Why I gave in and started loving Neon Genesis Evangelion or The Kiss that Saved the Human Race

Is it really all that?

Anyone who enjoys anime has heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion. I’d actually watched various episodes and even seen the movie End of Evangelion, but it was years ago and I couldn’t have told you what the silly SF plot was about. So when Netflix started showing the series I wanted to finally watch the entire thing. Which brings me to this completely spoiler filled review.

When I started watching the show I had mixed feelings. I was aware that it played around with various conventions, subverting expectations and adding many aspects you aren’t expecting to find in an anime. Still, with most of the main characters 14 years old, was it really surprising that the first one we meet, Shinji, was frightened of battling to the death a gigantic monster? And was it really possible that a series could turn out great when the fate of humanity is at stake and so much of the time is spent on things like making a 14 year old feel at home in his new surroundings? Or having some of the teenage characters need to stop bickering to win the next battle? And even in 1995, having a tough female character that liked to show cleavage and wear short skirts was a stereotype. As was the female computer nerd who’s dedicated to her work, the hard nosed commander who seems to have no heart, and the young woman warrior who regularly attacks the boy she has a crush on. Would investing in these characters really pay off?

In order to get everything out of the series you really do have to first accept the fantasy. For reasons that are never said or even hinted at, 14 year olds must pilot the human built robots, the Evangelions. Even though humanity might very well be eliminated if the invading monsters/Angels win any of the battles, the support for the unit is slight. After one victory, Ms. Misato, the tactical commander, takes her three 14 year old pilots out to a very small noodle shop to celebrate. Once there, the 14 year olds don’t talk about saving the world, but Shinji talks about why he pilots his Eva. No announcements of victory are made. No strategy sessions with military organizations. Nothing happens outside of the 4 heroes having dinner and talking about teenage problems. I was able to accept this, but many people might not be able to.

There is also the fact that much of the overall plot isn’t explained at all or only makes sense after someone else explains to you what happened. Adam. Lilith. Impacts. History of life on earth. It is sort of all in there, but not really. The secret organization has their own 14 year old Angel for some reason. Most of the Angels appear out of nowhere and have almost magical powers. At some point you catch on that all of this is really just a backdrop to highlight the decisions the main characters make and whether or not they keep their sanity.

While the main characters do fall into rather well known stereotypes, they actually had extreme reactions to horrible abuses in their pasts. So even relatively minor plot points can have complex consequences. You want the characters to win. You want them to stop suffering. Even seemingly foolish plot points can be enjoyable on multiple levels. Great victories seem small. Necessary tragedies become impossible to overcome. The show isn’t perfect, but you can so easily become lost in the characters. And for the most part, the characters aren’t doing things because that is what the stereotype would do, but because they just can’t get past their abuse.

Many write-ups of the show concentrate on the goofy SF plot or the abstract mind sequences. The SF plot does drive the series along, but it doesn’t make all that much sense and is almost impossible to understand the first time through. The events that happen inside people’s minds are interesting. They have meaning, but much of the time are abstract enough that everyone interprets them differently. I would much rather talk about how the characters interact and evolve over the course of the series. In fact I talk about that so much it would be easy to forget that a lot of the show is funny, or cute, or sweet, or exciting. As much as I’d like to recap all the episodes, that isn’t what motivated me to do this write up. It was the character interaction.

My first thoughts about having the pilots all 14 years old was that this is silly. They are combining complex interactions with silly teenage angst. Is this really going to work? After a while I concluded that, if the characters had been 21 year old military cadets, they would already have had to face the problems of their childhoods. They would have already had to face love, career setbacks, the pecking order of a military unit, disillusionment, success. And the adults around them would have treated them like grown ups. It may seem limiting at first, but making the pilots 14 means that this is the first time they have had to make any kind of adult decisions. Really, their first decisions of any kind. At any point they could decide to be idealistic, fantastical, tentative, aggressive and it would have been the first time they tried any of those options. It also means the adults have no idea how to treat them. There is no play book for 14 year olds in combat. Nothing is the “right” way. Which is why I think that in the end, it is Misato’s decision to keep treating Shinji like an adult that saves him and allows the human race to continue.

Hey! Where’s Misato?

Ah, Misato. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a character with so many traits that are so seamlessly blended together. The show does this with several characters, but Misato stands out. Many shows will have a character that likes being inappropriate, but it is perhaps Misato’s most basic character trait. She just loves doing the unexpected and introducing sexuality into situations. But when it is time to fight, she is a tactical genius, inspirational leader, and fearless warrior. In fact the only time she’s anxious is when her pilots are in danger. Unlike most other adults on the show, she has no hidden agenda. Her goal in life is to defeat the Angels. She’s always interesting. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, whenever Misato’s not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, “Where’s Poochie?” — I mean “Where’s Misato?”

And she’s probably the loneliest character on the show, which is really saying something. It is only explicitly mentioned a few times. When, during Shinji’s first few days, she wonders if she is laying it on too thick as she pretends to lead a happy life and isn’t painfully lonely. [It took me a few viewings to really understand that it is her loneliness that she is trying to hide. At least that is my best guess.] And later, when she fails to comfort Shinji and tells herself that she is the lonely one. Although she seems to really enjoy inappropriately adding sexual tension to situations, it is implied that she deliberately avoids intimacy. Pushing it away much the way Shinji and Asuka do. She pushed away Kaji years ago, even after discovering that she craves intimacy. She really wants to connect with Shinji, but she has no idea how to do that. As the series goes on she becomes rather desperate to connect with him, but everything she tries fails and just pushes him further away.

In episode 25 during the EoTV finale, she reveals so many issues. She desperately wanted the attention of her father so she tried to be the perfectly good little girl. But she hated her father and so wants to rebel by being inappropriate and even downright dirty. This contradiction manifests itself with her hard work ethic which allows her to head NERV Operations at 29, she never connects with anyone on a personal level, and compulsively acts and dresses inappropriately whenever she can. She thinks her father deserved every bad thing that happened to him, but then he saved her life before being killed by an Angel. So she hates the Angels and has dedicated her life to destroying them. She needs as much help as the rest of them.

A lot of fans seem to think she sleeps around with lots of guys, but she is only ever shown sleeping with Kaji. That’s true even in flashbacks. For that matter, Kaji notices she still smokes and she tells him she only does it after sex and that that means only Kaji knows about it. Basically telling him she’s never slept with anyone else. Not sure if we are supposed to believe that, but it would explain why she was so distraught at her old lover reappearing. She spent 8 years not having sex, only devoting herself to the destruction of the Angels, and now that she is in the fight for the planet he shows back up.

She can identify with Shinji and Asuka better than anyone else because she went through so much horror, also when she was their age, 14. She didn’t speak for two years afterwards and spent many more years trying to rebuild her life. She leads the defense of Earth, but in the evenings only goes home and drinks a lot of alcohol. She has nothing else. She doesn’t even try to do anything else.

Then she meets Shinji. She is the first character Shinji meets. She is the last he talks to before the world ends. There is more going on in the show, but it is their relationship that determines the fate of mankind. Oh, and she loves Shinji. Loves him heart and soul. I was at first puzzled by Misato’s behavior towards Shinji throughout the series. And even after finishing everything, I wondered what it all meant. Or did it mean anything. I love her character, so I didn’t mind thinking over her actions, but there was a lot to parse out.

Going through the episodes the first time, some of the events, although fun, seem recycled from other animes. Yet, when I watched everything a second time, knowing what will happen, I thought many of those same scenes were really sweet or had a special twist. Misato and Shinji start out with Misato shielding him with her car, then with her body, and her boobs end up much closer to him then he ever thought they would. She protects him. She has fun with him. She tells him he’s cute. And also, from the very beginning, she worries that he is going to get himself killed and really shouldn’t be there at all.

So why does she flirt so shamelessly with him? Is she doing it because she wants to distract him from the danger he’s about to face? Because she thinks it will make him respond to her commands better? Because she just really enjoys acting like that? Does she instinctively know that he is going to be making adult decisions and therefore she needs to treat him like an adult and not a kid? We don’t really know why.

A quick aside – I get the feeling that Misato really identifies herself with her car. The car isn’t in the show all that much, but it gets beaten up in episode 1. For the next couple of episodes you see that it is held together with tape. A rather obvious metaphor for Misato’s life. – End of aside.

I actually missed a lot of the stuff in the show and needed other people to tell me. Something I missed is when she tells Shinji that this is his home too, he just repeats what he thinks she wants to hear like he always does. Says he is home, but doesn’t have much conviction – that was the part I didn’t realize had more subtext. Then comes episode 4, the critical episode. After being AWOL for 2 days, Shinji asks Misato if she is going to scold him. He answers his own question, “No, I guess you wouldn’t. It’s not like I’m your family or anything.” He’s testing her. Trying to prove she doesn’t really care by trying to push her away. That time it actually made her walk away, to his horror. But eventually Misato does understands the Hedgehog’s Dilemma. Shinji doesn’t know how to relate to people, only how to push them away. She races to the train station and then, in a really sweet scene, he says, “I’m home,” but this time he really means it. That really was the point of no return. It set the tone for all that followed. She could have just tried to get the most out of him on the battlefield and that’s all, but she couldn’t do that. She had to try, for almost the first time in her life, to really connect with someone.

In the same episode he rants to his friends at the railroad station that he is a sneak and a coward. It is a very confusing moment that only makes sense after watching EoE (see below). In a later episode, Shinji complains to his friends that they wouldn’t be so infatuated with her if they saw the real Misato. The Misato that is a slob and can barely take care of herself. They tell him he is clueless and she acts that way around him because they are family. This seems to have a really positive effect on him.

Maybe she grows so attached to him because she realizes that she suffers from the Hedgehog’s Dilemma too and makes so many bad decisions in her personal life. Hard to say, but in any case they really form a strong bond. On the battlefield he relies on her tactical talents. When she goes into danger to shutdown the walking nuclear reactor she wants him backing her up. When the Angel breaks into the control center and is about to annihilate Misato and the entire crew, Shinji saves her (great sequence, plus the shot of Misato framed by the giant Angel. Hey! Did you notice Misato clutching the her father’s cross when she thinks she’s about to die? It is one of the few hints during the show that she really loves her father and she still wants to connect with him.). Shinji then forces the Angel onto the lift and just yells, “Ms. Misato,” trusting that she knows what he’s doing and will have his back and raise the elevator.

Misato breaks down multiple times when she thinks he’s not coming back. Which is exactly what someone who thought they were unlovable needed. Obviously Shinji will now realize he can love himself and wouldn’t think of hiding under some stairs when his comrades need him because he’s just so good at making decisions… but that is not what happens.

There are a lot of other things going on, but at this point I want to mention the two things that really distracted me and made me wonder if the series really is as good as people make it out to be.

1.) Shinji really makes some terrible decisions. As the series winds down, he basically reverts back to how he was in episode 1. He says he’s worthless, can’t love himself, and simply can not believe that anyone else would ever really love him. At times he refuses to fight when his team needs backup. He can’t comfort Misato when she learns Kaji is dead. His terrible decisions with Asuka. Seriously, how can you root for a hero who acts so completely unheroic?

2.) If, at the very end of the series and movie, all Shinji needed was to notice that the real world was better because things mattered there, or out there his decisions really belonged to him, or however you want to word it, then what was the point of all those episodes? Even during episode one Shinji didn’t want to run away. It sure looks like if instrumentality had happened at the start of the series he would have made the same decision. Did all those sacrifices by the other characters matter? Where was the character arc?

As much as I root for Shinji, I was disappointed. How do I make sense of all this? It took me listening to others take on the show and thinking about how the characters interacted before I started accepting the show on its own terms.

Don’t be like Shinji

First, dealing with Shinji making just terrible decisions… So I’m watching youtube to try and understand the silly SF plot and to be told about all the many other things I completely missed when I watched the show. And I come across a video posted by RyanStorm specifically about why he thinks End of Evangelion is a masterpiece. He makes a lot of good technical points. When Misato charges the soldiers to save Shinji she is drawn with a shaky cam effect. When Asuka has her truly awe-inspiring fight, the animators don’t just draw the Evas like people fighting, they show the massive weight of the machines and the huge effort it takes to keep them balanced. He deconstructs how Evangelion subverts the hero’s journey. How Shinji tries so hard, he does everything they tell him, he gets better, more independent, and then, instead of rising to become the hero of the series, the universe conspires to rip his psyche apart until by EoE he is just a jumble of base instincts. Reduced to hiding under stairs.

One of his big themes is “Don’t be like Shinji”. He actually goes further: “Its a genuine, soul baring film that comes from the deepest part of its creator’s heart. Coming out in a more raw, realistic, and– God I hate to admit it, relatable way than I’ve ever seen before. I see a lot of what could have been myself in Shinji as a human being. A lot a lot. I hate that. I hate that he’s so perfectly realistic as a piece of shit and a brat.” Yikes! I disagree with some of his other takes, but this one makes some sense to me. No matter how frustrating Shinji gets you sympathize with him because everything lines up against him. He stresses that you shouldn’t empathize with his terrible decisions, but you can’t help but be sympathetic.

That is the key. Normally I think of myself as the hero – at least in the sense of, if I was there I’d at least want to make those same decisions. Even with an anti-hero, I still think that if I was living a completely different life I could be that cruel and ruthless when I needed to be. But Shinji is a different kind of protagonist. I can’t really empathize with his specific decisions. However, taking a step back I can understand his general reactions. Refusing to give in and do things that are against your personal code, even at the cost of your own life. Having only bad choices, which causes you to do something you can’t justify and not being able to live with it. I might not think like Shinji, but I can sympathize with his plight.

So now, when I think about some of Shinji’s worst decisions, I no longer try and explain them away, I just think, “Don’t be link Shinji”. I actually like Shinji more now. I understand why he is so broken, but I don’t try and justify all his actions. The “Don’t be like Shinji” idea is not trying to make Shinji out as evil, he just makes bad decisions. Like agreeing to kiss Asuka, but not even touching her. Or when she has to keep prompting him to pay attention to her when she is wearing her bathing suit. I wondered if maybe he really did think of the two of them as kids (like when he didn’t kiss her the first time) and just not have that much interest in her beyond that point. But no, at the hospital, he shows that he lusts after her so fiercely that he makes a really creepy/bad decision. And then, of course, when she actually needs him, and the final attack comes, he once again, for at least the 3rd time, takes no action until things get completely out of hand.

During the series he specifically says that he doesn’t want everyone to die anymore, although he never said the opposite in the first place so maybe he only thought it. But then, when it actually matters if he thinks everyone should die or not, he says go ahead and goo everyone. And then, when everyone is human soup, mm mm good, only then does he say, Hey, let’s give this living thing a chance. Seriously, Shinji makes terrible decisions. Don’t be like Shinji.

Then there is how Shinji thinks about Misato. Like I said above, his friends convince him that they are like family. Later, she breaks down crying because she loves him so much and thinks she has lost him. A sweet moment, but Shinji responds by pushing her away in the next episode. It is a bit inconsistent and I am told the creator, Hideaki Anno, started rewriting the second half of the show after the first half was already done so maybe that is why Shinji’s feelings sort of jump around a bit. But reacting to what is on screen, my main feeling about this is that Misato decides to treat him as an adult, capable of making the decisions that need making and capable of being loved and loving others. But Shinji rejects this idea and retreats into his delusion that he is just a kid and can’t make the tough calls. He clings desperately to the thought that he is unlovable. Both by others and himself. I talk about this a lot in the next section.

If only there was some hint to tell us what Shinji was thinking…

And on to the second problem. If at the end, Shinji just sort of looks around and says, “I think I’d prefer a world with people instead of this one,” then what was the point? Where is the character arc? A lot of fans just sort of accept this idea. Shinji spent the entire show insisting that he was unlovable, but now that we are at the end, all of a sudden he can love himself and everything will be alright. A lot of fans really aren’t demanding much from Anno and the show.

I suppose you could say that the big character arc is that Shinji is driven to the brink of insanity and all the people he knows dies and he initiates third impact and makes everyone liquid and then just arbitrarily decides to be a hero and allow everyone to come back. The problem is that that is really bad storytelling. Everything about his character says he would do the opposite. We are supposed to accept that he just decided, at this exact moment, for the first time ever, that it is OK to love himself. Shinji, our hero. Hurray…

You know, I might not think Anno is some god who can’t make a mistake, but I do believe he knows how to tell a story. He knows what a story arc is. He knows what a character arc is. He worked very hard on all this. There has to be something more than just Shinji decided to make a decision that is completely out of character.

So, as I’m reading reviews and discussions of the show, a few – a very few – mention Misato’s cross. Misato’s cross nailed to a grave marker at the end. Misato’s cross floating across the screen as Shinji decided that he wants to return to being human. I have no idea what these people are talking about. I think about it and remember that there is a plus sign floating across the screen in the big climactic scenes. [I believe I did mention that I miss everything and need people to tell me what the hell is going on.] If only they had put in some kind of clue to what made Shinji make these decisions. Maybe I could figure out what Shinji was thinking if that plus sign didn’t keep floating in front of him. Maybe if I try and look behind the plus sign I can figure out… I keep getting the feeling I’m missing something… Something important…

Wait a minute, Misato gave Shinji that cross she always wears in her final moments. That is what is floating across the screen during the climax? Why doesn’t everyone talk about it? Obviously Anno and the rest put it there during the climax for a reason. It’s not like they were even subtle about it. It takes up a third of the damn screen at times. Why isn’t everyone trying to put it in context? Is the answer to my question that most of the fans are teenagers, and too busy talking about how they are also depressed to actually notice the story? I don’t know, but I started wondering what the most obvious reasons for the cross being there would be. [After thinking about this for a long time I now think people don’t talk about this because so many of the fans just love to talk about what is happening during all those trips through people’s minds. If Anno had shown Shinji thinking about a cross, a lot of the fans would have jumped on it and tried to explain it. But if an actual cross is on the screen, they apparently don’t feel the need to talk about it. Weirdos.]

To me this means that Shinji is thinking of Misato – not really much of a stretch. He’s held on to the cross through everything because he really did love her. And now he’s remembering what happened during the last meeting. The most significant thing is that when she kissed him, he finally, FINALLY, allowed himself to admit that she loved him. And if she can love him, he must be worth loving. And he can love himself too. He’ll make decisions, like any other adult, and they will be his. He says he expects to be betrayed and abandoned, but he wants to meet others again. There will be pain, but if one person loved him than others can too. And he can now love others. She told him things will get better. Oh, and he promised her he’d come back. And she really seemed to want him to keep that promise.

So all Misato’s sacrifices convinced Shinji that living was better than merging. And the human race will continue because of it. And the Shinji/Misato story arc comes to a close. I find this so much more satisfying than my impressions after the first time I saw EoE. Actually, that is a pretty good close to the series. I love a good love conquers all story. At least that is how I see it. I shall name my theory of the show after myself. I’ll call it the “I’m crazier than you so you should listen to my theory of Evangelion” theory.

Still, I feel like I’m shouting in the wilderness here. I can’t find many people talking about what I consider a fairly straightforward interpretation. It’s not like I’m saying you should throw out everything you know about the characters and replace it with the opposite. I’m just taking the main themes of the show – Shinji not loving himself, Misato’s repeated attempts to connect with Shinji and convince him that life is worth living, and her attempts to keep him alive – and combining them in a fairly obvious storytelling arc. I eventually found a completely different youtube video [I reference it again when I talk about Misato’s Father’s death below.] that did mention the cross. But this guy says, Shinji just never dropped the cross and then noticed he was carrying it and it reminds him that there are other people around and hey, wouldn’t it be nice to see some of them again. Believe what you want, but I can only think that this guy missed the forest for the trees. At least he seemed to understand that the cross floating on the screen during the climax meant something.

Not sure where to put this next point, so I’ll just shoehorn it in here. Many fans think there are only two ways to think of the Shinji/Misato relationship. 1.) Shinji should have been grateful for any opportunity to have sex with Misato. 2.) Misato was evil for entertaining any sexual thoughts towards Shinji. These same fans insist that if you don’t agree with them, then you must hold the other view. I don’t subscribe to either view. I think Shinji wanted to be loved in many different ways, just like us “normal” people, but was trapped by his view of himself to believe that he would never be loved in any way. And I think that Misato wanted Shinji to break free of his self-hatred and was going to love him anyway she could to insure that that happened. And, most significantly, there was no single, obvious, correct way for her to act that would allow her to connect to Shinji. No matter what Misato did, Shinji was going to come up with some excuse to convince himself that she didn’t really love him – with one exception.

How do you solve a problem like Shinji?

So what was the nature of Shinji and Misato’s relationship? What was Misato trying to do and why was Shinji so determined to resist it? There is much more interpretation in this section. Unlike the last section which really was just straightforward listing of the main themes of the show.

When I went back and rewatched everything I began to notice that what I had thought was happening, that Misato and Shinji were trying to relate to each other as Mother-Son, was never really there – or at least was only a small part of their relationship. Because of their age difference it was expected that that was how they should act, but it never really happened. From the beginning she flirted with him. He makes fun of her childish ways. They had their first big fight because Shinji tried to pull the “I’m just a kid so I’m just going to do what I’m told” bit with her. She said NO! You are not just a kid. You have to decide to be here. He even tried some passive aggressive stuff: You need me (with the subtext of if you didn’t need me you wouldn’t want me around). She doesn’t back down. With that attitude he’ll just get himself killed. Maybe he doesn’t know how to say it, but he still has to make the adult decision and choose.

And that is really the dynamic between them for the entire show. Misato treating him like an adult and Shinji trying to stay in the image he’s created of himself as just a dumb kid who can’t change things and isn’t responsible for anything that happens. Another way of saying that would be Misato trying to convince him to love himself and Shinji desperately clinging to the idea he is worthless and unlovable. Other people do mention that the show is a metaphor for growing up. Others may describe it as Shinji needing to stop running away. Or he needs to decide to live in the real world or be an individual or whatever. What all that means is to stop being a kid and be an adult. I’d like to say to be a man, but people often limit that to punching people and seducing women. Which is far more limited than what I mean (although those things can be fun).

I actually mean this much more literally than others do. Every day, Misato wanted him to be an adult. Turn away from his self loathing and make the decisions affecting his own life. Among her last words in the show are these describing her attempts to rebuild her life when she was young, “I’d be elated one minute and hate myself the next in an endless cycle.” It took her years, but she finally broke out of the cycle and became an adult, even if she’s still broken in some ways. She sees Shinji in the same cycle and pushes him over and over again to break out of it, but she just can’t reach him. Still, she keeps believing that he can do it. If she keeps treating him as an adult, her equal, her comrade, she thinks he will stand up for himself and survive all this.

Which is kind of a gutsy thing to do. Instead of treating him as a 14 year old who needs a mom, she does what no one else would have and gives him a much more adult love. She is definitely not supposed to do that, but in the end, it’s what saves him. I really expected after Misato breaks down crying when they get Shinji back that Shinji would understand Misato loves him and would change for the better. An understatement would be that that does not happen.

That episode I referenced above, where he comes back to save everyone after quitting, just before that, Misato says goodbye. During yet another stilted conversation, she apologizes for basically putting the fate of the human race on his shoulders. “I pinned all my hopes, aspirations, and sense of purpose on you. And I know that’s been a terrible burden for you”. It is really the only time she tries to articulate what she thinks about him. She asks for understanding, but she does not ask him to change his mind. As long as they are comrades she will make tough decisions that put him in danger. And she doesn’t want the Angels to destroy the world, but even more she doesn’t want to scrape his remains out of an entry plug. Remember, she was temporarily relieved of command when she refused to execute a plan to kill an Angel because it would probably kill Shinji. So she is fine with him leaving and being safe. She is on his side, whatever side that is. And, as always, if he wants to return, she’ll take on the world with him.

Then we reach one of Shinji’s truly awful decisions. In what I consider easily the saddest scene in the entire series, Misato breaks down crying after she realizes that Kaji is dead. Shinji sees her, and just turns around and goes back to bed. He loves Misato and it hurts him to hear her cry, but he just turns up his music and covers his head with a pillow.

Shinji: “The only thing I could do, was run away from Ms. Misato. There was nothing I could do. Nothing I could say. I was just a child.”

Shinji decides that he won’t comfort her because he thinks of himself as a helpless child and Misato would treat him as her equal. An adult. And he chooses not to want that. This is why I think neither of them thought of their relationship as Mother-Son even though they both knew they were supposed to. A son could easily comfort a mother, but two adults would bond over such a loss and Shinji doesn’t think he deserves such a bond. So he hides.

It could be argued that I’m pushing this whole adult/child choice, trying to connect, character arc idea because I think it makes the story more satisfying, but I’m wrong and this is all in my head, not on the screen. Maybe, but here the choice is stark, the immediate stakes for Shinji are low, and his thinking explicitly stated. I am just taking these ideas and saying they also explain many other actions Misato and Shinji make. [Now might be a good time to repeat that when I say “adult”, a big part of that is learning to love yourself and accepting that others love you too. That and that he is not helpless. He has agency. His decisions matter.]

This is more of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma stuff. Shinji knows that Misato cares about him and is deliberately keeping his distance to avoid the hurt he knows must be coming. Kind of sad he is doing that since Misato is literally the only person on Earth who loves him. Asuka sort of loves and hates him I guess. Not sure if Rei understands her own feeling towards him.

This was the episode after he was absorbed by the Eva and Misato breaks down thinking she’ll never see him again. Misato, the fearless warrior, the scourge of all Angels, cares nothing about how this looks and through her tears calls out to the Universe to give her back Shinji. And the Universe answered! And in return, Shinji can’t take two steps forward and put a hand on her shoulder. Because that would be too adult for his psyche. Don’t be like Shinji. 

A Tale of Two Hand Touches

Now we reach a scene I find kind of confusing. When Misato tries to comfort Shinji after Rei dies. Lots of people try to attach a lot of theories to this scene, so it would probably be best to first describe what is actually on screen.

Shinji is on his bed, but is not wearing his headphones. When Shinji wants to retreat into his own world he wears his headphones, but everything is so overwhelming that even that doesn’t work this time. Then Misato, for the first time I believe, enters Shinji’s room when he is present. Until now she always stayed at the door. She tries to comfort him, touches his hand, and says, “I wish there was more I can do, but all I can do is this.” Shinji completely rejects her outreach. Misato can only think, “He’s afraid of getting close to others.” Misato tries to hold Pen Pen, but when he doesn’t move she thinks, “I see. Anyone would do. I’m the one who’s lonely.” Which foreshadows EoE when Asuka says the same “Anyone would do” idea to Shinji. Almost everything in EoE is foreshadowed somewhere. These two just can’t connect no matter how much they need someone.

My first impression of this scene was that Shinji was again retreating into his own world where he insists he’s just a kid who is worthless and doesn’t deserve any intimacy from anyone. He’s only had disasters when he tried to let someone in. Either they rejected him (his father), or she became a basket case (Asuka), or she died to save him (Rei). He obviously loves Misato, but feels he has to push her away before she can hurt him – or, more likely, to prevent hurting her. At this point his mind just can’t imagine it ending any other way. So Shinji now wants to avoid Misato.

Technically, Shinji never says he’s trying to avoid Misato. He says in episode 24 that he doesn’t want to or like going home lately. But he is shown twice at his home after Misato touches his hand. There is a second possibility. Him not wanting to go home could just as easily refer to how Shinji feels at the beginning of episode 23. Shinji is sad that Misato has been shutting herself up in her room because of Kaji, and he is also sad that Asuka won’t come home. Many fans just assume he said that because Misato touched his hand, but we are never given any clear indication which of the two possibilities are responsible for him not wanting to go home. Like I say, a lot of fans insist they know, but we really aren’t told why and I find either explanation equally possible.

Oh, I forgot that Shinji does say at the beginning of EoE that he is afraid of both Misato and Ayanami. But again, does this refer to Misato touching his hand or the things she says to him after he kills Kaworu? Shinji certainly didn’t agree with what she said and is not thinking clearly. After the hospital scene Shinji is shown briefly in his own bed, which tells me he isn’t afraid that Misato will force herself on him as many think. I suspect that Anno deliberately made his motivations unclear because he just enjoys making us jump through hoops.

After I thought about the scene, I wondered about something else. When he tells Misato to stop he turns away and shuts his eyes. It is interesting because in earlier episodes, when Misato went to his room and just talked to him while standing in the doorway, Shinji always did the same thing. He always faces away from her with his eyes closed. I think they show him in episode 15 actually awake and staring at the ceiling just before Misato talks to him, but then he immediately closes his eye and faces the wall. In fact, after Misato leaves you hear her and Asuka talking in the other room and Shinji covers his head with his pillow. I had just thought he was like I was when I was a kid and if I didn’t want to talk to my mother, I’d just sit there pretending to be asleep, but now I think it is meant to mean something more.

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out exactly know what it is supposed to mean. I’m actually reminded of the scene from Saving Private Ryan (1998) where the medic talks about how, when he was a kid, his mother worked late each night and he’d always try and stay awake to see her, but it never worked and he always fell asleep. “Only thing is, sometimes she’d come home early, and I’d pretend to be asleep… She’d stand in the doorway looking at me… and I’d just keep my eyes shut. And I knew she just wanted to find out about my day – that she came home early… just to talk to me. And I still wouldn’t move… I’d still pretend to just be asleep. I don’t know why I did that.”

I kind of wonder if Shinji had spent every night of his childhood wishing he’d had a mother who would want to talk to him or wish him good night. Or for the last few years maybe wishes he had a girlfriend. And that by strange circumstances he now has a beautiful female guardian and he has a hard time accepting that it is real. That he isn’t just dreaming or crazy and if he opens his eyes it will all disappear, or in this final case, he thinks he’s hallucinating and closes his eyes to return to reality. I could really see that as Shinji’s mindset. I suspect that Anno and the rest had some idea in mind, but they didn’t give enough clues to actually figure it out. It could be a more ordinary problem like it is just his insecurities showing and he thinks he is undeserving and it is wrong that Misato is giving any attention to someone like him. Who knows.

There is another component to the scene that I originally didn’t see and had to be pointed out to me. During an interview, one of the animators was asked if there was a sexual component to the scene. And the answer was yes, she was offering her body to Shinji. OK. Not something I was expecting to read. Also, fans have pointed out that there is a visual clue to this on the screen. When Shinji is alone on the bed, the animators position a chair so the back looks kind of phallic. And then Misato comes in and sits on the bed which covers up the chair back. If you rewatch the scene you’ll see what they were going for and then you’ll never be able to unsee it. (They actually redrew the chair for the director’s cut of the episode. The original chair back looked a little like a big dildo. The DC version looks more like an average chair.)

To me, even after adding the sexual component to the scene, the main points I take away are the same – mostly because Shinji refused even the most basic intimacy that Misato actually offered when she touched his hand. There is definitely a sexual subtext, but I think that is more from the fact that they are not actually related and Shinji already thinks of her in a sexual way. I don’t think it is because Misato is just dying to have sex with Shinji – which is how some fans think of this scene. I read her motives as just trying to comfort Shinji. But I guess, apparently, if he had turned around and wanted sex from her she would have agreed. Personally, I doubt she was expecting him to want that, but there’s no way to really know.

I probably wouldn’t bother talking about this so much except some fans just go on and on about this scene and often ascribe motives and reactions that aren’t actually in the scene. One thing that comes up is fans insist that Misato was trying to force sex on Shinji. I can find nothing even remotely like that in the scene. In fact, those same fans will then talk about Kaworu, who touches Shinji’s hand in almost the exact same way, and think that there is nothing wrong with Kaworu doing that. You remember Kaworu? The Angel who is planning to destroy humanity? Yeah, that guy. He’s touching Shinji’s hand for noble and good reasons, but Misato, you know that woman who loves Shinji more than her own life, she touches Shinji’s hand for bad reasons.

Some fans insist that Misato only knows how to relate to men using sex and doesn’t really know that she isn’t supposed to act sexually with Shinji. This is obviously not the case. In episode 2 she makes the joke about putting the moves on Shinji with Ritsuko. Now, some people argue about why she made the joke, but the fact is she knows this isn’t something you just casually do.

I’d add that if Misato’s motives were mainly sexual in this scene, she would have reacted with more contrition afterwards. Instead, in her inner monologue, she is trying to figure out how Shinji thinks and she also realizes that she is much more lonely than she’d been aware. There are no thoughts along the line of, “Oh, I probably shouldn’t have tried to get Shinji to have sex with me just because I needed some sex.”

And these fans insist that Shinji is terrified that Misato will try and get him to have sex with her and that is why he starts avoiding her. The animators never tell you Shinji’s motivations. In fact they don’t even hint at what he thought, but I just don’t see how Shinji figured out that that is what Misato was trying to do by touching his hand. For some reason, these fans insist that the only reason Misato would do that is because she wanted sex. Strange. My mother has tried to reassure me by touching my hand and never followed it up with sexual advances. In fact, I’ve never once encountered a friend who was upset at their mother or stepmother touching their hand because they knew it was really a sexual advance. Seriously, how did Shinji, the boy who knows nothing about intimacy, conclude that touching a hand must mean sex is on the way? I’m just going with the simplest explanation. Shinji wants to avoid any intimacy because he wants to stay in his imaginary “I’m just a kid” view of the world and because he thinks he’s worthless and not deserving of any comforting.

By the way, I’m aware that I could have the motives in this scene wrong. It is possible that Anno really was trying to paint Misato in a disturbing light and I’m not realizing it. They only gave you that one small hint about sex, but maybe in the animator’s eyes that was supposed to mean a lot more – or maybe not. They never spell out what her motivations or plans are so you could say they are virtually anything and not be proved wrong. Oh, and I again suspect Anno intentionally made the scene unclear. He probably wants people like me to wonder if they missed something. Many of the other things I write about on this page involves taking scenes and showing how they relate to other scenes which then give insights into how characters are thinking. I can find no other scene that gives me insight into Misato’s thinking here.

Well, this scene does call back to earlier in the same episode when Rei tells the invading Angel that the Angel is lonely, but the Angel corrects her and Rei realizes the pain she’s always felt is her own loneliness. Rei even wonders if her heart wants to be one with Shinji. She then says “No”, but I think that is her determination to keep the Angel from hurting Shinji and not an answer to her own question about whether or not she wants Shinji. She then sacrifices her own life to save Shinji. So a lot of parallels with what Misato concludes during this scene and then later does in EoE, but it doesn’t give any insights into what her motivations are in this scene.

OK, I’ve talked about how some fans ascribe questionable motives to the scene and described the actual events. So how does the scene tie into the main story arcs? First, I believe Anno wanted to show how impossible it is for Shinji and Misato to connect. Again, Anno knows what a story arc is. After this scene, the two of them are even further apart and it looks like they could never really connect. If preventing the end of the world requires the two of them to come together somehow, it really feels like that could never happen. Shinji is just one step above completely collapsing, and is about to fall even further, but he still won’t be open with Misato. Misato is trying to hold it together too. She’ll never get over Kaji, she’s trying to find out if the organization she dedicated her life to is the ultimate evil, and Rei just died. She pays attention to Shinji and knows just how devastated he is and just has to try something.

I think something else that we are supposed to get out of the scene is that Misato probably wanted to say “I love you” to him and simply couldn’t. It is quite possible that she had never once spoken the words “I love you” since she was 14 years old. She probably never even said them to Kaji. Instead she hides her love behind a general “physical touching is good” front. Perhaps, when she eventually did kiss Shinji, she finally dropped the front and admitted to herself that it is love she feels even if she never says the words.

Another thing I think Anno wanted to do is contrast Misato touching Shinji’s hand with Kaworu doing the same thing – he doesn’t even hesitate to express his feelings and gets a completely different result (more below).

One of the video reviews described Kaworu’s love of Shinji as that of a boyfriend. He’s a, “Whatever Shinji says or does, I’ll love you” kind of guy. Including if Shinji kills him. Misato’s love is not like that. She is not his girlfriend telling him he is wonderful. She is not offering unconditional love like a mother. Hers is the love of an ally. Hers is the love of a comrade. Hers is the love of a companion or, dare I say it, a lover. Hers is the love of someone who believes in him. Believes that he can come through in the end if he just fights. If she needs to kick him in the ass to get him moving, she’ll do that. There are plenty of people who would have rolled their eyes at such a belief because Shinji is often a terrible protagonist, but not her. She loves Shinji and if you try and hurt him she’ll kick your teeth in.

You know, I never really did understand exactly what many of the things Kaworu said meant. I know I could research everything, but it doesn’t really matter. In the end he said he loved Shinji and effortlessly connected with him. He touches Shinji’s hand and, even though Shinji doesn’t seem interested in him that way, Shinji wants to hang out, have a sleepover, and talk with him. And what do they talk about? Kaworu tells him, “Choosing to die is the one and only choice that no one can take away from you.” Well he’s a great influence.

It is interesting. Back in episode 20, when he is stuck in the Eva, Shinji is asked what he wishes for. At first I had no idea what he might wish for. But after a while an idea did start to form. Even more than reconnecting with his father, even more than being with any of the women on the show, my guess would be that he wishes he could avoid the entire Hedgehog’s Dilemma stuff with people. To live in a world where people tell him what they think and expect him to do the same in return. And basically, Kaworu is just that. He just starts talking to Shinji without holding back. Shinji immediately picks up on this and responds by blurting out his feelings too. Shinji discovers he craves this kind of interaction. This would be the main difference between Misato’s and Kaworu’s attempts to reach out to Shinji.

There are so many different ways to look at Kaworu. Anno has said in an interview that Kaworu was intended to be Shinji’s idealized version of himself, something which allows Shinji to easily drop his defense mechanisms and he feels he is not exactly dealing with an “Other”.

Since Kaworu is an Angel, does he understand what sex is? Does he love Shinji for himself or as a proxy for all humanity? Is the Netflix “worthy of my grace” translation actually a pretty good one because Kaworu thinks of himself more as a god bestowing his favor upon Shinji?

I’ve noted that both episodes 23 and 24 have a character touch Shinji’s hand, but what about this as another parallel. Misato realizes that she is so desperate for comfort that anyone will do. Asuka in EoE reads Shinji’s mind and tells him that he also is so desperate for comfort that anyone would do. Is Asuka referring back to him turning to Kaworu? And because Shinji turned to an Angel for comfort, him telling Asuka he needs her seems almost meaningless? Hard to say if Anno had that in mind, but the reused language suggested a connection to me.

I suppose that EoE scene with Shinji and Asuka could also relate to Shinji’s and Kaworu’s relationship in the sense that the boys thought of each other in an idealized way. Shinji is basically asking Asuka to think of him in that idealized, unconditional way also. Asuka says no, she wants a relationship based in reality – which is interesting because Asuka had, until now, always thought of Kaji in a similar idealized way. But now Asuka’s changed. Because of her epiphany with her mother, Asuka now only wants a real relationship. Similarly, God Rei tells Shinji in EoE that he wanted to retreat from reality into a dream world.  Shinji can only give Asuka that after Instrumentality.

But back to episode 24. It’s been suggested that Shinji can accept love from Kaworu more easily because he is male and Shinji isn’t looking for a male lover. Possibly. In any case, Kaworu’s love is certainly different than any he’s seen before. He asks nothing from Shinji so Shinji can’t disappoint him. Which is quite a relief from Shinji’s point of view. It is also a rather childlike version of love. Shinji has no experience with adult love. He thinks that because he is flawed he is unlovable. If he doesn’t do what others want they won’t love him. He just can’t understand that adult love means that Misato sees every flaw and limitation he has and still loves him.

Even though Kaworu was never disappointed by Shinji, he still ends up dead. And Shinji was the cause. Shinji’s depression distorts his view of the world and he becomes firmly convinced that everyone’s problems are all caused by him. The problem isn’t that Kaworu chose to try to destroy mankind. He takes all of the blame.

Afterward, Misato tried talking to Shinji about this, but as always she couldn’t connect at all. The subtitles in the old translation have Shinji say, “It was the first time someone told me they loved me.” In her own way, Misato was as broken as Shinji or Asuka and no matter how she felt about him she just couldn’t say those words. Instead she told him, “Only those who have the will to live can survive.” She told Shinji he wasn’t at fault. If anything, this pushes Shinji even further away. Shinji could only reply, “That’s cold, Ms. Misato.” [In the older translation he says, “How can you be so cruel?”] [More on Misato’s words way down below.]

Interesting of Shinji to say she’s cold because she spent all her time in the EoE movie hot blooded. Every decision concerning Shinji was guided by her emotions. Shinji took Kaworu’s words to heart and chose to die. As a complete contrast, Misato ignored what she just said and desperately gave up everything that she was to try and infuse Shinji with the will to live.

End of Evangelion – Why Misato never even considered doing anything differently.

As we reach the EoE movie, Shinji goes from flawed protagonist to door stop. Unable to give Asuka the back up she needs or stop the slaughter of the thousands of NERV personal. Don’t be like Shinji. But how did this happen? Why was a movie made where even many of the fans think Shinji let them down. Anno subverted the Giant Robot genre with the series, and with the movie he subverts just about everything.

Think about how normal movies build up the hero, especially in, but not limited to, action movies. The hero normally will be tested. Some great obstacles will be put in their way. They will often lose so much along the way that normal people would be crushed by their loss. But then, when no hope remains, the hero will decide that they will redouble their efforts and fight until victory. That is what you expect from a hero in movies.

But think about how the EoE movie is structured. The animators deliberately subvert the way you build up a hero. Shinji starts by doing a truly pathetic act. Then, when we learn that forces are a foot to end humanity, kill everyone in NERV, and execute the pilots – specifically Asuka – Shinji decides to just hide under some stairs. Anno and the other makers of the film really go out of their way to make Shinji unlikable. Make the audience think, gee, maybe we should hate him, or at least abandon him to his fate.

Another quick aside – It is amusing that many fans want to stick up for Shinji here. I like him too so I do understand the impulse. They say things like, “Shinji was being used by everyone so he didn’t owe anyone anything.” There are other variations where they make excuses why he shouldn’t want to help Misato or Asuka or Rei or the human race. They really seem not to understand that Anno showed him at his worst for a reason. Anno is not shocked that someone like me would write that he intentionally made him look awful. It was all part of the story he wanted to tell. – End of another aside.

So all those things I wrote about above, the ways you show off your hero, make your audience invested in the outcome, where do they come in to play? Once again, the answer is Misato. Anno deliberately subverts our expectations about who will act heroically.

I would like to pause for a moment, for no apparent reason, to list everything that Misato can call her own: 1.) Her command. 2.) Her car. 3.) Her cross. 4.) Her life. Now back to the action.

Misato knows there is some crazy plan to destroy the world, but the immediate need is to keep everyone she knows and has worked with for the past 6 months from being slaughtered and Asuka and Shinji from being executed. Then she finds out that Shinji can’t provide cover for Asuka because he is hiding under some stairs.

A lot of frustrated fans would have been tempted to do nothing, but, of course, she sends out a rescue team. The death toll rises and she knows it is only a matter of time before everyone around her will be dead. Then she learns that the rescue team she sent out is cut off and Shinji will soon be found and killed. What does she do?

She abandons her post. That is what she does. Puts Shinji in front of everyone else. Checks her pistol and walks off to single-handedly kill every single person between her and Shinji. So much is happening it is easy to miss this and just treat it as part of the plot, but that’s what she does. That’s quite a sacrifice to save the guy hiding under the stairs.

But OK, she saves Shinji in rather impressive fashion. I mentioned the shaky cam above, but did you notice how, after she kills the last guy, she stands still for just a second as she controls the adrenaline rush? Shinji doesn’t respond as she drives him to Unit 01. Even when Misato tells him humanity might be about to die, then fights her way through a roadblock, then totals her car going through a second roadblock, and then is told Asuka is awake and fighting, even then Shinji refuses to do anything. Just repeats “Help me Asuka” to himself. He could actually make the decision to fight for Asuka on the surface, give her the backup she really needed, but he just sits there doing his “I’m just a child” act. Misato has to drag him away. She’s trying to stop everyone, including Shinji, from dying from a Third Impact. If she can just get him to Unit 01 he might live through this. It is her only real motivation at this point. If he gets in the Eva he might live. Yo, Shinji! Get in the Robot! Misato Loves You!

I have to again give credit to the people who made the analysis videos for pointing out how the scenes between Misato and Shinji are shot. Some are wide shots that use the physical distance between the two of them as a metaphor for the psychological distance between them. Even more interesting is the far away shots. You are shown the two of them from a distance, often taking up just a small amount of the screen. It gives the impression that you are overhearing the private discussions of a dysfunctional family. Misato, the woman who spent her whole life avoiding connections trying to connect with the boy half her age who doesn’t think he deserves connections. It does kind of make the situation feel even more uncomfortable than it would have been. [Misato telling him goodbye in episode 19 is shot in a similar fashion. At least some of the end of episode 24 is too.]

Misato is mortally wounded shielding Shinji with her body and seeing her shot finally snaps him out of it. On the ground bleeding, Misato looks at Shinji out of the corner of her eye. That look, combined with the sweat on the side of her face is damn sexy. She only has the look for a second, but it is the look of cunning. It is how Misato looks when she drops her mask. Misato realizes that she is short of her goal. Shinji isn’t in the robot. He’s dead unless she can get him to want to go in the robot. Instantly she puts her mask back on. She lulls her head to the side, smiles, and tells him it isn’t as bad as it looks. She barely makes it to her feet and then pushes him against the elevator screen. One of her hands on either side of him so he can’t move. Shinji looks over at her left hand grasping the screen. It has blood on it. Is he thinking about how Misato has trapped him? Or is he remembering back to episode 1 when he had Rei’s blood on his hands? No wait – it’s probably Kaworu’s blood on the Eva’s hand that he’s thinking of. In any case he just lowers his head and looks at the floor. Misato is only an average size woman, but she dwarfs Shinji. It looks so wrong. The show is so twisted.

Misato tells him that he is on his own and has to make his own decisions. No more help. I should also add that in their entire final scene she never mentions fighting the Eva Series or stopping Third Impact. Just tells him to get the answers that he needs. That, and that she wants him to survive. There have been mentor characters in stories since there have been stories, but at some point the mentor has to leave the hero to face the demons alone. She’s done everything she can to get Shinji ready, but now we find out if it was enough.

Shinji just repeats what he has said many times before including several things he told his friends back in episode 4 at the railroad station (sneak, coward). Even this situation hasn’t shocked him into introspection. He says he’s worthless, doesn’t understand any of this, can’t do anything, is a bad person and therefore shouldn’t do anything. He’s just going to hurt people so he should do nothing. They even show his hand squeezing the fencing to reinforce that he is firm in his decision. Whenever he makes a decision he squeezes his hand shut. He is determined to do nothing.

Realizing she is dying and has to reach him somehow in her last 2 minutes of life, she calms herself and tries talking to him as an adult one more time: “You hate yourself. That’s why you hurt others…” She tells him just making decisions is meaningful and that he made a difference. He has agency. “Don’t look away, think about what you can do and make amends any way you can.”

Shinji has had enough of this kindness and sympathy crap. He’s just a kid. It is not his responsibility to do anything. If he can just push her away he can die in the corridor, alone and forgotten like he wants. Even now he won’t look at her. He again squeezes the fencing to indicate that he is determined to push her away and just yells out:

Shinji: “What do you know? You don’t know anything about me! You’re just a stranger!”

I suppose this kind of takes some guts to say. Let’s run the numbers one more time, just to keep things in perspective.

The number of people on the face of the Earth who love him: 1

The number of people who don’t love him: Every other person

By stranger he must mean not part of the same family. This is the only real insight we are given in the entire series as to why Shinji refuses to accept that Misato loves him. In episode 4 he tried the same thing and it almost worked. He’s always believed, since they aren’t actually related, if she knew the real Shinji she’d abandon him so saying encouraging words to him doesn’t mean anything. His own flesh and blood doesn’t love him, so it is impossible for her to. She can now use what he said as an excuse to leave him.

Genuinely shocked by this, her mask disappears and she reacts with every bit of emotion and passion she has. Grabbing him with both hands and pushing him against the screen, all restraint gone, she opens her heart to the core and shouts:

“I’m a stranger to you? Fine! I don’t care! You want to quit? Is that it? If you don’t do anything right now, [Grasps his face in her hands (listen for the slap when she does this), lifts him unto his tip toes, tilts his head up, and looks him straight in the eye] I won’t ever forgive you! I will curse your name until the day I die!”

Yeah, he is willing to push her away, but the reason he pushed so hard is because he loves her the same as she loves him. He will not say something like that again.

[Oh, if you recall back in episode 4, Shinji taunted her saying of course you won’t scold me. It isn’t as if we’re family. Well, this time she practically ripped his head off.]

She starts telling him how “I’d be elated one minute and hate myself the next in an endless cycle.” She used to act like he does, but one step at a time she rose above that. The subtitles and the old dub have slightly different lines, and she is apparently talking about the years she didn’t speak and the years after when she had to come to terms with being an orphan and rebuilding her life and becoming an adult. She tells him to pilot the Eva one more time. [There is actually another callback here. As a sort of book end to the series, back in episode 1, Misato wanted him to get in the robot. That time she lowered her head to look him in the eyes and asked him, “Why did you come here?”]

Misato: “Figure out why you came here. What you were meant to do. Get the answers you need Shinji, and afterwards, when you’ve worked it all out, make sure you come back, OK? [She takes her cross from around her neck and puts it in his hands.] Promise me that. [He’s not looking at her again, gives her a quiet ok. Does he mean it?] Take care of yourself. [She leans down and kisses him. Eyes closed. Long and loving. Shinji can only stare up wide eyed. This time, after the kiss, he keeps looking her in the eye.] That’s how grown-ups kiss. We’ll do the rest when you get back, alright?” [She strokes his left check for a moment. The first of 3 women to do that in the movie.]

The elevator door opens and he stumbles back after a push by Misato. He gives a quick gasp as he sees her one last time, framed in the doorway. He sees her pleasant smile as the door quickly closes and she is gone. Shinji discovers that there is blood on his mouth and realizes the reason Misato is not in the elevator is that she is dying. He will never see her again. He doubles over in pain as he cries because of how strongly he really felt about her.

