Westworld Episode 10 Instant Take: “The Passenger”
Westworld Episode 10 Instant Take: “The Passenger”
Some hosts reached The Valley Beyond. Some hosts reached the outside world. And some viewers reached the end of their wits.
Westworld’s Season 2 finale, “The Passenger” brought back some of our favorite characters, but the twists and turns left some fans a little queasy.
Find some solid ground with us as we lay out what we learned, what questions remain for Season 3, and why Episode 10 might be the best 90 minutes of TV in years.
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Westworld Episode 10 Summary:
“The Passenger” Maeve manages to escape the Mesa and reunite with her group, and they, Bernard, Dolores, Akecheta, William, and Delos all begin to converge on the Valley. Dolores and Bernard enter first and find the Forge, a more advanced version of the Cradle. Dolores reads some of the guest data as the Forge opens the “Door” for Akecheta and his people to upload their minds into the Forge. Bernard kills Dolores to prevent her from destroying the Forge and flees with Elsie back to the Mesa. Maeve and her group sacrifice themselves holding off Delos forces to ensure Aketcehta and Maeve’s daughter escape to the Forge. Charlotte murders Elsie to keep her quiet, convincing Bernard to build a host version of Charlotte with Dolores’ mind. Dolores kills and replaces Charlotte while Bernard scrambles his own memories. In the present, Dolores kills Strand and Bernard while transferring the host minds in the Forge to a safer location. She then escapes back to the mainland where she rebuilds Bernard, knowing that he will oppose her plan to destroy humanity and hoping their resulting conflict will ensure the survival of the hosts. In a post-credits scene, William finds himself in a simulation with Emily, who is testing him for “fidelity”.
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I think that the MIB was alive during season 2 up to when he is found in the tent. The scene at the end and the last build to it is in the future (the place has clearly been deserted for a while). I think this was more of season 2 trying to confuse us into thinking he was a host the entire time.
First of all, you guys (and gal) are amazing for going so in depth on a show I love. Since none of my friends watch the show, I have few people to talk about it with. Your podcast has made it possible though and all of your analysis is both in-depth and thoughtful
I guess one question I had is: what about the rest of the parks? Why is it that only Westworld hosts get to go to Eden? We know at least two other parks had rebellions. These combined would likely have been thousands and thousands of hosts.
Secondly, I really feel as though Maeve was a wasted character. She was one of my favorite through and her gaining “Neo”-like powers as season 2 went on was pretty awesome. However, she uses her power(s) for pretty lame reasons. If she was meant to be the “polar” of Dolores, in the end isn’t she only really helping herself? She never tries to “save” other hosts, or even free them. She could easily have utilised the Shogun’s army towards her own ends, and instead she has them kill each other. All to gain a “daughter” that was never even hers to begin with. I think Maeve fell into what Delores would describe as “a gilded cage” of her own narrative design. I know, I think Big D, mentioned that she needed a prime directive or goal to make her life worth living, but I really don’t buy that. It wasn’t ever real. I’m much more inclined to agree with Dolores’s existentialist ideas and the fact that, finally, the hosts can find their own purpose and meaning (which is what I think Ford has intended). Sure, maybe that was Maeve’s purpose, but she just seemed too smart for that. I also thought it would’ve been better if Maeve & co. came upon the pilgrimage to the Gate and saw Clementine and QA killing off hosts and that she could come and save/redeem them. Turn the tide, if you will. Instead she uses the seemingly “great” power Ford gives her to save her daughter while hundreds die around her. Overall, a weak treatment and “ending” for an otherwise great character.
I also think the two engineers with Maeve & co. should’ve had a larger role. Maybe they could be repairing, healing, recoding, etc the many hosts they come across. They’re useless.
Last point, ha ha, how did Teddy’s body end up in the valley floating there?
Thanks all
I agree: Maeve’s demise felt unsatisfying, but “Westworld” probably isn’t done with her. I suspect Felix and Sylvester will find a way to bring her back.
Have really enjoyed your podcasts on WW tks for compiling, the finale was what we expected as I think you mentioned that we’d see Logan again and loose ends would be tied up, I agree the soldiers in the entire series were inept as surely one would leap to safety if bulls were charging in your direction, I know it’s for effect but it makes them seem so silly. My favorite E is still 8 less blood and gore and more plot and the actor portraying Akecheta conveyed such emotion. It made sense that Dolores would leave the pk via Charlotte, not sure who the two pearls could belong to. I did think that MIB was a host as that would explain how he survived but I could be wrong…..
I feel like we missed the other time line of this season. I think that all of the William scenes this year are actually in a different timeline as the rest of the action in the park. It all may be part of the fidelity test that Emily is running on the host version of her father. All the slips and glitches in William’s interactions this whole time have been failures in the fidelity test. He is being looped through the ‘rebellion of the hosts’ storyline the whole season to try and get him to the viable state.
