Monthly Archives: May 2018

Shogun World is here! So many new revelations, big and small. No Man In Black in this one and that’s ok. This is Maeve’s episode with a couple of significant Delores/Wyatt scenes.

The PRESENT

Strand and Hale are doing clean up. Clearing the human bodies from the Mesa control center and dragging the seas for host bodies. They are removing their brains to try and see what happened but a third of them are completely empty, ‘virgin’. They trying to recalibrate them to be under their control again. We see Teddy’s dead body lying on the heap. But who killed him? Per my last blog entry I’m thinking Delores but……..

DELORES/WYATT

“This place was never home, Teddy” Delores

Delores and Teddy return to Sweetwater. She wants to get the train working again so they can go after daddy. They go into the bordello and zombie Clem meets the new Clem and even seems to be mouthing her old lines along with new Clem. There’s some hint of ‘life’ in there yet.

“You can’t tell me that somewhere out there in all that beauty there isn’t a spot for us” Teddy tells Delores. “You’re a kind man”, she tells him and then they make love, I believe for the very first time. All seems good until Delores leads him to a place where she has Teddy held against his will as she instructs her human tech turn up the ‘mean’ settings on him. You see where they’re headed she doesn’t need a kind man. She needs one that will be ruthless and do as he’s told. Poor Teddy.

SHOGUN WORLD

“That’s not supposed to happen” Sizemore

Maeve and her troupe are confronted by some samurai. Maeve tries to control them like she controls all other hosts (except Delores) but it doesn’t work. She used English and they didn’t understand her. But Siemore tells them that they have the ability to understand and speak several languages, they just need to access it which Maeve does.

As they are brought into town it all seems so familiar. Then you get it. This is Shogun World’s version of Sweetwater. Musachi is Shogun Hector, there is a Shogun Armistace complete with snake tattoo. Akane is Shogun Maeve and Sakura is Shogun Clem. They proceed to act out the safe robbery scenario we saw a few times in Season 1. Maeve actually gets upset with Sizemore, complaining that he took THEIR storylines and used them with other hosts. It’s hard to come up with fresh new stories!

“I think I’m finding a new voice.”  Maeve

There is a terrific action sequence with attacking ninjas versus both sets of Hectors. Armistaces and Maeves. Maeve keeps trying to use her voice commands but keeps getting her moth covered or being choked! This is when she finds a new trick. Telepathy Command. She uses telepathy to issue commands to the ninjas culminating in getting one ninja to impale his eye onto a knife. The attack did result in the kidnapping of Sakura however who the Shogun had asked for and been refused.

When the Shogun’s army comes back Maeve asks Musashi to buy her some time so that Her, Akane, Sizemore, Sylvester and Felix can get away and go to meet with the Shogun. Maeve has a plan. On the way to see the Shogun, Sizemore runs across a dead Delos security guard and grans his walkie talkie. Let’s see how this comes into play in the future.

Once they meet with the Shogun Maeve’s voice commands do no work on him. We can see “brain juice” leaking from his ear so he’s in full malfunction mode. Akane and Sakura are prepared to dance but all of a sudden, the Shogun kills Sakura! Akane starts her dance and just as you notice what was that hair piece holding up her bun she pulled a knife from it and proceeded to cut off the Shogun’s head!!! Yowza! That even shocked Maeve!

Maeve then was able to use her telepathy to get the Shogun’s army to turn on each other. But once they had all killed each other another army of warriors was rushing the compound! Maeve raise her samurai sword above her head and prepared herself as the episode ended.  Awesome finish!

SIDE BYTES

I have been travelling for the last 10 days so I fell behind an episode so no predictions on this recap. I’ll be looking at Episode 6 today! I’m curious to see what Teddy has become after Delores has changed his settings!

“You live only as long as the last person who remembers you.” Ghost Nation Indian

The opening of this episode kind of reminded me of the the season two premiere episode of LOST where we see Desmond in the Hatch going through his daily routine. Here we see James Delos doing his daily routine in a lovely apartment while listening to The Rolling Stones Play With Fire on the turntable.

