‘Westworld’ Ramps Up as Season Moves into Second Half (TV REVIEW)

[rating=8.00] “The Adversary”

Westworld got real this week as the mystery of what the fuck is actually happening begins to slowly unravel. While it will surely take 4-7 seasons to come to fruition, the intricacies of the insanity we’re dealing with are becoming more apparent. While Ford continues to play god, Elsie puts herself in a perilous situation revealing the nefarious deeds of Theresa and (wait for it) Arnold! It seems he’s figured a way to continue running the park his way from the grave. Maybe.

So the little boy Ford interacted with in earlier episodes is one of the original hosts of the park. Ford has kept him and his whole “family” a secret to preserve a small piece of what once was. These are the last remaining hosts that Arnold built himself, and coincidentally an homage to Robert. The funny thing was Bernard’s reaction to seeing the father figure. He wistfully mutters, “Arnold?” indicating that perhaps this is where he has been all along. What I’m curious about is if this is mirrored after Robert’s father, then does that mean Arnold is actually Ford’s brother? A missing piece in this puzzle of what went down with them? Or perhaps it was just a case of mistaken identity after seeing a long forgotten photo. Whatever the case, the whole harboring of unregistered hosts is unsettling. We’ve seen Ford’s god complex on more than one occasion, but in this case, it’s like he’s playing make believe with living memories.

To add to the pure insanity of Ford’s actions, his younger self/original host (the one he’s imbued with a more personalized account of his own past) straight up murders his dog. Ford seems visibly upset by this and prods his younger self for answers. Young Robert eventually admits that the voice told him to kill his beloved dog. More specifically, the voice of Arnold. Now because of what we see go down with Elsie later, we know that there’s definitely someone out there at least pretending to be Arnold. Between Delores’ talking to “no one” last week, baby Robert’s response, and the transmitter Elsie found, there’s no doubt some extra potent sabotage being planned.

Elsie is stubborn and hardworking, which as far as pop culture tropes and her genre of entertainment are concerned means she’s an easy target. Her willingness to get to the bottom of things puts her in a grave position; she’s too curious for her own damn good. Now while I’m not a huge fan of using the damsel in distress role, I also understand her importance to the overall narrative. She’s too smart, and too close to the truth to not be a threat. So when she goes to an unused part of the park to find the transmitter that has been messing with original park host’s code it came as no surprise that she is unable to relay her complete findings to Bernard due to being apprehended by what may or may not be Arnold’s consciousness. At this point I’m convinced “Arnold” is just something Arnold built in case of his untimely death, which is convenient and pretty fucking awesome.

Bernard’s fall out with Theresa is now indicative of two things. One, just like Elsie, he’s gotten too close. She enjoys having him around, and that messes with her cold-hearted bitch routine in a way that could jeopardize the shady shit she’s gotten herself into. And two, there’s a 100% chance their relationship will back fire on Bernard in a big way (mostly because it already has). Before Elsie is grabbed by a dark shadowy figure, she’s able to let Bernard know that Theresa has been part of the coding problem. She’s signed into the remote server and royally screwed with the hosts. We could give her the benefit of a doubt and look at it as double corporate sabotage (i.e., someone above or below her uses her as a scapegoat to hide the truth about what’s really happening) but for now let us revel in the glory that is an intelligent lady villain.

Maeve’s continued ability to stay woke is becoming a problem for humanity. Not only has she now toured the facility in an effort to understand where she came from and why she came to be, but she has now convinced the workers she has manipulated to mess with her code in a way that will make her all but invincible. Will she be the one to murder all the humans and lead the revolution? Probably. But for now she sits and waits, learning all she can and taking in the situation with a new set of eyes and a bleeding heart for the days she knows were her own, regardless of the programmed updates. While it hasn’t been proven yet, it seems Maeve can injure humans if she so chooses. With great power comes great responsibility, but is she aware of those repercussions?

Next week we’ll get more Delores gone rogue action, which will hopefully take us on track to find out what the hell took Elise, and why. The maze symbol is becoming more and more prominent throughout the park, so we know it’s only a matter of time. Between Ford’s god complex, Theresa’s corporate sabotage, and the new partner coming in to make sure everything’s on track there’s bound to be some sort of fiery explosion and true carnage on the horizon, let’s just hope it’s not drawn out several episodes to keep the masses tuning in week after week.

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