park for a little walk.  He encounters a young boy who it seems is there with his parents and is bored.  Ford invites him along on his walk.  They reach a spot where there is an isolated church with a cross on a tall steeple.  Ford tells the boy to run along and not remember what he saw. The boy is a robot. Ford encounters a snake there as well, which is also synthetic. Could this be the sot that the little girl told Blackie to go to and where he would find the entrance to the maze?

Meanwhile, narrative director Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) has been developing an exciting new narrative for the park and spent the episode ranting and railing at workers trying to prep the new hosts which include 20 Indians and some cavalry and various other new characters.  He introduces the idea along with the new hosts to the entire team including Bernie and Ford.  The narrative would include carnage like never before seen as well as cannibalism. At the end of his presentation Ford walks over to him and quietly says, “No.”

Ford does have an idea for a new narrative and he leads Bernie to the little church he went to before. This is where it will take place.  Could he mean the entrance to the maze will be the next storyline?  Could Blackie already be the ‘host’ that will be a major part of this new narrative.  Perhaps Ford has already begun to play out this new narrative without telling anyone?

Delores

“Do you remember?”

We come back to the scene that began the episode. Delores walks out into the night.  She looks down and starts digging in the ground.  She finds a gun.

Whaaaaat?  Is she to murder someone? Who planted the gun?

Side Bytes

A lab tech asks why we have the hosts speak to each other, as Maeve and Teddy do at the saloon. It’s supposed to enrich the experience. The more they seem like real people to each other the more it will be real to the guests.  But if they are retaining memories of their experiences than they will feel an allegiance, or friendship with these other hosts. Will they start defending each other against the guests instead of protecting the guests from each other?

Is Maeve’s ‘nightmare’ a memory of what has happened or what’s to come?

5 Things I Think I Know

1 If William and Logan echo the characters from the 1973 film then Logan will be the first human victim.  This may not happen until the finale.

2 Ford is behind the sabotage. Bernie is covering though may not know the extent of what Ford is doing.

3 Starting to think Blackie is a host.

4 Those hosts in cold storage including Peter are going to get out at some point. That will be disturbing.

5 James Brolin will appear in a cameo at some point this season. I just think that would be awesome!

“Bring her back online.”

We see a naked blonde woman sitting in a glass room in some underground lab. We hear a voice asking her questions.

“Would you like to wake up from this dream?” The voice asks.
“Yes. I’m terrified.” She answers.
“Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?” The voice asks.

The voice belongs to Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) the head of programming and co-creator of artificial people. They are conducting an update in the ‘hosts’ program. Hosts are what they refer to the artificial people that inhabit Westworld. The programmer’s have set up very intricate storylines for these hosts to play out over and over again. As they interact with the ‘newcomers’ the stories may change course.

The newcomers arrive by train and usually for a two week stay. They are dressed appropriately and they can do anything they want as they interact with the hosts. The hosts are programmed not to harm the newcomers. It is an adult playland wherein you can act out your most secret desires. As one young newcomer is heard saying to his friend as they ride the train:

“The first time I cam with my parents and we fished for two weeks it was great. The last time I came I went full on evil.”

This first episode is well written and directed. It is not easily summarized. I watched it twice and I still need to see it again. It’s rich with ideas and concepts that are fascinating to ponder.

Delores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the rancher’s daughter, beautiful and innocent. Peter, her father greets her warmly every morning as he sits on the porch. We see the same day begin again several times and each time the day plays out differently.

Early in the episode we meet a tall stranger dressed in black (Ed Harris). He recognizes Delores though she doesn’t recognize him.

“I’ve been coming here for thirty years but you still don’t remember me after all we’ve been through”.
She struggles to break free from his grasp. He slaps her.
“I don’t pay all this money to have it easy. I want you to fight”, he tells Delores.
He drags her into the barn. And then the day begins again. Delores waking up in bed.
She walks on the porch to be greeted by her father. What will the day bring?

Back in the lab, Bernie continues with the new update. They are adding new ‘reveries’ to the hosts memory. Reveries are little gestures that are tied to specific memories. Something the creator, Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) has come up with. Even though Bernie is now the main programmer, Ford still likes to tinker. Only this time his tinkering has caused something to go wrong with the hosts. They are malfunctioning. This can lead to just freezing but also to extreme behavior and acts of violence.

“Look at him. He’s perfect!” female newcomer to her friend.

“Perfect is boring. I’m more interested in the bad guys.” Female newcomer friend.

There is a lot of violence on the show and I’m sure it will get worse as the hosts begin to malfunction even more. But the newcomers, the ‘real’ people are just as violent and have been, up to this point, the perpetrators of the most violence since they cannot be harmed and always ‘win’ in whatever situation they are in. Therefore, who are the good guys?

“Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world, the disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days. A purpose.”   Delores

Delores’ father, Peter is tending to his horses and looks down to see something in the dirt. He picks it up and it is a photo of a young woman. It seems a newcomer may have dropped it long ago. He stares at it in bewilderment. When Delores comes home that evening, Peter is sitting on the porch staring at that photo.  He shows Delores. She sees it but can’t acknowledge it in any way. “I don’t know what that is.”

The next morning, the day resets once more and Delores goes out on the porch as always and her father, Peter is sitting there as always. However, this time he is still holding that picture. Staring at it. He’s been out there all night looking at that photo. Something has been triggered. He looks completely distraught, Delores is frightened. Peter than says to her:

That question, the question you’re not supposed to ask. I’m getting an answer you’re not supposed to know. Would you like to know the question?  Peter

When they get Peter back into the lab, Dr, Ford speaks to him.

Dr. Ford: What is your itinerary?
Peter: To meet my maker.
Dr. Ford: Ah. Well. You’re in luck. And what do you want to say to your maker?
Peter: A most mechanical and dirty hand [laughs]. I shall have such revenges on you…both. The things I will do, what they are, yet I know not. But they will be the terrors of the earth. You don’t know where you are, do you? You’re in a prison of your own sins.

They shut him down. They decide they cannot repair him and they put him in cold storage with hundreds of other hosts that are too damaged to be reused.

As the technician works on repairing Delores he asks her the same questions Bernie asked at the beginning of the episode. She gives the same responses.

The last scene we see Delores wake up in bed yet again and go out onto the porch.  Her father has been replaced with the man who was previously the bartender in the saloon. A fly lands on Delores’ face.  She slaps it dead signifying that something is wrong or that she at least, has some awareness that she is not letting on.

SIDE BYTES

*There is so much happening in this first episode it’s almost overwhelming.  Much like watching the first episode of Game Of Thrones – information overload.  But it’s the challenge that is exciting and this is a very exciting and intriguing beginning

*Peter’s warning to Dr. Ford is actually from Shakespeare.

“By my/Most/Mechanical and dirty hand”– Henry IV (5.5, 33-35)

“I shall have such revenges on you both/That all the world shall–I will do such things–/What they are yet I know not, but they shall be/The terrors of the earth– King Lear (2.4, 276-279)

He combines two quotes: one spoken by Pistol in “Henry IV” and the other spoken by Lear.

* The fly landing on various hosts throughout the episode signifies that they would not harm a fly. They are programmed not to harm living things.  So when Delores slaps that fly on her neck on the end it’s a sign of things to come.

FIVE THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 The Ed Harris character is human. I think.

2 Dr. Ford has a master plan that no one knows about. What did he envision his creations becoming? Functional inhabitants in the real world?

3 This may all take place on another planet.

4 If ‘Delores’ is ‘the Original’ did Ford create her based on a real person he knew? Is that real person still alive? Who is she?

5 In the novel and 1973 film, there were three worlds to choose from: Westworld, Roman World and Medieval World. I believe there are other ‘worlds’ created that we have yet to see. What might they be?

The two hour season finale covered a lot of ground. Plenty of answers and loose ends tied. I don’t usually say this but I feel like they moved too quickly to conclusion on some of these plot threads that have been built up over the last five episodes. Usually I get frustrated when shows drag out storylines but here I felt there was more juice to be had from The Hotel and the Crazy Chris stories. But, no matter. Off we go!

OFELIA

Ofelia is driving around the desert and having car trouble when she is attacked by a pack of walkers. She’s become really efficient with a hammer! But when she busts out the knife she really seemed to have become a pro! She would fit in with Rick Grime’s crew now!

She then gets shot at by what seems to be the remnants of a border militia guy. He apparently takes her captive but we’ll have to wait until next season to find out who he is and what group of crazies he belongs to.

THE HOTEL

Travis has been holed up in his room, grief stricken over Chris. Alicia brings him some food and Travis apologizes for not believing her about Chris and not protecting her. She forgives him. She forgives everyone.

She runs into the Bro-migos in the parking garage. They tell them that they were in a car accident and that ‘Chris crashed the car and was killed.” She puts it together and realizes these were the idiots Travis told her about. She goes to Strand first with the info and they decide it would be best to just get them out of the hotel so that Travis would not find out and he would still have ‘hope’ because they feel he needs hope more than knowing the truth about his son.