He is visited by younger William so we know this is long past. The scene ends early with William putting a document down on the table for Delos to look at.

We keep coming back to this scene only at different times in the past until the William that comes to visit hm becomes the William of the present. It turns out the main reason Delos invested in the park from the beginning was in the hope of living forever. Since his death they have been trying to transfer his essence, his mind into a host body made from his DNA. The document was the script of their conversation that had been programmed for him. Each time they have tried the Delos Host malfunctions and they burn him and the entire room to a cinder. Why? Why not just shut the Delos Host down and reuse the apartment?

On William’s final visit to the Delos Host he tells him that his wife is dead, Logan overdosed years ago, his daughter, and William’s wife, committed suicide. The latest version represented the 149th time they tried to revive him and has lasted 35 days before malfunctioning and that one day, in a couple more years they might get it right. But they’re not going to keep trying to perfect Delos as no one is around that remembers him anyway and the memory of him is better than he ever was in reality.

“The world is better off without you Jim and possibly without me” William says.

This time, however, William tells he tech not to burn the room and allow the Delos Host decay and study it.

The timeline indicates that this last visit happened just before William returns to Westworld for the last time, in the series premiere.

MAN IN BLACK

“Death is always true.” Man In Black

Meanwhile, back to the past, two weeks in the past, William and Lawrence arrive in Lawrence’s hometown to be greeted by Major Craddock and the other confederados that Teddy allowed to escape. They want the weapons they know are hidden in the town. Lawrence tells MIB where they are and MIB immediately tells Craddock in an attempt to make a deal to be allowed to go. Well Craddock and his men are animals and like to kill people for fun. When Craddock decides to have some fun with Lawrence’s wife it triggers something in MIB. Craddock starts dancing with the wife just like MIB did in Season 1 right before he coldly killed her. This time, MIB seems to have sympathy for her. he flashes to finding his wife dead in the bathtub. He decides to stop Craddock and kills him and his men.

As he prepares to move on, Lawrence and some of his cousins offer to go along as thanks for saving their lives. Lawrence’s daughter, channeling Ford, I assume, speaks to William.

“They may not remember but I know who you are, William. One good deed doesn’t change that. And you still don’t understand the real game we’re playing here. If you’re looking forward then you’re looking in the wrong direction”

BERNARD

“Is this now?” Bernard

Clementine drags Bernard to a cave and leaves him to find a still alive Elsie! Bernard hadn’t killed her but just left her manacled in the cave with some energy bars and a bucket! She’s understandably pissed. But she doesn’t kill him and instead Bernard reveals to her that he is a host.

“You rotated out. Where did you go when you rotated out? You have a family. You have a wife. You have a … backstory.” Elsie

Good question. Did Ford just put him in storage? Or is that when he worked on secret projects, secret even to him. This may be the case as Bernard remembers a secret lab within the cave. They did several lab techs dead as well as some drone host. One was still alive but Elsie kills it. Bernard keeps having pieces of memories coming back to him.

“I’ve been here recently.” he says, “They weren’t building host, not exactly”

They hear a noise coming from behind a locked door. When they break in they find the Delos Host and his glass booth apartment. The place is bathed in red light, the lab tech is dead and Delos is on his exercise bike, still running through his program. He’s gone made, though, his face all cut up from self inflicted wounds. Elsie is unable to kill him so Bernard steps in to keep Delos from killing Elsie.

“If you aim to cheat the devil you owe him an offering” James Delos

Elsie executes the termination program that sets the room on fire. Obviously, representing hell. Bernard remembers Ford sent him there to print a control unit for another human. Who? Ford?

He also remembers having the drone hosts kill the techs then snapping their own necks, save for the one Elsie kills. Bernard also finished off one of the techs himself with a nasty ‘curb stomp’. he doesn’t share this info with Elsie, of course.

