Monthly Archives: November 2016

For those of you who have been wondering where Heath and Tara have been all season the wait is over! In this Tara-centric episode we find out that since the Grimes Gang took out that Saviors outpost, Heath and Tara have been rooming the countryside scavenging for supplies and have come up empty.

In a little homage to Glenn, Tara quotes him to Heath; “There’s nothing left in this world that isn’t hidden.”

Heath is agitated and still traumatized about what he felt they were forced to do back at the outpost. Tara feels completely justified for their actions. She’s has that Us or Them mentality that Rick tried to instill in all of them.

They come across a bridge where it seemed there used to be a small group living on. They soon discover a whole bunch of walkers under a huge pile of sand – “SAND WALKERS!”. Heath and Tara get separated. The episode begins with a woman, Cyndi and a young girl Rachel, find Tara washed up on a beach. The little girl wants to kill her because ‘that’s what were supposed to do.” But Cyndi stops her. Later on Cyndi brings Tara some water and salted raw fish (Yum!).

Tara wakes up and follows Cyndi back to her community. There are only women and girls, no men. She spies a healthy stockpile of weapons, though. She is soon discovered and captured. She meets Natania, the matriarch of the community. They do not want to let her go for fear that she will tell of their community and they will be attacked.

They eventually untie her and invite her to a friendly dinner at Natania’s home. They offer her a home there and even offer to go look for her friend and allow him to stay there. Tara tells them all about how she is part of a strong group and how they took out that Savior outpost. She soon learns that it was The Saviors that killed all their men and made them work for them until they just sneaked away one day and found this spot by the beach. They are scared to death that The Saviors will find them. Tara tells them they should come back with her to Alexandria. Natania agrees to send some scouts with her back to Alexandria and report back before they make that kind of decision.

The next day, Tara and two of the women set out but it’s the old double cross! Luckily, Cyndi followed them and helps her get back to the bridge and safely across. She never finds Heath. She does find a curio shop and picks up a cool looking pair of shades!

She arrives back at Alexandria only to be greeted by a blubbering Eugene who tells her all the awful things that happened while she was away. Thankfully, we’re spared the scene and it just cuts to them looking sad.

The episode ends with Rosita and Tara consoling each other and Rosita prying her for info about what she found out there. Did she find any guns? Of course we know she did but she tells Rosita she didn’t. She doesn’t want to betray the all lady beach commune. Noble of her. But you and I both know that she will eventually spill the beans! They will need that cache of guns when they go to war with Negan!

This episode did not need to be 70 minutes long. It felt like filler. But we needed to see those guns! Hopefully the last two episodes before the Winter Break will knock it out of the park!

SIDE BITES

I doubt we’ll see Heath again or if we do, he’ll be a walker. The actor that plays him, Corey Hawkins, will be the lead in the 24 reboot series, 24:Legacy on Fox.

Tara takes a handgun from the outpost massacre and we get a close up of the handle. There’s sweet old Lucille’ carved into it! Those saviors sure are sentimental.

“You may not like what you find.”  Ford

Shades of Dr. Zaius in Planet Of The Apes right before Charlton Heston discovers he’s back on earth.

Maeve, Delores, Teddy, they’re all now experiencing their past lives which are just as vivid as their current ‘life’. While Teddy has just started seeing flashbacks and Delores seems to be being driven mad by them, Maeve has gained a new consciousness and has begun to take control of her life.

The great Michelle Mclaren (Breaking Bad, Game Of Thrones) directed this episode. I hope she gets to do more episodes in Season 2!

MAEVE

“We’ve been down this road before, haven’t we?” Maeve

After killing New Clem (“a very serious unscripted incident”), Maeve is brought back to the lab to be examined by Bernard. It’s obvious that Maeve is playing dumb for Bernard. He looks at her program and sees all the upgrades and is about to alert Ford when Maeve grabs his arm. “Don’t”.

She remembers him being there when she committed suicide in the lab after Blackie killed her and her daughter. She realizes he is a host like herself but that he doesn’t realize it. She is able to control Bernard with her newly acquired administrative authorities.

“You’re going to clear me for safe return to the park. I have a date with a homicidal bandit and I’m late enough as it is.” Maeve says matter of factly.

Bernard does as she asks, of course, and is about to go on his own way before Maeve tells him one more thing:

“Bernard, if you go looking for the truth, get the whole thing. It’s like a good fuck. Half is worse than none at all.”

Later on, in the park, we see Hector, Armistice and their gang camped out and still unable to open that safe. Hector goes to take a piss and encounters Maeve. She knows everything about his past loops. She tells him exactly what’s going to happen next; his men will get in a fight and kill each other and then Armistice will kill him. It all happens as she says except she kills Armistice first.

“I want you to break into hell with me and rob the gods blind” Maeve tells him.

Maeve and Hector move into the tent and start having sex. “Getting to hell is easy”, she says as she knocks over a lantern setting the tent and everything in it on fire.

She has now seduced a co-conspirator to assist her in her plan. She intends to break out somehow.

WILLIAM AND DELORES

“It’s Delores. She’s not like the others. She remembers things. She has her own thoughts and desires.” William

Logan ties up William thinking he’s gotten lost in this world and needs to be brought back to reality, so to speak. William asks Logan to use his contacts to help get Delores out of there.

“You both keep assuming that I won’t out, whatever that is. If it’s such a wonderful place out there why are you all clamoring to get here? Delores

Logan is impressed with Delores but needs to prove to William that Delores isn’t special and that he has a real woman back home, namely Logan’s sister. He takes a saber and cuts open her belly to expose her circuits. This is a clue. Metal? The modern hosts are much more sophisticated. Delores takes the saber and cuts Logan’s face. She grabs a gun and shoots her way out.

“Run! I’ll find you!” William tells her. As she runs for her life she hears Arnold.

“Remember”

Suddenly, her wound is gone. Her clothes keep changing too. This, to me, signifies we are seeing her in two different timelines. Delores finds herself back in the town they found in the last episode. She goes into the church to find all the hosts glitching, looking crazy. She walks into the confessional and that triggers an elevator that takes her down into the lab. We see a young Dr. Ford and overhear him arguing with Arnold. This is certainly the past now. She moves further in and finds a room where she sits and waits.

Back at the Confederate camp Logan and William seem to make up.
“What happens here stays here!” Logan tells William. This is the new Las Vegas apparently. They party it up and the next morning, Logan awakes to find everyone dead, ripped apart, except himself and William.

“You said this place was a game. Last night I finally figured out how to play it.” William tells Logan. He tells him that they are going to go looking for Delores.

THE MAN IN BLACK

Teddy is still alive! But not for long!
Teddy remembers himself killing all these union soldiers at the behest of that dastardly villain, Wyatt. But Angela doubts his memory. He then remembers killing townspeople, including Angela! He’s now not a soldier but wearing a sheriff’s badge. Could this be the same town that Delores has been seeing?
She tells him he’s not ready, maybe in another life. Angela kills Teddy. She then turns her attention to Blackie.
“A city swallowed by sand. I’ve been there. The Maze has taken me full circle.” Blackie realizes. This is referring to Delores’ town.
“The Maze is not for you. But if you like to play games how about a real one?” Angela says and then knocks him out. He wakes with a noose around his neck and the rope swung over a tree branch and attached to a skittish horse. Blackie manages to save himself just as a surprise visitor arrives on the scene; Charlotte Hale. “Why don’t you try golf?” She asks.

She tells him that Cullen was killed trying to send the data they wanted. She wants the board to oust Ford.
“It was you who kept Ford in business all those years ago.” She tells him.

Blackie doesn’t care. He tells her to do what she wants but to not disturb him again. He knows where he’s going now.

BERNARD

“Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t.” Bernard reading from Alice In Wonderland

Bernard sneaks into Ford’s office. Then arranges to meet Ford on the 84th floor where all the retired hosts reside.

“I took a look at my code, and the most elegant parts of me weren’t written by you. Arnold built us, didn’t he? Which means, maybe he had something different in mind for us and maybe you killed him for it.” Bernard

He has reprogrammed Old Clementine to only listen to him. They lobotomized her but didn’t change her settings. Bernard can’t kill Ford but Clementine can.

He allows Bernard to see everything in his program. He sees himself kill Elsie.
“I’m going to finish the work that Arnold began. I’m going to find all the sentient hosts and set them free,” Bernard.

He doesn’t believe Ford when he tells him that he made him, not Arnold. He asks Ford to take him back to his first memory. “If he made me then I met him.”
Ford obliges. We see newly made, naked Bernard hop off the table. But it’s Ford that greets him. “Who am I?” he asks Ford. Then we see that photo again, the one that was on Ford’s desk. We see Bernard is in the photo. When Bernard was a human. When Bernard was Arnold. Ford has recreated he old friend and partner as he had his family.

Bernard tells Clementine to kill Ford. But she cannot. Ford has built a backdoor? No, Bernard did, as he has with all the hosts, including himself. Ford then instructs Bernard to take the gun from Clementine and to kill himself once Ford has left the room. “Goodbye, old friend” Ford says. Is Bernard really done? We don’t see him actually do it. We just hear the shot.

DELORES

We cut back to Delores, waiting in that room. Arnold/Bernard comes to speak with her. Delores feels lost and asks for help. “Remember? I can’t help you. Why is that Delores?” Arnold says.

“Because you’re dead. Because you’re just a memory. Because I killed you.”

She goes back up the elevator and into the church when the church door swings open. She’s terrified. It’s The Man In Black.

Did she really kill Arnold? Physically?  Or cause him to die? Heart attack?

SIDE BYTES

Maeve is fully clothed when she is in the lab speaking with Bernard. It breaks with protocol but she controls all now.

Maeve knows everything now, even the combination of the safe!

Stubbs goes looking for Elsie and gets jumped by members of The Ghost nation. They are not responding to voice commands. Do they kill him? Why not? He hasn’t been much of a head of security.

The picture of Logan’s sister that he shows William is the same photo Abernathy finds in the dirt in episode one.

When we see Bernard speaking with his wife, the digital feed blurs and you see it’s actually Ford.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW – FOR THE SEASON FINALE

1 It will be confirmed that William and Blackie are one and the same.
2 William will shoot Delores – in the past timeline.
3 Blackie finds Wyatt. It’s Lawrence!
4 Bernard is not dead.
5 Maeve will escape on the train but find that the park is on another planet.

This has been a wonderful ride so far.  This is the closest experience to watching my beloved LOST as I have come to. I’m looking forward to the finale blowing my mind!

What was amazing about this episode is that the fragments of memories we have been shown in the previous episodes are starting to come together and be explained. There are some amazingly powerful sequences in ‘Trace Decay’. The performances are all Emmy worthy. Let me try to make some sense of it all.

BERNARD

“Bring yourself back online, Bernard” Ford

Bernard is completely freaking out about killing Theresa.

“You killed her because I told you to.” Ford simply tells him.

Bernard gets very angry and confronts Ford.

“I will not help you! I will raze this place to the ground!”

But he is a host. Ford simply tells him to calm down and so he does. He tells him to clean up his mess and when he is done, “I will free you from the memories of what you have done and of your relationship with Theresa. When you look back you will remember Theresa with the affection of a respected colleague.”

The whole scene is so creepy. Bernard is a host who was in charge of programming other hosts. Those scenes with Delores were conversations between two beings that are lost and longing for connection, looking for meaning.

Bernard proceeds to make it look like Cullen was trying to steal secrets from the company and transmit them when she falls to her death in the same ravine where the stray was found in episode three. Stubbs shows Ford and Hale her bruised body. Ford now takes the high ground and claims Cullen was responsible for the erratic behavior of the hosts. He gets her to agree to reinstate Bernard to help him keep the park going until they find a replacement for Cullen. Hale goes along but she knows something’s wrong.

Ford prepares to erase his memory but they have a conversation first.
“What is the difference between my pain and yours? That differentiates you from me? Bernard asks.

“There is no threshold, no inflection point … we live in loops as tight and closed as the hosts do. You’re not missing anything at all.” Ford tells him.

“Have you ever made me hurt anyone before? Bernard asks.
“No, never, Bernard.” Ford says.

Then, right before Ford erases Bernard’s memory he remembers strangling Elsie. He is startled by the memory but then goes blank.

Absolutely chilling.

Later on, Stubbs runs into him and welcomes him back to the job and apologizes for disturbing him. Stubbs, being head of security, was well aware of his relationship with Cullen.

“You have the wrong idea. I respected Theresa very much but I hardly knew her.” Bernard tells him, echoing what Ford had told him he would program him to feel. This raises all kinds of flags for Stubbs who knows otherwise.

HALE AND SIZEMORE

Sizemore is in the middle of programming a human leg eating host he believes will be the new ‘Wyatt’ when Hale strolls along and tells him to forget about all that. Ford is just giving him busy work while he does all the real work on the new narrative. She tells him she has a special project she wants him to work on.

Sizemore and Hale go to the floor where hosts have been retired.
“Even the dead fulfill a purpose” Hale says.
They find the original Abernathy. “He’ll do. ” Hale says.
She starts uploading data into him and asks Sizemore to give him a semblance of personality, get him on the train and out of the park.

I think hale suspects Ford will try to shut out the Board for good and she is trying to sneak out the technology for their own use, perhaps fro some other nefarious purpose.

MAEVE

“Now it’s time to recruit my army.”  Maeve

Back at The Mariposa, Maeve meets the new blonde Clementine. She is not impressed and soon she is back in Repair. She tells Sylvester and Felix to set it up so that she can control other hosts. Sylvester is livid but Felix is like hypnotized by her.

“The things I need you touching are quite sophisticated but I can write them down for you” , Maeve tells them.

She describes the confusion happening in her thoughts. “It’s complex like two minds arguing with each other.” She tells them.

Sylvester tries to convince Felix to just erase her memory and end this or they are going to be in mucho trouble. “Look, I know you and she had some weird inner species simpatico going on but she’s a fucking host!” he tells Felix.

Once they have Maeve on the table she turns to Sylvester.

“Sylvester. Good luck.” , which sounds threatening. Of course, Felix can’t go through with it.  He told Maeve the plan and Maeve jumps off the table scaring the hell out of Sylvester.

“We’ve been tinkering with my core code. Let me show you”  Maeve says then grabs a scalpel and slices Sylvester’s throat. Holy Crap! It was just a warning, though and instructs Felix to cauterize the wound. Vicious!

She tries out her new powers back in Sweetwater. She simply tells a host what to do and they do it. When Hector and Armistice ride into town to steal the safe, Maeve makes sure they get away unscathed. Experiment successful!

WILLIAM AND DELORES

“Where are we? When are we?  Delores

Delores and William come to a town – the place with the church steeple we see in the future, where Ford wants to stage his new narrative. We see this from Delores’ point of view. She believes she is home. The first clue something is wrong is that she’s back in that blue dress. She strolls through the town and she see lab techs are training hosts. Maeve is there learning to dance along with a group of other hosts. There is Lawrence’s daughter!

“Did you find what you were looking for Delores?” She asks.

