Cheating Death

"Westworld" began its second season on April 22. The series, created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, is based on the film from Michael Crichton, and is poised to be HBO's next big dramatic series. Each week I'll be exploring the episodes through recaps of season two.

"I don't think God rested on the seventh day Bernard, I think He reveled in His creation knowing that some day it would be destroyed." -Robert Ford, "Westworld"

There are just three episodes left in this second season. We don't know what lies in the Valley Beyond, or how this is all going to come to a head. But we've seen a lot of pieces put into motion, and it's fair to wonder what would be left for a season three?

Last night's episode was big for a bunch of reasons. Maeve (Thandie Newton) nearly got her revenge on William (Ed Harris), who was shot many, many times. But in the process, she saw the daughter she fought to get back to snatched by the hosts she was running from. Then she was shot by the park team called by Sizemore (Simon Quarterman). But he stops them from ending her, seeing the great potential (or does he feel something more for her after all this time together). When last we see her, Maeve is in bad shape, but she's not off the board yet.

And that's thanks to Delores (Evan Rachel Wood), who made her move against the company. She taunted Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), and ended up snatching the key to Delos secret project. Her team also managed to destroy the backups, meaning the hosts can't just be simply re-booted this time. That's a move that promises to have far reaching impacts. And now she's on the move again to the Valley Beyond.

And Bernard's (Jeffrey Wright) secret is out. Charlotte Hale, who's still very much alive in what seems to be the present timeline, and the rest of the team know he's a host, and a convincing one at that. But they haven't been able to unlock all his secrets.

The biggest of which is the presence of Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), who appeared once again. It seems that his death at the hand of Delores wasn't really his end. No, Ford wisely used the technology Delos has spent years crafting to his own benefit. He copied his mind and had Bernard upload it into the machine. So it is, indeed, Ford who is running this rebellion, now as part of the world he created.

And it was his conversations with Bernard, a replica of his old partner Arnold, that offered perhaps the biggest piece of the clue to what is really going on. You see, Delos wasn't interested in entertaining people with the park, that was more a byproduct. We got a hint of how the technology could be used in watching William interact with his father-in-law, James (Peter Mullan), or at least the poor copy they tried to make.

And we know the technology worked in some respect with Bernard, who wasn't quite a direct copy of Arnold but, as Ford noted, more of an original creation. Ford knows the technology doesn't quite work in the real world. He can be himself, in tact, while in the machine, but he knows if he was printed and returned to the real world he'd quickly degrade. But the goal has always been to find a way to preserve and extend life. And to do that, the park helped by showcasing human nature at it's most basic.

As Bernard notes, the hosts were the control in a grand experiment, one that allowed the powers that be to see how people would react if there were no "real world" consequences. It wasn't about learning their dark secrets, it was about understanding what makes people tick. At least it was for Delos.

What lies in the Valley Beyond, and what Ford's true purpose really is remain a mystery for another day, as Ford himself tells Bernard when he poses the question. Ford seeks to give his creation freedom and life, but to what end? That is the part of the mystery that remains, at least with three episodes left on this season.