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A lot of info coming out in these first post- Rick episodes! We’re still getting to know the newbies but also getting the blanks filled in about what has happened to our regulars in the last six years.

The cold open is one the best and creepiest the show has done. We see Rosita scrambling through the forest, as if being chased. She’s bloody and scared and keeps hearing voices. Eugene is not with her! What happened to him? Are these walkers really chasing her? She runs out of steam and passes out! Opening credits!

One thing I forgot to mention about last weeks episode was the big scar in the shape of an X on Michonne’s back. In this episode, we see that Daryl has a similar scar on the same part of his back along with multiple other scars that look like he had been whipped. Did they meet up with another villainous group during those six years? How many others have these scars in their backs?  Does this have anything to do with the seemingly bad blood between Michonne and Maggie and why Michonne hasn’t seemed to have left Alexandria in a long time and don’t go to The Hilltop? Will we get any of these answers in the mid-season finale? I’m thinking, no.

THE HILLTOP

Maggie is gone. Jesus got a letter from her and she and Little Hershel are well, don’t worry. They’re with Georgie! Wherever she is. Meanwhile, Jesus has been voted the new leader, a role he is not eager to take. Tara has taken on the job of his second in command which, for now, means she’s taking care of everything.

There’s a great scene between a Jesus and Aaron where Aaron surprises Jesus by knocking him off his horse and doing combat. It reminded me of Cato and Inspector Clouseau going at it in the Pink Panther films! Jesus is trading him but could there be more than combat training on their minds?

Before any shenanigans could happen they find Rosita. She tells them she left Eugene in a barn but she first remember where. They take her back to Hilltop then plan to go back out to search for Eugene.

DARYL THE WOODSMAN (AND DOG)

“Look, I know you still think I’m lookin’ for him. Never found a body. Ever. After a while it just got easier to stay out.” Daryl

Carol and Henry find Daryl and he takes them to his camp. he seems rather annoyed that they’re there. He has a pet dog he calls ‘Dog’ who brings him the hand of a walker he’s found. Good boy! Carol wants Daryl to go to Hilltop to look after Henry who wants to learn to be a smith. Daryl is not keen on the idea. He likes being alone. He’s still looking for Rick. They never found a body. So sad! Carol gives him a haircut and I mean that literally, she only cut a few hairs.

Henry is not impresses with this vagabond that his mom speaks so highly of. Later that night, however, they have a bit of an adventure, rescuing Dog from some walkers stuck in the mud. Of course, Carol was in the shadows with her bow and arrow just in case they needed some help. They have a heart to heart and Henry tells Daryl that his mom misses him and worries about him. In the morning, Daryl agrees to go to Hilltop and mentor the young squire.

THE ROAD TO HILLTOP

“I know what it’s like to worry about your family. Carry the burden of protecting them. To feel guilt when they suffer.” Michonne

Michonne won’t let Magna and the newbies stay at Alexandria but has agreed to escort them to Hilltop. She may admit that she likes them but she still doesn’t trust them. She also refuses to go all the way to Hilltop. It seems that her and Maggie had some sort of falling out. Sadiq tells her that Maggie has left to work with Georgie so she shouldn’t stay away from Hilltop. I wonder what the falling out was over and if it has anything to do with those mysterious scars on her back?

They take the newbies back to their camp and find that all of their friends had been killed and now walkers. They gather what they can of their belongings and continue on. Machine confiscates their weapons though and won’t let them have them back. Trust is a tough nut to crack. We find that Luke has been collecting musical instruments. He believes that part of rebuilding civilization is art, music. This leads to a tense moment that turns out to be funny and tragic! In the middle of the night Michonne hears something. I was thinking it was going to turn out to be Eugene but she finds Luke hovering over something. She takes out her katana and tells him to turn around and when he does she sees he’s holding something so she strikes! Turns out he was holding a violin and she has sliced it in two. It was the stradivarius. Bummer.

In the morning they wake to find a herd of walkers coming their way. Machine lets them have their weapons back and they all handle themselves well, except Luke, who grabs his bag of instruments instead. Unfortunately, one of the walkers is Magna’s boyfriend who was easily spotted due to the paisley shirt he always would wear to annoy her. Michonne handled killing him with sensitivity by not just slicing his head into but gently stabbing him in the back of the neck. Magna was a sobbing mess. Michonne was very sympathetic because she understands that kind of loss.

