HBO
Previously on Westworld, Maeve was through a lot, and Bernard was looking for a friend.
This episode of Westworld is called ‘The Winter Line’, which were Axis military fortifications in Italy during World War II. I’m not entirely sure it’s meant to be more than that, a reference to the ‘Warworld’ simulation, except that maybe it’s also a reference to a ‘Winterline’, a mysterious atmospheric phenomenon where two horizons appear in the sky. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.
The episode shows us Maeve as she figures out she’s in a new simulation while at the same time, Bernard arrives in the real world version of Westworld searching for her. Effectively it sure does seem like the same timeline, which helps keep the whole thing easier to comprehend and follow.
Bernard gathers a new ally with Stubbs, who explicitly explains his role as a host that only worked for Ford to get Bernard and Dolores out of the park safely. Of course, we then get Bernard overwriting the security guy’s primary function to protect himself, which certainly could get interesting in the outside world. Bernard theorizes out loud that Dolores kept him alive as an active force to keep her in check, which is possible, although he may be just as wrong as any of us watching and rampantly theorizing ourselves.
With a series of information dense flashes, Bernard gets more insight on what happened, but there’s still a lot left to really know. It’s the sort of ‘let’s get things moving on’ storyline that was functional but also threw in some fun background jokes. It was fairly amusing to hear a bard play the show’s theme on a lute juxtaposed with Stubbs killing people with an axe, but seeing the Game of Thrones showrunners as techs with a host dragon is a bit too cutesy for me.
HBO
More interesting was the Maeve storyline — at first I thought she was in an actual new ‘Warwold’ place, but as soon as she woke up it was completely obvious she was in a simulation. Seeing Felix and Sylvester basically confirmed it. I did also like seeing our old buddy Lee Sizemore, bumbling along as usual, even if this version was a digital copy or simulation to get into Maeve’s head. They have a good rapport, not a romantic one, but it works between them.
I enjoyed seeing Maeve break the simulation with processor tricks — that square root of -1 causing a recursive loop, that’s a fun programming trick, and I will admit I didn’t see the MacGuffin map thing coming. That was fun too, overwhelming the simpler version of the simulation.
Now, she is awoken again with Vincent Cassel as the mysterious Serac, controller of the future, who is a fun presence as always, but should we really believe him that they’re in the real world now? In Westworld, layers upon layers are always there, and who can say what’s really going on?
Last season, there was a Dolores versus Maeve conflict mainly through cats paws and pawns, but perhaps this season will get more up close and personal. It’s always great to see Thandie Newton sink her teeth into this material, and I enjoyed the straightforward nature of the scam this time around. Overall, a strong episode.
Westworld airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on HBO.
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