ANOTHER REUNION

“Hi dad”  Emily

The woman we met last week who had the tussle with the bengal tiger is back. She’s been captured by members of the Ghost Nation who also have Stubbs and several other guests. Stubbs tells her that help is on the way but she is not waiting around. She also tells him she doesn’t want to get out of the park. as I suspected, she has a plan of her own. When they are all brought before ‘the first of their kind” she makes a run for it. It seemed too easy but then the head of the tribe whispers in Stubbs ear, “You live only as long as the last person who remembers you.” and all the indians disappear. It seemed like part of Ford’s game was to allow her to escape.

As MIB, Lawrence and his cousins ride across the prairie they see someone riding towards them, a woman, the woman who just escaped the indian party. And just as I called it! She’s MIB’s daughter!, Emily!

SIDE BYTES

The host that was the head of Ghost Nation is also the host that met with Logan and introduced him to Angela in the season premiere. You also noticed that Major Craddock was at that cocktail party demonstration as well.

The husband and wife prisoners that were shown with Emily as guests from episode one! He actually became a hero by killing Hector during their safe robbery.

Great scene having Major Craddock force fed some nitro and Lawrence shooting him and blowing him up!

Loved James Delos (Peter Mullan) performance in this episode and especially his dancing!  Nice one!

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 That little ball / control unit Bernard put in his pocket is Ford
2 Emily will not kill ‘dad’
3 We haven’t seen the last of James Delos
4 Bernard will kill Elsie – for real this time
5 Strand and Stubbs will re-activate the hosts found dead in the sea and program them to fight the other hosts

People, are you confused? Are you getting lost? Are you angry because the new episodes are not like the old episodes? Hang in there! As far as I can make out, there was only one scene in this episode that took place in the ‘present’; that was early on when Strand, Stubbs and Bernard reach the Central Control Center and find Charlotte Hale. Charlotte is surprised to see that Bernard made it and confirms that Peter Abernathy is still on the loose. The rest of the episode takes place ‘two weeks ago’. It seems that the season will play out what happened directly after Ford is killed by Delores and culminate with what is happening in the ‘present’.

INDIA WORLD

“Hunting? Bengals?”

We are introduced to a new park. India World I call it. I hear that officially it’s called “The Raj”. This is a version of colonial India apparently. A beautiful and insolent young woman is approached by a handsome fellow and soon they are back in her boudoir and engaged in a heavy make out session But then she hits pause and picks up a gun. She needs to know if this guy is human or not. If he is then being shot will not kill him, it will just sting a little. Good news for her that her shot only stung him.

They head out on elephant on safari to hunt Bengals. But when they reach the camp she notices something strange, Where are the hosts that should be there as the cooks and assistants? Where are the other guests? Soon enough she finds some dead guests and their own guide turns on them. Her new paramour is killed and she runs for her life. Once she thinks she’s safe she is confronted by a hungry bengal tiger! She runs and seems to reach the edge of the park. She finds herself on top of a cliff overlooking an ocean. She reloads her gun and as the tiger leaps on her she shoots but the booth go over the edge and fall into the ocean.

We can put together that this is the dead bengal that is found by Strand, Stubbs and Bernard in Episode 1. We see a scene toward the end of the episode that confirms it. Also, the young woman survives and is fond by a band of Indians.

I think this woman is The Man In Black’s daughter, Emily. She seems very confident and cynical and knowledgeable which I’m sure stems from her father’s tutoring. Also she has a moleskin notebook with a map she references. What is she looking for?

DELORES, TEDDY AND THE CONFERADOS

“There is beauty in what we are; shouldn’t we too try to survive?” Delores

Bernard and Hale find Abernathy and try to snag him before the Confederates capture him but no luck. Hale escapes with her life but Bernard gets captured as well.

They’re brought back to Fort Forlorn Hope where Delores has struck a deal with the Colonel to join forces in order to survive the oncoming assault from Hale and her security team.

Delores tries to talk to Abernathy who she still sees as her father but he is all messed up. It’s a very moving scene. He recognizes her for awhile and slips back into his She asks Bernard to help and he discovers that the company has installed a complex encryption in his system. Whatever it is is what they were trying to sneak out. Abernathy keeps saying he needs to get to the train which was what he was programmed to to. While Bernard tries to sort out Abernathy, Hale and her security team attack the fort. Delores is in charge and that turns out to be bad news for the colonel and his men. She uses them as fodder her actual plan which was to lure the security team to the fort’s gates and then blow them up with the nitro that was buried beneath them.

