Westworld: The Winter Line (3x02)

So far, so good! This show can be very convoluted, but I'm tracking this season thus far.

Cons:

Bernard is still a weak link for me. I liked parts of his plot thread, but the basic issue is that you can summarize this shit in two seconds flat: he's looking for Maeve, and he comes across Stubbs. The end. The rest of his stuff felt like filling time.

Someone explain to me why the fuck any of the parks are still active, after what happened last season? I know Westworld itself is shut down, but seriously... are there actually human beings still willing to go to any of the parks when they know the AI can go rogue and murder them? Seems like a stretch to me.

Pros:

Last week's premiere was setting up Dolores, and this week is setting up Maeve. One thing I really appreciate is that we're still setting up everyone's motives very clearly, so things aren't getting too muddled. Maeve basically realizes she's trapped, and spends the episode trying to untangle herself from her programming and escape from the company. She ends up with a man who, I believe, is the guy who created the machine that Dolores is trying to access. Apparently Dolores was an unknown factor that is messing up the machine's insane predictive capabilities, and this guy wants Maeve to take Dolores out. I like the clear Maeve vs. Dolores setup here, because I know it will devolve and become more complicated from here!

While Bernard isn't my favorite character, I did like the reappearance of Ashley Stubbs, and how we have firmer information on his purpose. He was supposed to protect the hosts, and he does so by protecting Bernard. Later, Bernard overrides his prime directive, as it were, and basically recruits Stubbs to be his personal protector. I like the ramifications of this - the way Bernard, despite being aware of his own nature, takes advantage of his technical skill to basically trap another being just like him. I think the moral implications are tricky, and I also like how Bernard has been programmed to be more philosophical and deep, which contributed to him being in this situation in the first place, while Stubbs is a more straight-forward, goal-oriented person. We'll have to see what happens next, as Bernard relies on Stubbs' protection to gather more information from Delos!

Maeve's story is delightfully twisty, but in this fun, self-contained way that kept the bigger picture clear, and didn't confuse me to the point of loss of enjoyment. Basically, she's playing out one of her loops, but she is aware of who she is, and is trying to find an exit strategy. Poor Hector is there, but he doesn't remember, and Maeve is forced to leave him behind on her journey to freedom. But at various points, as she believes she is starting to break free, she learns she's still in a simulation. One hint of that is Lee Sizemore, a human who died last season. At first, it seems like maybe we were wrong about his death. But no - Maeve eventually realizes that he is a host as well, created to keep her trapped, part of the program. Another clever way she discovers she's still in a computer is by asking the various park technicians to calculate the square root of negative one, which sets all of the not-humans buzzing as they try to solve for the answer.

Basically, as Maeve continues to work her way out of the simulation, she finds that the maze goes deeper and deeper than she imagined. And then, when she does find herself free of it, it's at the behest of yet another human man trying to control her. Maeve is pretty damn clear on how she feels about free will, and I for one am very excited to see her fight for it this season!

So there you have it. These first two episodes of Westworld have been a promising start, in my opinion. However, I'm quite prepared to eat my words, as I know how convoluted things can get with this show. I hope they manage to tell a compelling and comprehensible narrative!

8/10