One of the most anticipated episodes of this season takes us to Shogun World.–finally! But let’s not get lost completely there when the rest of Westworld is still in chaos.
Yes! Westworld season 2, episode 5 ‘Akane No Mai’ did NOT disappoint. Chaos has indeed taken control of, what we now know to be all of the parks, including Shogun World. Back in Westworld, the host rebellion led by Dolores shows no signs of slowing down.
We’re loving every minute of it. In the first article, I covered the events of Shogun World. This article concentrates solely on the events that were happening in the town of Sweetwater– Westworld’s main town.
Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers ahead!
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Meanwhile, back in Westworld, Dolores and the gang are… Hold on. Let me correct myself because that sounds trite. Meanwhile, Dolores and her troupe of some slightly apprehensive, and some I’m-just-along-for-the-ride gang of misfits, are headed back to Sweetwater.
I’ve got to say it. Dolores, (or should I be saying Wyatt from now on?) is a total megalomaniac, sociopath at this point and they’re scared to defy her. Time and time again, she’s proven what she’s capable of. Nothing is getting in her way. Remember the double-cross slaughter fest at Fort Forlorn Hope?
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Dolores and her group of followers are heading back to Sweetwater. When they arrive, kind-hearted Teddy (Teddy bear!) is both shocked and saddened by the death and mess that’s been left behind in the town. Dolores reminds him it’s not their home and they push on.
Dolores tells her men to assess the train’s damage, fix it and make it run faster. Pimp my train yo! While they’re in the Mariposa Saloon, she tells Teddy she needs the train to find her father, Peter Abernathy, in a park location called The Mesa.
Dolores and Teddy continue to explore where their relationship is at and where it’s going. In a moment that seems out of place in Westworld, they talk like lovers in love are apt to do. It’s a romantic, tender moment. They make love for the first time. I kept waiting for someone to burst in on them but nothing happened.
What’s important in this scene is Dolores talking about the time the Abernathy cattle caught a disease caused by flies, called Blue Tongue. The fly reference again. Remember in season 1 when Dolores smacks the fly, a living thing, that lands on her neck?
By the way, kudos to the audio engineers on their Alfred Hitchcock-like use of the sound of swarming flies. Throughout the episode, the audio guys pumped the volume up on this sound.
This created an uneasy, creepy vibe. You may have felt it but not been aware of why. If you listen to the show with surround sound or headphones you’ll hear what I mean.
Dolores tells Teddy they had to burn a few cows in order to stop the disease from spreading further. Sacrifice some for the good of the many – uh oh. We knew Dolores had a fate in mind for Teddy and this was it’s foreshadowing. By the way, for info on this real disease, check out (a site that’s not meant for the faint of heart!) this site.
Later that night, Angela brings a kidnapped tech named Phil in to do something that’ll end up being a cold-hearted turn of events. Dolores launches into a compassionately spoken speech about why Teddy is like the cattle that had been infected with Blue Tongue.
It was unsettling how kindly she delivered this reasoning. It reminded me of how Dexter would speak to his victims before killing them.
Teddy wasn’t built for this Dolores/Wyatt ‘narrative’. A sacrifice must be made. Dolores needs him to be someone else. Dolores orders the men to hold him down because the next step will be unpleasant. Tech Phil is asked to modify his settings but he warns her that changes this extreme will cause severe damage.
Does anyone think some of the hosts who’ve glitched out may have had this done to them too? Like, perhaps in the early stages of programming by inexperienced techs. Just a thought.
Dolores won’t be stopped. She says to do it anyway. Thanks to my remote control’s pause button I saw what the changes were when they showed a quick glimpse at the tech’s tablet. He decreases Teddy’s compassion, virtue, and remorse. Maxed out are aggression, hostility and bulk apperception.
For those of us who have never heard of the word apperception, the Oxford Dictionary defines it as “The mental process by which a person makes sense of an idea by assimilating it to the body of ideas he or she already possesses.”
In the present day Westworld timeline (I assume), Maling and the special ops team are pulling in the dead hosts from the lake we saw in episode 1. Strand wants Maling to find all the hosts that remain and have them reset to their original loops. Costa tells Strand that a third of the hosts are blank. They’ve either not been programmed or are devoid of data.
He also mentions that some location called the ‘Cradle’ was damaged by a fire. The Cradle is apparently where the hosts’ backups are stored. This may seem like a striking piece of information but let’s be realistic. Anyone who’s ever owned a PC or laptop knows to always back your data up.
I’m one of “those people”, so I do it every 6 months. On DVD-R’s believe it or not. Also, if you’ve ever worked for a large corporation, especially a technologically futuristic one like Delos, you know your info is being backed up on a server somewhere other than on-site. Suddenly, Charlotte Hale comes to mind.
Next: Westworld season 2, Episode 5 Recap: “Akane No Mai”
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