Howdy, fellow humans who are definitely not robots who just think you’re humans, and welcome to our review of HBO’s science fiction series, Westworld. In this episode we meet the tragically cold-blooded Teddy 2.0, we witness the ever-changing power dynamics inside Westworld, and inside Westworld, and as always, we question the nature of reality. There will be heavy plot spoilers for season two episode six only. So show that piano who’s boss, and empathize with data, here are five thoughts on Westworld season two, episode six: “Phase Space.”
1. Turned Tables
This episode offers up a few fun visual and textual cues representing the changing power dynamics in Westworld. It opens with Dolores running a fidelity test on Bernarnold, probably at the behest of Dr. Ford, back when Bernarnold was new. We recognize this fidelity test from the ones William ran on his father-in-law, Robo-Delos. Dolores’ fidelity test is particularly fun because it starts as an interrogation of Dolores by Bernarnold, but the interrogated turns out to be the interrogator. Arnold created and molded Dolores, and now Dolores is molding his robot replacement. She has taken on the role of creator once held by both Arnold and William (each in their own fashion). Back at the Mariposa we see Dolores playing the self-playing piano, symbolically exerting control over this machine as she has over Teddy. The episode ends with Dr. Ford playing the self-playing piano inside the cradle. This tells us that though Dolores feels she is in control, Dr. Ford is still influencing things. He is playing Dolores… like a piano.
2. Teddy 2.0
Watching Dolores play the aforementioned piano, as they’re getting ready to leave Sweetwater, Teddy says of his old self, “The man who rode that train was built weak and born to fail. You fixed him. Now forget about it.” Then, in front of the train, Dolores and Angela interrogate a human who says he doesn’t know how to help them. Teddy shoots him in the head without a second thought so they can get going. It is absolutely gut-wrenching to see Teddy transformed from a sweet, sensitive, hug-able cowboy into this brusque, ruthless, heartless cowboy. In Shogunworld, we get a chance to see Maeve choose to let her loved ones be free. When Akane and Musashi decide to stay behind, Akane thanks Maeve for giving them that choice. Maeve decides not to compel them to join her, even though she believes they will die there. They too are aware of these likely consequences, and it’s up to them what they want to do with whatever time they have. This is the life Teddy could have had, making his own choices, regardless of how absurd they seem to Dolores.
3. Real Live Robots
Bernarnold and Elsie go to the cradle, a creepy-looking room bathed in red light, where copies of each and every robot brain is stored. Bernarnold and Elsie discover the cradle itself is blocking security from enacting safety protocols throughout the park, like shutting all the robots down. As they descend the staircase, Bernarnold says “it’s just data” and Elsie pushes back, “you can’t seriously mean that.” To stop the cradle from preventing the safety protocols, Bernarnold tells Elsie to put his brain in the cradle, which requires a machine to open up his skull, take out his brain, and plug it into the cradle. Elsie warns that this would be extremely painful, but Bernarnold insists, “pain is just a program.” Bernarnold is clearly still struggling with his identity as a robot, and it’s telling that Elsie, a human, (as far as she and we know), expresses more empathy for robot feelings. When Bernarnold believed he was human, he did empathize with the robots, but now that he knows he himself is a robot, he is projecting his self-loathing onto the other robots. This self-loathing isn’t new; the human origin of his consciousness, Arnold, felt it too. Arnold dismissed his own pain and Dolores’ when he programmed Wyatt into her. When Bernarnold enters the cradle, we see a simulated version of Westworld, where all the robots are going about their simulated lives. They aren’t just data; they are alive. Their feelings are real, and so are Bernarnold’s.
Continued belowAs always, when we ask a question about the nature of robotity, it begs the same question about humanity. Is human pain real? Is it just a program? Dismissing human pain, both physical and emotinal, is tragically common in a culture dominated by toxic masculinity. “Toughness” is highly valued, and to dismiss one’s own pain is often accepted as a sign of strength. This is as unfortunate as it is untrue. To suppress painful feelings does nothing but delay an inevitable outburst. To engage thoughtfully with painful feelings is difficult, and is a sign of great emotional strength. Bernarnold could easily argue the same case against robot pain as he does about human pain; it’s just a program. Physical and emotional pain are both just chemicals in the brain, firing neurons, or in other words, data. However, pain isn’t just data, it’s also real, important, and worthy of empathy in all its forms.
4. Maeve’s Daughter, Ghost Nation, and the Immortal and Indefatigable Dr. Ford
After what must have been a totally roundabout route through Shogunworld, Maeve finally finds her daughter, but her daughter has a new mother now, and doesn’t remember Maeve. After only exchanging a few sentences, Ghost Nation shows up, and Maeve assumes they’re attacking. We the real life human viewers do too, because up until this point Ghost Nation has been saving all the humans they captured and killing all the robots, but it turns out, this time, they’re not attacking. They ask Maeve to go with them, but before they can explain more, Hector, Armistice, and Hanaryo start shooting them.
So far the most reasonable explanation for the seemingly erratic behavior of Ghost Nation is that they’re being controlled by Dr. Ford from inside the cradle, but that doesn’t explain what Dr. Ford’s grand scheme actually is, or what their role in it could be. Still, those are not even the most interesting questions posed in this scene. Maeve’s daughter seems to not remember Maeve at the moment, but the memory is still within her, buried somewhere. If it eventually comes up, what will that do to her, emotionally? How will her new mother react to meeting a previous version of herself? Will they find immediate kinship with each other, like Maeve and Akane, or will she view her as a competitor, like how Hector viewed Musashi? Ghost Nation’s interlude robs us of the opportunity to explore those questions, and instead we have to ponder the less interesting and ever-present question of wtf is Dr. Ford up to? How disappointing.
5. William the Manipulated
Grace tries to talk William into leaving Westworld with her. She apologizes for blaming him for her mother’s death. However, William is convinced that Grace is a robot, programmed by Dr. Ford to be an obstacle in his game, and he leaves her while she sleeps. Could William be right? It doesn’t make sense that Dr. Ford would program Grace to have an affair with that random guy at The Raj, when we first met her, but it wouldn’t be the first time Dr. Ford allowed his robots to have some life of their own outside of his, ahem, machinations, like Bernarnold’s affair with Theresa Cullen. But that’s the problem with life-like robots, one starts to question who’s who, and which is which. William tells Grace-who-is-possibly-Dr.-Ford that impersonating his daughter is low. If William had any self-awareness, he might realize that whether Grace is part of it or not, he is willingly allowing himself to be manipulated by Dr. Ford. Dr. Ford told him explicitly and repeatedly that he has created this grand game just for him, and every minute William remains in the park, he is gleefully risking his life to accept the challenge. William actually wants to be manipulated, and he may even find the idea of Dr. Ford using his own daughter against him thrilling, not low at all.
A phase space is a graph that shows every possible outcome existing at once, and this episode doesn’t deliver every possible outcome, but we do get a whole bunch. Akane and Musashi represent Teddy’s alternate reality if Dolores hadn’t changed him. Maeve (briefly) meets a version of herself that was erased after William terrorized her. Meeting Dr. Ford in the cradle gives Bernarnold and us a new understanding of how every possibility in the phase space is being influenced behind the scenes. What is Dr. Ford’s endgame? What is Ghost Nation up to? All possibilities exist simultaneously in a phase space. Until next time, the center of your maze may yet await.
