Westworld: Passed Pawn (3x07)

Hey so guess who doesn't care about Westworld? Me, apparently. I swear I watched this whole episode with my eyes glazed over.

Cons:

So I guess Caleb was part of Serac's plans? This doesn't work as a big reveal like the episode wanted it to be, because... kind of... duh? We knew he was an important cog in the machine, we knew he was having memory lapses, we knew every human was being monitored and controlled. So we see that Caleb killed his friend, the one he has been mourning all this time, because his friend was going to kill him. We see how he was used as an assassin after the war. I don't know, it all rang kind of hollow for me. I think because I don't know Caleb as anything other than a pawn. He was a pawn when we met him, and I was vaguely interested in finding out more, but now here we are and I just can't access the visceral horror I think I'm meant to feel.

Then there's the big Maeve vs. Dolores showdown which... okay, last season I remember them having a stand-off and it was one thousand times more intense than this knock-down drag-out fight in which Dolores is stumbling around with one of her arms hacked off. I just don't really get the stakes here, or why they're on opposite sides. At one point Dolores tries to point out all they have in common, and Maeve was like: "don't equate your motivations with mine, they're not the same." And I'm just sitting here like... they're not? Yes, Maeve wants to get to her daughter, but Dolores' plan isn't necessarily an obstacle to that, is it? The writers have not done a good job outlining the stakes, explaining to me why I should care that these two are having it out. That's a bummer.

Pros:

We only briefly check in with Charlotte/Dolores here, and it seems that she's defecting to Maeve's side? Serac's side? I don't know, but I do think this could be interesting. I like the idea of multiple versions of Dolores being at odds with each other. That could be kind of cool.

At first I was annoyed that William was still here. As I mentioned last week, it kind of felt like they ended his story and his continued presence is just kind of awkward at this point. But I did like him telling Bernard and the other hosts that his biggest regret is in contributing to their existence, and that he wants to wipe them off the face of the earth. That's an actionable, understandable motive for someone as twisted as William, and I'd love to see where that goes.

Once again, a short review for Westworld. I wish I could dredge up more motivation to talk about this show. It's not even that I dislike it, I just kind of... nothing it, a lot of the time. It has so much potential, but nothing clicks together the way it should. At least, not since the first season.

7/10