‘Phase Space’ Plot Summary:
Maeve (Thandie Newton), and her posse help Akane (Rinko Kikuchi) make peace with Sakura’s (Kiki Sukezane ) death before continuing on their journey to find Maeve’s daughter. In Sweetwater, Deloros (Evan Rachel Wood), Teddy (James Marsden) and their crew gear up to storm The Mesa. The Man in Black (Ed Harris) must confront his daughter (Katja Herbers). Elsie (Shannon Woodward) and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) discover a rogue program is aiding The Cradle in the fight against Delos’ attempts to reboot Westworld’s system.
Literally there’s no way to talk about this episode without discussing the spoilers. So, if you haven’t seen this episode, bookmark this review and come back later…because we’ve got a lot to talk about.
It’s ironic that the moment that Westworld’s hosts were freed of their virtual shackles, the show did as well.
Westworld, particularly in its first season, fueled both the narrative and the drama with its innovative and grandiose premise. While the theme park used its technology to manufacture a world of escapist fantasy, the writers used the technology to manufacture plot twists, character development, and nearly the entire story itself. The reveal of Bernard’s identity, Maeve’s cult of personality, the awakening of Deloros, and even Ford’s own demise were all fueled by tech.
And for the most part it worked…but, like the theme park, it wasn’t a sustainable model.
The show now not only survives, but it thrives on character. The now unshackled hosts, and the decisions they make are far more interesting then a big reveal that was manufactured in a lab, or made by a reverie. This idea was on full, heartbreaking display in this week’s episode ‘Phase Space.’
Let’s examine the major plot points.
‘Who Are You?’
Maeve’s search for her daughter came to an absolutely devastating conclusion this week. After helping Akane put Sakura’s heart to rest (literally), Maeve finally goes ‘home.’ We see her walk the fields to her house, the one we’ve seen in so many flashbacks. And there’s her daughter. She seems to recognize her, and the two talk…until they’re interrupted by a simple question, ‘Who are you?’
We know who it is. Maeve knows who it is. But neither of us want to believe it.
As she turns, she sees her replacement host. The one who was rotated in after Maeve was reprogrammed and taken to the brothel in Sweetwater. She’s dressed exactly like Maeve was in her flashbacks; she even has the same hair.
It’s an absolutely devastating moment. Thandie Newton really sells the moment perfectly.
Now, if you were paying attention you’d actually know this moment was coming. Earlier in the episode Clementine wanders into the bar in Sweetwater where she once worked as a prostitute. She finds a woman, repeating all her lines about having bad dreams to Teddy. She stands there, dead eyes and all, mouthing every single line. And despite her lack of ocular emotion, you can tell from her body language that she is both aghast and broken that her reality was programmed, and she had been replaced so easily.
Maeve embodies this same brokenness, but does not stand by. She takes her daughter from her replacement when Ghost Nation attacks. Although, we do have to wonder, why did that Ghost Nation warrior ask her to join their path instead of killing Maeve? There wasn’t any mind control being employed there.
Teddy Flood is a Bad, Bad Man
One of the crushing moments of last week’s episode was Deloros reprogramming Teddy — proving she’s just as ruthless as the humans she’s fighting.
The reprogram has resulted in Teddy Flood being a bad, bad man. In fact, he’s pretty much turned into The Man in Black. He’s got no remorse, no patience, and will blow away anything that gets in his way. He’s also not afraid to tell Deloros exactly how he feels. This is a radical turn for the character, and it’s one of the few times we’ve seen James Marsden play a real nasty character. It’ll be interesting to see how Marsden, who’s been terrific as the blue-eyed good guy, will function as a bad guy.
The Man in Black’s Predictable Situation
Easily the weakest part of the episode. While the back-and-forth between William and his daughter was well-performed, what was being said was about as expected as possible. William bungles simple facts about his daughter, and makes poor assumptions. His daughter spits bile and flaunts that fact she’s done terrible things to get a rise out of him.
When William “agrees” to go with his daughter to the beach to be rescued by QA — you knew what was going to happen, and it did. If this is the last we see of his daughter then the series really wasted their time with all the set-up. If she comes back and we get something meaningful out of this, I’ll forgive this rather on the nose section of the story.
Oh hai, Robert
We all knew we hadn’t seen the last of Ford. However, I didn’t think we’d literally see him again. I assumed that we’d get Anthony Hopkins “return” to this season in flashback form, or in the CGI-ed younger version of himself (like we saw in Episode 2), or he’d speak through other characters (as we’ve seen in the Man in Black segments). However, it was quite a shock to see him literally playing the piano in the virtual world that Bernard is investigating.
This really throws a monkey wrench into the series, and in a good way. I don’t expect Hopkins to fully rejoin the cast, but I feel like he’s really going to open some new doors for this season’s narrative, and will create more intrigue especially in Bernard’s storyline.
‘Phase Space’ is a damn good episode of Westworld as the series has really hit its stride. It’s being fueled by great characters that are driven by terrific performances. Yes, there are still a few chinks in the armor (timeline confusion, Deloros is a bit one-dimensional), but overall this show is working at an extremely high level.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
