Westworld Review: Trompe L’Oeil (Season 1 Episode 7)
Did you see that one coming? Yes? Okay, smarty pants, let’s break it down.
On Westworld Season 1 Episode 7 we take a break from the mystery of the maze, Wyatt, and the Man in Black to focus exclusively on the mystery of…corporate espionage.
The overarcing plot of Westworld stops and starts with the finesse of a student driver trying out standard for the first time. However, that doesn’t stop the show from chugging along with new twists.
Even when plots are dropped and then picked up again, and even when some characters disappear completely (every episode that Ed Harris is not in suffers from a severe lack of, well, Ed Harris), small threads continue to stitch themselves together.
One of the weakest (and easily wrapped up) threads is the satellite question — who is communicating with the Hosts, and for what purpose? Rather anticlimactically, it’s Delos, the owners of Westworld, looking to back up Host information before moving to fire Ford. It’s not a particularly interesting story, and it’s probably better that it ends here so that the bigger plotlines of the show can come to the forefront.
One of the subtlest threads of Westworld’s plot is Bernard. Originally presented as a workaholic with deep-running wounds and a backstory fleshed out just enough to give him three dimensionality, Bernard is revealed (as many, including myself, suspected) to in fact be a Host of Ford’s creation.
THERESA: What’s behind this door?
BERNARD: What door?
It isn’t hard to see this coming — Bernard has a certain detached demeanour and predilection for secrecy that makes him ideal for an identity flip, much like a Cylon in the early seasons of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, the most human Bernard moments are only witnessed by screens, like when he speaks to his “wife” about his “son,” and with Theresa.
Theresa, unfortunately, is the exact kind of character often marked for death or villainy. Women of a certain age in television have an expiration date that younger female characters often do not. In Westworld’s case, Theresa made it to episode 7 before being murdered by Bernard under Ford’s orders.
There is something ugly about having a black man murder a woman under the orders from a white man, and something even uglier about the realization that all people of color and women in the show have been traumatized beyond belief under the reign of a white man.
Given today’s society, this could be a scathing commentary on patriarchal power structures — and given that Westworld is based largely on video games and video game culture, it may even be a good one.
However, that gets lost amongst the sheer level of violence shown to both Hosts and humans. By the time Ford gets his due, will it really be satisfying? Or will he be another killshot amongst the hundreds that occur inside the park each day?
MAEVE: At first, I thought you and the others were gods. Then, I realized: you’re just men. And I know men. You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times.
Maeve and Dolores continue their journey to sentience in two very different ways. While Dolores and William’s bond grows ever deeper, Maeve makes plays even in the face of losing Clementine.
The balance between a romance-fueled story and one completely devoid of it is refreshing. Cliche or not, love plays a large role in human society, so Dolores exploring that with William makes a great deal of sense.
Plus, her relationship with William is full of the kind of chemistry that her relationship with the seemingly forgotten Teddy is not.
(Speaking of Teddy, does he really have a role in this show, other than tagging along after the Man in Black and shooting people? I’m not complaining, I just really want to know.)
On the other side of the coin is Maeve, whose fight for her freedom is driven by her own internal desires and her need to understand her identity outside of the one given to her by the park’s programmers. She is absolutely galvanized by her own grief while witnessing the consequences of Theresa’s corporate scheming rain down upon poor Clementine.
Maeve is going to get out of Westworld, no matter what. And if she doesn’t, I will probably riot.
Stray Thoughts:
- Three dead women (counting Elsie) in one episode…not great, Westworld! Not great!
- The show took a production hiatus before the completion of this episode. Is this the retooled vision of the show? What awaits us in the final three episodes? We can only hope Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan stripped back some of the flashy HBO staples to bring some true weight to the show.
- Seriously, did you see that Bernard twist coming?
What did you think of this episode of Westworld? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Westworld airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.
Brittany Rae
Brittany is a writer and avid TV blogger hailing the infamous year of 1989. She trained at Vancouver Film School in screenwriting for television and film, and has gone on to become a graphic designer and blogger in her free time. When she’s not watching the Food Network, she’s trying to consume every bit of sci-fi television she can get her hands on (current favorites include The 100, Person of Interest, and Doctor Who). She’s always up for female-led dramas and, of course, a literal interpretation of the phrase “Netflix and chill."