Hale also had a good plan. She and a few men infiltrate the fort from the back and grab Abernathy. Delores and Teddy try to stop them but they get away with Abernathy.

Delores asks/orders Teddy to kill the remaining Confederados including Major Craddock but Teddy could not do it and instead lets them all escape. This really disappoints Delores.

MAEVE, HECTOR AND SIZEMORE

“She has a dragon!” Hector

Our odd trio run into trouble with some Indians. (Lots of Indians in this episode!) Luckily, Sizemore knows where the underground facilities are and they find one. While down there Sizemore and Hector get in a tiff. Sizemore can’t understand why Hector and Maeve are together, that is now what was programmed. Hector is supposed to be heartsick over the love of his life. It turns out that Sizemore wrote in his own real life heartache into Hector’s storyline. Maeve intuitively sees that Hector is who Sizemore wishes he was. They’re trying to humanize Sizemore and make him more likable. We’ll see,

We also see more reunions! Armistice is back and with a wicked awesome cyborg arm! And Felix and Sylvester! Maeve’s motley crew is

SHOGUN WORLD

The episode ends with Maeve and company entering a forest when a light snow begins to fall. Sizemore at first thinks they’ve entered the Klondike narrative but after digging into a pile of snow and finding the head of an asian man with a helmet he realizes he was wrong. All of a sudden your hear a scream and the gang is confronted by a samurai!!!!

SIDE BYTES

Bernard is still glutting pretty badly. He needs some more brain juice.

Why are some guns able to kill real people and some aren’t? Is there a button you can push that activate bullets to be real?

I’ve seen that the woman’s name in the opening sequence is ‘Grace’ but I still think it’s William’s daughter Emily.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Maeve will lead an army of samurai to aid Delores
2 What’s in Abernathy has something to do with Man In Black’s secret place. Delores called it a ‘weapon”
3 Logan Delos is still alive.
4 Sizemore will become a good fighter!
5 More sure now that Delores will kill Teddy.

“A strange new light can be just as frightening as the dark.” Delores

I know a lot of people were confused by the season premiere. It did present a lot of know information as well as two different time lines. Well, Episode Two puts the pedal to the metal and it’s full stream ahead with additional timelines and incredible new information about the real intention of the Delos Corporation investing in the park. And much, much more.

Timeline 1 – Before the opening of The Park – Estimate 35+ years Ago

Arnold and Ford made a presentation to Logan Delos in order to get the Delos Corporation to make an investment. They bring Angela and Delores to the mainland for this. So Delores has seen the outside world! Arnold shows her the house he’s building for his family so his son Charlie is still alive. Arnold mentions that he’s building the house to have his family closer to the park so this place most be Hong Kong or Thailand?

“It looks like the stars have been scattered across the ground. Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor?” Delores

Delores is astounded about this world and you can see she’s very evolved already at this point but her improvisational skills are not yet developed. Arnold is very protective of Delores, obviously his favorite and tells Ford she’s not ready to be the main attraction in the demo for Logan so they use Angela instead. Logan, of course, is very impressed and sleeps with Angela as part of the ‘demo’. Arnold did not want to use Delores in this way.

Timeline 2 – After the opening of The Park – Estimate 30 Years Ago

We see another glimpse of the past. William and James Delos are in the park. Teddy and Delores are frozen in front of them on the streets of Sweetwater. William makes his pitch to Delos on why investing in Westworld is good business. William sells the idea that the guests are the most important thing to consider. They will make them believe that they can do what they please there and no one will know but in fact, they will keep tabs on all the guests actions in the park to be used for other purposes.

Estimate 25 or so Years Ago

We see a retirement party at the Delos mansion a few years later. Delos is obviously sick and William is poised to take over. Delores has been brought in as the entertainment, to play the piano at the party. Delores runs into Logan by the pool and we see that he has become a junkie. But he insinuates to Delores that William and his father have made a mistake with The Park and that it will all come down around them. We also see William’s wife and young daughter, Emily. Emily approaches Delores and says she’s beautiful. Who does Emily grow up to be?

