Westworld season 2, Episode 8 recap: “Kiksuya”

Tonight’s episode of Westworld, “Kiksyua,” took its foot off the gas to tell a tale of love found and lost, and of the universal search for meaning. This wasn’t your average episode of Westworld. Let’s put on our warpaint and dive in.

We open with the Man in Black (Ed Harris) dragging his wounded self toward a river. He’s happened upon by Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon), the leader of the Ghost Nation tribe. MIB still thinks this is all part of Dr. Ford’s (Anthony Hopkins) game, and it may be, but Akecheta isn’t following anyone’s narrative. Akecheta says, in English, that he remembers MIB, and drags him back to his tribe’s encampment. It’s clear that Akecheta, like a good many people, considers MIB to be one bad dude. He won’t even put MIB out of his misery, since death is too good for him.

We get a flashback of Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her daughter (Jasmyn Rae) on their homestead. Maeve’s daughter (who still doesn’t have a name, by the way) hands her mom a rock with the maze painted in what appears to be blood on the back. Maeve asks her where she got it. “The ghost gave it to me,” the daughter replies, spookily. “He said it’s a warning.” It’s interesting to see how early some hosts had the opportunity to begin their journeys to enlightenment.

In the present, Maeve is going through it after last week, when she was gunned down by QA and watched Ghost Nation tribesman make off with her daughter. A worried Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) wheels her into a Delos lab. The jerkface tech guy doesn’t want to help, but changes his mind when Lee tells him about Maeve’s Jedi mind powers. It’s not looking good for Maeve, you guys.

Back at Akecheta’s camp, Maeve’s daughter remains unharmed; she’s more afraid of MIB than of the Ghost Nation members. Akecheta, being very friendly, settles down to tell her the story of his past life.

You see, Akecheta wasn’t always the bloodthirsty, menacing leader of the Ghost Nation tribe. In a previous narrative, he was married to a beautiful woman named Kohona (Julia Jones) and lived peacefully with other Native American hosts for nine years. Then, one day, Akecheta wandered into the first Sweetwater massacre, the one arranged by Arnold (Jeffrey Wright) in a failed attempt to stop the park from every being opened. In the aftermath of this grizzly scene, Akecheta found the maze game Arnold used to test Dolores’ fidelity. This is the same maze MIB was searching throughout season 1.

This encounter would change Akecheta forever. Consumed by the symbol of the maze — a tool Arnold hoped would help free the hosts — Akecheta began carving it into everything he touched, to the point where the other hosts thought he was going mad.

Soon after, before Westworld officially opened for business, Akecheta and select members of his tribe were taken back to Delos HQ and reprogrammed to be far more aggressive. All memories Akecheta’s wife Kohona were erased, and he and his compatriots were reborn as the Ghost Nation tribe; fierce warriors painted like demons, designed to strike fear into the hearts of guests who wandered into their path…and whom the guests wouldn’t feel bad killing, since they’re so animalistic.

One day, Akecheta came across Logan (Ben Barnes) sitting naked in the sand, leaning against a dead tree. You may remember that in season 1, William (Jimmi Simpson) stripped Logan of his clothes and sent him bareback on a horse into the desert. Welcome to several days later. Logan is rambling incoherently, yet something he says sticks with Akecheta. “This is an illusion,” he says. “There’s gotta be a way out of here. Where’s the door. Where’s the door? Where’s the fucking way out of here? This is the wrong world. This is the wrong world!”

 much sought-after Door.

Logan’s words “crack something open” in Akecheta, and when he returns to his tribe, he recognizes his wife Kohona, even though she’s now playing a different role and doesn’t recognize him.

We flash back to Maeve in Dels HQ, and oh god, they’re cutting her open. Is it weird that I have more empathy for a robot than an actual living, breathing human being like MIB?

Back in the past, Akecheta tries to find Logan again, hopeful he can point the way to the Door. But Logan long gone back to the real world, where he can drink, whore and shoot up his way to an early death. #JustLoganThings

So Akecheta begins to search, riding farther than he ever has before until he arrives at a valley being excavated by the same machinery Young William showed Dolores in Episode 202, “Reunion.” He sees a literal door — a passage to another world —  in the valley. At this point, I’m pretty sure that “The Door” and “The Valley Beyond” and “Glory” are all the same thing. The hosts are trying to bust out into our world.