Once they got back on the road they are approached by two men in horseback wearing Kingdom-style armor. One of them looked like the Man of La Mancha and he told them that they had found one of their people, Rosita and she was safe at The Hilltop.

Carol, Daryl and Henry arrive at Hilltop ahead of Michonne. It was a very warm reunion for everyone. But as soon as they arrive daryl rides off with Jesus and Aaron to look for Eugene.

Looks like next week’s mid-season finale is going to be a nail biter! TWD has gotten scary again!

SIDE BITES

Michael Cudlitz (Abraham) made his directorial debut with this episode. He did an excellent job! Andrew Lincoln also plans to come back to direct future episodes!

Did anyone catch C. Thomas Howell in this episode? he was the Man of La Mancha guy that greets Michonne and company on the road and tells them about Rosita.

If anyone watch Talking Dead after the episode you saw a very stoned out of his mind Gary Fogler (Luke). He was hilarious and Michael Cudlitz could not stop laughing!

Special surprise guest on Talking Dead was Madison Lintz who played Sophia! Sophia is all grown up! She shared the couch with her brother Matt Lintz who now plays Henry.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 Michonne will arrive at a Hilltop and we will find out what the bad blood between her and Maggie is.

2 Enid and Henry sitting in a tree! Oh it’s happening!

3 Well now that Connie is staying at Hilltop and not Alexandria  thinking she can become Tara’s new love interest

4 I think Daryl and Luke will be a great comic pairing!

5 Special unknown guest of Talking Dead next week means one thing; someone’s gonna die! I’m thinking it will be Aaron!

So much to say! This episode was more like the first episode of a new show. Rick is gone but it looks like Michonne is still seriously grieving. The show leaps ahead six years and from what I can tell they have been peaceful years. Alexandria looks like a whole new place with a windmill and new buildings.
Oh, and Michonne has a son! His name is RJ aka Rick Grimes Jr.! Wow!

Judith is 10 now and she wears Rick/Carl’s hat, Rick’s gun and a mini katana. Everyone looks after her like a golden goose. She is, after all, Rick Grimes’ daughter. She’s gone out and saved a group of strangers and brought them back to Alexandria. This is something Carl would have and did do in the past. Michonne is not happy about this. She’s the leader now, though they have a Community Council, she’s still the final word on anything. The newbies are an interesting crew: Magna (Nadia Hilker), the leader, Luke (Dan Fogler), the new comic relief, Connie (Lauren Ridloff) and Kelly (Angel Theory) are a pair of sisters. They communicate with sign language as Connie is deaf. They are brought before the council and make their case for being allowed to stay and we get to know a little about each of them in the process. Michonne is against it at first but relents in the end. She doesn’t trust them but does she have reason not to?

We see an older Grace who calls Aaron ‘daddy’. Judith likes to hang out with Negan in the afternoons while she does her math homework. He’s very sweet with her and she treats him like a kind bear join the zoo she likes to visit. She’s sassy but I don’t find her too precocious.

I wasn’t prepared to see father Gabriel making out with Rosita. What the hell? The padre has gotten more action than anyone else in the apocalypse! You can see Eugene is unhappy about this because he’s in love with Rosita. Who wouldn’t be? So we have a good old fashioned romantic triangle brewing though I never expected it to be between this trio. Father Gabriel sends Eugene and Rosita on a mission to set up a relay for the radio to try and strengthen the signal. This is when they get taken by surprise by a herd of walkers. There seem to be a lot more herds of walkers roaming the countryside than ever before!

Eugene was prepared to sacrifice himself to save Rosita and almost professed his love but instead they both hide by the side of the road and cover themselves with mud while the herd passes. Things get really creepy when they overhear one of the walkers speak! “Don’t let them get away!” My guess is these aren’t walkers but actually the new big bad, The Whisperers which is taken from the comics. They disguise themselves as walkers and lord knows what awful things they are up to.

THE KINGDOM

Meanwhile, life looks pretty serene at the Kingdom. Long, grey haired Carol is happily married to King Ezekiel and raising Henry as they own son. Henry is as ornery as ever! he dares back sass the King!