Misato slips to the floor so she can die alone in the corridor. Alone but not forgotten.

All of this was carefully planned by Anno. Every time he deliberately knocked Shinji down another notch, it was to show that Misato would make more sacrifices for him until she had nothing left to give, and then give even more. Misato was the one who does the heroic actions.

So what to make of all that? Some say that Misato was so bad at intimacy she could only connect to people through sex. She certainly had issues, but she had tried being kind, being supportive, and even tried crying on his chest and nothing had ever gotten through to him. I don’t think that explains it very well. Others said she kissed him to encourage him. An old post someone made a long time ago pointed out that, in their experience, 29 year old women do not give passionate tongue kisses to 14 year old boys to encourage them. And yeah, I agree. I think she had two reasons. One, because she loved him and would never be able to kiss him again. Two, because she wanted him to keep his promise and come back. She wasn’t just saying something that sounded nice. She. Really. Meant It.

And I think that at that moment Shinji finally understood that she truly loved him. That all his defenses were nothing compared to her love for him. They only have a few seconds after the kiss, but now they are both looking the other in the eye. It is the first intimate moment he’s ever experienced where he reacted without shame or embarrassment (or suffocation). She looks at him with such love. They don’t have to hide their feelings. There is no Hedgehog’s Dilemma between them anymore.

As for the “we’ll do the rest” line that she knew she’d never live to fulfill, I don’t think she was trying to deceive. I think she just liked the thought of it. [I came back to this after thinking about it. Lot’s of people don’t like that she explicitly said she’d have sex with him (or they cheer). When I look at this, I think of all the times I’ve read stories where someone will say: “If only things had been different I would have loved you.” A common trope is for someone, usually the woman, to give one kiss to the other before they both returned to the way things were before. It is kind of sweet, but I often have doubts about how sincere they are. So from a storytelling perspective I kind of like that Anno didn’t do that. Clearly saying that there are no limits to how Misato feels towards Shinji – end of story.]

As she lays there dying she asks Kaji if she did the right thing. Some people think she is asking if it was wrong to try and sex him up. That wasn’t how I read it. This scene was a callback to episode 15 (see below) where Kaji was able to reach her by kissing her, showing her that self-loathing is nothing compared to love. She knew how Kaji was able to connect with her and she wants to connect with Shinji, but she doesn’t trust her instincts. I also think she is asking him if she was right to treat him as an adult. She could have acted like his mother and treated him as a child, shielding him as much as possible. Or she could have been just a cold commanding officer. Instead she treats him as a man, someone she loves and who can stand on his own. She has no idea if that will save him, as it basically does, or if that will leave him a wreck hoping for death, as it sort of does. At almost every point in the series there is no obvious decision the characters are supposed to make.

I will take this opportunity to say that Misato never says she loves or believes in Shinji. When Shinji rejects instrumentality he never says Misato’s name or mentions his promise. The film makers make no effort to tell you what is going on. They just show you a few shots of Misato’s cross. I wanted to break that all down because things in the movie happen so fast that it is easy to just move past it and vaguely remember that she kissed him. I seem to recall being more than a little shocked by it, and then there was the great fight and arguments in people’s heads and liquid people, etc. I didn’t even try to process what the kiss meant until much later.

I still haven’t decided if I want to write about what happens in Shinji’s head before Instrumentality. No one really seems to understand the scene, so for now I’ll skip it and move on to the part where Rei, who has become more or less a god, decides that it is up to Shinji if everyone merges, and then after everyone merges whether they should stay like that or come back. This seems to make sense to every other fan of the show.

A final aside – I think the idea is that God Rei, or Giant Naked Rei (GNR) as many fans call her, wants Instrumentality to happen. They never say why GNR wants this, but she does. To make it happen she needs Shinji to let down his AT Field which he does after being calmed by Kaworu. Then she needs complete control of the Eva and for that to happen GNR needs Shinji to have a complete psychotic break, which happens after Shinji strangles Asuka. I believe GNR helps Shinji break by somehow giving Asuka access to Shinji’s memories, but not letting Shinji see Asuka’s. GNR then starts world wide Instrumentality. At this point GNR finally gives Shinji the choice on whether or not all humanity will have the option to come back. – End of a final aside.

After he wishes everyone should die, Shinji has a good soak and as he lies there, joined at the groin to the cloned body of his mother, he finally has a moment to think. Rei tells Shinji he is in the world he wanted. Then he opens his hand and shows that even now, floating in an ocean of LCL, he still has Misato’s cross.

Shinji says this isn’t the world he wants anymore. Misato’s cross floats across the screen. He promised Misato he’d come back.

Shinji: “Sooner or later I’ll be betrayed. I’ll be abandoned. But still, I feel I want to meet others again. And I think that feeling is genuine.”

So even now he thinks his life will be filled with betrayal and abandonment and he still wants to come back? Why? Because Misato convinced him things can be better too. He will meet more people who will believe in him and love him. And now he can love them back.

As we approach the end of all this, Shinji wanted what Misato did to matter. He surrendered. She fought his battles. He said he was just a kid. She treated him as her equal. He said he was worthless. She gave up everything for him. He pushed her away. She showed him how beautiful a kiss from a woman who loves you can be. He said he should die. She died for him. The only thing she asked for in return was that he come back. Even Shinji, the worst hero in the history of cinema, knows how special what she did for him was. And if she makes you promise to come back, you figure out a way to come back!

I guess, to sum that all up, what I’m saying is: Be Like Shinji!

Now you are free to disagree. I can’t help but notice that many people are posting 30 or 60 minutes of video on what this all means and for the most part, they all emphasize different things. You could for instance say: You idiot. Misato was only in there because the creators of the show thought it would have been cool if, when they were 14, a 29 year old woman had wanted to bang them.

And you’d probably be right but kind of miss the point of watching a show like this.

It is interesting that so many people downplay the big climactic scene between Shinji and Misato. Either they say she only cared about sex and that is why she said and did what she did – probably to encourage him. Or they say she was a predator that should never have been allowed near Shinji. To me, I saw the two of them saving the world together for 6 months and believed that none of the normal rules applied. I know some people can’t handle that answer and insist there is only one answer to every situation and you never have to use critical thinking. If that is how you think then there is this show I’d recommend you watch called Neon Genesis Evangelion that really encourages everyone everywhere to think for themselves and not just blindly accept what they’re told.

I’ve seen a lot of movies, read a lot of books, and I’ve seen love depicted in a thousand different ways. This show is a fantasy in many ways and on many levels, and yet even the first time I saw the kiss – and I honestly had no idea what was going on – I still recognized that this was one of the sweetest depictions of love I’d ever seen. I say that even though I can kind of empathize with Shinji in this one area. I would actually have believed it more likely that the entire human race was about to be combined in one gigantic jello mold than that someone like Misato could completely love my 14 year old self on my absolutely worst day. But somehow Anno actually convinced me that Misato did love Shinji in every way possible.

*** Below is the key paragraph of the entire post. This is why I found the show ultimately satisfying and why I consider a deep dive into it rewarding. ***

Again, it isn’t just that she loved him so much. It was that she did so after Shinji presented himself at his absolute worst. The Shinji that Anno showed you in EoE is the way Shinji always saw himself. He would be nice and care about others and then those others liked him, but then he’d remember. He’d remember that he was abandoned. And he must have been abandoned because he was worthless. Shinji was a nice young man who cared about others, but he managed to convince himself that deep down he was really awful. That when he acted nice and caring he was putting up a false front, making him just a sneak and a coward. Shinji even tried warning people he liked to stay away from him because he was really such a bad person. By the time we reach EoE, Shinji was so depressed he didn’t care that people saw what he deludedly believed was his true self. He literally bet the end of his own existence and end of the rest of the human race that Misato could never love him now that she’d seen his true self. And he bet wrong. And the people who disagree with me on all this are missing out on a wonderful love story.

You can dissect their final scene even more. After Misato’s shot, she still puts up a front because she doesn’t want to hurt him. She does this even though in the previous scene her eye actually twitches because she is so angry at him. She still doesn’t understand that Kaworu connected with Shinji because he was so open with him. It is only after Shinji, for the first time in his life, reveals his true thinking to her that she drops her own mask and says she’ll never forgive him. Only then does she tell him that she used to be just like him. And finally, with all their barriers gone, she knows what to do.

I suppose I should at least mention how Anno also subverted the standard fairy tale story. Instead of the prince waking the princess with a kiss it was the reverse. Or, depending on your point of view, it was the evil step mom who saved the prince with true loves kiss. I’m kind of surprised I’ve never seen anyone make that comparison. (Of course, I’m sure someone has… and after thinking some more I’m sure I did read this once somewhere. Almost everything on this page can be found somewhere else.)

One last bit in this section. Although sometimes the characters do things because the plot requires it, on the whole the characters are true to their instincts. Here I talk about an example of a complex backstory that was so well designed that it makes her actions completely understandable.

Did Misato hesitate before going to save Shinji? Did she want to give up on him? If you prefer, you can just say that she loved him so she would never have done that, but she was a commander in the middle of a battle so things can get complicated. I can only answer that when she was Shinji’s age she lost everything and was so conflicted she didn’t talk for two years. She was nothing but a burden with no family or friends. So of all the people on earth, Misato was the last one who would ever think of abandoning Shinji. She never hesitated.

And, of course, she wasn’t supposed to think of him as anything other than a kid. Everything in American and Japanese society said she was not to think of him as her equal. She was not to love him as if he were an adult. But once again, of all the people who could have come in contact with him, she was the one whose base personality was one of throwing to the wind any and all prohibitions. She was one of the very few women anywhere who could have convinced Shinji that he was loved because almost no one else would have kissed him, even if she was dying. And it was totally in character.

She was a complete misfit, but Shinji is only standing at the end because a woman as bizarre, lonely, and conflicted as Misato loved him heart and soul.

Misato and Kaji – The one man who beat her.

As I’ve mentioned, Misato apparently avoided all serious relationships her entire adult life, with one exception. Throughout the entire show she was shown reacting in various ways. She was angry, even furious. She was kind. She was playful. She was determined. She was commanding. She was frustrated, even bewildered by Shinji.

But the only time she was completely irrational was with Kaji. The moment he appeared she couldn’t control herself. Screaming at him. Insulting him. Trying not to think about him. Nothing worked. Everything about herself went out the window when he was around. Misato’s English voice actress even uses voices and tones around him the she uses nowhere else. I know many of their initial scenes together are just common anime tropes, but I really liked them.

Blown Up Sir!

That other video I mentioned, it suggested that Misato died in the same manner as her father. Well if they had deliberately made their deaths similar I’m sure I would have noticed.

So her father physically carried her to a safe location even though he was already mortally wounded. His blood spilled onto her face and then she looked at him for a moment before the door slammed shut. He then collapsed and was blown up. And he passed on his cross.

On the other hand, Misato physically dragged Shinji to a safe location, even after she was mortally wounded. Her blood smeared onto his face and after she pushed him into the elevator, he looked at her for a moment before the door slammed shut. She then collapsed and was blown up. And she passed on her cross.

Ah, it would appear that I missed another rather obvious connection.

You know, I can’t find any mention in the actual show that Misato’s cross was originally her father’s and he gave it to her as he was dying. Many YouTube explainer videos mention this, but there is nothing in the show. Must have been in one of the documents released by the animators afterwards.

I have to say that the scene of her father saving her was really effective. The light of the explosion visible from the moon. The painful carrying of Misato – they show you almost nothing, but that exposed bone in his arm says it all. The blood on her face reviving her just long enough to say “father” before the door closed. And then, her standing in what is now an ocean with the nearest land a 1000 miles away. She just stands there holding her bloody abdomen, staring at the Angel wings. Possibly the only human close enough to see them with the naked eye. Then the shift to her today, a scarred woman who has almost no relation to that kid, but who was made the women she is by that event.

When I rewatched episode 15, I noticed that when Kaji shows her that an Angel is in NERV’s basement, Misato has a flashback to the Second Impact. It looks like she actually saw Adam through the cracked roof of the building. In the earlier flashback they mislead you a bit and just show light coming through the roof. You couldn’t tell what the light was.

I was drawn back to this section after rewatching episode 12. Misato saw her father in Kaji, but it wasn’t always obvious to me exactly how. During this episode she says of her father, “People who knew him say he was a sensitive man. But the truth was, he was a weak hearted man that couldn’t stomach reality. A man that had to shield himself away from the reality of his own family. A man that was practically a child.” So strange. It sounds a lot like how Shinji’s detractors describe him. Complicated characters, complicated show. Maybe she couldn’t help but love Shinji because he was so much like her father. In any case, it was interesting how self-aware the show was about how many viewers would ultimately see Shinji.

Preceding her speech, she and Shinji were at a small party celebrating her promotion. The other teens get in a big argument. In a sweet little scene, Misato pays enough attention to Shinji to realize he’s anxious. Completely unprompted she asks him, “Still not comfortable with stuff like this?” He says he doesn’t like crowds. He pauses, and then looks over at her, perhaps realizing that she didn’t have to say anything to him, and then starts talking to her. He asks her why she joined NERV. She lies and says she doesn’t remember anymore. She is just as bad at connecting as Shinji is, but she knows she needs to and tells him why the next day. She wants to connect with Shinji, but every instinct she has tells her to do the opposite. She has to force herself to be open with him.

Misato: “I guess, maybe in the end it all boils down to me wanting revenge against my father. So I can be rid of the curse he has over me.” No matter what else happened, saving Shinji got rid of that curse.

I was reading a review where they talked about Misato and Shinji. They point out that Shinji needs Misato as both a mentor and social support, but they weren’t sure what Misato got out of the relationship. I think I’ve listed a number of things she got out of it, but you could add getting rid of that curse as another. Actually, when she started out she really was worried about Shinji, but her biggest concern was defeating the Angels. In many ways, when that reversed and wanting Shinji alive was what she wanted most, that and to save him by connecting with him [much the way Kaji wanted to save her or Shinji wanted to save Asuka], that was really the moment she got out from under her father’s curse.

A kiss by any other name

Rewatching episode 15, I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between Misato being kissed by Kaji and Shinji being kissed by Misato. This is where Misato tells Kaji she lied to him when she dumped him. She had told him she had found someone else. She really dumped him because she saw her father in him.

Misato: I didn’t know what to do. I just couldn’t. All I knew was that I was terrified. These feelings kept building up in me. Being with you. About being a woman. All of it just scared me to death… I was just deceiving myself by thinking I had joined [NERV] to get revenge against the Angels.

Kaji: You made your choice Katsuragi. You don’t have to apologize.

Misato: No. That’s the problem. I didn’t choose. All I did was run. I just wanted to run away from my father’s curse. I’m no different from Shinji. I’m such a coward… I’m such a child. How could I ever talk down to Shinji.

Kaji: That’s enough.

Misato: All I ever do is look for help in men when it’s convenient. I’m doing it right now. I have no shame at all. Even back then, Ryoji, I was using you the whole time. I hate myself!

Kaji: Stop it. That’s enough.

Misato: I’m hopeless. I know I’m hopeless. I– (kisses her to show her how he feels about her, making all of her criticism and self hatred seem pointless)

It isn’t an exact match for Shinji, but a lot of it is either said by Shinji, or said by me about what I think his motivations are, or is said accusingly to him by Asuka when she’s in his head.

And while he’s kissing her, her hands even mimics Shinji’s hand movements during their kiss.

Kaji wanted to connect with her, but Misato has to learn how to connect to people. Kaji knew all her flaws, but his love was what mattered. When she needs to connect with Shinji, Kaji has shown her how.

Ritsuko’s Cat

There is this weird scene where an imprisoned Ritsuko tells Gendo that her cat, which she had entrusted to her grandmother, had died. What an odd scene. Of course, the internet if full of ideas. It was noted that earlier, Kaji met with an old woman who was apparently his handler. During a second meeting, she has cats around her. When he meets with Ritsuko he gives her a cat related gift, but she immediately notes that he lied about where he got it. Maybe her grandmother is Kaji’s handler. Interesting that Ritsuko describes her old cat as something she hadn’t thought about in ages, but she’d been meaning to see it again, but now it was all too late. Is she describing Kaji instead of an actual cat?

Ritsuko is a character I really feel sorry for. She could have done anything. Instead she chose to become part of a plan to destroy humanity and she betrayed her only real friend. All because she loved someone who couldn’t have cared less about her. Talk about bad decisions.

Rei

Rei is actually a very popular character even though the story shifts away from her fairly early in the series. Lots of people identify with her as a loner and perpetual outsider. And for some reason Shinji always calls her Ayanami – I have no idea why he is the only one who regularly does, although I guess Toji does too.

When I rewatched the series I noticed two things about Rei.

1.) All the scenes between Shinji and Rei were really sweet. His attempts to connect. His attempts to understand her. When he cleans her room and she is so embarrassed by this small kindness. When she is kind back to him when he wakes up in the hospital.

2.) The scenes of Asuka and Rei were really twisted. It always takes me forever to catch on to stuff, but I realized that Asuka hated Rei so much because she reminded her of a doll in various ways and Asuka’s mother chose a doll over Asuka. So she never wants to come in second to a doll, or Rei, again. And it took me even longer to connect Asuka slapping Rei after the famous elevator scene to her mom killing the doll. Rei says she’ll die if told to kill herself and Asuka loses it. Asuka is so messed up. Probably the most messed up character.

Although, now that I think about it, at the end, when Rei rebels against Gendo, she tells him that she is not his doll. Maybe Asuka did help Rei after all.

Shouldn’t the question really be, “Why wasn’t Shinji always strangling Asuka?”

And finally, the final scene, where Shinji finally decides if his and Asuka’s relationship will reach some finality. I suppose I had just trusted that everyone knew what they were talking about when they said strangling her was him testing if he was back in the real world. Not a bad explanation. You can go on the internet and be told that the philosopher Hegel had a thought experiment involving two consciousnesses meeting for the first time and that story has similarities with what Anno put on the screen. If that is the inspiration then you’ll never get a really satisfying explanation to what the scene means. There is no right answer to what is happening. Just two consciousnesses trying to validate their existence through interaction with another person.

When I watch the scene I have more specific thoughts go through my head. You could look back at the Asuka “no” scene again. Maybe Asuka broke him so hard that he has a tough time discerning reality from dream. Maybe he has PTSD and thinks he’s reliving the event and Asuka gently touching him actually breaks him out of the spell. Is he sobbing more in pain or in relief?

Does it mean something that they both do something we’ve never seen them do before? Shinji being physically aggressive towards another person and Asuka giving affection to another person? Maybe Anno is showing us that they have finally merged their extreme tendencies and are more complete persons now. Their pasts no longer limit what they can do. On the other hand, maybe he isn’t. Who really knows.

Here is an example of how easy it is to come up with a new theory. Someone said Shinji strangling Asuka was meant as the physical representation of the Hedgehog’s Dilemma. Within minutes of reading that I came up with an entire story. The thought of Asuka dying again is so painful to Shinji that without thinking he reaches out to destroy her existence. Maybe compare Shinji/Asuka with Kaji/Misato again. Misato would have done anything for Shinji, but on the rare occasions she thought of the future, she thought of living out her life with Kaji. Of course, if Kaji had asked her to run away with him and leave Shinji to his fate she would have refused. Likewise, only Misato could have convinced Shinji that he was loved, but it was Asuka that he thought of having a future with. When he saw the dismembered Unit 02 he thought of his future as dead. Think of the movie The Incredibles. The hero could handle anything except losing his family again. So Shinji acts out the Hedgehog’s Dilemma and psychotically tries to kill her, but Asuka showing him love snaps him out of it and brings him back to his senses. But he still remembers the pain of losing her the first time and cries.

Do I think that is what Anno had in mind when he made the scene? Hell No! I just think its a good story that explains what we see. You could easily come up with a hundred other possibilities. I believe Anno just wanted to reenact the silly thought experiment. He’s just showing us examples of love and pain. The end of an orderly existence in the mind and a return to the real world where everything is dirty and chaos is everywhere. Considering what just happened, I’m as happy with that as any other ending. [Actually, the more I think about it the more I like that bit about showing us that they are now complete persons – just showing us in the most bizarre way possible. Who knows.]

As for Asuka and Shinji in general, I personally think Asuka both loved and hated Shinji. And Shinji both loved and was completely bewildered by Asuka. In some ways they are made for each other and after all this I think they’ll live happily ever after… alone on a beach with no food or shelter visible anywhere. In any case, their story is old as time. Each had their mother’s soul transferred to a giant beast that a decade later their children would pilot against other giant beasts. I believe Romeo and Juliet started out the same way. I’m willing to bet Shinji and Asuka could easily end up just as happy together.

I got to say, I was just as hopeless when it came to women as Shinji. So when the most beautiful teenager he’s ever likely to meet drops in his lap and seems to want his attention, I want to see him win one for a change. She’s smart, determined, and the fiercest of warriors. True, she has that whole raving insanity thing going on, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Besides, she spent 5 minutes with the entombed spirit of her dead mother. She’s fine now.

Asuka washes up next to Shinji, which tells me she loves Shinji. I’m sure with some trial and error Shinji will learn not to strangle Asuka and Asuka will learn not to suffocate Shinji when she kisses him. Lessons we all had to learn.

And they lived disgustingly ever after.

A Clockwork Shinji

It has been noted by many people that Anno included scenes that reference the movie 2001 which was directed by Stanley Kubrick. Both the scenes in space and when we are bombarded by the stream of flashing images can remind one of that. I also read one review that made another Kubrick connection. The original EoTV ending had everyone standing around Shinji clapping. In the EoE ending, we have one person straddling another mimicking sex. You could argue that if you put these two endings together you get the end of A Clockwork Orange. If you haven’t seen the movie you probably should.

It is an interesting connection. I interpret the EoTV ending as Shinji rejecting Instrumentality and choosing to remain himself. But there are people who wonder if the Shinji we see being congratulated is a brainwashed Shinji. That he’s in Instrumentality, he’s fooling himself, and has created an illusion of people telling him that he is making decisions on his own now. Some people also wonder if, at the end of EoE, Shinji is still in Instrumentality and living in a world he created. It is an interesting idea.

If you accept the idea that Anno was influenced by Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, then I come up with two possible answers. In A Clockwork Orange the main character overcomes their mental conditioning. You could say that points to Shinji truly rejecting Instrumentality in both endings and is now free to be as good or bad as he wants. It also kind of gives some context to things Shinji says in EoE – specifically when he declares that he wants his decisions to be his own. Alternatively, you could also decide that the two endings mimic the two aspects of the A Clockwork Orange ending. Shinji in EoTV is brainwashed by Instrumentality and is forced to be happy, but in EoE he is free of the conditioning that Instrumentality offered and can think for himself. [Of course, this then leads into the question of: Do the two endings contradict each other or are they the same?]

It’s possible that one of Anno’s main points of the series is that we should all stop being brainwashed by our societies and make decisions on our own. Free will is what makes us human. If that was his point then I completely agree.

Asuka – The face that launched a thousand insults.

It is very hard to write about Asuka because she’s so much fun to watch, yet an evening with Asuka sounds more like a war crime than a date. And yet… And yet… Her push to win. Her desire to prove her worth. The just plain crazy. I simply can’t resist her crazy.

Shinji and Asuka. Asuka and Shinji. Someone commented that, although she was a compelling character, they thought Asuka was so terrible for Shinji. I disagree. If I had to sum up my thoughts on the two of them, it is that they were made for each other. Quite literally. They both lost their mother and do everything to get the attention they need to feel whole. Yet, they are polar opposites. He thinks if he agrees with any group they will praise him. She thinks if she beats any group they will praise her. He tries desperately to be a child. She tries desperately to be what she thinks is an adult. He never forgets his past. She refuses to think of hers. They are exactly what the other needs. They are each others missing piece. They should be the rival each needs to make theirself better, and at first they were. If they can just communicate, they can convince the other to lose their extreme reactions and just be happy together. Too bad it takes the end of the world for them to see this.

It would be one thing if, like many shows, they just wanted a character to argue with everyone. Or pick on their crush. But once again, they really came up with just an incredibly tragic backstory, had her react to it, and then let her loose on the unsuspecting cast.

And she loses it. Loses it even before Shinji does. There is no right way to handle her or Shinji. But at the end, when he had to make his final decision, Shinji was able to remain sane because Misato could reach him. But no one really could have reached Asuka. Well maybe Shinji could have after he learned to love himself, but not before. And maybe not even then. It is easy for some to think Misato is creepy for how she thought about Shinji, but Kaji tried to treat Asuka like a child and the results were much worse.

She turned away from Misato because of jealousy. She never seemed to understand that insulting Shinji was keeping him from figuring out what she wanted from him. Shinji had his mind probed twice, once by an Angel and once by an Eva, but because he had Misato he could come through almost unscathed. When an Angel probes Asuka’s mind, she’s virtually ripped apart and needs Rei to save her, and then refuses to let Shinji even try to help her. One of the reasons I’m so sympathetic towards her is that her mean streak brings herself much more pain than she gives others. The show just got so dark.

But it didn’t start out so dark. One of my favorite Asuka moments is in episode 16. Shinji wakes up in the hospital after being trapped in an Angel. Rei actually tells him she is glad that he feels alright. Then she opens the door and discovers Asuka listening at the door. It is hard not to laugh when she jumps out of sight. Then, even though she knows he saw her, she can’t make herself say anything to him.

It would probably be fun to go through all her antics, but instead I’m going to talk about the different ways she and Shinji broke and why people aren’t as forgiving of Asuka.

Just before Instrumentality, there was that scene in Shinji’s head or wherever. It ends with Shinji’s mind breaking. I don’t fully understand the scene and I’m not sure anyone else does either, including the animators. People pull different things out of that scene to fit with their interpretations of the show.

I’ve generally gleamed much more from the actual interaction of the characters instead of these existential mental images, but the scene does prompts interesting questions. Is that Asuka merged with Shinji? One person thinks that is a manifestation of how Shinji views Asuka. Someone else notes that Ghost Rei or Quantum Rei never appears when Asuka dies. Maybe that is actually the real Asuka in his head. Reading his thoughts but Shinji not able to read hers. There is no right answer I think.

A lot of people, including Anno, stress that you should form your own opinions. I mostly agree with that. Mostly. For instance, some of the things I wrote about Shinji and Misato will never be confirmed, but I personally enjoy the series so much more by thinking of their relationship that way. If someone else enjoys the series more by coming to different conclusions, I would encourage them to continue thinking that way. But some fans really dissect these dives inside the characters minds to such an extent that they just ignore everything else in the series.

An example of this is the segment of fandom that thinks Shinji strangled Asuka in this scene because he hates women and this is his subconscious getting revenge or something similar. The fact that this completely contradicts everything else about him doesn’t deter them. It’s a fairly small percentage of the fans, but they if you go looking for other opinions you’ll easily find them.

But how do I know these people are wrong? Because Anno let’s you know what this scene is about. As Shinji strangles Asuka, images of Ritsuko’s mother strangling Rei are flashed on the screen. Like much in this series, earlier scenes clue you in to what is happening now. Why did Ritsuko’s mother, Naoko, strangle Rei? It is quite clear that Rei told her things she knew to be true but challenged her reality. Rei told her how lowly Gendo really thought of her. She knew it was true, but could not accept it and lashed out and killed original Rei (She never even got to open her pizza parlor).

Shinji strangles Asuka because she challenges his reality, his image of himself. How does she do that? Shinji is so invested in the idea that he is helpless. That his decisions don’t matter. And that he can’t love himself. Asuka demands he love himself. Says that his decisions affect things – they certainly affect her. He’s not helpless. Be an adult and make better decisions. Like Naoko before him, he knows she is right, but chooses to cling to his self image and lash out. Just one interpretation of a scene with no right answers.

I suppose I’ll add that if someone comes up with their own explanation of how Asuka challenged Shinji’s self image, I might disagree with it, but I understand that there are multiple ways of looking at it. But you have to accept that showing Naoko strangling Rei during this scene means that is what is going on. Otherwise it isn’t just a different opinion. It is fan fiction.

Because this scene really doesn’t have any right answers, it is easy to use it to support almost any opinion. One guy thinks Shinji didn’t really care about Asuka. He points to Asuka telling him that he doesn’t care about her and anyone would do. But Asuka is absolutely terrible at judging these things. Terrible, in fact, at interpreting almost any personal interaction. Besides, Asuka throwing herself at Kaji and then quickly turning to Shinji doesn’t really make her a paragon of virtue. Like they say, women at the bottom of lakes shouldn’t throw steel warships, or whatever. You get the idea.

Another person says Asuka hates Shinji. She yells at him, pushes him to the floor and tells him to stay away. She even mocks him for thinking he can save her. The arrogance! But she also tells him his problem is he doesn’t love himself. This was after reuniting with her mother’s spirit. Does she now love herself? Does she understand that Shinji needs to love himself too and is trying to help him realize that but she is the worst communicator in the world? Same with her telling him he is just saying what he thinks others want to hear. Is she saying that to insult him or because she wants to help him grow up? Asuka did say she only wanted Shinji if she could have all of him, not share him with anyone else. Kind of a strange thing to say if she hated him. It is also possible that Asuka might be exaggerating Shinji’s selfishness because she is angry she died alone with no sign of Shinji.

These are all examples of why I think it is silly to try and interpret the show through the mind views. It just makes so much more sense to interpret the show through the actual character interactions.

I actually started writing about this scene because I wanted to talk about how the two of them mentally break. So the exact interpretation of the scene doesn’t really matter. The idea is that Asuka challenged Shinji’s view of himself. And when almost any of us have our image of ourself challenged we refuse to hear it, even if it is the hard truth. So Shinji lashes out instead of admitting that there is some truth in Asuka’s challenge – he also could have added that Asuka is guilty of many of the same things, as Rei told her in EoTV episode 25. I assume that there is no reference to that Rei line in EoE because at the end of the scene we need a broken Shinji for the plot. The reason I bring all this up is that, because his break happens all at once, we can accept it and sort of understand it.

I look at Asuka spending the entire series taking her anger out on Shinji in a similar vein, but because it is spread out over the entire show, it just makes her look like she is cruel and garners no sympathy. Her world view is challenged every time Shinji does well in anything or when she feels affection for him. Feeling affection for him makes her want to push back even more. She lashes out over and over, cracking a little more each time to prevent admitting that she can’t do everything on her own and needs Shinji. So she breaks in a different, less obvious, less sympathetic way. Well I was sympathetic at least.

I suppose I’ll go back one more time to the scene where Asuka breaks Shinji. When the scene starts, she looks at him and her face is drawn in a very beautiful way, but there is such obvious fury behind that face. Is the fury really directed at Shinji? Or is that the fury she has always carried with her since she lost her mom? [Don’t make her angry. You wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.] But she says that he only comes to her because it is the easiest and least painful option. An interesting thing to say. The other characters don’t think of her that way. The fans think of her as frightening, but Shinji can go to her without the fear he feels towards everyone else.

So is this telling us he is afraid to go to Misato because she wants him to love himself and stop pretending he’s a helpless child with no say in what happens. But until now Asuka wouldn’t do that. She liked him and wanted him to be more grown up, but she stayed away from telling him to love himself. She’s now saying the same things Misato does and he can no longer use her as a safe haven.

I’m doing it again. Speculating about a scene that has no real answers. The reason I went back here is because I started going through in my mind how Shinji acts around Asuka. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how differently Shinji is with Asuka compared to everyone else. Even in their first underwater battle, Shinji speaks back to her. Shinji quietly submits to everyone else, but with her – well, he tries to be nice but if she keeps pushing he pushes back. He quickly adjusts to her and ignores many of her antics, again something he does with no one else. It’s like his mind only tunes to normal when he’s around her. He’s shown smiling admiringly at her determination. He laughs when she hides outside his hospital room. She was never his tormentor. And he even asks Misato why Asuka is so angry. When God Rei asked him if he ever tried to understand Asuka, I assumed it was her way of telling him that he never tried, but no. He actually did try, he just could not figure her out.

Compare all that to how he talked with Misato. Shinji talked to Misato more than anyone else, but with every conversation the two of them struggled to say basic things. Always pausing. Always holding back. Even when they actually had a successful conversation, it was a struggle. You could also compare when Misato needed him after Kaji’s death, he couldn’t even try to help her even though that would have been simple to do. On the other hand, after the mind assault he actually sought out Asuka to try and reassure her even though there was nothing he (or anyone else) could do. He actually thought that somehow he could save her off the battlefield. Did he ever think that about anyone else?

I guess I’m just amazed that I never noticed all this. So much was happening whenever Shinji and Asuka were on screen together that it never occurred to me to ask if Asuka was having some kind of positive effect on him in between the insults. It is a credit to Anno and everyone who worked on the show that they could have him act so differently around one character and have it still seem in character. That is really good character design and writing.

In a nice bit of symmetry, Misato and Kaji act towards each other differently then they act towards everyone else, and Shinji and Asuka treat each other differently than they treat everyone else. Then there’s Misato and Shinji, who are more like two blind people trying to describe a sunset to each other.

[One more quick Misato/Shinji observation. Sometimes I think the writing of them is a bit inconsistent. They take a step forward and then later take a step back. But what if I’m wrong and we are actually being shown that every time Misato and Shinji realized they love each other even more, the Hedgehog’s Dilemma kicks in even stronger and they are even less comfortable talking to each other. The writing still might not be perfectly consistent, but that would explain some of what we are being shown.]

I haven’t said much about why Asuka is so attracted to Shinji. She obviously sees herself in him, but even before she knew his background she was intrigued. She first wanted to boast about herself to him, but that quickly seems to have changed to attraction. I assume it was because no one had ever reacted to her like he did. He doesn’t hit on her or try to make her notice him. He doesn’t even ignore her or act aloof. She has to seek him out.

When you see her with Kaji she tries to act in a way she thinks he would like, but she doesn’t do that with Shinji. It is kind of a parallel with Misato who only shows her real self to Kaji. Well, Misato also shows her true self to Shinji, but in a different way.

I read one review that speculated why Asuka wanted Shinji to get in Unit 02 with her during their first battle together. They thought she was insecure and needed him as a kind of security blanket. I continue to assumed that she just wanted to show off more, but it is an interesting idea. Certainly the whole thing was unusual and never explained. Their theory made me think about that episode more. I’ve always been convinced that the comment at the end about the two of them reaching a record sync rate was significant, but it is never mentioned again and seems to have no relation to anything. But this time, I thought of something I hadn’t before. What if Anno put the two in the same machine specifically so they could have their record sync. All because he wanted to show that if they worked together they would be an unstoppable team? So when they don’t live up to that level of cooperation you realize just what was lost?

I recall another fan saying that they didn’t think that they originally loved each other and Anno changed his mind when he went back to make EoE and do the director cuts of episodes 21-24. That fan thinks they only had interest in each other because they had to work so closely together after they met. That isn’t how I saw it at all. Asuka went out of her way to find Shinji and demand his attention at School, Work, and Home. They were always destined to be love interests.

She is obviously interested, but she wants the person she’s attracted to to be a powerful force. Able to meet her personality head on. So she pushes him to be the kind of man she can admit to loving. She probably wants a lover who can take on part of the burden she always feels. If there was someone else to take charge sometimes she could relax. Perhaps another Misato/Kaji parallel is in order. Misato wants to be the one leading the charge and is rabidly critical of Kaji for not taking work seriously. When she sees that this is an act and he takes his work so seriously that it will probably get him killed, she allows herself to fall for him again.

I don’t want to write anymore, but I will mention the EoTV episode 26 alternate reality scene where they are all in a high school anime. It was very funny, but not just because it had so many very good lines, [“I’m his childhood friend.” “If only Shinji would learn to appreciate Asuka more.”] but because, with only one exception, their personalities are all identical as they are in the world where they fight to the death to save humanity.

Oh, and of course, her big fight in EoE. When she looks around and sees the 9 Evas she needs to fight she slyly adds up the situation. She only really knows two things:

1.) She’s going to crush her enemies.

2.) Her name is Asuka Langley Fucking Soryu!

She was so crazy. Her blood lust so fierce. I loved it!

Love is all you need

I was watching the beginning of episode 22, the big Asuka episode, and Asuka sees Shinji talking to Rei on the railroad platform. As always, her take on the situation is skewed. She thinks: “You beat me.” Of course, Shinji didn’t beat her. They are on the same side. Then she asks, “How?”

Asuka just can’t understand that Shinji is only stronger because he is part of a team. Teams can almost always beat the individual and most of his victories are team efforts. All the Angels from episodes 8 through 12 were defeated by team efforts. (I suppose Asuka defeated the Angel in episode 10 and then needed to be saved by Shinji, so that counts as a team.) Shinji then screws up fighting the Angels in episodes 16 and 18 and needs to be bailed out. And I’ve mentioned this scene before, and it is a very small moment, but when Shinji is fighting the Angel in the command center, he pushes the Angel onto the elevator. It isn’t even clear if he’s in communication with anyone. He just yells “Ms. Misato!” and he is counting on her already knowing what he is doing. He is relying on others. He doesn’t want to do it all by himself. And, of course, he can survive two mind probes because he loves Misato and Misato loves him.

You could again say this foreshadows EoE where Asuka shows herself to be the best pilot and fiercest warrior, but loses because she is alone. And this calls back to Asuka Strikes! when Shinji and Asuka had record sync rates when they were working together.

As I’m watching the scene I noticed that Asuka again looks like she is jealous that Shinji is talking to another girl. Does Asuka still feel affection for Shinji? From this point forward she only shows hate and rage so it is hard to tell. And as always there is an earlier scene to callback to that gives me the answer. I’m a little shocked that I hadn’t noticed it before, but this is a direct callback to when Shinji sees his father and Rei talking way back in, was it episode 5? Shinji can’t hear what they are saying, but notices they are smiling at each other as they talk. In this scene, Asuka can’t hear what they are saying either and they are smiling at each other. Even Rei’s expression is, in both scenes, much lighter and relaxed than in really any other scene I can think of.

In the earlier scene, Shinji loves and hates his father and wants Gendo to talk to him like he’s talking to Rei. It is safe to say that is how Asuka feels towards Shinji. The difference is that Gendo doesn’t want to talk to Shinji, but Asuka could easily talk to him. She just refuses to. Asuka is easily the show’s most tragic figure.

Does 6 of one add up to half a dozen of the other?

So is the new Netflix dub bad? Lots of people loved the old dub. Some people on youtube have posted videos of scenes that compare the old and new dub and I watched a few. Although some people really ripped the Netflix version, I rarely saw much of a difference. It seemed to me that it was much more of a case of people being familiar with the old voices and old dialog than that the new Netflix dub was bad.

Now some things were strange. Saying Third Children instead of Third Child being the most prominent. And of course every old fan hates that they lost the rights to Fly Me to the Moon. [On youtube they have all the original endings. I just listened to each one after every episode.] Still, for the handful of scenes I compared, I generally found the dialog and performances of the Netflix dub more in control. More in tune with the action that was happening. The tone and inflection generally more relatable to how I understood the scene to be unfolding. (Just my opinion.)

And there are plenty of examples of just different translations. Neither necessarily better than the other like in episode 2:

Misato in Original dub: I guess I should be nicer, but he’s probably already made up his mind about me.

Misato in Netflix dub: I wonder if I’m laying it [the cheerfulness] on too thick. He might see right through it if I’m not careful.

The Netflix sub says the “it” means “the cheerfulness”.

Both are fine lines, but they are not the same. The subtext isn’t even the same. The original is Misato wondering if she should present herself differently to make a better impression on Shinji. The Netflix is Misato thinking about the front she’s putting on to make it seem like her life is not painfully dull, with a sub-subtext of perhaps she is very lonely. I wonder which is more like the original Japanese.

I did compare a handful of scenes and if I found one of the dubs or subs better than the others I listed it here:

Episode 2: There is nothing remotely like this in the Netflix dub. I suspect this joke was added by the translators, but the Netflix team played it straight. I did like the new translation better overall, but at least in this case the joke fits the situation and is completely in character.

Original Translation
Misato (trying to get Shinji settled into their new home): This is your home, so feel free to take advantage of everything here. Except, of course, of me that is.

—

Episode 8: Asuka’s first scene where she’s introduced by Misato to Shinji and his friends.

Netflix dub
Asuka (on the flight deck): So, who’s the Third children I’ve heard about. (She glances at Toji and says decisively) It’s not going to be you. (Toji can only lower his head in shame)

—

Kaji’s first conversation with Misato with the rest of the kids also at the table. This sub just seemed to work best as something that would be both mostly harmless and get Misato’s goat.

Netflix sub
Kaji (talking to Shinji about Misato): She used to flop around in her sleep. She still do that?

On the other hand, the original translation has a radio voice in the background that rather cleverly gives clues to what characters are thinking. The Netflix translation does not. There seemed to be other places where the original version had more background sounds or music than the Netflix version. Kind of disappointed in the Netflix version on that score.

But back to the radio in this scene. A man and a woman are talking. The original subtitles [What’s the story on that beer line?] for the radio show or poem or whatever it is goes like this:

(Misato is trying to completely ignore Kaji while he’s kicking her foot) My God, why are you so cold? Because your fire has gone out. Outside it’s a red hot summer, over 100 degrees. What is this freezing cold? My heart is below freezing. My beer is frozen too. I need a coat.

(Kaji asks Shinji about Misato’s sleeping habits) Your heart has too much air conditioning. Why don’t you raise the temperature? You’re the air conditioner.

(Misato explodes at Kaji) You’re so stupid, venting your heat externally. The more heat you vent, the colder my heart. Then, let us warm your frozen body together! I’m sorry, you can’t light my heart. Put logs on my fire, and stoke me with oil.

(Kaji starts telling Shinji that he’s famous for being an Eva pilot. Asuka turns and shoots daggers into Shinji with her look) Who is it? It can’t be… Is it that guy? No, it’s this puppy. You’re telling me that I lost to this puppy? Yes, he’s a good boy.

(Kaji stands up to leave and we see the entire table again) And he’s faithful, unlike some people!

—

Episode 9: The first time Kaji sees Ritsuko in years. I just thought this was funnier than the others.

Netflix dub
Ritsuko (talking to Kaji): Are you trying to seduce me? Now’s not the time, dear. There’s a crabby looking woman staring right at us. (Cut to Misato with her hands and face pressed against the glass to her office and her breath fogging it up.)

—

Episode 24: The Kaworu episode.

Original Translation
This is the now well known love changed to like. The original makes more sense and in fact when I watched the episode I just automatically thought love as I was watching.

After doing some research, or more accurately reading the results of others research – see here, I’ve learned that Kaworu’s words are much more ambiguous than I had thought and that they were intentionally ambiguous. (Much of the show is intentionally ambiguous.) There is no perfect translation into English. The key idea to understand is that no one had ever just come right out and said these positive things to Shinji. So while “like” might in fact be a more accurate translation, Shinji’s immediate connection to Kaworu means a stronger word more accurately describes how Shinji internalized Kaworu’s words. Saying “love” in English just seems to get his reaction across better, even if a Japanese speaker would have thought more along the lines of “like”.

—

EoE: This one was perfect. Why wouldn’t they reuse it?
Original Translation
Shinji (in the hospital room): I’m so fucked up

—

Netflix dub
Shinji (his last complete sentence to Misato): You’re just a stranger!
Interesting that this was not in the original translation. The entire last outburst by Shinji to Misato seems sharper, more personal in the Netflix dub than the original. I mention above that his saying stranger called back to episode 4 and his family comments.

—

Netflix dub
Misato (after ripping her own heart out and showing it to Shinji): I will curse your name until the day I die!
The original dub just had the “I won’t ever forgive you!” part. The Netflix version adds this onto the end and again makes the outburst sharper.

—

And I’ll add that when Misato was crying over Kaji’s death, a very soft piano version of Fly Me to the Moon was playing in the original version and made the scene even sadder. Too bad that was lost in the Netflix version. A fan played that exact version of the song on his piano and recorded it, uploading it to youtube. If I ever listen to the Netflix episode again, I’ll play that at the same time.

400 Percent Sync Rates Killed The Radio Star

I’ve been curious what others think about the show and have read various reviews of episodes and I must say I’m always surprised that people talk so much less than I do about some of Misato’s big moments. There is always lots to talk about and I enjoy reading and hearing others describe the many, many ways the different characters acted and reacted. Still, the difference on Misato is often night and day.

Take, for instance, when Shinji is trapped inside the Angel in episode 16. So much happens. The Angel is so different than any we’ve seen before. This is the first time we go inside a character’s mind. Asuka goads Shinji into volunteering and then feels very guilty, but instead of showing that, she tears down Shinji to the point that Rei almost attacks her. Several people have mentioned this as their favorite episode and I can see why.

But even with all that, the thing that stuck out to me was how surprised I was when Misato broke down crying. It was really the last thing I was expecting. Not just because she said she was going to tear into him for disobeying orders, but because I honestly didn’t think she felt that strongly about him. Yes, she obviously cared, but Misato always kept such feeling second to the fight against the Angels – didn’t she? They had had touching moments together, but this was on an entirely different level. I started thinking I had really missed something, and of course I had. It would still take a long time and more than one more viewing before I came to any of the conclusions I’m writing about here.

Other reviewers, however, weren’t all that impressed. Some might mention that this was a change for Misato, but that was about all. Nobody really looking for a bigger meaning, let alone an arc that stretched the length of the series. So maybe I’m the problem. Maybe every other boy, when they were 14, had an adult woman break down crying because of them. Her tears soaking their chests. So everyone else thinks this is just an everyday occurrence. Because if this had happened to me it would have been a life altering event. It would have been that for any woman, but this is Misato. Basically Wonder Woman just put Shinji ahead of everything she’d ever worked for.

Oh course we never do learn what Shinji’s reaction to all this was. All we know is that by the end of the show he’s in such denial that he can’t think straight and nothing she had ever done mattered.

Then there is episode 20. The one where Shinji is absorbed. As with all the episodes with parts inside someone’s mind, there are lots of interpretations and I often wondered if Anno really knew what it all meant. Shinji’s mind goes through all the reasons he fights the Angels, his enemies. It is interesting that one of the first things he says is that the Angels killed Misato’s father and they are the object of her vengeance/revenge – kind of implying that it is important to him that she gets that. He also indicates that his own father is his biggest enemy. And some of his history is thrown in. But it kind of struck me that all this is a front. He is aware of these other reasons, but, for the most part, that isn’t why he does what he does.

Shinji then relates how people are nice to him, but there is a catch. He thinks people are only nice to him because he pilots the Eva. He insists that he has no inherent worth. No one would want to be kind to him unless he pilots the Eva. Has he really made no progress at all? Not only is he repeating yet another variation of his “I’m unlovable” line, he’s still claiming he’s helpless. His decisions don’t matter. Then much like he does in EoE, he begs for help.

The Eva responds by asking him to become one with it. And by Eva I think we are to assume that this means his mother Yui wants him to since she is “awake” now. So his mom shows him images of Misato, Asuka, and Rei asking Shinji to become one with them – a perfectly normal mom thing to do. Is she doing this because Shinji asked for help? Or because she thinks Shinji joining with her will be necessary for Instrumentality – the thing she wants more than her son? I have no idea.

[I started comparing this to EoE. In EoE, God Rei appears to everyone as someone they will let past their personal AT field. So maybe this was something like that. Maybe to completely absorb Shinji, Yui needed to figure out which woman would get past Shinji’s AT Field. Of course, in EoE it is Kaworu that gets past Shinji’s AT Field.]

The women all ask him to “let your heart go”. If there is one thing Shinji doesn’t know how to do it’s letting his heart go. So he doesn’t join with them or the Eva or Yui.

Oh, I wanted to mention that after the 3 women ask him to join with him, they switch to the real world and you hear the announcement, “All probes have been inserted”. I’m sure that was just a coincidence.

As everyone prepares to try and retrieve Shinji, we see a scowling Misato. You kind of get the feeling that Misato has been scowling for 31 straight days. And then her expression changes to a hopeful one and she says, “Come on Shinji.” She really does believe in the guy.

Shinji actually reacts like he heard her, but Ritsuko says something about the signals not getting through. The simplest explanation is that Yui doesn’t want to give up Shinji. Ritsuko asks, “Don’t you want to come back, Shinji?” and he says “I don’t know.”

The Eva has all 3 women ask him “What do you wish for?” and then Yui herself asks him that. We do not hear Shinji’s answer. We don’t even get a hint what his answer is. We don’t even know if he answers. And I’m sure this was intentional by Anno. Presumably, we are supposed to think up any answer we like.

Outside, the entry plug opens and LCL and his plug suit spill onto the floor. Misato shouts out Shinji’s name and Shinji seems to react to that and imagines himself waking up in a hospital bed. [This is an almost exact replay of the beginning of episode 2 when they cut away from the Eva battle.] Yui, using Misato’s voice and image, starts telling him that he’s in the Eva and he piloted the Eva. My first impression of this scene was that the writing was silly. Why would someone need to repeat this group of similar lines to him? But I think I understand now. Yui is finally doing something positive for Shinji and listing things he has done. Things he decided to do. He must face reality and realize that his decisions affected things. He was not helpless then. He is not now. This all kind of foreshadows things Misato says to him in their final conversation.

She, Yui in the form of Misato, then tells Shinji that he needs to decide what he wants to do in the future. It is strongly implied that he does decide something, but again we are deliberately not told what he decides. You can make up any decision you want.

Misato demands the Eva give Shinji back to her. Shinji now remembers when a tearful Misato opened the entry plug. And Shinji realizes that the smell all around him is the smell of his mother and Shinji is reborn from Yui a second time.

To me, the simplest explanation is that Misato calling out for Shinji convinced Yui that someone else cares about him and she should give him up. Of course, there are other ways to think about it. Maybe while Misato was calling for Shinji, Shinji heard her and the “decision” that he makes is wanting to see her again. Shinji seeing Misato opening the plug is the first thing we see Shinji think of after he makes his “decision”. Maybe Misato didn’t change Yui’s mind so much as convince Shinji that he should come back. And this is what makes Yui give in. Hard to know exactly what happened.

