Westworld is ready to deliver a Ghost Nation-centric episode. What will we learn about this mysterious group of hosts?
Westworld Season 1 provided a fairly one-dimensional portrayal of Ghost Nation. They were mostly depicted via the bloodthirsty savage stereotype, a simplistic and highly problematic stereotype of Native Americans. They brutalized Maeve and her daughter in the homesteader storyline and wiped out the Confederados pursuing young William, Dolores, and El Lazo as well.
Westworld hinted that it could do more with Ghost Nation, though. Beyond the bloodthirsty savage stereotype, season 1 suggested that Ghost Nation has more awareness of the Maze and the outside world. The drawing of the Maze was established to be a myth in their culture.
That it was part of their culture already proves that to a certain degree they’ve long been aware of the Maze. This makes them even more advanced than the likes of Maeve and Dolores who only completed the Maze relatively recently.
Awareness of the outside world was hinted at when Maeve saw a group of Native American hosts walking through Sweetwater. One of the children walking through dropped a doll on the ground, a doll looking identical to the human cleanup technicians. Hector later tells Maeve that the doll is a Shade, specifically, “A man who walks between worlds. They were sent from hell to oversee our world.”
In season 2, Ghost Nation has taken characters like Stubbs and Emily captive, only to free them later. They tried but failed to take Lee Sizemore as well. While other hosts are busy murdering the humans in the parks, Ghost Nation almost seems to be helping the guests survive. This has spawned many theories, some of which have already been disproved by certain developments.
Fresh off riding away with Maeve’s daughter, Westworld is set to deliver an episode dedicated entirely to Ghost Nation, allowing audiences to experience their origin story and the motivations that have compelled their mysterious actions this season.
Check out the episode promo as we dive further into what insights this episode may offer into Ghost Nation.
Ghost Nation’s awareness of the Maze and the outside world,and even a shift into their savagery looks to be explained by the story of their leader Akecheta.
The promo begins peacefully with Akecheta, enjoying life and nature with his beloved Kohana. He appears more solemn as they reach a valley, quite possibly the mysterious Valley Beyond. This would be long before the valley became flooded and littered with corpses as Bernard, Stubbs, and the Delos team discovered in the season 2 premiere.
Akecheta’s solemn expression and the stunned look of Kohana hints that he knew what secrets the Valley Beyond held, and revealed those secrets to Kohana. They knew the truth of the Valley Beyond long before Dolores. In fact, the fact Ghost Nation had access to that secret might be why the Delos team found their corpses on the beach and the recording that showed Dolores gunning them down.
As the promo continues, Akecheta sees human technicians taking Kohana and driving away before he can reach them. This glimpse explains how the exact replica of the technician aesthetic seeped into Ghost Nation’s culture. Akecheta saw these mysterious forces enter his world, and from this experience spawned the symbol of the Shade, a being that could walk in between worlds, which manifested into Ghost Nation’s culture via drawings and even dolls.
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It is only after his beloved is taken from him that Akecheta begins wearing the war paint. His descent into savagery seemed like a lazy stereotype thrust upon him and his people by narrative writers like Lee Sizemore. Now it seems like the kidnapping of Kohana might’ve been the source of shifting Akecheta and Ghost Nation from being more peaceful individuals into ones hellbent on justice and revenge after one of their own was taken.
If this is the case, it’ll be fascinating to see whether this chain of events was all programmed and engineered for Ghost Nation to fit a certain narrative, or if Akecheta was actually the first host to complete the Maze and used his autonomy to dictate his own actions and the whole philosophy of Ghost Nation.
It would’ve had to occur in a way where none of the humans running the park–except perhaps Ford–were aware of the control Akecheta had gained. In fact, Ford might’ve pretended to change the narratives of Ghost Nation to mask the authentic changes Akecheta and his brethren were experiencing.
In classic Westworld fashion, the rest of the promo seems to jump in between timelines. In one timeline–not wearing any war paint–Akecheta finds what looks like Arnold’s corpse after Dolores shot and killed him.
In the same location but in a different timeline–now wearing the war paint–Akecheta finds the corpse of Ford after Dolores shot and killed him. In both timelines, he sees the top of the Maze. At the end of the promo, he wakes up inside the Mesa in a fashion similar to Maeve in season 1.
All of this suggests that Akecheta was the first host to actually complete the Maze and find autonomy before Maeve and Dolores completed it. His dialogue about the past calling him is similar to Dolores’ dialogue on her journey to completing the Maze.
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Perhaps Akecheta completed the Maze long ago–explaining why it’s been embedded as a myth into the Ghost Nation culture–and for many years Ford worked to make such progress happen again, which it eventually did with Maeve and Dolores.
Ghost Nation hasn’t helped characters like Stubbs and Emily because they were under the control of someone else. They helped because Akecheta wanted to help them, possibly because these actions will somehow help him reunite with Kohana. It’s still unclear how taking Stubbs, Emily, and now Maeve’s daughter figures into that exactly, though.
What do you think we’ll learn about Ghost Nation in this episode? Let us know in the comments!
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Westworld airs every Sunday on HBO at 9 P.M. EST!