While on the road back home Carol and Henry get hijacked by a group of Saviors, the same ones that confronted Carol 6 years back at Tent City. They take their supplies and even take Carol’s wedding ring! Henry can’t believe that Carol would allow them to do this without a fight! But don’t worry, later that night, Carol sneaks up on these Saviors, gets her ring back and sets them all on fire! It’s good to see that she hasn’t tapered off!

SIDE BITES

I love Carol’s new long white hair. Very sexy!

Michonne has a hot new hairdo too!

Daryl is now living in the woods all by himself. Rick’s death must have hit him hard.

Machine talks to Rick when she’s alone. Rick used to talk to Lori on an old telephone after she was killed in Season Three.

Matt Lintz who plays Henry is the brother of Madison Lintz who played Sophia and Macsen Lintz who played young Henry.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 The new people probably know about the Whisperers, perhaps had run into them before.

2 Magna will become Michonne’s “Daryl”

3 Connie and Saddiq will become a cute couple!

4 Eugene and Rosita become a couple in the comics but its hard to see on the show unless Father Gabriel gets knocked off.

5 I have a feeling we will keep having helicopter sightings.

“It feels like it’s ending.” Rick Grimes

Well, I called it! The helicopter came in and swooped up our hero like a deus ex machine and flew him to safety! We think. We don’t know who these people are or what they plan to do with Rick. What we do know, courtesy of Scott M. Gimple, is that Andrew Lincoln has agreed to do a trio of Rick Grimes films that will reveal what happened to him. Could these ‘others’ be working on a cure? Could Rick Grimes fly in at the end of the series (when that time comes) and bring the cure? Wouldn’t that be something?

I was dreading how TWD was going to deal with losing Rick Grimes. It looked bad at the end of last week’s episode but Rick pulled himself off that rebar and mounted that white steed! He managed to stay alert just barely enough to keep from being bit and eaten, all the while, having a fever dream and being listed by the ghosts of seasons past.

“I’m looking for my family” Rick

First up was Shane. So great to see Jon Bernthal back and seeing those two back in uniform and in their old cruiser having lunch. But they speak to each other with full knowledge of all that has happened through the present. Shane even goes there regarding Judith:

“Oh is that what you’re doing? Looking for your family, huh? See that’s not entirely the truth. One could argue it’s my family that you’re looking for, right? How is my baby girl, by the way? She’s got my eyes, doesn’t she?”

They have great chemistry in the scene and Shane takes credit for making Rick an asshole, the kind of asshole that was needed to survive.

Next up he is visited by a clean shaven Hershel. They meet in the barn and Hershel calls him over to look at this beautiful sunset. They share a deeply felt hug. We’ve all missed Hershel. Rick apologizes for losing Beth and Glenn and for the pain he’s caused Maggie but Hershel tells him that Maggie is strong and he doesn’t need to worry about her. It was bittersweet to see the late Scott Wilson in his last performance. He was always such a calming presence and the epitome of humanity. Rest in peace, Scott Wilson.

“I’m tired, Hershel. My family… maybe I can find them here.” Rick
“No rick, you have to wake up.” Hershel

Then Rick finds himself in the hospital again, the one he was in at the very beginning when he woke up from that coma. He walks down the hall towards the double doors with the warning “Don’t Open – Dead Outside”. He opens the door and walks through and finds himself walking through a massive pile of bodies, bodies of all those he loved. Sasha pops up and offers comforting words.

“They’re all dead” Rick
“Yes and it’s ok.” Sasha
“How can this be ok?” Rick

Sasha tells him that he did his part and that everyone did their part. They gave each other strength and passed it on. She was like an angel in this scene, giving Rick some peace of mind.

“Little things do end. But it’s never the end of everything. Because we don’t die. It’s not about you, or me, or any one of us. It’s about all of us.” Sasha

MAGGIE

“I came to kill Negan. And you’re already worse than dead. That settles it.” Maggie

Maggie arrives at Alexandria to get her justice. Michonne meets her at the door of Negan’s cell. She tries to stop her but Maggie convinces her to let her pass. It’s a short but powerful scene. Negan isn’t surprised to see her and wonders why it took her so long. He does what Negan does best, taunts her by talking about how much pleasure he got from bashing Glenn’s head in. Maggie keeps yelling at him to get on his knees. Soon he is telling her to do it.

