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The latest episode of Westworld was called ‘Akane No Mai’, which likely translates in this context to ‘Akane’s Dance’, a clear reference in the episode — although the name Akane, a relatively common one, also means ‘deep red,’ so the title could also be ‘Red Dance’. Also a clear possibility as the dance of Akane ended in the red of blood.
This episode had two parallel stories, about freedom, choice, and confronting oneself. It tied back to the start as we are asked the question of the threads that became the ending of the story. The sadder storyline is that of Dolores and Teddy, the story that ends in betrayal. The first horror is Clementine as Zombie seeing the ‘New’ Clementine parroting the same old lines, leading her into a minor existential crisis.
This is naturally mirrored on the other side, but I’ll get back to that later. Dolores presents a sort of riddle to Teddy, one to reveal if he’s got the stomach for the terrible acts she’s planning. But we already know the answer, of course — although he once turned a gun on a bunch of enemy soldiers, since the awakening, Teddy has only become more moral.
Although he claims to want to be awake, this does two terrible things. One, it draws Dolores to him, to the point where they spend the night together. And two, it ensures that she destroys his mind and his personality entirely. She has erased his freedom and his choice for her larger mission, a turn mirrored by Maeve sacrificing (perhaps) Hector to lead her escape.
But even then, there is a true difference of choice, but Maeve falls down a different hole.
The storyline thus of Dolores is heartbreaking and difficult, and ties together threads in a way that it could end well or very badly. I can’t say yet how I feel about it, it’s too weird and raw.
Now Maeve’s storyline, the adventure into Shogun World, was a fascinating one. Each primary host sees their mirror, the meta-commentary on story bleeding, but the intra commentary too on how one might see oneself. Armistice finds her dragon lady (Tao Okamoto, from The Wolverine among others) and is instantly entranced, and the feeling is mutual.
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No true surprises there, of course Armistice finds herself interesting and (maybe) even appealing? As Hector does not trust himself, he trusts his Japanese version Musashi (the legendary character actor Hiroyuki Sanada, also from The Wolverine) even less. The production design is clever and tricky, mirroring Sweetwater in its own way, and even showing similar ‘black hat/white hat’ costuming.
And most interestingly, there’s Maeve’s counterpart Akane (Rinko Kikuchi), the local Madam of the geisha, and going through a different parallel change. Her connection to her charge Sakura (the Clementine parallel), mirrors Maeve’s connection to her remembered daughter. Akane feels well realized, building off our own knowledge of Maeve and the half-remembered stereotypes of a thousand Japanese references.
HBO
Akane’s little journey of suffering seemed obviously familiar, but the true fascinating parallel was of choice: Maeve trying to awaken Akane and Maeve stealing the choice from her enemies to save herself and her crew. Her choice to steal choice is one of trying to save herself and others, making it a bit more on the ‘white hat’ side than Dolores, but the morals are all quite murky.
I was a bit worried that they’d all be killed off by episodes end, but thankfully it would seem that most of these new characters are still alive, ready to have more adventures the rest of this season. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in the Shogun World storyline, and I’m pleased to see some real expansion to the world of the show, some interesting new diverse characters, mirrored in different ways.
Now there’s little chance to have two amazing episodes in a row, and Westworld didn’t achieve that, but this was a strong, fun episode that moved things along and showed us more about the people we already thought we knew. Sometimes the logic of this show is funky, but so far, so good.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments below!
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