REVIEW: Westworld, S2 Ep6

Westworld explored family relationships while also ending with a very exciting reunion.

After introducing us to the Man in Black’s daughter two episodes ago, we finally get a glimpse of their complex family dynamic. As much as I dislike the Man in Black, this was an opportunity to see some humanity in him, and not just the Westworld obsessed gust that he has become. The conversation between them was a rare moment of touching emotion a that showed us some of his pain at his wife’s death and the deep resentment his daughter felt towards him. She has grown up around the parks and is capable enough of navigating through it without being harmed. But she has not inherited her father’s obsession with Ford’s secret mission. She tries to convince him to come back with her, to leave all the madness behind to try and build a life in the real world. For a moment, we think he will respond to such a heartfelt plea. But Emily underestimated her father’s commitment to this strange cause. He disappoints her (again, it seems) and leaves her to pursue Ford’s quest. So much for a reconciliation.

Teddy has undergone his big change and it looks like Dolores somehow regrets upping his aggressively levels to a dangerous degree. She watches in awe and sadness as he transforms in the man who would be the most useful to their revolutionary cause. They find a way to board the train while in search of her father and as a means of escaping the park for good. Strangely enough Teddy seems to be aware that he has been changed and there is some regret for the man he used to be. But h He remarks to Dolores that she has “fixed” him in many ways and though he has become cold-blooded and efficient, there is still some memory of his past self. I wonder how that works.

Meanwhile Maeve has been making use of her new power to mind control the hosts around her. But the lessons from the last episode were not forgotten as she still allowed free will to exist by giving Musashi a chance to duel his enemy to the death. They all journeyed to Snow Lake where Akane buried the heart of Sakura peacefully. I’m glad we got to spend more time in Shogun World and I was sad that Akane and Musashi would not join Maeve on her quest but there was a bond established there and one that neither of them would easily forget.

They emerge into a field, one that familiar to Maeve as the setting of her previous storyline, where she was a homesteader with a daughter. She tells her companions to let her go ahead alone as she searches for the young girl. This is the most human Maeve has been, someone who values love and the bond she felt for her “daughter” despite knowing this was just a part of her programming. True enough, she comes face-to-face with the child in a very poignant moment

But the girl already has another host assigned to be her mother and before Maeve can process this ci complication, the same Native American tribe who attacked her in her previous life arrive just in time. She tries to flee with the girl, having anticipated the gruesome event but she trips and then, surprisingly, does not use her newfound powers to murder the attackers. Particularly when one of them approaches her and cryptically says that they were meant for the same path.

The biggest twist comes at the end, because what is a Westworld episode without twists? Elsie and Bernard find a network that Bernard can tap into to try and understand why everyone ends up m murdered around the park. Bernard finds himself at the scene where the train arrives in Sweetwater. He enters the saloon and who is there to greet him buy Ford.

So, it turns out that Ford had uploaded himself into the Cradle, a digital network created t created to connect the hosts to each other and to also prevent them from reading the same script. When Arnold uploads his mind, he sees a version of Ford in there. How much has Ford been calling the shots in Westworld this whole time? We shall soon find out.

The showrunners talk more about the Cradle here: