HBO
The latest episode of Westworld is called ‘Generation Loss’ which is a term that refers to a loss of quality when you make copies of something — thus the connection to the reveal that Caleb is in one of those horrifying ‘fidelity’ loops we saw previously done to hosts. The big twist is that Caleb and Meave already lost the battle, we just didn’t know it yet.
At first it seems like things are going Maeve’s way, as she cleverly overloads the audio system of the lab to knock out the Man in Black and get them out of there with Hale held hostage as they leave. But on the way Caleb gets shot, which we are also shown happened once before when Caleb and Maeve took down Rehoboam years earlier (that ‘old mission’ we heard referenced already).
There’s a clear connection there, even if there’s some unusual mystery too. Although we see Maeve detonate explosives to stop the MIB, which also mutually hurts her too, it’s unclear what’s going on with Caleb and his mind control. Supposedly he’s dead, but then what did he mean when he said he had ‘something you don’t have’ when he’s able to disobey Maeve’s orders. It’s a real mystery that has yet to be solved — unlike much of the rest of it.
Caleb is permitted to run from the building, revealed to be the same Olympiad one we saw in Christina’s storyline — and we hear a familiar loud thrum from a metallic tower in the distance. The ‘tower’ it must be as referenced before, and Maeve’s discussions of changing the narrative fit neatly into the stories Christina and her company were working on.
As for Christina, she’s convinced by Maya to go out on a date after she has a nightmare about flies engulfing her and her parents — which we can figure out from Hale’s comments are likely what actually happened, since she’d have been a child open to mind control back then. But Christina actually meets up with our old pal Teddy Flood, and the connection and rapport between these two is still there — their conversation was already a delight to watch and James Marsden is as charismatic as ever.
He offers a toast to her and her path ‘wherever it leads’ — which I’m sure is a carefully considered line. Exactly how he and Maya are connected is also yet to be revealed, as is what Christina is really doing there, as she clearly has some subconscious memory of Teddy. Perhaps she is the resurrected Dolores after all, maybe they’re trying to rebuild her memory — just a thought.
Our third dangling storyline is also tied in, as the likely theory that the mystery future lady ‘C’ helping Bernard was Caleb’s daughter, Frankie, now a grownup, is verified here. And as soon as we cut from Caleb in his loop to Frankie, I knew right away that the ‘weapon’ would be Maeve, and indeed it was — a satisfying closing to that plot thread.
HBO
Frankie seems to have some partner or girlfriend she interacts with named ‘Odina’ (Morningstar Angeline), but there’s not much else to that character yet. And Stubbs is off somewhere for safekeeping, so there are still questions to answer and conflicts to uncover. We don’t know Teddy’s or Christina’s true motives or purpose, or what Hale has planned for Caleb — but we do know that old pals Bernard and Maeve will be reunited again after a very long time.
A really solid episode, one that held together well and answered some lingering questions without giving it all away. Really pretty impressed with the season so far, it’s shaking up pretty interestingly.
New episodes of Westworld air Sundays on HBO and stream on HBO Max.
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Share this post
