My suspicion since early on in Season 1 was that, if Westworld had a true villain, Dr. Robert Ford was that villain. These host we’re supposed to sympathize with because of all the trauma the’ve endured were created and controlled by Ford. So if they were going to rebel, who else could they rebel against?
But it wasn’t only the structure of the story that cast that light on Ford. There were also these not so subtle threats to people who’ve tried to get in his way (aka, Arnold, Teresa, and Bernard). And Ford has shown a complete control over the hosts that seems like it could squash a robot rebellion easily.
And maybe I should’ve written this two episodes ago when Ford ordered Teresa’s face pounded in by Bernard Lowe. But Charlotte Hale, the executive who put Teresa in that position, could be labeled a villain just as easily.
But as of now, Charlotte Hale has not directly killed anyone to meet her goal of removing Ford from the park. Even the Man in Black has yet to sacrifice a real human life. But Dr. Ford has been responsible for at least 2 (Arnold, Teresa, and possibly 3 depending on Elsie’s fate) human deaths so his park could operate without delay or hindrance.
Now is there anyone with the power to take down the ultimate super villain of Westworld? We’ll have to wait until at least next week to find out.
As for this week, let’s kick off the recap with how William and Dolores found their way out of Logan’s capture.
William
I really want to talk about Logan as little as possible. I mean, I guess he’s a necessary evil to compliment William in his journey of discovery. But even so, I don’t have to like his character because of it.
Logan insists the hosts are fake and feel nothing. But William thinks (correctly) that Dolores is different. To prove him wrong, Logan tears open Dolores’s skin so William can see the wiring.
Dolores does not appreciate that very much, slicing a blade across Logan’s face and running away. Later, Logan pleads with William to get over Dolores. Now I don’t think any of us were fooled by William’s proclamation that Logan was right. Of course, Douchebag McGee bought it, and that’s all that really matters.
Logan wakes up the next day bloody and on the ground. He pans around to see all the host soldiers laying on the ground. Turns out, William massacred them (how original, another scene of massacred hosts). Now, William’s in charge and Logan will be helping him find Dolores.
The Man in Black
Nothing has changed for the MIB since last week, other than Teddy joining him in being tied up around the fire.
Teddy’s been having a flashback most of the season where he helped Wyatt (the crazy villain Ford is centering his new story around) massacre a group of soldiers. But as it turns out, it wasn’t soldiers Teddy killed. And it doesn’t look like (at least from what was saw) that Wyatt had anything to do with it. It was all Teddy (who appears to be the town sheriff) blowing away civilians. Men, women, and children alike are all being massacred (that’s right, another scenes of massacred bodies).
The woman who stabbed and captured Teddy last week is also in the flashback. We don’t see if Teddy kills her in that scene, but she remembers and tells Teddy that one day, he may be ready to serve by Wyatt’s side “in the next life” before stabbing and killing Teddy.
After screaming “Oh my God, you killed Teddy,” the MIB starts rambling again about this maze. And just like every other episode, the MIB doesn’t appear to get any closer to it. The woman tells the MIB that the maze is not for him. And next thing we know, he wakes up with a wound on his head, alone in the daytime, with a rope tied around his neck. The other end of the rope is tied to his horse. Now, I didn’t think hosts could actually kill guests. But they sure as hell can tie you up and see if you can escape death yourself I guess.
The MIB cuts the rope in time before Charlotte Hale greets the MIB and gives us some more information about who he is. Now, of course, the information is vague (it wouldn’t be Westworld if the reveals were actually clear cut). But it sounds like the MIB is on this board we keep hearing about. She wants his approval to remove Ford from power. The MIB cares nothing at this point for Ford’s narratives. He’s all about Arnold’s game and the board can do whatever they want with Dr. Ford.
Bernard Lowe and Dolores Abernathy
The reset by Dr. Ford on Bernard last week lasted all of five minutes in this week’s episode. Maeve has been brought in after last week’s suspicious activity. Lowe begins the normal questioning routine, sees all the changes to her system, and asks whose responsible. But before he can contact Dr. Ford, Maeve does her little mind control act, instructing Lowe to release her back into Westworld with no questions asked.
Lowe’s conversation with Maeve sends him into a tailspin. He goes to Dr. Ford and wants access to all the memories his programming won’t allow him to see. And to make sure Dr. Ford complies, Lowe takes control of Clementine and has her hold a gun at Ford.
