BWW Recap: Surviving is Just Another Loop on WESTWORLD

Seven episodes into WESTWORLD, "Trompe L'Oeil" paints a clearer picture of where the series is going, all the while setting to rest some popular fan theories and revealing who its characters truly are. WESTWORLD has always been about dimensions and facades and what it means when you see behind the curtain. This week, we were given a sneak peek behind everyone's curtain projecting us on a ramped up climax that is sure to follow in the final three weeks to come.

The title itself means "deceive the eye," a meta meaning for all levels of Westworld. Clearly, the hosts as we see them are more than they actually are and as we continue to learn this week, everyone has an ulterior motive steering them in the dark until it's time to reveal itself. Trompe L'Oeil is commonly used to refer to the art technique where lifelike visuals are used to create an illusion of three dimensional reality within the work. Westworld itself and all the hosts within it are just exactly that. As both Dolores and Maeve head on different paths towards consciousness, their visceral humanity is what grants them the allies they have. They were created to just be a trompe l'Oeil three dimensional etching of humanity, but little did those who created them know that it was more than just an effect. When you mirror reality so closely what is the actual distinction? When humanity itself starts to feel like an illusion, what is truly real?

The episode focuses on the three people we have been focusing on in a beautiful culmination that feels like it has been building up since episode 1. We have Dolores on her quest for freedom within the park, Maeve on the same quest for knowledge and freedom in the real world, and Bernard, who was always seemingly in between the two, and perfectly so as the reveal justified tonight. We open up on Bernard who is dreaming of his son Charlie in the hospital. It's essential to reexamine these events with Bernard in the retrospective with the knowledge of what he truly is, a host, to see the brilliance and the work being put forth and developed underneath a shocking reveal. Bernard's son appears to be terminally sick, or at the very least hurt internally. We know, from the first episode, that humanity has practically cured all ailments. They exists, as we saw Maeve contracted MRSA at one point, but they can't kill you anymore. People can still get sick, but they can all be cured. Ford's reflection on humanity reaching it's peak is essential as it drives the actions and the perspective of humanity in the story, but it also reveals how nonsensical and out of place it is for Bernard's son to have gotten sick to the point of death. Humanity has learned to basically cheat death, although they cannot bring anyone back. In this heartbreaking dream where Bernard relives the moment he loses his son, it makes on question the true intentions behind the hosts' backstory. There is always pain there, like in humanity, and there's always hardship. It grounds them, but it also hurts them. There's also the question of if your backstory and your memories are completely invented, then who are you? Are you more than just the sum of your experiences? What defines humanity? All questions WESTWORLD asks and embraces on its path to answers.

Bernard later examines Hector, an all too ironic and innately cruel position now that we know the truth about him. He's the host with the biggest cognitive dissonance yet he is the host closest to reality. He's allowed to know the real world, but never know true his place in it. As he examines Hector, one must recognize the intricacy of Bernard's programming as he's able to recognize everything that would be a red flag for other hosts, but as Ford says later in the episode, they "cannot see the things that will hurt them." For Bernard, what will hurt him is his own identity. The further he pushes himself away from the hosts, the further her ground himself in reality, the better...at least for Ford. It is clear, especially after this episode, that Ford does still retain a certain sentimentality towards the park and the hosts, and perhaps it is true that the reason he stressed the distance and difference between the two so much was to dissuade and shield Bernard from ever BECOMING self-aware. He clears Hector who repeats the sentiment "This world is as doomed as ever," confirming his naivety and also hitting to close to home due to recent events. The exam session itself plays with the notion of reality and programmed reality, as Hector and the hosts are allowed to exist within our world but can never truly see it. To them the world is but a trompe l'Oeil painting. It looks real, but it's all just an illusion.

Bernard also inquires about Elsie, clearly worried that he hasn't hear from her, seen her, and she can't be located on the map. He's told she's scheduled for her leave so she must be gone already. Clearly something deeper is going on and Bernard will not drop it. He cares about her. He's formed relationships with her and Theresa, close and honest relationships, just as William is forming with Dolores and relationships that will be called into question and broken down when the truth is revealed. As host, he is not really on the same side of either one of these people in the future, at least not if he ends up down the path seeking consciousness like Maeve or Dolores. He can end up down that path, the path of intermediary and ally, or down the path of Ford's second in command, but a command that has no agency.