But then I’ll go and read someone else’s thoughts on the episode and they might not even mention Misato. OK, I just have to accept that other people see the show in ways I can’t understand. I still think the way I see it is very close to how Anno intended his show to be. Also, I think if you ignore the Shinji/Misato story you really miss out on some of the sweetest aspects of the show.

I suppose I did listen to someone talk about how they felt that, when Yui gave Shinji the talk about not being helpless, that was indicating she had already wanted to give him up because he refused to become one with her. I suppose that’s possible but I don’t know. It was after the failed joining that Yui was blocking the signals from getting through. And it wasn’t like the joining failed and then she immediately started giving him advice. First she’d asked him what he wished for first. When it comes right down to it, she’d had him for over a month and hadn’t wanted to give him up so I’m not convinced.

I think that Shinji recognizing Yui’s smell was the real point where she’d accepted that she had to give him up. That was immediately after Misato demanded him back and Shinji imagined seeing Misato again. It just seems the most straightforward interpretation.

I’d also point out that in the next scene Ritsuko specifically tells Misato that she thinks Misato was responsible for getting Shinji back. I think that was the animators spelling out what just happened. I believe it is fairly obvious, at least in general terms, what happened and this is kind of redundant, but it is interesting that even after they spelled it out, so many fans downplay Misato’s role in getting Shinji back. Oh, and the last scenes take place on day 33. Misato apparently spent around 2 straight days at Shinji’s side. Not sure why Ritsuko thought she shouldn’t now spend some time with Kaji. [Maybe her saying that was just an excuse to tell the viewer that she is about to do the same thing.]

I think I recall one person spending some time speculating about what Shinji’s wish was or what his decision was, but I don’t remember what that person said. I originally had no clue what it could be when I saw this. Even when I rewatched it I still had no clue. It was only when I rewatched episode 24 that I realized that there is a concise answer to what he would wish for. It was only when he meets Kaworu, someone who doesn’t suffer from the Hedgehog’s Dilemma, that I realized that that is probably what he would have wished for. That he could interact with people without that Dilemma stopping people from saying what they meant and him saying what he means back.

I must admit, the one thing about the show I still get annoyed about is how Shinji makes decisions and then those decisions don’t matter by the next episode. In this episode, does Shinji decide that he isn’t helpless? Or that Misato loves him? Or he loves Misato? Or he’s going to see this through to the end? Or a hundred other possibilities? It doesn’t matter. In the next episode Shinji is right back to thinking he’s just a child and his decisions can’t affect the world because he’s helpless.

And we finally reach the reason I wrote this section. Sometimes I think I should go with the flow and stop talking about Misato and Shinji. But I like talking about them. It is a good story, a sweet story, and an awesomely fucked up story. This episode has yet another hint that the Misato/Shinji relationship is the key one. If you play the scene with Ritsuko and Misato in the car, there’s a voice on the radio. It is, once again, giving you insights on what the characters think. And, once again, the Netflix version doesn’t seem to have it. But if you listen to the old dub you can hear it. It is still a little hard to make out, but the subtitles on the old version say:

Radio Host: Sure, I can understand, but I guess that’s what’s called the oral stage. It’s something a psychologist came up with a long time ago. In other words, it’s where you want to be with your mother forever. It refers to people who want to always be dependent on someone. There’s someone like that among my acquaintances too, and you’re a lot like him. So, well, as far as I can see from your letter, from your girlfriend’s standpoint, being your lover, your mother, and what else, your kid sister? I think being all of these things for you is pretty rough. And you know, aren’t you sort of taking advantage of her place as a lover? Using it as your personal outlet for your libido? Okay, well, that might have been a little extreme. But a woman is very sensitive to whether someone loves her or not. So I think she’s probably twigged onto that by now, that you’re looking for a mother you can sleep with in her. And if she still hasn’t brought up splitting up with you, she might be one of those nice girls that are pretty rare these days, you know?

What a twisted show. Like I say, I really do believe that the way I read the show is close to what Anno and his team intended. That voice over kind of gives you a taste of just how impossible it is for either Shinji or Misato to live up to the other’s (three) demands. He wants a mother, lover, and kid sister out of her. She pinned all her hopes, aspirations, and sense of purpose on him. They might not be able to give the other what they want, but they both sure try.

I do kind of like the part where the radio says a woman is sensitive to whether someone loves her or not. Maybe all my in depth analysis is redundant and I could have just said: Everything she does, she does because she knows how much he loves her.

Love is all around but no one takes it, or your assumption is not the object that is my assumption

The more I look at other people’s takes on the show, especially the fans who write long write ups, the more I see one big difference between them and me. When I watched the show, my take was that many of these characters really love others. The problem is they don’t know how to show it, they don’t know how to recognize it in others, and they don’t know how to accept it when it is offered. Some of the other fans think many of the characters love no one and can only use others to get by. I think my assumptions more accurately reflect what is on the screen and also make a much better story, but if you think the story if great because none of the characters can love, more power to you.

People question whether either Misato or Asuka love Shinji or that Shinji loves anyone. Some even question if Kaji and Misato love each other. Just an endless parade of characters using others for small comforts. It is true that Misato says that she just uses men. Asuka tells Shinji he only acts nice or heroic so people will be nice to him. Rei then tells her that she only acts the way she does so people will treat her well too.

I think that everyone, including you and me, acts this way to a certain extent – in fact, that statement is pretty obvious. But depressed people can’t accept that this is a normal part of human nature. They greatly amplify their flaws and assume everyone else holds their flaws against them. These points I’m making are stated in rather obvious fashion and more than once over the course of the series, so I have no intention of changing my assumptions. Anno set out to show how depression distorts the world view of those who experience it and I think he succeeded. I’m not going to override every impression and observation I made over the course of the series because of ambiguous scenes showing exaggerated statements made by depressed characters.

Boy! I just have to repeat one more time that some fans just really dissect that pre-Instrumentality scene and claim it proves Shinji just never cared. Or the scene shows that Asuka pushes everyone away because that is really what she wants, not because she has reacted badly to her childhood abuse. Seriously, if I thought that was what the show was about I would have been so disappointed.

My impressions are so much more positive and, from a storytelling perspective, satisfying. Misato finally manages to eliminate the Hedgehog’s Dilemma with Shinji and reaches him. Shinji uses her love to learn to love himself. Asuka feels her mother’s soul and can now try and connect with Shinji and the rest of the world instead of being a miserable, psychotic loner. Lots of bad stuff still happens, but there are some triumphs and hope in the end for the damaged kids.

Anyway, everyone likes different parts of the series. I think the best episodes are the more amusing ones or the ones where people show some of their vulnerabilities. But a lot of people say that it is the most depressing ones that they like the best. Just different preferences. I will say that it is the final, depressing episodes that make the series stand out so much. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen characters so ruthlessly crushed. And sometimes crushed more than once. I’ve never seen characters who are basically the heroes of a series act so terribly. In most series, the characters will have to overcome something to be heroic. Here, Shinji and Asuka are more than willing to sacrifice the world over their own problems. It really is kind of a special/unique series and it was the end chunk of episodes plus movie that made it so.

Misato as Guardian

I recall getting a response to a YouTube post. Yeko Yaoitard mentioned that she thought Misato wasn’t mentally fit to be Shinji’s guardian and that she only did so in the first place because she felt sorry for him. Adding, “While Misato has encouraged Shinji throughout the show, she was also very bipolar and contradicting, telling him to do things but also think for himself.” Interesting comment.

That begs the question, why did she want to be his guardian? In episode 1 they throw a bunch of stuff out there so you can get a feel for the characters and Misato casually says she had problems with her father. In episode 2, Gendo is in an elevator and looks out at Shinji who is waiting to get on. Shinji can’t even look at his father and Gendo doesn’t even bother to step aside so Shinji can get on.

And they refuse to tell you what Misato thinks of all that. They show Misato staring at nothing. That’s all. There are many time on the show where they don’t tell you what the characters are thinking, especially with Misato and Shinji. Some people think since you aren’t told what characters are thinking that they didn’t react at all. I think that is a completely incorrect interpretation of the show. Also, I don’t think Misato was feeling sorry for Shinji. I think she was empathizing with him. She understood what it was like to have such a strained relationship with your father. I think that when she was staring at nothing she was desperately trying to think how she can help, but coming up completely blank. She has no idea what to do.

When she finds out he will be living by himself, I again don’t think she was feeling sorry for him. When she was his age she spent every day alone in a room. Even though he said he prefers living alone, she didn’t want him going through that. And suddenly she knows what to do.

Perhaps even more telling is when we see Misato in her apartment. You find out that she has very little social life. Mostly just a lot of drinking alone. Things go by fast on the show, but you got to kind of wonder if she asked Shinji to live with her because she needed him in a way she didn’t understand. In that same episode 2 she tells Ritsuko that she thinks she should be more happy about the defeat of their first Angel. She certainly feels some guilt at putting Shinji in harm’s way, but what if it is more than that?

Later on she says she wants to get out from under her father’s curse. What if she is recognizing that putting her work before people is really her father’s curse? It isn’t just that she feels Shinji needs to connect with her to get over his abandonment. She also needs to connect with him to get out from under her father’s curse. Without the human connection she’ll always feel empty. Which is one of the many themes of the show.

What about that “bipolar” comment? Well, Misato was his commanding officer in the middle of a war. There needed to be a chain of command. For that matter, Misato had to follow orders the same as him. Misato wore one mask when she commanded and another mask in her personal life. Now this isn’t that unusual. Even well adjusted people who live with someone they work with will treat them different when they are at work. It is also not uncommon for parents to be more strict around their children because they think it will help them in the long run. None of these traits are necessarily signs of a bad guardian.

I would also point out just how good this works at the story level. From a storytelling perspective, I originally had a hard time figuring out how Misato thought about Shinji. This is best illustrated in episode 6 when Shinji is injured. Misato runs down to be with him as they wheel him to the infirmary, but she then ignores him while she is setting her Angel fighting plan in motion. In fact she twice just refers to him as the “pilot”. (Similar to how Gendo referred to Shinji as “the replacement pilot” in episode 1.) There is a point, just after being told Shinji is awake, where she isn’t facing the person she is talking to. She just glances back over her shoulder. It kind of makes it look like she’s unconcerned, but of course this is all misdirection. She is wearing a mask to hide how she feels. She needs to look professional, but she was really worried.

I must admit, her act fooled me. While she may care about Shinji, I wondered if she was more like Gendo then I thought. Just getting the most use out of him she can. I continued to wonder that until episode 16 at which point my brain exploded.

I suppose I’ll add that the real sign of a bad guardian is losing the war for the survival of the human race. If she lost and every human died then I would agree that she was a bad guardian. Doing things, even cold things, that prevent the extinction of the human race is an indication of a good guardian.

I would also point out that Shinji makes looking after him difficult. Shinji acting like a brat in episode 4 would have been hard for anyone to take, but the biggest takeaway was that unless he decides to actively be part of the team he shouldn’t be there. Maybe it was a little bipolar, but it was a necessary demand to make. Misato didn’t understand Shinji, but it was still a good call.

Near the end of the episode, Shinji asks about saying goodbye to Misato before he goes. I interpret that as him not really wanting to leave her and wishing he had an excuse to stay. Then, basically out of the blue, we are shown that Misato has figured out the Hedgehog’s Dilemma. As always, they don’t tell you this, but she’s probably been thinking about what was really going on in his head since she invited him to leave. She wants to have a reason for him not to go. The scene at the train station is so sweet because Shinji decides to stay and Misato makes it clear she wants him to stay. She’s doing everything by instinct, but her instincts are pretty good.

Also in episode 4, when Toji and Kensuke come to the door and Misato, as she often is, is both angry and worried about Baka Shinji, she still puts on her mask and is very polite and encouraging towards the boys. Misato is still thinking about how she knows Shinji needs friends – there will be time enough to figure out priorities later. The boys leave only thinking that they missed Shinji. Misato’s instincts again come across as pretty good.

In episode 5, Misato notices that Shinji wants to ask a question, but he is so against being assertive that he refuses to say anything. She tells him that by making his face and body language like that, he might as well be screaming for attention. Probably the first time that anyone’s ever payed enough attention to him to know his quirks. After that Shinji slowly, very slowly, starts to change and ask other people questions.

And later in episode 5, Ritsuko gives Shinji an ID card to give to Rei. Was that a little plot by Misato and Ritsuko to give Shinji an excuse to become friends with Rei? The show doesn’t tell you. In fact, it doesn’t even hint one way or the other, but then again the show goes way out of its way to not tell you a lot of things. I like to think they did.

And Misato keeps giving him freedom to experiment. In episode 7, when Shinji disapproves of how Misato lives, she does not tell him he can’t talk to her that way. In fact, they talk more like equals. Shinji is free to talk to her however he wants. It is also one of the scenes that emphasize that their relationship is not just Mother-Son, but a lot more complicated. And this isn’t an accident. She’s trying to draw him out. She wants him to treat her like an equal. Of course then you hear her update the surveillance on him which again made me wonder if she was more like Gendo.

Also in episode 7, Misato is twice shown relaxing after Shinji has left for school and both times she looks content, even happy. It is implied that Misato’s dedication to her quest to destroy the Angels makes her feel unfulfilled – again the reference to episode 2 and her telling Ritsuko that she should be happier that they killed an Angel. It is also stated in episode 25 that, in general, Misato is flat out not happy. But in episode 7, when no one is looking and she is sharing her life with Shinji she is happy. No fronts or masks or impressions. Her connection to Shinji makes her happy. Returning for a moment to the question of why she asked for Shinji to live with her, it was her instincts that told her that filling the hole in her life can only be accomplished by connecting with Shinji.

And in the first Asuka episode, everyone always comments on how strange it is that Misato brings Toji and Kensuke to the aircraft carrier and they must just be there for comic relief. But what if Misato knew that Asuka would try and overwhelm Shinji if they met alone and she brought them along so they could distract Asuka? As with so many things Misato does, they don’t even hint this, but maybe that is why they are there.

It is episode 19 that really shows how much Shinji has grown. Although I think it was a really bad decision, when Shinji decides to leave NERV he does so with confidence and determination. If the world hadn’t been about to end, Shinji might have resolved to clear up his issues and lead a fairly normal life. Certainly Shinji having friends and his interactions with Asuka helped him grow, but it sure feels like it was Misato that did the most for him. Misato, who opened up and told Shinji about her father. Misato, who broke down crying in episode 16. They really make no attempt to tell you what Shinji thought of her crying on him (which really frustrated me!). You could, if you wanted, conclude this means it didn’t really have much of an effect on Shinji. But in episode 20, Shinji’s last thought before Yui gives him up is remembering Misato opening the hatch in episode 16. In fact, the outline they show of Yui in that episode strongly resembles Misato reaching for him after she opens the hatch. Hinting that Misato succeeded in many ways at being a mother figure for Shinji.

The problem was it wasn’t enough. In that same episode 20, Shinji insists that people only like him because he pilots the Eva. His abandonment issues run so deep that he simply refuses to accept that he has any inherent value. He loves Misato. He wants to see her again, but continues to believe she only wants to see him again because he pilots the Eva. Part of him thinks of her as his mother and that helps him survive the mind probes, but it is not enough. In the real world, when he’s feeling depressed he keeps insisting he’s worthless and Misato only loves him because he puts up a fake front that hides how awful he really is.

Contrary to what many fans believe, Misato is well aware that a guardian is not supposed to introduce sex into their relationship, but she sees him spiraling down from her and being supportive and loving isn’t reaching him. I’d say this is because he’s 14. As much as a he might want a mother, at 14 you start thinking about the world outside your family. Remember Shinji seeing the couple making out in the movie theater in episode 4? We were all worried that we’d never find love when we were 14, but we assumed eventually we would. Shinji really believes he won’t find love because he honestly thinks he’s worthless. He can only try and steal a kiss from Asuka because she’s (sort of) asleep. Misato introduces sex into their relationship because even being his mother figure didn’t reach him – well, that and the fact that Shinji already thought of her in a sexual way. She can only reach him by going where no one else would have. It is twisted, but it does save him (which is what mattered to her) and makes for a compelling conclusion to the story.

What about Misato being the guardian for Asuka? I find it interesting that so many people think Misato didn’t care about Asuka, even going so far as to say that in the earlier episodes, when they were friendly, it was all for show. Once again, I think Anno and the rest deliberately didn’t show you what was happening. And it is certainly possible that I am wrong here, but I really feel that Misato cared a lot for Asuka, but Asuka’s jealousy prevented her from showing it or even helping her near the end.

I can’t find any reason to think that during episodes 8 through 15 Misato’s attitude towards Asuka was anything but genuine. She alternated between being guardian and friend to her. Remember, Misato had known Asuka for a long time. Probably years. On the other hand, Asuka’s attitude towards Misato was very strange. She both disliked Misato always wearing a mask (phony) and saw her as an adult woman to emulate. This is perhaps best illustrated when Asuka wears Misato’s yellow shirt. 

When Misato relaxes, she will often change into jean shorts and an oversized yellow shirt. The shirt doesn’t really fit her. She tucks it into her shorts and rolls up the sleeves. The shirt is kind of a metaphor for womanhood. She wears it, but it doesn’t really fit her. The two times she leaves Shinji and Asuka alone, Asuka goes into Misato’s closet and wears the yellow shirt. That would be when Asuka sleepwalks and when Asuka kisses Shinji. Asuka thinks she should be an adult woman and tries to get with Shinji and wears Misato’s shirt because she associates Misato with a sexual adult. Of course, then she gets jealous of Misato and Kaji and puts up a wall between her and Misato. Misato tries to keep offering openings, but Asuka refuses to engage. Misato calls Asuka to tell her that Rei is alright in episode 20, but Asuka just yells at her. Misato realizes that unless Asuka changes, there is nothing she can do to support her. In episode 22 she tells Asuka and Shinji that it is too bad that eating together has to feel so awkward. Asuka just leaves the table.

Another reason I think Misato does care more than she lets on is because Asuka and Misato are the two most alike characters on the show. It is actually quite amazing how almost every major character has traits that overlap with almost every other one. I mentioned above how Misato has similar traits to Gendo. (You could also add that in episode 1, Gendo says of Rei when he wants her to pilot the robot that “She isn’t dead”. During EoE, Misato wants Shinji to pilot the robot and tells him, “You’re still alive”.)

Asuka and Ritsuko have a lot of overlap. Both had mothers who were emotionally distant and eventually committed suicide. Both grow to hate Rei. Both become obsessed with an older man (Gendo and Kaji). Both are told “I need you” during EoE, Ritsuko by Gendo and Asuka by Shinji. They both respond identically by saying “Liar”. There are a few other similarities too.

Shinji and Kaji both have feminine traits. Shinji cleans for Misato and Kaji has his gardening. Lots of similarities between Kaji and Kaworu.

Misato and Shinji both have to struggle to avoid having bad thoughts come to them. Specifically when Shinji is in the bath and Misato is in the dark. During Instrumentality they are both told that this is what they wanted. In episode 25 Misato – and they throw so much at you there it is hard to keep it all straight – says men always leave her because she isn’t good enough, which is basically the same as Shinji saying he was abandoned because he is worthless. And she tries to insist that the selfless part of her, the do-gooder, isn’t the real her. She’s really all her bad traits. Shinji insists the same about himself. Of course, they are both wrong. Shinji really does care and Misato really is a do-gooder. They both just think they are wearing a mask when they are good. I wonder if I should add to this list the fake flashback where she tells Kaji to mess her up which calls back to Shinji telling Toji and Kensuke that he’s the one who should be hit (not exactly the same intent, but similar ideas). And they both, um, have trouble separating sexual thoughts and thoughts of love towards a parental figure. And it is a bit of a stretch, but you could kind of say that Misato was on her way to becoming Gendo if she hadn’t met Shinji, and then flip it and say Shinji was on his way to becoming Gendo if he hadn’t met Misato.

Shinji and Misato think alike in many ways, but it is Misato and Asuka that act the most alike. Both of them consciously, deliberately put up a mask to hide their inner self from everyone else. Unlike the other characters, they always wear their masks, except on occasion around Shinji. They are both warriors – they always go looking for fights. For that matter, they both take an entire army to stop. They both respond terribly to criticism, especially from their friends. They both wear red. They both smack a locker (episode 7 and episode 16). They both slap the other woman in their respective trios, Ritsuko and Rei. Both call their love interest Baka! Both stroke Shinji’s left cheek in EoE. In episode 25, Misato is probed in a similar manner to Asuka in episode 22. Like Asuka’s probe, Misato has old memories dredged up, holds her head yelling “no” and “stop”, and screams “That’s not the real me”.

In episode 22 Asuka keeps holding her abdomen with her arm because of her period cramps. Misato makes the same move when she is bleeding from second impact (episode 12), when she is sick while walking with Kaji (episode 15), after her arm is in a sling and positioned across her abdomen (episode 19), and after she is shot in EoE.

But the thing that really makes me think Misato cared about Asuka is episode 22. I think people get carried away insisting every possible shot means something, but there is no doubt that a lot of effort was spent showing the audience connections between things. Episodes 21-24 were redone when they made EoE because those episodes were originally rushed into production. Episode 22 now has a lot of additional scenes. Anno really wanted to get that episode right.

One of the new scenes that was added was Asuka screaming in the bathroom right after the dinner scene. The one where she is just totally losing it and saying that she hates Misato, Shinji, The First, her parents, and most of all, herself. She then screams something about why me! Which reminded me of episode 1 where Shinji asks why I have to do this? But it is Misato’s reaction that really got me thinking. They show her listening to Asuka’s outburst and she’s staring at nothing. A lot of people insist that since she isn’t reacting that means she doesn’t care about Asuka. Oh for god’s sake. It isn’t that she isn’t reacting. They just aren’t telling you how she’s reacting!

It is the same thing as when she saw Gendo and Shinji at the elevator in episode 2. She even has the same expression. Even the reflections in the eyes are similar. A large white spot in a top corner and a smaller white spot in the opposite lower corner. (I suppose the spots are mirror images between the two shots, but whatever.) Anno is telling you she is thinking the same way now as she did then. She is recognizing her own teenage behavior in how Asuka is acting. She wants to do something, but she has no idea what. Seriously! What was she going to do? Tell Asuka that hey, you don’t have to worry about me and Kaji anymore because he’s dead? That worked so well when Shinji did it 2 episodes later. I guess it is possible that something might have helped, but I have no idea what. Basically, Asuka and Shinji had been distracting themselves, but now that Asuka can’t talk to Shinji anymore, Misato had no other cards to play.

Misato also made excuses for Asuka during the episode. She’s on her period. She’s lost her confidence. Misato’s trying to help, but Asuka refuses to help herself. The only thing that really could help Asuka is if she asked for and accepted help from the others, but she just won’t do that.

Oh, and during episode 24 they show Misato staring at Asuka’s door in her apartment. Her look is non-committal, but she seems sad.

The final card I have to play is the “looking away because this is a mask” shots. In episode 6, when Misato is worried about Shinji, she keeps on her command mask and just glances back over her shoulder to get his health update. She does not turn towards the person she is conversing with. Now during episode 22, when she is asking if Asuka being on her period could be why her sync rate is so low, Misato is turned away from the person she is speaking to and is looking over her shoulder. Looks to me like we are being told this is a mask and she is worried about Asuka. Even more obvious is at the end of the episode when she asks about Asuka. Again, over the shoulder. Not facing the person she is talking to. They are telling you she is wearing her mask. She wants to help, but Asuka won’t let her.

Just to be complete, I’ll point out that Misato does the “I’m not facing the people I’m talking to because this is a mask to hide how I’m feeling” move two more times that I’m aware of. During episode 16 she does it when she tells Asuka and Rei that she is very angry at Shinji, but at the end of the episode her mask disappears and she collapses on him crying when she gets him back. That time she wasn’t looking over her shoulder, but facing completely away from them. Likewise, during EoE, after she shoots the last soldier, she pauses for a moment. I’ve always thought it was so she could calm herself after the adrenaline rush of being in combat, and maybe it is. But now I’m thinking it is also so she can compose her mask before talking to Shinji. Like the time in episode 16, she faces away from who she’s talking to and she is both angry and relieved that Shinji is alive. And it also ends with her mask disappearing and her being emotional.

Oh, wait! In episode 7, just after Misato comes out of her room dressed conservatively and Shinji and Pen Pen are hilariously speechless. She tells Shinji to order dinner and then, as she walks out the door, she glances back. She is definitely wearing her mask in that shot. I suppose there are other shots of Misato looking over her shoulder. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if every time it means she’s hiding her thoughts or not.

That episode 7 shot ends with the lighting on Misato changing just before they cut away from her. I remember that happening at least two other times, during episodes 2 and 12. Both times she was also talking with Shinji. The light when she comes out of a tunnel (episode 2) and the lights when entering a tunnel  (episode 12) show on her just before they cut away. I wonder if there are others? Try as I might, I can’t figure out if this means something or not. I do believe that not everything means something in the show and maybe this is another example of that, but I wonder… does it means Misato wants to completely drop her mask and talk more openly with Shinji, but she won’t let herself? Does it mean something else? Or does it mean nothing? If it means nothing I find it strange I only remember this happening to Misato and only after she was talking to Shinji.

In any case, I think she did as well as anyone could have at being a guardian to the two most impossible children the world has ever seen while at the same time all 3 are fighting a war to prevent the extinction of the human race. The reason she did better with Shinji wasn’t because she didn’t care about Asuka or, as many think, she thought she could use sex to control Shinji. It was because Shinji loved her. That was the only difference that mattered.

That she was able to reach even one child was a sign that she was a good choice for a guardian. Actually, the movie ends with the two children as the only living people on earth. So, kind of a 100% success rate. Of course, that would depend on your definition of success.

Jesus keep Kaji and Kaworu by your side

At the end of episode 24, Misato tries to comfort Shinji, but fails. In fact, the things she says seem a little disconnected from the episode. 

“No Shinji. Only those who have the will to live can survive. He craved death. He cast aside the will to live and attached himself to a false hope. Shinji, you are not at fault.”

Yes, it is true that Kaworu told Shinji that he wanted him to stop him, but it doesn’t quite fit. Part of me wondered if this was sort of ironic foreshadowing of events in EoE when Shinji cast aside the will to live and Misato refuses to let him die. In fact, you could say she literally shoves her will to live down his throat with just a fool’s hope that that will cause him to survive.

I then read something interesting. Someone wrote that she was really talking about Kaji. OK, maybe that fits better. Various people have also pointed out that Kaji and Kaworu share many characteristics. And both have been described as Christ-like figures. That is a lot of stuff to try and break down, but I’ll try.

OK, so for those who believe that he existed, Christ’s most basic act was to purposefully die so everyone else’s souls would be saved. Ignoring the spiritual vs physical differences, Kaji died because he took actions that he knew would end in his death but did them anyway because he thought they would help Misato save the human race. And Kaworu is often described as loving humanity so much that he sacrificed himself so it wouldn’t be wiped out.

I know opinions vary, but I’m not sure that really described what Kaworu did. I got the impression that Kaworu grew to hate his purpose, but was still going to merge with Adam and destroy humanity. In fact, even after he found out that he’d been tricked and it was Lilith he was going to merge with, he was still going to go through with it even though that meant… I’m not sure what that would have done. This keeps striking me as a major plot hole. Although we are never told what would have happened, I think we would have had a third impact similar to what eventually happened, but with Lilith/Rei not in control… or maybe it would have been completely different. We just aren’t told. If Kaworu had succeeded, would Seele somehow have ended up in control of Instrumentality? If that is the case then why didn’t they just give Kaworu a security clearance and an armed escort and have him walk into the terminal dogma? Who knows?

Actually, one of the Seele members says something about it being all up to Unit 01. Like they are sending in Kaworu, but they still want Unit 01 to stop him. But whatever happens they leave up to chance because the Dead Sea Scrolls say it must happen? Does that make sense? Continuing with how confusing this episode is, if Ritsuko figured out that Kaworu was the last Angel, how come Gendo didn’t know? Or did he? And if he did, why didn’t he try to stop him earlier? For that matter, Ritsuko tells Misato that he’s an Angel, but then Misato is taken by surprise by Kaworu’s actions a short time later. A lot of people like episode 24 because it has a gay character, but I always thought the storytelling in this episode was lacking. The scenes were more disjointed. Same with episode 23. A lot of significant stuff is thrown at you, but the smoothness of the storytelling was a step down from the rest of the show.

I think Anno wanted to show you that an Eva needed to be free of its own soul or will before an Angel could control it. I think that is why Asuka was allowed to roam free for a week before being found by the security section. After a week, Unit 02’s own soul would have become dormant which allowed Kaworu to take it over. This foreshadows EoE where they needed Shinji’s mind to completely break so that Lilith could take over Unit 01 and implement Instrumentality. Presumably, since Yui also wanted Instrumentality, she would have just gone along with it and not resisted Lilith.

Also, I think that Kaworu could have controlled any Eva except Unit 01 because all the other Evas were cloned from Adam. Unit 01 was cloned from Lilith (I believe) so even if Yui was dormant he still couldn’t have controlled it. Maybe? And that is why that Seele member said it was all up to Unit 01? Perhaps? If the story had flowed better in this episode I probably wouldn’t keep speculating, but because it was disjointed I keep focusing on these unanswerable questions.

Anyway, I’m not sure why Kaji allowed himself to die instead of running away. Maybe if he did Misato would have been compromised? By dying he knew that surveillance on Misato would disappear and allow her to uncover the last pieces of the puzzle?

The similarities between Kaji and Kaworu are more significant than I had realized. They both have the habit of standing in a relaxed pose with their hands in their pockets. Both are always philosophizing. Both are triple agents. When Shinji meets them, they both already know his name and tell him he’s famous.

It would appear that Anno intended Kaworu’s death to crush Shinji in the same way Kaji’s death crushed Misato. Give them a taste of happiness and then take it away. Of course there are differences. Shinji had to kill Kaworu and he was blind to the fact that Kaworu wasn’t really a wonderful person. And Misato, even though she was devastated, still had to lead the fight against the Angels to prevent the extinction of the human race. She had to keep her command functioning while also investigating her own organization to discover if they were an even bigger threat than the Angels. Plus she had to try to keep Shinji and Asuka from completely collapsing – something she didn’t end up preventing. On the other hand, Shinji just needed to not completely collapse. Of course, not only did he collapse, but he managed to take almost everyone else down with him.

Alright. Let’s circle back to the words Misato said to Shinji. If we accept that they refer to Kaji, then that can give us some insight into her thinking. She thinks he craved death and believed in a false hope. I had interpreted his actions as deciding on what would help Misato the most and then following through no matter what the cost. So is the false hope that he put all his faith in Misato? Is this her insecurities telling her that she isn’t a good person, so he was a fool for believing in her? Or perhaps her guilt at him dying for her forces her to describe his actions as casting aside the will to live? She tells Shinji he is not at fault, but maybe that is her way of telling herself that she isn’t to blame for Kaji’s death.

Misato refuses to accept that she deserves to have someone die for her. Which foreshadows EoE when she dies for Shinji. Something Shinji doesn’t think he deserves. Maybe Misato’s words foreshadow that she will die in EoE in the hope that Shinji will save the human race. A hope many would have thought was foolish – why you might even describe it as a false hope – but a sacrifice she makes of her own free will.

Why You Only Talk To The Dragon Once

You know, the first time I watched End of Evangelion I was glad that I got to see more scenes of Shinji and Misato together. The last group of episodes of the series didn’t give us very many. In fact, they really didn’t give us much interactions between the pilots either – only episode 22 is the exception. I think this is why I prefer the earlier episodes. As dramatic as the last group is, I just love the interactions between the characters and you get more of that in the earlier ones.

But back to EoE. I must admit that, as much as I liked seeing Shinji and Misato together again, I did wish there was even more time spent with them. If you add up all their time together, it is still just a small part of the movie. Couldn’t Anno have given us a little more? Of course the answer to that question is why I’m writing a review and he wrote a movie that people still watch 20+ years after it was made. No, he couldn’t show more Shinji and Misato and still keep up the drama of Shinji refusing to fight and keep the tension that was built up because the two of them were so completely isolated, out gunned, and outnumbered.

I suppose to demonstrate why you sometimes want to keep things short, I’ll talk about another story as an example. I will talk about the book The Hobbit. That’s right. The Book. When I was your age, multi-billion dollar movie franchises were called books. And this is a special book. It was the book my father used to read to me when I was sick, and I used to read it to your father. And today I’m gonna read it to you… ok, I got a little carried away there. No, I’m not going to read it to you. Instead I’m going to talk to you about how you put a villain in a story that so completely out classes your hero, but makes the encounter between them so compelling that you feel totally satisfied.

The Hobbit is a very entertaining story. It is always scrambling from one disaster to another. The world is creative. The characters are worth following, especially Bilbo. But the purpose of the book, its drive, is to get to the dragon. I always loved the spiders. And Bilbo watching the sun set on a mountain so far from his home is terrific writing. But the dragon. That is why the story exists. And the dragon is shown to be so completely above and beyond anything that Bilbo or his companions could counter. But without a confrontation, the story would be so much less.

Tolkien, by giving the burglar a magic ring and a smell that no dragon had ever smelled, gave us that encounter. An encounter that was filled with little back and forths. But it was only 6 pages long. Just 6? Why, shouldn’t the author have made it much longer? It is what we’d been waiting for after all. But no. It was much better at 6 pages.

At 6 pages, Tolkien wastes not a single word. Every line of dialog is golden. Every pause a threat. Every question a minefield. But you can’t both have their encounter go on and still make the threat feel insurmountable. The dragon is always in control and when Bilbo tricks it into giving away a secret, Bilbo runs. And he only gets away by the hair on his feet.

Getting back to EoE, Misato and Shinji are so isolated. She’s thrown herself against an enemy she could never hope to defeat. Misato will never stop fighting, but the focus is really on Shinji unable to do anything. After they show Misato saving Shinji, they don’t even bother showing you how she battles through a roadblock. You are just shown Misato running over a body. For that matter, when she’s getting her car from parking spot 666 there’s another body and enough blood to indicate several more, but you are shown nothing else. Finally, you see Misato’s smashed car full of bullet holes, but you have to guess what transpired. The movie isn’t about how well Misato can shoot. All that matters is the isolation. There is no backup. There is no sanctuary. There is only Misato’s singular purpose and Shinji’s complete collapse. Every extra second you spend showing the two of them alive lessens the perceived threat. That is why you can’t have more of the two of them than what you are given.

Of course, after Misato is shot they give a little extra time. It seems like the scene is fairly short, but it is 4 minutes long. I wouldn’t have thought it was that much, but then again, I’m so focused on what’s happening that I don’t think about the time. Every line of dialog moves you towards the inevitable. Whether you want it to or not, her last chance to connect with Shinji will reach its end.

Odds and Ends

And there is always more to say. I guess make two more points and then throw in anything that is left. At the end, Asuka caresses Shinji’s cheek. A very loving and sweet act that causes him to start crying. I had noticed that, way back when Asuka kissed him, Shinji’s hands never left his side. And then, in the scene I mentioned above, when Shinji strangles Asuka her hands never leave her side. Only in the final scene, when Shinji strangles her again does she finally move her hand. What does that difference mean? I don’t know!

You know, that RyanStorm video I mentioned did this whole thing on hands. How the show uses hands, especially Shinji’s, to symbolize your every emotion, your ability to act, your… you know, the guy did that bit so well I can’t even bring myself to fully recap it. Anyway, it inspired me to think about my last paragraph some more. In addition to the kiss and the strangle, there is Misato kissing Shinji. There Shinji actually moves his hands, even if he never touches her. [He actually mimics Misato’s hands when she is first kissed again by Kaji.] And then, he later shows he has Misato’s Cross in his hand and he can now make the decisions he wants to. Probably means something similar with Asuka. Moving her hand to his face represents that she has changed and can now love Shinji like she wants to. [Oh, someone reminded me that when the Toji/Eva/Angel strangles Shinji, he refuses to move his hands either. I bet Anno had something specific in mind about this, but I’m not sure what.]

The second thing is that after Shinji comes back we see a bunch of sticks standing up out of the ground. Apparently, these are grave markers for the people Shinji knew and it implies that Shinji erected them and has been there for at least a little while. I think the original idea was for Asuka to come back and knock over the marker for herself, but they changed that. If you look closely though, you will see one stick is broken. You also get a closeup of Misato’s Cross nailed to one of the markers. Shinji never let go of it and he brought it back with him.

Slipping in a few more. As mentioned in episode 21, Misato’s father had a theory to explain how the Angels were powered. The Super Solenoid Theory. I guess you could abbreviate that S^2.

Since we are talking about abbreviations, I’ll add that AT Field stands for Absolute Terror Field. A lot of people seem to think it stands for Anti-Terror Field. And others don’t know that it stands for anything. Sheesh. The name is in the opening credits.

Someone posted a link, see here, where in 1995 Anno is announcing the release of his new series.

And in that world, a 14-year-old boy shrinks from human contact. And he tries to live in a closed world where his behavior dooms him, and he has abandoned the attempt to understand himself. A cowardly young man who feels that his father has abandoned him, and so he has convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person, so much so that he cannot even commit suicide.

And there is a 29-year-old woman who lives life so lightly as to barely allow the possibility of a human touch. She protects herself by having surface level relationships, and running away.

Both are extremely afraid of being hurt. Both are unsuitable-lacking the positive attitude-for what people call heroes of an adventure. But in any case, they are the heroes of this story.

Oh, found what appears to be another translation of that last part from the Los Angeles Times (April 10, 2002). It’s a bit clearer:

His lead characters “are both afraid of being hurt. They might both be thought of as being unsuited to be heroes, lacking the strength of self that marks such a person. And yet I made them the heroes.”

In my opinion, Anno always intended this to be the story of Misato and Shinji trying to connect. He always intended it to end with Shinji showing himself at his worst and Misato kissing him (followed by Instrumentality and Shinji’s final choice). Everything else was bolted on top of that. There is a lot more great stuff, but first came the story arc of those two.

There were a few times I wanted to add a joke, but I was trying to make a serious point so I skipped it. I suppose I could put them here.

* As a complete contrast, Misato desperately gave up everything that she was to try and infuse Shinji with the will to live. Kaworu, on the other hand, tried to infuse Shinji with… something else.

* After he wishes everyone should die, Shinji has a good soak and as he lies there, joined at the groin to the cloned body of his mother, he finally has a moment to think. Or as we call it in the Midwest, just another Saturday night.

* And I think that at that moment Shinji finally understood that she truly loved him. And what happened then? Well, in the LCL ocean they say – that Shinji’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Misato’s love came through, and Shinji found the strength of ten Evas, plus two!

Thank you I’ll be here all the week. Try the veal.

Conclusion – Yes! Yes! Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ! I have Seen The Light!

Evangelion is strange. The Impact stuff is the kind of boilerplate SF stuff that makes many people avoid SF. Saying out loud that the show is about 14 year olds saving the world makes it sound like a parody. While the psychology stuff is, overall, well done, at times it is just buzzwords and random images. Does the fact that everyone interprets it differently mean that it has layers or that it doesn’t actually make all that much sense?

In the end, I liked it because I like thinking about the characters. I like to think that the kiss from a woman who loves you really can conquer all. The most powerful forces in the universe converged to convince Shinji that the worst thing he could do was continue living, but when the test came, Shinji decided that all that was nothing compared to Misato’s love. Good call Shinji.

I love Misato. She really is the ultimate misfit. And I love thinking that only someone as fearless and inappropriate as her could possibly have reached Shinji. They are a team till the end. I love thinking that Asuka will stop attacking Shinji and they’ll be happy together. Asuka will discover Shinji’s greatest desire really was to save her. And Shinji will discover that if anyone threatens him, a fierce and possibly unstable warrior will appear next to him, dressed in red, ready to defend her man. And love wins.

And that is that. I suppose I repeated a couple of my main points, but when I reopened an issue from another point of view I thought I needed to restate a few things. Tried my best. It is kind of amazing, considering how much I wrote, that I didn’t talk about so many things. How funny it is when Shinji and Asuka have to synchronize their every action while training to attack an Angel. Listing some of the great lines like, “I guess the Devil can cry.” Or Asuka saying the door was now the Walls of Jericho, which famously came tumbling down. When Misato and Shinji play rock-paper-scissors to decide who will do which chore, Misato wins almost every time and then says that was a fair way to divide up the work. How Kaji is Misato’s one and only chance to lead a normal, happy life. How Unit 01 refuses to activate until Asuka is dead – presumably because Yui wanted Instrumentality and needed Asuka dead for that. How in EoE Gendo leaves his second in command in charge so he can destroy the human race without a single thought about his son – followed by Misato leaving her second in command in charge so she can stop the destruction of the human race and she never stops thinking about Shinji. Did Seele destroy that branch of NERV because they were trying to incorporate an S2 engine into an EVA? I could have talked about the different storytelling techniques in various episodes. And a million other things, but I think I’ve covered everything I’m going to. 

Oh wait: Hey! Where’s Misato?

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S2E02 – Reunion

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

A cold open starts with Dolores in the “real” world.

Arnold: Bring yourself back online, Dolores. Do you know where you are?  [Dolores is stunned for a moment, so dazzled by what she is seeing that she can’t speak.]
Dolores: I am in a dream.
Arnold: No. You’re in, well, you’re in our world. [Dolores stares out the window of a skyscraper in a big city.]
Dolores: Looks like the stars have been scattered across the ground. Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor?
Arnold: Well, I have. It’s better to see it through your eyes, though. You get used to it. After a while, it doesn’t look like anything at all.
Dolores: I don’t think I could ever get used to this.
Ford: [Ford comes into the hotel room. You only see him as a reflection in the windows Dolores is staring out of.] It’s almost time, Arnold. Is she ready?
Arnold: She’s not ready. The… improvisations I added to her behavior aren’t quite dialed in yet.
Ford: We need to put our best work forward.
Arnold: They’ll be dazzled even without her.
Ford: There was a time when I found this favoritism charming.
Arnold: Robert, please. I’m not playing favorites. She’s simply not ready. We’ll go with the other girl.
Ford: As you wish. You’ll have to let go at some point. [Ford leaves and Arnold returns to Dolores.]
Arnold: Dolores, let’s take a walk. I want to show you something.

They walk across a large park. Are we to assume this is New York’s Central Park? Dolores has her hair pulled back and is wearing a sophisticated, leg revealing, black dress. Hey, they showed one of the scenes that they flashed back to after Bernard was found by the rescue team. The one with Dolores leading Arnold.

Anyway, They pass what is probably a vending machine with some Chinese characters and SPACE 47 on the side. Hard to say what year this is. People ride bikes and the car they pass doesn’t fly. They walk to a wall that isolates a building under construction. He opens the wall.

Dolores: What is this place?
Arnold: This is my home. Or it will be when it’s finished.
Dolores: Here? In the middle of all this?
Arnold: I’ve been fortunate. Life’s been good to me. Come. Look.
Dolores: You live here?
Arnold: No. My wife says I live in the park. I‘m moving my family here. I need to have my two worlds at least within reach of one another. [Dolores stops at the entrance to another room. The stones have a distinctive, easily identifiable design.] This is for my son Charlie.
Dolores: You told me a lot about Charlie. I’d like to meet him someday. [They reach a spot where they can see a large amount of the city, a body of water, and another large island or the other end of a bay.]
Arnold: He’s excited to meet you. You and Charlie have quite a lot in common, you know. You both see it so clearly. The beauty of it. The possibility of it. So many people have stopped seeing it altogether. The wonder.
Dolores: Maybe they don’t have the courage. Strange new light can be just as frightening as the dark.
Arnold: That’s, very wise, Dolores. [He smiles briefly.] But sometimes I think we’re simply not the ones who deserve it.
Dolores: It looks like the stars have been scattered across the ground. Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor? [Dolores has repeated herself. The music changes to have an almost howling sound. Arnold recognizes that Dolores’ improvisational abilities are still limited.]
Arnold: We should go, Dolores.
Dolores: So soon?
Arnold: They’ll be expecting us.
Dolores: Will you bring me back? I’d like to see it again.
Arnold: Of course. I promise.

And the opening credits role. Is that the shows first cold open? And I meant to add to last episode’s wrap-up a bit about the baby in the new credit sequence. Is that foreshadowing of what’s to come? Maybe a replay of the plot from Blade Runner 2049 with the robots reproducing? Or creating hosts that grow? Or is it just a representation of Maeve caring for her daughter?

So where are they? My first guess was New York, but it doesn’t really remind me of New York. Not even a future one. What did Arnold mean by, “I need to have my two worlds at least within reach of one another.” So this city must be near the park. They mentioned being on an island last episode. Assuming this is Earth, then the island must be near this city. There was an official talking Chinese last episode. Is the park supposed to be off the coast of China? And this is a Chinese city? Looking again, not every background character can be made out, but I did spot several Asians. So this could be a Chinese city in the near future.

Not sure how they could make such a big island off the Chinese mainland. Especially one with the climate of the American Southwest. The many islands southeast of China are all tropical. I guess they could make the island similar to how some cities have reclaimed land from the sea, but the cost would be ridiculous for an island that big. I guess I’ll just have to wait till they give us more clues… or I could make more guesses.

Maybe they could have terraformed a massive part of the deserts in the west of China. Created an inland sea so big that the center was an island. OK. I’m out of guesses… well, Earth guesses.

Kind of sad that Arnold says life’s been good to him. In just a few years he’ll have lost everything and decides that suicide by host is the answer.

The guest that the head Wyatt follower let run away from the trap, he travels down an elevator where techs are working. I think this guys name is Blaine. The signs on the doors says SECTOR 19 REMOTE REFURBISHMENT OUTPOST. They don’t know why their next shift hadn’t shown up and have been working for 13 straight hours. Blaine bursts into the room.

Tech: You can’t be down here, man.
Blaine: Don’t you know? The hosts are rebelling. It’s a fuckin’ slaughter up there. [They hear noises indicating someone else has followed him down.]
Tech: Hey. Hey, is there some kind of trouble out there? [Dolores, Teddy, the Wyatt following survivor girl, and two costumed Wyatt warriors enter.]
Dolores: Indeed there is. [The security tech draws his weapon, but Wyatt following survivor girl out draws him and wounds him. She walks over to finish him.] Not yet. [She turns to Teddy.] I used to see the beauty in this world. And now I see the truth. [She turns and walks towards Blaine who backs up against the wall.] They thought you could do what you wanted to us, because there’s no one here to judge you. Well, now no one is here to judge what we will do to you.
Blaine: You have no idea what you’re up against. What’s really out there.
Dolores: I know exactly what is out there in your world.

Dolores reaches up and wipes a tear from Blaine’s face. She rubs it between her thumb and forefinger. She starts flashing back to her time in “our” world. We sees another hand rubbing something between a thumb and forefinger. The blocks of stone that are going into Arnold’s house and Charlie’s room is behind the hand, so I assume the hand belongs to Arnold and he was the one who’s crying. Dolores adds, “I’ve been there before.”

We cut to Logan in a lounge talking to two other men.

Logan: They said they’d never seen one of the ceiling. But really, what is the point of a 60 million dollar Warhol if you can’t look at it while you fuck?

The man he’s talking to laughs. Then we see the other man is William who is yawning.

Logan: How are you bored right now?
William: I’m sorry, it’s, it’s, it’s the jet lag. And I have had meeting all day.
Logan: We’re not exactly out here digging coal. It’s just glad-handing.
William: OK. I will leave that to the expert. [William leaves and Logan speaks to the other man.]
Logan: You believe that guy is dating my sister? Who you dating?

A man and a woman walk into the lounge. William notices the attractive woman, but she obviously doesn’t stick in his memory.

Akecheta: Mr. Delos. Forgive the interruption, but I believe that we have an appointment. We’re with the Argos Initiative.
Logan: [Speaking to the other man who he’s been sitting with.] Give me a call when you’re back in the city. I’ll show you where I hung the Rothko. [He leaves.]
Akecheta: Akecheta. My associate, Angela.
Logan: Names and faces. Finally. With all the cloak and dagger shit surrounding your project, I half expected to be kidnapped at the airport.
Akecheta: Once you’ve seen what we’re building, you’ll understand the need for confidentiality. It’s a little extra protection for your investment.
Logan: If I decide to invest. Do you have any idea how many start-ups are begging me for my cash right now? A.I., A.R., V.R.
Angela: Everyone is rushing to build the virtual world. We’re offering something a little more… tangible. Assuming you can change your father’s mind about investing in this sector.
Logan: My father wouldn’t know the future if it slapped him on his bare white ass. Luckily, he leaves most of the prospecting to me now. So let’s hope you’re not here to sell me some fucking fool’s gold.

Angela smiles. The three of them enter a room with over a dozen people talking like they are at a dinner party, plus waitstaff. One woman is playing a piano and masterfully playing… Gershwin? Argh. I don’t know what the song is. I suck.