Then Delores sees everyone get shot dead. She sees herself holding a gun to her head. Suddenly William stops her as she is now holding a gun to her own head. She’s back in her new attire.  She looks again at the town and it keeps changing as if she’s seeing both the present and the past at the same time.

Where are we? When are we? Is this now? Am I going mad?  Are you real?  I can’t tell anymore. It’s like I’m trapped in a dream or memory from a life long ago.”

William has no idea what’s happening but figures it’s because they traveled so far away from Sweetwater. They keep moving and eventually run into a  group of Confederates led by our old friend, Logan!

“Billy I’ve been looking for you for days.  Man, are you two fucked”  Logan

THE MAN IN BLACK

“I wanted to see if I had it in me to do something truly evil, to see what I was truly made of.” The Man In Black

As Teddy and Blackie ride on Teddy starts having flashbacks to Blackie attacking him and Delores in the first episode. Then they come across some murdered settlers. One blonde woman is still alive.

“It’s you! I figured they retired you.  I guess Ford doesn’t like to waste a pretty face”  Blackie says to the woman. He recognizes her. I did, too. It’s Angela, the host that welcomed him when arrived at Westworld for the first time. Or I should say, welcomed William.

“You can’t remember shit but you managed to lead us to Wyatt’s crew. The man must be near.” Blackie says.
“Actually I did remember something. You.” Teddy knocks him out and ties him up.

That night, Blackie confides to Teddy who he is, a titan of industry in the outside world. His wife recently died. His daughter told him that she committed suicide and that she blamed him. They’d never seen the man he was when he was in the park but they sensed it anyway. The departed things he did while in the park changed him. How could it not. he decided to come back and conduct an experiment. He would do something horrible just to just if he felt anything.

“I found a woman. an ordinary homesteader and her daughter. i wanted to see if i had it in me to do something truly evil, to see what i was truly made of. I killed her and her daughter just to see what I felt.  Then just when i thought it was done the woman refused to die. “

“An animal would have felt something.  I felt nothing. Then something miraculous happened.  in all my years coming here i’d never seen anything like it.  she was alive, truly alive if only for a moment.  and that was when the maze revealed itself to me.” She and her daughter fall dead on a patch of ground where the maze was inscribed.

“There’s a deeper game here, Teddy. Arnold’s game. And that game cuts deep.” Blackie says.

Angela yells at Teddy to kill him but he can’t. He’s not allowed. But there’s nothing preventing Angela from killing Teddy. Black looks shocked. The she summons a ton of crazy followers of Wyatt who come creeping out of nowhere.

MAEVE

Coinciding with Blackie’s tale told to Teddy, we see Maeve planning her getaway but problems arise when she starts flashbacking to her and her daughter on the plains and being killed by Blackie. She was unable to kill Blackie but as she relives the memory she ends up slicing new Clem’s throat.  The sheriff comes after her but she causes a diversion.

Security becomes aware that she has gone loco and sends a team to retrieve her and bring her back to the lab.

Flashback Extension:

We then see Maeve in repair still mourning the death of her daughter. She is not responding to voice commands. Ford then does something on his iPad, “You need not suffer, Maeve.  I’ll take it from you.
She calms down but is still present in the now.
“No please, this pain is all I have left of her.  Please”

Ford eases her memory. A fresh start.  A new role for you and tomorrow this will just be a distant dream.  But that still doesn’t work.  She suddenly awakens and stabs herself in the throat.

Damn! What the hell!!!!! How did they trust her enough to put her back in play as the mistress of The Mariposa?

SIDE BYTES

All hosts have an explosive implant that goes off if they leave the park

 Maeve downs that double shot like nothing.  Can hosts get drunk?

 “State your business” the Sherriff asks Hector.

“Mayhem”  Hector responds then shoots him!

 The player piano plays ‘House Of The Rising Sun”

Why is Delores always seeing herself? In the carnival parade in Pariah, face down in the river. Is it just a symptom of her losing her mind?

“If there was a shortcut to hell I’d take it.” Teddy

“I’m sure there is one somewhere in this place.” Black

I like how Sylvester and Felix walk outside and argue as Maeve observes from inside. Reminds me of 2001 when HAL observes the two astronauts talking about him and reading their lips.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Teddy will end up back in repair and will hook up with Maeve for the rebellion.

2 Logan ends up killing Delores.

3 Ford is a sociopath…or is he also synthetic?

4 We are seeing Delores with William in the past but where is she in the present?
Still in her loop?

5 Stubbs will discover that Bernard is a host.

“My name is Maggie Rhee!” Maggie

This week we travel to The Hilltop to check up on Maggie and Sasha. Some people don’t like these stand alone episodes where they concentrate on specific characters and places but this is how the show has operated since Season Four. Especially with so many characters and an expanding world, it makes more sense. But before we travel to The Hilltop we check in on the ‘Grimes Family”

RICK AND MICHONNE

Rick and Aaron are about to head out to find ‘stuff’ for Negan. Rick wants Carl to come with but he’s too busy playing darts. His aim is for crap! I guess losing that eye has hindered his depth perception. I don’t think he hits the board once! Rick wants Michonne to come with, too but she decides to stay behind. He moves in to kiss her goodbye on the cheek but she stops him, grabs his face and they engage in a passionate, tender lip lock. Remember when you were a man, Rick! She’s trying to reassure him that she’s still with him but she’s struggling with it.

CARL AND ENID

Ah, young love! It’s no different in a zombie apocalypse. Carl catches Enid jumping the wall. She wants to go to The Hilltop to be with Maggie. Carl thinks she’s crazy! (That’s just the love talking) He tells her “I’m not saving you anymore”. Enid can take care of herself just fine, thank you!

MAGGIE AND SASHA

Maggie wakes up. She looks better. There are some nice blue flowers in a vase by her bedside. The doctor tells her she’s fine, the baby’s fine and that she should remain at The Hilltop in case of further complications.

She asks Sasha to take her tow where she buried Abraham and Glen. The scene at the graveside when she takes her father’s watch and places it on Glenn’s grave was so sad!
“Abraham only had a cigar in his pocket”, Sasha says.
Jesus comes along with green flowers to lie on the graves. Green represents release. He also left the blue flowers which were meant to inspire strength and calming. But when Gregory shows up he is anything but calm.

He is mad because Rick promised they would take care of The Saviors but they failed and now more heat is coming down on them. He wants Maggie and Sasha gone! Jesus tries to intercede on their behalf but he can only get Gregory to allow them to stay one night.

Sasha tries to push Jesus to do more but Jesus can only muster “I’m not a leader!” Funny thing to hear coming out of someone calling themselves Jesus. In the middle of the night they hear music blaring. They see that it’s coming out of Gremlin! The front gates are open, some fires have been started and a horde of walkers are streaming in! Maggie takes charge and starts yelling out instructions. Gregory just observes from his window. “If only he could reach them!” he must have been thinking. Yeah. Right! Jesus goes into kung fu mode! Sasha takes out one walker after another but she can’t open that damn Gremlin to shut off the music. No problem. Here comes farm girl Maggie driving a huge tractor and just plows over a bunch of walkers and flattens the Gremlin! Disaster averted. Those darn Saviors love causing mayhem.

“For now, I’m your Negan.” Simon

The next morning The Saviors show up led by Negan’s right hand man, Simon. They’ve come for ‘stuff’! Gregory is hilarious! He’s so spineless and squirrelly! He’s played wonderfully by Xander Berkeley. Gregory tells Jesus to hide Sasha and Maggie in the closet. I’d be worried about Negan finding out that Maggie is alive. He obviously took a fancy to her plus he’d be pissed at Rick for lying to him.

