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The latest episode of Westworld is called ‘The Riddle of the Sphinx’, a reference to the old story of Oedipus Rex — the riddle has a simple answer: Man. But the riddle tells a secret story of a man throughout time, from birth to old age. The episode shows a loop of a man trying and failing to escape the end of the riddle, the answer of mortality.
It’s clear as we delve into the mysterious room of Old Man Delos, visited by William, that this is no mere visit. Mentions of repeated conversations and ‘fidelity’ for a ‘baseline’ and the final answer is predictable if clever — this is not Delos the human, but a host with a copy of his mind, an attempt to try at immortality.
But the episode cleverly cuts back as we progress, connecting with the older version of William when he’s still married to Juliet, and finally with the Ed Harris version of William, clearly in a different, affected state of despair. It’s a shocking, magnificent acting performance by Peter Mullan as Delos, convincingly mirroring the deterioration of a human into cognitive failure.
And it all connects back in the end.
HBO
I was delighted and beyond pleased to see the return of Elsie (played by Shannon Woodward), the snarky, too clever tech who disappeared after being choked out by Bernard in season one. She’s not lost an iota of sass, and her willingness to shoot the faceless host and team up with Bernard was something I didn’t realize I desperately wanted to see.
The two really do have a sort of complementary connection, a way to combine their different perspectives and skills — Elsie and her technical skills and Bernard with his memory fragmentation, it leads to a place of pure adrenaline when Bernard saves Elsie from the rampaging, devilish Delos. It’s an emotional connection that is truly surprising from a show filled with such damage and inhumanity.
The other side of the coin is the complex tale of the Man in Black in the park. It starts with what we don’t realize is a connection with the mysterious ‘Grace’ lady from last week, who surprisingly escapes the Ghost Tribe warriors and disappears into the night. The significance isn’t clear until later, but it’s also no surprise that William mentioned his young daughter as whip-smart and competent, and as an older man, mentioned her not at all.
William and Lawrence run into the monstrous Confederados, on the run from ‘Wyatt’ the double-crosser — and what a delight it was to hear William recognize the name with a ‘good for her.’ This is a game, certainly, one that Ford has created for William, but what is this game? No theories here, although I have a few.
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Instead, I look at the familial connections, which again, are no coincidence. William breaks out of his selfish mode and saves Lawrence and his wife because he remembers his own wife’s suicide. Or is it something else or both? It’s another true delight to see Lawrence ignite the lead racist-in-charge into a vibrant explosion.
It all ended with a gorgeous shot into the sunset, a subversion instantly taken on the Western aesthetic as we see the mysterious girl ride up to reveal herself as William’s daughter. And suddenly it all fits.
It was beautiful episode, filled with far too many wonderful moments that I don’t know how the next episode can possibly live up to this. All the emotional build up of characterizations past combined with the sinister loop of Delos the man and the sinister loop of Delos the corporation led to some epic thematic and emotional resonance. Perhaps the best episode yet.
Next time, the Japanese can be whatever they want to be, and reality is a story or real or suffering or something else, and Maeve? Has a goddamn samurai sword.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments below!
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