“You really are just a thing. I can’t believe I fell in love with you” William

The last scene we see from the past is so sad. William has Delores in what seems to be the main control center we’re all familiar with. He can now see that she is not real and just a ’thing’. But his adventure with her has focused him on himself and he shows her a part of the park that is under construction that represents his master plan.

The things is that Present Day Delores remembers ALL of this now. Everything that was said in front of her and shown to her that they thought would be wiped clean from her memory she has retained.

Timeline 3 – The Aftermath of Ford being shot – Estimate Two Weeks Ago

Delores, Teddy, Angela and their cohorts arrive at the Control Center. Teddy finally faces what they are and what has been done with them. He is shown is past which is many pictures of the many times he’s been killed. Delores enlist one of the few remaining technicians to join them on their quest for the ‘valley beyond”. She has the tech bring back to life a confederate soldier.

“Revenge is just a different prayer and altar, darling and I’m well off my knees. “ Maeve

They run into Maeve, Hector and Sizemore. Is this the reunion of the title? They remember each other though both are very different these days. Delores wants Maeve to come with them but Maeve has her own plans and since they are both free she asks Delores to let her pass. Delores does so, reluctantly.

Delores uses the reanimated Confederate soldier to make contact with a small band of soldiers in order have them lead her to the entire army. The army she needs to get to wherever she’s going. These guys, of course, have no use for a woman and so Delores, Teddy and Angela have to kill them all then she has the tech bring them back to life. Point made. God is dead. Now they have Delores.

“Glory, the valley beyond. Seems like everyone’s got a different name for it, but they’re all bound for the same destination.” Teddy

Meanwhile William needs allies of his own and he finds his old friend Lawrence, hanging upside down above an ant hill. William shoots the three fellas that were planning on torturing Lawrence. But one of them isn’t dead and attacks William. Lawrence manages to swing his way over to a gun and save William who just has to laugh out loud. “Death isn’t what it used to be, Lawrence.” he says.

They head to a little cantina where William punches a hole in the wall and pulls out a modern first aid kit to heal his wounds. Sure its breaking the rules but since Ford has changed all the rules it doesn’t matter. He tells Lawrence that they are all free but that the ‘whole enterprise is going up in flames and they’ll all be dead soon, real life dead.” William tells Lawrence:

“They wanted a place hidden from God. A place they could sin in peace. But we were watching them. We were tallying up all their sins, all their choices. Of course judgement wasn’t the point. We had something else in mind entirely.”

“We’re headed to the pearly gates, don’t we need to die to get there?” Lawrence asks.

“Nope, three days due West” William says. But they will have to go through Pariah and hundreds of Federales. So they go to pariah and William tries to enlist the character Lawrence used to play long ago – El Lazo. And what a surprise to see Gus Fring himself or should I say Giancarlo Esposito is now El Lazo. William tries to convince him and his men to join him but it was not to be.

“This game was meant for you, William but you must play it alone.”

And all his men point their guns to their own heads and shoot, including El Lazo. What a great cameo! Ford is still pulling the strings, it seems.

William tells Lawrence that “This place we’re going is my mistake”
But he showed Delores things place all those years ago and so she is headed there as well. She tells Teddy that the place their headed to is a weapon and that she is going to use it to destroy them.

SIDE BYTES

Well, hell. What did William build and how can Delores use it to destroy the humans. Did William and Delos set up a place that was cloning real people?

Is William looking to destroy this facility? It must be more because whatever he plans to do it will bring down the whole park. All the parks?

I loved seeing the helicopter arrive above Sweetwater. The more the show lets you see of the inner workings the more mysteries it creates.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 I think there are more timelines being presented than we understand.
2 I think we’re going to see Bernard’s son Charlie meet Delores
3 The Valley Beyond / Glory / The Pearly Gates – all elude to Heaven. Could it just be Shogun World?
4 Felix is with Armistice somewhere!
5 Delores will kill Teddy