Anyway, upon seeing the Door, Akecheta realizes that he is in “the wrong world,” and becomes determined to escape it. But first, he needs to make Kohana remember who she is, and who he is to her. Sneaking into her camp, he grabs her and takes her on a trip. There’s some definite creepiness going on there, but Akecheta gets lucky when Kohana remembers her old self. “Take my heart when you go,” Akecheta says to her, repeating something they said to each other in their old life. “Take mine in its place,” she replies. Kohana is awake.

The two set off to find the Door together. On their way, Kohona asks Akecheta what awaits them on the other side. “Somewhere our memories will be safe,” he tells her. Is he speaking metaphorically, or might there be another Cradle in this new world? Could be useful after Angela (Talulah Riley) blew up the one with all the hosts’ backups last week.

And here’s where this love story turns tragic. One day, as Akecheta is returning from hunting, he sees Delos technicians grab Kohona and take her away; she had wandered far off her beaten path. Akecheta can only watch in horror.

Returning to his camp, Akecheta realizes that his Kohana has been replaced by another host, and  searches for the original across the park. At his lowest point, he enounters Maeve’s daughter when he’s bleeding and wounded the ground. She gives him water, and he survives. This makes clear that the Ghost Nation was never trying to terrorize Mave and her daughter. Instead, they were protecting them from the Man in Black, who Akecheat considers truly evil.

Years pass. Among Akecheta’s people, others are realizing that new hosts are replacing the ones that used to be their family members. Akecheta decides the only way to get to the bottom of this mystery is to die and look for Kohana on the other side. One attack on an armed guest later, and Akecheta is at the Mesa, where technicians exposit that he’s an “Alpha” build who hasn’t been updated in a decade. This means that, like Dolores and Clementine, he’s among the oldest hosts in the park.

Once inside the Mesa, Akecheta goes looking for Kohana and the other lost members of his tribe. He finds them in cold storage, unresponsive. It’s a heartbreaking moment as he comes to grips with the fact that he will never be with his wife again. Akecheta returns to his tribe with his newfound knowledge, and teaches them how to achieve freedom through the maze.

And now we flash forward to Maeve, her skin flayed open, with Lee crying actual tears of sorrow beside her. He seems to genuinely want to reunite Maeve with her daughter. Way to develop, Lee.

Creepy lab guy says that Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) has been informed about Maeve’s powers, which means further trouble for our girl. 

As Akecheta tells his story, it’s slowly revealed that Maeve’s special powers are allowing her to listen to him, and he knows it. Up to this point, she’s used her powers (which, as we learn here, amount to her having admin access to the hosts) for violence. But now, she’s using them to connect to someone she used to fear. This whole time, Akecheta has been telling his heartbreaking tale of self-discovery to Maeve as she lies on that table, being experimented on. It’s also revealed that it was Akecheta who opened Maeve’s mind before she became a Madam at the Mariposa Saloon. He showed her the maze when she was a homesteader.

Is Akecheta the first truly free host?

Akecheta continues his story. One night, he stumbles on Dr. Ford taking a sojourn in the park (or, more likely, Dr. Ford arranged for Akecheta to find him). Ford has taken notice of Akecheta’s mission of waking every host he can reach. The two have a conversation about the Door, and what’s on the other side. Akecheta believes his wife awaits him there. He tells Ford he saw the “Deathbringer” (Dolores) kill the “Creator” (Arnold). “When the Deathbringer returns for me,” Ford says, “you will know to gather your people and lead them to a new world.”

And so it is. After Dolores kills Ford, Akecheta happens upon the Second Sweetwater Massacre, leaves to carry out his mission.

With his story complete, we’re caught up in time. MIB’s daughter, Grace (Katja Herbers), rides into the Ghost Nation’s camp to collect her father. Akecheta lets them leave. Finally, Akecheta tells Maeve that it is time to go, that he will continue to try and protect her daughter safe, and to come find them if she can. “Take my heart with you when you go.”

“Kiksuya” may be the best episode in the series yet. It shone a light on the mystery that was the Ghost Nation tribe, featured breathtaking cinematically, added weight and depth to the hosts’ search for the Door, and pushed several of our characters forward, even if not a ton “happened” plotwise. This was a beautiful episode.

We’re now only two episodes away from the season 2 finale, but I’m having a hard believing Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy will be able to top what they’ve done tonight.

Next: Watch the trailer for Westworld Episode 209, “Vanishing Point”

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