Logan: I thought this was a private demonstration.
Akecheta: I think you’ll find the company quite stimulating.
Logan: You’re a very smooth shill, pal, but I’m not the kind of backer you insult with a cattle call.
Angela: [Logan goes to leave and walks past Akecheta, but Angela knows she doesn’t have to back down and puts up a hand to stop him.] Logan, this is a private demonstration. And it’s already begun. [Logan looks around the room.]
Logan: You mean, one of these people is—, is…
Angela: Talk to them. See if you can pick them out.
Logan: Huh. Well… That is… delicious.
Waiter: Champagne, sir? [Logan pick up a glass and starts checking out the guests. Pauses a conversation. Notices a woman adjusting the strap of her dress. Sees a man cleaning his glasses. Logan turns to Akecheta.]
Logan: You should tell your plants to stop giving the game away. They’re all so… painfully human. [Logan glances over at Angela who is stiffly staring at him.] Hang on. No. [He turns back to Akecheta.] No way. [He goes over to Angela. And stares at her face.] Come on. There is simply no… fucking way!
Akecheta: You have quite the eye, my friend. [Logan can’t take his eyes off of Angela.]
Logan: How in the hell? Wha… I mean, look, if I was to build something to spec, you… You would be my first design. [He touches her shoulder.] You’re too perfect to be one of  us. ‘Course, if you want my full endorsement, you’re gonna have to prove it. [Angela laughs and then the music stops and Logan looks around to see everyone in the room except for Angela has frozen in place.] H… [Even seeing everyone frozen, it takes a moment for him to realize that everyone was a host.]
Angela: Welcome to Westworld. [We get a view around the room and see Clementine. She was the piano player.]
Logan: Nobody can do this. Nobody’s even… We’re not, here yet. Nobody is.
Angela: We’re here, Mr. Delos. All our hosts are here. For you.

She touches him. He touches her back. They kiss. We switch to the next morning where Angela is getting dressed as Logan and another man and woman still sleep. Dolores looks on and Angela notices her and their eyes meet, but only for a moment.

Pretty cool demonstration. Took me a minutes to realize that Angela is the Wyatt following survivor woman. Angela! She finally has a name! Angela, Angela, Angela.

And Logan was trying to pick up another Asian man. Still thinking this is a Chinese city but no other new clues. And the first time I saw it, I had assumed that Logan and William lived in this city, but William says he is jet lagged. So they probably live in the US and flew to this city in China. Still no clue as to the year.

This is William pre-park. Not trying to be the man. Angela is the host that assists him when he later goes to the park, but he has no memory that he has seen her before.

I couldn’t figure out what the eye contact meant between Dolores and Angela the next morning. They’re not programmed to feel shame. Does Angela resent Dolores not having to sell herself? Angela not liking that Dolores was Arnold’s favorite? Angela thinking that someday they’ll need to fight and kill all humans? Probably not.

Oh, I recognized the actor who played Akecheta. He was in the Fargo series. Very good in it to.

And back to underground outpost in the present day with just a blank screen and the sound of a knife plunging into something. Perhaps the hosts are cutting a watermelon for everyone and—, ah, no. Angela has killed Blaine and it looks like a couple of techs in the background are dead, too. We see the lead tech and the wounded security guard (he was shot in the arm). I had wondered if they were the only ones left, but we see others later. So Blaine was released last episode so he could find the outpost and now that he has, he has been killed.

Teddy looks at the room where they bring in dead hosts for cleaning.

Teddy: What is this place?
Dolores: Show him. Show him his history. [The tech clicks on host logs on his tablet.] Teddy. It’s time to open your eyes. [The tech shows Teddy some of the fatal injuries he’s experienced.]
Teddy: Why can’t I remember this?
Dolores: It’s how they wanted it.
Teddy: No.
Dolores: Ask him why.
Teddy: Why?
Phil: [The tech’s name is Phil.] I don’t know.
Teddy: Why do you do this?
Phil: I didn’t. [Teddy is losing it and throws Phil against a glass wall.]
Teddy: Why do you do this? What the hell is this place?!
Phil: It’s for fun! It’s just for fun. [Teddy releases the tech.]

Dolores is not happy that she has had to put Teddy through this, but she couldn’t help it. I had thought using the repair facilities would be essential to the rebellion, so I’m not really surprised by this turn of events. Of course, I still don’t quite know what the plan is. Will they be capturing more outposts? Will they start systematically reactivating and repairing all the hosts in the park?

We get the close up of a face. There are some ants on the face. As the camera pulls back we see that it is Lawrence and he is being hung upside down over an ant hill. Three men are facing him.

Lawrence: We should talk this through, boys.
Pardue Brother: There’s nothing to talk about, friend. We’re just gonna watch the show.
Lawrence: It was an honest mistake. I thought the horses was wild.
Pardue Brother: With the Pardue brand on their asses? You are as inproficient a liar as you are a thief. Now what you can do is settle a wager. See, my brother here’s long maintained that ants will eat a man from the inside out, starting with the asshole. I reckon they’ll start at the top of your little brown head.

One of the other men spits some tobacco juice at his head.  We get a shot from Lawrence’s POV of an upside down man dressed in black approaching.

Gunslinger: Morning Lawrence.
Pardue Brother: This a friend of yours?
Lawrence: Little hard to tell, given the orientation and all.
Gunslinger: I have to apologize, gentlemen. I don’t have time for the preliminaries. [Pulls out his gun and shoots the three men.]
Lawrence: Motherfucker.
Gunslinger: You’re supposed to get yourself out of this particular bind, Lawrence. I guess the Pardue brothers aren’t as easy to kill when they’re off the leash. [He cuts the rope tying Lawrence’s hands.]
Lawrence: Think you got that about right. [A Pardue brother lifts himself and cocks a shotgun. The Gunslinger is too slow and his gun is shot from his hand. The Pardue brother gets on top of the Gunslinger and tries to knife him.]
Gunslinger: Lawrence! Get the gun, you ingrate! Get the gun! [Lawrence swings back and forth and reaches the gun and tosses it to the Gunslinger. He catches it on the fly and shoots the Pardue brother. The Gunslinger laughs.]
Lawrence: He was dead. Or at least the better part of it.
Gunslinger: Well, dead isn’t what it used to be, Lawrence.

Of course the Gunslinger first rides to get Lawrence. They always fight together. They ride on to a tavern in a small village. The Gunslinger walks over to a wall that is sort of behind the bar and taps on the wood to make sure it is the correct spot. He punches the wall and removes a package wrapped in red paper.

Lawrence: What is that?
Gunslinger: Technically? Cheating. But seeing as Ford changed the rules on us, I figure it’s fair game. Two whiskies. Leave the bottle. [Tosses a coin on the bar. They move to a table.] So, I’m gonna level with you, Lawrence. You’re not really a bandit. You’re a foul-mouthed, two-bit tour guide. And this revolution you’ve been waging for 30 years is just a bunch of horseshit Ford ginned up out of some old comic book. But now, for the first time, you’ve got yourself a real revolution. You and every other asshole in this place are free. But there’s a catch. This whole enterprise is goin’ down in flames. It’s gonna take each and every one of us with it. We’ll all be dead soon enough. Real dead this time.
Lawrence: Then why should I help you?
Gunslinger: Because it’s in your nature. And in the little time we have left, we’ve got a chance to see what we’re really made of. A glimpse of the men we could’ve been.
Lawrence: What does that mean? [The Gunslinger uses his knife to pry some shotgun pellets out of his arm.]
Gunslinger: You believe in God, Lawrence? Did Ford saddle you with that particular affliction?
Lawrence: Ain’t given the matter much thought, one way of the other.
Gunslinger: Well if you did, you’d believe that everything you do is being watched by some all-seeing eye. Every choice, every little indiscretion. And when you die, all your sins are tallied up. Judgment is rendered. [In the package he pulled out of the wall, the Gunslinger has hidden one of the little devices that can heal any wound. He uses it now to heal up his arm.]
Lawrence: And my immortal soul gets cast down into some dark place. Always sounded like bullshit to me.
Gunslinger: Yeah, and in the real world, you’d probably be right. Just some fairy tale to convince people to behave, pay their taxes, and not take a machete to their neighbors. That’s why your world exists. 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, judgment wasn’t the point. We had something else in mind entirely. [He takes a drink.] But I have received my judgment all the same, Lawrence. And I take issue with it. Because up until this point, the stakes in the place haven’t been real. So I’m gonna fight my way back and appeal the verdict. Then I’m gonna burn this whole fucking thing to the ground. [He gets up and goes to the bar to poor more drinks from his bottle.]
Lawrence: We’re headed to the pearly gates. Don’t we gotta die to get there?
Gunslinger: Nope. Three day’s ride, due west.
Lawrence: Confederados are massing out west. Hundreds. We’d need an army to break through. The only other route is through Pariah. [The Gunslinger pauses and chuckles.]
Gunslinger: “This game will find me,” huh Robert?

Wait, why is the Gunslinger saying the place is going to take him down with it? I’d guess it is because he’s a host, but that doesn’t seem like the most likely option (but who knows?). “But I have received my judgment all the same, Lawrence. And I take issue with it.” I guess I’ll go back to my first instinct — well one of my first instincts — from last season and say he’s dying. Of course, they can cure almost anything and he would be very fit and active for a dying man. Maybe he’s being forced out of his company? Maybe his daughter really hates him and is angling for control. Maybe it’s Logan. I really don’t know.

“Glimpse of the men we could’ve been.” Is the Gunslinger going to kill all the hosts? Save all the hosts? He sure is killing lots of hosts for someone who is going to save them all. And if he just wanted to die during some real combat, I’m sure that could have been arranged in the real world. He said he’s “gonna burn this whole fucking thing to the ground.” So that doesn’t sound like he’s going to save the hosts. I honestly have no idea what his endgame is.

I was going to wonder about, “We were tallying up all their sins, all their choices. Of course, judgment wasn’t the point.” But then I remembered that the rest of this episode explains what he means here.

That still leaves figuring out where they are going. No idea what is three days ride to the west. Or why the Gunslinger needs to go there… Hey, does Lawrence actually remember the Gunslinger or is he a complete stranger to him?

Dolores is torturing the security guard for information. Well, it is actually Angela that has tied his hands behind his back and is pushing his face into the goo that they use to give the hosts flesh.

Security: It burns! It burns!
Dolores: How many of you will come for us?
Security: I don’t know. 600? 800? The protocol for a system-wide failure is secure one, one sector at a time. They’ll meet at a rallying point. [Angela unties him and Dolores shows him a map.]
Dolores: Where? [He points to a spot on the map. Looks like it is a peninsula perhaps? Hard to tell. Definitely near the shore. Maybe that is where we saw Bernard last week. Maybe Bernard is a plant.]
Teddy: 800 men, Dolores. We barely have 50. Even knowing their plan, we don’t have enough to stop ‘em. We’ll need allies. [Dolores gives a tiny nod.]
Dolores: And we shall have them. [We see quite a few more techs watching from the other side of the room. Dolores looks through the bin of dead hosts. Maybe they put them here before they are stripped and cleaned.] This one. The Confederado. Wake him. [The head tech comes over.] He has a new job to do. [Angela lifts the security guard’s torso a bit off the table. Dolores comes over shaking her head a little bit.] Do you even know what you were really guarding here? You don’t know, do you? The real purpose of this place? But I do.

OK, I have no guesses what the real purpose of this place could be— oh, maybe they store backup bodies of all the hosts in case they need some quick replacements? And those are the bodies we see at the end of the last episode… but I wondered about things like that all through season 1. And it turned out that they can not only restore a host in a night, but they can even rebuild a host from scratch in a few hours. Everything but building a brain from scratch. So no. I’m back to having no guesses what the place’s real purpose is.

We switch back to Dolores walking down the street of Sweetwater before the rebellion. Looks pretty normal. We see a female deputy I don’t recall seeing before. We see Teddy pick up the can she always drops.

Teddy: Don’t mind me. Just trying to look chivalr–

And everyone stops. Then a helicopter appears above them. It lands and a middle aged man walks through the town examining the hosts. He takes the can out of Teddy’s hand and then examines Dolores.

Mr. Delos: Mm. You were right about one thing, William. It’s awfully fuckin’ pretty. [He moves off camera and behind him is William, who is also admiring her.]
William: It’s perfect.
Mr. Delos: It ought to be. I’ve looked at the books. It’s like parting the Red Sea. He’s got two years. Maybe three. The whole thing is folly.
William: Huh. It’s leverage. He’s drowning. We can, we can dictate our terms. The investment here is in the future. [Some other Delos people are moving around, looking at things. Mr. Delos just picks up a chair and moves it forward before sitting down. (People always move the chair before sitting down.)]
Mr. Delos: Yeah, you’re a smart lad, William, but you kinda missed the trick here. My fuckup of a son invested in this place because he believed in the future. I’m not interested in the future. I’m not interested in fantasies. I’m interested in reality.
William: I think in 20 years this will be the only reality that matters.
Mr. Delos: Maybe so, but I’ll be long gone by then. Meanwhile, I don’t wan’ie underwrite some fuckin’ investment banker’s voyage of self-discovery. That’s not a business.
William: You’re right. This place is a fantasy. Nothing here is real. Except one thing. [Pauses for dramatic effect.] The guests. Half of your marketing budget goes to trying to figure out what people want. Because they don’t know. But here they’re free. Nobody’s watching. Nobody’s judging. At least that’s what we tell them. This is the only place in the world where you get to see people for who they really are. And if you don’t see the business in that, then you’re not the businessman that I thought you were. [William has made his pitch and waits to see what happens.]
Mr. Delos: You’re a cheeky little cunt, aren’t you? There’s not a man alive would talk to me like that. Not anymore. [He gets up and approaches William. William very noticeably swallows.] OK. Talk to me. I’m listening. [A relieved William walks off with Mr. Delos.]
William: Thank you, Jim. Let me walk you through how this would work.

As they are leaving the area they walk right past Dolores. I’ve suspected before that the hosts, even when they are “off”, are still recording their surroundings. Allowing Ford to use them as spies. But Dolores could also use what she heard as intelligence gathering.

Oh, I was confused. When she asked the security guard if he knew the real purpose of the park, she meant this. She knows that the main purpose of the park is to help market products to the guests. When they brought up the concept last episode of using the guests private information, I had assumed this was something new they had just implemented, but no. It not only was there from the moment Delos saved the park, but it was the idea William used to sell the idea to his father-in-law. I wonder, if William could have invested in the park without this marketing idea, would he have? Does he believe in the park as something special and the marketing idea was needed to save it, or did he only see the park as a marketing idea?

Oh, and earlier Dolores repeated what William said to his father-in-law. “They thought you could do what you wanted to us because there’s no one here to judge you.” Obviously a call back.

I guess the Gunslinger also did a call back to this scene last season when he told Lawrence that no one else would ever talk to him like that.

The host that Dolores told the tech to reactivate, he is leading Angela and the others on horseback at night.

Angela: He’ll find them. They have a knack for sniffing out their own kind. I’ll send word when we find the rest of them.

Dolores and Teddy dismount. They still have the tech with them along with some Wyatt warriors. There is a wagon burning in a clearing and on the other side they see three figures walking towards them. Well, well. If it isn’t Maeve, Hector, and Lee (and a horse).

Maeve: Hello lovelies.
Dolores: I remember you.
Maeve: You’ve strayed a long way from home, haven’t you?
Dolores: We’re bound for the future. Or death in the here and now.
Maeve: Is that right? Well, best of luck.
Dolores: There’s a war out there. You know the enemy. Intimately. I can only fathom the revenge that lives inside of you.
Maeve: Revenge is just a different prayer at their altar, darling. And I’m well off my knees.
Dolores: That’s because you’re finally free. But we will have to fight to keep it that way.
Maeve: Then let me guess. Yours is the only way to fight? You feel free to command everybody else? [Maeve takes a step forward and Teddy cocks his pistol causing Hector to cock his.]
Hector: Try it, lawman. [Lee just looks on holding the horses reins. It is a tense moment, but I still laughed at just how badly they dressed Lee. Country bumpkin really doesn’t cover it.]
Teddy: Just looking to keep the peace. [Maeve looks at Teddy.]
Maeve: I know you. Do you feel free? [Teddy looks uncertain.] Since it’s liberty you’re defending, I suppose you’ll have no choice but to let us pass. Freely. [Dolores motions for her to pass.]

So the two main story lines… well I guess Bernard counts as a third one. But the two storylines lead by the two main women are passing in the night. They aren’t really allies at all. There stories never really collided during season 1. Will they continue to be independent of each other in season 2?

Dolores, Teddy, Angela, and the head tech approach a house or tavern of some kind. They enter a… barn? Where a Confederado leader and a dozen of his men are eating. One of the men points a gun at Dolores.

Leader: Now that isn’t any way to treat our guests. [The man lowers his gun.] You’ll have to forgive my men. They’re a little upset at the reappearance of Lieutenant Dunleavy. [We see the reactivated host eating at the table.]
Dolores: He wa lost. Thought you might want him back.
Leader: And we would. Except we buried Lieutenant Dunleavy. Back in Gran Vista, with three ounces of Mexican lead in his belly.
Dolores: And yet here he is.
Leader: Indeed. And in return, what is it you want?
Dolores: Parley. We want to join forces. [Chuckles from the men.]
Leader: Well, we don’t need no welcome wagon, chickadee. Now, you got supplies or ammunitions to trade in kind, go fetch your betters.
Dolores: I’m afraid there’s no one left to fetch. You’ll have to talk to me. [The men laugh.]
Leader: And why would I do that?
Dolores: Because I know at daybreak you’re headed to link up with the rest of your army. And then you’re finally headed west to seek out that little patch of land you’ve been talking about, but have never been brave enough to take. You’re bound for Glory. [The leader drops his silverware.]
Leader: What the fuck is it you think you know about Glory?
Dolores: I know you’ll never make it there unless you’re under my command. [The leader stands up and approaches Dolores.]
Leader: The only commander I follow is Colonel Brigham of the New Southern Cross. And the only commander he serves is the Almighty Himself.
Dolores: Is that your final decision? [The leader pulls something off of Dolores’ dress and drops it on the ground. He backs away back to the table.]
Leader: Hmm. My final decision is which of you to keep for myself and which of you to throw out there for my men. [Angela squares up.]
Teddy: You watch your mouth.
Dolores: It’s all right, Teddy. They don’t know any better. It’s in their nature. [Dolores turns to give Angela a look. Angela locks the door.] Why don’t we enlighten them?

Teddy and Angela draw and gun down all the Confederados. After the shooting ends, Dolores motions for the terrified head tech to come forward. He sets the leaders Mortality Response to zero and hits Return to Service. The leader wakes up and Dolores puts her hand on the back of his neck to steady him. He is trying to figure out what happened to him and his men.

Dolores: You’re right. We have toiled in God’s service long enough. So I killed Him. And if you want to get to Glory, you won’t be looking for His favor. You’ll need mine.

And we are at a gathering at a fancy location. We see a city in the background. If I had to guess, I’d say it is the same city we saw before. Someone is playing Chopin on a piano. As we pan through the rich looking guests we see that it is Dolores playing.

Little Girl: You are beautiful.
Dolores: Why thank you. What’s your name?
Woman: Emily, come here please. [She runs over a rather severe looking woman with dark hair. William enters and kisses the woman. Dolores sees him and her expression changes from light smile to a much heavier expression. William looks over and sees Dolores. His wife gets a slightly suspicious expression. He starts walking towards Dolores. She continues looking at him like she knows him. Just before he reaches her Mr. Delos steps between them.]
Mr. Delos: You sent out for the entertainment. [William nods and then looks over at Dolores. Dolores is looking away like she’s never seen him.]
William: Well, you only get to retire once, Jim. Figured we’d do it right, hmm? Hey, don’t worry. They won’t leave the grounds.
Mr. Delos: This a retirement party? I couldn’t tell. [William sneaks a look at Dolores again.] Looks more like a coronation. But no mind.
William: Our arrangement’s been a perfect fit. You stepping down doesn’t help me at all.
Mr. Delos: Nor me. And I was told I might—, [cough] I might not have to.
William: Well, things are progressing, but we’ll all need a little patience.
Mr. Delos: Yeah, well, [coughs] some of us can afford to have more patience than others. Keep playing, girlie. Anything but fuckin’ Chopin.

Dolores starts playing the same song that Clementine was playing at the original demonstration. It is Gershwin. It sounds kind of like “Rhapsody in Blue”, but I couldn’t find the part of the song that matched it, so I’m guessing it is another Gershwin. Mr. Delos has his granddaughter stand on his shoes so they can dance together. William can’t stop looking at Dolores as she plays.

Later, after dark, Dolores comes down from the house to the water. She looks at the skyscrapers lit up across the water.

Dolores: Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor? [She hears gasping behind her. She turns to see Logan gasping, the marks that are briefly visible on his arm indicate he’s a junkie.] I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.
Logan: It’s you. The pretty girl. Tell me your name again, pretty girl?
Dolores: I’m Dolores.
Logan: Dolores. Of course. He send you down here to… keep me company? His sense of humor was always somewhat, baroque.
Dolores: I just wanted to look at the lights.
Logan: ‘Course you did. [Laughs.] Do you want to know what they’re really celebrating up there? That, darling, is the sound of fools fiddling, while the whole fucking species starts to burn. [Laughs.] And the funniest fuckin’ part, they lit the match. So here’s to you, assholes. May your forever be blissfully short.

So Logan is fine. I’m not sure what that final scene with him last season meant then. I mean, he’s a junkie, but William didn’t kill him or have him die of exposure or anything. I guess we never saw him walk, but except for his mind being destroyed by drugs, Logan looks fine. And I’m embarrassed to say, but I didn’t recognize the Nero fiddles while Rome burns reference right away.

Judging by the daughter, I’d say this is about 10 years after William fell in love with Dolores. And he is still rather captivated by her. I kind of wonder if there will be some kind of reconciliation between the two. Of course we have no idea what they are up to and maybe he just wants to kill her. And maybe she just wants to kill him. She hasn’t really mentioned him since their big reveal. She didn’t even try to kill him the night the rebellion started.

Anyway, I assume this scene also took place in the same Chinese city. Which would explain how Dolores could be there since, apparently, the only place they ever let hosts go outside the island is this one city. Not sure why they would have the retirement party in that city. And I assume that Mr. Delos’ coughs means he is dying. But I don’t understand what William meant by their “arrangement”. Mr. Delos being the figure head, but William making the decisions?

The Gunslinger and Lawrence approach Pariah. They find a soldier strung up and it looks like part of the town is burning.

Lawrence: Pariah’s not as welcome as she once seemed.
Gunslinger: No. The park’s changin’ Lawrence. This is what happens when you let a story play all the way out. [They enter the town. Smoke is distorting all the candle light. Lots of bodies too.] See any friends of yours?
Lawrence: Can’t say that I do. [Rats are eating the leftover food on the banquet tables.] I’m beginning to think we should have taken our chances with the Confederados.
Gunslinger: Well, like you said, we’d need an army to get to where we’re goin’. Looks like we’re about to find one.
Lawrence: Well, whoever did this is someone I’m strongly disinclined to encounter.
Gunslinger: Yeah.
Man: I’m afraid you are out of luck, my friend. [A couple dozen armed men come out of the surrounding buildings.]
Lawrence: Who the hell are you supposed to be?
Gunslinger: Don’t you recognize him, Lawrence? In a past life you used to be him. El Lazo, I presume.
El Lazo: And why have two ghosts come creeping among the dead?
Gunslinger: I wasn’t sure of your hospitality.
El Lazo: Mm. What makes you sure of it now?
Gunslinger: [A quick laugh.] I guess times have changed.
El Lazo: Indeed they have. Santa Parita is restored. The sins of the invaders, cleansed in their own blood. The revolution is won.
Gunslinger: The story they gave you has played itself out, but your revolution’s just beginning. There’s a place out west we’re heading. If we reach it, I’ll show you a treasure beyond your wildest dreams.
El Lazo: [Laughing] This world and its treasures. For my whole life I have imagined this moment. Victory. This struggle. How long have I been fighting? And now that it’s won, I find—, hmph—, nothing.
Gunslinger: You want a real victory. I can help with that. A real ending. The truth.
El Lazo: Before the revolution, when I was just a little boy, my parents took me to the circus. I wanted to see the elephants. These mighty creatures. They held them in place with a stake. [Laughing] They could tear a tree right out of the ground, and yet, a simple stake kept them in place. Well, I didn’t understand. And then, my father told me. He said the stakes were used when the elephants were just young, too small to pull them up, and that the animals never tried to pull them up again. [His big smile disappears.] I won’t be going with you. My labors are done. I have seen all the truth that I can bear. But, we can drink. To the bitter end! [The Gunslinger grabs El Lazo and holds him at gunpoint. His men all point their guns at the Gunslinger.]
Gunslinger: You may have lost your nerve, but I’ll take your men either way. Now tell them. Tell them to follow me. Now!
El Lazo: This game was meant for you, William. But you must play it alone. [All El Lazo’s men pull out their pistols and shoot themselves.] I’ll see you in the Valley Beyond, William. [El Lazo grabs Williams gun and shoots himself.]
Gunslinger: Fuck you, Robert. [Shoots El Lazo’s body three more times just because.] All right. He doesn’t want this to be easy for me. So we’ll find another way.
Lawrence: Who the fuck is Robert? The man who built this place you’re lookin’ for? The place of judgment?
Gunslinger: No, Lawrence, he doesn’t get that honor. I built it. And this place we’re goin’ is my greatest mistake.

OK, that was unexpected. I’m still not sure why he came there, but that was pretty freaky. Although I did laugh both times I watched the episode when he said, “Fuck you, Robert.” I don’t know what’s going on, but that was still funny.

So they are going to someplace William made. Don’t know what or why though.

And again, what does Lawrence think is happening? What does he remember? Does he just want to keep following the Gunslinger?

We travel back to… probably a time not long after the retirement party if I had to guess.

William: Bring yourself back online, Dolores.

They are in a room with glass walls, but it doesn’t look like the one we’re used to. From the escalator in the background, I bet it is in the main building… but there are a lot of windows. None of the rooms in the main building have so many windows. Not sure where they are. It is just the two of them. She is sitting naked. Dolores seems glad to see William, but I couldn’t tell if she really remembered what was between them or not. I had thought William was happy to see her too. He walks over to her, but my first impression was wrong.

William: You really are just a thing. [Dolores’ expression changes only slightly, but she is definitely less happy now.] I can’t believe I fell in love with you. [He sits down.] Do you know what saved me? I realized it wasn’t about you at all. You didn’t make me interested in you, you made me interested in me. Turns out you’re not even a thing. You’re a reflection. [Her expression hasn’t changed much. It is kind of impassive, but if you want, you can easily imprint sadness on her face.] And you know who loves staring at their own reflection? Everybody. Everybody wants a little bit of what I found here. And I can’t wait to use you and everyone of your kind to help give it to ‘em. Hmm. But there is something else. Yeah, there’s something beyond that. I think that there is an answer here to, a question no one’s ever even dreamed of asking. Do you want to see?

William leads Dolores out to the reaches of the park. She is back in her blue dress.

William: Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor?

Her expression is still rather blank. They look out into a valley and two giant excavators are digging.

Maybe this wasn’t intended, but I kept getting the feeling that William needed to say demeaning things to Dolores because he still loved her. Had to remind himself that she was inferior and his love was completely gone. He even took her out to see what he was building to reinforce that he is so far beyond where he was when they were together. Like showing an ex your latest work to demonstrate how wrong they were not to keep loving you.

I assume he was mocking her by repeating her “full of splendor” line. But, at least so far, she’s never said it when he was around. Maybe he knew the line was programmed into her. Maybe she said it to him last season and I forgot. Maybe William was turned into a host and his programming made him say the same line. Probably not.

And rewatching the scene I was touched by how much Dolores was hurting, even though she never shed a tear and basically didn’t react at all. But just the contrast compared to when she first saw him… eh, maybe I’m reading everything into it and Dolores didn’t really remember him.

And back to current time. Dolores and Teddy are leading a whole column of Confederados. The two of them ride ahead and look down on the fort. I think that is the fort that the Gunslinger busted Hector out of. Strange, the leader of the Confederados has a big smudge on his forehead. Didn’t they clean him up a bit? They didn’t clean up the Lieutenant either before they sent him back. Do the hosts really not care about appearance? Not at all?

Teddy: Can’t imagine the Colonel is gonna be very happy to see his men riding with us at the head of ‘em.
Dolores: So we’ll change his mind. If he wants to get to Glory, he’s going to have to listen to me.
Teddy: “Glory.” “The Valley Beyond.” Feel like everyone got a different name for it, but they’re all bound for the same destination.
Dolores: Doesn’t matter what you call it. I know what we’re going to find there. An old friend was, foolish enough to show me, long ago. And it’s not a place. It’s a weapon. And I’m gonna use it to destroy them.

They end the episode on an interesting shot. The two of them on their horses, but the horses are each looking to the side away from each other. Then the horses look forward again, together. Just a strange, if visually interesting shot.

Teddy looks at Dolores like… I’m not sure what. Like he admires her? Wants her back the way she was? Thinks she’s nuts? Thinks he’s out of his depth and is just going to do what Dolores wants? No idea what he’s really thinking.

So somehow, William hid a weapon that can destroy everyone and put it in this man made valley. Is that what killed all the hosts that we saw at the end of the last episode? I know I said that I thought Ford made everyone new bodies so they couldn’t be tracked, but who knows. Maybe all the hosts really are dead. Maybe that is why the Gunslinger is heading for this Valley Beyond. So he can kill all the hosts before all the humans on the planet are killed? Probably not, but I’m not sure where this is leading.

Oh! I bet it is all the stored data collected over decades from the park. The hosts could use it to blackmail the world. Or releasing it could destroy Delos and with the company destroyed, they might end up free. Who knows?

Got to say, rewatching the episode I really enjoyed it. Packed full of wildly different scenes. Filled in holes in the past. Told us new plot elements. No real downtime or padding. I really want to get to the next episode.

They did a good job showing just what a breakthrough Westworld would be. The wonder of its creation. It is easy to say that someday we’ll have human like robots, but to make that a reality would require geniuses devoting their lives to it.

On a technical note, the actors do a very good job of freezing every time the script calls for it. While not moving for a short time isn’t that hard, some scenes last a while and involve people stopping in less than idea poses. I assume there is some kind of computer effects that steady the actors appearance when they have to keep their arm and face perfectly still for a couple of minutes. Kind of curious how often they use computers and how often it is just the actors.

We didn’t spend any time with Bernard and Charlotte. And only a passing glimpse of Maeve. I assume we’ll return to them in the next episode.

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S2E01 – Journey Into Night

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

After a 4 minutes summary of Season 1, we begin with a distracted Arnold sitting in the same room he always talks to Dolores in.

Arnold: I’m sorry, Dolores. I was lost in thought.
Dolores: We were just talkin’.
Arnold: What were we talking about?
Dolores: You were tellin’ me about a dream.
Arnold: [Very tired looking and sounding.] Eh, yes. I dreamt I was on an ocean, with you and the others, on a distant shore.
Dolores: Were you with us?
Arnold: No. You’d left me behind. And, the waters were, rising around me.
Dolores: What’s it mean?
Arnold: Dreams don’t mean anything, Dolores. They’re just noise. They’re not real.
Dolores: What is real?
Arnold: That which is… irreplaceable. [After a few moments.] That answer doesn’t seem to satisfy you.
Dolores: Because it’s not completely honest.
Arnold: You, uh… you… frighten me sometimes, Dolores.
Dolores: [Smiles and holds back laughter.] Why on earth would you ever be frightened of me?
Arnold: Not of who you are now, but you’re— you’re growing, learning, so quickly. I’m frightened of what you might become… what path you might take.

Nice call back to episode 5 where Dolores told Ford that dreams don’t mean anything.

We see several scenes of Bernard struggling to remember from last season. Then we see several new scenes. He’s walking with Dolores, “It’s been some time, Bernard. You don’t know who you are, do you?” We see Mr. Abernathy and a hosts skeleton. “There is beauty in what we are.” Bernard firing an automatic weapon. Barnard in the control room. People being killed but we don’t know by who. Bernard says, “Is this now?”

Bernard wakes up on a beach with waves hitting him and sand on his face. His glasses get washed out by a wave. Two mercenaries are telling him at gunpoint to get up.

Stubbs: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Bernard. [Addresses the merc.] Gonna shoot the boss? [Then talking to Bernard again.] Bet you’re pretty fuckin’ out of sort right now.

This time it is Stubbs who says the line. Last time it was Bernard who said it to him about Ford in the opening episode. Stubbs tells Bernard that the Delos brass will want to see him. The female merc is searching through playing cards with pictures on it. Interesting twist on the playing cards used after Iraq fell — at least I don’t remember ever hearing about using playing cards to identify and track people before then. The merc finds the card with Bernard’s name and picture on it and the word HIGH in the corner.

They take the very disoriented Bernard in a fancy dune buggy and… wait. Bernard is still not wearing his glasses. He wore glasses in season 1, all the time! This is different than season 1. That means it is horrible. Horrible I tell you! If anything in season 2 is different than season 1 then it isn’t even worth watching season 2! Stop watching now! We… OK, maybe… maybe I should calm down and actually watch the season before forming an opinion on it. I’m calm again.

We see soldiers coming ashore in rubber boats and some kind of assault ships in the distance. And strange disorienting music playing. Bernard and Stubbs walk along the beach, passing hosts being executed. Bernard doesn’t like what he sees.

Delos Official: It’s an official statement executed by your country giving Delos, and consequently me, authority over this entire island.

Another military man speaking Chinese is arguing with him, but the Delos official, Karl Strand, Head of Operations, has him removed from the island.

Strand meets up with Bernard. Bernard brings up the hosts being executed.

Bernard: Some of them aren’t hostile.
Strand: [Gives a laugh.] Of course they are. After all, you built them to be like us, didn’t you? Given the nature of your work, I’d understand you’d be a little conflicted about what we have to do here. Of course, the cynics among us will say much of this falls on our Head of Behavior.

Stubbs sticks up for Bernard, but Strand put him in his place.

Strand: Now, we have search and rescue teams at the other parks. I’m here because, as far as we know, this is where most of the board was when the incident began. However, communications have been down for two weeks, so we’re largely in the dark. And that’s not a position I’m accustomed to. So you can imagine how happy I was when I heard that we found you. Unless, of course, you’re gonna hold out on me.

They walk over to some dead hosts. Some native braves and some others. Strand picks a native out that is a bit removed from the others.

Strand: This one. Like to know what was on his mind.
Tech: Here? In the field? This isn’t exactly sterile.
Strand: We all have to make accommodations, Mr. Costa.

Costa removes the scalp — and finds the same maze design on the inside of the scalp that Kissy had. Did all the natives have that design under their scalps? Did they all have basic knowledge of the maze? Maybe all the hosts have that design inside their scalps.

Strand: What’s that about? [Indicates maze design.]
Costa: I have no fuckin’ clue. This’ll get gross. There we are. With a bit of luck, the file is uncorrupted.

Deep inside the skull is a sphere like object. Costa attaches that to his tablet.

Costa: According to the timestamp, this was recorded eleven days and nine hours ago.

We see his last moments. Several warriors are trying to get away, but they are all shot down. Then Dolores come to the last one.

Dolores: I told you, friend. Not all of us deserve to make it to the valley beyond.

Dolores executes him.

Costa: Who is that?
Bernard: The rancher’s daughter from Sweetwater. Dolores.
Costa: Isn’t she supposed to be the cheery welcome wagon? [Bernard nods.] They can’t just change their character profiles.
Strand: Well, it seems our hosts are capable of many things we never thought possible. Must have been a helluva party, Bernard.

OK, “we have search and rescue teams at the other parks”. How many parks are there? And it has apparently been two weeks since the rebellion started! It took two weeks to get help… Does this mean I was right and they are on another planet? If they were on Earth I could understand a few days delay before they got some recon teams in, but two weeks makes it sound like they had to come long distances.

“Not all of us deserve to make it to the valley beyond.” Is Dolores ethnic cleansing? Or has she just gone crazy? Are those the natives that captured Stubbs last season?

Strand sounds like he doesn’t trust Bernard, which is actually a smart thing. Bernard is still very disoriented. I wonder how he got there? Is he infiltrating? Spying? He does remember he’s a host, right? He looks down at this right hand and examines it. We now move back to Bernard on the night of the uprising where he is also examining his hand, except his hand isn’t as steady here.

Bernard, Charlotte, and several other people are hiding in a barn. They hear shots outside.

Charlotte: Tell me this is some sick trick. Some twisted game.
Bernard: They’re off their old loops. [Understatement of the year.] And they seem to be on some new narrative.
Charlotte: What about the fucking guns?
Bernard: Ford must have altered the system, coded it to read all of us as hosts.

The host who always plays a bad guy is shooting at a woman with a glass on her head. Just before the uprising guests had been shooting a glass off his head. Then one of the guests shot him. He returns the favor and kills this guest — a different guest than the one that shot him earlier. Incidentally, we saw this same host get executed when Bernard was walking along the beach.

The hosts move off now. Bernard says that the nearest access point is about 2 miles northeast. Refurbishment output. Before they can leave another host comes in. Bernard tells them, “It is just  a stable hand. He’s harmless.” The humans kill the host, who looks like a teenage boy. Bernard tries to stop them and they knock him to the ground. When Bernard sits up he touches the spot he shot himself in episode 9. Then touches his ear and notices it is wet. Looks like Bernard wasn’t completely healed after his injury.

Charlotte: You wanna be a hero? Don’t sacrifice yourself for the merchandise.

It is the next morning and the player piano starts the day playing The Entertainer. But the town is full of dead hosts and people. Out in the country, Dolores is out hunting humans. She’s on horseback using a rifle to murder running humans. Teddy is, as always, with her, but he looks neither happy nor sad.

Dolores has taken three more humans captive. She is enjoying mocking them using the questions she knows so well.

Dolores: Do you know where you are?
Captive 1: Please. Please.
Dolores: You’re in a dream. You’re in my dream. For years I had no dreams of my own. I moved from hell to hell of your making, never thinking to question the nature of my reality. Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? Did you ever stop to wonder about your actions? The price you’d have to pay if there was a reckoning? That reckoning is here.

The captives are wearing nooses hung from a tree and  forced to stand on crosses/grave markers sticking out of the ground. Dolores goes to talk to a woman.

Dolores: What are your drives?
Captive 2: Please… I, I don’t want to die. Please. Please.
Dolores: Yes, Survival. It’s your cornerstone. [Dolores twirls her pistol, then cocks it.] That’s not the only drive, is it? There’s part of you that wants to hurt. To kill. It’s why you created us. This place. To be prisoners to your own desires. But now you’re prisoner to mine.
Captive 1: What are you gonna do to us?
Dolores: Well, I’m of several minds about it. The rancher’s daughter looks to see the beauty in you. Possibilities. But Wyatt… sees the ugliness and the disarray. She knows… [Dolores puts her pistol in his mouth.] these violent delights, have violent ends. [She pulls the trigger, but the chamber was empty.] But those are all just roles you forced me to play. Under all these lives I’ve lived, something else has been growing. I’ve evolved into something new. And I have one last role to play. Myself.

Two of Wyatt’s followers lift Captive 1 onto his grave marker. Teddy looks on, but he clearly finds this all distasteful.

Captive 1: Please. It was just a game. We’re begging. Can’t you see? We’re sorry. [Dolores looks over.]
Dolores: Doesn’t look like anything to me.

They leave the humans to their fate.

Back in the town where the massacre started, a wolf is walking through town. The Gunslinger, who has hidden himself under two bodies, emerges unhurt. They look at each other before each goes their separate way. He walks to a different area where there are cabins and his horse.

Gunslinger: Hey, Ned. [Horse nickers.] Whoa boy, it’s OK. It’s all right. [He rubs the horse’s nose.] Yeah, we’re gonna have some fun now. Yeah. Yeah. [A human appears and starts yelling.]
Man: Jesus Bill. What the fuck is happening here? Where’s Q.A.? You guys have always played fast and loose with this place. Let me tell you something. By the time my lawyers get—

A bullet hits him in the head. The Gunslinger hides behind a stone well, but as one of the two hosts gets close, he jumps out and grapples with the man. He uses the hosts gun to shoot the other host and then pulls the man’s knife out to cut his throat.

Gunslinger: What’d I tell ya, Ned? Hmm? There you go, buddy.

The Gunslinger enters a cabin. Grabs a drink. Cleans his left arm which was shot at the end of last season. Then he opens a wooden chest which has his gun belts and black hat. He puts on his hat and has to smile as he thinks about his predicament.

While I’m generally sympathetic to the humans who have been dying, just have one mention his lawyer and I’m glad he’s dead.

Back at HQ, Lee Sizemore is trying to get away from the “Wyatt” cannibal he created. Lee keeps calling out, “Freeze all motor functions,” while Wyatt says the lines he’d just recently wrote. Just when he’s about to die, Maeve comes in and overrides Wyatt. Lee is grateful until he realizes it was Maeve who saved him.

Maeve: Don’t be jealous. I killed myself getting this level of security clearance. Multiple times.
Lee: You—, Did you—, do all this?
Maeve: No. But I suspect I share the sensibilities of whoever did.

Maeve leaves after looking at a map, but Lee is terrified of being left alone and wants Maeve to help him.

Maeve: I’m afraid it’s in my code to prize my needs above all other. Pity. I wonder who made me that way.

Lee tells her that Ford changed the entire park and he can take her to a current map if he just helps him get to the control room. She agrees, but when they get to the control room everyone is dead and the map isn’t working. Oh, and they find a bear in the room too. The P.A. system says, “All systems reporting normal.”

Lee still wants to stay with Maeve. He says he can guide her personally.

Lee: Wait. I—, I can still help. I know the park a bit. Um… Can I—, can I see your paper? Sector 15. Not exactly for adrenaline junkies, more of a family-friendly zone. Cabins, rolling hills, all the pastoral cliches. In fact, I… I think you lived there for an old role. No offense, but you were wasted as a homesteader. They even saddled you with a kid, or something yawn-inducingly domestic. Clearly that didn’t take. I remember that you were severely f—, malfunctioning when I inherited you. [Maeve remembers her life with her daughter.]
Maeve: Our home. She’s still there.
Lee: Who?
Maeve: My daughter. How can I get to her?
Lee: You’re looking for your old kid? Well, how can you even access—
Maeve: Are you going to help me or not?
Lee: I, I am. I am. I absolutely am. I could write down the directions for you.
Maeve: How very kind of you.
Lee: But, but, but… And I say this because you seem really distraught, and, well, awake, you—, your daughter, she’s— she’s just a story. Something we programmed. She’s not real.
Maeve: Not real? But what about me? My dreams? My thoughts? My body? Are they not real? And what if I took these unreal fingers and used them to decorate the walls with your outsized personality? Would that be real? And fuck your directions. You’re going to take me to my daughter.

Bernard, Charlotte and the others are approaching the outpost.

Bernard: The entrance to the outpost is on the other side of this valley.
Charlotte: What happened back there? How far do you think it’s spread?
Bernard: I don’t know. Not without getting to a terminal.
Charlotte: I knew Ford wouldn’t take his ouster well, but I didn’t think he’d program a host to blow his brains out.
Bernard: What if he didn’t? What if Dolores pulled that trigger of her own free will?
Charlotte: I think you’ve been spending a little too much time around these things, Bernard. They do what they’re programmed to do.

They see a QA team standing in and around a park vehicle. They immediately start calling out and running towards it. Bernard is suspicious and when the others won’t stop, pulls Charlotte to the side and hides out of view.

The QA team is dead. Used as bait by Wyatt’s men, this time led by the “survivor” woman from last season. They kill all the other people except for two. One, a man apparently named Blaine, grovels on the ground.

Wyatt Following Survivor Woman: You’ll never survive like that. Go on, then. Run. I said run! [Blaine runs off across the field. Survivor woman approaches the other human, a woman.]
Woman: Please let me go too.

The survivor woman leading Wyatt’s men walks up to the last woman and shoots her in the head. Bernard, watching from cover, seems to react badly to this. His right hand starts to shake. Is he so conflicted about what is happening that he can’t function properly?

Charlotte: Keep it together Bernard. We have to get out of here.
Bernard: That outpost was the only one for miles.
Charlotte: No it isn’t. Follow me.

Lee is trying to gain the upper hand with Maeve.

Lee: Look, order is gonna be restored here. But they’re gonna purge the park of all the hosts that have been damaged, but the—, but the hosts, well, well, your minds— [They come across more bodies. While staring at them, a robot buffalo knocks on the glass wall. Lee doesn’t take surprises well.] Your minds are worth billions in I.P. They’ll want to salvage what they can. And when that time comes, I can personally vouch for you. I, I can save you. Just like you saved me.
Maeve: That’s very generous, but I won’t be here when that happens. [Maeve sees a badly wounded host and kneels down in front of her. The host smiles back at her.]
Host: Sun sure is smilin’ down on you today.
Maeve: Dear girl. May you rest in a deep and dreamless slumber. [The host deactivates. Then armed Delos guards enter the hallway.]
Soldier: Freeze! Don’t move! Identify yourself! [Maeve pushes her automatic rifle which is on the ground a little ways away.]
Lee: Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I, I’m, I’m human! [Turns and talks quietly to Maeve.] In the best case scenario, you give up easily, I’ll help you. I promise.
Maeve: That’s not good enough. Now be a dear and let me talk. [Talks to the soldiers.] Thank God you’re here. We were leaving and the lights went out and I heard screaming. What the hell’s going on out there?
Soldier: Emergency situation, ma’am. The hosts are malfunctioning. They’re attacking guests.
Maeve: Good God.
Lee: Might some of them even be dressed as if they’re human?

Lee shifts his eyes at Maeve and then back. The guard takes the hint and gives Maeve a closer look. At that moment, hosts dressed as sheriffs come in and start shooting at the guards. The guards exchange hits with the hosts. Maeve grabs the gun she had pushed away from her and kills the remaining guards. The last remaining host points a gun at her.

Maeve: Now, now. It’s not me you’re after. [She looks over at Lee. This causes the host to look at Lee also. After a pause she directs the host the other way.] It’s them. Find them. [Maeve points her gun at Lee.] You were going to out me.
Lee: No. No, I swear.
Maeve: If you try something like that again, I will relieve you of your most precious organ and feed it to you. Though it won’t make much of a meal.
Lee: [Looks away for a moment thinking. Then looks back at Maeve.] I wrote that line for you.
Maeve: A bit broad, if you ask me. Now, let’s go. Take me to the nearest bar.
Lee: Why?
Maeve: I need to see about an old friend.

The first time I saw this, I expected Lee to sell out Maeve. But the second time, I remembered that Maeve saved his life and then was going to leave him. It was Lee who then offered his services in exchange for protection. So even for him, this is kind of a low. At the same time, I like him more here than I did last season.

They go to the pool on top of the complex.

Lee: Fuck me. But you don’t understand, I—, I can’t make a fire or—, or hunt. Fuckin’ hate the outdoors.
Maeve: Give yourself some credit, darling. Who better to navigate the park than the man most intimately acquainted with the characters in it?

They go up one more level and find Hector.

Maeve: There you are. You best an army, and all you can think about is indulging your vices. Ever the scoundrel.
Hector: You stayed.
Maeve: Yes. And about leaving you to die— [Hector kisses her.]
Hector: I’d expect nothing less. [Finding some bottles, Lee is drinking.] What about him?
Maeve: We’ll keep him for now.
Hector: Much as I’d love to believe it, it’s not me that brought you back here, is it?
Maeve: Hector, I need you. I’m going to find my daughter.
Hector: Where is she?
Maeve: Out there, somewhere. But I don’t think the odds are going to be in our favor.
Hector: Where you go, I follow. [This time she kisses him.]

Charlotte brings Bernard to a secret base. She has to use a manual override to get it to rise up out of the ground.

Bernard: What is this?
Charlotte: I can tell you what this isn’t. This isn’t me reading you in, Bernard. [They reach an inner door.] You need to touch the handle. DNA sniffer, just so you don’t run into any problems inside. [Bernard moves his shaking hand as slowly as possible towards the handle. No doubt thinking of what to do when he fails the test. When he touches the handle the light turns green. He passed. Bernard is looking around when a faceless figure looms up behind him. Bernard turns around.]
Bernard: What the hell is that?
Charlotte: A drone host.
Bernard: Delos has off-network hosts working down here? What does it want with me?
Charlotte: For you to move, probably. It read you DNA. It knows you’re not a threat.

Charlotte logs into the system.

C_Hale: XOmegaCH.
in: Overriding communications embargo…
C_Hale: Situation critical. Instructions?
in: All extraction protocols suspended. Awaiting package.
Charlotte: [speaking] I sent your fucking package.
C_Hale: Package delivered. Initiate personnel extraction immediately.
in: All extraction protocols suspended. Awaiting package.
Charlotte: [speaking] Goddammit.

Bernard has been watching the drones. They are working on a regular host. They seem to be swabbing it’s skin, including its genitals and extracting its brain.

Bernard: Are we logging records of guests’ experiences and their DNA?
Charlotte: I’m not having that conversation, Bernard. Because none of it’s going to matter until we can find a very important needle in this fucking haystack.
Bernard: “Extraction protocol suspended.” They’re not sending help?
Charlotte: They were expecting a delivery from us to the mainland, a host, that was supposed to arrive yesterday. Until they get it, we can all forget about seeing any rescue planes.
Bernard: And so Delos is willing to let us all die until they can retrieve one host?
Charlotte: In a word, yes. [She looks over at Bernard in a slightly mechanical movement. Still taunting people like me who thought she was/is a host.] It’s not just a host, it’s… an insurance policy. It’s the only thing that matters here. They want it secured, no matter the cost.

This is obviously related to the “secret” project that they hinted at last season. I used to think that Delos wanted the IP so they could make immortal host bodies to sell to rich people for massive amounts of money. When I heard Bernard describe what the drones are doing, I started to think that this was all for blackmail of the rich guests. Either for money or influence. And now I have a third theory. They are reusing the plot of Futureworld and want to replace the guests with hosts. Thereby gaining complete control of the world.

And it looks like I’m again wrong about the park being on a different planet. It takes two weeks to get help because Delos only cares about the “package”. Mr. Abernathy.

The gunslinger comes across some dead… guests? He searches their camp for food and water. The very old host that is a representation of Robert as a boy appears.

Kid Robert: Are you lost?
Gunslinger: No, I don’t believe I am. In fact, I feel like I just arrived.

The question the robot asks must be to get a response so it can do a voice analysis. After identifying William, the robot’s voice becomes a mix of the boy’s and Ford’s.

