Westworld Review: The Well-Tempered Clavier (Season 1 Episode 9)

The infinite loop of the Hosts’ lives continues on Westworld Season 1, Episode 9, “The Well-Tempered Clavier.”

At this point in the story, two things have become obvious: Maeve and Bernard are the true souls of the show; and that, in many ways, audience intelligence has surpassed even the most surprisingly difficult of twists.

Dear Dolores

As to the former — though Westworld has marketed itself as The Dolores Show featuring Teddy, it has become the complete opposite. Dolores’ wide-eyed, Alice in Wonderland type narrative is not the touchstone audiences come back to.

The show treats Dolores with reverence, as though she holds the answers to all the questions the audience has. But Dolores’ story has become too confusing and convoluted to work out with any kind of sense, likely due to the constant retooling of the entire show that included a months-long hiatus mid-production to re-break the final four episodes.

Dolores is not the character with the answers. Yes, her journey and the things she learns along the way are neat clues in the overall puzzle that Westworld comprises, but I find myself more often than not awaiting the end moments of each Dolores scene.

The meat of her scenes often (wrongly) revolves around William, as is the case in “The Well-Tempered Clavier.” It is only the end few seconds of Dolores’ scenes (or scenes in which she is merely a thing to be bargained with, as is the case here) that the pieces of that puzzle reveal themselves.

We are once again forced to watch Dolores be passed around by humans like the object they think she is, while William valiantly begs for her life and insists that she is different. Dolores has become William’s manic pixie — she comprises everything he thinks he wants, and he looks past her own autonomy to see her as someone he needs to save.

Dolores does not need saving. Dolores can save herself.

The problem with this arc is that it has gone absolutely nowhere. Dolores often ping-pongs between stubborn and fiery determination to finish Arnold’s puzzle, to traumatized and hollow when she encounters a roadblock.

We haven’t had a chance to emotionally bond with Dolores, because we don’t really know who she is. This is likely due to the fact that we keep seeing her in different time periods, and thus cannot keep up with the new personalities she is programmed with. Not knowing that for sure leaves the audience with the impression that Dolores is a character we can empathize with, but not engage with.

MVRs (Most Valuable Robots)

Maeve and Bernard, on the other hand, do not suffer that same fate. This may be due to Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright’s incredible acting, but one thing is for sure — Maeve and Bernard are always wholly with the audience, showing them every side of their personalities and remaining consistent in their core traits.

For Maeve, it is a burning passion for life and an obsession with death — an ever-constant need to be free.

For Bernard, it is the quest for understanding, for knowledge, to feel deeply and then push aside the feelings he knows are not his own to truly comprehend the truth of his own reality.

These are raw, complex characters with heart to spare. They are more developed than any of the humans of Westworld — even more than Ford, who Anthony Hopkins absolutely fills rooms with, but who remains largely an unknown entity — and both benefit greatly from arcs that unfold with a logic unburdened by cloak-and-dagger writing.

Sex and the Robot Girl

An interesting occurrence in Maeve’s journey this episode: this may be the first time two people in Westworld have ever had truly consensual sex.

While Bernard and Theresa clearly cared for one another, neither of them were aware that Bernard was a Host and that Ford had constant access to him. And as for the Hosts in the park, none of them can truly consent to sex if they have no control over their own stories.

Maeve and Hector, however, are completely off-book by the time Maeve starts the tent burning around them. Hector may not completely know what he is, but he’s off his loop and completely there with Maeve, wanting her in the same way she wants him.

I do hope I’m correct in this thinking (and that Maeve’s story really is one of rebellion, and not just another planned loop that Ford programmed to amuse himself). It’s a sad reflection of the state of consent in Westworld that it’s taken nine episodes of people constantly having sex for the first true consensual act to reveal itself, but at least it’s out there now.

Theory Time

Now that the big reveal and Dolores’ trip underground have occurred, it’s likely that two theories can be crossed off the list: Bernard as Host Arnold (definitive) and the Three Timelines (tentative, but probable).

So, what’s left?

• The Maze is really a computer program that will allow harm to come to humans inside the park, as outlined last week.
• Maeve, Bernard, and Dolores are all actually still living within loops designed by Ford to tease them close to freedom.
• The Other Parks. This is something of a given to those who have watched the original Westworld film, but for those who haven’t — Westworld is one of three parks within a cluster, nestled next to Romanworld and Medievalworld. It’s possible that these other parks (or the possibility that Westworld is not the only park Delos owns) will be revealed in the finale, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

What did you think of this episode of Westworld? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

Westworld airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

Follow us on Twitter @TellTV