This week’s episode of Westworld was all about suffering, revenge and reveals! If you are in any way invested in Westworld and its characters, this episode will have dragged you through a roller-coaster of emotions!
Just as expected, Westworld Episode 7, entitled ‘Les Écorchés’, was an eye-opener indeed as it revealed the true nature of Delos with emotional highs and lows throughout. The title refers to a French term for creating sculptures and pieces that reveal the inner mechanisms of the sculpted form. You can learn more about its meaning here Les Écorchés.
*CONTAINS SPOILERS*
The opening scene is a reveal of the episode, as we find Arnold awaking from a slumber, clutching a photo of his son while viewing a memory loop sequence of his hospital narrative.
We need to talk…
He is approached by a highly agitated Ashley, who shares his conspiracy theory that the strike teams are not there as a rescue mission, but to secure the project, contain the situation and eliminate anyone who knew about it. The plan is to get to Theresa’s office and use a SatCom to send a message for help, so they go off on their mission.
However, they don’t get too far, as Karl Strand intercepts them and takes out his weapon and obliges the two to walk to an undisclosed location. To his surprise, Karl wants to negotiate to obtain a key which he believes they have and which they want to sell, suspecting that they killed Theresa to protect themselves from being found out.
As Ashley becomes resigned to his fate, he asks outright if they are going to be executed, but to his surprise, they are being taken to the site where Theresa Cullen died, as Karl suspects one of the two is responsible for her death.
Suddenly its Bernard’s turn to become highly agitated, as they head towards the location.
As they enter one of Ford’s laboratories with Charlotte awaiting their arrival, Karl dismisses Bernard almost immediately as the killer, instead focusing his hate on Ashley. He accuses him of having the motive to kill Theresa as he is going nowhere in his career and wanted to sell the secrets to get rich!
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Ashley then accuses Charlotte of kidnapping him and she responds by saying “the project is a turning point for the human species”, while Karl accuses him of trying to sell the project to the highest bidder. Apparently, Theresa was able to advise Charlotte that she suspected foul play and that one of them lured her to the laboratory to kill her.
In the previous season, Elsie had already stated to Bernard that Theresa was a mole, and Ford had made sure Bernard silenced her, which no doubt is what Bernard is thinking about as he sees a patch of blood-stained wall.
Bernard starts to have a ‘moment’, with memory loop flashback of killing Theresa, as Karl points his gun at the back of Ashley’s head.
Just as Bernard is about to fess-up, he is interrupted by the discovery of a door. As they enter the new area, they notice a few hosts which are identical copies of Bernard!
Tortured soul
Bernard is now being ‘waterboarded’ using a very clever trick by the show creators by taking away his breathing function, as Charlotte tries to extract information on Dolores and Abernathy’s unit, and get the key. Again, Ashley is not happy about the treatment of the hosts but is probably grateful that he himself is not being forced into a ‘confession-by-waterboard’.
The Delos response team is working on the network, but not everything is back online which we know because Ford is blocking it from within the CR4-DL. The strike team is doing a sweep as it heads towards the train depot to join a response team. However, it transpires that the response team has been taken down and is lying huddled in a group.
As they come to the realization of the situation, they too are ambushed. With a surgical strike led by Angela, the team is quickly taken down, just like the response team they were meeting up with. The hosts are unstoppable, better organized and far more cautious than the Delos human teams.
Revenge is Sweetwater
In Westworld, the Ghost Nation is pursuing Maeve and her daughter, and Lawrence and the MiB are also converging on her location. Maeve is caught in her loop to save her daughter yet again. However, this time, things are different…
The loop sequence begins with Maeve and her daughter running for safety just as before, but this time the MiB and not the Ghost Nation Warrior enters the home. Upon seeing the MiB, Maeve has a series of flashbacks of her demise at his hands. The flashbacks cause a real emotional response in the viewer too as they also recall the most harrowing scenes of Maeve’s life.
The MiB barely even notices them upon entering but after a brief discussion, Maeve demonstrates that she is not hearing any voice but her own, by promptly shooting him. She then attempts to exact her revenge by using mind-control on nearby hosts who are redirected to take down the MiB as he tries to escape the area.
He gets shot badly several times, and although Maeve hasn’t perfected remote aiming, she does manage to let the MiB know she will enjoy watching him die.
Her chance to kill the MiB is interrupted as Lawrence steps in to save him. Maeve soon starts messing with his mind by initiating his memory loop sequences with William, reminding him that “We all have skeletons” and “See if he owes you anything”…
After she challenges Lawrence to “Kill me or we make him suffer once and for all”, he awakens, and wants revenge too, as he commences to shoot the MiB.
However, Lawrence is cut down in a hail of bullets as a Delos strike team moves in, and their arrival causes Maeve to lose sight of her daughter who is captured by Ghost Nation. She knows that she will not be able to save her daughter. As Maeve makes this realization she is also gunned down. A strike team member moves in for the kill, but Lee Sizemore jumps into action and saves Maeve from being eliminated.
It is possible that the Ghost Nation hosts are running a different narrative to the rest of Westworld hosts. Someone may well be in control of Ghost Nation. It makes sense, as they are like a nomadic tribe and would provide perfect cover for someone hiding in the park, such as Arnold or Logan. After all, who in their right mind wants to approach the Ghost Nation under any circumstance?
Maybe Ghost Nation have captured Maeve’s daughter in a deliberate attempt to force Maeve onto a narrative loop to rescue her daughter. She has already refused to join them once.
When Maeve’s daughter asks what will happen if they take her away, she replies “Then I’ll come and find you.” It is possible that Ghost Nation are going to use her daughter as collateral to bring Maeve to the Ghost Nation.
Surprisingly, the strike team is not there to rescue the MiB, who is abandoned altogether as the Delos strike teams move in to secure Maeve. It may be that that the park has lost its leadership and control over the installation and therefore the MiB is not a priority.
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Perhaps they simply have orders to leave him alone, so he can continue playing in the park. Expect to see his daughter’s arrival to save him once again as he badly needs medical attention. She is also probably the only one around to care enough to help the MiB in the park right now!