Theresa calls Bernard in for a meeting to discuss why he left so abruptly last night and there is still a connection in the air, but a connection that has been dulled out and made awkward. He refuses to let her and she clearly still cares about him, their roles reversed from last week. After her meeting with Bernard, she goes to meet Charlotte Hale for a talk only to find her "entertaining" Hector in her room. It's hard to pinpoint what exactly they are trying to do with Hale, but it feels off. Perhaps they are leading to something bigger, or perhaps they are being too vague.

Hale tells Theresa the company's true intentions. "This place, the people who work here are nothing. Our interest is entirely in the intellectual property; the code." Westworld itself is simply a "research project" for them to get their hands on the technology behind it and they want to do it quick. Ford holds his secrets close to his chest and the company needs a way of extracting them before they go through with their intention of firing him for fear that he will wipe it all on his way out the door. We know he has full control of these hosts and the park in an almost inhumane way. He painted himself as god with all the attributes and it's entirely believable that he could erase everything with one swipe of his finger. Although, surely some of the other people in Behavior have a greater understanding of the code as well? Hale insists that they need something to spark all of this before the rest of the board comes, "a blood sacrifice," she describes. They need to demonstrate the danger of the hosts to kickstart their plans and move in on Ford.

It is there we pick up on Maeve who wakes up in her loop again, this time hyper aware of everything around her after kicking up her bulk apperception. It's brilliant to see this play out and the craft of this show and its talent always comes to life when we see something we've seen before but in a totally new light. Maeve walks into the Mariposa, intent on stopping the loop in its tracks, or at the very least recognizing it and her programming while entrenched and she shuts down THE PLAYER piano, taking control. As she talks to Clementine, she begins to say her programmed line but then catches herself, just as Dolores did once, realizing that despite the fact that it's coming out of your mouth, it's not necessarily connected with your mind. Maeve sees the loop on every level, pushing against it as she tries to see it from the outside perspective, looking at her friend Clementine. She questions her about her dreams and tries to see if there's a spark within her waiting to also be lit. However, what she finds is the true heartbreak and cruelty of their reality and the merciless naivety with in which the hosts live. Clementine dreams of getting out of the Mariposa one day and then she could have any life she wants. Maeve listens to Clem's programmed background, heartbroken and dissapointed as the host recalls her hardships and family. Maeve knows all of this is not real and that every bit of hurt or pain or emotion she is feeling, all of her backstory, is because someone decided it be that way. Maeve's heart breaks when she hears to Clementines wishes because she sees the joy her within her friend's dream, but grieves for she knows that she is designed to never reach it. Maeve quickly realizes that everyone in the saloon is frozen except for her and she quickly feigns to blend in. This staging is always so effective and beautifully achieved. Men in hazmat suits come in, Maeve grabbing a knife slyly, ready to defend herself should need be for she is not going back to the way she was before, but it is not she who is grabbed, but rather Clementine.

Charlotte and Theresa request Bernard and Ford for a presentation and we know it's a set up. They want to nail Ford and so they blame the reveries were responsible for some disturbing findings. Those findings are what they needed Clementine for. They have her rolled back to a prior build before the reveries are added in and a host coded as human for the demonstration begins to beat her senselessly. Then, they restore her build with the reveries and this time she kills him, demonstrating that she could kill a real human, a guest, in the same way. Stubbs goes in to stop her but she doesn't shut off, the behavioral safeguards being disputed, and so he shoots her down. Bernard and Ford can clearly see through it but Hale challenges them, saying that they need to rebuild everything to combat this danger.

Bernard goes to respond, asking "You want us to lobotomize them?" which is such a human sentiment both from him and of the hosts. Hale instead claims he is responsible for the dangerous and unchecked code, unless he basically throws Ford under the bus. Bernard doesn't back down and Frod doesn't step up. He just allows him to take the blame, which seeing as what we now know about Bernard, makes more sense and is ever so slightly less heartless considering Ford knows Bernard isn't going anywhere. Thus Bernard is fired, degraded and paraded because Ford knows the truth, what they truly want, and will never let them have it.

Maeve, back in livestock, is being cleaned up when she wakes up and Felix scolds her for coming down so often, fearing that someone will notice. However, she's hear on a mission to find Clem and Felix, who is hesitant to tell her where her friend is, eventually relents and brings Maeve upstairs. Sylvester has Clementine in a room with Theresa, about to perform the lobotomy. He catches Maeve's eyes however and hesitates, a wave of guilt coming over him that wasn't there before because he's gotten to see Maeve behind the curtain and unclouded. However, his job comes firsthand he goes along with it, drilling up her nose as tears fall down Maeves face, watching the innocent and the naive be used, abused, and then thrown away for the benefit of people.

