Westworld Recap: Bernard Wages His Own Infinity War

Bernard’s again, child! After leaving him in a motel room within the season three finale, waking up from his VR journey to the Sublime, and waking up completely coated in mud, tonight’s episode reveals precisely what occurred to everybody’s favourite Host, and it’s fairly unusual. Doctor Strange, one may say.

The Sublime, for individuals who could have forgotten, is the cloud-like knowledge server the place many of the Hosts in Westworld uploaded their consciousnesses within the season two finale, foregoing their bodily our bodies. We’ve by no means seen contained in the Sublime till tonight’s episode, “Années Folles,” and it’s not what I or Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) anticipated. When Bernard first arrives, he results in a enterprise convention room and is greeted by Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon), the previous chief of the Ghost Nation within the park, who explains the Hosts inside can create their very own worlds—one thing that Bernard may also must do if he’s going to discover ways to save the actual world.

So that’s what Bernard was doing the year-plus he was related to Sublime—working situations to determine a path to maintain the world from ending. And as a result of time strikes in another way in Host Haven, Bernard spent the equal of a millennium there, successfully trying out completely different timelines to see easy methods to proceed. It’s virtually precisely like Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War, though Bernard’s fortunate sufficient to search out a number of methods to save lots of the world. Unfortunately, to achieve any of these situations, he’s additionally going to should die, a lot as Strange did.

Somehow, this implies Bernard is mainly conscious of every thing sooner or later: what individuals are going to say, what they’re going to do, and the way they’ll react. Annoyingly, he resolutely refuses to provide out any particulars about how or when the world will finish, or why he’ll must die to put it aside. Frustratingly, he gained’t even clarify what he’s doing within the second—like say, out of the blue beating two males in a diner car parking zone unconscious and severing certainly one of their heads—and about the one cause it’s bearable is as a result of it annoys Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) immensely. Yes, thank goodness, Stubbs is again, regardless of having been gunshot and left dying in an ice-filled motel bathtub earlier than Bernard took his journey to the Sublime. He’s been caring for Bernard’s physique (however resolutely not dusting him, which is hilarious to me), and joins him in his quest to save lots of the world, primarily as a result of he has nothing higher to do.

That quest begins with the severed head and a girl (Aurora Perrineau) who pulls as much as the diner who was supposed to satisfy with the 2 males. Instead, Bernard provides her the bag, revealing the lads had been in reality Hosts despatched to infiltrate the girl’s group, a militia that lives within the desert of the “Condemned Lands,” which suggests one thing extraordinarily dangerous occurred there between now and the 2050s. (Honestly, is anybody shocked?). All we find out about these folks is that they presumably hate Hosts, they don’t belief Bernard or Stubbs, and so they’re in search of a weapon within the desert—a weapon that Bernard is aware of the place to search out, in fact. I don’t have the faintest concept how these individuals are concerned with the top of the world or what function they’ll have within the present, however proper now, they’re too obscure to be fascinating.

The remainder of the episode focuses on Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) and Caleb’s (Aaron Paul) time in Mobworld (or regardless of the present ultimately decides to name it). It’s type of a disappointment as a result of the pair spend extra time beneath the park than above it, attempting to determine what William and Hale are as much as reasonably than having fun with numerous gangster shenanigans. It’s additionally, humorously, a disappointment for Maeve, because the park is only a rebranded model of Westworld with the identical places, the identical characters, and even the identical storylines. The Hosts are carrying completely different faces and have been dumbed down, in accordance with Maeve, to stop any unpleasantness just like the Westworld bloodbath, however there’s nonetheless a Dolores-ish character who drops her can, hoping to entice a visitor into her journey. However, the shortage of creativity within the park means Maeve is aware of precisely when Hector (now a gangster as an alternative of an outlaw) will burst into the brand new Maeve’s speakeasy/brothel to rob her protected. When the park attendants (disguised as undertakers) accumulate the Host corpses, Maeve and Caleb sneak aboard.

The solely main distinction between Mobworld and Westworld is that this: it consists of a storyline the place new Dolores features faux consciousness and goes on a faux rampage killing faux Guests, permitting the actual ones the pleasure of taking out killer robots. (As earlier than, the Hosts’ weapons don’t work on friends.) This Delos has created a complete faux Delos ground beneath Mobworld for friends to sneak into, which means Maeve and Caleb must sneak to a good decrease secret degree the place all of the park capabilities are managed.

It’s additionally the place Hale (Tessa Thompson) is working her present pet tasks, that are 1) infecting giant numbers of flies with black goo, and a pair of) controlling people like people managed the Hosts. Maeve and Caleb watch in horror as a bunch of check topics very unwillingly shoot themselves within the head in response to a sound generated by… some type of system. Then Caleb is extra-horrified to find his daughter, Frankie (Celeste Clark), is among the new group of check topics. Maeve manages to override the Delos system on the final second to open Frankie’s cell door and permit Caleb to wrench the gun from her hand, additionally on the final second, however that’s when issues break dangerous. Not solely does William (Ed Harris) present as much as struggle with Maeve (a struggle he rapidly loses, solely to face again up and accost her once more), however that’s not Frankie in any respect, in fact. It’s a Host whose face blossoms open releasing a swarm of flies—certainly one of which crawls immediately into Caleb’s ear.

After two episodes that gave us as many solutions because it did mysteries, “Années Folles” wasn’t dire, however it was irritating. It additionally didn’t really feel like a lot occurred. Sure, Bernard awakened and has a mission, however we’ve got completely no indication of what his plan is or what the militia’s deal is. Caleb and Maeve snuck into Delos, however we already knew Hale was controlling people and making flies that love crawling into human orifices. The solely true growth is that Caleb now has a fly stowaway of his personal. Plus, Mobworld was type of a bust.

Of course, that’s no cause to write down season 4 off or fret that the following episode may also spin its wheels. But if Bernard doesn’t do some explaining quickly, I hope Stubbs shoots him within the head.

Assorted Musings:

• The episode title, “Années Folles,” is French for “the crazy years.” It’s what Americans name the Roaring ‘20s.
• The tower that Peter and the unhoused man ranted about appears to be in the Sublime! I am very interested to see how this figures into whatever the hell Christina’s deal is.
• A Host’s gun didn’t hurt Caleb, so my principle he’s a Host is kaput.
• There was a C-storyline about certainly one of Hale’s goons attempting to kidnap Caleb’s spouse and the actual Frankie, however it was solely so the present might trick you into pondering the actual Frankie was within the cell. It didn’t work and so they escaped anyway.
• I had forgotten that Hosts might cut up their faces into quadrants, and it was actually horrifying to see. The flies didn’t assist.

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