Westworld is a television series set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, exploring a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.
While episode 6 (episode 5 here) of HBO’s Westworld Season 2 may not have been the most exciting, it certainly continued moving the needle towards some major things to come. A big theme of the episode was parents being reunited with daughters, as both Maeve (Thandie Newton) and The Man in Black (Ed Harris) got to spend some quality time with theirs.
Teddy (James Marsden) wasted no time showing us his new true colors this week, as he didn’t hesitate to gun down a park guard who Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) was unable to gain information from. He does call out Dolores later in the episode for some of the changes she’s made to him, so there may be some hidden contempt he has for her. Dolores and her crew get the Sweetwater train ready to go so they can take it to the Westworld operations center. They let a train car run loose and explode at the base of the mountain the center is perched on, beginning the attack that we should see more of next episode.
We’d seen a glimpse of The Man in Black and his daughter, Grace (Katja Herbers), reunite a few episodes back, but we got to see them truly interact in the latest episode. Grace tells her father that she was called in by Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) to get him out of the park, and she agreed to come so he doesn’t fulfill a “robot suicide.” She doesn’t think that he deserves to go out in a blaze of glory after what he did to their family. He appears to have a moment of weakness and agrees to leave with her as an effort to repair some of the damage he’s done. When she wakes, however, she finds herself alone at the camp.
Maeve and her crew make it to their destination in Shogun World where they part with some of their recent friends. There they find an entry back to the underground tunnel system that leads them to Maeve’s home in Westworld. Maeve returns to her small hut and finds her daughter (Jasmyn Rae) as well as the host that now acts as the mother. Before she has time to absorb what is happening, they are all attacked by a group of Indians.
Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Elsie (Elsie Hughes) make their way to “The Cradle,” which is the datacenter that backs up host personalities and allows for storyline simulations to be run. Once there, they remove Bernard’s consciousness and insert it into The Cradle so that he can investigate why it’s been able to block the QA team from regaining control of the park. Inside The Cradle, Bernard finds himself in a simulation of entering Sweetwater via the train. When he arrives he finds all of the normal host activity occurring, and upon entering the saloon, he is greeted by Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) playing the piano.
So it was a less than stellar episode for the families that were reunited. The Man in Black instilled empty faith in his daughter before abandoning her. Meanwhile, poor Maeve, who has spent episode after episode searching for her daughter, comes to find that a new host is now acting as the mother. Maeve could most likely re-program her daughter using her new mind control, but seeing as hosts having their own choice was a big theme of this episode, she may not be willing to do that. It looks like next week’s episode should be action packed as Dolores and her gang storms the Westworld headquarters. Also, it’ll be great to see Sir Anthony Hopkins giving some real screen time in season 2 next week!