Westworld finally gave us some much-anticipated backstory into the Man in Black. More specifically, we learn more about the tragic suicide of his wife, Juliet. Intertwined with Man in Black in the park with daughter Emily, this episode was dark and depressing. And for this show, that’s saying something. Might as well began our recap with the big(gest?) moment from the episode.
Man in Black (flashback)
We’re at a big fancy party and William is in attendance along with his wife and daughter. We quickly learn that Juliet is an alcoholic, likely influenced by the man she’s married to being a monster. She gets a little out of control at the party so William takes her home. Before this, however, William sneaks away for a drink by himself, where he encounters one Robert Ford. There is clear tension between the two, which surely didn’t surprise anyone. We hear a brief description of an agreement the two had struck. Delos wouldn’t interfere with Ford’s narratives, and Ford would stay out of the Valley Beyond. Though he doesn’t say anything specific, Ford tells William Delos broke that deal. Before William leaves, Ford gives him a data card containing his profile, a “self portrait” as Ford describes it. This card contains the data of all of William’s in-park shenanigans.
Back at home, Emily walks in William and Juliet arguing. Juliet tries to tell her daughter about the man her father truly is, but Emily seemingly brushes it off as nothing more than the ramblings of an alcoholic. She says she’s going to put her mother back into rehab. We are initially led to believe that this idea is the final nail in the coffin that drove Juliet to kill herself. However, we later find out that is not the case.
As William is putting Juliet to bed, she asks him to tell her “one true thing.” William ignores this plea at first. But once she falls asleep, he obliges, and confirms what Juliet already believed.
“No one else sees it. This thing in me. Even I didn’t see it at first. And then one day it was there. This stain I never noticed before. Hanging to me like a darkness, invisible to everyone, but I could see nothing else, until finally I understood that the darkness wasn’t some mark from something I’d done, some regrettable decision I’d made. I was shedding my skin. The darkness was what was underneath. It was mine all along and I decided how much of it I let into the world. I tried to do right. I was faithful, generous, kind, at least in this world. That has to count for something, right? I built a wall and tried to protect you and Emily. But you saw right through it, didn’t you? You’re the only one. And for that, I am truly sorry. Because everything you feel is true. I don’t belong to you. Or this world. I belong to another world. I always have.”
Only Juliet wasn’t asleep. Once William leaves the room, Juliet gets up and retrieves the data card, which William had hidden in a book. She views it and has her fears confirmed. She has video evidence of all the terrible things William has done. It’s this that pushes her over the edge. This revelation is what causes her to take her life.
William and Emily (in the park)
Emily is nursing her father back from the brink of death, even sending out a distress call for the QA team to come pick him up. She is even trying to salvage their relationship, wanting to put all their differences aside once and for all. But the Man in Black’s not buying it. He becomes suspicious (again) that Emily is not Emily, but another one of Ford’s hosts. What decides it for him is Emily saying, “I’m not a host pretending to be a human. I’m your daughter pretending to give a shit about you. I read your profile.” This confirms it in his mind, as he says replies, “I never told anybody about my profile. You gave yourself away.”
William is able to steal a gun from one of the QA guys and kills the whole team. He then shoots and kills Emily, trying to end Ford’s interference. But as he approaches Emily’s body, he sees in her hand the data card containing his profile. Emily was not lying about having seen it. That’s right, William murdered his own daughter.
The Man in Black is obviously completely distraught over what he has done. He contemplates suicide himself, putting his gun to his head, but he ultimately does not go through with it. Instead he drops to the ground and does something interesting. He sticks a knife into his forearm. The obvious guess is that he’s so mentally frazzled (to put it lightly) that he doesn’t know whether he is host or human. Earlier, when the QA team first arrived for him and Emily, they scanned him, and the scan came back confirming him as human. I get the sense that this isn’t the first time William has done this. There are a few shots throughout the episode where William is looking at or touching that same spot on his forearm.
Dolores and Teddy
Dolores and her crew are confronted by Ghost Nation members, who warn her that the “Valley Beyond is not meant for” her. She of course isn’t having it and orders her guys to kill them all. Lots of life is lost on both sides, but Teddy lets one Ghost Nation member get away. At the time, it was unclear whether Teddy made that choice or if the Ghost Nation man also has the ability to control hosts via the mesh network. The look on the man’s face initially made me think he was using the mesh network. However, what happens at the end of the episode changed my mind to Teddy resisting his programmed changes.
Teddy and Dolores are talking and Teddy gives a little speech to Dolores. Teddy is trying to fight against the changes Dolores made to him. “You changed me. You made me into a monster,” he says. “What’s the use of surviving, if you become just as bad as them?” And at that, Teddy puts his gun to his head and pulls the trigger. The question here is whether Teddy is dead or “dead.” The death would have more impact if it’s permanent. But I would love to see the scene of Teddy coming back and confronting Dolores, assuming he would remember killing himself.
Bernard
Bernard meets up with Elsie again who is tiring of Bernard’s screwy behavior. He relents and tells her all about the immortality project, that Delos has been storing all the guest data in the Forge, located in the Valley Beyond. During all this, Bernard is still seeing the virtual Ford, who warns him that Elsie is going to betray him and Bernard should get rid of her sooner rather than later. Bernard fights. back, going so far as deleted the data pack from his system that contained this version of Ford. Though to be fair, Ford didn’t fight back, essentially allowing Bernard to remove him.
Maeve (and Clementine!)
Maeve is still bed-ridden. Poor Thandie Newton, and by extension, poor viewers. We have to see Thandie Newton lying on the table, not being able to do anything awesome that we’ve become so accustomed to. Hopefully she will be unleashed in next week’s finale. We see Hale’s reason for keeping Maeve alive. She had one of the tech guys upload the mesh network host control ability to Clementine. We then see Clementine use this new ability to order a room full of hosts to attack and destroy each other. I can’t wait to see this plan go wrong in the finale.
And that’s it for the penultimate episode of season 2. Next week’s finale is a 90 minute super-episode and I want need this next week to fly by. Lots of questions left to be answered, lots of plot to tie up. And I’m sure there will be a few hanging threads for us to ponder over the next year (or more?) before season 3.
