Westworld, Indiaworld and Shogunworld collide in season 2 episode 3: Review and recap
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Your support makes all the difference.Westworld was a game of two halves last week, the initial peaks into the real world pre-Westworld being immensely enjoyable before giving way to those kind of inscrutable William and Delores scenes where people say things like "that's an answer to a question that hasn't been asked yet" and you don't know whether to laugh or groan.
Episode 3, however, was way more consistent and ricocheted around some intense sub-plots of real consequence.
The cold open was a stunner, the camera centering on two peacocks (we're not in Westworld anymore, Dorothy) before panning to show a gentile afternoon tea taking place on the lawn of a grand hotel. This confirmed our suspicions that a park set in India was next up for the show, and it looks to be some kind of weird, colonial fantasy set in the early 20th century - "Brexitworld", as my colleague has christened it.
Here we were introduced to a new recurring character, Grace (Katja Herbers, above), an apparent guest flirting with another apparent guest. A nice little game of "are you a robot or not" was set-up that I'm surprised we haven't seen before now, Grace giving the man the ol' litmus test of shooting him in the heart. Satisfied he was human thanks to him being left with a mere bruise, she then had sex with him, only for their romance to be short-lived - the Indian park having apparently also fallen victim to conscious hosts out for vengeance. Grace made it out though, albeit into the custody of a tribe of Native Americans over in Westworld.
Elsewhere, Bernard and Charlotte set about rescuing more humans from The Worst Product Launch In History, dialling down an outlaw's aggression and up his empathy. Chased by Native Americans, Charlotte escaped off into the hills while Bernard ended up captured by Dolores, the pair having an argument about who has had it worse as an enslaved host and examining walking USB drive Abernathy.
Speaking of Dolores, her posturing as leader of the hosts continued, her army growing and clashing for the first time with Delos agents. Strategy cards were played closed to chests here, but I get the sense that both Dolores and Maeve's intelligence stats are so high - to the point of singularity - that they will outwit and evade humans time and time again.
Armistice returned tonight, roasting an assailant with a newly-obtained flamethrower. "She has a dragon!" Hector explained, surely a wink to the show whose mantle Westworld is attempting to pick up, Game of Thrones.
The biggest shock for me this week though was that I didn't hate Lee's scenes, his interactions with Maeve about how Hector's scripted lines stemming from his past relationships being genuinely humorous.
'Virtù e Fortuna' ended dramatically with Dolores' gang being jumped by ninjas from the previously teased shogun-themed world. This sets up for quite the episode 4, which could see a three-way battle between militia from different continents and time periods.
Westworld airs on HBO in the US and through Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.
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