Simon and Gregory have a tense, play friendly conversation and Gregory is unnerved enough that he is prepared to turn over Maggie and Sasha. But when he goes to the closet they’re not there! But his case of Scotch is there and Simon says ‘thank you’ and takes it for Negan. Once The Saviors are safely away Gregory finds that Jesus hid them in a different closet, one in Gregory’s bedroom. Gregory is furious! And that’s when Maggie punches him right in the jaw! Then she reaches into Gregory’s pocket to find Glenn’s watch! Oh, that dirty bastard!
“You’re going to have to start using my name. Not Marsha, not Dear, not Honey. Maggie. Maggie Rhee.” Maggie tells him. Damn! She is going to take over this place!

CARL AND ENID

Meanwhile Enid gets into some trouble on the road and who should come to her rescue? Carl! Driving (badly) and running over some meddlesome walkers. They journey together to The Hilltop and along the way Carl finds a bag containing two pair of roller skates! Couples Skate through Zombieland! So sweet! They arrive at Hilltop in time to see The saviors loading up their trucks. They share their first kiss! Awful cute! But then Carl goes and blows it! He wants to kill Negan so badly he is willing to go it alone! Enid begs him not to go but he’s a stupid little punk! Kid! Stay with Enid! Cuddle in a tree somewhere and smooch!

Enid finds her way to Maggie and Sasha. Maggie gives her the watch. She’s family now. But she should have saved it to give her baby, right? Sasha and Maggie ask Jesus to do them a solid and find out where Negan lives so Jesus puts on his traveling gear and hops into the back of one of The Savior’s trucks as it takes off and lo and behold! Who had the same idea? The dork Carl! Jesus looks amused by this quite frankly. Who knows what trouble these two are going to get into!

SIDE BITES

Gregory and Jesus were on Talking Dead after the episode and it was insinuated that Jesus may be Gregory’s son. Interesting. Explains why Jesus would defer to him and defend him.

The music playing from that hideous Gremlin was Sibelius’ “Finlandia. Just so you know.

What does Carl think? He’s going to sneak into Negan’s house, kill him and get out alive? Does he accept that it’s a suicide mission? He’s going to get caught and Negan is going to make Rick do something god awful to get him back. Dammit, Carl!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Phillip K. Dick 1968 novel

Phillip K. Dick pondered this question in his 1968 novel which later was adapted for the big screen as Blade Runner. Westworld has been asking similar questions about what synthetic life forms may be thinking, feeling, dreaming and how could that even be possible? This weeks’ episode delivers a startling revelation. One that I predicted by the way! Take that Milo!

BERNIE

“The longer I work here, the more I think I understand the hosts. It’s the human beings that confuse me.” Bernard

Bernie has a dream of reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to his sick son in the hospital. His son then passes out, seemingly dies and Bernie wakes up in a sweat. He looks at a picture of his wife and son and himself that’s on his bedside. Poor Bernie.

He has a session with hector in the lab and shows him photos of the real world and asks him what he sees.

“They don’t look like anything to me” he answers.

Bernie inquires if anyone has heard from Elsie. He looks at his tablet and scans the park for her but nothing. She’s just gone.

CULLEN AND HALE

“But the gods. They require a blood sacrifice. We need to demonstrate just how dangerous Ford’s creations can be.” Charlotte Hale

Cullen goes to Hale’s room and is greeted by a completely naked hale and a tied up Hector in the bed. I would think this would be happening more often.
“Why don’t you have your friend join us” Hector says before Hale finds the controls and turns him off.

Hale tells Cullen that board is not happy about Ford and his new narrative. They won’t fire him but want to try and force him to retire. They plan a little demonstration for Ford and Bernie. They use Clementine and another host to demonstrate how dangerous a host can become after these new ‘reveries’ were programmed. Clementine becomes violent and won’t respond to voice commands. Stubbs has to shoot her. Ford looks uncomfortable for the first time. Hale places the blame on Bernie for not reacting quicker to the problem and fires him.

MAEVE

“You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times. I’m fucking great at it.” Maeve

Maeve is back in ‘Madame’ mode at the Mariposa Saloon but she is not the same old host. When Clementine comes over after being with a guest, Maeve can’t help but look at her with pity as she describes where she comes from and her family.
“I’m going to get my family out of the desert. We’re going to go somewhere…cold. Someday” Clementine tells Maeve.
But Maeve knows, as Delores realized with Teddy, a few episodes back, someday means never.

When some techs in hazmat suits walk into the bar talking about grabbing the girl at the bar, Maeve instinctively grabs a knife. Self preservation level has been raised. But they are after Clementine, not her.

Maeve ends up back in repair again, presumably by her own hand. Felix warns her that she’s back too often and someone is going to suspect something. But Maeve has come looking for Clementine. Felix walks her over to where Sylvester is performing a lobotomy on Clem – essentially ‘retiring’ her from operation. Maeve looks heartbroken.

Later on, Maeve has Felix and Sylvester in front of her and she is about to have them help her with a special project. I assume this will mean adjusting the levels on some other selected hosts.

It must be horrible to be aware of everything and still have to pretend to play along. Clem was her friend. The hosts seem capable of more empathy than the humans. This was also the premise for Blade Runner.

DELORES AND WILLIAM

“This place you’re looking for; what makes you so sure it exists? William
“I’m not.” Delores

Meanwhile the train carrying William and Delores keeps rolling. William and Lawrence are very friendly and playful playing poker while Delores frets. Lawrence reminds them that they were the ones that wanted to come with him on this journey.
“My friend wanted, I guess he wanted to see what was behind all of this?” William says of Logan.
“Maybe you have more of an appetite for this than you think” Lawrence tells him.

Delores and William spend some time getting to know each other better.
“The only things I had when I was kid were books. I used to live in them. They had meaning. This place is like I woke up in one of those stories. I guess I want to find out what it means.” William

“I don’t want to be in a story. I don’t want to look forward or back. I just want to be….in the moment I’m in.” Delores.

They are obviously falling for each other but William stops himself and tells her how he is engaged to Logan’s sister and that’s who he plans on returning to. Delores is visibly shaken and leaves the room. William can’t help himself and follows her. They fall into a passionate kiss that leads to the bed and we assume much more. The show is very discreet with their relationship. For now.

The next morning William awakes to see Delores painting – A lovely landscape with a river. She doesn’t know what or where it is but it’s in her thoughts. William tries to describe what he feels about this world.

“I used to think this place was all about pandering to your baser instincts. Now I understand. It doesn’t cater to your lower self, it reveals your deepest self; it shows you who you really are.” William tells Delores, “You’ve unlocked something in me.”
“I’m not a key, William. I’m just me.” Delores

Suddenly there’s an explosion. The train is being assaulted by the Confederate soldiers. But before they do any further damage a white flag is waived and a single rider comes out of one of the boxcars. As it reaches the soldiers we see that it’s that corpse that Lawrence filled with nitro. Lawrence fires his rifle and the corpse explodes giving our heroes cover to escape the train on horseback. Delores falls off her horse but William rides back and scoops her up! A rollicking adventure! Chivalry! Love! Excitement! He’s getting his money’s worth!

Once they get clear they come across a river just like the one that Delores was painting. This is where they part ways with Lawrence.

“What’s out that way?” William asks.
“You’re going to have to ask the dust. Ain’t nothing ever come back from there.” Lawrence tells him and rides off.

To where? Where is there beyond this point for Lawrence?

THE TWIST

“What door?” Bernie

Bernie approaches Cullen to tell her what he found but never had the chance to tell her. He tells her that he knows that she was involved with reprogramming those legacy hosts. He tells her that he’s worried about Ford and that he has something he wants to show her.

