The writers onWestworldare never happier than when they are totally confusing their audience. Sometimes, there are times when this works very well. It certainly rewards people that are paying attention to every little head nod and whisper from the previous week or even the previous year’s run. On the other hand, when a show goes out of its way to confuse at every turn, it can lose the thread. That seems to be the case withthis week’s version ofWestworldwhere the writers were more interested in “the twist” than they were telling a really coherent story.
This was never more obvious than in one particular scene where a character first says that they won’t rest until they’ve stopped their enemy. When that enemy responds that they’re unlikely to live to see the end of the fight, they respond with “I don’t care.” It’s that kind of desire to lay down some lines without paying attention to what the conversation actually was. There are a couple of different ways in which this conversation could have gone, but in the end, they chose a rather lame way for everything to play out.Westworldhas certainly done this before. There are times when the show thinks it’s smarter than it is, and the end result is a kind of annoying feeling where the audience just wants at least one of the storylines to look like it might eventually reach a conclusion.
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This week’s episode picked up mostly whereEpisode 3 of Westworldleft off, with Caleb having been infected by the parasites and trying to figure out how he could get away from Hale and somehow fight the control from the things the audience has seen take over people before. This is also where the twist for the sake of a twist seems to come into play as the fight against Hale and William doesn’t go anywhere near as planned.
The record scratch that does near the end of the episode is one that would hit a bit harder if this wasn’t something the show has done over and over and over before. It would also hit harder if there wasn’t at least a better than average chance that the record scratch that the audience was given in thisepisode ofWestworldisn’t going to end up getting its own record scratch where it turns out that what people were led to believe in this episode wasn’t really true either.
While Caleb and Maeve are doing battle with Hale and William and trying to overcome the master plan, there is the little side trip to check on Delores. One of the positives of this episode is that her new story seems to be getting filled in a little, especially after the big reveal towards the end of the episode. However what the show hasn’t done is tell the audience why they should care about this side story, especially now that one of the big questions as to just what is going on has been answered. It seems unlikely the point of the scene in this episode is entirely about fan service, but the addition ofJames Marsdendoes at least for the moment, feel exactly like fan service.
The third focus of this episode has to do with Bernard and Ashley and the band of rebels that they have teamed up with as part of Bernard’s Dr. Strange-like vision of how to fix the future. The other big problem of splitting up the focus the way this episode did is that it bounces around just a little too much. It can be hard to really follow what’s happening where and why. More importantly, it can be hard to care and therefore pay attention to what’s going on whenWestworldjumps aroundthe way it did this week.
There is also something a bit frustrating about the way the show one of its best characters in Ed Harris, who has spent the last two episodes basically saying “hello Maeve” and then disappearing off the screen almost as quickly as he appeared. William has been one of the most interesting additions to the show precisely because he oozes malice and evil while also being somehow very, very likable. Harris has been the best villain the show has and while it would have been ok to turn him into a sidekick of Hale for various reasons, he was being used much better earlier in the season when he was the one delivering the dark lines and threats of violence.
Granted, some of the story in Westworld has meant that he could basically fade into the background because the biggest villain the show has ever seen is on screen and ready to run roughshod over her enemies. But Relegating Harris' William to 30 seconds of screen time is just wasting one of the show’s best assets. Perhaps it says something that the other character that is one of thebest parts ofWestworldwas also mostly shoved into the background.
And then there’sBernard. This particular character is somehow one of the main personalities of the show, who also happens to be on-screen for about five minutes at a time. In total, it feels like the show showed the audience the fan favorites only to pull them away and focus on the characters that simply aren’t as interesting. While it’s certainly possible the show is saving its big guns for the next few episodes, that doesn’t really make this particular installment that much better.
This week’sepisode ofWestworlddid have one very big twist that could have lasting repercussions for the rest of the season. Assuming the writers don’t attempt to pull the rug out and go back on what they showed the audience. That feels like something that could absolutely be in the cards and the possibility of the show doing one of its “it was all a dream” backtracks takes out the impact of that reveal.