But the other people in the garage think that they’re giving special treatment to the gringos and cause a commotion. Before they can get them out Travis sees them and comes running down to the gate. Travis gets Brandon and Derek talking and they tell them that they let Chris drive and he crashed the car. We see this in black and white flashback as they tell the story. Chris breaks his leg in the crash and they decide to put him down. Well, Travis goes bonkers! He locks the door so no one can stop him from tearing these guys apart which he does. Pretty viciously, too. Eventually, Oscar and Hector break some windows and get into the room. Travis still in his rage hits Oscar and he’s badly injured.

Since Madison made the decree that anyone that attacks another person would be exiled from The Hotel it is decided that Travis must go. Strand tells Madison that she should let him go and stay at the hotel but she and Alicia decide to leave with Travis in the morning. But then Oscar dies during a procedure his doctor brother tried to perform on his brain swelling skull. The brother is understandably upset but Hector is beside himself! Huh? Since when is hector and Oscar so close? There’s a big showdown, the brother, Hector and Elena storm Travis’ room and the brother is ready to shoot Travis when Alicia sticks a knife in his chest! Her first non zombie kill. Strand helps them get a car and drive away. He stays behind.

I think they could have done a lot more with the hotel. Maybe they’re not done with it and we will revisit the place next season. I hope so.

Travis, Madison and Alicia drive to the Tijuana Costco to find it empty and abandoned. They find the bodies of Francesco, his wife and daughter. Marco killed them? Terrible.
Amazingly they find Francesco still had his wallet on him and wouldn’t you know it? The address to La Colonia was on his driver’s license! Marco should have checked there first! Somehow they know how to get to this address and find La Colonia now overcome with zombies! Including Marco, Antonio (Elena’s nephew) and the whole Tijuana drug gang (more on this later). The search for Nick will continue next season!

LA COLONIA

Nick sneaks out of bed with Luciana to go to the drug exchange with Marco. Marco tells him he doesn’t need them anymore and that he knows where La Colonia is.  He just made a deal with another gang that has plenty of drugs. “I like you but I don’t need you anymore. Either you leave or you die” Marco tells Nick.

Nick takes the message back to Luciana and Alejandro. It seems pretty obvious that they need to leave but Alejandro and Luciana want to stay. Meanwhile, one of the patients in the infirmary has died and become a zombie and attacks Nick. It’s mayhem! The zombie bites a guy’s nose off and a woman’s fingers before Nick performs one of the nastiest zombie kills on the series. He puts his thumbs through the zombie’s eyes and he really digs in there to finish him off. Then we see that Alejandro has been bitten in the arm. No problem, right? He’s been bitten before! He’s immune!

They send the bitten through the bus to be sacrificed to ‘the wall’. But the woman who lost her fingers could have been saved if they just chopped off her hand. Everyone knows that you spread walker guys all over them to walk amongst the walkers but they don’t know this handy bit of info?

Nick starts packing and he forces Alejandro to fess up to Luciana that he isn’t immune, that the bit on his back wasn’t from a zombie. Even after that Luciana still won’t go with Nick. It’s crazy. How are they supposed to fight the gun toting drug gang with children and elderly folk? Eventually, Nick convinces Alejandro to confess to everyone that he isn’t immune so that they will agree to leave with Nick.

Marco, Antonio and their gang of merry men show up to find La Colonia deserted. They’re happy as clams! But Alejandro stayed behind. He had one more trick up his sleeve.  He drives the bus out of the fence allowing ‘the wall’ of zombies to enter La Colonia. You don’t see what happens but as I said earlier, by the time Travis, Madison and Alicia find the place Marco and his gang haven zombie-fied.

The episode closes with Nick (wearing a ridiculous outfit), Luciana and the rest of the people of La Colonia covered with walker guys and amiably making their way to the US border. All seems well until they start taking gunfire! Everyone scatters! Luciana is hit! NOOOO! It looks like more militia men who seem to think they still need to patrol the border to keep them illegals out. Maybe the guy who captured Ofelia belongs to this group.  We’ll find out next season!

SIDE BITES

I expected to see the return of Daniel but alas we barely saw Ofelia. It doesn’t mean he died in that fire though.  He could still return next season and I expect him to.

I didn’t expect Chris to be killed though I think we all wished for it. I expected him to be out there somewhere and return as a true villain.  That would have been interesting.

Strand didn’t have much to do. Now that Madison has left The Hotel will Strand take the leadership role?

The second half of season two was compelling. I think they could have fleshed out these stories a little more but let’s see what comes in season three. What new characters will be introduced? Let’s hope they return to The Hotel next season as well. They worked so hard to clear out the walkers and make the place a safe haven. Let’s hope these people get smarter fast.

See you all in a few weeks when I start recaps for The Walking Dead. Who do you think Negan is going to kill?