He takes her to Sector 17 where Ford has his little cottage and his synthetic family resides. They enter the house.

“Where does this door lead? Cullen asks.
“What door?” Bernie says.

They go through the door and down into a modern make shift lab where a machine is creating a host. It’s not as sophisticated as the ones back in the lab and it will take longer to create a host but that is exactly what it is doing.
Cullen looks through the papers lying around and sees various drawings of specs of different hosts. She sees one for Delores. But then she sees one that doesn’t look right.

“Bernard, have you seen these?”

Bernard comes over to her and she shows him the one in her hand. It’s a drawing of a host that looks like Bernard!
“This doesn’t look like anything to me” Bernie tells her.

Yup! Bernard is a robot!

Then out of nowhere Ford appears.

“They can’t see the things that will hurt them.” Ford
“You’re a fucking monster” Cullen tells him.

“I’m not one. I can’t be. My wife, my son. They’re real. My poor boy.”
“That’s enough Bernard. Mustn’t get worked up.” Ford soothes him.  And with that Bernie just starts doing the mannequin challenge.

“Do you really think the board will stand for this?” Cullen asks

“The board will do nothing. Our arrangement is too valuable to them. They test me every now and then. I think they enjoy the sport of it. This time they sent you. Sadly, in order to restore things, the situation requires a blood sacrifice.” Ford tells her.

He then triggers Bernie to attack her and kill her.

Holy Crap!

SIDE BYTES

When Maeve walks into the saloon the player piano is actually playing the Westworld theme song. Maeve shuts it off.

Lawrence blowing up the guy filled with nitro! Gnarly!

How long has Bernie worked there? Does he age?

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

Well! I pegged that Bernie was a robot back in my Episode 4 recap! Vindication! (or lucky guess?)

1 Ford will create a host that looks like Theresa Cullen

2 Bernie is the host version of Arnold

3 Bernie killed Elsie

4 William is The Man In Black. I’m pretty sure about this now.

5 William and Delores will find themselves back in Sweetwater – Going in circles.

This was a tough week for the country. This episode didn’t make it any easier. I kept thinking this season is a metaphor for what’s happening now. A terrible person has taken over our world and we all feel awful and scared. But we also know that the day will come when we’ll turn it around! I have faith that Rick will get his mojo back and grow back a pair of what Negan took from him. But until then……..”Little piggy, little piggy! LET… ME… IN!!”

MICHONNE

Michonne sneaks out of bed and out of the house, taking with her a rifle she had hidden in the fireplace. Rick sees her leave though. She heads out to a clearing and starts using a zombie for target practice. She’s trying to learn to be a marksmen but with terrible results. She ends up slicing the zombie’s head in half with her katana.

One of her stray shots killed a deer though! Too bad that once she hauls it back to Alexandria Negan will take it to feed his men instead.

MR. NEGAN COMES TO TOWN!

Negan arrives earlier than expected and brings a slew of men and trucks with him and a surprise guest: Daryl. The looks between Rick and Daryl are heartbreaking.

“We’ve separated half our supplies for you” Rick begins.
“No, Rick. You don’t get to choose. I do.”

He hands Rick Lucille to hold for him and then sets his crew loose and they start looking into every house for stuff to take. Making Rick hold Lucille the entire time he’s at Alexandria is such a mind game! He knows Rick wouldn’t dare turn it on him. He is just showing him and everyone that he owns Rick.

Then Carl decides to cause trouble. He shoots at one of Negan’s men! They rush to the house and Carl complains that they were going to take all of their medicine.
“You better go before you realize how dangerous we all are.” Carl tells Negan.

Damn! He’s showing more guts than his pa! Negan likes Carl’s spirit but he makes it clear to him that his will not put up with it. Carl has seen what Negan is capable of and smartly hands his gun to Rick. But Negan immediately grabs it. This little incident reminds him that there are far too many guns in Alexandria so he decides that they are going to take ALL of them. Way to go, Carl.

Rick shows them the armory where Olivia keeps track of all the weapons. Negan then tells Rick that he won’t take any of their food because he sees they have very little.
“What do you want me to say?” Rick asks.
“How about thank you”, Negan tells him.
When Negan is told that two handguns are missing he threatens to kill Olivia if they don’t find them.

Rick holds a town hall meeting to tell everyone that he is no longer in charge. Negan is. And whoever took those guns needs to return them. Suffice it to say, these people are not very happy. They trusted Rick and went along with every plan he came up with and now look where they are!

Rick finds the guns in Spencer’s house along with hidden food and booze. He gives them to Negan. When Rick sees Michonne sneak back to town he asks Negan for permission to be excused for a minute while he goes to speak to Michonne. He gets her to give up the rifle and he gives it to Negan. Negan is impressed! It shows loyalty and that he ‘understands the room’. But he still needs to hear two words from Rick.
“Thank you”, Rick vomits out. Negan smiles and moves in close to Rick.
“In case you didn’t catch it, I just slipped my dick down your throat and you said thank you.” Ooof. He leaves Rick nothing.

Negan and his crew ransack the place, taking not only all of the weapons but furniture and most of their mattresses. They load up and drive off and when they come back Alexandria better have something interesting to give them or else someone is going to die. Bleak.

ROSITA AND SPENCER

Dwight singles out Rosita and tasks her and Spencer with bringing him Daryl’s bike. He let’s them drive off for it but not before taking all of their guns and even the hat off of Rosita’s head. They drive off and get the bike. Spencer bellyaches about how this is their life now and that this is what following Rick got them. While he was droning on Rosita wandered off into the woods. She finds a group of zombies and takes them all out including one of the Saviors who was zombiefied. He was carrying a gun and she takes it but no bullets.

When they get back to town and Rosita finds out that Spencer had been hiding guns she was furious. But I have a feeling they will make an alliance and plan something stupid.

At the end of the episode she knocks on Eugene’s door and ask him to make her some bullets. What is she planning?

RICK AND MICHONNE

Michonne does not like this broken Rick. My friend Erin said ‘she’s going to fall out of love with him’ and that might happen but it may be her support that will get him back to the crazy Rick we all know and love and that she loves. She wants to fight. A lot of them do. Rick is still traumatized about losing Glenn and Abraham and feels responsible for their deaths. He cannot let anyone else die.

He tells her about Shane and how Shane took care of Lori and Carl when the zombie apocalypse started. They thought he was dead and so they got involved. He understood that. But then he admitted that Judith is not his and that he accepted that. But now he is her father and he wants her to grow up so that he can teach her how to protect herself. He asks Michonne to accept that this is how their lives are now. She reluctantly says she will try as they lay out their sleeping bag and sheets.

The next morning, Michonne goes back out to that open field to stand watch when she notices something. She finds that all the mattresses Negan took were lying in a pile and burned.

SIDE BITES

I love Negan’s reaction when he sees Father Gabriel. “Holy crap! You are creepy as shit sneaking up on me like that wearing that collar with that freaky smile!!

My friend Charlotte complained about Dwight taking Rosita’s hat. “Why would he take her hat? That doesn’t make sense!” I told her he was just pointing out that they can take anything they want. He gave it back!

Father Gabriel came up with the smart idea of digging a grave for Maggie so that Negan will not want to take her which is exactly what he was thinking of doing. But what if he discovers she’s alive and well and at The Hilltop? There’ll be hell to pay!

Rick asks if Daryl can stay but Negan says no. He does give Daryl the chance to make his case to stay but Daryl doesn’t take it. That’s smart. He knows Negan is taking him with him anyway. Why grovel unnecessarily?

