Westworld – Contrapasso

By starrymag | November 1, 2016

By: Kathryn Trammell

 

Dolores, William, and Logan, Alonzo/Lawrence

 

William (Jimmi Simpson), Logan (Ben Barnes) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) arrive at the town where Slim (James Landry Hebert) told them his relative, Olonzo, can help grant them a reward for sparring his life. As they wander the streets that are overflowing with debauchery, they come across a group of men that Dolores’ father used to call “The Army of New Virginia” who are “ex-confederate soldiers that refused to surrender after the war.” Here, the locals refer to them as “Confederados” and to them they are nothing more than mercenaries. To Logan; however, they are the key to war and chaos, which is a “game” he would like to play while vacationing inside Westworld.

 

Later that evening, William and Dolores have a conversation in which he tells her that the aspect of the park that is most alluring is the prospect that people can create lives for themselves they never thought possible – lives that never had a chance of becoming a reality until the moment they stepped into her world. Dolores wants to better understand what William means when he speaks about “her world” as if it is not like his, a response that confuses him. “I thought you weren’t supposed to notice things like that,” he says to which she responds, “Why wouldn’t I?” The world is calling to her in ways it never has before and because of that she is noticing things that her programming never intended. William is unaware of the depth of what her response implies and takes her hands reading the romance at the surface of what she is saying rather than understanding its deeper meaning.

 

The moment is interrupted when the town erupts in celebration that looks like a Dia de Muertos parade and Logan rushes to William suggesting they visit a brothel before meeting with Alonzo (El Lozo?). While they aren’t looking, Dolores follows the parade of people after she sees what looks like a replica of herself walking through the throngs of revelers. As she searches for herself, faces painted to look like Calaveras pass by her in droves until a feeling of vertigo knocks her over.

 

When she wakes up, she is inside a room within the staffing compound of Westworld and Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is seated before her. Per usual, she is quick to establish that she believes she is in a dream, the purpose of which in this particular instance is to determine if Dolores has had any recent contact with Arnold. She tells Dr. Ford that she hasn’t spoken to him at all and even when he puts her in analysis mode Dolores assures him that her last contact with Arnold was nearly 35 years ago – the day Arnold died – when he told Dolores that she would help him destroy the park. Dr. Ford brushes the admission off as nothing more than the empty threats of a dying man seeing as how Dolores was too content with her modest loop to ever revolt against the park. But before he is able to leave the room, Dolores asks him if they are old friends. He tells her that they aren’t and that he wouldn’t call their relationship a friendship in the least. Once he is gone from the room and the lights turn out, we see Dolores drop the act she’s just masterfully played on of Dr. Ford. “He doesn’t know,” she says into the air. “I didn’t tell him anything.”

 

Back inside the park, Dolores, William and Logan finally meet with Alonzo to discuss a reward for saving Slim. When the mysterious man lifts his head, we see that it is Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.) or at least a replica of the AI who plays Lawrence. He offers to give Logan “plenty of women” for saving a relative. Logan says it isn’t enough and that he has had plenty of whores inside the park. What he wants is a chance to speak with Alonzo’s desperados. Alonzo agrees, but only after Dolores steps forward to explain that she is looking for “something” and that she thinks he is looking for it, too. Although he calls her a lunatic, he offers to help both her and Logan achieve what they want if, and only if, they can help him and his desperados intercept a batch of nitroglycerin from the Union. Dolores, William and Logan agree to these terms and soon deliver the nitroglycerin as promised into the hands of Alonzo allowing Logan the chance to become absorbed into the ranks of the desperados.

 

They celebrate that evening and night by immersing themselves in an atmosphere that proves just how outlandish Westworld becomes the closer you get to its borders. But even amidst one elaborate orgy scene, Logan and William still find something to fight about and they again lose track of Dolores who wanders through corridors displaying vast amounts of flesh until she reaches a room where a woman sits at a table holding a deck of tarot cards. The card Dolores pulls from her hand displays the maze that Lawrence’s daughter drew in the dirt and when she asks the woman what it means the woman become Dolores. “You must follow the maze,” Dolores 2.0 says to Dolores. Shocked at the sight of herself, Dolores chokes on the emotions that threaten to overwhelm her and asks, “What’s wrong with me?” Dolores 2.0 gives her a Mona Lisa smile and says, “Perhaps you are unraveling.”