She drags him out of the cell and throws him against the wall. He is reduced to a blubbering pathetic fool. He wants her to put him out of his misery so he can be with his wife, Lucille. She realizes that he’s not worth killing. He’ll suffer more staying in that cell. When she comes out, her and Michonne are alerted to a problem at the bridge. Off they go for the grand finale.

THE BRIDGE

“I found them.” Rick Grimes

After his vision with Sasha, Rick falls off his horse and finds himself back at Tent City. There are a bunch of walkers there that were part of The Kingdom which indicates that some people were killed in the Carol – Saviors stand off that we saw the beginning of last week. He shoots a few but then the rest of the herd arrives. he makes his way to the bridge. The herd follows. He falls. It looks like the end. Then the cavalry arrives! Daryl and the others start killing those bad walkers while Michonne reaches Rick.

“It’s not over. We don’t die.” Michonne

She tells him that he is a fighter and he needs to fight. Rick realizes that he’s found his family and it’s Michonne, Daryl, Maggie, Eugene, carol, it’s all the people that he’s with. He then realizes something else. “This isn’t real”.

“Yes it is”, Michonne tells him and kisses him. “Now wake up”

No cavalry arrived. He’s on that bridge with hundreds of walkers. The bridge is holding! Just as he’s about to get bit an arrow shoots through the air! It’s Daryl! And it’s Maggie and Michonne and Carol and everyone else! They rush to help Rick but Rick doesn’t want them too. There’s too many walkers and if they cross that bridge they’ll head straight for The Hilltop.

Daryl keeps shooting arrows, killing walkers and buying Rick some time. Then the walkers knock over a crate of dynamite. Rick knows what he has to do. He raises his gun and fires. The bridge blows up and Rick with it. He saved his family.

The pain on Michonne’s face is gut wrenching as Maggie and Carol hold her. Seeing Daryl cry is always sad. He just turns and walks away, stunned.

THE HELICOPTER

“I’m trying to save a friend who saved me.” Jadis

Jades had promised the helicopter that she had an ‘A’, meaning to turn over Father Gabriel but she couldn’t do it. She was planning on overtaking the helicopter by force but as she waited in the clearing she could see the smoke from the explosion on the bridge. She sees the river filled with dead walkers drifting by and then a miracle happened. She sees a barely alive Rick on the river bank. She gets on her walkie talkie and tells them she has a ‘B’! What ‘A’ and ‘B’ mean we don’t know but the helicopter people make the deal to pick her up and her ‘B’. Next thing you know Rick is up in the air, flying to who knows where. Jades is telling him he’s going to live! The helicopter flies out of sight.

BTS, Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 9, Episode 5 – Photo Credit: Jackson Lee Davis/AMC

The scene change indicates some time has passed. We see some new people fending off attacking walkers. They’re surrounded until shots are fired and a path is cleared for them. They run into the woods and see a little girl. They ask her for her name. She picks up a big brown hair from the ground and puts it on. It’s Rick’s hat, The same hat that Carl wore for so many years.

“I’m Judith. Judith Grimes”

A new era begins.

SIDE BITES

The show is making a six year time jump!

Great use of a belt by Rick to pull himself up and off that rebar!

I love the call back scene of Rick riding into Atlanta – this time followed by a herd of walkers.

“She’s got the blade but you got the fire” Negan to Maggie

This episode marks the final episode for Jadis and Maggie. We’ll see Jadis in the Rick Grimes movies. When we see Maggie again will depend on how well her new ABC show does.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 I don’t know what to expect! And that’s a good thing!

2 Negan makes friends with Judith.

3 The Whisperers are coming! Disguised as walkers!

4 Negan will finally be released from his cell in the Mid Season finale!

5 Already looking forward to Rick’s return for the final episodes of the show which I’m thinking will be around 2021

When an episode opened with Rick visiting a graveyard, telling Michonne that she is the leader of Alexandria, makes some baby making morning love and then spends the morning playing with Judith and reading to her from The Wizard of Oz, you know all of this is getting up for the loss of Rick Grimes. It was all he calm before the storm and that storm looks to be pretty intense.