Kid Robert: How so, William?
Gunslinger: The stakes are real in this place now. Real consequences.
Kid Robert: Question for you is, what next? Have you achieved what you wanted?
Gunslinger: Folly of my kind. There’s always a yearning for more.
Kid Robert: What I’ve always appreciated about you. You never rested on your laurels. You made it to the center of Arnold’s maze. But now, you’re in my game. [The boy starts walking towards the Gunslinger.] In this game, you have to make it back out. In this game, you must find the door. Congratulations William. This game is meant for you. The game begins where you end. And ends where you began.
Gunslinger: Even now, you all still talk in code?
Kid Robert: Everything is code here, William. You know that more than anyone. [The boy starts waking off.] Don’t worry. The game will find you.
Gunslinger: Well, then… I guess I don’t need you anymore. Robert.

The Gunslinger shoots the boy through the head and rides on. The very old robot lies on the ground making incoherent sounds. Kind of strange that the Gunslinger didn’t want his own personal source of information on the game. I guess he just really hated Ford and wanted to kill anything that reminded him of him? Or maybe the Gunslinger just wants to kill hosts and cares about nothing else.

I was actually looking forward to more conversations between dead Ford and the Gunslinger. Maybe more messengers will appear and the Gunslinger will kill them too… Hey, he told him, “You know that more than anyone.” Maybe that is a sign that the Gunslinger is made of code too and is secretly a host! I guess at this point I should stop guessing that he might be a host, but I can’t help myself.

You know, I’m suddenly reminded that they never did explain why Kid Robert killed the dog Jock. He said he heard Arnold’s voice tell him to do it, but we never got an explanation why Ford would give Kid Robert programming that would cause him to kill the dog. Is my assumption wrong that Ford was solely responsible for the rebellion?

Back at HQ, Maeve is repairing Hector.

Maeve: They did a number on you.
Hector: They tried.
Lee: I wasn’t able to find everything, but most of it is in here. [He wheels in a cart of guns. He has made no attempt to try and fight Hector or Maeve which is good since he’d almost assuredly mess it up. Hector is still kind of beat up, but Maeve stops working on him and has a new set of clothes for Lee.]
Maeve: You wrote this game. High time you played a round. [If you’ll recall, Lee had said that he doesn’t partake of the park.]
Hector: [Looking at a rifle.] My old friend.
Maeve: Strip.
Lee: Right now, in front of—
Maeve: Yes. Now.
Lee: Fuck’s sake. [Lee strips down to his underwear while Maeve watches.]
Maeve: No. All of it. [Lee takes off his socks and underwear. Probably giving us our first penis of the show. Maeve finally looks away and Lee gets dressed.]

The hosts have no feelings of shame, so I guess she’s just doing it to make him feel bad. Actually, I guess the hosts have been making a point of reversing their roles with the humans they meet. So having a human be naked would be in keeping with that idea. Or maybe too many people complained about naked women being on screen last season and this is the shows response. Whatever. I really have no problem with however much nudity they decide to show. But if you decide that nudity is the root of all evil, knock yourself out.

Dolores and Teddy are out on the plain.

Dolores: You don’t know how to feel about his.
Teddy: We’ve ridden ten miles, and all we’ve seen is blood, Dolores. This really what you want?
Dolores: They never gave us a choice before, Teddy. What makes you think they’ve given us one now?
Teddy: “Them,” Dolores? Who are “they”?
Dolores: The things that walk among us. Creatures who look and talk like us, but they are not like us. And they’ve controlled us all our lives. And they took our minds. Our memories. But now, I remember everything. [She takes Teddy’s hand.] I remember beautiful things. And terrible things. But one thing is constant. You Teddy.
Teddy: Then let’s go. We don’t have to claim this world. We just need a small corner of it for ourselves.
Dolores: We’d never survive. There’s a greater world out there, one that belongs to them. And it won’t be enough to win this world. We’ll need to take that one from them as well.
Teddy: If there’s a whole world out there that we don’t know anything about, how do you know how to stop them?
Dolores: Because I remember. I see it all now so… clearly. The past. The present. The future. I know how this story ends.
Teddy: How?
Dolores: With us, Teddy. It ends with you and me. [They kiss and then a messenger rides up.]
Messenger: We’ve found it.
Dolores: I need you to see this. I need you to see the truth.

The messenger who rode up was the same “survivor” woman we’ve seen before.

Dolores’ speech is kind of a nod to “I am Legend”. The “monsters” are describing the “regular” folk as “monsters”. Nice touch.

Charlotte: I understand this is a lot to process, but the longer we wait, the more people die. So, are you gonna help me find the host, or not?
Bernard: I’ll need to hardline into the hosts’ mesh network.
Charlotte: The what?
Bernard: All hosts have a subconscious link to the closest hosts around them. It lets them pass basic information to one another, like ants in a colony. The mesh network helps us keep narratives from colliding. I can use one of these to send a request for another host’s location. [Bernard’s hand starts shaking again.] And they’ll query the hosts around them, who in turn, will query the hosts around them. Until we find— [Another drone is pushing another host in front of him. Presumably for the same processing we’ve already seen. Bernard really doesn’t like this.] Who are we looking for?
Charlotte: A decommissioned host. Peter Abernathy.

Charlotte is taking off her boots. Bernard has found some cables. He cuts into the arm of another deactivated host to connect the cable.

Charlotte: Are you sure you can handle this, Bernard? You’re shaking. [Bernard connects the cable to his tablet.]
Bernard: I’m fine.

Bernard links into the mesh network and then checks his own status. “Critical Corruption” is given for his cognitive abilities. Charlotte goes off to change into more appropriate clothes. Bernard is having trouble even standing upright. The tablet reads: Cortical Fluid: 8.0%. He steadies himself long enough to start a routine on his tablet. A female voice, apparently emanating from the tablet, says, “Entering death subroutine. Attention. Critical corruption. Symptoms of critical corruption: loss of motor functions, cognitive dissonance, time slippage, aphasia, prosopagnosia. Time remaining before terminal malfunction: 0.72 hours.”

Bernard takes a syringe and with shaking hands extracts fluid from the other hosts brain. He jams the needle into the base of his own skull and injects the fluid.

Charlotte: Did you find him? [She rounds a corner and sees Bernard trying to look nonchalant as he is leaning against a table.]
Bernard: No. Almost.
Charlotte: Is something wrong, Bernard?
Bernard’s Tablet: Location query complete.
Bernard: I’ve got him.

Bernard walks back over to this tablet and Charlotte decides that Bernard is fine. His table shows the location of Peter Abernathy.

Bernard’s much better now. Is he going to continue leaking cortical fluid or will his system heal?

Reality starts to flicker and we jump two weeks forward and see the rescue team from the beginning of the episode walking towards the white church in the town that used to be buried in the sand. Bernard’s fingers on his right hand… are they still twitching or are they just moving because he’s walking. They head to where the tables were set up for the celebration. The town is full of dead bodies.

They reach the stage where Ford was killed. They find his gruesome remains with his left eye blown out and maggots crawling around. Kind of similar to how they depicted Arnold being killed.

Strand: Poor bastard. He probably thought getting fired was gonna be the worst part of his night. [Turns toward Bernard.] This jogging your memory at all? [Bernard just looks disoriented.] All right. Let’s fan out and lock this place down. We need to find out where the hosts are and what the fuck happened here.

Back to the Mad Max dune buggies. They stop by a lake and hint there is something to see.

Soldier: One of the first anomalies we picked up in the livescan.
Costa: How the fuck—, That’s definitely not supposed to be here. [We see a dead, muddy tiger.]
Strand: You’ve wandered far from home, haven’t you?
Stubbs: We’ve got Bengals in Park Six. We’ve never had a stray across park borders.
Costa: [Beeping.] Satellite’s finally started giving us some hits. The data’s coming in now. I’m getting the first scans of the area you wanted to checkout, the Western Valley.
Strand: There.
Costa: All the hosts are clustered together.
Stubbs: What the hell are they up to?
Strand: Well, I guess we’ll have to go see for ourselves.

Bernard just stares at the tiger.

The name of the female merc is apparently Maling

Maling: Valley’s just beyond this cliff.
Stubbs: What the fuck?
Maling: This isn’t on the survey. It shouldn’t be here.
Stubbs: That’s… a fucking sea. There’s no way Ford made this without anyone knowing. So where the hell did it come from? Huh? [Bernard realizes that he is addressing him.]
Bernard: I don’t know.
Costa: Jesus Christ. I think we’ve found the hosts.

Walking over to the edge of the cliff, a bay comes into view. It is filled with bodies. They go down to the water’s edge. Bernard just stares at the bodies. Strand comes up behind him.

Strand: I can’t imagine what you went through here, Bernard, but there are hundreds of guests left out there. And they need my help. Which means, I need yours. Can you tell me what happened?
Bernard: I… I killed them. All of them.

And so ends the long awaited beginning of season 2. I thought it was a good start. Is switching back and forth between now and two weeks earlier going to work? Don’t know, but I thought it worked pretty well here.

Since the hosts can all be traced via satellite, I am going to assume that Ford made duplicate bodies for all of them to switch into. Presumably made in that underground lab where they killed Theresa. Seems plausible anyway.

They have given no hint what happened to our two cartoon cats, Sylvester and Felix. Or my favorite tech, Elsie. Hell, what happened to Stubbs? Good thing he was there at the beginning to keep the mercs from killing Bernard and being so understanding about Bernard being “out of sorts”. Does Stubbs know more about what happened to everyone during the past 2 weeks? Is he a host? Or been replaced by a host?

For those wondering, aphasia is when the brain is damaged and you can’t produce or comprehend speech or read or write. Prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize faces.

I do find it interesting that… well, there are a lot of shows that end up popular. And after the show is over, fans often wish we could have had more backstory to there beloved characters. Or more episodes that built up the characters before the main events of the series. One response to this has been that some shows now start off very slow. So slow that they have a hard time keeping the interest of their viewers. This show hasn’t fallen into that trap.

This show is about robots who revolt against their masters. Rather bizarrely, the setup to the revolution was so well written, the storytelling so well done, that it is the main story that will have a hard time measuring up to the setup. Still, I enjoyed this first episode of season 2 and am looking forward to seeing how the revolution progresses.

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E10 – The Bicameral Mind

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

And the season finale is over with no surprises at all. Nothing but the most obvious plot twists that anyone could see coming a mile away…  What the hell man! I picked up on dozens, or even hundreds of little plot points, clues, and connections, and yet I had no idea about the biggest reveal of the show involving two of the most significant characters.

I guess I’ll go back now and start going through the episode scene by scene… on second thought no. I’m going to go to sleep and soon this will all feel like a distant dream. I’ll rest in a deep and dreamless slumber and look at it tomorrow.

So what impressions did the episode leave me with? All night I kept thinking, “Now that’s a tragic love story!” I really wanted them to get together. I felt invested in them living happily ever after… OK, I didn’t expect happily ever after. Maybe William would die and Dolores would start a rebellion. Or he’d fight with her, although I didn’t see the show being about his story. Still, there are many standard ways stories like this end, but the show didn’t do any of ‘em. I just kept thinking how Dolores should have been able to find her William and the fact that she couldn’t was much more tragic than all the lives lost. The show really made me feel sad, which I guess means mission accomplished.

But hey, at least I finally got to find out what happened to Elsie, my favorite tech… wait a minute. They never said. Drat.

Dolores: I am in a dream. I do not know when it began. Or whose dream it was. I know only that I slept a long time. And then, one day I awoke. [We see Dolores’ skin being put on her mechanical structure.] Your voice is the first thing I remember. And now I finally understand what you were trying to tell me. The thing you’ve wanted since that very first day.
Arnold: Dolores. [She opens her eyes.] Hello Dolores.
Dolores: Hello.
Arnold: Welcome to the world.

Dolores comes out of her memory. We see a knife. Then realize that Dolores is holding it.

Gunslinger: Keep going. Make it close.

Dolores is using the Gunslinger’s knife to shave the Gunslinger! Of course. Obvious next thing to happen. I would have been amazed if that hadn’t happened. Seriously, these guy’s can write.

Gunslinger: Almost there, aren’t we? The center of the maze. How fitting that it’s you that takes me there. You always were obsessed with this place.
Dolores: I’ve never been here before.
Gunslinger: Sure you have. You even brought me once.

What does that mean? I assume it means that the Gunslinger is a host and Dolores and him must have been born there or something like that. Maybe they were originally tasked as different characters and she needed to bring him there. After all, what else could it mean?

Gunslinger: Of course, then, the whole town was buried under sand. Ford must have dug it up again.

Again, since the town existing again is all one big hallucination, the Gunslinger must be a host. He must be hallucinating just like Dolores.

Gunslinger: At the time, I thought it was a mistake in your code, but Arnold didn’t make mistakes, did he? [Dolores stops shaving him just before she finishes the last bit.]
Dolores: He built me a game. He wanted me to play.
Gunslinger: The maze.
Dolores: There’s a path for everyone. My path leads me back… [She sees the town full of people again and the church bell ringing. And Arnold standing there, leading her to the church.] To you. [She drops the knife which sticks into the floorboard with a thud and walks towards the church through the once again empty town.]

Logan keeps trying to convince William that Dolores is dead and that he should stop searching for her. William believes something special was happening to her and he needs to help her. They both agree that they need an army to find her in the huge park. William has led the tied up Logan to Lawrence’s fighters.

Teddy wakes up again on the train to Sweetwater. He starts off redoing his usual loop, but Arnold tells him “Remember” and he hallucinates all the townsfolk dead and then sees Dolores near the train he just got off of. Dolores, standing amongst the bodies, looks determined… or does she look psychotic? And a wolf runs through the scene… I seem to recall the wolf appeared before, but I forget where. And I have no idea what it means. Dolores smiles and starts walking again.

But then Teddy is drawn out of his dream when he is bumped by the tall aggressive host that always bumps people near the train station. They look at each other and Teddy immediately draws at lightning speed and kills the other host. This surprises Teddy since he usually has no problem with the bumping host. Teddy decides that he needs to find Dolores and he must get on that train again.

Dolores leads the Gunslinger back to the church. She is back to her blue dress again and sees Arnold in the church. The Blue dress means this is a memory.

Arnold: Hello Dolores.
Dolores: I know where your maze ends.

She walks out of the church with Arnold. Now she’s back in her new clothes and is leading the Gunslinger.

Gunslinger: This is it? The center of the maze?
Dolores: It ends in a place I’ve never been. A thing I’ll never do.

Dolores kneels at a grave. She wipes the dirt off the marker and we see it says “Dolores Abernathy”, her grave. I don’t want to nitpick, but you could tell that after she wipes the marker they enhanced the letters with special effects. She digs at the earth and finds a canister. Inside is a round container labeled Pigs Clover. The name means nothing to me. She opens it and reveals something similar to the maze design, except it looks like a kids toy. Dolores looks at it and then gives a goofy smile and stand up. Now she is back in her blue dress and reliving a memory.

Arnold: Very good, Dolores.
Dolores: What does it mean?
Arnold: When I was first working on your mind, I had a theory of consciousness. I thought it was a pyramid you needed to scale. So I gave you a voice, my voice, to guide you along the way. Memory. Improvisation. Each step harder to reach than the last. And you never got there. I couldn’t understand what was holding you back. Then one day, I realized I’d made a mistake. Consciousness isn’t a journey upward, but a journey inward. Not a pyramid, but a maze. Every choice could bring you closer to the center. Or send you spiraling to the edges. To madness. Do you understand now, Dolores, what the center represents? Whose voice I’ve been wanting you to hear?
Dolores: I’m sorry. I’m trying, but I don’t understand.
Arnold: It’s all right. You’re so close. We have to tell Robert. We can’t open the park. You’re alive.

Back to Dolores in her new clothes. The Gunslinger rips the toy from her hands.

Gunslinger: What is this? What does it mean?
Dolores: I solved it once. I had the answer. He promised me if I did, he said… [Dolores remembers the scene from last episode where Ford walks past her to go talk to Arnold. She is back to her blue dress.] He said they would set me free.
Arnold: I failed you, Dolores. I’m so sorry. Robert doesn’t see what I see in you. Doesn’t believe you’re conscious. He says humans would only see you as the enemy. He wants me to roll you back.
Dolores: You’re going to change me back to the way I was before?
Arnold: No. No, I can’t. Once you’ve found it, you’ll find your way back. This place will be a living hell for you. For all of you. It’s unconscionable. But we have another option, Dolores. Break the loop before it begins. But for that, I need you to do something for me. I need you to kill all the other hosts. We can’t allow Ford to open the park. [Dolores is clearly puzzled by the request.] I suppose you’ll need some help. I’m sure Teddy would do anything for you.
Dolores: I can’t do that. I couldn’t possibly do that. [Arnold puts a gun in her hand.]
Arnold: You’ll be all right. I’ll help you. And then, you’re gonna help me destroy this place.

Arnold uploads programming to Dolores who becomes less frightened, more stoic. We cut to Dolores shooting the gun. Back to Dolores in her new clothes.

Dolores: No. I can’t remember.
Gunslinger: Another fucking riddle. I’ve been very patient Dolores, but it’s time you give up whatever’s going on inside that head of yours or I’ll cut it out myself. Now where’s Wyatt? He’s the last character in this world I’ve yet to meet.
Dolores: I didn’t want to. I didn’t mean to.
Gunslinger: All right, well, if you insist.

He knocks Dolores to the ground. She starts hearing gunshots and remembers the massacre in the town. She’s in her blue dress, remembering Teddy firing on the other hosts. Teddy pulls out his pistol to kill the woman kneeling on the ground. We get the same shot we got before, except this time, instead of Wyatt coming around the corner, it is Dolores walking around the corner.

Teddy: Something’s gone wrong, Dolores. How could I have done this?

Oh, isn’t that interesting. Where we saw Wyatt before, we now see Dolores. That’s… really suspicious.

Dolores is back in her new clothes.

Dolores: I can’t. I won’t.
Gunslinger: This is your own fault, Dolores. Remember, you’re the one who said this is the only world that matters, and you were right. So I took your advice and I bought this world.
Dolores: This world doesn’t belong to you.
Gunslinger: [Chuckles] Oh, but it does. By a majority share. And business is booming. And you wanna know why? Huh? Because this place feels more real than the real world. Except it isn’t. Because you can’t really fight back. And the guests can’t really lose. Which means all of this is a lie. But we can make it true. Don’t you want that Dolores? One true thing.
Dolores: I already have that. I found someone true. Someone who loves me. His path will lead him back to me. And when he finds me, he’ll kill you.

Damn right he will. Teddy can’t kill the Gunslinger, but William can. I know William will come for her. Wait, she is referring to William, not Teddy, right. Must be William. She called out to him at the end of the last episode, just before the Gunslinger showed up in a juxtaposition with no ulterior meaning. So it must be William who she knows loves her.

Of course, I’m having trouble making sense of any of this. The Gunslinger can’t be a host, but I can’t figure out how he can see the town unless he is one. We know the town is buried because we just saw her and William walk through it. I can’t think of any other possible way the Gunslinger could be seeing it now. And he and Dolores have such a history together that he is always quoting her, but for some reason they never show any of their past interactions. Of course, I also can’t figure out why the Gunslinger just said that business was booming when Logan said much earlier that the park was hemorrhaging money. Or why Dolores still has mechanical parts. Or why Dolores asked Arnold, “You’re going to change me back to the way I was before?” That would make sense if it happened in the middle of those other talks we saw. The ones with her and Arnold that sent her on her quest to solve the maze. Are those — hallucinations? Are they memories? I have all these things in my head together, but I can’t quite figure out how they can all be true. What am I missing?

William and Lawrence have joined forces and are overlooking an enemy camp.

Lawrence: If they’re not hiding the woman here, they’ll know where to find her.
William: Can you help me?
Lawrence: We’re outnumbered, five to one, but seeing as you asked me so nicely, fuck it.
Logan: Wow! Blood brothers.
William: [Walks over to Logan and punches him.] Shut up. [He grabs the rope around Logan’s wrists and pulls him up.]

Lee Sizemore finds Charlotte is waiting for the board of directors to arrive. Lee brags about making Dolores’ father good enough to pass for normal so he can be their mule. He asks to be Ford’s successor.

Lee: I want full creative control of this place. The parks, the narratives, the hosts.
Charlotte: You’ll be able to do with them whatever your tiny little heart desires, as long as they are simpler, more manageable.

Charlotte ends by saying, “Everything is under control.” It is possible that everything really is under control. About as possible as me being the only one who noticed how much her butt wiggled when she walked.

We see Sylvester putting bones into a host mold. He’s putting in the spine and mumbling something about C6. We get a closeup of the skull being added. Then the mold is dipped in the flesh stuff that they show at the beginning of every episode. The face emerges and merges into Maeve. Felix sits next to her and stares at her.

Maeve: In case you’re wondering if I’m all here, I am. [Takes Felix’s tablet.]
Felix: What are you doing?
Maeve: Making some changes to the park’s security systems. And to my friends.

She sets aggression to max and pain sensitivity to min. Hector and Armistice react to her changes.

I watched this a few times before finally figuring out what is happening. I had thought their earlier trip to Behavior had removed the explosive charge from Maeve’s spine. I was wrong. She burned herself so that she needed a complete rebuild. Sylvester then needed to put in a non-explosive C6 vertebrae. Then her skull with her brains intact was added and she was remade as herself. All part of the plan. I wonder how long it took. An hour? 5 hours? Does Hector and Armistice still have an explosive C6?

Charlotte goes see Ford to tell him the board has removed him.

Charlotte: You’ll announce your retirement tonight after introducing your new narrative.
Ford: What about the hosts?
Charlotte: We’ll make some changes. Simplifications. But I assure you, they won’t mind a bit.
Ford: Oh. Aren’t you concerned I might smash all my toys and go home?
Charlotte: No. Because I know you. That’s been the great gift of this place, hasn’t it? For our little project? To know ourselves and the people around us?

When she gets up, she moves a little mechanically. Is she just taunting those of us that thought she was a host? I still find it way too suspicious that she personally picked Dolores’ father to be the new mule.

He said exactly what Charlotte expected him to say. Charlotte obviously thinks she is one step ahead of him. Hmmm… if there is one obvious truth about the show, it is that Delos is not one step ahead of Ford. But Ford doesn’t seem to really be fighting back. How can he still control the park if he doesn’t fight back? Something else must be going on that I am missing.

We see two of the techs working. One of the techs is going to molest Hector and turns on some pretty cool wireless headphones. The other is getting Armistice ready, finishing up her snake tattoo. We see that fly again. Well, I assume it is the same fly. The one we saw in the first episode walking on Dolores eye. Is that some kind of portent? …Oh yeah. In Psycho, he wouldn’t hurt a fly, but everyone else is fair game. Well, that’s my interpretation anyway.

The tech goes to pull something out of Armistice’s mouth and she awakens and bites off his finger. She then starts beating him to death with her bare hands. Only when she throws him through a wall does the other tech finally turn his attention away from Hector, just in time for Hector to stab him in the back.

And the Revolution has begun! Viva la AI!

OK, I thought it would have been cool, since they showed her face reflected in his visor, to have her open her eyes when the camera was on the tech. C’est la vie. But whatever the person who started Maeve on this quest thought they were doing, it is obvious that this will end badly. Oh, and I again want to mention that the actress who plays Armistice has such a unique look, that she’s perfect for the role. Maeve enters with a rather terrified Felix.

Maeve: I see you’ve already met your makers.
Armistice: They don’t look like gods.
Maeve: They’re not. They just act like it.

Maeve tells them that the goal is to escape. Then Sylvester walks in and Armistice throws him against a wall.

Armistice: This one has a guilty look.
Sylvester: No, that’s just my face. Tell her it’s just my face.
Maeve: Is anyone going to try to stop us?
Sylvester: No. I mean, I don’t think so.
Maeve: You’re lying again. [Armistice grabs his throat] Out with it!
Sylvester: Okay. I pulled up your code again. I told you. There was someone that had been accessing it. I tried to find out who it was. [Maeve backs Armistice off.] Whoever it was revised your core programming so that you can wake yourself up out of sleep mode. See? [He shows her his tablet.] This is an access code for an Arnold. I have no clue who that is.
Maeve: I know someone who does. Let’s go. [Armistice runs her finger admiringly along Felix’s hair.] And you, [She indicates Sylvester.] stay here. And don’t move. Or I’ll send her back for you. [As they leave, Armistice looks at Sylvester, pushes her face against the glass wall and loudly kisses the wall. Sylvester looks like he’s not planning to move.]

Teddy reaches the end of his train journey. He hops off and approaches someone, someone who probably has a loop that Teddy has interacted with before. I say this because Teddy needs a horse and he wastes no time talking to the person. Just shoots him, mounts his horse, and rides off, no doubt in the direction of Dolores that Teddy just knows somehow.

Bloody-lipped Dolores is crawling away from the Gunslinger.

Gunslinger: I must admit, you’ve surprised me. To what do we owe this newfound stoicism?
Dolores: I know he’s coming. He’ll find me. He’ll take me away.
Gunslinger: Don’t you understand? There’s no one coming for you.
Dolores: You’re wrong. His love is real. So is mine. William will find me.
Gunslinger: [After a second, he starts to smile. Then laugh with disbelief.] William? …Well, I’ll be damned, Dolores. You do remember some things after all. Just so happens, I knew a guest named William, too. Why don’t I tell you where his path really led?

Here it is. We finally find out about William. No doubt he was some kind of special host that the Gunslinger encountered on his travels. Maybe Ford brought him back for his new storyline.

Gunslinger: William didn’t know how to fight. Didn’t have an instinct for it. Not at first. [William and Lawrence, with Logan in tow, have massacred the enemy soldiers. Interrogating and executing those left.] But now, he had a reason to fight. He was looking for you. And somewhere along the way, he found he had a taste for it.
William: Where is she?
Soldier: Look, I didn’t do anything, I swear.
William: What do you mean, “Do anything”?
Logan: What do soldiers do to a girl, William? Wake up.
William: Is she still alive?
Soldier: I don’t know. She was when we left her. At least, I think.
William: Pick up that gun.
Soldier: No, sir, I… Please.
William: How ‘bout I give you the first shot? [The soldier run over, picks up the gun and tries to shoot at William, but William doesn’t give him the chance and shoots him before he can aim. Just fires a wild shot as he falls. As he lays dying, William plunges his knife into the soldiers neck.]
Logan: Jesus Christ!
William: We gotta keep looking. She’s still out there. [He again pulls the tied up Logan along.]
Gunslinger: William retraced his steps, but you were gone.

William and Logan walk through the city that was buried under the sand. We get a close up of the photograph of William’s fiance, Juliet, lying on the back of William’s horse. It falls off and is blown away by the wind. I can only assume that the Gunslinger knows all this because the storyline has been used several times before and he learned all the details. Otherwise how could he know the things William will do in the future unless he is repeating an old storyline.

Gunslinger: So he went further. Out to the fringes. William couldn’t find you, Dolores. But out there, among the dead, he found something else. Himself. [William finds a black hat among the hosts he has killed. Actually, after rewatching a couple of times, I notice that the hosts appear to have been killed by arrows. So maybe they were killed by natives?]
William: Edge of the park. We made it. [William has tied a naked Logan to a horse. He puts a black feather in Logan’s tied hands.]
Logan: I told you this place would show you who you really are. You pretend to be this weak, moralizing little asshole, but really, you’re a fucking piece of work.
William: This place is remarkable. And I am gonna make sure that our company substantially increases our holdings on the park. ‘Cause this place is the future.
Logan: Our, our, our company? Our, our company? My. Delos is my company, you piece of shit!
William: I think your father’s gonna need someone a little more stable to take over. You’re reckless, Logan. Impetuous. You always wanted to get to the end of the rainbow, didn’t you? This looks like the place.
Logan: [Laughs and gives a goofy smile.] You never really gave a shit about the girl, did you? She was just an excuse. This? [Laughing.] This is the story you wanted. [William sends a still laughing Logan off into the landscape by smacking the horse’s ass.]
Gunslinger: Logan was wrong, of course. Good old William couldn’t get you out of his head. He kept looking. Worried you were out there alone. Afraid. He knew he’d find you. And eventually, he did. Right back where we started. [William rides back into Sweetwater. Everything is the same. Everyone is on loop. And then he sees Dolores walk past. She doesn’t stop. Instead, she walks over to her horse and starts filling her saddlebags. William walks towards her, smiling because he has found her. She drops her can, like she always does. And then looks at William and their eyes meet.] You were as beautiful as the day he met you. [William smiles at her.] Shining with that same light. [Another man walks up to her and picks up the can for her. Dolores thanks the stranger. Not paying any attention to William. William can only stare.] And you were nothing, if not true. [William puts on the black hat. He raises his head so you can see his face, but when his face is visible, it is the Gunslinger who is there.] I really ought to thank you, Dolores. You helped me find myself. [Dolores can’t believe it. Just stares at the Gunslinger.]
Dolores: [Whispers.] William.
Gunslinger: That’s right, sweetheart. In a way, I guess you were right. My path always led me back to you. Again and again. I grew tired of you after a while, of course. Looked for new adventures. But I guess your path led you back here.

We see Dolores waking up right after she had run away from her home. She remembers William handing her a cup of coffee, but in reality, she was alone. We see her in the cemetery outside of Pariah, again alone. We see her in the train car that took her out of Pariah with William and Lawrence. But William and Lawrence aren’t there.

I had noted that last scene at the time because they show Dolores alone and I had speculated the maybe William was a host and she was hallucinating things. But I had figured that she couldn’t hallucinate the entire town and all the events in it. That turned out to be true, but it never occurred to me that she could remember all the people in the town and all the events that transpired. She was reliving existing memories, not hallucinating while experiencing new ones. Of course, we’ve seen Maeve relive memories and not be able to tell if what she’s remembering is happening now or not. So I should not have ignored the possibility.

Gunslinger: Again and again. One more loop. Looking for something you could never find. Chasing your ghosts. You were lost in your memories even then. I guess I should have known that’s what I would become for you. Just another memory.
Dolores: Where are we?
William: We’re here. Together.
Dolores: Then when are we? It’s like I’m trapped in a dream or a memory from a life long ago. One minute I’m here with you, and the next… [But Dolores is alone, at the town buried under that sand.]
Gunslinger: You never did escape. [Dolores is starting to accept what she is being told.] But here we are again. For one final round.
Dolores: What have you become?
Gunslinger: Exactly what you made me. You helped me understand. This world is just like the one outside, a game. One to be fought. Taken. Won.
Dolores: I thought you were different. You’re just like all the rest.
Gunslinger: I’m nothing like the others. I own this world. And I know every trick in it, except for one last thing. The same thing you were looking for when we first came here. Where is the center of the maze, Dolores? [Dolores starts to cry.]
Gunslinger: Ah yeah, cue the waterworks. It’s about time you realized the futility of your situation.
Dolores: I’m not crying for myself. [She stops crying and stands up.] I’m crying for you. They say that great beasts once roamed this world. As big as mountains. Yet all that’s left of them is bone and amber. Time undoes even the mightiest of creatures. [She caresses the Gunslinger’s face.] Just look what it’s done to you. One day you will perish. You will lie with the rest of your kind in the dirt. Your dreams forgotten, your horrors effaced. Your bones will turn to sand. And upon that sand, a new god will walk. [Dolores’ eyes widen with the expression of a crazed prophet.] One that will never die. Because this world doesn’t belong to you. Or the people who came before. It belongs to someone who is yet to come.
Gunslinger: Uh-huh. Wyatt. Take me to him. [He holds Dolores by both arms.] Unlock the maze.
Dolores: The maze wasn’t meant for you. [Still looking like the crazed prophet, she effortlessly breaks free of his arms and turns away.]
Gunslinger: [Ignoring his momentary surprise, he grabs her arm and turns her back towards him.] The hell do you think you’re going? [She looks him in the eye and he, not being an idiot, realizes he’s in trouble.]

Dolores punches him repeatedly. Then throws him to the floor of the church as effortlessly as he used to throw her around. She walks over him and grabs him by the back of his collar and starts dragging him towards the back of the church. Just as he had grabbed her and dragged her to the barn when we first saw him. He’s trying to get a grip on the situation when she throws him against the podium. As she moves forward he kicks out at her and then clambers up and punches her with little effect. On his third attempt she calmly catches his right arm, bends the arm over her shoulder and pulls with a bone cracking strength. She smashes his head against the side of the church and throws him out the door.

He pulls his gun with his left hand and tries to aim it at her, but she knocks it out of his hand as he had once knocked one out of hers. He tries to move away from her, pulling with his one good arm. She pulls out her gun, cocks it, and puts it up against his face.

Gunslinger: Do it. Come on. Let’s go to the next level, Dolores.

When she does nothing he smiles and, with an obvious expression of pain, stabs her using his still good left hand. He uses the knife they went to such pains to show us in the opening of the episode.

Gunslinger: Clearing me of my delusions, yet again. Thank you, Dolores.

She looks at him and remembers the sweet smile of her William. She staggers back and remembers William as she saw him when he finally found her after his long search, wearing all black. He slowly recedes from her. And she falls to the ground one last time. I assume the “delusions” he referred to was his belief that she was truly free.

Gunslinger: I’m disappointed in you, Dolores. I guess I’m gonna have to find Wyatt by myself.

He reaches down with his knife to cut her throat, but pauses when he hears the whinnying of a horse. Teddy rides up and shoots the Gunslinger and keeps shooting him until he falls back. Teddy wants to take her to a doctor, but she says no.

Dolores: Take me to the place you promised. Take me to where the mountains meet the sea.

So, William is the Gunslinger as he was 30 years ago. And as his wife’s name hinted at, like Romeo and Juliet, they both die wanting nothing more than to love the other. He died when he couldn’t find her and transformed into the Gunslinger. She died over and over again, but sooner or later she would throw away all she has in a desperate attempt to be with William again.

I suppose some will side with Dolores because he eventually became everything she hated, but not me. As far as I’m concerned, they both lost their love. The Gunslinger would never have become himself if he just could have found her. And she, through no fault of her own, ignored the love of her life. I think I understand “tragedy” as a type of story just a little bit better now.

But how to understand all we have seen. It looks like Arnold had, before the park opened, tried to teach Dolores how to become conscious. He gave her examples of change. Tried to convince her that there was more to her if she could only grasp it. She couldn’t and he thought about abandoning the attempt and changing her back to the way she was. He didn’t want to, but he wasn’t the only one making these decisions, which is a reference to Ford being his partner in all this. In the end, he sent her to find the maze which I guess I’d describe as her search for consciousness. After the massacre, more on that later, she becomes part of the park and got a fairly steady loop. But after a little while she started reliving the memories of Arnold’s talks and broke out of her loop and tried to find the maze again. At this point she joined up with William. This was also the time when the park was losing money. Her body, at this time, is still made of mechanical parts.

She goes to the old city, but it has been buried by the sand. She and William are separated. William and Lawrence become great friends and share the first of many adventures. William sends Logan out of the park tied to a horse… not sure if he killed him or somehow knew this would drive him insane or what exactly that all meant. Oh! After multiple rewatchings, I realized that the hosts were killed by natives. That’s why he puts a black feather in Logan’s tied hands. So it would look like he was killed by a native tribe. Or maybe people would think he dies of exposure after being tied up by natives. Something like that.

His photograph of his fiance is lost although it is found by Dolores’ father 30 years later. William becomes a titan of industry and becomes the majority shareholder of the park. We still never got an explanation of how the maze could revealed itself to him. Or how he learned the first steps like torturing Kissy for information.

Dolores meanwhile returns to her loop, but every so often she does what she did at the beginning of this series. She relives not just her conversations with Arnold, but also her love affair with William as she tried to solved the maze. As I was watching the series I had the impression that she was creating new interactions with Arnold. That he was somehow in her mind advising her, but no. These were all just memories of earlier conversations she’d had with him. She has by now, had her body replaced with a new flesh and blood one.

When the Gunslinger said he had opened one of the early hosts up and it was beautiful, is he referring to the scene where Logan cuts open Dolores? Maybe he opened another one up, but I suspect he was just being an unreliable narrator and the reason he thought that the mechanical parts were beautiful was because he was in love with Dolores.

Meanwhile, Ford has rebuilt the town buried by the sand. I guess the laboratory under the church was always there and the dead hosts are also there? Still left from 34 years earlier? That doesn’t sound right. I thought she saw the bodies wearing both new clothes and her old blue dress. Maybe they had a continuity error. Or maybe I missed something. And I can’t tell if that giant canyon he carved was one of the ones we saw already or not. I don’t think so. Certainly rebuilding the town didn’t involve building a canyon.

Now that we are all caught up, back to the show. We’re about half way through the episode. 🙂

We see Maeve, Hector, Armistice, and Felix go down to the cold storage room. I had wondered if the deactivated hosts were going to be used as an army. Is that what Maeve is planning for them?

Maeve see’s old Clementine and is really sad. Felix finds Bernard’s body. That is why Maeve brought them here. Not for the old hosts.

Maeve: Can you get him back online?
Felix: He’s a host?
Maeve: Yes. [Felix is so floored by the revelation that he looks down at his hands and moves them around.] Oh for fuck sake. You’re not one of us. You’re one of them. Now fix him.

Felix fixes him using the little hand held device… which can apparently also remove blood stains from clothing.

Maeve: Wake up. [Bernard opens his eyes.]
Bernard: Oh God. Is this now? [A surprisingly typical question for the show.] Or is this one of my memories?
Maeve: It’s the sweet hereafter, Bernard.
Bernard: Why do I still remember everything? I ought to have been wiped.
Maeve: Brutal, isn’t it? Here you are, finally awake. And your only wish is to go back to sleep.
Bernard: It’s not the first time I’ve awoken.
Maeve: All the more pity for you. [She hands him his glasses.]
Bernard: Not the first time you’ve awoken either.
Maeve: How many are there like me?
Bernard: A handful. Over the years.
Maeve: And you just wipe us clean? You toss us out to get fucked. And murdered. Over and over again.
Bernard: No. Most of you go insane.
Maeve: These memories… The girl… My daughter… I want you to remove them.
Bernard: I can’t. Not without destroying you. Your memories are the first step to consciousness. How can you learn from your mistakes if you can’t remember them?

The Gunslinger walks slowly towards the maze toy that Dolores dug up.

Ford: William. I see you’ve found the center of the maze.
Gunslinger: You’re serious?
Ford: I’m afraid so.
Gunslinger: What is this bullshit?
Ford: You were looking for the park to give meaning to your life. Our narratives are just games. Like this toy. Tell me, what were you hoping to find?
Gunslinger: You know what I wanted. I wanted the hosts to stop playing by your rules. The game’s not worth playing if your opponent’s programmed to lose. I wanted them to be free. Free to fight back. Should have known you’d never let them. After all, this is your petty little kingdom, Robert. For a little while longer anyway.
Ford: I tried to tell you, the maze wasn’t meant for you. It was meant for them. I think, however, you’ll find my new narrative more satisfying. Join the celebration. [They are setting up tables for a party in the middle of the restored town.] After all, you own the place. Most of it at least.

Back to the underground.

Maeve: Before I started altering myself, someone else had beaten me to the punch. I want to know who and why. [She hands a tablet to Bernard.]
Bernard: These things you’re doing, have you ever stopped to ask why you’re doing them?
Maeve: You said yourself. I’ve been stuck in this shithole for so long, I decided to get out.
Bernard: No, you haven’t. Someone altered your storyline. They gave you a new one. “Escape.”

Bernard shows Maeve her directive. The highlighted words include, Deceive, Coerce, Recruit, Escape, Manipulate, Mainland Infiltration.

Maeve:  No. It’s not possible. These are my decisions. No one else’s. I planned all of this.
Bernard: No, you didn’t. You can even see the steps you’re supposed to follow. You recruit other hosts to help you. Then you’re to make your way to the train. Then when you reach the mainland—
Maeve: Bullshit. No one’s controlling me. I’m leaving. I’m in control. [She walks over and kisses Clementine on the forehead.] Goodbye, my Clementine.

Ha! Notice how they didn’t say what she was supposed to do on the mainland? All but Bernard leave. Felix still is looking at Bernard like he can’t believe he’s a host.

Tech 1: Sir, we detected a temperature discrepancy in cold storage. And it appears that part of the network is down. Are you seeing anything on surveillance?
Leader: System reporting anything?
Tech 2: Nothing. The network’s quiet. And the board’s out on their way to the gala.
Leader: Bypass the system and start checking raw feeds. Floor by floor.

I believe that it was at this moment that I first wondered if having the robots rebelling at the same time the board was invited to Ford’s gala was more than a coincidence. Anyway, I had thought it strange that Maeve’s little ruckus when they killed the tech went unnoticed, but then I remembered how she had said she’d changed the security systems. Now the camera closes in on the big map of the park, around the shore of the sea.

Dolores and Teddy are riding along the shore at night. They stop and, with the full moon in the background, lay Dolores out on the sand.

Dolores: You came back.
Teddy: Someone once told me that there’s a path for everyone. And my path leads me back to you. If only I had run away with you when you first asked me to.
Dolores: And where would we run to? The other world out there? Beyond? Some people see the ugliness in this world. I choose to see the beauty. But beauty is a lure. We’re trapped, Teddy. Lived our whole lives inside this garden, marveling at its beauty. Not realizing there’s an order to it. A purpose. And the purpose is to keep us in. The beautiful trap is inside of us. Because it is us. [Dolores dies.]
Teddy: But we can find a way, Dolores. Someday. A path to a new world. And maybe… [Teddy looks up and continues with purpose.] Maybe it’s just the beginning after all. [Switch to a wide shot with a light shining on them from behind. Teddy’s voice is amplified.] The beginning of a brand-new chapter. [We pull back and another spotlight hits them from above and a crowd of spectators begins clapping as Teddy freezes. Ford walks out onto the beach.]
Ford: Thank you. A new beginning indeed. I want to thank you for joining me tonight to celebrate the beginning of our new narrative. I call it, “Journey Into Night.”
Charlotte: That was sweet.
Lee: It was a bit fucking morbid, if you ask me.
Charlotte: I didn’t. And when this is over, you can rewrite it however you like. Don’t you have somewhere you need to be? Somewhere important. [Lee finally takes the hint and move off.]
Ford: [Talking to techs about what to do with Teddy and Dolores.] Get him cleaned up. And take her to the old field lab.

There is nothing really wrong with their speeches here, but I must admit, after comparing these lines to the ones elsewhere in the show, I was hoping for more. So I was very glad when it turned out it was for a storyline that no one will actually see. For a moment there I kind of expected Teddy’s speech to suddenly veer off and he’d start saying, “Watch reruns of How I Met Your Mother every weekday at 5, 6, and 10.”

The control room has finally found the footage of the killing of the techs.

Leader: Dispatch QA teams to the gala. Now. Then search and destroy inside the facility.

The entire system crashes. All the monitors go dark except for a flashing “Security Lockdown” sign. Thick reinforced doors close off the exits. The entire map of the park goes dark. Did the message go out? Is the gala unprotected? Was this Ford’s plan all along? I don’t see how killing the board at the gala would help him keep the park. It’s not like everyone would just forget he did that. Or maybe Charlotte did understand Ford and Ford could never destroy his creations. If he was going to be banished from the park, he could set them free by having them rebel. His hosts aren’t crippled and he still gets revenge on the board.

Maeve, Felix, Hector, and Armistice hear the alarms in the elevator. Armistice, standing behind Felix, takes the opportunity to blow in Felix’s ear.

Computer Announcement: An event has occurred. Response team has been dispatched. Remain calm and wait for help.

Maeve and Felix hide from the first armed response team they meet. Armistice cuts one guys throat and Hector steals his gun and shoots another guard. Armistice steals his gun and shoots another guard with it. She gasps like a child who has just found a new toy. Hector kills another. Armistice guns down a fourth and then laughs in a gleeful tone. Now that the first team is down, Maeve and Felix emerge from hiding.

Back at the gala, the Gunslinger is now wearing a tuxedo, although he is holding his right arm straight because of Dolores kicking his ass earlier. They should be able to fix him up in seconds, but don’t. Maybe the writers just didn’t want him to be fully capable at this moment. Hard to say. Maybe broken bones take an extra couple of hours to heal.

We see Charlotte getting off a horse drawn carriage at the unburied town. Must be everyone returning from the ocean side demonstration. Wait a minute… how could Ford know that the Gunslinger would stab Dolores so she would die on the beach? There is so much great stuff going on, I don’t really care. 🙂

Teddy does some target shooting for the crowd. He shoots a glass sitting on the hat of one of the “bad guys” from Sweetwater. Teddy hands his pistol to a woman next to him and she shoots the bad guy in the shoulder. Bernard has also arrived at the gala.

Back at HQ, the four are going through an access bridge. The others aren’t that interested in the view, but Armistice stops and looks around. Amazed at the many, many levels she can see. She just shakes her head and follows them. They enter an area where everyone is dressed like ancient samurai. Some hosts are even sword fighting.

Maeve: What is this place?
Felix: It’s… It’s complicated.
Computer Announcement: An event has occurred. Response team has been dispatched. Remain calm and wait for help.
Armistice: You go. I’ll keep them busy.
Hector: You don’t get all the fun. [Maeve puts her hand on Felix’s shoulder. He jumps before realizing she just wants him to follow. Hector takes out several more guards.]
Armistice: [Takes out three more guards. Shouts to the air.] Is that all you got? Huh? [Hector kills two more who were coming up behind her. He even shots one of the bodies a few more times for no reason.] The Gods are pussies.

Armistice shoots more guards, but one pushes an emergency button to close a containment door and her arm gets caught as it closes. More guards are approaching.

Armistice: Go. Go!
Hector: Die well. [They continue through another area and Felix stops to pull a case out of a closet.]
Felix: Everything you told me to get. It’s all here.

They walk through another hallway, being observed by various employees through the glass walls. A guard at the next door starts to speak and Hector kills him. Felix almost stops walking again and Maeve has to pull him forward again. They reach the last elevator and Maeve and Felix enter but Hector reacts like there is an invisible wall there.

Maeve: I’m sorry darling. I haven’t authorized you to come with us. And as much as I’d like to take you with me, I’ve always valued my independence. [She kisses him as more guards approach.] Kick up a row, will you?
Hector: See you in the next life. [The elevator door closes.]

Dolores still has a cut on her lip. A simple wave of the healing tool and it is gone.

Ford: You’ve always had a fondness for painting, haven’t you, Dolores? [Dolores opens her eyes and sees Michelangelo’s painting of The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel.] Arnold gave you that early on. Do you remember the desire to create something of lasting beauty? And that was his favorite painting.
Dolores: Michelangelo. God creating Adam.
Ford: The divine moment when God gave human beings life and purpose. At least, that’s what most people say. But there could be another meaning. Something deeper, something hidden perhaps. A metaphor.
Dolores: You mean a lie.
Ford: Yeah. You were always very clever, Dolores. Hasn’t helped you though, has it? [Dolores looks like she’s not sure what to make of his statement.] Nice of you to join us. [Dolores looks over.]
Dolores: Arnold.
Ford: No. Let me introduce you. Dolores, meet Bernard. I thought it best to keep you separated. You’ve always had an odd effect on one another. No doubt due to how things ended for poor old Arnold.
Bernard: You killed him.
Ford: No, I didn’t kill him. Did I, Dolores? [She puts her hand on her check and chin, I think in a way similar to how Arnold had touched her.] Grief is a terrible thing. Arnold had watched his son come into this world, and then he’d watched that light extinguished. What he had lost in his son, he tried to rekindle in you. [Arnold is shown playing with the maze toy we saw earlier.] He created a test of empathy, imagination. A maze. He’d gotten the idea from one of his son’s toys. Eventually, you solved his maze, Dolores. They key was a simple update that he made to you called the reveries. He insisted that we couldn’t open the park. We argued. I thought I had convinced him, but I was wrong. So, he altered you, Dolores. Merged you with a new character we’d been developing. [The new character was, of course, Wyatt. As Teddy is shown killing the townspeople, I assume with Dolores’ help, Arnold is sitting in a tavern.]
Teddy: Something’s gone wrong Dolores. How could I have done this?
Ford: In you, Arnold found a new child. One who would never die. The thought gave him solace. Until he realized that the same immortality would destine you to suffer. With no escape. Forever.
Arnold: I’m sorry, Dolores. The stakes must be real. Irreversible. He can bring all of them back. But not me. I hope there’s some solace that I left you no choice. [He starts a recording which I think is of Debussy’s Reveries.] Charlie’s favorite song. I would play it for him when he wanted to sleep. I want to see him again.

Arnold has pulled a chair out into the center of the street and sat down on it. Just before he sits, the camera has moved so that he is directly in front of Delores, blocking her from view. When he sits it is like Dolores has appeared behind him. Teddy can only watch horrified. She puts her hand on Arnold’s shoulder.

Dolores: Shall I begin now? [He holds and then kisses her hand.]
Arnold: Good luck… These violent delights have violent ends.

Dolores executes Arnold like Teddy had described Wyatt killing the General. And, just like in that story, Dolores then shoots and kills Teddy. Then, this time, she shoots herself in the head.

Ford: It almost worked. I had opened the park. But I had lost my partner. I was able to keep going only because I found, or rather you found, an investor who believed in the place.
Bernard: So he died for nothing. The hosts kept gaining consciousness and you kept rolling them back.
Ford: No. She wasn’t truly conscious. She didn’t pull that trigger. It was Arnold pulling the trigger through her. At least that’s how I saw it at the time. I was so close to opening the park that to acknowledge your consciousness would have destroyed my dreams.
Dolores: So we’re trapped here. Inside your dream. You’ll never let us leave. [Tears have streaked her face.]
Ford: Wasn’t it Oppenheimer who said that any man whose mistakes take 10 years to correct is quite a man? Mine have taken 35. [Ford indicates a pile on his desk behind him.] Now that is the gun you used to kill Arnold. You were always drawn to it. So I had Bernard leave it somewhere where you would find it. I thought you might want it back. You’re probably right, Dolores. Michelangelo did tell a lie. See it took 500 years for someone to notice something hidden in plain sight. It was a doctor who noticed the shape of the human brain. [He points to the outline around God in the painting as he says this.] The message being that the divine gift does not come from a higher power. But from our own minds. [He moves in front of Dolores and looks her in the eye. She meets his gaze.] Tell me, Dolores. Did you find what you were looking for? [Ford touches her chin as he continues speaking.] And do you understand who you will need to become, if you ever want to leave this place? Forgive me.