Bernard, distraught after everything going on, tells Theresa that he knows the truth, both about the demonstration and what she's truly doing with the transmissions. She tries to explain herself but Bernard is there with a purpose. Originally it seems he's there of his own volition, his trust in her exceeding his trust in Ford, but we fell for it just as Theresa did. He's here because of Ford, just with a false sense of agency, a notion we see reflected within the park and with Maeve. Everyone seems to be able to make their own choices and decide their own decisions but there is actually a looping puppet master pulling the strings. Bernard claims that the hosts are on the path towards some kind of change, a "connection between memory and improvisation" pushing them off loop. Theresa vows her "chief concern was always the park and the wellbeing of the people in it" and Bernard replies, "I know, which is why I have to show you something." Is that Ford speaking here? Does he want to rid that good, that intention from getting in his way?

Sylvester is forced to answer for his actions as Maeve sits there, angry and sad and not saying anything. He tries to defend himself but she simply shuts him down, insisting that they aid her in her escape out of there. "Surviving is just another loop. I'm getting out of here," she insists, what happened to Clem clearly affecting her and revealing the truth about the horrors of the park. Sylvester argues back claiming "Every part of this building, including the skin on your back is made to keep you here. It would be a suicide mission." However Maeve is beyond that, just as she is beyond them. "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. I'm fing great at it. How many times have you died? Because if you don't help me, I'll kill you." Her sentiments here paralleling with THE JOURNEY of the man in the maze that Teddy described last week, as Maeve vows to fight the final fight for freedom in the real world.

Theresa and Bernard head into the park into the cottage where Ford housed Arnold's hosts and Theresa tries to explain why she did what she did, telling it to him straight that Delos has interests far reaching beyond the park. In what feels like hitting the hammer on the head in reflection, Bernard utters "The longer i work here the more I think I understand the hosts. It's the human beings who confuse me" We are given further insight into the workings of the hosts and especially Bernard as he says hosts are programed to ignore the home, that they literally couldn't see it if they were staring right at it. A few moments later, Theresa notices a door Bernard doesn't see. Bernard is allowed to see everything the park hosts are not and vice versa as his background dictates him to be under the illusion of humanity. It appears to be a remote diagnostic facility that Arnold and Ford used to use when the park was still in beta, meaning Ford has been making hosts without the knowledge of the company or the board. She then picks up some papers which are diagrams for different hosts including Dolores...and Bernard! Bernard is indeed a host. She shows him the paper, stunned and confused but he simply claims he cannot see anything. Ford steps in, explaining "They cannot see the things that will hurt them. In a way, their lives are blissful, their existences purer than ours, free of the burden of self doubt." Of course, as we have seen with the hosts and what the loop and naivety of their life does to them, their lives aren't more free and blissful. They're just controlled. "You're a fing monster," Theresa spits at him, as Bernard begins to panic, having an identity crisis. Ford shuts his emotions down and Theresa stands horror struck, the man she was close to apparently a lie; but is he? "The hosts are the ones who are free, free here, under my control," Ford threatens menacingly, seeing the conflict with the board and the entire world itself as simply a game. All of this world is for him to manipulate and play chess with the pieces as he will. "Sadly, to restore things, the situation demands a blood sacrifice," he recites, just as Hale did earlier, which is threatening in both the sense that it means he either has Hale or his HAND OF GOD over the park is so overreaching that he is everywhere and hears everything. "Arnlold and I designed every part of this place. It was our dream. Did you really think I would let you take it from me?" he challenges. "Is this what happened to Arnold? You had Bernard take him out into the woods," Theresa asks. "No he wasn't here in those days, were you Bernard?" However, he doesn't deny the notion of killing Arnold. The relationship between the two creators of Westworld gets more fascinating by the day, as we begin to learn more about them. Theresa, scared for her safety now, tries to make a call but it wont work. "Like I said, I built all of this," Ford smiles, commanding Bernard to kill her. She begs Bernard, trying to find the man she knew within him but he doesn't back down, clearly signifying Ford's power and the hosts inability to move against him. There is no more pretending here and all facades have come down. We now see beyond the painting that feigns reality and recognize reality itself. We see Ford for who he is and clearly Bernard.

William and Dolores also graced out screens this episode, once again revealing astoundingly how much WESTWORLD is able to cover in one episode. They are still on the train with Lawrence who Dolores still doesn't particularly like. William has clearly gotten used to him but defends him, claiming it was Logan who got them involved in all of this, not him. "My friend wanted to see what's at the end of all this," he states. "And yet here you are. Maybe you got more of an appetite for this thing than you think," Lawrence answers which of course will add more fuel to the William is the Man in Black theory. Dolores sees skulls all outside the train windows and Lawrence proclaims they are in Ghost Nation territory, "the most savage tribe there is." The skulls are of those who came to their land without an invitation, just as our group is doing right now. The train's windows seem to double down, defensive guards shielding them inside. The train is the only way through and through they must go.