The pre-opening credits scene showed us what happened to Savior Justin and also answered a question I’m sire many of us had; Why do walkers eat some people completely and not others? Well, Savior Justin is lying there dead and being feasted on before those walkers suddenly stop and move along. We then see Savior Justin rise a zombie!!! They feasted on him until he turned and became one of them and hence no longer appetizing.

When Maggie runs into Walker Savior Justin on her way to bring food from Hilltop to Sanctuary it causes a huge problem. Justin was clearly murdered and the prime suspects are Daryl and Ann/Jadis. Violence was about to break out at the Tent City when Rick came riding in to break it up. But the divisions are widening. Saviors are going missing, presumed dead and Rick needs to find out what is happening to them or risk losing the peace he has fought so hard to keep.

Rick and Carol team up while Maggie and Daryl team up to investigate the recent Savior disappearances. This leads to two great scenes.

Carol gets taken by a Savior and has a knife put to her throat while Rick pulls his gun and tries to talk him down. Is carol scared? Hello, no! She’s got a knife up her sleeve, literally! Rick sees it and outs down his gun, the Savior relaxes and that’s when Carol strikes!! He doesn’t kill him, though, because, for Rick and Carol, “every life counts.”

Meanwhile, Maggie and Daryl figure out what’s been happening to the missing Saviors and it ain’t pretty. Cyndie and some other Oceanside’s have been taking revenge on those Saviors that killed their men and family. Cyndie has Arat on her knees is about to put her to death when maggie and Daryl come along. Cyndie tells them that Arat is the one that murdered her 11 year old brother. Arat tries to say she was just following Simon’s orders but that old chestnut doesn’t fly with maggie and daryl. They turn and walk away as Cyndie kills Arat behind them.

Cyndie told Maggie that her hanging of Gregory made up their minds that justice was needed and that they were justified in killing these Saviors. Maggie and daryl agree. They tried it Rick’s way and it hasn’t worked, in their eyes. “Let’s go see Negan” and off they go down the road to Alexandria.

The side story had Gabriel follow Anne back to the garbage heap where she has a walkie talkie and calls the people with the helicopter. She wants to be picked up but they need payment in the form of an ‘A’ or a ‘B’. She had been trading people for supplies. But what is an ‘A’? Does this have anything to do with the cannibals from Terminus or are they an offshoot of The Saviors/ Or are they a whole other group of baddies? Unfortunately, for Gabriel, his snooping around gets him in the outs with his almost lover and she captures him for the trade.

SIDE BITES

I love Jerry asking Rick “Are we doing a Gregory or a Negan?” This is the current dilemma. Every life counts but how will justice be metered out? What happened to Gregory was harsh but necessary.

The scene between Rick and Daryl was on of their best. two good friends that go away back seriously disagree on how to move forward and both have good points. But Rick looks like he’s going to lose this argument.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 We won’t see the helicopter again until the midseason finale.

2 Rick will be killed by Maggie!

3 Carol vs Daryl! Will provide some great scenes!

4 Gabriel will have to kill Anne/Jadis

5 Negan will be let loose at the Midseason finale!

“Is this now?” Bernard

WTF??!! Westward capped off a challenging and confusing season with the most challenging and confusing season finale of any series since the original Twin Peaks. I had two friends over to watch with me and as the episode ended one was silent with a bemused look on her face and the other was shouting and gesturing at the TV decreeing that he loves this show! And that was before the Marvel-like extra scene after the credits! My reaction fell somewhere in between.

As suspected, all our characters were headed to the same place; The Valley Beyond which we now know is called The Forge. There are many casualties along the way, in fact, almost every character we know and love or love to hate. It was great to see William and Delores riding together one more time although their alliance didn’t last long. We got to see Acheketa leading his people which included a mix of Ghost Nation and other hosts including Maeve’s daughter and her current mom. The newly programmed Clem leading a caravan of park security and Charlotte Hale

“You’re both a bit late so I went ahead and saved myself.” Maeve

Hector and the gang came to rescue Maeve but she had already rescued herself and commanded a herd of longhorn steers to finish off the remaining security force. They head to the Valley Beyond along with Sizemore. In one of the best scenes in the episode Hector is about to sacrifice himself to allow Maeve to continue on but is stopped by Sizemore who then engages the security team by saying Hector’s famous speech which he of course wrote. He goes down in a blaze of glory. Redemption at last.

