Westworld Recap: Season 2, Episode 3

Spoiler Alert Notice: Freeze all motor functions. If you haven’t watched season 2, episode 3 of Westworld and you don’t want to be spoiled by details, then this post isn’t meant for you. If you want to be spoiled anyway or have seen the episode already, then carry on.

Westworld season 2, episode 3 opens in a new setting: an outdoor party in a mansion with guests or hosts (we really don’t know just by looking at them).

Based on how the people (guests or hosts) dressed, the setting is patterned after the British rule in Bengal (modern-day Bangladesh and West Bengal in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent).

We know it’s Bengal as the man who moves like James Bond when trying to pick up a pretty lady at the party says, “What brings you to this part of the world? Hunting? Bengals?”

During the short interaction with Mr. Bond, Pretty Lady purposely closes her little notebook. What’s she trying to hide?

If you’ve watched too many James Bond movies, you know what happens next. They get a room. Pretty Lady, however, wants to know if Mr. Bond is a guest or a host. She shoots Mr. Bond with a gun that shuts down a host and just bruises if the target is a human. Mr. Bond passes the human test.

The two later on went on a camping excursion. There’s a scene where Pretty Lady tries again to hide her little notebook from Mr. Bond. A snippet of her notebook is shown: a terrain drawing.

Pretty Lady notices something is wrong in the camp as some hosts are missing. When Mr. Bond says that maybe it’s done to give them privacy. Pretty Lady says something that indicates that she knows the place pretty well, “This is not how this works.”

Mr. Bond is shot by someone who’s either a host or guest and Pretty Lady runs for her life. She ends up in a cliff, with the sea at her back and an attacking tiger in front. As she pulls the trigger of her gun, the tiger attacks her and they both fall off the cliff and into the sea.

Search for Peter Abernathy
Charlotte Hale makes it her mission to find Peter Abernathy, the host that must be delivered to Delos headquarters.

In the search for Peter, Hale and Bernard head out into the open park. They indeed meet Peter but Peter isn’t convinced to go with them. The 2 have no time to convince Peter more as they are attacked by other rebelling hosts. Hale escapes with an AI horse, while Bernard and Peter are captured by the rebelling hosts and brought to their leader Dolores.

When Dolores and Bernard meet again, Bernard asks, “What do you want, Dolores.”

Dolores says, “To dominate this world.”

Bernard says, “This world is just a speck of dust sitting on a much much bigger world. There’s no dominating it.”

Dolores requests Bernard to fix her father Peter as he’s clearly glitching. Bernard discovers that Peter’s data has been encrypted – data that can only be read by an encryption key.

When Bernard accesses Peter’s system where one has to input the one-time encryption key, Bernard says, “Oh, my God.” Does this mean Bernard knows the one-time encryption key?

You May Have Won the Battle, But Not the War
Dolores, together with her old and new allies, holds up at the base of the hosts that play the Confederate Army narrative. The Confederate Army holds their fort outside the base, while Dolores' old allies stand by inside the base while Delos security forces charge forward.

The Executive Director of Delos, Hale, meanwhile, has a much important goal and that’s to get Peter. While the rest are busy fighting in front of the base, Hale, with the help of other Delos security forces, succeeds in extracting Peter using another entry point of the base.

Bernard, during the commotion, now glitching as well, escapes on his own.

Dolores, meanwhile, double crosses here new allies, the Confederate Army, locking them out and executing them while they hurdle together in front of the gate. As the Delos security forces charge forward near the gate, the host Angela shoots something that triggers an explosion, blowing up all the charging Delos security forces.

Dolores orders Teddy to execute the remaining Confederate Army. Teddy, however, defies Dolores’ order and frees them. Aware by Teddy’s action, Dolores didn’t intervene.

Maeve and Company
Maeve ventures out with her 2 sidekicks, Hector and Delos’ storyline writer Lee. When the native American Indian hosts try to attack Lee, Maeve tells Hector that she needs the writer. The 3 run for their lives. They found safety in an underground elevator.

Underground, Maeve and Hector make a pact that they’ll find Maeve’s daughter and make their way out to the real world.

Lee interrupts them by saying that they’re designed to be alone. Lee tells Hector, “You’re in love with Isabella. You’re fucking programmed to have no love beyond Isabella.”

Hector says, “Not so much anymore. No laws bind me. When I awoke in the place where you play God, I realized Isabella was a lie. Just words in my head.”

Hector adds that Maeve is the love of his life uttering something romantic which Lee utters as well as he wrote those lines for Hector – a telling example as Lee tells Hector, “Maybe I know you just a bit.”

So, who’s Isabella? Maeve wants to know. She’s the girl who left him, Lee tells Maeve.

In the underground, the 3 musketeers team up with Hector’s ally Armistice and Delos' 2 programmers Felix and Sylvester.

New Park, New Park Visitors
The Pretty Lady in the opening of the episode, sans Mr. Bond, is seen crawling out of the water and approached by the native American Indian hosts.

The episode ends up with Maeve and her team reaching the Northern edge of Westworld park. One Shogun fighter, with his sword ready, charges towards Maeve. Hello, Shogun world.

Photo by HBO