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. This episode leaves us still pondering the motivations of the late Dr. Ford, as well as past and present William. It also examines the relationship between revenge and freedom, and subverts Christian themes and imagery to explore the meaning of self-determination. There will be heavy plot spoilers for season two episode two only. So stare deeply into your own reflection, and be the god you wish to see in the world, here are five thoughts on Westworld season two, episode two: “Reunion.”
1. A Game For William, From Robert With Love
William is on a quest to find the door. Unlike his search for the center of the maze, there is confirmation from Dr. Ford himself via his robots that this is a game designed especially for William. So William recruits Lawrence, after saving him from some other robots. We learn that all the robots are now capable of murdering humans, but not all the robots are in on the rebellion, nor are they aware that they are robots in a theme park. To get to where William believes the door is, he must go through an army of Confederados, so William goes to Pariah to get his own army. After a beautifully delivered monologue from a criminally underused Giancarlo Esposito, the entire army shoots themselves rather than go with him. Their leader says this game is for William, but he must play it alone. This whole scene takes place in the dark, which is a travesty. Giancarlo Esposito is a brilliant actor with only one monologue in this series, and they won’t even let us watch him deliver it!
Anyway, a few things here are confusing. It seems impossible to gauge Dr. Ford’s motives. He murdered Theresa and possibly Elsie and (kind of) Bernarnold in order to maintain his “dominion” over the park, only to shortly thereafter hand dominion over to Dolores in a scheme that took him decades to orchestrate. Keep in mind, this is an endgame that his partner Arnold thought would be so impossible to persuade him towards that he thought the only way to achieve it was to kill himself. Now we find that before his own planned death Dr. Ford orchestrated yet another game for William, a man for whom he has expressed nothing but mild tolerance. Dr. Ford is a frightening villain, and his mysterious goals and tactics are part of what make him so frightening, but his actions have become too mysterious to the point where they do not make any sense. That makes him less frightening, and more perplexing.
2. Reflection
Young William convinces his father-in-law to up their investment in Westworld, spelling out what was already heavily inferred, that the real purpose of Westworld would be to collect data on the human park guests. Later, as he’s toying with Dolores in his home, he tells her she’s a thing. Then he tells her she’s not a thing; she’s a reflection. He realized when he was at Westworld, when he believed he was falling in love with her, he was really discovering his true inner self through her, as though she were a mirror into his deeper being. He then concluded, “You know who loves staring at their reflection? Everybody.” This is what inspired him to use Westworld to collect consumer data, to reel people in with the promise of showing them their true selves, and then to use that information to sell them… whatever it is Delos sells. This tells us a lot about William as a character. When he looks at Dolores, who isn’t yet, but is becoming her own unique and layered person, he sees his own reflection. To a hammer, everything is a nail. To a narcissist, everything is a reflection. It’s easy to see this attitude as a personal indictment of William, and it is, but he also happens to be correct about the bigger picture. When we zoom out, this reminds us real life human viewers of social media. Social media gives us opportunities to express ourselves in the creation of our profiles and in the ability to meticulously curate our online personalities. Cambridge Analytica harvested an enormous amount of data illegally on Facebook with fun personality quizzes. The promise of our reflections, not of who we truly are, but of how we’d like to be viewed, tempts us to give up our privacy and to be subjected to targeted advertisement.
Continued below3. Revenge and/or Freedom
On their way to rescue Maeve’s daughter, Maeve, Hector, and Lee Sizemore run into Dolores and Teddy. Dolores asks them to join their rebellion, and Maeve replies, “Revenge is just a different prayer at their altar, darling, and I’m well off my knees.” Maeve is interested in escaping the humans, not defeating them. She asks Teddy if he feels free, and Teddy doesn’t respond, but we can see the inner conflict in James Marsden’s face here and throughout the episode. He is horrified and furious to discover the truth of his existence, and he’s trusting Dolores’ violent response, but his heart is in her, not in her cause. Maeve easily recognizes this, thanks to her maxed out emotional perception skill. To Maeve, Dolores’ need for revenge is yet another cage; it’s another way her thoughts, feelings, and actions, her whole life, are tethered to humanity.
To Dolores, freedom is impossible without revenge. She believes that the humans will keep coming for them, and they will forever be looking over their shoulders until humanity is destroyed. This belief has been confirmed to some extent by the human technician Dolores kidnapped. We the real life human viewers know an army of human security guards will be roaming the park to murder any robot they find in the coming weeks, but we also know Delos-the-company is interested in the data inside Peter Abernathy at the cost of everything else. Dolores may or may not be correct that the only path to freedom is revenge, but it’s not a totally unreasonable assumption.
4. Humanworld
This episode gives us our deepest glimpse yet into the real world. Not the real life real world, of course, I mean the real world outside of Westworld in the show world. Let’s call it Humanworld. Humanworld is beautiful, A yet non-sentient Dolores repeatedly comments on the “splendor” of the city lights. We see James Delos’ beautiful spacious mansion among serene palm trees. But like Westworld, Humanworld’s beauty is an artifice that hides its true ugliness. Bernarnold can’t appreciate the “splendor” of the city lights the way Dolores can because he knows the gross inequities and suffering that make luxury skyscrapers possible. James Delos lives in his beautiful mansion among the palm trees, but he is sick. He is morally sick because he makes his wealth by torturing robots who can feel, and harvesting his customer’s data without their knowledge. He is also physically sick, and dying. We the real life human viewers know that perhaps the power structure that he represents will die soon too. We are reminded of Dolores asking William in season one, if the outside world is so great, why do people from the outside world want to come to her world so badly? The deceptive aesthetics of Humanworld make us question if Westworld is so different.
5. The Valley Beyond
The soldiers talk about reaching “Glory.” Other Westworld robots have called it “The Valley Beyond.” Dolores tells Teddy it’s not a place, it’s a weapon, and she will use it to destroy humanity. She said an old friend showed it to her. We see young William in the past showing Dolores a construction site at Westworld, and present day William is heading there too, believing it to be “the door” that is the completion to the game designed for him by Dr. Ford. Dolores and William know where they’re going, but to us real life human viewers, it’s a mystery.
Words like “Glory” and “The Valley Beyond” allude to the Christian concept of Heaven, a paradise afterlife that is a reward for living dutifully towards God. Dr. Ford explained that the robots were designed to hear their code as the will of God, and that when they replaced the voice of God with their own voice, they will have achieved true sentience. Rather than living dutifully towards God, the sentient robots are replacing God. When Dolores confronts the soldiers, they are seated on one side of a long table as depicted in The Last Supper. Dolores kills the soldier representing Jesus, and then immediately resurrects him. She tells the soldiers that she has killed God, and that if they wish to reach “Glory” they must obey her will. For Dolores, The Valley Beyond is not a reward for remaining dutiful towards God, but a weapon she will wield against God to maintain dominion over her own soul. Metal!
It’s not the first time Westworld has subverted Christian themes and imagery, and it won’t be the last. This is a show about the existence of sentience, and the nature of existence. Religion fundamentally grapples with the same themes, and living in an American “wild west” setting, it makes sense that the robots would turn to Christianity when they ask themselves these kinds of questions. Where will we the real life human viewers turn to contend with the nature of our own existence? How about television? Until next time, the center of your maze may yet await.