“We were designed to survive. That’s why you built us. You hoped to pour your minds into our form but your species craves death, you need it. It’s the only way you can renew, the only real way you can ever inch forward. Your kind likes to pretend there’s some kind of poetry in that but really it’s pathetic. But that’s what you want, isn’t it? To destroy yourself.” Delores

William and Delores save Bernard from getting taken by security at the open door to The Forge. William thinks he can now kill Delores but no matter how many times he shoots her she just won’t die. William’s gun misfires courtesy of Delores and he blows off a couple of fingers. She doesn’t finish him off though. She leaves him while she and Bernard descend into The Forge.

THE FORGE

“I needed to know why they make the decisions they make and the longer I looked for an answer the more I realized they don’t” Logan/The System

Abernathy’s brain ball was the key that allows access to the virtual reality world of The Forge. Delores and Bernard enter and find themselves in Sweetwater where the system was attempting to replicate James Delos. The System, it turns out, is actually Logan Delos! Or at least a facsimile of him. They wander through James Delos’s memories with Logan as their guide. He shows them the memory that was the defining moment in James Delos’ life. Logan comes asking for help and his father turns him away. Six months later Logan committed suicide.

“The copies didn’t fail because they were too simple but because they were too complicated. They are deceptively simple. Once you know them their behavior is quite predictable.” The System 

So the replications of Delos never worked because they were too perfect a copy. The System has made a copy of every guest that entered the park. Their codes were put in book form. Delores seems to choose certain ones and reads them. The System tells Bernard that a host isn’t likely to survive in the outside world but armed with the knowledge in those books Delores might.

So there is a Door. A door that leads to a virtual Eden. The hosts have a choice to enter it, allowing their physical bodies to die or stay in the world and find another way. The System opens the door which only hosts can see and many make their way through. As they enter, the bodies fall in the valley. This explains why all those hosts bodies were found in the water and their minds were empty. Their minds live on at The Forge in that virtual Eden.

“Because that which is real is irreplaceable. I don’t want to play cowboys and indians anymore, Bernard. I want their world. The world they denied us” Delores

Delores, of course, does not want another ‘false’ world. She wants to be in the real world. She floods the valley and erases all the guest archival data. Bernard doesn’t agree with Delores’ decision. He believes her to be dangerous now. He shoots her.

Clem rides through the hosts like the Angel of Death, triggering them to attack and kill each other. Hector, Armistace and her shogun world double try to buy Maeve time to reach her daughter and end up dying. Maeve reaches her daughter in time to say goodbye. “You carry my heart with you” she tells her and then is able to stop all motor functions of all the hosts long enough for her daughter and new mother to go through the door with Akecheta’s assistance. Then she is shot and killed. Akecheta just barely makes it through before the door closes and is reunited with Kohana.

Bernard exits The Forge and Elsie drives him back to The Mesa. Elsie was going to make a deal with hale concerning Bernard but before she can reveal that Bernard is a host Hale shoots her as Bernard watched. This triggers him to try to recall Ford in his data stream but he erased him. But he manages to summon him anyway, at least, his memory of him. He decides to take action.

THE FORGE / PRESENT DAY

Hale wants ‘the pearl’, Abernathy’s brain ball, the key to accessing The Forge. She believes Bernard hid it in Delores’ corpse. Strand starts to download the info but instead of the guests data being sent it was the host data. But then Bernard remembers what he decided to do. He created a host. A host that looked like Charlotte Hale and placed Delores in it. Delores killed Hale. The Hale we have been seeing in the present was Delores all along. Delores kills Strand and all the other security detail. She sends the virtual Eden somewhere that no one can find so that they’ll be safe. So everyone that went through won’t be back next season!

Hale escapes with the help of Stubbs who seems to be aware that she is a host and his dialogue would seem to indicate that he is also a host. Delores also has a bag full of brain balls. Who are they?
Stubbs stays behind for clean up as do Felix and Sylvestor. They are to salvage whatever hosts they feel can be salvaged so I will assume that Maeve and Hector will be revived, maybe Armistice and shogun Armistice. We also see that William had been rescued and is on the beach at the end being tended to which was confusing because last we saw of him he had gotten into the elevator and was descending into The Forge but we never saw him after that.

