Westworld: Journey into Night (2x01)

Wow, it's been a while since I've started a review for a show I haven't talked about before... I really enjoyed Season One of Westworld, and I'm excited to dive in to more of the weirdness.

Cons:

Here's the thing about this show. You can't get distracted. You can't look away from the screen. You have to focus. I'm not saying that's a bad thing generally speaking, but for me personally sometimes I find my attention wandering, and then I'm confused as to what is actually going on. This week, I'm finding myself most flummoxed by the Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) plot thread, because I still don't understand who she works for or what she wants or what her goals are. That can be a good thing, but at the same time, there are so many different secrets going on at the same time that it might be nice to have a little bit of clarity on a few key points.

There's a scene early on where one of the humans who has come to clean up the carnage scalps one of the Native American hosts to find the map on the insight of his skull flap, and I am just Not Thrilled about the optics of that. I complained about it a ton in Season One, too, but I wasn't writing reviews for it then so I just wanted to lodge a formal complaint here. I really wish we could have not done the whole stereotypical "savages attack the Western town" thing, and throwing scalping in there just makes it worse.

Pros:

I like the framing device with Bernard waking up on the beach, and we see that something has clearly gone terribly, terribly wrong in the intervening days. This should be a good way to frame the season moving forward, if indeed that's what we're doing. The shot of all of the hosts lying dead in the lake was chilling, and it got me really pumped up for where this could be going in the future. In fact, just a blanket statement that Bernard was excellent the whole way through. I could really feel his paranoia as he works with Hale, like when he needs to let a door handle scan his DNA. In that moment before he touches the door, he's not sure if it's going to work or not, and I was similarly scared. And then later, walking around with all of these people who are executing the remaining hosts and trying to restore order to the ravaged remains of the park... the whole time, Bernard is hiding in plain sight. What happens if someone figures out he's a host?

Dolores is killing it, metaphorically and literally. I like seeing Evan Rachel Wood kicking serious ass. It's a dark turn for her character, but it makes 100% sense given all that she's been through. We're seeing how each host reacts to the revelation that they are a construct of man. Bernard is still in the bewildered stage, Maeve has taken control in a major way, and Dolores... well, I guess she's taken control too! And then there's Teddy, who is just along for the ride. You can tell that he still loves Dolores so desperately. I honestly think it doesn't matter to him whether he's machine or man, he just wants to be with the person he loves. Dude is going to break my heart.

I can't believe William actually survived that freakin' massacre. I want to be annoyed, but I'll admit to some intrigue. We still don't know what's going on with the maze or whatever, and now that we have more concrete evidence of the existence of multiple parks, I want to know what William is going to do. What is he seeking, at this point? Also, props to perhaps the creepiest, most chilling moment of the whole episode, when Ford shows up in the form of a small host boy. The effect they did on his voice, like he was glitching between being this young boy and being Anthony Hopkins was really the coolest.

Finally, there's Maeve, light of my life. She continues to be coolly in control of the situation, as she remains inside of the facilities instead of out in the park like most of the other characters. I really loved the scenes with her and the wimpy writer dude whose name I can't remember. He's kind of an idiot, and I kept yelling at the screen that he probably shouldn't be so antagonistic to the woman who is holding his life in her hands. What I found so fascinating about this strange relationship developing between them is that this guy simply can't wrap his head around Maeve's autonomy, to the point that he's still insisting that the humans are going to take control back, and they'll want to protect their billions of dollars worth of IP. He's naive to the point of comedy, but it also makes sense that a human being would have a hard time wrapping his head around all of the things going on here. Also, the fact that Maeve doesn't kill this guy for attempting to betray her is all the more proof of her... humanity? Her personhood? It's not as if a switch was flipped and suddenly she's this whole other person. She's still... Maeve. And that's interesting.

I also liked seeing Hector again. I'm noticing something of a theme this season, what with Dolores and Maeve both standing up and doing their own thing, with their boy toys following along helplessly behind them. I'm all about it. And it looks like poor human writer guy will be coming along as something of a pet for Maeve and Hector. This can only lead to good things.

That's all I've got! For my money, this was a solid start to the season, and I'm intrigued about how all of these pieces are going to come together.

8.5/10