"The Only Real World Is The One Outside These Borders..."
With the entirety of last week's episode of Westworld beautifully dedicated to Zahn McClarnon's Akecheta and the origin of the Ghost Nation, the penultimate episode of the show's wonderful second season resorts back to the multi-layered narrative strands which the series is renowned for, exploring a deeper characterisation of a key central character whilst attempting to lay out the explosive turn of events which are guaranteed to kick off in the series finale next week. With William/The Man in Black taking centre stage for the majority of the episode, several interesting notions which had previously been glanced at in the past were granted much needed exploration, particularly in regards to the previously ambiguous event of William's wife's mysterious suicide and his own dedicated purpose to the world which he has created. With William's wife, the offspring of James Delos and sister of Logan, presented as a troubled, conflicted alcoholic whose uncertainty of her own husband forces her into a feeling of prolonged anger and hate, William's revelation of his natural place in Westworld and embracing of his inner darkness acts as the deciding turn for her death, a decision which undeniably still haunts both William and daughter Emily.
With Emily's own uncertainty about her father resulting in her attempting to save him in both physical and spiritual senses, her own discovery of her father's true nature also led to a shocking conclusion, one which not only conclusively presented William as being well and truly lost and swallowed up by his inner turmoil but one which begged the question of whether William himself is human or host, a question echoed by the repeated voice of Emily who stated "if you keep pretending, you're not going to remember who you are." With the backstory of William's wife also highlighting once again Ford's knowledge of the "project" within the "valley beyond", now confirmed to be a radical exploration of cognition replication in order to change guests into hosts, his personal struggle of being forced out of his own creation led to the promise of "one more game" and perhaps the fundamental reasoning for Ford's willingness to facilitate the host's defection, but with Bernard attempting to rid himself of Ford's control in order to save Elsie, there still remains questions regarding Ford's ultimate park endgame. Concluding with a rather emotional death and the sense that particular characters, both human and host, seem to be close to the edge of complete and utter desolation, the penultimate episode of Westworld was yet another majestically crafted hour of science fiction which sets up a concluding chapter which will simply be unmissable.
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