William and Dolores really connect this episode and we begin to see who they are an where they are going. Dolores wants freedom and now that she is on her way to getting it, she never wants to go back. Should the multiple timeline theory prove true, that sentiment and this journey does seem a little bit retractive and anticlimactic. William wants to find meaning. "The only thing I had when I was a kid were books. I used to live in them. I used to go to sleep dreaming i would walk up inside one of them cause hey have meaning. This place, it's like I woke up inside of one of those stories. I guess I just want to find out what it means," he tells her. However, this narrative does something beautiful as Dolores insistently reclaims her agency and identity. "I don't wanna be in a story. All I want is to not look forward or back, I just wanna be in the moment I'm in." This is what Dolores and Maeve's arcs have both been. They have been on a mission to reclaim their agency. William wants to put up a wall here and wants to still believe Westworld is all a big story but Dolores is here, what she's saying is real and he sees it. She doesn't want to be apart of someone else's journey for once, just a plot point on the way to the end. She wants to go on her own. This notion is why he decides to mention his fiancé back home, Logan's sister. What he's feeling of Dolores is real and the prospect of returning to the "real world" after this wont replicate this reality, this feeling. He's trying to reground himself as he gets swept up. "The place you're after I will help you find it but I can't stay. I have a life waiting for me. I'm sorry." William tries to put the wall back up, tries to remember where he is, but Dolores is clearly upset. She's not reacting like a regular host, she's invested in them too. She's not just there to cater to his experience

Once and for all, William decides "No more pretending" and the first time embraces the notion. He goes after her: "Dolores, I've been pretending my whole life. Pretending I don't mind, pretending I belong. My life is built on it, and it's a good life. It's a life I always wanted. But then I came here, and I get a glimpse, for a second, of a life in which I don't have to pretend..a life in which I can be truly alive. How can I go back to pretending when I know what this feels like?" The two come together here, truly connecting and giving into everything their feeling. From Williams end, the emotional baggage of restraint he's forced on himself and Dolores the newfound freedom of emotion as she begins to tell her own story. This is what their feeling leads to. It's what Westworld can offer you. For William, that was the chance to step up, the chance to back his beliefs and the chance to challenge those bigger than him, like Logan. It's the perfect definition of living in the moment, but he's not thinking of ever going home after this or what would await him. How this can possibly play out? Although if Dolores is truly able to achieve freedom, then perhaps they can be free together.

William later assures her that he regrets nothing. "All of that (home) feels so UNREAL now. I used to think this place was all about pandering to your baser instincts. Now I understand. It doesn't cater to your lowest self, it reveals your deepest self. It shows you who you really are....You've unlocked something within me." Dolores once again denies him that fantasy though. She's tired of being a fantasy. "I'm not a key William. I'm just me." She never lets him romanticize her or simplify her. While William was sleeping, she decided to draw something from her imagination rather than something she sees. "A place where the mountains meet the sea," she tells him and William smiles, declaring she dreams the of the opposite of what everyone else who comes here dreams. They seek conflict, she seeks peace.

All cannot remain so easy, however, as the Confederados catch up with them. They brilliantly decided to send out Slim on a horse with a white peace flag, shooting him once he gets close enough to explore ad cause a distraction long enough for them to escape on horseback with and put distance between them and the Confederados. Dolores holds her own until her horse bucks her off but William rides back for her, pulling him onto her horse, unable to leave her behind. Their lives forever intertwined. Soon, arrows rain down and the Confederados aren't the only thing to worry about; Ghost Nation has arrived to defend their land. Dolores quickly suggests using all this blood and carnage as a distraction for their escape and they ride off with Lawrence. They end up right in front of the place Dolores had imagined, where the mountains meet the sea. "It's real, what I dreamt," she smiles, confirming that whats in her mind is real and there's a true end goal to this all.

Dolores and William decide to part ways with Lawrence one and for all, William asking him "What's out that way?" "You're gonna have to ask the dust. 'Aint nothing ever come back from there," and thus William and Dolores head into the truly unknown. "Trompe L'Oeil" painted a beautiful tale of humanity within the hosts and the humans, the good and the bad. As we move further along towards the finale, WESTWORLD makes good on its promise of information, while continuing to explore and question the thematic arcs the show set up in Episode 1.

Photo Credit: HBO