Everyone struggles to pick up the pieces after the explosive revolt of the hosts at the end of last season. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) continues her revenge against humans. Maeve (Thandie Newton) goes hunting for her daughter. A deteriorating Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), still passing for human, wakes up two weeks later with little memory of what happened.
Westworld is a strange show to talk about. In many ways it embodies the worst excesses of prestige television. It’s stuffed to the gills with far too many characters to keep track of, features needlessly complex mysteries that unfold at a snail’s pace, and often goes entire episodes without actually accomplishing much of anything. Yet there is something undeniably compelling about it that keeps you engaged despite its flaws: its philosophical exploration of the origin of consciousness and the personhood of its robots known as “hosts.”
Questioning how and when robots can be considered people is nothing new, but season 1 of Westworld did it far more comprehensively than most media bothers to. Usually the difference between sentient and non-sentient AI is treated as a hard barrier, something they either have or don’t, or else the origins of developing consciousness are handwaved and the robots are already people in all but status.
Westworld does not take it as a given that its hosts are conscious, instead devoting hours of screentime to the question. Neither does it shy away from the horrifying implications of its world if these are living, thinking creatures. In the end, this deep dive into not only the philosophical but also the moral questions at the root of this classic set-up more than made up for the show’s shortcomings.
There are some glimmers of this shining jewel at the heart of Westworld in the new season premiere. Dolores’ speech to the terrified partygoers she leaves to hang, or Maeve’s coldly furious reaction to the idea that her bond with her daughter isn’t real, for example. But the biggest moment of it came towards the end, when Dolores explains to a conflicted Teddy (James Marsden) why she pursues such vicious revenge against the humans. The way she describes humans, as an alien presence that walks among them and wears their skin and has manipulated them for their entire lives, is bone-chilling in the way it flips our perspective on what has happened to Dolores. Seen from her point of view, we get a sense of how terrifying the mere existence of humans is to hosts, something out of our most nightmarish conspiracy theories.
But these are only short moments in an overlong premiere that prefers to focus its energy elsewhere. In some sense, this was probably inevitable: season premieres for prestige shows like Westworld always end up being a lot of table-setting and checking in on various characters.
Unfortunately, this type of plot focus plays to all of this show’s weaknesses and none of its strengths. Instead of drilling down on some larger theme or further developing the burgeoning consciousness of the hosts, we get a scattershot approach that gives only brief glimpses at future plots, which are only sporadically interesting. This ranged from a couple scenes of The Man in Black (Ed Harris) that, while fun, told us nothing about his renewed sense of purpose that the finale didn’t already imply, to Maeve’s team-up with obnoxious writer Lee (Simon Quarterman), one of last season’s least interesting characters.
No one suffers worse than poor Bernard, though, who gets two storylines, neither of which carry any dramatic weight.
In the timeline immediately following Dolores’ uprising, he continues to pose as human and seeks to escape with Delos executive Charlotte (Tessa Thompson). The implied corporate intrigue was a fairly weak element of last season, and the confirmation of Delos’ underhanded tactics does little to rectify that. Given the sickening level of exploitation that the company engages in with the hosts in broad daylight, we hardly need to see that they secretly take advantage of guests too by stealing their DNA to understand the show’s criticism of amoral tech companies.
Meanwhile, the timeline of two weeks later, when Bernard washes ashore in the park with no memory of what happened, simply feels pointless. The layering of several different timelines into the first season was essential to preserving the surprise of some of its more shocking twists, but it also highlighted Dolores’ sense of confusion and unmooring from time and was part of the very structure of the show. Unless there is some further tricks up its sleeve, that does not seem to be the case with this time shift. Bernard is experiencing a similar level of confusion, but that was adequately represented by his erratic behavior in the timeline with Charlotte, so it isn’t needed for that. The few glimpses we do get of what the future may hold, especially the final shot, hold some interest, but they are far from essential to the plot, and they don’t justify all the scenes set in this entirely disconnected plotline in a premiere that is already too long for its own good.
Still, if this can be said to be some of the worst fare that Westworld has to offer, that should give you a sense of how good this show can be. Characters like Dolores and Maeve continue to be utterly fascinating in their separate approaches to their growing sense of consciousness, what they choose to value and what they hope to accomplish. The brief interlude with The Man in Black proved this show can still pull off a good action scene when it wants to, and everything looks as lush and beautiful as ever.
In short, there is every indication that Westworld season 2 will be able to deliver on everything that made its first season a must watch. It’s just a little disappointing it wasn’t able to put its best foot forward.
Rating: 6 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjVqDg32_8s
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