One of Negan’s men takes Enid’s balloons! The green balloons that she and Glenn used to let everyone know he was alive way back when we thought he died the first time! He makes her say please a few times strokes her face before dropping the balloons on the ground. Oh, Carl did not like that.

Next week it looks like we travel to The Hilltop to check on Maggie, Sasha and Jesus. I’m thinking Maggie loses the baby. How can she fight Negan with a baby in tow!

“Who are you?” Negan

You don’t usually see an episode of this show open with a montage to a jaunty little tune but this is a new Walking Dead. Much like the episode of Mr. Robot last season that started with Elliot trapped in a family sitcom, we see Dwight, watching an episode of ‘Who’s The Boss’ and going about his day proving that He is the boss by taking everything he needs to make a delicious looking fried egg sandwich! He doesn’t put as much effort in the sandwich he makes for poor Daryl, however. He just opened a can of dog food, plopped a spoon full between two pieces of bread and hands it to a naked, shivering Daryl in his cell. Daryl eats it up dutifully. And then the music is turned on. “We’re on Easy Street and it feels so sweet!” That would drive anyone crazy!

DWIGHT

Dwight may be ‘the Boss’ to some but when Negan walks by Dwight must kneel and bow his head. Holy crap! It’s like that? This episode is as much or more about Dwight than it is about Daryl. We get to see a little what life is like in Negan’s camp and Dwight’s place in this world.

When we first met Dwight in S6EP6 ‘Always Accountable” he was trying to escape from Negan and The Saviors with his wife Sherry and her sister, Tina. Tina was killed and Dwight and Sherry stole Daryl’s bike and crossbow and decided to go back to Negan. We now learned the price they paid for this.

Tina was to become Negan’s wife. Sherry offered herself in Tina’s place in exchange for Dwight’s life. Negan accepted but burned Dwight’s face as punishment and made Dwight work for points. He has become one of Negan’s best workers. But he does not look happy. He can barely conceal his hatred of Negan. And Negan knows it.  He messes with him. He offered him a shot at sleeping with his former wife as reward for doing such a great job at breaking Daryl! How cold is that?

“Are you cool, Dwight?  I just offered you a free seat at the pussy bar and you don’t want to eat? Is that cool?”  Negan digs at him.

Instead Dwight volunteers to go after an escapee (Orange Alert!). It happens to be a friend of his. Dwight first has to dodge flying walkers falling from a highway overpass but he catches the guy and starts marching him back to meet Negan’s justice. The man pleads with Dwight to just kill him because he knows what is coming will be worse than death. They have an interesting discussion and you see a glimpse of how Negan came to power.

“We’re all so scared, so we gave up.” The man says.

“We were losing, now we’re not,” Dwight answers.

Negan promised them protection and they’ve been safe from zombies but not from him. Dwight must bring him back but he shows some humanity by shooting his captor.

DARYL

Meanwhile Daryl is in his cell being fed dog food sandwiches and being forced to listen to “East Street” day and night.  While Dwight is away trying to capture his friend, Daryl tries to make a run for it. He is discovered by Sherry who urges him to go back to his cell and if he gets caught it will only be worse for him.  Daryl doesn’t listen and soon finds himself surrounded by a group of ‘Negans” as well as Negan himself.  When he ask each of his mean “Who are you?”, they all respond “Negan”.  This is what he wants to hear Daryl say. He likes Daryl but nevertheless, his mean give him a beating.  Better that than a beating by Lucille.

Once Dwight returns, Dwight plays the ‘Glenn Card’.

 “You got your friend killed, just like I got Tina killed.” Dwight tells him.  He then tapes a poloroid of Glenn’s body and smashed head on the wall, shuts the door and starts playing ‘Cryin’ by Roy Orbison.  That’s it!  Daryl breaks down crying. That was hard to watch.

Dwight brings him to Negan thinking he’s finally broken but when Negan asks him “Who are you?”, Daryl answers, “Daryl”.  Dwight throws him back in the cell. Dwight wanders outside and looks at the zombie moat called ‘The Wall” and there’s a new recuit being led out there.  They take the bucket off his head and it’s his old friend, the one he mercy killed out on the road. But he didn’t shoot him in the head.  He had to bring him back one way or another. Because everyone must serve Negan in one way or another.

SIDE BITES

Dwight brings Daryl to see the doctor and runs into his ex Sherry getting the results of her pregnancy test. Awkward.  It was negative.

It’s obvious Dwight detests Negan but feels he has no way out. Sherry also does not like it there.  Maybe there are more that feel this way.  Maybe there will an opening to recruit these people to Rick’s side when the time comes.

A strong episode. Some people don’t like that TWD chooses to do these character episodes that concentrate on one or two characters without showing what’s happening with everyone else but I like them.

I’ll leave you with the show that Dwight was watching at the open of the episode. A kinder, gentler ‘boss’.

“Live Without Limits” Westworld Publicity Commercial

My friend Milo told me after last week’s recap that I might be in over my head. He may be right but I’m going to stay on top of this bucking bronco of a show! Each episode peels off another layer of the onion and brings us one step closer to discovery. The same is true for the characters in the show, guests and hosts alike. Last week we followed Delores on her journey of self discovery; this week, Maeve makes some startling discoveries of her own as well as unlikely but resourceful allies.

MAEVE

“Nobody makes me do something I don’t want to, sweetheart”  Maeve

Maeve wakes up. Walks down the street. A gunfight happens behind her. Another day of work at the saloon. Maeve takes a guest to her room. She taunts him. Insults his manhood. He gets rough with her. He chokes her to death. Obviously what she wanted so she could get back in the lab with Felix.

“Now, where were we?” she says to Felix, the young lab tech.

Felix explains how she has been programmed right down to her vocabulary. He hands her his tablet and as she speaks she sees the words come up on the screen. She short circuits like a robot in the old Star trek show when Kirk confuses it. “Does Not Compute!” Felix feverishly works his tablet and gets her back online. She wants him to take her upstairs to see the rest of the facility. She has him wrapped around her finger which is exactly what she’s been programmed to be able to do. He shows her how they make the sausage, so to speak. Each level they ascend she is shown every aspect of the operation: She sees where they repair the injured hosts, how they train the animals, buffaloes, horses. She sees hosts being taught to perform, a group of cowpokes laying cards get in an argument and draw their guns and then start over, a couple of female hosts are programmed lesbian activity. They go up another level to Design – she watches a Westworld commercial showing her with the little girl – a previous bill – story line. Maeve can remember a past life and that she’s been at the Mariposa for 10 years.

But these aren’t memories. It’s just what she’s been programmed to remember. She’s only been the Madame of the Mariposa for the last year. Felix’ bearded colleague, Sylvester discovers that he has been showing Maeve all these things and even teases him for dressing her up. He threatens to tell on him (wuss) but Maeve isn’t having it. She grabs a scalpel and threatens the guy. They show her all her programming – “I’d like to make some changes.” Maeve says. They discover that someone has already been tampering with her levels, someone with higher clearance than them. She wants to lower her loyalty and pain levels. . ”Apperception – “take that all the way to the top. please.” Maeve tells them. She physically responds to this, like an orgasm.

“Dear boys. We’re going to have some fun” Maeve.