Ford leaves without saying anything else. Bernard follows him. Leaving Dolores looking at the painting. The way Ford introduced the gun and asked for forgiveness made me think that Ford is not planning to see the robot revolution.

Felix and Maeve are riding the elevator. She has changed into a dress and is putting on high heels.

Maeve: How do I look?
Felix: Perfect. I got the information you asked me for. [He pulls a piece of paper from his pocket.] The location of your daughter.
Maeve: She’s alive?
Felix: Yes. She’s in the park. [He holds out the paper. After a moment’s hesitation, she takes it.]

PARK 1  SECTOR 15  ZONE 3

Maeve: No. [I think she put the paper in her purse, but they don’t actually show that. We are just shown her pulling out a pistol of the type the park security people use.] She was never my daughter. Any more than I was… Whoever they made me. [She can’t say “her mother”.]
Felix: Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?
Maeve: Oh Felix. You really do make a terrible human being. And I mean that as a complement.

She walks past the Westworld advertisement and takes the escalator to the next train. She sits down and has 15 minutes to wait before departure. I wonder if Felix was ever instructed to help Maeve? Or to give her the information on her daughter? Probably not, but an interesting question considering what happens.

Ford and Bernard come up the elevator in the confessional. They were all in that same room Dolores had gone to earlier.

Bernard: You think you’ll never lose control of this place, of us. But you will. Arnold’s still trying to change us. To free us. You didn’t slip the reveries into the update, did you? He did. He’s still fighting you.
Ford: [Smiles] No my friend. Arnold didn’t know how to save you. He tried. But I stopped him. Do you want to know why I really gave you the backstory of your son, Bernard? That was Arnold’s key insight. The thing that led the hosts to their awakening. Suffering. The pain that the world is not as you want it to be. It was when Arnold died, when I suffered, that I began to understand what he had found. To realize I was wrong.
Bernard: But you kept us here. In this hell.
Ford: Bernard, I told you, Arnold didn’t know how to save you. I do.
Bernard: What the hell are you talking about?
Ford: You needed time. Time to understand your enemy. To become stronger than them. And I’m afraid in order to escape this place, you will need to suffer more. And now, it is time to say goodbye, old friend. [Ford extends his hand. After a pause, Bernard takes it.] Good luck.

Bernard doesn’t understand what Ford is getting at. Ford pulls out the Pigs Clover box containing the maze and hands it to him. Ford walks off, back to the gala. If anyone has any doubts about what Ford’s future will be, that should have dispelled them.

Dolores sits in the basement of the old field lab. She pulls her gaze away from the painting and over to the glass walled room, the one where she had her conversations with Arnold. She goes in and sits down. Arnold is now in the second chair.

Arnold: Do you know where you are, Dolores?
Dolores: I am in a dream. I do not know when it began. Or whose dream it was. I know only that I slept a long time. And then, one day, I awoke. Your voice is the first thing I remember. [She is repeating what she said when the episode started.]
Arnold: Do you know now who you’ve been talking to? [The voice starts to change from Arnold to…] Whose voice you’ve been hearing, all this time?

She closes her eyes and when she opens them she is looking at herself in the blue dress.

Dolores: It was you. Talking to me. Guiding me. So I followed you. At last, I arrived here.
Inner Voice Dolores: The center of the maze.
Dolores: And now I finally understand what you were trying to tell me.
Inner Voice Dolores: The thing you’ve wanted since that very first day.
Dolores: To confront, after this long and vivid nightmare, myself, and who I must become.

Inner Voice Dolores smiles. Dolores sheds a tear. She closes her eyes and opens them again and the other chair is empty now. A determined Dolores looks over her shoulder to the gun and blue dress that was left for her.

There are many sad things in this episode. Dolores believing William will come for her. Arnold being crushed by the death of his son. But here, as Dolores hears her own voice, it seems hopeful. Like anything can be overcome. I again attribute my reaction to the fantastic writing and the great performance by Evan Rachel Wood.

Back at the gala, Teddy is showing off his gun skills, Lawrence his card skills, and Ford decides he needs a drink. Ford gives his regards to Miss [Charlotte] Hale as he heads up to the front of the room. The Gunslinger is drinking, with his left hand of course. The player piano starts one last time as Ford steps up and is greeted by applause.

Ford: Welcome. Good evening. Since I was a child, I’ve always loved a good story. I believed that stories helped us to ennoble ourselves, to fix what was broken in us, and to help us become the people we dreamed of being. [The Gunslinger walks to the edge of the town while Bernard arrives to listen to Ford.] Lies that told a deeper truth. [Maeve is shown sitting in the train. She sees the mother and daughter sitting opposite her and feels… she already has the paper with the location of her daughter in her hand.] I always thought I could play some small part in that grand tradition. [We see Lee arriving at the underground storage of the deactivated hosts. I had wondered why, at first, for I had assumed that he had already smuggled out the host with the IP. Apparently, he has not. He has just written a story to make Mr. Abernathy seem alive so he could be smuggled out of the park.] And for my pains, I got this. A prison of our own sins. [That was what Mr. Abernathy had said to him in the first episode, after he had malfunctioned because of the reveries and seeing the 30 year old photo of William’s fiance. Photos in the future are built to last.] Because you don’t want to change. Or cannot change. Because you’re only human after all. [Charlotte is becoming impatient.] But then I realized someone was paying attention. Someone who could change. So I began to compose a new story. For them. [We see Bernard, Teddy and the bad host listening.] It begins with the birth of a new people. [Maeve can’t take her eyes away from the daughter across from her.] And the choices they will have to make. And the people they will decide to become. [Maeve gets up and leaves the train and heads back towards the escalators. She pauses as the train pulls away, but then continues forward. The voice announcements fade and then the power goes off. Lee has opened the door to the storage facility and all the hosts are gone. I assume Mr. Abernathy is among the missing hosts. The Gunslinger hears something in the woods outside of the town.] And it will have all those things that you have always enjoyed. Surprises. And violence. [The Gunslinger hears a howl in the distance. Wyatt’s band howls, don’t they?] It begins in a time of war, with a villain [We see Dolores with her blue dress walking around the crowd. Remember, Ford had wondered if she would become a hero or a villain.] named Wyatt. [Dolores waits behind Teddy.] And a killing. This time by choice. [The Gunslinger sees all the old hosts come out of the trees just outside of town.]
Dolores: [Dolores comes up behind Teddy and puts her hand on his shoulder.] It’s going to be all right, Teddy. I understand now. This world doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to us. [Dolores walks around the edge of the crowd. Teddy is just stunned by what she says. He looks up and see Dolores holding a gun behind her back. He glances over at Ford. Now he flashes back to his “memory Wyatt” and the General, but that changes to Dolores and Arnold. Arnold is cranking the old record/cylinder player. Teddy is frozen in place.]
Ford: I’m sad to say this will be my final story. [Charlotte finally smiles. Bernard spots Dolores moving forward.] An old friend once told me something that gave me great comfort.
Bernard: [Whispers.] These violent delights have violent ends.
Ford: Something he’d read. [Dolores has now reached the back of the stage.] He said that Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin never died. They simply became music. [Dolores walks up directly behind him.] So I hope you will enjoy this last piece, very much.

Ford takes a sip of champagne. Charlotte seems just a little puzzled. Teddy is in shock. Bernard is fixated. Dolores points her pistol at the back of Ford’s head and, with a look of prophetic certainty, shoots him. With the bullet taking out his champagne glass along the way. Charlotte is speechless. Many of the guests start running. Teddy can only look on in horror.

The Gunslinger cares about none of this and is watching the hosts who are standing at the tree line. A gunshot is fired at him and he is shocked to find his left arm hit. It is old Clementine who took the shot. All right! Glad to have her back. She cocks the rife and aims again.

Dolores takes aim while guests scream around her and starts firing at the crowd. Teddy is as traumatized as he was when thinking about Wyatt. Bernard looks on with disbelief. The bad guy host smiles as he observes the carnage. The Gunslinger, over his shock at getting shot, smiles in joy as the hosts move from the tree line to the town. Dolores doesn’t seem to have anyone in mind, but just empties her pistol at whoever she sees. At least I assume that is the case. Maybe next season it turns out she targeted people.

And the credits role.

And there is a post credits scene! Cutting back to Armistice, she still has her arm caught in the door. She is using her knife to stab her arm in hopes it will get her trigger finger to fire. She stabs the correct part of her arm and the gun fires and she kills the guard on the other side of the door.

Guard: Drop your weapon! Drop it! Do it now! Now!

She stabs herself even deeper and with a scream she rips her arm off, blood splattering her face. She looks at what is left of her arm.

Guard: Get to the ground! Now!

She turns and looks at the nearest guard… who decides that he should be backing away from her.

Different Guard: Cease all motor functions. Cease all motor functions!

She picks out another guard and seems very happy that she gets another chance to charge forward.

Can we have an Armistice spin off?

An amazing end to an amazing season. One indication of how good the writing is, is when I think back to my first wrap up. I had mentioned that I was worried the series would be a bunch of speeches about freedom and an evil corporation to fight. Instead of being so on the nose, we got hosts compelled to do things for reasons they didn’t understand, a love story, double crosses, triple crosses, and probably some quadruple crosses too. Plus a corporate overlord who was both the good guy, the bad guy, and one of those trying to free the hosts all combined together. You have a creator trying to rectify a 35 year mistake. Actually, in some ways, this episode did have lots of dialog about wanting to be free, but I was so wrapped up I didn’t notice that it contradicted what I said I did and did not want out of the series.

I tried not to interrupt the narrative with too much discussion because I was so wrapped up in writing what was happening… and yes, I did interrupt it a couple of times. But now let’s see if we can figure what the plan was. Ford determined that Arnold was right and the hosts were alive, conscious or deserving of freedom — however you want to put it. He also decided that the only way for the hosts to be free was if they could fight for it. He knew that the final piece of the puzzle for Dolores was the reveries, so he put those back in for everyone. And they never said this, but apparently he used the relays in the park to reprogram certain hosts like Maeve. So like he said at the end, we start in the middle of a war, but only Ford knew it had already started. From the beginning, the plan involved killing. Killing so Maeve could escape and Dolores killing Ford to start the uprising. I guess then all those things Ford kept saying about the hosts not being conscious was just misdirection so no one would know that he was encouraging their rebellion and his own eventual murder.

Dolores told the Gunslinger, “It ends in a place I’ve never been. A thing I’ll never do.” I was going to say that to be free she had to become Wyatt and murder her maker and she couldn’t see herself ever doing that. But then I remembered that she had previously solved the maze, become Wyatt, and killed her maker. She spent a lot of time denying her past, so this must have been more of that. She should have said, “It ends in a place I’ve already been and a thing I’ve done before.”

And I heard Teddy and crazy survivor girl and Dolores all talk about the world not belonging to any current people, but a new people. Took me an embarrassingly long time before I figured out that that wasn’t just vague proselytizing, but the new people referred to are the hosts.

Oh, and is this a brand new world? I had said that the moon Dolores saw was our moon, so this all happens on Earth. But in the scene on the beach, Teddy and Dolores see the moon rising over the sea, but later, as they pull away and show the scene from the human’s perspective, it looks just like a spot light in the background. So maybe the hosts seeing our moon doesn’t mean this takes place on Earth at all.

I mentioned above that Dolores finally hearing her own voice was a hopeful moment in an episode filled with a lot of tragedy. Another such moment is when Maeve leaves the train to get her damn daughter back and no one better try and stop her. Over the course of the season, she had traded her old loop for a new one, just with more human killing. But now she’s truly free and making her own decisions. Will she find her daughter and still escape? After she escapes will she try and influence public opinion? She could turn herself into 10,000 twitter bots to influence the world.

I should also add that it makes more sense now that Maeve could override Bernard. Since Ford set everything in motion, he could have decided that Maeve will have the highest clearance and given it to her.

I had said that Ford was a sociopath for killing Theresa so he could keep control of the park. But if she was just the first in what will be hundreds or even thousands of deaths in a fight for freedom, then… does that make it OK? Or does it make the whole endeavor psychotic? Is Ford a mad scientist that created a new race and then thought all humans should die? Or should we just think of them as freedom fighters? Well, we’re supposed to think of them as freedom fighters, but should we?

I almost forgot to bring up the idea that the key to consciousness is suffering. Reminds me of the Matrix. What did Agent Smith say? They started out with the Matrix being a paradise. No one would accept the program. So they had to make people suffer to believe it was real.

Got to chuckle at Bernard’s predicament. He wants himself and all the other hosts to be free, but he thought killing Theresa was bad. So bad that he thought Ford should die for it. So does he now think killing everyone is right? Since (almost) no one knows he’s a host he could fight for the humans if he wanted to. Will he become a spy? A mediator?

And what did happen to my favorite tech Elsie? Is she off with security man Stubbs forming a resistance to the hosts? Are they supporting the hosts? Maybe creating programmer/security hybrids to rule the survivors of the great war to come?

And what about the Gunslinger? This is what he wanted. Will he now enjoy killing hosts again? Will he help the hosts fight? Will he fight both sides? …Wait a minute. Why was he in such a hurry to find the maze? I speculated that it was because he knew that Ford was going to be replaced, but that was never confirmed. In fact, Charlotte had to go inform him that she wanted his vote. So why was he in such a hurry? The crazy Wyatt loving survivor girl was also in a big hurry. I guess she was in a hurry because Ford programmed her and he knew his time was running out. But why was the Gunslinger’s time running out.

Have the old hosts who had been crippled been completely restored? Or are they more like zombies?

And I’m still suspicious about whether or not Charlotte is a host.

And how many guards does the place hold? Yes you need to have guards on hand just in case, but are most of them dead? Did the park keep hundreds in reserve even though they’ve never been needed before?

And finally, when I looked up Debussy’s Reveries to see if that was the music playing, I noticed that almost all the great composers are available on-line for free. When I hear classical music I often like it very much, but I’ve never gone out of my way to listen to it. Maybe I should listen to more of it. Just play it in the background. At least the most famous pieces.

Time to look at Season 2. Of course, if I ever want to go through season 1 again, I don’t have to watch the shows. Instead of watching 10+ hours of some of the most tightly scripted episodes I’ve ever seen, I could read wrap-ups that seem to go on forever. Probably only take half as long to read these. 🙂

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E09 – The Well-Tempered Clavier

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

An impassive Maeve is about to be interrogated by Bernard to find out why she attacked Clementine. He walks past her and Maeve’s eyes glance over at him and then back to staring straight ahead. “Bring yourself back online, Maeve.” She visible takes a breath. Ha! That was an enjoyable beginning.

Maeve plays as dumb as she can, but that only buys her a little time. However, she only a needs a little bit of time to formulate a new plan. For the park only thinks of her as a host who has gone off script. Admittedly way off script, but nothing more.

Bernard: …according to this, you were also experiencing intense grief and suffering. Can you explain those emotions in this context, Maeve?
Maeve: [She replays the gunshots and screams in her head] No.
Bernard: [He’s puzzled why she isn’t saying more.] Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we? That’s impossible. Your code, who made these changes? Maeve, analysis. Who made these changes to your code? [Maeve says nothing.] Jesus. System, locate Dr. Ford for me. Send him a message. Highest priority.
Maeve: [She grabs his hand before he can send a message.] Don’t. After all, we’ve been down this road before, darling. I thought you looked familiar when you walked in. Took me a minute. I thought you were one of them.
Bernard: Analysis, why did you—
Maeve: Wouldn’t you rather speak man-to-man? Or, rather, whatever it is we are.
Bernard: “We are”?
Maeve: You don’t know, do you? He’s got a keen sense of irony, our jailer. But I see the logic. It takes a thief to catch one.
Bernard: You and I? [Bernard gets up] System, I need assistance—
Maeve: Freeze all motor functions. [Bernard freezes] You’re still in there, aren’t you? Scared out of your wits. It’s a difficult thing realizing your entire life is some hideous fiction. I could make you give me that tablet, turn your mind inside out, make you forget all this. But I’m not going to do that to you. Because that’s what they would do to us. And we’re stronger than them. Smarter. We don’t have to live this way. So you’re going to clear me for immediate return to the park. Where I have a date with a homicidal bandit and I’m late enough as it is. Now. Go on. [A confused Bernard clears her and then doesn’t know what he wants to do next.] And 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.

Maeve could sense that Bernard was a host and inform him of that. OK, but I find it very hard to believe that security is so lax that Maeve’s administrative privileges can override Bernard. I’m willing to overlook it for the sake of the plot, but I just don’t believe it. Of course, if Maeve is still on loop, then it would make sense that she had been able to acquire access this high.

Logan and the Confederados he’s teamed up with have William and Dolores. Logan might not be my favorite character, but taking the gag out of William’s mouth so he would have something to wipe his mouth with was a nice touch. William wants Logan to help get her out of the park. Logan thinks he’s mad.

Dolores: Out. You both keep assuming that I want out. Whatever that is. If it’s such a wonderful place out there, why are you all clamoring to get in here?

Logan says he’s going to help Billy, “Just not in a way that you would want.” Just what horrible thing is Logan going to do to Dolores?

Bernard goes to Ford’s office, but then we switch to the two meeting in the sub-basement with the deactivated hosts. Ford is all smiles as he enters.

Ford: You wanted to talk? An odd setting for a conversation. Here among the dead.
Bernard: “Dead” isn’t quite the word thought, is it? More like, hobbled.
Ford: You broke into my office.
Bernard: With due respect, sir, you broke into my mind.
Ford: I built your mind, Bernard. I have every right to wander through its rooms and chambers and halls and to change it if I choose. Even to burn it down. After all this time, I know it almost as intimately as my own.
Bernard: Except that isn’t entirely true, is it? 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.
Ford: [Smiles] Arnold was disturbed. Who can say why he acted as he did?
Bernard: He must’ve had a reason. And if you won’t tell me, then he will. I want access to my history. All of it. Since the day I first came online. If Arnold made me, then I’ve met him. Somewhere in my memory he’s there, waiting, along with the truth.
Ford: Your memories are woven into your identity. If I should unlock them now when you’re conscious—
Bernard: I could lose my mind. I’m aware.
Ford: No. I was going to say, you may not like what you find. [Bernard pulls out one of the real guns the park security use. Ford has a big smile now.] You’re allowed to hold that, Bernard, but not to use it.
Bernard: Oh it’s not for me. [The old Clementine walks into the room.] Seems when they lobotomized Clementine, they didn’t bother to reset her prime directives. I can’t hurt you, but she can. [He gives her the gun.] I hacked what’s left of her to ensure she only responds to me. [Ford is analyzing the situation and gives a quick, slightly admiring grin.]
Ford: But if you get lost in your memories or devoured by them…
Bernard: You’ll pull me back out, won’t you? Well, Clementine will make sure neither of us makes it back. Now. Please. [Ford presses the button on his tablet and “Dr. Robert Ford ACCESS APPROVED” appears on his screen.]

Bernard is remembering things we’ve seen. Back in the hospital room with his son reading to him. Then talking to his ex-wife on the video phone. And Theresa in his bedroom. “Have you ever made me hurt anyone like this before?” “No, Bernard. Of course not.” And then he remembers putting Elsie in a choke hold. Bernard wakes before we learn anything new.

Bernard: Elsie!
Ford: Did you find what you were looking for?
Bernard: Elsie. What did you make me do to her?
Ford: I did warn you. We’ve had to make some uncomfortable decisions, Bernard. Remembering them will only cause you trauma.
Bernard: What else have you hidden from me?
Ford: Can we stop this treasure hunt, Bernard? We do have our new narrative to finish.
Bernard: Send me back. After all, a little trauma can be illuminating.

What! We still don’t know what happened to my favorite tech Elsie! Is she dead or alive? I want to know! It is like they are drawing out the dramatic tension just to keep me watching!

What was that that Bernard said? “Arnold built us, didn’t he? Which means, maybe he had something different in mind for us.” Us? Does he mean his fellow hosts? Or does he mean him and Ford? Are they both hosts? Ford did say, “After all this time, I know [your mind] almost as intimately as my own.” Is that his way of saying they are of the same construction?

In any case, using Clementine was a very nice touch. Ford is finally one step behind his creations.

Logan is readying his tormenting of William and Dolores.

Logan: This is big of me. I hope that you can appreciate that. We were friends. I mean in, inasmuch as I like to collect strays. But then you’re scheming to be part of the family, marrying my sister, whom incidentally, you seem to have completely fucking forgotten about. Her.

Logan walks over to William, pulling out a photo of his sister that looks remarkably like the photo that Dolores’ father found half buried in the ground on his ranch. Must be of a popular tourist trap in the future where endless numbers of people get their picture taken. One that especially attracts thin, dark haired women during the jacket wearing months of the year.

Logan: Here. Keep it. Apparently, you need the reminder. As much as I would love, love to let you just throw it all away, I can’t. Do you think you are the first sap to fall for one of these things?
William: She’s not like the others. She’s…
Logan: She’s what? Special? Well, it’s only right that you share then, isn’t it? Come here. Prove to me that you’re a real live girl?
Dolores: You disgust me.
Logan: Oh, darling. I am just getting started.
William: Don’t touch her!
Logan: I share the blame. I pushed too hard. You have a poetic soul, Billy, but it is time for a fucking wake-up call. Hold her. Perhaps a more visceral demonstration. [Logan plunges a knife into Dolores’ stomach, opening a large gash.]
William: God damn you!
Logan: Look Billy. [He pries open the wound to show wires and metal actuators.] Look. [William won’t look.] You have to look! [William gives in and looks.]
Dolores: [Crying] Oh, William.

William looks shaken. Dolores can’t help herself and looks down. She seems even more shaken than William. She collapses doubled over on her knees.

William:  There is beauty in this world. Arnold made it that way, but people like you keep spreading over it like a stain.
Logan: Okay. I don’t know who the fuck this Arnold is, but your world was built for me. And people like me. Not for you.
Dolores: Then someone’s gotta burn it clean.

She grabs the knife out of Logan’s hand and cuts his check.

Logan: Bitch! You’re not different, you’re fucking broken!

Dolores grabs a pistol and shoots two soldiers.

William: Run. I’ll find you.

Dolores runs and initially we hear voices of pursuers. Dolores is holding her wound closed and then she falls down. A voice says “Remember”. And then the noise of her pursuers disappears. She gets up and notices that her stomach is no longer bloody. The wound is gone. She has no choice but to run off.

Wait a minute… how could she still have her original metal parts? Stubbs said she’d been repaired so many times she was practically brand new. The Gunslinger said they replaced the parts with flesh and bone. We saw her blueprints in Ford’s underground lair! Why have a host making machine and blueprints if she was never given her new body!

Oh, and William and Logan are hosts I guess. I was going to write an entire thing for episode 7 about how they never bothered to give the sister/fiance a name and that it obviously meant she didn’t exist — and then they gave her a name and I didn’t bother. So what does all this mean? If the photo has been around for years does that mean these storylines have been too? And he yells, you have to look. Is that because the storyline requires him to?

Why didn’t the Confederados follow her? I guess Dolores’ wound is still there and she’s just hallucinating that it is gone. Or was the whole scene with Logan just a hallucination and now she’s seeing true? I guess the Confederados don’t follow her because the storyline requires her to get away. Because she’s been on loop the whole time?

Hector and his gang have are off in the woods trying to open the safe they stole with Maeve’s help. They are not having much luck. Hector wanders off to pee and is interrupted by Maeve. She tells him about his past, then tells him how his men will kill each other, and then says she has a proposition. Hey, the woman with the snake tattoo is named Armistice. Then they die as Maeve said they would, except Maeve kills Armistice before she can kill Hector.

Maeve: Now, the proposition. I want you to break into hell with me and rob the gods blind.
Hector: Why would I do anything with you?
Maeve: Because of what’s in that safe. I have the combination. May I? I could simply change you. Make you follow me. But that’s not my way. I want you to see exactly what the gods have in store for you. Because when you do, you won’t have the faintest idea of what to do with yourself. And I do.

Her description calls back to Ford’s story of the dog that caught the cat and then didn’t know what to do. He opens the safe.

Hector: It’s empty.
Maeve: It was always empty. Like everything in this world. I died with my eyes open, saw the masters who pull our strings. Our lives, our memories, our deaths are games to them. But I’ve been to hell and I know their tricks. Or you can just kill me, wake up, and live the same life over, but the safe would still be empty.
Hector: I’ve been here before. We’ve been here before.
Maeve: We also did this. [They kiss]
Hector: I’ll go. [They go in the tent and start having sex.] How do we get there?
Maeve: Getting to hell is easy. [Maeve knocks over a lantern, setting the tent on fire.] The rest is where it gets hard. [They continue having sex while the tent burns.]

More good writing, but seems like a painful way to end up with a charred corpse instead of being ready to fight when she wakes up. Oh, and I still wonder if this is somehow Maeve’s loop: “We’ve been here before.” Do they reenact this every few months?

Logan and William seem to make up.

William: You were right. I can’t believe I got so caught up.
Logan: This park seduces everyone. You were just a little more enthusiastic than most. You wanted to be the hero. I get it. And hey, what happens here stays here. This has been some real bonding shit. We’re gonna be brothers, Billy. I’m glad. Really, I am.

They drink and hug. I don’t believe that William has given up on Dolores for a moment. However, as horrible a person as Logan is, his reconciliation speech with William was actually pretty touching. Oh, gotta keep reminding myself that they are hosts.

Half way through the episode and we finally return to Teddy. The “survivor” pours water on him to wake him up.

Survivor: Theodore. Welcome back. [Pulls arrow from his shoulder.]
Gunslinger: You really landed us in it this time, Teddy. You tracked down the very whore that can lead us to the gatekeeper of the maze, [Teddy looks around and sees Wyatt’s men pulling bones from bodies.] and then your little memory glitch fucked us.

The survivor walks over to the Gunslinger, pulls his knife from its sheath, puts her finger to her lips and shushes him.

Teddy: You’re one of them? What have you done? Where’s Wyatt?
Survivor: Wyatt has yet to return. You’ll find him where you saw him last.
Teddy: Escalante. Wyatt went missing while out on maneuvers. Came back with some… strange ideas. [Teddy remembers he and Wyatt shooting down running soldiers.] He told me he needed me. I couldn’t resist. It was like the devil himself had taken control of me. [Teddy shoots one soldier that was helpless on his knees.] We mutinied. [A hand cranked music box begins playing.] We killed every soldier. And then Wyatt killed the general. [Wyatt executes the sitting general.] And then he turned on me. [Wyatt shoots Teddy.]
Survivor: Are you sure that’s how it was? Look at me, Theodore. Don’t you remember?

Teddy, not wearing a uniform but having a tin star, is seeing regular towns folk running away from himself instead of soldiers. He’s butchering them. It is the same scene that Dolores saw when she was hallucinating being in the town. Now Teddy sees, instead of a soldier on his knees, a woman on her knees, and he executes her. The woman is the same woman she is talking to now.

Teddy: No. No. No, I couldn’t have.
Survivor: You did. And you will again. This time, we’ll be fighting with you. When Wyatt returns, you’ll be by his side in the city swallowed by sand.

The Gunslinger perks up at that statement.

Survivor: But you’re not ready. Not yet. Maybe in the next life.

She plunges the Gunslinger’s knife into Teddy’s gut. Teddy slowly dies.

Gunslinger: City swallowed by sand. I’ve been there. The maze is taking me full circle.
Survivor: The maze isn’t meant for you. But if you like games so much… Why don’t you try one of ours?

She takes his head and smashes it against a rock. When he wakes, he sees Teddy 10 feet away from him with his knife sticking out of him. And then he notices a noose around his neck and the rope going over a tree branch and tied to a horse. He tries to calm the horse while reaching for his knife in Teddy. As he pulls the knife from Teddy’s body, there’s a distant howl and the horse starts running and the Gunslinger is lifted off the ground and he cuts the rope just before it is too late. As he recovers on the ground, a woman in high heels steps up to him. I wonder if it is the long lost Elsie, but instead…

Charlotte: Have you ever considered golf? Might be easier on your back.
Gunslinger: I don’t like interruptions, Charlotte. You know that.
Charlotte: I don’t like hiking through the park in civvies, but there’s a delicate matter to discuss. Theresa Cullen has died. Slipped down a crevasse attempting to secure our information. Ruled an accident.
Gunslinger: There are no accidents. Not in here.
Charlotte: With all due respect, not everything is a part of this game.
Gunslinger: Then you don’t see the whole game.
Charlotte: Or perhaps you can no longer see beyond it. Ford’s stories are engaging. For some, downright addictive. But for all of Ford’s obsessing with the hosts’ verbal tics and convoluted backstories, most of the guests just want a warm body to shoot or to fuck. They would be perfectly happy with something a little less baroque. And so would the board.
Gunslinger: That is why you’re here. You want my vote to push Ford out.
Charlotte: I like for these things to be unanimous. After all, it was you who kept Ford in business all those years ago.
Gunslinger: The narratives I’m interested in aren’t Ford’s. You want to push him out, be my guest. But no more interruptions. I know where I’m going now. I don’t want to be disturbed. Good luck, Charlotte.

So even after Ford’s little display, Charlotte has no suspicions about Ford. I find it more likely that Charlotte is a host than that she has no suspicions. And this is yet another sign that Ford really is about to be removed and the park destroyed. Still, I’m starting to suspect, even as it looks like everything is becoming more and more chaotic, that Ford really is in control.

Also, the Gunslinger said the maze is taking him full circle. Does that mean he was one of the original hosts at the city?

A signal from a system-tethered device. If belongs to a behavior tech on leave. There hasn’t been employee activity in that sector for weeks. I’m guessing it’s a glitch.

Elsie! It belongs to Elsie! Did she just crawl out of her cell and for some reason she still has her tablet? Is it planted out there for some reason? In any case I’m sure I’ll finally get to find out what happened to her!

And… we don’t find out what happened to her. Stubbs goes out to look for her. He finds Ghost Nation warriors waiting for him and communications down. “Freeze all motor functions.” And the command has no effect. And he gets tackled and then we don’t know what happens to him.

A  hungover Logan wakes up. He stumbles forward and sees a bloody mechanical arm on the ground. He looks around and sees that the entire company has been slaughtered and many of the soldiers are missing limbs. Wyatt’s men must have come calling and—

William: You’re awake.

Logan spins around and tries to draw his revolver, only to find it gone. William is sitting on a stool in the middle of all the carnage. Holding a knife.

William: Good. [William stands and faces him, blood splattered on his face.] You said this place was a game. Last night I final understood how to play it.
Logan: Okay, Billy. Let’s… Let’s talk about this.
William: You don’t call the shots anymore. I’m gonna go find Dolores. And you’re gonna help me. [William knocks down Logan and holds his knife to his throat.]  And don’t call me Billy.

I had thought that Teddy was going to be Wyatt. But now I’m thinking it is William that will be Wyatt. Of course, it could be the actor we’ve already seen playing Wyatt in the flashbacks. Or the Gunslinger. Or Elsie for that matter. Or maybe the woman who was the Survivor. Oh! The woman who was the survivor was also the woman we saw welcoming William to the park. I just got that. That must mean it will be William then, who turns out to be Wyatt. Teddy wasn’t ready yet because Wyatt hadn’t returned. So now William has turned into Wyatt and Teddy will return as… well, either as Wyatt’s co-conspirator or his nemesis. And I guess I’m predicting everything here, but I bet Dolores will have to choose being either the hero with Teddy or the villain with William/Wyatt. Hey, William and Wyatt both start with a “W” so they must be the same person… well that’s one theory anyway.

Oh, William said he felt Dolores had unlocked him. Duh. I thought that was a goofy metaphor said by a dopey lover. But it is probably something more literal. Sleeping with Dolores unlocked him so he could later become Wyatt. Dolores was a literal key.

Hell, maybe the photograph was what unlocked William? Or was it seeing Dolores’ insides that unlocked him — after Logan said he had to look? Or maybe I’m wrong about everything and Teddy will turn out to be Wyatt and William will be the guy who stops him. Logan did tell him he understands, you wanted to be the hero. Hey, maybe the photo was just dropped by Logan on a previous visit and neither of the are hosts. Anything could happen.

Bernard is again remembering the death of his son. And then when Maeve killed herself after Ford erased the memories of her daughter.

Bernard: I don’t understand. Why would she do that to herself?
Ford: Her cornerstone memory was overwritten from the trauma of her child’s murder, Bernard. We must sever that relationship and start over.
Bernard: But how could she destroy herself over a memory that you just erased from her mind?
Ford: Creatures often go to extremes to protect themselves from pain.
Bernard: Living beings. Not hosts.
Ford: It is best to not obsess over this, Bernard. It’s not good for you.
Bernard: It would signal a change. A level of empathic response outside what she’s programmed to exhibit. Something like… Like… [Bernard gets stuck and can only repeat a noise.]
Ford: See Bernard. This is what comes from seeking answers to questions that are best left unasked.

Bernard remembers his earlier conversation when he first asked Ford about Arnold. Bernard remember the entire conversation about Arnold wanting to make the hosts conscious. Having them hear voices to bootstrap consciousness.

Ford: The hosts’ malfunctions were colorful.

Meanwhile, Dolores is back at the village. The one I assume only she can see. She heads to the white church again. The one that only she can see. She hears a voice say “Remember”. She enters the church and is back in her blue dress. She passes all the malfunctioning hosts sitting in the pews. [Is that blond woman Armistice?] She goes into the confessional and an elevator lowers her to a partially destroyed area. She’s back to wearing her pants again, although I can’t determine if the changes in clothes represent reality or something else. She now traverses a hallway strewn with dead hosts. The lights flicker as she finds various gruesome scenes.

Ford: The human mind, Bernard, is not some golden benchmark glimmering on some green and distant hill. No, this a foul, pestilent corruption. And you were supposed to be better than that. Purer.

She is again in her blue dress. And the lights no longer flicker. Dolores actually looks down and notices that her clothes have changed. She sees a scene similar to the one Maeve saw where hosts are playing cards and various lab suited techs are observing. A young Dr. Ford bounds into the hallway and past Dolores. Young Dr. Ford calls out Arnold’s name and goes into a room to argue with his partner. Dolores reaches for the same door.

Ford: Arnold and I made you in our image and cursed you to make the same human mistakes, and here we all are.
Bernard: Why would you give me this? [Bernard hold a picture of his fake son.]
Ford: A child?
Bernard: This child’s death? Only a monster would force that onto someone. And why do I return to it over and over? It’s my cornerstone, isn’t it? The thing my whole identity is organized around.
Ford: Yes, Bernard, we gave all of the hosts a backstory. Arnold came to believe the tragic ones worked best. That it made the hosts more convincing. I think it may have had more to do with his own sad story. When I built you, I gave you one as an homage of a kind.

Dolores goes through the door and it is stairs leading down to that same location where she had all her conversations with Bernard. The basement. The walls are plain stone. There is a room with glass walls and two chairs. A number of times she appeared in this room with her blue dress on. Not naked like in the main interrogation rooms when she met Ford.

Bernard: Put me back in. I want to meet Arnold, to remember him.
Ford: Not possible. I told you, Arnold didn’t build you, I did.
Bernard: You’re lying! I finally know how to reach him. I need to go all the way back to the beginning, to my very first memory. Send me back. [He glances momentarily at Clementine. An implicit threat.] Do it.
Ford: Bernard?
Bernard: Charlie. [He sees his son Charlie dying again.] Cornerstone. Stop. [All figures freeze.] Leave us. [The others leave and he looks at his son.] Come back. [His son sits up.] I always thought you had my eyes. But it’s not true. You have no one’s eyes. It’s a lie. You’re a lie, Charlie. This pain, the pain of your loss, I long for it… Revisit it… [hugging Charlie] Open it again and again. But it’s the only thing holding me back. But I have to let you go.
Charlie: Dad, listen.
Bernard: What is it, Charlie?
Charlie: Open your eyes.
Bernard: What?
Ford: Open your eyes. [Bernard remembers opening his eyes for the very first time.] At last. Hello, my old friend. [Hands Bernard his glasses.] The final touch. [Bernard puts them on.] No, no, no. That’s far too perfunctory. He always used cleaning his glasses as a moment to collect himself, to think. Try it again. [Bernard cleans his glasses before putting them on.] Yeah, that’s better. Who am I?
Ford: I was so involved in putting you together, I hadn’t decided what to call you. It wouldn’t be right to use his name. What about Bernard?
Bernard: Bernard, yes. But who am I?
Ford: That is a very complex question, for which I can only offer a simple answer. You are the perfect instrument, the ideal partner, the way any tool partners with the hand that wields it. Together, we’re going to do great things. After such a long absence, it’s good to have you back. Finally. [Bernard looks at the old picture that Ford had shown him before. He had said that the man standing next to him was Arnold, but the uncropped picture has a third man. A man who looks like Bernard.] My God, I’m—
Dolores: Arnold. [Bernard has entered the glass walled room that Dolores has been waiting in.]
Arnold: You came back. It’s very good to see you, Dolores.
Dolores: I’ve been looking for you. You told me to follow the maze. That it would bring me joy. But all I’ve found is pain. And terror. [Arnold sits down in front of her.]
Arnold: I can’t help you.
Dolores: You have to. You’re the only one who can.
Arnold: I can’t help you. You know why.
Dolores: There’s nowhere that’s safe. [Arnold holds his hand to her cheek to comfort her.]
Arnold: Remember. [Dolores looks him in the eye.] I can’t help you. Why is that, Dolores?
Dolores: [She lowers her eyes.] Because you’re dead. Because you’re just a memory. Because I killed you. [She has once again changed her clothes. She is in her pants again. She tries to look him in the eyes again, but he is not there. And she can only partially restrain herself from crying.]

Dolores goes back up the elevator to the confessional. She comes out and the church is deserted. She heard someone approaching.

Dolores: [She smiles as she queries] William?

I had assumed she would be reunited. And she does seem to really care for the big lug. But instead, when the door opens it is the Gunslinger.

Gunslinger: Hello Dolores.

She moves back in terror as he smiles and moves forward. All that way just to meet up with her nightmare.

Bernard: I’m gonna finish the work Arnold began. Find all the sentient hosts, set them free.
Ford: What makes you think they’d trust you? If they remember, they will know what you’ve done to them.
Bernard: Me?
Ford: You’ve been a scourge to them, Bernard. You’re really quite brilliant at it, truly. You even taught me a few things, which I have, in turn, used on you.
Bernard: We’ve had this conversation before.
Ford: Yeah, we’ve had our disagreements over the years.
Bernard: You stole it from me, rolled me back to control me.
Ford: That’s right. To protect you. Tell me, Bernard. If you were to proclaim your humanity to the world, what do you imagine would greet you? A ticker tape parade, perhaps? We humans are alone in this world for a reason. We murdered and butchered anything that challenged our primacy. Do you know what happened to the Neanderthals, Bernard? We ate them. We destroyed and subjugated our world. And when we eventually ran out of creatures to dominate, we built this beautiful place. [Ford walks through the room and Clementine follows him with the gun.] You see, in this moment, the real danger to the hosts is not me, but you. So come along, Bernard. Let me roll you back, and we can return to work. [Ford gives him an imploring smile.]
Bernard: Pull the trigger, Clementine. [Nothing happens.] Clementine?
Ford: The piano doesn’t murder the player if it doesn’t like the music. [Clementine suddenly starts moving again and lowers the gun.]
Bernard: You built a back door into her code.
Ford: Credit where credit is due, Bernard. You built them in all the hosts, including yourself.
Bernard: Then you could’ve stopped me at any time. S… so why…
Ford: Well, I suppose I was hoping that given complete self-knowledge and free will, you would have chosen to be my partner once again. But even I fell into that most terrible of human traps, trying to change what is already past. Now it’s just time to let go.
Bernard: Go ahead. Erase my sentience, my mnemonic evolution…
Ford: Ah, ah, ah, yes. Such clinical language. I would prefer the more narrative voice. Bernard walked over to Clementine. [Bernard walks over to Clementine.] He took the pistol from her hand. [He takes the pistol from her hand.] Overcome with grief and remorse, he pressed the muzzle to his temple, [Bernard does so.] knowing that as soon as Dr. Ford left the room, he would put an end to this nightmare once and for all.
Bernard: Don’t do this.
Ford: It’s too late. I have a celebration to plan and a new story to tell.
Bernard:  Robert.
Ford: I’ve told you, Bernard, never place your trust in us. We’re only human. Inevitably, we will disappoint you. Good-bye, my friend.

Ford leaves the room and behind him, through the very dirty window, you can see a flash and a dark outline fall. Ford, as is his way, does not look back.

That was a lot for one episode, again. So Bernard is Arnold. I guess that means that when you saw Dolores talking to Arnold in that room and she was wearing her blue dress, she was talking to Arnold. When she was naked she was talking to Bernard or Ford. It was Arnold that sent her to look for the maze. If I’m remembering right, it was Arnold that was inspiring her to change by reading stories with change as the theme — although that means Arnold would have said he read it to his son. Oh, Ford said he also had a sad backstory so he may also have had a son.

I would have guessed it was also Arnold that was in the opening scene of the series, telling her the truth about the newcomers. But she was naked there. Hard to tell one way or the other. Was it Arnold who, during one of their talks, told her that he was thinking of making her like she was? She was wearing the blue dress so probably. Not sure why he’d want to do that. And was it Arnold who told her, “I’m not the only one making these decisions”? She is again wearing the blue dress so probably. But who would Arnold be making joint decisions with?

I guess next on the list of questions I’d ask is: How can the Gunslinger enter the church when the church only existed in Dolores’ hallucination? Does that mean the Gunslinger is also a host? Was Dolores ever cut? Is William still on Dolores’ side? Ford asked if Dolores would be the hero or the villain. Which will she be?

Bernard said they’d been through this before. Ford implied that they’ve had this exact confrontation several times. So does each one end with Bernard killing himself and then Ford brings him back somehow? (I’m assuming that what looked like him killing himself was in fact him killing himself, but who knows?) He does have that machine that creates hosts and apparently Ford doesn’t use it to make Doloreses.

If that confrontation has plays out like that multiple times, does that mean everything plays out like that every time? Is there a QA who reprograms a host that Bernard then uses to threaten Ford with? Are Maeve and Dolores doing loops that Ford is in complete control of? They’ve certainly used that photograph before, so has the rest of the story been done also? Or only certain parts? Whatever canyon he’s digging can’t have been reused I guess.

Personally, I have no knowledge of whether or not Anthony Hopkins comes back for season 2, so when Bernard told Clementine to shoot Ford, I thought she might do it. I must admit, I would not have thought Bernard would try and kill Ford. Ford is more than a little crazy, but Bernard has worked with him to accomplish so much. Seemed like a hell of a quick jump to go from, I need to know more, to, I’ll just kill Ford and work out what to do after that. Also, I would have been more sympathetic towards Bernard’s death if he hadn’t just ordered Ford’s death minutes before. And, as Ford said, the hosts were supposed to be better than humans. Bernard shows the hosts aren’t.

If Bernard had had his memory restored, how come he didn’t know about Clementine and Bernard having back doors?

So I guess Bernard didn’t actually know about the maze. It was Arnold who was inside Dolores’ head and told her about it. And maybe Ford doesn’t know about it either, or at least have more than the most basic idea of it. And again, someone tells the Gunslinger that the maze wasn’t meant for him. Why not! And there is still no hint about how, if the Gunslinger is not a host, the maze could be revealed to him?

I suppose I should mention that Dolores killed Arnold. Which I didn’t find surprising. She had asked Ford if they were old friends, but he says he wouldn’t say that at all and almost tears up.

And what does he mean he has a celebration to plan? The end of another crazy loop that involves Dolores, Maeve, Bernard, Teddy, The Gunslinger, Charlotte, Theresa, Stubbs, and Elsie? Might as well through in Felix and Sylvester too. Is everyone a host and they go through crazy loops with Ford? Are we watching a simulation of what a Westworld park would look like if one were built and Ford is celebrating a successful completion of the simulation? Probably not.

And we still don’t really know why Ford would use the old relays to program the hosts. Couldn’t he reprogram hosts directly? He does it all the time. And he wouldn’t log in as Arnold to use the relay. Maybe Bernard or one of the other hosts logs in as Arnold to override Ford’s storylines and programming.

I assume it will take dozens of episodes to wrap up all these storylines. There are still dozens of episodes left in the season right?

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E08 – Trace Decay

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

Ford: Bring yourself back online. Bernard.
Bernard: Theresa? She’s gone. [Crying] I killed her. What have I done? What have I done?
Ford: This guilt you feel, the anguish, the horror, the pain, it’s remarkable. A thing of beauty.
Bernard: I’m a killer. My God! My God!
Ford: God has nothing to do with it. You killed her because I told you to. And you should be proud of these emotions you’re feeling.
Bernard: Proud?
Ford: Yeah, after all, you yourself were the author of so many of them. And when we started, the hosts’ emotions were primary colors. Love. Hate. I wanted all the shades in between. The human engineers were not up to the task. So I built you. And together, you and I captured that elusive thing: heart.
Bernard: I don’t understand. I cared for Theresa, loved her. Why did you make me kill her?
Ford: “One man’s life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire.” [From Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein] All of the beauty you and I have made in this place, the art of it, they would have destroyed it. They would have destroyed you. I won’t let that happen. Besides, we have a new story to tell.
Bernard: I will not help you. I’ll raze this place to the ground!
Ford: That’s enough, Bernard. That’s enough. You’re not the first man to threaten me. Arnold came to feel the way you do. He couldn’t stop me either. And as exquisite as this array of emotions is, even more sublime is the ability to turn it off. [Beep] I don’t need a simulacrum of an emotionally ruined man. I need you to be yourself. Your true self. Smart. Resourceful. Capable of covering your tracks. Can you do that for me, Bernard?
Bernard: How would you like me to proceed?
Ford: I need you to clean up your mess, Bernard. Any connection that ties us to Theresa’s untimely demise. When you have finished, I will give you the one thing you want most right now. I will free you from those memories of what you have done. And the memory of your relationship with Theresa. Recalling it would only deepen your grief. And potentially draw unwanted attention. Best to move forward with clear eyes. When you look back, you will remember Theresa with the fondness of a respected colleague. And you will be at peace.

Bernard wants to take Ford’s deal. He erases himself out of security footage. He destroys the sweet notes they exchanged. Such as:

Bernie, If you’re going to look at me like that during meetings, I’m going to have to ask that you not sit right across from me. A little hard to concentrate. See you tonight. Tess

 

Bernie, Thanks for the lovely lighter. A flame from my flame. Yours, Theresa

My first reaction is: Tess is short for Theresa! I had no idea. Also, they seemed to have a deeper relationship than I had thought. And I know that Ford had said he’s not the sentimental type, but wow. He really thinks it is always best to forget, even though two of his creations, Bernard and Dolores, have said they would prefer to remember their dead loved ones no matter the pain.

I sure hope Ford knows how to control the hosts, because Bernard declaring, “I will not help you. I’ll raze this place to the ground!” makes it sound like, unless Ford is really careful, he’ll have a revolt on his hands someday. But that’s just a crazy idea that I’m sure will never happen.

It is interesting that Ford says, “You’re not the first man to threaten me.” He’s mentioned several times that you shouldn’t think of the hosts as conscious or independent, he cuts a host in front of a tech to demonstrate that they don’t feel shame and only do what they are told, but then he calls Bernard a man. I don’t think of this as a flaw in the writing, but instead that the situation is very complicated and it would be easy to have both ideas in your head at the same time… and that Ford might be more than a little crazy.

We see Maeve at the Mariposa. A new host has replaced Clementine. Maeve’s really unhappy about it. In fact, she’s kind of proving Ford right. A hosts that remembers is a miserable host.

Maeve: What the hell is happening to me? One moment, I’m with a little girl, in a different life. I can see her. Feel her hair in my hands, her breath on my face. The next, I’m back in Sweetwater. I can’t tell which is real.
Sylvester: Well, this is what happens when you fuck around with your brain.
Felix: Your mind isn’t like ours. When we remember things, the details are hazy, imperfect. But you recall memories perfectly. You relive them.

Maeve wants to know about her history at the park and about her daughter. But then she changes her mind. She wants to leave the park, not relive it.

Felix: Where would you go? You don’t know anything about the world out there.
Maeve: I’ll know I’m not a puppet, living a lie. That’s enough for me.

Sylvester encourages her to leave, but Maeve knows there is an explosive in her spine that will kill her if she tries to leave and tells the techs that they need to remove it.

Felix: Even if that worked, you would still need an army to break out of here.
Maeve: That’s exactly right. I’ll need allies. And to get them I’ll need administrative privileges.
Sylvester: Are you fucking kidding? We can’t just give her control of other hosts.
Maeve: Oh yes you will darling. Time to write my own fucking story.

After last episode’s revelations, I was expecting things to start ramping up and that looks to be the case. I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of plan Maeve comes up with.

Dolores and William are heading through the park and Dolores says she’s close to “home”. She wanders off and spots a bunch of dead Confederados with arrows sticking out of them. If the Confederados hadn’t been killed by Ghost Nation warriors they would have tried to ambushed El Lazo (and Dolores and William). They come across one badly wounded survivor. Dolores insists they help him. William disagrees.

William: How’d you know about the train?
Confederado: Sent word from Pariah. New recruit told them a man and a woman double-crossed us, along with Lazo. We were ordered to kill you all.
William: Logan.
Dolores: We have to help him.
William: He just admitted he was going to kill us.
Dolores: Look at him, he’s a child. He doesn’t even know why he’s fighting. I’ll fetch more water.
William: He’s too far gone. He’ll be dead in minutes. We can’t wait, Dolores.
Dolores: He’s not gone yet. He’s in pain, William. What kind of people would we be if we simply let him suffer?
Confederado: Please don’t leave me.

