Westworld, ‘Virtù e Fortuna’ Plot Summary:
Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) recruits the Confederados to her cause. Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum) slips out of Charlotte’s (Tessa Thompson) grasp and into Dolores’. Maeve (Thandie Newton) meets some familiar faces as she continues her search for her daughter.
There’s been a fair amount of speculation about what the brief glimpse we got of a Bengal tiger in the first episode might mean. We even talked about it in our speculation column for the show. But quite uncharacteristically for Westworld, we’ve already gotten our answer in the form of this episode’s opening vignette, a short tale of two guests in a different park when the host uprising happens. It answers a few questions for us (what other parks are there? Did the uprising spread to them too? How are they all connected?) but more importantly, it’s a fun, self-contained little story.
The metaphorical game of cat-and-mouse between the two guests as they test if the other is human, followed by the much more literal cat-and-mouse between the surviving guest and the tiger is a solid structure, and it serves as the perfect lead-in for some of the most functional storytelling Westworld has had in a while.
This show’s biggest flaw is usually its willingness to forgo good character work in favor of either the narrative or the larger thematic point, but you’d never guess that from this episode. There’s an abundance of great character moments, from the fun, even goofy, to the serious.
Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) reprogramming a creepy outlaw into a chivalrous gunslinger harkens back to the earlier days of the show, and the simple contrast between the two personalities is a rare moment of levity in a show that could stand to have a few more. [Editor’s Note: Yes, that gunslinger was Simon from The Walking Dead]
Then there’s Lee’s (Simon Quarterman) shock at the developing romance between Maeve and Hector (Rodrigo Santoro). The ensuing debate over just how much Lee understands their psychology is a great little micro-exploration of the hosts’ ability to change and evolve, and then it turns the tables on us with Maeve’s piercing insight about Lee’s wish fulfillment in his work.
The best character work of the episode is easily in Dolores’ storyline though. For the past few episodes we have seen her embrace her new role as a revolutionary, and with it she has leaned much harder on the chilling Wyatt personality. But the brief reunion with her father reveals more of the tender Dolores we knew in Season 1. It’s heartbreaking to see her tearfully try to reconnect with him, and the mix of hope, joy, and anguish that fills her face is a great reminder of what a terrific actress Evan Rachel Wood is.
Then Teddy (James Marsden) gets to close things out with another great character moment when he refuses to shoot the remaining Confederados despite Dolores’ orders. We haven’t quite seen the good-hearted man we knew from season 1 in Teddy so far, making this first bit of agency all the more significant.
What makes these moments in particular so great is how they help shape and propel the narrative. Westworld can have a tendency to putter around without moving forward a little too much, but these choices set up dramatic conflicts and move the plot forward in exciting ways.
First there’s the increasing tension between the old Dolores and the ruthless new one, a tension now embodied by the presence of her father and her drive to get him back from the security forces that have recaptured him. Until now there has been little outward sign of this brewing internal conflict, but with this development we can now see how this tension is only going to increase.
Something similar happens with Teddy here. We’ve seen him give concerned looks at Dolores’ excessive violence, fret over her choices, and have other characters point out that he’s conflicted, but for this to have any tangible meaning, he has to make a choice. The concrete act of defiance he engages in, however small, dramatizes the growing rift between him and Dolores for the first time, and illuminates that first step on the path to his watery fate.
Not every plot development here is quite so solid. The future timeline, though only briefly glimpsed here, still doesn’t seem to serve any purpose beyond making vague hints about what happened that would be better served by letting events unfold naturally instead of turning them into mysteries.
On the other side of the scale, there’s a bit too much narrative handwaving towards the end of Maeve’s storyline. While it’s certainly good to see Armistice (Ingrid Bolso Berdal), Felix (Leonardo Lam), and Sylvester (Ptolemy Slocum) again, the reunion is given no time to breathe. We get no sense of how they got here, and they don’t show any surprise over seeing Maeve, who they last saw leaving the park for good. It’s a decent move for the narrative, but far too rushed to work effectively.
But these are minor quibbles compared to the storytelling verve otherwise on display. If Westworld always made episodes this propulsive while maintaining its thematic and philosophical excellence, there would be no denying its place as one of the best shows on TV. We can only hope that this wasn’t a one-time trick, and more episodes like this are waiting for us in the weeks to come.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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