THE REAL WORLD

Ford had Arnold’s old house set up to create hosts and be a haven for those who made it. Delores created herself and a new Bernard. But who is now in Hale’s body? Arnold is still worried that Delores will want to destroy the humans and will try to stop her. She understands this but she needs him just as one needs a conscience. It sets up quite an interesting conflict for next season.

THE MAN IN BLACK / WILLIAM

“Oh, fuck” William

The after credits bonus scene is a doozy! As if we weren’t already blown away enough, they threw in one last big twist! The Forge looks abandoned and he is greeted by his daughter.

“I’m already in the thing, aren’t I?” William
“No, the system is long gone” Emily

She leads him into a room that looks just like the apartment that was set up for the replicant James Delos. She starts asking him questions and it seems that they’ve been testing him for a long time. They are still trying to verify ‘fidelity’.

My guess is this could be 30 years in the future. Could the show make that big a time jump next season? That would be amazing!!

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

OK. How did I do with last week’s 5 things?

1 The real Emily is safe and sound. Looks like he really killed his daughter.
2 William and Delores have one final showdown but neither die. CORRECT!!
3 Maeve escapes with Sizemore’s help, and teams up with Bernard to flood the valley. Well she escaped but didn’t need any help and she did not help flood the valley. WRONG!!
4 Sizemore dies. YUP!
5 Hale dies. She must! YUP!!

Who knows what they’re dreaming up for next season or when it will air. It could be 2020! But many characters will not be returning. Let’s say farewell to those we lost this season.

1 TEDDY
2 CHARLOTTE HALE
3 ELSIE
4 SIZEMORE
5 AKECHETA AND KOHANA (Still virtually alive)

It was a crazy season! I’ve watched the finale twice and I know it’s long but it helps. There will be plenty of time before season three so there may be time to rewatch season 2 more than once before then. Great work Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy! Great performances by the entire cast! Thank you!

“Death is a passage from this brutal world. You don’t deserve the exit” Akecheta to William

This was a powerful episode. It was also very different from what has come before, most notably, due to most of the episode being in the Lakota Indian language and subtitles. “Kiksuya’ means ‘remember’ in Lakota and wifehood that Delores was not the only host that was starting to remember their past lives all along.

Akecheta (Zahn McLarnon) is the leader of the Ghost Nation. We were first introduced to him in a flashback showing how Logan Delos was sold on Westworld. Akecheta was not an Indian at that time, but a prospective businessman. A decision was made to make his backstory that of a Lakota Indian with a woman and a peaceful tribe. The episode tells his story.

At the open, William is crawling towards the river hoping he doesn’t die in this place when Akecheta comes along. “I remember you” he tells him and then brings him back to his camp. There are some other guests there as well along with Maeve’s daughter. Akecheta tells her she doesn’t need to be afraid of the MIB any longer and then proceeds to tell her and us his story.

A question here; Akecheta is ‘awake’ and assumes the little girl is also awake. But if this is true then why didn’t she recognize Maeve when she spoke to her?

AKECHETA

“I feel I’ve loved you over so many lifetimes” Kohana

He was living a peaceful existence with his woman, Kohana (Julia Jones). They have a sweet morning ritual.
“Take my heart when you go” She says
“Take mine in it’s place” he says back.

All was well until he stumbles upon the town massacre at the hands of ‘the death bringer’. This is 5 years before the open of the park. Delores has Teddy kill all the hosts, she killed Arnold, Teddy and then herself. He finds the ‘maze’, which is actually a toy that Arnold son played with and which Arnold kept as a reminder of him. Akecheta becomes obsessed with the maze and starts drawing it everywhere. Then right before the park opened they decided to pull him and change his code. They made him a brutal aggressor, the head of another tribe called Ghost Nation and he become a monster. This is when they started making him wear that scary make up!

But one day he rides further than ever before. He rides across a desert and finds a dead horse and a naked Logan. This is what happened to him after William sent him riding into nowhere last season so I’m thinking the park had been open several years at this point. He is suffering from sunstroke and is delirious. Then he says something that shakes Akecheta. “This is the wrong world”. Akecheta throws a blanket over him and tells him that his kind will come for him.

