"Welcome To Shogunworld..."
With the ever expanding Westworld universe opening audiences' eyes to the possibility of a samurai-inspired section of the park two weeks ago, the tantalising prospect of seeing sword swaying hosts in action was completely disregarded last week after leaving keen observers such as myself without a resolution to the cliffhanger the previous week, but with no time wasted this week, the half way mark of the second season brought with it action aplenty, mysterious god-like powers and the introduction to Shogunworld, a hostile laden territory designed for those who found Westworld "too tame". With the hosts seemingly similarly malfunctioning within a land consisting of ninjas, ronin warriors and beautiful geisha's, the episode focuses on Maeve's struggle to remove herself and her party away from a narrative which bears an aching similarity to her own, with parallels between both Westworld and Shogunworld not only limited to host story-lines but their own personal characteristics too, evidenced by an excellent familiar set-piece in which Rodrigo Santoro's Hector gets to see his own brand of infamous and criminal escapades played out in front of him.
With the real talking point of the episode landing on Maeve's sudden ability for total hosts control without the use of speech or movement at all, her newly found "witchcraft" paints a clear picture which points to her as the most powerful corrupted host within the park, particularly in regards to her eagerness to dismantle many of her fellow hosts as possible, and with a concluding dance routine which features undoubtedly the season's most violently beautiful host kill thus far, the introduction of Akane, a host bearing more than one similarity to Maeve, creates a wonderfully murderous double act for the continuation of their respective journey. On the other side of the park, the build-up of Delores' deception against Teddy after she declares him to not be fit for her new world due to his fundamental empathetic and caring nature, ran parallel's with the "present day" in which we see Teddy's deceased corpse after it was fished out of the water by the Delos recovery team, and with Delos more than eager to be re-acquainted with Delores' father, the missing Peter Abernathy, the narrative gaps are still plain to see but still interesting enough to be constantly engaging. With sword fights, gruesome deaths and the exploration of a fresh, if familiar, new park, Westworld was on excellent form once again this week and continued the strong start to a first half of a season which continues to make audiences think above all else.
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