Alright Westworld fans, this is the one we’ve been waiting for. Ever since the tease of Shogun World in the season 1 finale, fans have eagerly awaited for the new park’s introduction. And our first foray into the new world did not disappoint. But first, a bit of story to deal with in the present(?) timeline. The most present timeline at least. I think. Anyway.
Bernard is with the QA team, examining a whole mess of dead hosts. We soon find out these are hosts that have been pulled from the lake and are being inspected by the team. One of the techs working on the hosts reveals some startling information. Roughly 1/3 of the hosts are “virgin” —meaning it appears they never held any data at all. The hosts’ back-ups have also been completely destroyed. Clearly something is up here. This is the only moment we get with this team and it’s such a short scene. There would be no reason to include it if it weren’t important. But just what the importance is remains to be seen. Now on to the main event of the evening.
Maeve her crew are captured by a ronin named Musashi. He’s played of course by Hiroyuki Sanada. If there’s a movie with ninjas or samurai, he’s in it. Suffice it to say, I’m all on board with this casting choice. As they’re being marched into town, Sizemore comments that this world is for those guests who find Westworld “too tame.” Um, yikes?
The town they arrive in looks very familiar to this group, almost like a replica of Sweetwater. Sizemore confirms, telling them this town is basically a feudal Japan version of the Westworld town. This includes the hosts in Shogun world; they’re “dopplebots” of the hosts in Westworld. Going further with the copycat town, we get a fun callback to the Westworld pilot, with another scene sent to “Paint it Black.” The scene from the pilot is still one of my favorite scenes from the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmOXlt83jtI
In town, a messenger from the Shogun arrives and demands Akane (Maeve’s geisha dopplebot) turn over the young and beautiful Sakura. Akane is supposed to give in to this request. But she calls an audible and kills the messenger, proving to everyone in Maeve’s group that that the hosts in this world are also becoming free. As can be expected after this action, ninjas attack that night on the Shogun’s orders. It’s not looking good but then Maeve discovers a new ability. She finds she is now able to command the hosts without having to bother with the hassle of speaking.
The best assumption has to be that she has accessed a way to tap into the host mesh network, and can now get the hosts to do anything she damn well pleases. Maeve is on some video game boss-level stuff now. But a legitimate hard boss, like Mike Tyson from “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out.”
Yet again, Sizemore provides some comic relief with a couple great lines:
“This is insane. Ninja’s never show up in this story.” and “The Shogun’s army never comes into town.” It’s cute that he still can’t completely figure out that the hosts are off-script.
Unfortunately, during all this, Sakura was captured. Maeve’s group decides to assist in the rescue. They accompany Akane to the Shogun’s camp, to find that he has had his men cut off their ears to avoid being commanded by Maeve. The Shogun agrees to a deal with Akane: He will return Sakura if Akane performs a dance for him. Too bad Akane wasn’t more explicit with her terms, as the Shogun does indeed release Sakura; but he kills her first. Because this is Westworld after all, so of course he does.
Akane manages to continue on with her dance in a captivating visual scene, with her beautiful performance offset by Sakura’s bloodied body lying close by on stage. Akane’s performance takes a rather violent turn, however, when she pulls out a hidden dagger and stabs the Shogun. Well, she starts with a stab. In the face. Then proceeds to saw his head off from about the jaw line on up. Fifteen episodes in and this show is still finding terribly gruesome ways to murder people. Good for them! The Shogun’s men are quick to react and prepare to execute both Akane and Maeve. Maeve is able to tap into her new mind tricks and has the army turn on each other, resulting in what might be the coolest scene of the season so far.
As thrilling as our time in Shogun World was, we have a bit of business to take care of back in the Westworld park. This week’s story is almost exclusively Teddy and Dolores, as they return to Sweetwater. This was another great parallel between the two stories. Maeve’s crew is in the Shogun equivalent to Sweetwater while Teddy and Dolores return to the actual Sweetwater. It’s smaller things like this that really push this show over the top in terms of quality.
We learn another part of Dolores’s plan is to take the train back to The Mesa, the main command area of the park. That’s where Peter Abernathy is being held, so it’s a good bet his rescue is a big part of this mission. I won’t spend too much on the rest of this part of the episode, as it’s all of lot of grim foreshadowing leading up to the episode’s climactic moment. Dolores realizes Teddy, or at least this version of Teddy, isn’t suited for what lies ahead.
Dolores has some guys hold Teddy while she gets a host control tablet from a park tech guy. I didn’t catch which specific attributes she was changing, but I don’t really think that matters as it’s very obvious what she’s going for here. If Bad Guy Teddy is as awesome as I’m hoping he’ll be, we’re in for quite a treat.
That concludes the episode and here we are, already halfway through season 2. This season has been nothing short of fantastic. Episode 3, “Virtu e Fortuna,” is the only one that could be considered any sort of a misstep, but I still gave it an 84/100. We also had what is widely considered the best episode of the series is last week’s “Riddle of the Sphinx” (count me in as a member of that group). I don’t know that the show can keep up this pace for an entire season. But then again, with what they’ve accomplished so far, who’s to say they can’t? Even through just one and a half seasons, Westworld is quickly making a strong case to cement itself as my second favorite show of all time, behind only Game of Thrones.
