Westworld Episode 8 Instant Take: “Kiksuya”
Westworld Episode 8 Instant Take: “Kiksuya”
“Kiksuya” delighted “Westworld” fans who wanted the story a little slower, a little clearer, and with a little more heart. But it wasn’t without big revelations that tie to the greater story.
In Season 2, Episode 8, we learn how the Maze keeps showing up in the park, see more of the facility William is building, expand Maeve’s abilities, and begin to see what The Door could be.
Oh, and Logan is still naked.
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Westworld Episode 7 Summary:
“Kiksuya” William is found by Akecheta and taken to a Ghost Nation camp. Emily arrives and persuades him to let her take William, promising that he will suffer more with her than with the Ghost Nation. Maeve is taken in for analysis as Lee hopes she can be used to control the hosts, but Charlotte discovers that she has been consciously accessing the Westworld network to communicate with and reprogram other hosts. In the camp, Akecheta tells his story to Maeve’s daughter. Prior to the uprising, he lived a peaceful life among the Ghost Nation until he discovered the maze symbol and inadvertently started down the path to sentience. After an encounter with Logan Delos and the discovery of the Valley Beyond, he concludes that his life is not his own and plans an escape. When his partner Kohana is taken by the park technicians and decommissioned, Akecheta dedicates himself to spreading the maze symbol as a warning to other hosts. It is revealed that Maeve has been connected to her daughter during the analysis and that Akecheta has been communicating with her. The raiding parties were intended to save hosts, who he promises Maeve he will lead to the Valley Beyond. He implores her to stay behind and complete her mission before Dolores destroys them all.
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- Theme Song – “The Ecstasy Of Gold” (Hip Hop Instrumental Version) by Dj 2 Bad
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On the issue of Ake wondering around the Mesa, a couple of points:
– He said earlier in the episode that he could “feel” the others, the ones he cannot kill, i.e. humans. Therefore, he likely could navigate the halls without being caught. Also, I think this means he has access, in a subtle way, to the mesh network much like Maeve does. He just calls it a feeling.
– As to him knowing where to go, we keep forgetting he is a old host that they used to sell the park to Delos — he may have been there before. Also, this would explain why he is comfortable in a modern setting — much like Dolores, he remembers everything. On the other hand, his access to the Mesh network may have led him to the area his love was being stored.
“Polarizing”? I think that those who appreciate good film/TV making and storytelling will appreciate this — the change of tone and pacing also deepens the world-building of this show. For those who are not sufficiently “woke” and are looking for gunfights, gore, and the satisfaction of other prurient interests, this episode won’t look like anything to them.
Okay you guys are driving me crazy! It’s like we’re watching two different shows!! Okay here we go, here’s my take of it, when akechta was walking around the mesa and cold storage, I just thought well obviously ford is watching and deleting him on the cameras, I didn’t think the reveries on the piano did anything I thought the sentence that ‘woke’ the hosts was these violent delights have violent end, Logan did a 180 on the park because he wanted it to be used as a place to go fuck and kill! A place maybe in the outside world is looked down upon now or no where as ‘high class! And with the added thrill of ‘guilt free’, so it is the wrong world because he’s delirious in the sun and waking up and saying this is the wrong world I wanna go back to mine! Obviously!! And humans are stupid of course they are, it’s our cornerstone to make mistakes!!! And the most obvious thing, Emily and ghost nation do want the same thing, for him to suffer! Emily wants to keep him alive because she thinks he wants to die in the park! And akecheta(sorry bout spelling if it’s wrong) wants him to suffer because that’s how you make him see the truth to everything, the same as the hosts did, through suffering! Now guys I thought all this stuff was obvious and your killin me when you talk about something witty out bringing up the obviousness’! Surely these things are obvious right!!……..also love you guys been with ya since your first ever video 🙂 yes big d!
C’mon guys. We just had a whole episode about him now. Can you drop the AwkChedda pronunciation now? It’s ah-KEH-cheh-tah.
Also, it saddens me every time louis herthum says “the original peter abernathy”. He’s the only Peter Abernathy. Fuck that other guy.
This was my fave episodes of the season!
What’s the name of the song that plays at the end of this podcast? I can’t find it on the ww soundtrack. Thanks
That’s a cover by listener Simon. We’ll see if he has a website.
WHERE can we download that guitar version of the theme?!
This may be a post somilar to one I wrote earlier, but don’t if it got sent.
Anyway, we see that the hosts when awakened continue to adhere to the cultural underpinnings of their backstories. This was made especially apparent with Akecheta’s story. His story is told through a Native American worldview, much as Shogun World’s characters remained within a Japanese cultural context, and Westworld’s maintain their frontier Western personas. I wonder if the hosts will eventually develop a separate identity “host culture.” Such a cultural development seems necessary to the plot as the hosts evolve their own identities independent of human intervention.
Couple questions/observations:
When hosts are in the shop for repairs, they are nude. In s2e8, Maeve is still clothed and covered with a sheet on the gurney. And why is she flayed open with all those gizmos attached inside her neck and arm, instead of the techs using the forearm port?
Why was Akecheta’s tribe not present when Arnold had all the other hosts and himself shot. If the point of that massacre was to destroy all the hosts so the park could not open, then why leave any hosts at all? So then, did Akecheta happen on the maze puzzle accidentally, or was there a plan for him to find it? Was Ford behind that event somehow?
I am slightly older than Ed Harris, and I must say I am impressed with his recuperative abilities and his stamina as the MiB. I’ll have what he’s having!
Again, my apologies if this email duplicates one I already sent.
Keeo up the good work!
You guys are a bit confused. Maeve shouldn’t be able to access Akecheta because he is woke (like last episode with Lawrence), so it’s doubtful that she was ever speaking through him. When Ake was speaking english he was speaking to the daughter, the rest of the time, when speaking Lakota, he was talking to Maeve.
On the Instacast, Big D was trying to communicate that idea. I just didn’t get it and messed him up.
This episode did a lot to flesh out the personality and character vs. caricature of the awake hosts. The hosts all stay within their cultural or backstory/cornrrstone contexts when they awaken. Shogun World characters, Raj World, Westworld townspeople, Conferados, Ghost Nation are still tied to their programmed roots and the worldview identities that grow from those roots. Kiksuya really brought that home to me because we were allowed an evening with one host to listen to his story, told this time within the undercurrent of a Native American cultural worldview.
I wonder, though, if the story will lead the hosts beyond their programmed cultural and ethnic roots to something that transcends human cultural history. Maybe that is already beginning through Maeve and Delores, and now Akecheta. I think part of the plot needs to move in that direction to keep the evolution of the host characters believable.
Couple thoughts:
Why is Maeve flayed open with all those gizmos wired to her neck and arm, and why was she kept with her clothes on and a sheet on the gurmey? Hosts are usually nude when in the shop for repairs.
I also think that it was odd that Akecheta and his people somehow were not present if Armold’s goal was to have all the hosts “dead” before Arnold had Delores kill him. Did Arnold forget about them somehow? Was it accidental or a deliberate plan that Akecheta find the maze game?
Keep up the good work and thanks!
It’s possible Arnold only wanted the “main attraction” hosts wasted. Or maybe he had special consideration for the Native characters.