 

Dolores looks down at her wrist and notices what looks like a string sticking out of her skin. She flicks it once and then twice. She then tugs on the string, tearing a rift through her forearm. She gasps at the sight of her flesh being splayed open, but just as soon as it was made the rift is closed again – as if what occurred in the past few seconds never even happened. Dolores runs from the room and down the stairs where she sees Alonzo and his men siphon the contents of each bottle of nitroglycerin into Slim’s corpse. They refill the bottles with whiskey and put Slim’s body in a coffin, smuggling him and the nitro out of town in the back of a wagon towards a train. Dolores rushes to tell William that they have been set up and that Alonzo never intended to give the nitro to the Confederados, but just as she explains to him that they need to run before they are accused of lying, one of the Confederados drops a bottle of nitro on the ground giving them away when it does not explode.

 

The Captain of the Confederados and his men begin to attack Logan and they chase William and Dolores into an alley. William is only able to get one shot off before the men begin to attack him and when they move to go after Dolores, her world narrows into extreme focus and her face transforms into something wonderfully dangerous. Although we don’t see it, we hear the rapid fire of her pistol and the four men who were surrounding William drop to the ground as the tip of her barrel smokes. William looks at the dead men surrounding his feet and then up at Dolores who holsters her gun. “Dolores, how did you do that?” he asks. And perhaps for the first time ever, Dolores answers truthfully and entirely uncensored: “You said people come here to change the story of their lives. I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.”

 

A train blows past the alley where they stand and Dolores takes William’s hand and pulls him towards it saying it is their only chance to escape from this area. They chase after its caboose and jump aboard only to be met inside the car by Alonzo. He stands facing them with his gun aimed directly at them and over the coffin where Slim’s body now resides. Recognizing the coffin as Slim’s, Dolores takes her gun and aims the barrel directly at its side forcing Alonzo to relinquish his weapon. He reintroduces himself to them both as “Lawrence” and tells them that they should all get more comfortable for the train ride ahead – a ride that will lead them to the maze that Dolores sees inscribed on the lid of Slim’s coffin. When neither Lawrence nor William are listening, Dolores says into the wind, “I’m coming.”

 

Man in Black and Teddy

 

The Man in Black (Ed Harris) continues on his search for finding the maze with Lawrence and a nearly dead Teddy (James Marsden) by his side. When they finally come to a resting spot, The Man kills Lawrence in order to drain him of his blood and then transfers it into Teddy’s veins. Teddy wakes up moments later and the two carry on down the path.

 

They make their way into a small town and enter a bar for a drink. Surprisingly, the man who has been playing the piano since they entered the establishment joins them at their table. The Man introduces him to Teddy as Dr. Ford – the person responsible for every wonderful and terrible thing that has ever happened to him. The Man in Black believes Dr. Ford has come to meet with him because he wants to stop him from finding the center if the maze, but Dr. Ford tells him he is mistaken. He would never try to stop someone who is on a voyage of self-discovery. He rises from the table and snaps his fingers, setting both the piano and Teddy in motion. “Time’s a wastin’,” Teddy says.

 

Maeve, Elsie, and Westworld staff

 

The two reconstructive lab techs (“butchers”) who originally forgot to put Maeve (Thandie Newton) in sleep mode when she escaped from the lab in Episode Two investigate the bruising around Maeve’s abdomen where they have found another wound. Lab Tech One says it looks self-inflicted – like someone was searching for something inside her stomach. He is absolutely right, but neither linger too much on discussing it further.

 

Later inside the lab, Tech 1 places a dead bird on an exam table and pulls a programming tablet from his pocket. As he types a code into the tablet he encourages life into the bird the way we once saw B.D. Wong encourage a dinosaur egg to hatch in Jurassic Park. The bird’s wings flutter as it rolls over onto its feet, its glitchy movements causing it to fall to the ground. Lab Tech 2 rushes into the room and picks it up before yelling at Tech 1 for messing with corporate property (apparently stealing an AI life form from the park and raising it from the dead with a code is against the rules). He is bitten by the bird when his hands close around its tiny body. He tells Tech 1 to destroy it so that neither of them can get in trouble for attempting to mess with programming codes and suggests they gets back to work on Maeve’s body.

 

Believing to be under investigation by Elsie (Shannon Woodward), who has decided to take a stroll away from programming and into their neck of the woods, both lab techs watch as she enters the room beside them to investigate further the body of the Stray who bashed in his own head in Episode Three. Inside his arm she finds a laser-based satellite uplink that is capable of smuggling Westworld data out of the park (his whittled carvings of Orion were actually coordinates to a target). When she takes the piece of equipment to Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), he is just as surprised as she is that such a thing was planted inside a host.

 

Later that evening, Lab Tech 1 returns to his lab and retrieves the bird from his locker. He tries to reanimate the bird again using a different code and this time when the bird flutters and flaps its wings it does not fall to the ground. Instead, it flies over to where Maeve has sat up on her metal gurney and lands on her outstretched fingers. She smiles at the bird and then smiles at the technician. She tells him its time they finally talked.