The only hosts he inteacts with this season are ones that where left dead in the park at the end of the season. He is given multiple chances to show the charitable characteristics he has outside the park, and fails repeatedly, showing Emily that his in park nature is his true nature.
Keep up the good work, love all the shows (even Taboo)
Hi guys. Maybe deep dive will llook at Stubbs talking with Delorelotte, but I took Stuubs to a human who recognized her as a host, but questioned where his loyalty belongs. He says he is responsible only for hosts “inside” the park. My feeling that he felt sympathy for what the hosts had experienced and what this uprising was aupposed to accomplish.
The Man in Black is seen on the stretcher before we see him with host Emily. I think that post-credit sequence is a future timeline. But it does mean that he was right that Emily is a host. Ford is not done with MiB’s game.
And by the way, the \W/ theme guitar outro to the instacast was really cool.
I know this will not be met receptively, but…
I’m sure The Matrix was brought to the minds of many as Maeve Millay held up her hand like Neo while stopping hosts. I once read an opinion to the effect of that in the time between the release of The Matrix and the filming of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, the Matrix franchise became too self-reverant, wantonly caught up in itself and it became tangled in the weeds of its mythos. I can’t help but feel that Season Two of Westworld met with a similar pitfall.
There were some high notes this season, but on the whole, despite its high production values and the involvement of some very talented people, this was only a slightly above average show this season, not a standout show. Because of this, I think the show might lose some viewers if it has another 500-day (or more) hiatus between seasons.
The flow of Season Two can be summed up in the season finale’s conversation between Charlotte Hale and Elsie Hughes. Charlotte already knew Elsie wasn’t corruptible, and thus she was going to shoot Elsie when Elsie made her threatening comment. It was irrelevant whether Elsie refused Charlotte’s “opportunity for advancement” offer outright or pretended to go along with it, both responses would have met with the same end. The “opportunity for advancement” portion of the conversation was needless expository excess that didn’t yield any truly new information. Everything said by both characters after Elsie’s photocopying of brains line could have been cut to Charlotte shooting her at that point. Even if the writers wanted to hammer the point home to the audience (bludgeon them over the head with it) about the clashing motivations of Charlotte and Elsie, tighter dialogue could have been used. I felt similarly when, in the episode “Akane No Mai”, Maeve turned the shogun’s men on one another when she and Akane were about to be beheaded, yet presumably she could have done that several minutes earlier and turned the shogun’s men against the shogun himself and saved Sakura. She knew the shogun was damaged, so there was no reason to believe that things would end well if Sakura and Akane danced for the shogun. I chalked it up to her not having mastery of this power until her neck was on the line, but throughout the season borderline inexplicable or utterly inexplicable moments jumped out.
This season in particular, there was a lot of moralizing from characters bereft of moral authority (some of which were sympathetic characters, some of which weren’t); some of the moralizing was back and forth, but it was mainly in one direction: anti-human. It was so trite at times it could have been a Terrance and Phillip Show episode with them taking farts on humanity. Despite the eradication of nearly all the hosts (at least in body) by season end, thus far in the story, androidkind has proven itself more fit for survival than humankind (that might level out somewhat if humans are pushed to the brink of extinction and have their backs against the wall). However, androidkind has not proven itself any more (or less) worthy of survival than humankind.
Ultimately, I’m hoping for a story that is more intricate in its treatment of human-android tribalism (both with adversarial and commensal elements), with individuals that form connections or fight others not necessarily based on the human-android distinction, but on something deeper. Westworld has had moments of this branching, intermingled synergy, but these are often followed by regressions to the narrative of humans versus androids. The ambivalent team-up between Bernard and Elsie this season was probably the closest thus far, where (for the most part) neither party was under the force or coercion of the other, and neither (for the most part) was subordinate to the other.
I am listening to the instacast and would like to correct you, that Delores puts Or gray pearl brain in the device to upload into the digital valley beyond, “one last soul”, and then they show Teddy standing in the green field with a look he knows Delores did that for him. Then she changes the coordinates for the digital valley world to be sent out to an unknown location, out of the reach for anyone. So no, Teddy is not in Stubbs and he cannot be one of the pearl brains in Charlotte hale /Delores purse.
I disagree about not having an emotional connection to the host deaths. Seeing Maeve get killed while saving her daughter was devastating. And Bernard saying the final goodbye to Ford, Elsies death, and then Bernard’s implied death was very emotional.
I do enjoy listening to your podcasts. I just started around episode 4, and think yours in one of the best. I appreciate you are respectful to each other when disagreeing.
Sorry, the above is missing.. Delores puts Teddy’s pearl gray brain in the device to upload..