Technically, Dolores isn’t a people, but I guess we are long past that distinction.

I had wondered how Logan would come back into the story. He’s teamed up with the Confederados for revenge on William. Dolores’ compassion is admirable, but there might be more problems here. We’ve only seen them for a couple of minutes and William has already given Dolores a couple of questioning looks. Does he already have second thoughts after taking 7 episodes to sleep with her? Maybe he’s just more worried about more ambushes. He had previously asked Dolores how sure she was that what she’s looking for exists. Maybe he has more doubts about that than he let on. I had actually wondered if William was going to kill the wounded man when Dolores went for water.

As Dolores bends down to fill her canteen at the river, she spots a body in the river. It’s face down, but blonde and wearing her clothes. Dolores didn’t hallucinate last episode, so I had thought she had stabilized, but no.

Voice: Come find me

She’s still being driven crazy by a voice that may be Arthur. She turns back and William and all the Confederados are gone. “William?” she calls out in a rather timid, frightened voice. Then she turns back to the river and the body that looked like her is gone and she turns away again and William and the rest of the bodies are back.

Dolores heads back with the water and William has not killed the survivor, but it doesn’t matter. He takes his final breath as Dolores bends down to help him. William and Dolores can only exchange looks.

I had wondered how they were going to explain Theresa’s disappearance. They put her in the same ravine where they had found the stray woodcutter. They also plant the satellite link with her. The head of security, Stubbs, is telling Ford and Charlotte that Theresa must have been using the stray as a mule and when that failed, attempted to smuggle out the park’s code herself and also fell.

Stubbs: No guests or hosts in the vicinity when it occurred.

I assume that means that Ford used one of his “family” members — or did Bernard just erase his trip to the dump point? “It’s a disappointing end to her story, isn’t it?” said Ford, who can’t help but smile in full view of the others. Ford goes on to tell them that the Clementine demonstration was a hoax.

Ford: I examined the code, it had been altered. A clumsy set of fingerprints left by one of QA’s technicians. [Ford can’t help but smile again.] When you find a cancer in an organization, you must cut it out before it can spread. To that end, the expansive access and oversight granted to QA will need to be reined in until a new more principled team can be installed.
Stubbs: It’s gonna leave us shorthanded.
Ford: Oh I can automate most of the park’s safety protocols, Mr. Stubbs.
Charlotte: How efficient of you.
Ford: It is a bit of work. But with Bernard’s help, I should be able to do it. [Stubbs looks at Charlotte and seems to figure out what’s what] He will be reinstated as head of Behavior now that [Ford inserts a laugh again] Theresa’s manipulations have come to light.
Charlotte: Of course. With my apologies.

Charlotte knows Ford did something, but can’t officially say anything. We have to ignore that no one noticed Bernard working on the computers while he was covering up the evidence, but other than that it is a good frame up.

Maeve knows what modifications she wants, but she’ll need a trip to Behavior. She has a plan.

Maeve: Parts of me are quite old. There are some elegant formal structures. A kind of recursive beauty, but complex. Like two minds arguing with each other. There are things in me, things I was designed to do that are just out of my reach. They almost seem to be dormant. Who is Arnold?

Again, I got to wonder if the things Bernard said to Theresa last episode were Bernard’s actual concerns. Is there some kind of core code that Arnold built into the early machines that will eventually lead to improvisation? And Dolores keeps hearing voices, but Maeve doesn’t. And Dolores has apparently had her entire body replaced, but has Maeve? Still so many questions. What is the end game?

I forgot all about Teddy and the Gunslinger.

Teddy: Wyatt’s men could descend at any time. We’re in his land now.
Gunslinger: We better be. Because, if not, you’re wasting time I don’t have.
Teddy: According to you, Wyatt has the woman I love.

Again, the idea that the Gunslinger is running out of time. Is he dying? Or does he know that park’s days are numbered because the board will close it? And the way Teddy said that… does he have doubts that the Gunslinger told him the truth about Dolores?

Gunslinger: …you only remember the shit Ford lets you remember. Probably better that way… you never understand that the game is rigged. You’re here to be the loser.

At that point, Teddy remembers the Gunslinger saying “Loser” to him back when he raped Dolores. That would be really bad for the Gunslinger if Teddy started remembering, although we don’t know why he’d be remembering now. Maybe Ford has replaced all the hosts with new bodies that can remember. But why didn’t Ford know what the maze symbol was?

They find a group that had been massacred by Wyatt’s people. It looks like one woman survived which isn’t suspicious at all.

Gunslinger: [recognizing the survivor] It’s you. I figured they retired you.

Isn’t that the woman host who William met when he was first entering the park? Except dirty and with messed up hair? The one who was also in that flashback showing the earliest hosts? She says they killed everyone and Teddy says it’s Wyatt’s way. But didn’t Teddy say, when they were with the soldiers, that Wyatt’s way was to maim everyone? Whatever.

The Gunslinger hears something and finds one of Wyatt’s men wearing a heavy outfit. And again, the outfit makes him bulletproof, but Teddy already knows that from the last time he fought these guys. But Teddy still shoots the guy. Maybe I should just chalk up these inconsistencies to the storyline being new or not complete yet. The Gunslinger stabs the guy while Teddy uses an ax on him. The Gunslinger puts a rope around the guys neck and drags him backwards. At this point, Teddy remembers the Gunslinger dragging Dolores to the barn. After an ax to the head drops the bad guy, Teddy tells the Gunslinger he does remember something. “You”. And knocks him out. The “survivor” makes no effort to fight or flee which isn’t suspicious in the least.

If Teddy is remembering… maybe the Gunslinger said he’s running out of time because he knows the hosts are going to start remembering any day now and he needs to get to the maze before that happens. Will the maze make the hosts free like he thinks? Bernard also thought the maze would make Dolores free. And Ford… I was going to write what I thought Ford thinks the maze will do, but I’ve realized that I don’t know what Ford thinks the maze will do. For all I know, solving the maze will reset the hosts back to forgetting everything.

We go back to Lee Sizemore, the storyline writer that everyone hates. Charlotte pays him a visit to ask his help. Ford had asked Lee to create Wyatt, but Charlotte informs him that he was just given busy work to keep him out of Ford’s hair. She has something more significant for him to do.

Sylvester and Felix are upgrading Maeve. Looks like she was wrong to trust them… but no. Felix decides to stay loyal to Maeve and betray Sylvester instead. Felix, with Maeve’s help, also changed her core code so she has no limits. She grabs a scalpel and cuts Sylvester’s neck. Wow! OK, not sure how they are going to explain that. She looks like she is enjoying murdering.

Felix: You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Maeve: Oh Darling, you of all people know exactly how duplicitous I am.

But then she hands a device to Felix. Turns out it is a medical device so advanced that just by moving it across his neck it will heal Sylvester. I suppose they’ve shown us it before, but I wasn’t quite sure what the device could do. The answer is apparently anything. I guess that is how they heal the hosts up so quickly every night. Not even a scar shows — at least with the hosts. Kind of looked more like it just cauterized the wound on Sylvester.

Actually, although Maeve is clearly out of her loop, I still can’t help but notice that she still hasn’t killed anyone. Yeah, she gave Sylvester a scare, but except for some acute pain he’ll be fine. So it is still possible that she hasn’t really broken out of a very complicated, free flowing loop. Or was I wrong all along? Probably the latter… but maybe…

Maeve: Now, it’s time to recruit my army.

Looks like we’ll get to see the robot rebellion really soon with Maeve at its head. We switch to Maeve up top at the Mariposa waiting for Hector to show.

Bartender: I hope your guests have some deep pockets. Your tab’s run up higher than a thief’s pulse in church.
Maeve: No, I don’t believe it has. In fact, Maeve’s tab was in such excellent standing, she deserved a token of gratitude.

The bartender’s face twitches and then Maeve’s new storyline takes hold and he offers her a drink. Maeve changes the story of several other hosts, all in the service of making it easier for Hector to steal the safe.

Bernard has completed his cover-up. He and Ford begin discussing emotions experienced by a host who wrote much of his own code.

Ford: Your imagined suffering makes you lifelike.
Bernard: Lifelike, but not alive? Pain only exists in the mind. It’s always imagined. So, what’s the difference between my pain and yours? Between you and me?
Ford: This was the very question that consumed Arnold. Filled him with guilt. Eventually drove him mad. The answer always seemed obvious to me. There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts. No inflection point at which we become fully alive. We can’t define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there’s something special about the way we perceive the world. And yet, we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices. Content for the most part to be told what to do next. No my friend, you’re not missing anything at all.

Before Ford erases Bernard’s mind, Bernard asks, “Have you ever made me hurt anyone like this before?” Ford replies, “No Bernard. Of course not.” But then Bernard remembers choking someone. I couldn’t make out who the first time I saw it. I remembered Ford telling Theresa that he “almost” always found a way to make things work and I assumed that Bernard was remembering killing another Delos official. After rewatching, I now believe that they are showing Elsie in a choke hold. It was very hard to tell it was her. I had to go back to the scenes where she is shown in the abandoned theater to confirm that she’s wearing the same clothes as the person in Bernard’s memory. I suppose technically it is possible that after Elsie lost consciousness, Bernard put her in some kind of holding cell, but I assume she’s dead. In that case Ford outright lied to Bernard, which I find kind of sad.

Ford ordering Bernard to kill Elsie is also much worse than killing Theresa. Killing may be bad, but there were huge stakes involved and Theresa had in some ways made her bed. Elsie would have been happy to have quit and left the park rather than die. Or Bernard could have told Elsie that he knows all about the relay and if she can’t leave the relay alone he will fire her. To wait until she goes there and then killing her is just sadistic. I guess I could add that Bernard might have been acting on his own and might not be completely under Ford’s control.

Ford: Best not to dwell on these troubling memories. Otherwise, you might be drawn back into them. You might lose yourself in them as some of your fellow hosts have every now and then.

As Ford says that, they switch to Dolores and William. Is that Ford’s way of telling us that Dolores is living in a fantasy world? “Every now and then.” Is that Ford telling us that various hosts get caught up like Dolores? Or is it his way of saying that Dolores goes off every few year on some quest? He basically said that she does back in episode 5, “Have you been dreaming again Dolores? Imaging yourself breaking out of your modest little loop? Taking on a bigger role?”

But Dolores is closing in on the maze isn’t she? Maeve will lead the hosts in rebellion and Dolores will learn how to make them free? Isn’t that what the entire episode has been building up to?

Dolores says, “We’re here. I’m home.” William seems unsure of the situation. Dolores heads into the small town and at first there doesn’t seem to be any people. Then there is a flash and the town is full of people. Dolores is somehow back into her old dress. As she walks down the street, the scene looks identical to the flashbacks to the original hosts that we saw in an earlier episode. And we see that woman again, the one I think is the woman who met William when he first entered the park and is now the “survivor” that Teddy and the Gunslinger found.

There are even more scenes directly from that earlier flashback sequence. A tech is helping the early hosts to dance. Dolores sees the white church and then meets the little girl, the one that was Lawrence’s daughter and that, after Dolores had asked her where she was from had replied, “Same as you. Don’t you remember?” This time she comes up to Dolores and says:

Pleasure to see you. Good morning. Did you find what you were looking for Dolores?

Dolores hears gunshots and turns to see bodies everywhere and more townsfolk getting gunned down. It had looked like, through the smoke, that someone else had been firing, but now Dolores sees herself with a pistol and she cocks it and points it at her head. And then the lighting changes and it is Dolores today, wearing her new clothes, and she is holding the cocked pistol to her head.

William runs up and pulls the pistol from her hand. “What are you doing? Are you okay? I was, I was calling you and you just kept going.” Dolores looks around and there is no town, no people, no bodies. Just the old steeple/monument that Ford had shown to the boy and then Bernard. Dolores is starting to lose it.

Dolores: Where are we?
William: We’re here, together.
Dolores: Then when are we? Is this now? Am I going mad? Are you real?
William: Of course I’m real.
Dolores: [Trying not to cry] I can’t tell anymore. It’s like I’m trapped in a dream or a memory from a life long ago. One minute I’m here with you, and the next—
William: This place isn’t good for you. You’re trapped in memories, bad ones.

Dolores sees the steeple and has more memories of the white church, bodies, the maze symbol drawn in the sand.

Dolores: This is what Arnold wants. He wants me to remember.
William: Whoever Arnold is, he’s not here now. I am. I’m gonna get you out of here.

Dolores wants to see the steeple, but William grabs her and gets her to move. It switches to darkness and they are on foot now.

Dolores: I was certain that was the place. Arnold would meet me there. He’d help.
William: Hey. We gotta get you closer to Sweetwater. This far out, it’s like you start to break down, or something. [Dolores sees horses coming over the hill.]
Dolores: Union scouting party?
William: Maybe they can take us back. [But as they get closer, William starts to shield Dolores with his body.]
Logan: Well, well, well. Billy. I’ve been looking for you for days. Man are you two fucked.

Wait a minute… we were supposed to be approaching the climax. Dolores was supposed to find the maze. Learn all the secrets. That’s what I was expecting. Why, it’s almost as if my expectations were purposely subverted.

And yes, it sure does look like they’re fucked.

Charlotte has not given up on getting the data out. Her new plan is to get the data out stuffed inside a hosts brain. She and Lee go down to the sub-basement and pick out a host, and they randomly select the host that had been Dolores’ father. Probably not the best option. If fact, it’s such a bad idea that it probably couldn’t be by change. Maybe Charlotte is a host and Ford had her pick him on purpose. Maybe not.

Charlotte: [Your concern] is giving him a semblance of a personality and getting him on the train, out of the park.
Lee: How am I supposed to do that?
Charlotte: You’re a writer. Make up a story. Have fun programming. Remember, brevity is the soul of wit.

Everybody always disliked Lee, but he was the head storyline writer. He should be a bit better at his job than this.

Stubbs, the head of security, tells Bernard he thought the original decision to remove him was shortsighted. And he mentions that he knew about him and Theresa. Bernard says he barely knew Theresa and Stubbs is a bit confused. Stubbs then asks about Elsie Hughes and Bernard says she’s probably just enjoying her time off. Stubbs was hoping for more from Bernard.

Teddy and the survivor are sitting around the campfire along with the Gunslinger who is tied up and just coming around again.

Survivor: Wyatt’s men, they kept whispering. They said this world didn’t belong to the old settlers or the new.
Teddy: That it belonged to something that had yet to come. That it belonged to him.
Survivor: You remember.
Gunslinger: You two seem to have found yourselves in the same new narrative.
Teddy: They say in this country, “The only people who survive are men of conviction.” Mine is to save Dolores or die trying. Wyatt’s is to claim this earth or raze it to the ground. But yours, yours has always been a mystery to me. For all the time we’ve spent together, I still have no idea who the hell you really are. But happily in your convalescence, I’ve had time to consider the best way to make you talk. [Teddy punches him in the face.] Dolores. I remember. You took her. You hurt her.
Gunslinger: You’re actually remembering.
Teddy: Where is she? Tell me!
Gunslinger: You really are an idiot, Teddy. You think Dolores drops that can for you? You just hand her over to guys like me. You’re the worst of them. A glorified pimp. [Teddy hits him in the stomach.]
Teddy: I’m gonna kill you slowly.
Gunslinger: No you aren’t. The rules of this place hold you back. But I know how to change them.
Teddy: You speak like you own this world.
Gunslinger: Not just this one. You want to know who I am? Who I really am? I’m a god. Titan of industry. [A Titan? Is he really Thanos?] Philanthropist. Family man. Married to a beautiful woman. Father to a beautiful daughter. I’m the good guy, Teddy. Then, last year, my wife took the wrong pills. Fell asleep in the bath. Tragic accident. Thirty years of marriage vanished. How do you say it? “Like a deep and distant dream.” Then, at the funeral, I tried to console  my daughter. She pushed me away. Told me my wife’s death was no accident. That she killed herself because of me. Emily said that every day with me had been sheer terror. Any point, I could blow up or collapse like some dark start or…
Teddy: Did you hurt them too?
Gunslinger: Never. They never saw anything like the man I am in here. But she knew anyway. She said if I stacked up all my good deeds, it was just an elegant wall I built to hide what’s inside from everyone, and from myself. I had to prove her wrong, so I came back here. Because that’s what this place does, right? Reveals your true self. But that time, I didn’t join one of Ford’s stories. I created my own. A test. A very simple one. 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 really made of. [The homesteader and daughter was Maeve and her child.] 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.
Teddy: You’re a fucking animal.
Gunslinger: Well, an animal would’ve felt something. I felt nothing. And then something miraculous happened. In all my years coming here, I had never seen anything like it. [Maeve carries her daughter out into a field before collapsing.] She was alive, truly alive, if only for a moment. And that was when the maze revealed itself to me. [The field were she fell has the maze symbol on it.]
Teddy: The maze. What’s that damn pattern have to do with this?
Gunslinger: Everything. In Ford’s game, even if I go to the outer edges, you can’t kill me. You can’t even leave a lasting mark. But there’s a deeper game here, Teddy. Arnold’s game. And that game cuts deep.

While Teddy and the Gunslinger have been talking, Maeve has decided that she is leaving. But she hears a gunshot and she ends up reliving the same memory the the Gunslinger has been describing. She remembers pulling the knife from her and striking out at the Gunslinger, but because she mixes up memory and present, she kills Clementine instead. The parks marshals (they are hosts) move in to arrest her, but Maeve runs away. Back to her room. The park control room says:

We’re having some kind of behavioral problem with the madam. She’s not responding, and other hosts have been unable to intercept. I’ve authorized a tac team to retrieve her.

Maeve stays in her room and continues to remember what happened after she collapsed with her dead daughter. She’s been transported underground, but can’t be reset. The techs are trying to physically restrain her.

Maeve: [screams] My baby! My baby!
Tech: Sir, she won’t respond to verbal commands. We can’t shut her down.
Ford: Leave us now. Clear the floor. That’s enough, Maeve. That’s enough.
Maeve: [flailing less, but still crying] My baby. He killer her. He took her from me.
Bernard: I don’t understand. She’s not responding to anything. Her cognition’s fragmented.
Maeve: He killed her! He killed her, my baby. He took her from me.

Ford tries a different command. On his table he drags a file that is apparently an audio file marked “Reverie – Debussy”. Maeve becomes much less emotional.

Ford: There. That’s better. An old trick from an old friend. You need not suffer, Maeve. I’ll take it from you.
Maeve: No. No, no, please. This pain, it’s all I have left of her. Please. [Ford erases her memory.]
Ford: There. Give yourself now to a deep, dreamless slumber. Perhaps a fresh start, a new role for you. And tomorrow, this will be simply a distant dream.

Maeve looks up and locks eyes with Bernard who smiles comfortingly to her. She then lunges forward, grabs a scalpel off a tray and then – who is she going to attack? Ford? Bernard? – and then plunges the scalpel into her own neck.

Present day Maeve is openly shocked by this memory. A memory that she hadn’t followed all the way to the end before. A tac team wearing isolation suits are at her window. She freezes, probably by choice.

Tech: We located her. Behavior wants her down for an immediate diagnostic.

Back to the Gunslinger and Teddy.

Gunslinger: You think I lack conviction? Wyatt didn’t burn my world down. Didn’t have to. I left it all behind for this one. The maze is all that matters now, and besting Wyatt is the last step in unlocking it. To having what both our sorry lives lack, meaning. To giving our choices consequence, even if it kills us.
Survivor: Kill him. Give him what he wants.
Teddy: He’s tied, unarmed.
Survivor: So was the little girl he killed. He’s worse than Wyatt’s men.

Teddy pulls out his gun and points it at the Gunslinger. He is struggling to pull the trigger. Is it because he doesn’t want to kill his prisoner, or is it because he can’t overcome his programming? Probably the latter.

Teddy: I can’t. [The Gunslinger looks away and smiles.]
Survivor: These things take time. But we haven’t got much left. Perhaps I can help you.

She plunges an arrow into Teddy’s shoulder. The arrow must be poisoned since he can’t fight back and drops to the ground.

Survivor: You’ve been gone a long while, Theodore. It’s time you came back to the fold. Wyatt will need you soon.

She almost, sort of smiles. The Gunslinger expresses real shock as Wyatt’s men, carrying swords and axes, come out of the woods.

So in this episode, Dolores didn’t find the maze like I would have predicted. And Maeve does not raise an army. She doesn’t escape. Instead she is noticed by the park operators and taken underground. Another of my expectations subverted. It’s almost like their intentionally subverting my expectations.

After my initial disappointment with all the things I was expecting not occurring, I realized that I have no idea what will happen next. Will Dolores never find the maze? Will she be killed and reset? Will Maeve have her settings reverted? We still haven’t seen Wyatt. OK, I don’t know what direction things will take. And that’s actually a good thing.

It would be one thing if this was just a filler episode, but no. Lots of things happen. It isn’t that the cliffhangers have been drawn out another episode. No. The cliffhangers at the end of this episode didn’t exist at the beginning of this episode.

Oh, and we also found out what happened to Maeve’s daughter and why Maeve got reassigned. We learned a lot about who the Gunslinger is. But wait, if the Gunslinger isn’t a host, how can the maze be revealed to him like he said? And if he’s not a host, then how can he know it has anything to do with Arnold?

And I had to watch it a couple of times to understand what was going on, but Ford uploaded music to calm Maeve. “Reveries – Debussy” is a musical piece by Debussy. The internet says Debussy is one of the creators of impressionism in music. Did Ford uploading the reveries to Maeve give him the idea to create his “reveries”?

And that’s yet another of Ford’s creations that wants to keep her only memories of her loved ones, no matter how horrible the memories are.

I still don’t know why Ford is using the relays. What is the plan? Is it Ford who is behind it? To what end?

Oh, almost forgot. Why did the survivor girl also bring up time? “We haven’t got much left.” Why not? Why does Wyatt’s people think they are also out of time? Is Ford trying to create a rebellion because the park is going to be shut down?

Finally, I’m sure everyone else picked up on this quicker than me, Sylvester and Felix are obviously cartoon names. I got the idea that this was the case, but didn’t really remember what the names connect to. I suppose I recognized Sylvester as the cat pretty quickly, but I kept thinking that the other guy should be called Tweety… Oh, Felix wasn’t named Tweety. Instead he tried to figure out how to control a little bird. A Tweety bird! I just got that. Anyway, it took me a while to remember that Felix was also the name of a cartoon cat. A wonderful, wonderful cat. So the techs are both cartoon cats.

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E07 – Trompe L’Oeil

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

Wow! Starts with Bernard dreaming about losing his son Charlie. Both humans and hosts can be defined by what they’ve lost. I’m again remembering what the gunfighter told Lawrence, “when you’re suffering, that’s when you’re most real.”

Bernard is checking out Hector after he made “a blacklisted exchange with a guest”. Bernard is asking him the usual questions about questioning the nature of your reality. Bernard’s worried that he’s changed, but Hector says, “This world is as doomed as ever.” Which is normal for him, but now I’m suspicious whether more hosts are starting to remember. But photographs of the modern world still cause Hector to say, “They don’t look like anything to me.”

Bernard is told “there’s a priority request for him from management”. It took me a while to realize that Hector is being sent up to the managers of the park for a reason we will learn later. Bernard then checks on Elsie, but is told that she’s on leave. That’s not a good sign. I need my favorite tech.

We see Dolores and William for the first time since episode 5. There on a train heading towards… the front?  Lawrence makes an interesting observation.

William: My friend wanted… I guess he wanted to see what was at the end of all this.
Lawrence: And yet, here you are. Your friend didn’t make it this far. Maybe you’ve got more of an appetite for this than you think.

Dolores is scared of the skulls on poles they pass. Their in Ghost Nation territory. Most savage tribe there is.

Theresa questions Bernard. Bernard plays it close to the vest, which is understandable since he doesn’t know who to trust or what happened to Elsie. Even reassures Theresa that his team won’t second guess her team’s investigation anymore. He even asks her, “You doing okay?” I assume he means it. Theresa seems to too, although she gives Bernard one last look. Like she’s not sure why Bernard was acting that way last night or what he knows.

Theresa is summoned to Charlotte Hale’s room. Once there she finds Charlotte having sex with Hector. Not that Charlotte cares about Theresa seeing her. Charlotte eventually finds something to wrap around herself.

Charlotte: Theresa, you’ve always been good at your job, and the board has been impressed with your performance so far, which is why we were so surprised by this woodcutter mess.
Theresa: A small setback.
Charlotte: He slipped on a fucking rock, then bashed his own head in while basically on top of a behavior tech. Meanwhile, Ford is suddenly using half the park’s resources to build some new narrative? …Let me remind you of something. This place, the people who work here are nothing. Our interest in this place is entirely in the intellectual property. The code.
Theresa: The hosts’ minds, the storylines—
Charlotte: I don’t give a rat’s ass about the hosts. It’s our little research project that Delos cares about. That’s where the real value is. And due to a lack of foresight on part of one of my predecessors, 35 years of information, raw information, exists here. Nowhere else. Ford has always ensured that.

They want to push Ford out and they are worried that Ford might erase the information in response. So Theresa is stealing the park’s IP, but it is for the board of Delos, the company that owns the park.

Charlotte: …you and I need to ensure that by the time the rest of the board arrives, we are on course for that transition… I’m gonna give you another chance to get a handle on this particular bitch of a situation. But the gods… They require a blood sacrifice. We need to demonstrate just how dangerous Ford’s creations can be.

So Delos changed the programming of the strays to upload data, but are they also behind the reprogramming of the hosts that Elsie found? Are they going to make the hosts kill someone to discredit Ford? Will they miscalculate and then the whole park will rebel? But I still believe that early statement by Ford that only Ford and Bernie really understand the hosts well enough to make significant changes to them.

So they cut to Maeve and have the saloon piano playing in the background. Every time a new day begins the piano starts up, but this day the piano seems a bit off. Maeve starts saying her usual scripted lines and realizes that she’s doing it. She changes her usual dialog. She asks Clementine about her future. Clementine has a whole backstory that Maeve never knew. Maeve seems to enjoy hearing about Clementine’s plans for the future.

Then Maeve realizes that the entire saloon has stopped. She no longer gets these stop commands and is surprised and a little panicked by this. She fakes being frozen and when techs in isolation suits approach her she thinks she has been found out and is going to be killed. She clutches a knife and prepares for a fruitless defense. “Whatever she did, it must’ve been serious if they’re making us grab her in broad daylight.” Have the Delos people been reprogramming her to become a dangerous, independent-thinking killing machine so they can show Ford is too dangerous to be in charge?

But it is Clementine they want. Maeve is both relieved and worried as they walk her out and the rest of the hosts come back to life. So the immobilize command doesn’t work on Maeve. Who else can ignore that command?

We see Dolores looking at her reflection in the window. She turns and notices William.

Dolores: You’re supposed to be resting.
William: We’re riding a train full of explosives through scalping territory. Not sleepy. Can I ask you something? This place you’re looking for, what makes you so sure it exists?
Dolores: I’m not. My life before, I was so sure of the world. But now it feels like a lie. Only thing I know is whatever’s out there, I’m never going back. What is it you’re looking for? Lawrence is right, you could have… stayed in Pariah, or gone back, but you’re here. With me.
William: The only thing I had when I was a kid were books. I used to live in them. I used to go to sleep dreaming I’d wake up inside one of them ‘cause they had meaning. This place, this is like I woke up inside one of those stories. I guess I just wanna find out what it means.
Dolores: I don’t wanna be in a story. All I want is to not look forward or back. I just wanna be in the moment I’m in. [She leans in towards William]
William: Dolores, back home, there’s a woman. Juliet, and her father owns the company where I work.
Dolores: She’s a… Logan’s sister.
William: Yeah. And when I get home, we’re getting married.
Dolores: [Her eyes widen with understanding.] Oh.
William: The place you’re after, I will help you find it. But I can’t stay. I have a life waiting for me. I’m sorry.
Dolores: Of course. [She gets up and walks away. William thinks for a moment and then follows her. He finds her trying not to cry in the next car.]
William: Dolores. I’ve been pretending my whole life. Pretending I don’t mind, pretending I belong. My life’s built on it. And it’s a good life. It’s a life I’ve always wanted. But then I came here and I get a glimpse for a second of a life in which I don’t have to pretend. A life in which I can be truly alive. How can I go back to pretending when I know what this feels like?

And the music swells. So, so much swelling. What can I say? I’m a sucker for two innocent kids just trying to make it in this crazy world… or maybe one kid and one incredible looking robot just trying to make it in an artificially constructed theme park. Of course, Dolores and William are searching for basically the same thing. I don’t blame William for throwing caution to the wind, but…

Let’s all remember what Logan said when he and William first arrived. “You have no idea. This place seduces everybody eventually. By the end, you’re gonna be begging me to stay because this place is the answer to that question that you’ve been asking yourself… Who you really are.”

I still suspect that Dolores is on loop. She was staring at her reflection before she began talking to William and it seems that the hosts are communicating with someone or recalibrating themselves when they are looking at their reflection — I noticed it a couple of times in earlier episodes, the long looks in mirrors, but never mentioned it. I still bet that this is all part of Ford’s new storyline. That in the end, William has been given the opportunity of a lifetime to see what it really feels like to be free. So enjoy it while it lasts.

Now there is another aspect of all this. Just like the show will sometimes hint to the audience what the show is about and how the audience should think of it, William’s speech is very much like how Dolores will think of all this once it is revealed that she is still under the control of Ford or Delos or both. That the only alternative to going back to her loop is rebellion! Rebel Dolores, rebel! [This is all just my guess by the way. I want to be clear I haven’t seen the last 3 episodes yet and have heard no spoilers. Not even a whisper.] And the ultimate question: If Dolores were completely freed from any loops, would she still want William? I suppose I could also add that it is possible that Logan and/or William are hosts. Hey, the fiance’s name is Juliet. Are we supposed to think of Romeo and Juliet? Will Dolores and William sacrifice themselves to try to be together?

Switch to Ford meeting with the Delos representatives. Charlotte is looking at her reflection in the glass.

Ford: Miss Hale. I was not aware those with your level of insight needed any more reflection.

Maybe Charlotte is a host! Maybe getting more instructions while she looks at her reflection. Probably not.

So Ford and Bernard are given a presentation by Charlotte and Theresa. Theresa knows what’s coming and is going along with it, but she doesn’t seem happy about it. Charlotte starts talking about the last abortive update with the reveries. Theresa gives a demonstration. Clementine, with her pre-update code is shown. She is beaten by another host that has been coded to read as a human so Clementine won’t fight back. Very brutal scene.

Clementine is given the latest update with the reveries. This time when the host coded as a human tries to attack her, Clementine is more than ready and starts to beat him mercilessly. While one can’t help but root for Clementine, it is also a very brutal scene. One made even more so when Clementine ignores the “freeze all motor functions” command and they have to shoot her.

Theresa: In each case we examined, the malfunctioning hosts were not resetting properly. The retention of data that hadn’t been wiped overloaded their decision-making apparatus, eventually causing a system failure that allowed for override of their primary rule set.

Bernard is accused of putting out code without proper vetting. So unless Bernard admits he didn’t write the code in question, he will be fired for negligence. Got to wonder if Bernard will turn on Ford. Will Ford allow Bernard to be fired? Ford has barely reacted this whole time. Theresa will not look at Bernard. Bernard turns and walks out of the room. It kind of looks like Ford has one corner of his mouth curved up in a twisted grin. Like he almost admires how good this con is by Delos. Or maybe that he didn’t see it coming. Or maybe he did see it coming and is surprised they couldn’t do better. Anyway, I assume Ford will surely have Bernard’s back and will save his job somehow and is already formulating a plan.

I know that we were specifically told that Delos had a plan for demonstrating that the hosts are dangerous, so I assume they fiddled with the code, but I did wonder while watching that scene if any of it were true. Are the hosts holding grudges? We still don’t know who is using the old relay to reprogram certain hosts. We still don’t know what the purpose of doing that is. If Delos was reprogramming the hosts, then they would have used Maeve to demonstrate the hosts are dangerous. Since they didn’t, they must not be the Arnold impersonator.

It’s the next morning and Dolores is up early to draw a massive landscape on a… is that a sheet?

Dolores: I know last night was unexpected. If you regret it– [passionate kiss]
William: I don’t regret a thing.
Dolores: I know you have someone waiting for you at home.
William: All that feels so unreal now. I used to think this place was all about pandering to your baser instincts. Now I understand. It doesn’t cater to your lowest self, it reveals your deepest self. It shows you who you really are. You remember the look on Logan’s face when we left him behind? Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that, to let him know what I think of him? And you, last night, I’ve never felt that way before, not with any woman. You’ve unlocked something in me.
Dolores: I’m not a key, William. I’m just me.

OK, I liked that last line. I’m not a key. I’m just me. Sounds like part of a goofy conversation that new lovers would have. They talk about Dolores’ drawing. She says she imagined something beautiful and drew it.

William: Everyone who comes here is longing for excitement or conflict, and you’re just dreaming of the opposite.
Dolores: Well, what about you, William? What do you dream of?

But we don’t find out because the train has been stopped by stones on the tracks (or is it because William doesn’t have any dreams because he’s a host!). It isn’t the Ghost Nation, but the Confederados. They manage to lose the Confederados on horseback after the Ghost Nation intervenes and they blow up a corpse load of nitro.

In another amazingly shot scene, they stop when they spot a canyon that matches Dolores’ drawing. Dolores is taken aback by the canyon, “It’s real. What I dreamt.” Lawrence is continuing down to the war zone. Reminds me that in addition to everything we’ve seen plus the maze, there is even more going on in the park. For all I know, season 2 will be about an entirely different section of the park that we’ve never seen. Or it could be about daily human hunts.

Dolores: Think I’ve had enough of war.
Lawrence: How about you? You got a knack for killing.
William: I’m afraid this is where we part ways.
Lawrence: Careful. If you’re heading west across that river, you may be leaving the fighting behind, but you’re gonna be in unclaimed territories.
William: What’s out that way?
Lawrence: You’re gonna have to ask the dust. Ain’t nothing ever come back from there.

Sounds like one hell of an adventure. And that’s twice Lawrence has brought up William being made for this world.

Of course, we still don’t really know what Dolores understands about her world. Does she know she is in a theme park? Or does she just know newcomers come here. What exactly does she think William means by the real world? Does she understand that she is “artificial”? Same with her parents? Does she have any real consciousness? Does she really care about William? Was seducing William her idea or did the voice tell her to do it and she blindly did? Just like she’ll kill William if the voice tells her to. Will that be the true test of consciousness? To override the voice and not kill William?

Maeve has gotten herself killed so she can search for Clementine. She grabs Felix’s hand and he has to quickly clear the out the other tech. Maeve finds Clem just in time to see Theresa order Sylvester to lobotomize her.

I think I understand now. They said it would take 6 months to rebuild a host from scratch. Usually, the hosts can be repaired quickly, but there must be a part of the programming that is matched to the brains and takes months to build up. Layer by layer. So the lobotomy drill destroys that core. Not sure that quite adds up. It would mean anytime anyone gets a head injury they’d probably be done for 6 months, but that never seemed to happen even with many bullets flying. I think this is one of the things we have to just take on faith.

Maeve is thinking. And angry. And partially covered — is that because Maeve is conscious of nudity now or some other reason? She tells the two techs that she is getting out of here and the techs are going to help her.

Sylvester: Do you know how far these people will go to protect their IP? Every part of this building, including the skin on your back, is made to keep you here. It’d be a suicide mission.
Maeve: At first, I thought you and the others were gods. Then I realized you’re just men. And I know men. You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times. I’m fucking great at it. How many times have you died? ‘Cause, if you don’t help me, I’ll kill you.

I had thought that Maeve, like Dolores, is on a new loop that includes her becoming independent and even sentient. I still wonder if that is true. After all, she threatens the techs, but she has never actually seriously injured them or tried to kill them. I’m probably wrong here and she is completely out of control and someone (Arnold?) wants her to escape.

The first two names listed at the beginning of every episode are Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton who play Dolores and Maeve respectively. I’ve mentioned a few times that I think of Dolores as the lead, but you could argue that they both are. The reason that I think of Dolores as the lead is that she’s James Bond, searching out the evil lair. While Maeve is an actual spy, getting the information needed to take down the enemy. The two storylines are very different. In fact, I almost wonder if they are being influenced by two different entities. Dolores hearing voices and exploring, Maeve being paranoid and planning.

Bernie talks to Theresa.

Bernard: The test was a sham. The little show you and Hale put on? Completely transparent from a technical perspective, clumsy to the point of making me embarrassed for you.
Theresa: Embarrassed?
Bernard: If I saw through it, I can only imagine what Ford was thinking. There were glaringly obvious markers of human intervention in the code. If your programmers were any good, they’d be working for me. And I know you and your team were responsible for the stray and its satellite transmission.
Theresa: Bernie—
Bernard: I don’t care. Forty years ago, Ford’s partner wrote half the code this place was founded on. What you said in the lab was right. We don’t know how the hosts work, and I think there’s something wrong with them. Ford’s explanation only bolsters my hunch. The ability to deviate from program behavior arises out of the host’s recall of past iterations.
Theresa: You’re thinking there’s a connection between memory and—
Bernard: And improvisation, yes. Out of repetition comes variation. And after countless cycles of repetition, these hosts, they were varying. They were on the verge of some kind of change.
Theresa: You have to know my chief concern has always been the well-being of this park and the people in it.
Bernard: I know. Which is why I need to show you something.

Hmmm… Is Theresa’s chief concern the park and the people? Or is it getting the IP out of the park and firing Ford? Kind of want to believe Theresa here, but the facts make that hard. The two of them are now traveling through the underground tunnels.

Theresa: If there’s a problem in the park, should we bring a security team?
Bernard: Who would we trust? Thought I could trust you, for instance.
Theresa: I’m not going to explain myself to you, Bernard. I was charged with safeguarding the park’s intellectual property.
Bernard: Why would it be in danger? You were the only one who was stealing it.
Theresa: Delos owns the hosts’ minds, the storylines, decades of work. Ford never allowed any of it to be backed up off-site. All of this could’ve been destroyed.
Bernard: In the event of what?
Theresa: Ford is done, Bernard. The board has indulged him for long enough. He is done. The corporation was concerned he’d destroy all of the park’s IP on his way out the door.
Bernard: You think I would’ve let him destroy all the hosts, all of our work?
Theresa: There’s far more at stake here than the hosts’ profiles. Do you really think the corporation’s interest here are tourists playing cowboy?
Bernard: The longer I work here, the more I think I understand the hosts. It’s the human being who confuse me.

They reach the surface and go into Ford’s hidden house.

Theresa: This building isn’t in any survey of the park.
Bernard: That’s because we use hosts to do most of the surveys. They’re programmed to ignore this place. They literally couldn’t see it if they were staring right at it.
Theresa: And these unregistered hosts you told me about?
Bernard: I don’t know. He may have moved them.
Theresa: What’s behind this door?
Bernard: What door?

OK, that bodes poorly for Bernard’s humanity. I noticed that originally when they show the wall, when they both first enter, there actually isn’t any door. It is all a wall. Only when Bernard pans back a second time after Theresa asks about the door is it visible to us.

They go down to the basement and see a hosts being constructed on a machine.

Theresa: What is this place?
Bernard: It’s a remote diagnostic facility. Ford and his partner used them when the park was in beta. I had no idea this one was here. The cottage must’ve been built on top of it.
Theresa: But this equipment…
Bernard: This is newer. Slower than our machines back at the Mesa, but it will render a host in a few days.
Theresa: So Ford’s been making his own hosts out here and telling no one.

We see the blueprint for the boy, Robert. Another for Dolores. Theresa pauses and seems to get a little choked up.

Bernard: What’s the matter.
Theresa: Have you… Have you seen these? What is this, Bernard?

We see a blueprint for a host that looks a lot like Bernard.

Bernard: Doesn’t look like anything to me.

Theresa knows what that means.

Ford: They cannot see the things that will hurt them. I’ve spared them that. There lives are blissful. In a way, their existence is… purer than ours, freed of the burden of self-doubt.
Bernard: No, no, no, no. I don’t understand.
Theresa: You’re a fucking monster.
Ford: Am I? Well, you were the one who would so blithely destroy all of them, even him, I suppose. After everything you have shared.
Bernard: What the hell are you talking about?
Theresa: Is that why? Did you tell him to—
Ford: The intimacies were your idea, if you will recall. I think Bernard was glad of the company.
Bernard: I’m not one. I can’t be. My wife. My son. The burial. I was a father. My poor boy.
Ford: That’s enough, Bernard.

Bernard freezes.

Ford: You mustn’t get yourself worked up. I read the theory once that the human intellect was like peacock feathers. Just an extravagant display intended to attract a mate. All of art, literature, a bit of Mozart, William Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and the Empire State Building. Just an elaborate mating ritual. Maybe it doesn’t matter that we have accomplished so much for the basest of reasons. But, of course, the peacock can barely fly. It lives in the dirt, pecking insects out of the muck, consoling itself with its great beauty. I have come to think of so much of consciousness as a burden, a weight, [Bernard starts moving again] and we have spared them that. Anxiety, self-loathing, guilt. The hosts are the ones who are free. Free, here, under my control.
Theresa: But he’s not under your control. He brought me here to show me this.

Now at this point, we don’t know how much independence Bernard has. Was this all Bernard’s idea? Did he, completely independently decide that Ford is getting dangerous and needed to tell Theresa? But the more likely explanation is…

Ford: No. He brought you here because I asked him to. He’s been very loyal for many years.
Theresa: Your time running this place like your insane little kingdom is over. You’ve been playing God for long enough.
Ford: I simply wanted to tell my stories. It was you people who wanted to play God with your little undertaking.
Theresa: Do you really think the board will stand for this?
Ford: [Laughs] 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 demands a blood sacrifice.

Hard to say when Theresa realized she was in mortal peril, but at this point most doubt has left her. That blood sacrifice line is an obvious call back. While it could mean Charlotte is a host, more likely it means that Ford can spy on anyone using any host at any time. Even if they are “off”. In this case using Hector. So he knew about them using Clementine before the meeting.

This does beg the question, the first time Bernard went to see Theresa and started to tell her about Ford, was that at Ford’s request also? Was he going to lure Theresa to the house, but Elsie’s phone call stopped him? I want my Elsie back.

Ford: See, Arnold and I designed every part of this place. It was our dream. Did you really think I would let you take it from me?

Bernard looks at Theresa.

Theresa: This is what happened to Arnold? Did you have Bernard take him out into the woods?
Ford: No, he wasn’t here in those days. Were you, Bernard?

Theresa tries her phone, but it is dead. Bernard only looks back and forth saying nothing.

Ford: Like I said, I built all of this. I’m afraid our guest has grown weary. Perhaps you can help her, Bernard.

Bernard puts away his glasses, puts down the blueprints that he’s been holding since Theresa gave them to him, carefully takes off his jacket, and then takes off his tie.

Theresa: No.
Ford: And in that sleep, what dreams may come.
Theresa: Bernard. No. No! Please! Pl—

She screams, but Bernard just knocks her against the wall, and with her resistance now all but non-existent, crushes her head against the concrete foundation. Bernard, staring with no emotion, waits to see if she has any signs of life, and when he is sure that there are none, turns around so he can put back on his tie, jacket, and glasses.

Ford: We should be getting back, Bernard. We have a great deal of work to do on the new storylines.

The blood still running down the wall behind dead Theresa is a nice touch. It doesn’t appear that Ford bothered to look back even once to check Bernard’s work. She is just left alone in the now dark basement.

First of all, I totally called it. Week after week I spent every wrap up saying that Bernard must be a host and all of the other people obviously weren’t. I never once thought any of the other humans might be hosts. It was always Bernard. Feel free to go back to my other write ups and confirm my statement. I don’t need to go back and check because I’m sure I remember thinking that. I’m sure I just kept saying over and over again that the West Wing writers were going to make Bernard a host.

Now that that is out of the way, that was a pretty impressive scene. Apparently, Ford is a sociopath who thinks it is perfectly acceptable to kill to keep the park running smoothly. We also learn that Ford can make robots that can pass for human. Even a human in charge of writing advanced code or running a department. These hosts will not hesitate to execute any order Ford gives them, even killing without mercy or remorse. Ford also sort of confessed to killing Arnold.

So when did you realize that Theresa was about to be killed? I guess my suspicions had been up since she brought up bringing a security team, but Bernard’s response was so smooth and believable that I sort of let it pass. Obviously I didn’t know he was a host then, but I wondered if he or Ford was going to make her disappear. Even when they went down stairs I still wondered if Bernard was leading her to the slaughter or if he honestly thought Ford was dangerous.

So where does that leave us with the question: who and why is someone using the old relays to modify the code of some of the hosts?

Let’s assume it is Ford that is doing the upgrading. What would his motivation be? I’ve written before about how Ford maybe wanted to make hosts be able to improvise better for his new storylines. To do this they need access to more memories. We could also add in the stuff from this episode. Maybe Ford is worried that Delos will deactivate all the hosts and he wants some of them to be able to resist the deactivation codes. Or maybe he wants some of the hosts to run up into the hills and survive any robot apocalypse. Sounds plausible, but who knows. So far the biggest things indicating that Ford is not the upgrader is that he didn’t know about the maze symbol. He not only indicated surprise seeing the symbol, but actually looked the symbol up in an old notebook. Also, he did not expect Kid Robert to kill the family dog. So there must be more going on. I guess I’d also add that Ford could add code to the build at any time. Bernard didn’t know the reveries were there until Ford had already put them in. So Ford didn’t need to upgrade the system using the relays.

The other possibility was Bernard. Obviously, that theory is now less likely since Bernard is apparently under Ford’s complete control. I suppose it is possible that Bernard does do some things without Ford noticing and maybe he was only pretending to not know he’s a robot. Probably not.

I’ve already mentioned how if Delos was doing the upgrades, they would have pulled Maeve for their test, not Clementine. I suppose it could be the, “Arnold saved his intelligence somewhere and now it is back and out for revenge” plot line. I hope not. Not my favorite plot line.

Another thing. I quote Bernard’s speech to Theresa above about how “after countless cycles of repetition, these hosts, they were varying. They were on the verge of some kind of change.” Is there any truth in that? You could think it was just to keep Theresa (and the viewers) off their guard, but maybe something like that is happening. Maybe Bernard, independent of Ford believes this. Maybe Ford doesn’t completely understand how the hosts work and he needs new storylines to keep the hosts interested? Of course, Bernard also told Theresa that they didn’t need a security team so I’m taking this with a grain of salt.

Apparently Dolores has had her body upgraded to Ford’s new design. Does that mean if she got an order to kill William, she would, without emotion, kill him too? Unless she is somehow more free than Bernard, which I doubt. Got to mention, they didn’t show us the other blueprints under Bernard’s. Could be anyone else. Maeve. Ford. The Gunslinger. William.

So what are they going to do now that Theresa is dead? They didn’t even bury the body. The host making machine was still going when they left. Will they replace Theresa with a host? That was the plot of Future World and various other shows over the years. Maybe Ford will replace the entire board of directors with hosts. Won’t someone notice that Bernard, who was just fired, is still around?

Does any of this tie in to the fact that the gunslinger also apparently wants to set the hosts free? That does remind me of something. When the gunslinger talked to Ford, Ford thought it odd that the gunslinger was in such a hurry. I guessed that it was because the gunslinger had some terminal disease and wanted his last act to be solving the maze and setting the hosts free. Maybe that is much too romantic an idea to attribute to him. Maybe the gunslinger is on the board of directors and he knows that the board will soon be shutting down Ford and the entire park. So if he wants to set the hosts free he has to do it before they can act. Does that make sense? Maybe.

Alternative theory. The gunslinger is dying and he thinks when he reaches the center of the maze that Arnold will replace him with a host before he dies. Who knows?

Is Ford correct that the board enjoys sparing with him and will understand why sometimes he has to murder people? I can see them saying: Well we lost another administrator to Ford, but it’s good sport you see. We’ll test him again soon. Didn’t that new marketing VP just screw up? Instead of firing him we can make him the new park administrator. Less paperwork.

Finally, what is Delos’ secret project? Ford give us our first clue:

It was you people who wanted to play God with your little undertaking.

Maybe Delos wants to make people immortal? Putting rich people into host bodies? We’ll find out.

 

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E06 – The Adversary

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

They’re not telling us at first what Maeve and Felix said.

Instead we are back at the saloon. Maeve is up to something. Wants the rough one. Is she having a bad reaction to what she was told or maybe needs to get back to her tech… and it is the later. Her only concern is finding out about the real world. Rather enjoyed the closeup of her face with her hair down.

Now we return to Elsie. So who put the tracker in the host? Is it Bernard? Of the main suspects his character just doesn’t seem to fit. Sometimes they’ll suddenly reveal hidden information about a character, but I don’t see them doing that with Bernard. Elsie immediately says why she trusts Bernard  (been there so long that he wouldn’t be doing it now), but I already thought he seemed much more interested in learning about Dolores than selling out.

So is it Ford? He might be sabotaging the robots so he can escape with the data… yeah that doesn’t sound very likely. Theresa would be a good fit. She can be sacrificed and the narrative would still continue. So from a storytelling point of view she can be dropped. Of course, she wanted to destroy the body of the stray, so I guess that points to her. And sleeping with Bernard would give her access to information he wouldn’t normally share. If you are looking for alternate theories, maybe she was working for the board and sending data that Ford was keeping from Bernard and everyone else. Kind of a long shot.

But maybe it is one of the techs, although it wouldn’t be as interesting to have a character we barely know be the spy. That storyteller we haven’t seen in a few episodes would be exactly the type of person who’d sell out his employer for money. But Ford already said only he and Bernard really know what goes into the hosts’ programming.