MAN IN BLACK AND TEDDY

“The maze is an old native myth… The maze itself is the sum of a man’s life, the choices he makes, the dreams he hangs onto. And there at the center is a legendary man who has been killed over and over again countless times, but always clawed his way back to life. The man returned for the last time and vanquished all his oppressors in a tireless fury. He built a house and around that house he built a maze so complicated only he could navigate though it – I reckon he’d seen enough of fighting.”Teddy

Teddy explains what he knows of The Maze to Blackie. Could Arnold be there waiting? Blackie and Teddy come across a garrison of soldiers. They can’t get around them so they decide to try to go through them by disguising themselves as union soldiers. The problem is a couple of soldiers remember Teddy and Teddy kills them. They get captured and tied up. This is the first time Blackie actually doesn’t know what to do. But Teddy does. When they try to brand Teddy with The Maze insignia, Teddy remembers he helped Wyatt murder everyone in some past incident which is why they’re so mad at him. Teddy somehow breaks free mounts a wagon that has a gatling gun and mows down everyone in the camp. Blackie is impressed.

“You think you know someone” Blackie.

Teddy has become a new man since that meeting with Ford in the cantina. Did Ford trigger something in him by just speaking to him? It sure seems that way.

They continue they’re search for Wyatt and the entrance to The Maze.

BERNIE, ELSIE AND FORD

“I’ve been here forever” Bernie

Elsie and Bernie try to figure out who is the saboteur. The stray was a legacy model, meaning one of the first hosts created. Bernie has to go down to Floor B82 for Restricted personnel to be able to access the old system. While he’s down there, you’ll find a cool Easter egg lurking in the background – You can make out Yul Brenner’s Man In Black from the 1973 film. Nice touch. Bernie sees that there are 5 anomalies detected in the park, 5 host not registered with the new system.

He locates them in Sector 17 – designated off limits for future narrative developments. Bernie travels there fast and easily. It looks more modern. A forest. A modern house. A man comes out for wood for the fireplace, Bernie enters the house. An older couple and 2 young boys “Are you Arnold?” Bernie asks. One of the boys is the same boy we’ve seen before. It’s obviously a young Ford and this is Ford’s family. The man speaks with a Scottish accent and attacks Bernie. Ford shows up and stops them.

“They don’t respond to voice commands.” Bernie observes.

”They respond to mine” Ford says.

These hosts are first generation. “What our new designs gained in efficiency they lost in grace.” Ford. The only ones left in the park that Arnold built himself. Arnold built them as a gift to Ford. Bernard questions how ethical this is. “If you could see your son again Bernard, would you want to?” Ford asks. Bernie doesn’t answer but you know he would. He leaves them and goes back to the lab.

Later in the episode Ford finds young Ford in the woods and asks where their pet dog, Jacques, is. The boy leads him to where the dog lays dead. Ford takes the boy back to the lab and asks the boy what happened. The boy tells him a vague story. “Analysis”, Ford tells the boy which puts him in ‘truthful’ mode.

“Are you lying to me, boy?”

“Yes.”

Someone told him to put it out of his misery. A voice, Arnold, said if it was dead it couldn’t hurt anything anymore. Ford seems disturbed by this. This is something he doesn’t control and it seems like he controls everything.

CULLEN AND SIZEMORE

Bernie speaks with Cullen and tells her that Ford knows about them. She ends it, worried about how it will look to the board. Poor Bernie.

Lee Sizemore seems to have gone off the deep end after Ford nixed his Caligula style narrative. He’s boozing it up by the employee pool. Cullen wants him to help with the holes in the narratives caused by Ford’s new narrative. “If Ford can’t pull this off the board will be looking for a replacement but they won’t be looking here.”, Cullen tells him. Sizemore then spots a hot looking gal and comes on to her. At first, I thought Cullen may sent him a host to boost his confidence but that wasn’t the case. It turns out she’s Charlotte Hale, the top executive on the Davos Board who’s come to assess the situation. Sizemore is real loser.

Bernie comes knocking on Cullen’s door. She says ‘why you comin’ round here? I revoked your privileges!’ But he just wanted to confide in her about what he’s discovered. The issue started with the stray but it’s bigger than that. He explains that he always trusted Ford but now there is reason for concern. Just before he tells her about someone tampering with the data and sending voice messages to the legacy hosts Elsie calls him and tells him that Cullen is behind it. She also says that someone else is involved but she hasn’t figured out who yet.

Elsie keeps looking at the data when she must have found something juicy. She says “what the fuck” and “holy shit” then hears a noise. Someone grabs her from behind. ARNOLD!!!!! (And I don’t mean Schwarzenegger)

SIDE BYTES

There are 82 first generation hosts and Arnold designed 47 of them. Bernie wants to know how many are still in rotation. Delores is the original but who else? The Man In Black? Himself?

Ford looks through a sketch book of drawings showing the development of the hosts. We see a drawing of Delores and a page that has The Maze. I assumed this was his book but could it be Arnold’s? He also sees The Maze carved into a table at Lawrence’s village. Is it possible that Ford doesn’t know where The Maze is or how to access it?

Sizemore shows up in the surveillance room and takes a piss all over the Westworld map!

What’s playing on the piano? Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees – Nice choice as Maeve will soon discover her whole world is fake.

This scene just gives me the creeps. Every time I see it I get the shivers. Yuck!

5 Things I Think I Know

1 Two timelines. I’m starting to believe this again.

2 Ford’s and Bernie’s sessions with Delores are in The Present

3 William is The Man In Black

4 Cullen’s accomplice is Bernie (he’s a host!)

5 Someone must die before the end of the season. I’m pulling for Sizemore.  He’s an ass.

“Drink from the well, replenish the well.” King Ezekiel

Well, some of my friends were bored with this episode but who wouldn’t be after the season premiere! We absolutely needed a sorbet of pomegranates to sooth our battered psyches from last week. No pork for me, thanks. Episode Two provided our first look at a new community – The Kingdom, led by a very interesting fellow indeed.

The cold open showed Morgan and Carol being attacked by Walkers and members of The Kingdom, in their makeshift suits of armor coming to the rescue. As seen by Carol’s POV, the Walkers appeared human again just before they were dispatched post haste. She was obviously in a fever state from her wounds and unable to protect herself. She stumbles near a house and sees a woman standing in the window but of course, the lady was no lady! The lady was a walker!

When she comes to, she finds herself in a bed with Morgan keeping watch. He explains to her (and to us) that the place is called The Kingdom and they have been taking care of her and he has been helping out in return. He wheels her through the community, which looks like quite a large community that grows a bountiful amount of produce. He wheels her into an auditorium and introduces her to the leader of The Kingdom – King Ezekiel. He sits on a throne in the middle of the stage, holding a staff and flanked by a huge tiger, Shiva, which is kept on a thick chain which the King holds.

Carol can’t help but find this all too ridiculous but plays along as only Carol can, using her sweet lady in the button down sweater act. King Ezekiel speaks in an old tyme language with a regal air. He offers Carol a pomegranate! His steward, Jerry, walks over to Carol with a large bowl and a big smile!

“It’s fruit time!”

Carol’s reaction to all this is amazing. I’ve missed the old Carol and was growing tired of the ‘woe is me! I’ve killed so many people’ Carol. She was back to her wily ways, scheming and planning her escape from this crazy place she found herself.

Meanwhile, Morgan was embracing the new community, helping them round up pigs. The unusual thing was that they were deeding the pigs ‘walkers’! This didn’t make sense until we found out why they were capturing the pigs in the first place. It seems The Kingdom is also under Negan’s thumb and they were tasked with tithing 8 hogs. So they fed them walkers in spite, so that Negan’s people will get sick. Pretty gnarly!

Not all of Ezekiel’s ‘knights’ are too happy about the arrangement. Richard, the leader of Ezekiel’s security force gets into it with one of the saviors. He easily got the best of him but Ezekiel had to tell him to stand down and then the Savior gave him a beat down.