The first memories are nothing new. He’s at his son’s bedside, he’s talking to his wife over video chat, he’s in bed with Teresa, and he’s choking Elsie (once again, we don’t see if he actually killed her).
Eventually, the memories start to run parallel with Dolores, who’s returned to the scene of the church and is remembering more of the things that happened there.
Dr. Ford explains to Bernard that three years were spent refining the hosts before any guests were allowed to access them. Arnold wanted the hosts to have a conscious, and that conscious would come from an inner dialogue Arnold programmed into them. The problem was the voice in their heads was driving the hosts crazy. While Ford is explaining this, Dolores enters the church and recalls the hosts all sitting in the sanctuary struggling with those voices.
Dolores enters confessional, which she discovers is an elevator that takes her down to a series of labs and offices, likely from the early days of the park. Gunslinger Dolores sees massacred bodies of hosts (yet a third example of this in one episode), but also recalls a less bloody hallway where hosts are interacting and being worked on by humans. A young Ford walks by and enters an office to start arguing with Arnold. Dolores walks past that and heads downstairs to see a room we are all very familiar with.
Despite all the warnings from Ford, Bernard wants to go all the way back to his first memory. And that first memory is him sitting up from an operating table. It’s this image that causes Bernard to discover that Ford created him in the image of his old partner, Arnold.
Now it’s really hard to describe how this realization came to Bernard. But Dolores makes sure the rest of us haven’t missed it when she sits down in her flashback and says “Arnold” when the man we know as Bernard Lowe sits down to talk with her. These two had numerous conversations early in the season, and it appears that those conversations were Arnold speaking with Dolores from the past.
But in this conversation, Arnold (Bernard as we’ve known him) tells Dolores he can’t help her. The reason he can’t: because Dolores killed him.
Dolores heads back up to the church and finds it empty. That is, until the Man in Black walks in.
As for Bernard, he plans on going all Maeve on Dr. Ford by ordering Clementine to shoot the man. But Ford put something in her programming that overrides everything Bernard has done. As it turns out, Ford could have stopped this the whole time. But he was interested to see just where all this would go. Instead, he orders Lowe to wait until Ford leaves the room to shoot himself. Lowe does just that, but not before Ford informs him and us that the new story he’s been working on is ready.
Of Note
-So if Ford can override the ability for hosts to control other hosts, does this make Maeve’s attempt at rebellion hopeless?
-We saw the picture Ford showed of him and Arnold earlier in the season. But this picture had three men in it: Dr. Ford, the guy we thought was Arnold, and Bernard Lowe (who we now know is Arnold). Who is the guy in the middle? Could it be the Man in Black?
-The Man in Black appears to be the prime candidate has the third man in the photo considering it was him who defended Ford many years ago in a previous attempt at removing him from his position. But the man in the picture also looks a lot like Ford’s father from the family he created in the park.
-The most recent human to be captured is Stubbs, who responded to Elsie’s signal reappearing in Westworld. He was captured by the Ghost Nation, another group of hosts that now ignore all verbal commands.
-It looks like Maeve has the first soldier in her army. Hector will be joining Maeve after she pointed out that the safe that drives his whole story is completely empty.
I’m going to say farewell right here, but I do have some theories I wanted to do discuss. All of it is pure speculation. But if you don’t even want speculation to ruin the season finale next week for you, then stop reading now and I’ll see you next week. Otherwise, read on underneath the image.
-The much discussed timeline theory (the idea that everything we are seeing is happening in multiple time periods), received some definitive proof tonight with the reveal that Bernard was built based on Arnold. We can most certainly assume that at least the scenes with Dolores talking to Bernard (who we now know was likely Arnold) were taking place about 35 years earlier.
-One part of the timeline theory (and what I consider to be the most significant part), was that William is a younger version of the Man in Black. But how can gunslinger Dolores see the Man in Black after leaving William, whose supposed to be a younger Man in Black? It’s not impossible, but it did just get way more convoluted.
-Now this theory is my own (though I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thought of it): With Bernard dead of “suicide” (which I’m sure will have something to do with his dead lover Teresa), a host version of the likely dead Elsie Hughes will be promoted to Lowe’s position.