I loved this latest episode! Hiroyuki Sanada instantly becomes this show's coolest cast member, and it isn't even close. But really, all of the new cast members related to "Shogun World" are great. Rinko Kikuchi! Also the two Armistices were just too cute. I will say that apart from the pleasure of seeing the two Clementine's again (always great to see Lili Simmons in anything) I thought the Wyatt/Dolores stuff was a lot less interesting. I guess we knew that her betraying Teddy was coming after that annoyed look she gave him when he spared those confederates a couple of episodes ago. But I'm still not convinced about this story line in which Teddy gets a new personality. I guess this is also how his original personality ends up in the Bernard host? If that popular fan theory ends up being accurate.
I would love to see a Shogun World show, just those characters. They were fantastic. I also loved how they made Shogun World for the people that felt that Westworld was too tame.
Holy shit, Tao Okamoto is the one who plays the Shogun World equivalent of Armistice. I hadn't even recognized her. I guess Western audiences will most remember her from her role in "The Wolverine"?
Secret glimpse behind the scenes @WestworldHBO Season 2 with one of my heroes (by name and nature ❤️ #HiroyukiSanada) ‘Akane no Mai’ #ChaosTakesControl! X T pic.twitter.com/7OgMgIRpAd— Thandiwe Newton (@ThandiweNewton) May 21, 2018
How exactly would that park work? The majority of the guests would be middle aged over weight men and they are expected to fight those Ninja dudes? H & S would be a nightmare with blades everywhere.
But a lot of the hosts in Westworld have carried knifes. I guess when they are functioning properly, they can't actually harm any human with their swords and knives?
So looks like Teddy's reprogramming worked a little bit too well. Teddy Flood, more like Teddy Blood, am I right? I'll get me coat. On the subject of the Dolores/Wyatt story-line, I cannot be the only one who thinks that is the most boring by some margin? Maeve adventures in Shogun world were fun. I'm enjoying Elsie and Bernard's wacky adventures. I'm even enjoying William and Grace's rather awkward father-daughter bonding non-bonding. But Dolores and her gang has been a bit dull all season long. Though I guess they went out with a bang this episode. One thing I also hate: Angela Sarafyan was one of this show's most interesting performers in season one but she has been reduced to a blank-faced automaton in season two. A huge shame.
Also, as a Dutch/Flemish-speaker myself, it's fun to spot the moments of Dutchglish that occasionally sneak into Katja Herbers' dialogue.
Wasn't her character lobotomized (retired) last season, though? Blank-faced automaton seems at least internally consistent, though adding code ala Peter Abernathy seems to provide at least some emotional range.
Oh, I get how her behavior and performance fits with the plot and the character arc that Clementine Pennyfeather went through in season one. I just think it's a waste of a very expressive and pleasant screen performer to be reduced to blank-faced mummery.
BTW what was the deal with the heart? They have organs? I thought they were all mechanical under the white shell with blood and crap on outside?
No, that was how the first generation of hosts worked. The second generation have a body that at least on the surface level looks human (even under their skin). BTW, I have been thinking, is there a chance that Grace/Emily is a host? When she first encountered her father, he thought she was a host. We also have seen her talking in several languages to the hosts, something that Maeve also can do (and the park's writer whose name I never properly learned told her that all hosts have the inherent ability to speak almost as many languages as the guests require). And we know that Ford has been messing with William by sending various hosts his way, some of them seemingly channeling Ford's consciousness. Perhaps Grace/Emily is a more sophisticated version of that? It might also be why he was so ready to leave her behind. The Man in Black has been a bastard throughout the series, but I do think we are meant to believe he cares about his daughter and leaving her behind like that with murderous hosts running around rampant seems a bit weird and out of character.
I have some questions and observations about this episode. Obviously the "The Bernard found on the beach by Stubbs in one of the earliest episodes of the season is actually Teddy's old consciousness in Bernard's body" theory has now more or less been proven wrong, since that version of Bernard seemed to remember having assassinated Theresa Cullen. So Maeve's power only truly works on Hosts that have yet to achieve consciousness? In terms of the conscious hosts, I had a question about why they all seem to follow Dolores/Wyatt so blindly? I can get why the brainless drones among them would have little regard for their own well-being. But a host like Angela is no less of a real person than Dolores/Wyatt, yet she willingly and knowingly sacrifices herself in a suicide mission to destroy the back-ups (ironically the only thing that might have been able to 'revive' her). Is Dolores/Wyatt essentially like a cult leader at this point? On the topic of that scene, that Delos mercenary falling for Angela's womanly wiles like that is really a good illustration of Dante's point. Of all the times to let yourself be distracted by a pretty blonde in a tight top.
Loved this episode. Not sure about the Logan callback. But the metaphor for the treatment of all colonized or enslaved peoples was very powerful.
I agree this was a very good episode, perhaps the best episode of season two. But it did make me wonder why this show seems to work best in bottle episodes?
In a comparison to Lost, it was like a Desmond-centered episode. I think they're most successful because they don't have to conform to the main narrative but get to enjoy the benefit of the world-building that narrative has laid out. I think the writers really did a nice job in this episode and Zahn McClarnon was excellent.