Ezekiel has not told his people about this arrangement for fear that they may want to rebel and fight back which would lead to much loss. I can already see Rick now looking at all of these people and counting them up with the Alexandrians and The Hilltop and plotting a war against the saviors. (Southern drawl) “I know if we all band together we can win!” Rick will tell them assuring more death and destruction which seems to follow Rick wherever he leads.

Ezekiel asks Morgan to mentor a young man, Benjamin, who is having trouble becoming a good fighter. Ezekiel asks Morgan to teach him how to use the staff. Morgan agrees and begins a warm relationship with him, which means Ben is not long for this world.

When Carol makes her move to leave she is intercepted by King Ezekiel and Jerry. He excuses Jerry and tells Carol that he sees through her act.

“This place is a joke. You are giving people a fairy tale.” Carol tells him.

He then drops his accent and regal dialect and confides in her that he used to be a zoo keeper and acted in community theater pre-zombie apocalypse. He saved Shiva and together they arrived at this community where he played the part of King Ezekiel because he felt that this is what the people needed. He asks her to stay but understands if she wants to leave. He makes a proposition: “You can leave and not leave.”

Morgan escorts her back to that house from the beginning of the episode. She kills the lady zombie inhabitant and sets up shop. As she’s settling in there’s a knock on the door. She hears the purring of a large cat. She opens the door to find King Ezekiel and Shiva. He’s brought a housewarming gift: a pomegranate. Carol smiles. Hmmmmm could this be a budding romance?

Ezekiel is great! Here is a guy who just wants to help and take care of people. The opposite of Negan. He also seeks the peaceful way. The opposite of Rick. I can see Morgan becoming a believer in this place which means it will be destroyed!

SIDE BITES

I really like Robert, the head of security for The Kingdom. He is going to come in handy when the time comes.

Pomegranates are known as known as the “fruit of the dead” in Greek mythology.

The Kingdom choir “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” by Bob Dylan.

5 Things I Think I Know

1 Ezekiel and Carol are going to become a thing.  Sorry Carol-Daryl shippers!

2 Morgan will start using his gun again when Ben gets killed.

3 Shiva is going to kill many Saviors! (before being destroyed!)

4 Robert is the new Abraham

5 We will hear more from The Kingdom Chior. What will they sing next?

I liked “The Well” and I liked Ezekiel and the new community. It was a nice light visit after last week and before next week where we delve into Negan’s lair and the torture of Daryl. Look for Swight to become a major player in things to come.

“You got any stories, friend? Old Bill

Ford is back in the basement talking to ‘Old Bill’ again. Just as Bernie likes talking with Delores, Ford likes talking to ‘Old Bill’. But Ford isn’t into what Bill thinks. He uses him more as therapist he can talk to about himself. He tells Bill a story about the time his father bought his brother and he a greyhound, a racing dog. The dog was raised to chase a piece of felt around a track but they never get to catch it. One day his brother let the dog off his leash just as the dog spied a cat. The dog took off like a flash after that cat. Only this time the greyhound caught its prey and to the horror of everyone watching, ripped that cat to pieces. It had spent its life chasing that piece of felt and now that it had caught it but had no idea what to do afterwards. Obviously, this is a metaphor for the hosts, especially Delores and Maeve. They have been in their story loops for so long and now they are going off on their own. What will they do? Whatever it is, destruction will most certainly be included.

DELORES

 “Find me” Arnold

“Show me how” Delores

As Delores wanders through a graveyard she hears Arnold’s voice. They are now clearly communicating with each other. William, Logan and Delores arrive at a town that seems as debauched as it gets. It’s aptly named ‘Pariah’.

When they finally get to meet El Lazo he turns out to be Lawrence. They are tasked to steal a shipment of nitro from some Union soldiers to give to the confederates. Delores wants to do it without killing anyone but Logan starts trouble. William ends up having to kill all the union soldiers on the wagon.

That night they all celebrate in a brothel right out of Eyes Wide Shut. Delores wanders into a room where a gypsy woman will read her tarot cards. Delores draws a card and it has a picture of The Maze on it. She looks at the gypsy woman and it has become her. “The Maze.  You must follow The Maze.”

She runs outside to see El Lazo filing up a dead body with the nitro and replacing the nitro with tequila. The old switcheroo! She tells William that they have to leave but the confederate soldiers discover the switch and take Logan in custody. Logan yells out for help but William decides to leave him. Logan almost looks proud of him as he is beaten.

William decides not to help him and he and Delores run but come across the general and some men. William tries to kill them but gets overtaken. Delores ends up killing them all.

The catch a moving train headed out of town. El Lazo is on it with the dead body filled with Nitro. They come to a guarded truce.  “Now that we’re friends, you can call me Lawrence.” William and Lawrence share a drink while Delores looks at the coffin that has the nap of The Maze on it.

“I’m coming” Delores says to the unseen Arnold.

In the middle of all this Delores ends up back in the lab with Ford. She is naked this time.

“Tell me Delores do you remember the man I used to be? Ford.

“I’m sure you remember Arnold, the man who created you?”

“What was the last thing he said to you?”

“He said that I was going to help him. Help him destroy this place.” Delores

Once Ford leaves Delores says, seemingly to the unseen Arnold, “He doesn’t know.” I didn’t tell him anything.

These scenes between Delores and Bernie and now with Ford seem odd. Could these be some sort of telepathy sessions? They can’t really be pulling her out of the park.

MAN IN BLACK

“As a friend of mine used to say, “there’s a path for everyone.  Your path leads you back to me.”  Black

Teddy seems near death so Blackie comes up with an idea. He slits Lawrence’s throat and hangs him up by his feet, draining blood into a bag which then uses as a transfusion to keep Teddy alive. Did he just make him drink the blood? Yuck! He tells Teddy that Wyatt has Delores and that triggers his protect and save Delores mode. He finds new strength to carry o the hunt for Wyatt.

Black and Teddy stop off at a cantina for a drink and lo and behold! Ford shows up to pour them! This is the first time Blackie looks surprised by anything. “How am I doing Robert?” he asks Ford.

They must know each other from the very beginning. Blackie takes his knife and threatens Ford but Teddy stops him. He’s programmed to protect Ford. Black asks Ford if he came there to talk him out of seeking The Maze but Ford has no intention of that. “Far be it from me to get in the way of a journey of self discovery,” Ford tells them and then goes on his way.

How can Ford just show up like that? How far is the main facility from the park?

MAEVE

Maeve ends up in the lab for repairs again and is brought before the same lab techs that worked on her before. The younger one, Felix is freaked out about seeing her again; of course he must see her in repairs constantly.

Felix has been trying to reanimate a dead bird and finally succeeds. The bird flies around the lab room and to his shock and horror lands on the now awake and upright Maeve’s finger.

 “Hello Felix. It’s time we had a little chat.”

SIDE BYTES

Logan tells William that Arnold killed himself.

Elsie bribes her way into examining the stray host before it is to be incinerated. She discovers a mini satellite imbedded in its arm. She tells Bernie:

‘Someone has been using the stray to smuggle data out of the park.”

Delores has really changed. She’s gone from put upon farmer’s daughter to gunslinger. Has Ford reprogrammed her as he did with Teddy?  Is her change just part of Ford’s new narrative?

You now have Lawrence, William and Delores, Blackie and Teddy all looking for Wyatt. What happens when they confront each other?

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Maeve will have Felix reprogram her. She will change her loop just as Delores has.

2 Delores is using William.

3 Logan is still playing a game. William is starting to believe the stakes are real. I think William will actually kill Logan.

4 Arnold is still alive. He’s at the center of The Maze.

5 Lee Sizemore, the British narrative director must be the one sneaking data out of the park.