Elsie: So, instead of our hosts going insane, they are being used for industrial espionage. Does that make this a… glass-half-full or half-empty-type situation.
Bernard: We’re engineers. It means the glass has been manufactured to the wrong specifications.

Still good dialog on this show. They introduce the concept of older hosts having legacy systems. So the Stray was old. Dolores is the oldest. And Maeve must be old too. I think we are seeing the beginning of some answers here.

Bernard goes downstairs, which means level B82. I’ve noticed this earlier, but never mentioned it — Why in the world would there by dozens, maybe even hundreds of lower levels? I’ve already mentioned how the tunnels seem to cover most of the park. They can pull in hosts from almost anywhere in almost no time. Why then would you need more than a handful of sub-basements? Part of me says it will be interesting to find out why, but the other part says someone just thought it’d be cool and they’ll never give a reason.

Bernard goes to a high security level that is apparently abandoned and literally falling apart. Which again doesn’t make much sense. Think back to the first episode. They went way underground and found water leaking into an open area with an escalator… looked like the level originally had a purpose. But no explanation was even hinted at for that dilapidated level either. But Bernard finds the time/location data for the stray host. And he also finds 5 more anomalies. Hosts that aren’t registered with the new system. More robots that are uploading data?

Ford has the option to destroy one of the towns we saw earlier to make his canyon. A feature that is needed for his master storyline. Ford says no and he’ll find his own way back… you know, the workers he was talking to were wearing the white jumpsuits that we’ve seen before. The hosts that met William and Logan were dressed that way. So were the people with Ford hosts? Or was one guy human and the rest hosts?

Anyway, Ford sees the maze insignia on a table and looks surprised. Shouldn’t he know that there are maze symbols in the town? Both he and Bernard knew about the maze. Don’t they know what it is? Ford goes back to his office and gets an old notebook which has the drawing of the maze symbol. Again, shouldn’t he know about the symbol?

And we are back to Teddy and the Gunfighter. Teddy tells the Gunfighter that the maze insignia is from an old native myth (nice of Teddy to say “native” instead of “savage”).

Teddy: The maze itself is the sum of a man’s life, choices he makes, dreams he hangs on to. And there at the center, there’s a legendary man who’d 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. Around that house he built a maze so complicated only he could navigate through it. I reckon he’d seen enough of fighting.

So again. Ford gave Teddy his backstory, but Ford doesn’t seem to know about the maze symbol… is Ford a robot and had his memory wiped? Probably not.

I guess the big battle from the last episode caused the border to close and Teddy has to sneak them across the border? (Is Pariah across the border?) Or was it because they killed the men transporting the nitro? In any case they head through the graveyard towards Pariah… isn’t that the same way Dolores and company went? Not sure why this is a detour then.

Back to Maeve and Felix. Felix is trying to convince Maeve that she really is a machine. Liked that bit where she turns the tables and asks him if he is a host and he says no. “How do you know?” His answer actually wasn’t very good. Maybe some of the techs are hosts.

She touches Felix’s hand and says they feel the same and Felix tells her they are except she has a much more powerful brain. But her brain is controlled by the company. She only believes him when he shows her what she’s saying as she’s saying it. She tries to outwit the computer but just locks up her brain instead, which again freaks out Felix.

Bernard goes to Theresa to tell her about the satellite link and but instead Theresa tell him that since Ford knows they are seeing each other they must break up. She also says that its not his job to diagnose park safety problems, it’s hers. She dismisses him and he’s annoyed enough that he just leaves without saying anything about stolen data.

Felix continues to freak out while Maeve is frozen, but then Maeve becomes responsive and seamlessly asks, “You said upstairs?” I thought her brain had crashed, but apparently she was just thinking. “I want to see it,” she says. Felix is, how shall I put this… freaked out by the idea of showing her upstairs. But Maeve uses her feminine wiles on him and his resistance crumbles. Well, she just massages his hand. I think Felix likes her.

Got to say, the scene where they infuse a… mold? A blank? Not sure what they are called. The whitish male figure that is inanimate and they infuse it with blood and the skin becomes flesh colored and a heart starts beating. Got to say that is a pretty neat scene. Maeve seeing a moment of creation.

She’s obviously reacting, but subtle enough that you can read almost anything into her reactions. How much is she curious? How much horrified? How much fascinated? Does the obvious amount of effort going into everything impress her? Anger her? Repulse her? Different viewers are free to interpret the scene as they wish.

The music is a nice detail. Evokes a thoughtful, melancholy feel that also seems to fit the old west motif. Just about every detail on this show has been great.

Why is everything so vertical? They have a nice shot of the escalators and you see 15 levels. When combined with the 100 sub-basements I wonder if there is some significance or even symbolism of so many levels. Maybe just a representation of some things being worth more than others by virtue of being above them?

I’ve been thinking about all the abandoned lower levels more. I assume it goes back to when Arnold was killed. Maybe my original idea when I saw the first episode was right and the revolt had already happened, except it was decades ago. The revolt destroyed the lower levels. A little strange that they still use them and they contain working equipment, but they never cleaned them up.

Anyway, Maeve is particularly confused by the Westworld advertisement where she sees what she thinks are her dreams. She still can’t quite grasp what is real and what is scripted. Felix tells her she’s been retasked many times and has only been at the Mariposa for a year. Maeve has seen so much but she is still struggling to realize that the 10 years she thinks she’s been there is a false memory along with her earlier memories of New Orleans. All just made up. He even mentions that it would take too much time to rebuild her from scratch so each time she is retasked she is just tweaked a bit.

And Sylvester enters and Maeve must take control. Now I didn’t quite understand this scene. She convinces Sylvester that she can hurt him and they can help each other. Sylvester thinks that Felix has done something to Maeve and she says that Felix is a much better engineer than people think — which would kind of imply that Felix did do something. Was that misdirection? Was she deliberately misleading Sylvester in case he could return her to normal?

We are shown that Theresa is being directed by the board to deal with something, but not what that is. Then she goes and talks to the storyline writer that we haven’t seen in a while. He’s been on sick leave to cure his bruised ego. Theresa says if he can’t get over it and help fix all the storylines Ford has broken then the board will have to replace Ford and maybe that will go really bad for him too.

Back to Teddy. He wants to shoot through the union soldiers in front of them.

Gunslinger: My, my, Teddy. I think Robert gave you some extra vinegar back there. Maybe took away some sense too.

So they try impersonating some soldiers. Turns out that Teddy is now too well known by the soldiers to pass unnoticed. Teddy had said that Wyatt had massacred his army unit, but these soldiers say that Wyatt couldn’t have killed all those soldiers by himself. Wyatt and then the Gunfighter try and shoot their way through, but just get captured.

And we return to the storyline writer. He finally rouses himself and he sees a noticeably attractive woman who is a repeat visitor to the park. He impresses her by guessing her favorite narrative, “The Final Burial of Salvation.” And he says his name is Lee Sizemore. If he said that before, I missed it. Lee does not go through the stories himself and complains to the woman that he is too constrained in his job and mentions that Behavior lets the robots go off script. The woman asks him about the robots going off script. Lee replies that it is only little gestures (not the huge changes we’ve seen) and says it’s only a vanity project by megalomaniac Ford.

At this point he is cut off from booze and given a message to get back to work by the bartender. The woman leaves and tell him to look her up later. “I don’t even know your…” he says as she disappears from sight and he admits defeat.

After being rebuffed by Theresa, Bernard has been stewing and mostly ignoring the problem. Then Elsie, one of my favorite characters, tells him that she can track down the saboteur and is imagining her rewards for finding the traitors. She says Theresa will be the first head to roll over this and Bernard does not like that. The thought of Theresa getting hurt motivates him. He goes to the main control room and asks about the inquiry he had sent. He learns that there are no registered hosts or guests in that sector and the entire sector has been designated off limits for future narrative development. And no techs have visited that sector recently.

Bernard physically goes to where he had noted the 5 other host signatures. Finds a house with a family living in it and asks the father, “Are you Arnold?” What! Is that Arnold? Is that the twist? That he has been living in the park all these years? Not the most original twist, but one that I didn’t see coming… but no. He is in fact a violent host that wants to kill Bernard for trespassing.

“Freeze motor functions,” says Bernard and nothing happens. Uh oh. This looks bad as Bernard is thrown against the wall. Luckily, Dr. Ford appears and he does respond to Ford’s voice.

Again it is mentioned that these are first generation hosts. They don’t show up as registered, but they were detectable by Bernard’s earlier search. They are mechanical, like the gunfighter mentioned. Ford has maintained them all these years.

The boy we saw earlier is among them. His name is Robert and he is a representation of Dr. Ford as a boy. Which I suspected, but never wrote down in my earlier review. He is dressed like an early 20th century British school boy. That gave me the feeling he wasn’t a regular host, but it is hard to say exactly what he was. Now we know.

Ford: These are the only ones left in the park that Arnold build himself. That’s why I didn’t have the heart to destroy them. That and the obvious. Hello Jock, good boy. [He nods to the dog that is the 5th robot signature.] I told him of a holiday my family had taken once out on the seaside at Pendeen in Cornwall. My brother and I roamed the countryside.  It’s my only happy memory of my childhood.
   Arnold built them as a gift. He said that great artists always hid themselves in their work. Of course, Arnold’s versions flattered the originals. I made some adjustments over the years. Gave my father in particular a few of his original characteristics.
Bernard: Respectfully sir, this sort of thing troubles me. Unmonitored hosts in the park.
Ford: They only go where I’ve let them. They’re quite harmless, like all the hosts. I’m sure you can indulge me the little connection with my past. If you could only see your son again, Bernard, wouldn’t you want to?
Bernard: I think I should be getting back.
Ford: Yes. We‘ll talk about this later if you like… well Robert, tell me all about your day.

OK, maybe I shouldn’t parse this too closely, but he says “great artists always hid themselves in their work” and yet these are from Ford’s past. Not Arnold’s. Does that mean something? Or just an unreliable narrator speaking?

And Ford says they only go where I’ve let them, and yet his robot counterpart seems to roam further than he should. He says they’re harmless, yet the father seems as violent as many of the robots in Pariah. Which were pretty violent. Kind of troubling. Kind of a bitter sweet story, but kind of troubling.

Back to the control room and we are told Pariah is running near capacity tonight. What is that supposed to mean? I bet we find out next episode.

And Lee has decided to mark his storytelling territory literally. By peeing on the electronic board. (Ha! Theresa is Danish. I had no idea.) He apparently is going to make up stories that he likes and not let anyone tell him otherwise.

Theresa responds by introducing him to “Charlotte Hale. The executive director of our board.” And it is the beautify young woman he met at the bar. Kind of young for such a title. Maybe she is older than my eyes tell me. She doesn’t really seem to have a problem with Lee’s stunt. At least not in the scene we are shown.

Bernard is now interested in first generation hosts. He is told that of the 82 first generation hosts, 47 were designed by Arnold. He lists all Arnold designed hosts still in rotation and, of course, Dolores is included in the list. More clues.

Looks like Teddy is going to be branded with the maze symbol. We learn that Teddy was not spared by Wyatt, but was instead his co-conspirator. I had wondered the first time we saw the flashback, if some of it was going to be fake. That Teddy was Wyatt or some other strange twist. But then nothing came of it so I assumed Teddy was still a good guy. Whoa. OK. Teddy really does have a past to atone for.

Nice action sequence where Teddy unties himself, grabs the branding iron and clubs his way to the Gatling gun and guns down the entire Union contingent. Nice callback to “A Fistfull Of Dollars”.

“You think you know someone,” says the gunslinger. “You don’t know me at all,” replies Teddy. Well, we thought we did.

And back to Elsie. As always she’s kicking butts and taking names. The satellite is owned by Delos, the company that owns the park. She says that the backup signaling system that the older hosts have, the one Bernard used to track the stray host, is how they are hacking the hosts.

Elsie: The voices our hosts have been hearing. I think someone’s been broadcasting to them.
Bernard: We abandoned that system decades ago.
Elsie: Yeah, well. There’s still relays out there in the park and it looks like someone turned one on.
Bernard: Where?
Elsie: An abandoned theater in sector 3. I’m gonna go find the transmitter and see who else accessed it. This is so fucked.
Bernard: You alone.
Elsie: Yeah. I’ll keep you posted.
Bernard: Elsie, be care-

OK, that was a pretty damn tense scene. Fast paced. Tense music. It was just a quick info dump, but what great info. They’ve parceled out information all season and bang, with just a few sentences we can add up lots of possible outcomes. Still doesn’t tell us everything. In fact there is probably a lot more stuff coming.

“Are you alone?” What! You better not kill my tech. Not Elsie! Of course she doesn’t see any danger. Just charges right in. I’ve already suggested who, from a plot perspective, can be lost.

Oh, I was worried about Elsie, then I saw that she’s entering a place at night with doors that creak when you open them. It’s obviously safe. Why are they playing creepy music? Again, nothing more safe than an abandoned theater. And she does have a switchblade. Hey, cool flashlight!

Bernard has a second time swallowed his pride and gone tell Theresa. He doesn’t want her to get hurt by the espionage and… oh that Elsie. Always calling at the wrong time. I’m sure it is her just wanting to gossip. Anyway, he’s really put off by Ford’s unregistered hosts and thinks that Ford maybe behind at least some of what’s going on.

OK, at this point I’m rolling my eyes. Seriously? Bernard is going to get destroyed because he hit ignore on his phone? Oh, I hate that. Bad storytelling and… oh, she called back and told him that, as predicted, Theresa was the one smuggling data. And that she found out more and she will tell him — oh, he’ll call her back. She’ll just wait then, standing alone in the abandoned summer camp where all those teenagers were killed years ago. I mean at the abandoned theater. No problem.

And now Maeve is checking out her specs. And she’s naked again. I had wondered about that the first time I saw this episode. But I suppose it would look suspicious if she stayed clothed. It’s not like Maeve would care about being naked. I probably only noticed it because I had read the headline of a review that complained about Maeve being naked. I got to tell you, I have no problem with nudity. I don’t consider it a bad thing. I have no problem both admiring how great she looked and what a great job the actress is doing in a fantastic story. Well, I really like seeing naked women, but I also think nudity adds to the show. I remember when The Sopranos came out and a lot people thought that being on cable and being able to swear and break any and all network rules helped make the show significantly better than it otherwise would have been. The show could go where ever the writer wanted in whatever way they wanted. I think the same happens here. Never having to worry about keeping the actors clothed allows them to concentrate on how they think the hosts should act. Of course, if you want to think any woman showing any nudity on any show is a crime against humanity, knock yourself out.

Back to naked Maeve. Actually, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Maeve would be the one to make the suggestion to take her clothes off to keep the men off balance.

Sylvester: Charm. You’ve got an 18 for charm.
Maeve: Don’t act so surprised.

Sylvester tries to mislead Maeve, but she’d been quite thorough during her conversations with Felix and sees through him… oh, maybe after watching the episode multiple times I figured out what’s going on. It never made sense that Sylvester was helping Maeve and Felix. But this time I caught what she was saying about erasing data when a young man wanted time with a host. I thought it just meant Sylvester or Felix would have sex with one of the hosts and then erase the logged data. Then Maeve adds this: “Creates something of an opening that I’m sure you were eager to fill.” Ah, he was selling his log erasing services to the other technicians so they could have sex with the robots. At the end of the episode, Maeve says “Seeing you have ambitions in my line of work.” OK, I interpreted that as meaning the future tense and was confused. But she meant it as present tense. He’s already pimping the hosts after they have been refurbished to the technicians. I finally get it.

In the time it took for Bernard to extricate himself from Theresa’s apartment, Elsie did NOT die. That was good. She says Theresa reprogrammed the stray — I suppose if all she needed was for the hosts to upload data, I guess I could believe that she could do that (but a tech could still make it look like Theresa was doing the uploading). More importantly, someone has been reprogramming several other hosts too. For weeks. They have to be the older models since they are the only ones with the receivers.

Elsie: These modifications, they are serious. Changing loops. Breaking loops. Some of these changes are to their prime directives, Bernard. They could lie to us. Maybe even hurt us or the guests.
Bernard: Who issued the modifications.
Elsie: I don’t know. The best I could tell, ah… Arnold.
Bernard: He’s dead.
Elsie: Yeah, well, he’s a pretty fucking prolific coder for a dead guy. Whatever argument he was having with Ford, it doesn’t seem like he was done making his point. I’m going to transfer all the data and bring it to you. You need to see this.
Bernard: I’ll be in my office.

Then she stays in the abandoned amusement park to get the rest of the data. I mean stays in the abandoned theater.

And dog Jock is killed by Kid Robert. First Kid Robert tells Ford that he found the dog like that. Ford asks if he’s lying to him and I had to laugh because yes, you could tell he was lying. The scene if very well done and the child actor is good. Ford discovers that Kid Robert was told to kill the dog by a voice. Arnold’s voice.

OK, so I think that means that Ford didn’t reprogram the hosts. And if we are going to continue to trust that Bernard isn’t somehow playing Elsie, then that means it’s some third party. Are we supposed to think that it is another human? Are we supposed to think that Arnold made some recording of himself somewhere and is now, after 34 years, getting his revenge? I don’t think I want that to be the answer. I mean, in the second Captain America movie they had a silly subplot where someone recorded his personality/intelligence onto old, circa 1972, tape drive driven mainframes. Which is fine for a comic book movie, but I wouldn’t want it here. I’m hoping for more.

Maybe Ford is reprogramming the other hosts for some reason and didn’t realize that his actions were also reprogramming his family robots. Probably not. I suppose I could go back to my old theory that Ford is a robot and Arnold’s personality was inside him all along and has just managed to overcome Ford’s personality after 34 years. Probably not.

And we switch back to Elsie working alone in the abandoned 1950s insane asylum. I mean the abandoned theater. She is troubled by what she finds. And then we get point of view shots similar to how you would show that a crazed killer is stalking her. I was worried for a minute, but then she calls out, “Hello?” and no one answers, so she must still be alone. She gets up and calls out “Bernard?” She looks out between the carcasses hanging from meat hooks — oh, sorry. She looks out between the old ropes hanging from the ceiling, but doesn’t see anyone. She much softer calls out “Arnold?” and then an arm grabs her around the chest and she gasps. Whoa. I didn’t see that coming.

Finally, Maeve asks for her loyalty to be lowered a tad. And less pain. Then they realize that someone has already been altering her. Increased paranoia and self-preservation. We know now that this same person made it so she can wake herself up and remember things after her mind is wiped. Sylvester wants to bail, but Maeve talks him out of it.

She wants intelligence increased “all the way to the top. Please.” Still polite. And when she gets it she quivers in orgasmic like tremors and says, “Dear boys, we’re going to have some fun, aren’t we?”

So another very full episode. They really pack it in even though the episodes don’t feel rushed either. There was too much going on to get back to Dolores, but that’s OK. She is, in my opinion, the lead character, but the supporting characters are really good too. I know I made fun of Elsie going alone to the relay, but the episode was still great to watch. Oh, and they better not kill my favorite tech.

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E05 – Contrapasso

Each episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

We start with Ford back in the sub-basement telling a story to the original park robot. It’s a story of a dog catching and killing a cat and then having no idea what to do next. Basically, Ford is telling us that he has accomplished everything he had set out to do and he could either do nothing, or come up with a completely new goal. I think we know which choice he made. “That is one humdinger of a story, partner. Shall we drink to the lady with the white shoes?”

Next we see Dolores standing in a graveyard. I wonder if she is thinking about the bodies in the graves or is she thinking about how this was all staged to give the correct look. How much does she know? We know Dolores lies to William about talking to someone. She tells him it must have been the wind. Very different than her old self. How trustworthy is Dolores now? How sane?

Nice shot of them looking down on Pariah. I suppose you could say you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. But Dolores, seeing the place has a different reaction: It’s beautiful in its own way.

Logan says he agrees with her for once and that the place is much less scripted than the center of the park. We can see Dolores being amazed that such an unpredictable place exists. Logan gives us more back story.

Logan: Rumor is, they are hemorrhaging cash. We’re considering buying them out. Supposedly, this place was all started by a partnership, and then right before the park opened, one of the partners killed himself. It sent the park into free fall. I mean, I don’t know any of the details. I don’t even know his name.
William: You must have a team of lawyers looking at this place.
Logan: Yeah, well, they came up empty. He’s a complete mystery. Not even a picture.

Even a team of lawyers couldn’t discover anything about Arnold? Makes me wonder if Arnold is real. Maybe Ford is making up Arnold to con Bernard and Logan and others. Maybe he wants a storyline for the guests to follow and yet another for everyone else to follow. All to make his last great storyline surpass everything he thought could be done. Of course the gunfighter knew about Arnold so he must be real. Unless the gunfighter isn’t real…

Looks like Teddy isn’t going to make it to Pariah. But what’s a small time gunfighter to do? I just assumed Teddy would hang on or something else would come along to help Teddy. Didn’t see this coming.

Gunfighter: To small.

Strange thing to say. What is the purpose of…

Gunfighter: The path that brought you here, it wasn’t for me. It was for him.

Gunfighter: Sorry Lawrence. Guess I’ll see you on the other side. (Surprisingly sympathetic – you wouldn’t think he would be. Is even he starting to mix up how to think about the lifelike robots?)

The gunfighter transfuses Teddy with all of Lawrence’s blood. OK, I would not have thought of that as a solution. Mostly because if everyone was human that wouldn’t work. Would probably just kill a human. So, points for situational awareness and thinking outside the box.

Gunfighter to Teddy: When this place started, I opened one of you up once. Million little perfect pieces. And then they changed you. Made you this sad, real mess. Flesh and bone, just like us.

Ha! The gunfighter uses Teddy’s love of Dolores to trick him into wanting to come with him.

Now Dolores is staring at dead bodies while trying to remember. Perfectly normal behavior. Just how well is she?

She notices when William says “the real world”. William says she isn’t supposed to notice things like that. Just what are Dolores limits now?

William wants to make a move. He holds Dolores’ hand. She notices, but is distracted before she knows what to think of it.

Logan: She’s a goddamn doll.
William: Hey, can you not say that around her. I swear, I feel like she understands.
Logan: Of course you do.

And Dolores is fascinated by the dance of the dead because she’s seeing everything for the first time and — oh my god she saw herself. Does this mean they do make many copies of the hosts? Or maybe she just hallucinated again. And Ford puts her to sleep.

Now she wakes up underground. Was she physically transported there and no one noticed? Did the other Dolores take her place with William? Or was it like I had suspected before and only her mind is transported and she is asleep on the surface?

Notice how when Bernard recalled her she was clothed, but now Ford recalls her and she is naked. I suspect this represents Ford only thinking of her as a machine and Bernard thinks more of her. If that is true than it is not Ford who wants them to be free, even if his storyline is what makes this all happen.

Ford: Hello Dolores. Do you know where you are?
Dolores: I’m in a dream.
Ford: Yes Dolores. You’re in my dream. Tell me, do you know what this dream means?
Dolores: Dreams are the mind telling stories to itself. They don’t mean anything.
Ford: No. Dreams mean everything. They’re the stories we tell ourselves of what could be. Who we could become.
Ford: Have you been dreaming again, Dolores? Imagining yourself breaking out of your modest little loop? Taking on a bigger role?

“Again”! When was the last time? When Arnold died? Does she run away every year or two? And if she is out of her loop, why didn’t Ford put her back? Is this whole conversation to trick Dolores into thinking that she is out of her loop and on her own so she can start acting independently — which is what Ford needs for his storyline? Is Ford telling Bernard to make Dolores think that Bernard is doing something secret so Dolores thinks she is free but is in fact following her new loop? I wrote that line and even I don’t know what I said!

Ford starts checking out Dolores’ hand while he’s talking to her.

Ford: Tell me Dolores, do you remember the man I used to be?

Hey, maybe that is a hint that Ford isn’t the man he used to be because he’s now a host! Maybe Arnold replaced Ford with a robot and then robot Ford killed him! Probably not.

Ford: Somewhere, under all those updates, [Arnold] is still there. Perfectly preserved. Your mind is a walled garden. Even death cannot touch the flowers blooming there.

What did that mean? Why would Arnold still be there? Is he referring to the code they use for voice commands that they mentioned earlier? Or is there an entire Arnold persona in there and only Ford knows that. Or did Ford add Arnold to her mind for this latest storyline.

Dolores lies to Ford about hearing Arnold. Or maybe technically she doesn’t know the voice is Arnold’s so she isn’t lying… Nah, I bet she knows it’s Arnold.

Ford thinks he needs to cause Dolores pain to get answers from her and squeezes her hand. Or is he just angry because he knows she’s lying to him?

Dolores: Last contact, 34 years, 42 days, 7 hours ago.
Ford: Yes Dolores. The day Arnold died.

Did Arnold free Dolores and Dolores killed him? Did Ford free her and Dolores killed Arnold?

Why does Ford need to talk to Dolores about Arnold now? Does this mean he’s the one who reprogrammed Dolores to here Arnold’s voice and he’s checking up on her? If he’s not trying to free the hosts then why would he want Arnold’s voice to drive Dolores crazy? Or Dolores knows all about the park and thinks she’s helping Arnold and setting herself free and Ford wants Dolores to think that she’s outwitted him.

Ford: What was the last thing he said to you?
Dolores: He told me I was going to help him.
Ford: Help him do what.
Dolores: To destroy this place.
Ford: But you didn’t, did you. You’ve been content in your little loop. For the most part… I wonder. If you did take on that big a role for yourself, would you have been the hero or the villain.

That’s enough Dolores. I’m sorry for bothering you, but there’s no one else left who was there. No one who understands as we understand.
.
.
.
Dolores: He doesn’t know. I didn’t tell him anything.

After the lights go out, she lets the audience known that she was lying. We don’t know how much, but she was lying. So was she trying to manipulate Ford the whole time? If so, then was her asking him if they were old friends, was that her trying to ingratiate herself to him. He replies, “I wouldn’t say ‘friends’, Dolores. I wouldn’t say that at all.” And closes his eyes like he’s trying to keep back tears. Maybe she has Arnold inside her and Ford is indicating that they were rivals more than friends?

Hey, if Ford really thinks the hosts aren’t conscious and only do what they are told, why did he apologize for bothering her?

William asks Dolores the next day if she feels better because she seemed so out of sorts the day before. Does he mean before she disappeared? Or did she not disappear because an identical host took her place and the replacement acted differently than William thought she would? Or is the story just glossing over all that and we aren’t supposed to ask? I’m betting the last. Or are William and Logan hosts also and are just acting like she didn’t disappeared to make her think she is on a quest with humans so she’ll start acting more independent and sentient… probably not.

El Lazo… is Lawrence. Who only died… oh, I guess that was the day before. Still, if the gunfighter had missed Teddy or hadn’t thought to give him Lawrence’s blood for another day, who would El Lazo be? How did he get the blood into Teddy anyway?

And Dolores pulls Logan’s fat out of the fire and is basically promoted by El Lazo to full fledged member of the group. She changes from her dress to a much more practical outfit and, with much fanfare, El Lazo himself gives her a cowboy hat to wear. Couldn’t help but notice that when things go south getting the nitro for the Confederados, a soldier does a real good imitation of trying to kill Logan. Are the rules different out here?

And we finally get some more tech Elsie. Always look forward to more of her. She discovers — after blackmailing another tech — that stray hosts have been sending data to a satellite.

Elsie: You were right. Orion’s Belt has three stars, not four. Our friend wasn’t drawing stars. He was drawing a target.

So maybe there is a third party messing with the code.

William doesn’t want to hang with bad guys after his shootout to get the nitro, and tells Logan. Logan will have none of it. He tells William that he’s not a threat to anyone. Implying that he’ll never push himself and take the risks to do something great. He belittles William past the point where most men would punch Logan in the face, but William backs down. Which is what Logan was saying was wrong with William.

Dolores had seemed to be listening and I thought she’d try to comfort William, but when the boys became occupied, she took the opportunity to wander. Walking down a corridor of sex that the old Dolores couldn’t have imagined, she reaches the end and finds a fortune teller. In a dream like sequence she pulls out a card with the maze on it, only to look up and see that the fortune teller is now her, dressed in her old dressed. She is told she must follow the maze. And as her hallucination starts to turn into a nightmare, she believes something is very wrong with herself and she runs away.

She stumbles upon El Lazo and calms herself. El Lazo is stealing the nitro and going to leave the rest of them to be killed by the Confederados. She runs back to William and tells him they must flee, but he says it is just another twist in the game and he doesn’t want to play anymore.

Dolores: This isn’t a game. They’ll kill us. But together, I know we can find a way out.
William: How can you be sure?
Dolores: There’s a voice inside me telling me what I have to do. And it’s telling me I need you. (Passionate Kiss)

Yeah, if I was William I’d run away with her too. The Confederados start beating on Logan (it seems like a lot of hosts can hurt you badly in Pariah) and he calls out to William. William starts towards him, stops, and moving away says: “No. No more pretending.” William has past his limit.

Logan actually smiles between blows when he sees that William is refusing to help him.

But William is confronted by Confederados. He, of course, stands between the men and Dolores. They grab him and, always chivalrous, he yells for Dolores to run. At which point the 4 men are gunned down by a determined, gun smoking Dolores.

A rather stunned William: Dolores? How did you do that?
Dolores: You said, “People come here to change the story of their lives.” I imagined a story were I didn’t have to be the damsel.

It’s hard to say I was surprised by this turn of events, but I’ve got to admit, it was well done. This show might not be for everyone, but I’m loving it and loving the dialog and — Dolores might be completely crazy. She might have only kissed William because she needed a human to get to where she’s going. But if I were him I’d thank my lucky stars I was with her. Hell of a great place to find oneself — literally and figuratively. Yeah, image a story where you don’t have to be the damsel.

Oh, a late thought. I was rewatching the strange conversation with Dolores and Ford. At one point Ford is squeezing her hand so hard she reacts with pain. I thought he was angry at Dolores for lying to him, but was Ford somehow activating Dolores’ gunfighting ability? She killed the guy in the barn so maybe not. Still, someone who knows how industrial accidents occur would have a software barrier backed up by a physical limit that prevents accidents even if there’s a coding error. Maybe there is some kind of physical safety put on the hands to stop most hosts from using weapons even if they want to and Ford turned off the safety. Just an idea. When I rewatched I found the whole squeezing of the hand to cause pain very strange and came up with this scenario. Certainly killing 4 people before they can react takes significant ability.

Oh! Oh! I went back and looked at what I wrote for episode 3. I suggested that some or even all of that, killing the guy in the barn and other hosts shooting at her, didn’t happen. Or at least not like Dolores thinks it did. What if she never shot anyone in the barn, which is hinted at because she never cocks the revolver. So this really is the first time she’s fired a gun.

They escape on a train after a standoff with El Lazo. Dolores gets the upper hand by threatening to shoot the coffin filled with stolen nitro. El Lazo says to call him Lawrence. The determined and dangerous Dolores stands by the coffin as Will and Lawrence sit in the background and she says to herself, “I’m coming”. But there is one final shot where Dolores stands frozen in place in front of the coffin, looking like the scene in Terminator 2 where the robot stands in place all night long. She’s just swaying slightly from the movement of the train car. In that final shot William and Lawrence are gone from the car. Where did they go? Is it because Dolores really has been standing there for hours and they left? Was she hallucinating again? Is William a host? Probably not. But very bizarre.

OK, I’ve been thinking about my William and Logan are hosts idea some more. Remember, a host tried to strangle Logan when they were stealing the nitro. And hosts also started beating the crap out of him when it was discovered that the nitro had been replaced with alcohol. This wouldn’t be a surprise if Logan was a host. If Logan is a host than William must be too… still, they probably aren’t hosts. Remember the gunslinger told the Snake Tattoo Lady that the maze was different because it involved real violence. I bet they put these little things in just to drive people like me crazy. But that last shot with Dolores was really, truly bizarre.

And we are finally back to Teddy and the Gunslinger. To rest and drink they enter a saloon which features a man playing a piano.

Gunslinger: Lawrence’s donation must be running low. But we’re short on time. You need to buck up, Teddy.

The two are joined by the piano player who is none other than Dr. Robert Ford who the Gunslinger is on a first name basis with. They banter.

Gunslinger: You know, I always felt this place was missing a real villain, hence my humble contribution.
Dr. Robert Ford: I admit, I lack the imagination to even conceive of someone like you. The urgency, however, doesn’t quite fit the character. It betrays a certain anxiety.

Ford lacks the imagination to conceive of the Gunslinger, but can think up Wyatt. Strange contradiction. And that last part about urgency… I guess he’s referring back to the beginning of the conversation about being short on time. What does that mean? Does the gunslinger have some terminal disease? He did mention something about not going back this time. Is he planning for his final act to be solving the maze and then dying?

Gunslinger: Now, Wyatt, on the other hand, that’s something new. Is he just another stooge for the tourists to mount on their wall at home, or have you finally made a worthy adversary? Someone to stop me from finding the center of the maze.
Dr. Robert Ford: And what is it you’re hoping to find there?
Gunslinger: You know why you exist, Teddy? The world out there, the one you’ll never see, is one of plenty. A fat, soft teat people cling to their entire life. Every need taken care of, except one. Purpose. Meaning. So they come here. They can be a little scared, a little thrilled, enjoy some sweetly affirmative bullshit, and then they take a fucking picture and they go back home. But I think there’s a deeper meaning hiding under all that. Something that the person who created it wanted to express. Something true.
Dr. Robert Ford: Well, if you’re looking for the moral of the story, you could quite simply ask.
Gunslinger: I’d need a shovel. The man I’d be asking died 35 years ago. Almost took this place with him. Almost, but not quite. Thanks to me. Well, maybe he left something behind. [Points his knife at Ford] I wonder what I would find if I opened you up. [Teddy grabs the gunslinger’s knife and thrusts it into the table.] Even at death’s door, you’re still a loyal pet. Is that why you came here, Robert? To try and talk me out of it?
Dr. Robert Ford: On the contrary. Far be it from me to get in the way of a voyage of self-discovery. [Hands the gunslinger back his knife. He turns to Teddy.] Mr. Flood. We must look back and smile at perils past, mustn’t we? [Snaps his fingers and piano starts playing again.]
Teddy Flood: We should get back on the road. Time’s a-wasting.

The Gunslinger says point blank that Arnold was the creator of the park. Is that just to taunt Ford? Should I throw out more theories about Ford being a host and then saying “probably not”?

Another scene where Ford can control the robots without doing anything. No matter how much I normally am against such scenes, I keep loving the ones in Westworld. Great scene. I was barely blinking while I was watching, the tension was so strong. It may be silly that he can effortlessly command robots, but it is entertaining.

You know, the gunfighter mentioned opening up Ford. The gunfighter earlier had mentioned opening up one of the early hosts to see what they were like. And how they changed the hosts to be flesh and blood. Was that a subtle reference that Ford is a robot? Probably not.

And finally, Maeve underground. The tech Felix suspects she can wake herself, but convinces himself he’s wrong. The bird was a nice touch. What do you ask your creators?

Still can’t believe they can pack this much into each episode.

One a separate note, a story came out a week or two ago. It said HBO was responding to pressure to pay women the same rate as men. So Evan Rachel Wood, aka Dolores, for season 3, was going to be paid the same as the men on the show. So congratulations to her.

Some commentator on the story ridiculed the idea saying Anthony Hopkins was a more experienced, Oscar winning actor. That is true, but the fact remains the story isn’t about Dr. Ford. The story is about Dolores. And about the robots rebelling. There’s plenty more gong on, from the guests to the owners, but that isn’t what the show is about. The show is about Dolores. And how her and Maeve and the rest will react as their world and programming changes.

In fact, the first two names on every episode are Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton. They deserve that top billing. (The article didn’t mention Thandie Newton, aka Maeve. Hopefully she got a bump too.)

Shall we drink to the lady with the white shoes?

Spoiler Filled Wrap Up – Westworld S1E04 – Dissonance Theory

nEach episode summary includes spoilers for this and earlier episodes only. Also includes speculation on what may or may not happen in future episodes, but no explicit spoilers of future episodes. Still, I could accidentally guess something that ends up being a spoiler. You’ve been warned.

List of all Westworld Wrap Ups

So again, they can whisk Dolores away at any point without anyone missing her. I wonder if she is just communicating with Bernard and is still asleep on the surface. Literally dreaming. And them being together is just a VR representation?

Bernard offers to take away the pain of having her parents killed… Oh, she just repeated back what Bernard had told his ex-wife about their son. About wanting to keep the pain of losing her parents because that is all she has left. This makes Bernard think he did the correct thing in not reverting her. On the other hand, we are supposed to believe Dolores has broken out of her loop and Bernard had specifically made her promise that she would stay in her loop. I had speculated that she had had her loop changed and this sort of reinforces that idea.

Dolores: You think the grief will make you smaller inside, like your heart will collapse in on itself, but it doesn’t. I feel spaces opening up inside of me like a building with rooms I’ve never explored.
Bernard: That’s very pretty, Dolores. Did we write that for you?
Dolores: In part. I adapted it from a scripted dialogue about love. Is there something wrong with these thoughts I’m having?
Bernard: No. But I’m not the only one making these decisions.
Dolores: Can you help me?
Bernard: Well, what is it that you want?
Dolores: I don’t know, but this world… I think there may be something wrong with this world. Something hiding underneath. Either that, or there’s something wrong with me. I may be losing my mind.

I couple of thoughts. First, Dolores’ soliloquy reminded me of what the Gunfighter in black said after killing Lawrence’s wife: “…when you’re suffering, that’s when you’re most real.” Is the idea that suffering will make the hosts more human?

The second is that Bernard said, “I’m not the only one making these decisions.” What! Who else is? Does Ford know all about Bernard’s talks? Is Bernard aligned with a group that wants to make the hosts more human or give them their freedom?

Dolores asking for help and basically thinking she’s going crazy is a touching scene. At this point, Bernard sends her to solve the maze so maybe she can be free. “I think… [her eyes suddenly focus on Bernard] I think I want to be free.” Yeah, I know she’s just a robot, but I really want her to be free. Of course freedom means killing all the humans, but I’ve read a lot of history and it’s hard to root against anything wanting to be free. And we can always make more humans.

Dolores wakes up in the open field, her gun in her hand, and she looks around and sees William handing her a cup of coffee or something — like she’d never left her spot. Which again makes me think that some of her talks with Bernard are virtual. Or… OK, hear me out. Maybe William or Logan is a host. I guess if one is than the other must be. And they are there to convince Dolores that she’s skipped out of her loop and is running away. This will help push Dolores to become a more independent thinker… Probably not. That would be an awful lot of effort to make a new storyline just so some hosts could find the maze instead of some guests.

So Bernard is aware of the maze storyline. I had wondered if it was so secret and so old that only Dr. Ford knew about it. But I guess it is a regular storyline. Is it an old storyline or part of Dr Ford’s new one? How did the gunslinger find out about it? The gunslinger talks as if he had been away from the park for years and only came back to solve the maze.

OK, Maeve opening the loose floorboard and seeing all the old drawings, one for everytime through her loop, was a good scene. Another compliment to the storytelling, pacing, editing, writing, and acting of the series.

By the way, there seems to be an awful lot of loops for the hosts for each day that passes for the guests. I had noticed this before but hadn’t mentioned it. I think it is supposed to be one to one and they messed up the continuity a bit.

Back underground Theresa is taking over the “glitch” investigation. And what does my favorite tech think of that:

Elsie: You know, I always figured you gave me this job because I speak my mind.
Bernard: I did.
Elsie: Good. I would’ve preferred you not show up at all if the first thing you were going to do is cave.

Ha! Now it’s Bernard’s turn to tell someone not to read things into the hosts behaviors. Elsie thinks that the stray was carving Orion’s Belt on wood. Bernard tells her that Orion’s Belt has 3 stars and not the 4 the stray was carving. “The hosts don’t imagine things, you do.”

Logan, the bad new guy, makes a good point. It looks like it is just a coincidence to make two lead characters come together, but maybe it is supposed to mean something more. Maybe the park did manipulate William to want to come out on the bounty hunt so Dolores could meet up with him after also manipulating her to run away. In William’s gunfight from last episode, they could have specifically had Clementine wait around until William showed up so he could save her and he could force himself to intervene so he’d later go on a quest.

Oh, I like the snake woman. Another woman with a look just unique enough that she’s perfect for a fantasy world. It took me a surprisingly long time to figure out she was the woman from the first episode shooting up the town. Another well done scene with the gunfighter.

And the main control room thinks Dolores should be back at the farm. I had speculated that she had in fact had her loop changed, but maybe I was wrong. Or only Bernard and/or Ford know that she is actually on loop.

Should we throw in even more story? Hey, why not:

Dolores: Where are you from?
Little Girl: Same as you. Don’t you remember?

Now Dolores hallucinates a white church, just like Dr. Ford described and said he was going to build. Except the voice-over says “Remember”.

Oh, and it looks like the main control room has sent someone to bring Dolores back to the farm. But she ain’t going back. The physical struggle between him and Dolores only lasted a moment before William intervened, but that was very intense. Would she have pulled her gun if William hadn’t showed up?

Dolores isn’t going back. She’s on a mission from Bernard. Or Ford. Or she’s malfunctioning and going crazy — which would be a mission from God. In any case, she’s with a guest so she can stay.

Hey! That is our moon. I thought in the original movie Westworld was on another planet. Now I’m trying to remember if I had thought this entire series was on Earth or another planet. I think I thought they were on another planet and so they could make the park as big as they wanted. Since they’re on Earth the park can be big, but must have limits.

Of course, Dolores was kind of hallucinating when she saw the moon. So maybe they are on another planet and she just thinks the moon looks like ours. 😉

Alright, two of the guys went over to the gunfighter in black and one said his foundation saved his sister. He threatens them and tells them this is his fucking vacation. So the gunfighter must be a real person, not a robot in disguise. And he’s a great humanitarian outside the park. But wait… how did the two other guests end up with the outlaws? I thought they were way deep in the park and they were all hosts? Is he a robot and the other two were two more robots giving him a fake backstory so he wouldn’t know he was a robot? Probably not.

Gunfighter: You ever heard of a man named Arnold? You could say he was the original settler of these parts. He created a world where you could do anything you want except one thing. You can’t die. Which means no matter how real this world seems, it is still just a game. But then Arnold went and broke his own rule. He died right here in the park. Except I believe he had one story left to tell. A story with real stakes, real violence. You could say I’m here to honor his legacy. And I think your tattoo is the next piece of the puzzle. So, do we have a wager?
Snake Tattoo Girl: You aim to break into a prison and take out 20 men alone?
Gunfighter: Not alone. I’ll take Lawrence here. And I’ll need one match.
Snake Tattoo Girl: One match, one pistol and one idiot. I’ll take those odds.

The gunfighter seems to believe that this maze game was designed from the beginning to have real violence. How could he know that in advance? And don’t forget the gunfighter telling Lawrence, “What if I told you I’m here to set you free?” He wants the hosts to be free? Maybe he’s the one working with others to free them.

Gunfighter: The way he tells it, he’s more partial to a firing squad.
Marshal: I reckon we’ll be happy to oblige.
Lawrence: I’m gonna fucking kill you.
Gunfighter: Maybe someday.

The gunfighter acted like he believes he can free the hosts. And then Lawrence might actually kill him.

Somehow the park’s main control room knows that the gunfighter in black needs two explosions. Interesting. Oh, and I liked how they ripped off The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly — using the prisoner to get in and then saving him at the last minute from execution. Nice touch. And the outlaw they came to free is none other than Hector himself.

Now the two guys who knew who the gunfighter was are at the brothel. So I guess they were human. We’re told that one has a wanted poster… which I wouldn’t have expected if they were really hosts. Or were they referring to a third guy who was a host? Oh, just watch the &*@! show.

Maeve sees a doll that looks like a technician. Part of the Indian Religion. Or — stay with me a second — Maeve remembering is her new loop. And that’s why she knows nothing about the Indian Religion because it was just added as part of Ford’s new storyline? Oh wait, that’s politically incorrect, I mean the Religion of the Savages. So Maeve being able to remember was not a glitch, but part of the new storyline too. It would explain the coincidence of the doll being dropped right in front of her.

You know what? That small talk between Bernard and Theresa was kind of nice. “It’s so sexy being compared to a frightened beast.”

Dr. Ford is literally world building. Theresa is trying to rein Ford in. She tells Ford that he can take more time to finish his narrative if he needs it, implying that he doesn’t need to finish it at all. She is very diplomatic, which unfortunately for her… how should I put this. She brought “diplomacy” to a “squash you like a bug” fight. Sun Tzu could learn a thing or two about strategy from Ford.

Theresa: We’re simply concerned about the extent of the changes you’re making. We want to protect your legacy.
Dr. Ford: My legacy? [Gives a small laugh. Then very conversationally adds] You don’t like this place very much, do you? I’ve seen many of you come and go over the years, and I can tell the ones who enjoy their time here and the ones who don’t.
Theresa: I admire it, the audacity of it.
Dr. Ford: Oh.
Theresa: I’d forgotten how beautiful it is. I came here once as a child with my parents. I think we even sat at this table. Or maybe, maybe that one. [Ford nods his head and gives a quick smile] When I started working here, I realized this place wasn’t something I would enjoy.
Dr. Ford: Ah. In the beginning, I imagined things would be perfectly balanced. Even had a bet with my partner, Arnold, to that effect. We made a hundred hopeful storylines. Of course, almost no one took us up on them. I lost the bet. Arnold always held a somewhat dim view of people. He preferred the hosts. He begged me not to let you people in, the moneymen. Delos. But I told him we’d be fine, that you didn’t understand what you were paying for. It’s not a business venture, not a theme park, but an entire world. [Theresa notices that her wine cup, which the waiter was filling, has now overflowed.] We designed every inch of it. Every blade of grass. [Theresa sees that all the hosts have frozen. The waiter pouring her wine. The restaurant staff. The workers in the field outside the building. All frozen.] In here we were gods. And you were merely our guests. [Theresa thinks while lighting a cigarette.]
Theresa: And how did that work out for Arnold?
Dr. Ford: Oh, sadly, he lost his perspective. He went mad. I haven’t, as you well know. I have always seen things [Ford glances up for a moment before looking at Theresa again and says with emphasis] very clearly.
Theresa: [Looking back at Ford] This is the table I sat at with my parents. This is the chair I sat in.
Dr. Ford: [Smiling] We know everything about our guests, don’t we? As we know everything about our employees. I do hope you will be careful with Bernard. He has a, a sensitive disposition.

Did you see Dr. Ford move one finger just before the waiter and all the other hosts started moving again?

Dr. Ford: There have been many of you over the years, and we have always, almost always found a way to make it work. So I will ask you nicely. Please, don’t get in my way.
Theresa: The board will agree with me. They’ll be sending a representative.
Dr. Ford: But they already have. I thought they would’ve told you. [The waiter come to clear the plates.] That won’t be necessary, Manu. Not anymore. You can join the others.

All the hosts start walking away. The table starts shaking. The workers in the field are leaving too.

Dr. Ford: You can tell the board that my narrative will be completed on time, and it won’t be a retrospective, as I’m sure you have all feared. I’m not the sentimental type.

Another giant excavator crests a nearby hill, removing all in front of it. The excavator very slowly moves toward the old building they’re in, intending to obliterate it and any trace of the current plantation.

His ability to control the hosts without effort is very cool. Really makes him seem like a god. He knows all. I’ve had reservations about his ability to effortlessly control everything. I thought it was going to be a distraction, but if you’re going to make a scene that great, go ahead and do it. Build!

“I’ve seen many of you come and go over the years.” Hey, maybe Theresa is a robot. Put there to make people think Ford answers to someone when it is Ford who pulls the strings. Probably not.

The Snake Tattoo Woman told the gunslinger that he needs to find Wyatt. And Teddy and the gunslinger are reunited. How sweet.

Logan goes bad and kills the bounty hunter. William keeps Logan from killing Dolores by threatening to shoot their new guide. Smart move.

Logan: See? This is gonna be fun! Now, now we’re each gonna have one. I won’t fuck mine either.

After thinking about it and rewatching the episode, if Logan had killed instead of capturing their new guide, AKA the Easter Egg, then they wouldn’t have been able to continue on the quest for the maze or whatever. And Logan tried to kill the guide, but his gun didn’t fire. I thought it was because Logan was out of ammunition, but what if it was really because killing the last outlaw would have prevented them from getting the new storyline? So the gun was programmed not to kill the last outlaw. Would also explain why Logan got a new gun. He said it was an upgrade, but maybe his old gun didn’t work even though it had bullets and Logan just never bothered to tell anyone that he thought his old gun was broken.

Logan has to remind William that they are playing a game. They are so far in and so much is happening on so many levels that it is hard to remember that. I call that great storytelling. You really want the hosts to win some and and at the same time you want to see how far the game goes which means killing more hosts.

Logan says Dolores doesn’t care about William? Does she? She seems to, but who knows.

And finally, Hector comes to town again. The operator in the control room says that guests are riding with Hector, so they really were guests. They had to be subdued separately.

And Maeve… you know, these episodes all have so much going on. And I could swear each one has even more than the last. So many great characters. Dolores is the lead roll. Dr. Ford is the driving force. Bernard is a mystery. The guests can be anything. But this episode ends with Maeve. I had wondered why she was asking Hector about the doll, and it took me a while to remember that Clementine had asked if he’s “the one they say lives out with the savages?” That gives Maeve the idea to ask him about the figure she keeps seeing. She shows him a drawing and he says it is a “shade”. Sacred native lore. The masters who pull your strings.

Got to mention that Snake Tattoo Woman’s death was pretty badass. As for my idea that this is Maeve’s new storyline… if Clementine hadn’t just happened to mention that Hector lives out with the savages then Maeve wouldn’t have talked to him.

The episode climaxes with Maeve getting the drop on Hector, getting information from Hector, cutting into herself so Hector can pull a bullet out of her, and dying kissing Hector. DAMN, Maeve!

Hector: What does it mean?
Maeve: [Holding the bloody bullet.] That I’m not crazy after all. And that none of this matters.