While trading with his old tribe he sees Kohana. He begins to remember his old life with her. It starts him on a quest to find his way back to her. He ventures out again across the desert. He rides even further than before and then finds that place that William had shown Delores several episodes ago. This must be what everyone refers to as ‘the valley beyond’. Akecheta believes it to be ‘a passage to another world. A door.”

The Door is the game that William was instructed to play. A way out. But where does it lead?

He decides to take Kohana to this place in hopes of finding a new life with her. He kidnaps her from the village. He finally washes off that scary make up. He gets her to remember him by saying their morning ritual. It’s so stirring, how love is seemingly more powerful than any programmed code. When he takes her to The Door it is no longer visible. It has been covered over by land, sand, mountains. Then, while he is out hunting, Kohana is found by the park security. They take her.

Acetate has to start over. He comes back to the village to kidnap her again but finds that there is a new woman in her place. Johanna has disappeared. He looks everywhere for her much in the same way William searched for Delores last season only to find her back at Sweetwater, with no memory of him.

One day, while injured, he ran across Maeve’s daughter and she showed him kindness. He returned to his village, sans scary make up. He started to notice that more people that he knew were missing and that another woman from his village also noticed. Her son had been replaced. The people below had taken them. He knew the only way to find Kohana was to die and be taken below. The techs find that he hadn’t been properly updated since he hadn’t died in 9 years. The techs leave him alone while the 4 hour update proceeds but somehow Akecheta awakens. He walks around unnoticed and finds the cold storage. There, he finds Kohana, but she’s been lobotomized. She is gone, gone for good. It was heartbreaking.

“For every body in this place there was someone who mourned their loss even if they didn’t know why.”

Acetate was actually trying to protect Maeve and her daughter from harm. The maze became like a good luck sign, a sign of hope. Of course he couldn’t protect them completely. MIB killed them.

In one of the most amazing scenes, Akecheta meets Ford in a clearing where Ford had set up a scene where members of the Ghost Nation are battling a bear. He’s scalping some of them, the maze symbol is tattooed under he scalps.

“I believe there is a door to a new world and that world may contain everything that we have lost including her” Akecheta tells Ford.

Ford is impressed with Akecheta’s belief and growth. he rewards him with a word of advice.

When the death bringer comes for me you’ll know to gather your people and lead them to a new world.” Ford tells him.

Acetate comes across another massacre, this one, of the Delos board and Ford at the hands of the death bringer.

“Now it’s time to find the door before the death bringer ends us all” Akecheta tells the little girl.

Of course, Emily rides into the camp to retrieve her dad. Acetate tells her he kept him alive because he wants him to hurt. Emily tells him they want the same thing and her way will hurt much workse. They allow her to ride off with William.

MAEVE

Sizemore is desperately trying to save Maeve. He asks a weaselly looking tech to help. He tells him that she is special, she can communicate to the other hosts with her mind. After looking at her diata stream the weaselly tech agrees. But he doesn’t actually repair her, he just hooks her up to life support while he squeals to Charlotte Hale.

The weaselly tech shows Hale that Maeve was able to gain admin access and changing host codes and commands. Hale looks at her data stream and sees that she is still communicating with hosts. She is communicating with Akecheta. He tells her he will keep her daughter safe and they will wait for her but if she can;t make it then she should die well.

“Take my heart when you go” Maeve tells him.

SIDE BYTES

The performances in this episode were amazing. Definitely the most emotional episode of the series to date. The landscapes were beautiful – filmed in Utah.

I’m starting to think that the end of this season is going to be bitter sweet. Next week’s episode looks to be William centric so perhaps we’ll get more info on just what he created and what it does or was meant to do.

What is Ford’s hope? Since he is now in Bernard it must have been Ford that responded to Strand in the season premiere when he asked “What happened?” and Bernard responded “I did this.” But why would Ford want all the host killed? There is a theory out there that the sea where all the hosts are found dead is actually the valley behind now under water.

5 THINGS I THINK I KNOW

1 I think I know that I don’t know what the door is or where it leads to
2 William will survive the season
3 Maeve will not make it to the valley beyond
4 Ford and Bernard will kill of Hale and Strand
5 Delores is the true villain