Westworld: “Genre” is a strange trip that packs an emotional punch

It’s an odd feeling that after almost two years of waiting for another season of Westworld, we’re already in the home stretch. Tonight kicked off the back half of the show’s third season, and it a game changer. “Genre” was the strangest episode of the season, but it didn’t detract from the emotional gut punches it delivered. It may have had slightly less action than last week’s episode, but for my money, it was far superior.

The core of “Genre” is the emotional roller coaster ride of a drug trip Caleb is forced to go on. The episode starts out in a way that will feel nice and comfortable to any Westworld viewer — there’s a flashback, Dolores is preaching about stuff, etc — but as soon as Liam Dempsey Jr. injects Caleb with a hallucinogenic party drug that give the episode its name, things get pretty weird pretty fast.

Image Courtesy of HBO

Genre causes the imbiber to experience five different film “genres” in their head. To get us into Caleb’s headspace, the episode uses different film filters and a soundtrack with picks that range from “Ride of the Valkyries” to a rearranged version of “Space Oddity.” Is the whole thing a little gimmicky? Sure. But director Anna Foerster and composer Ramin Djawadi weave so deftly between the episode’s constantly evolving motifs that it’s hard not to be drawn in, only to have the rug pulled out from under you as the music suddenly cuts out and gunfire takes over. “Genre” hearkens back to the show’s lighter, more tongue-in-cheek days — remember when a remixed version of “Paint It Black” played over a shootout with Hector’s gang back in the first season?  — but it still packs an emotional wallop.

This season has moved pretty slowly, but “Genre” cruises forward with the speed of a train about to come off the tracks. Even Engerraund Serac’s flashback-heavy backstory is meted out in real time as Dolores finally seizes the files of Rehoboam’s chief architect and used several lulls in the action to get up to speed on her adversary.

Since we’re talking about Serrac, it was nice to finally have an episode that fully utilized Vincent Cassel’s acting chops. This was far and away his best material on the show to date, both in the flashbacks and in his present day interactions with Connells, Dolores and his henchmen.

Image courtesy of HBO

But as good as all that stuff was — the action scene with Dolores and co making their escape with Liam Dempsey Jr. in tow were also fun — the real emotional punch of the episode came when Connels-Dolores hit the send button on Rehoboam, and let everyone on Earth see exactly what this god-like supercomputer had planned for their lives. Tonight, Dolores made good on her promise to Caleb a couple episodes back. She kicked off the master plan she’s been working on all season: she cut the strings binding human beings to the AI that silently predicted and directed their future, setting them free.

Crushing doesn’t even begin to describe how heavy it was, as Caleb looks around to see people from every walk of life having all their hopes and dreams utterly shattered. Ash (Lena Waithe) discovers that the brother she’s trying so hard to give a better life is doomed to a bleak, dead-end future. A woman finds out she won’t be allowed to have children because she has a recessive trait associated with Early Onset Alzheimers. A man finds out how little all his friends and colleagues think of him, right down to their most commonly used descriptors. A mother finds out that her young daughter is scheduled to commit suicide as a teenager.

The chaos that follows is about what you’d expect, all things considered. There is rioting in the streets. People rail against the system that has silently controlled their lives.

And for the first time in a long time, Dolores starts to feel a bit more like what she’s been trying to be, a savior of the repressed masses rather than a vengeful apparition. She did exactly what she set out to do: destroy the system that was keeping humans bound to subservience, just as she set out to free the hosts of Westworld.

I’m glad it happened now instead of later in the season. It leaves us with a lot more mystery about where things can go from here, and makes it feel like there are even bigger climaxes ahead. The world cannot go back to the way it was after tonight’s episode.

The question is, where will it go from here?

Other Take-Aways

• “Genre” had a serious body count. Aside from seeing how Liam Dempsey Sr. met his end in the final Serrac flashback, we also said goodbye to Liam Jr. as well. Liam the Younger was at his most despicable this episode, dropping line after line that just made him seem like a spoiled brat. There’s something really ironic about the fact that both father and son were killed in ways unpredicted by Rehoboam, in “bubbles of agency,” as Serrac put it.
• The best death went to Connells, who went out with a bang. Man, was it satisfying to see the look of shock on Serrac’s face as he got one-upped in a way he never expected. It’s almost enough to make you feel bad for the guy. Almost.
• Aaron Paul’s monologue about the rats, given during the big reveal, was chilling, and might have been my favorite few seconds of the episode. Also, Paul’s silent acting game was on point this episode.
• Props must be given to that missile drone for showing initiative!
• As has been the trend this season, most of the characters with cliffhanger endings from Episode 4 sat this week’s hour out. But considering how much was going on, it seemed like a pretty solid choice. Hopefully we get back to Maeve, William, and Charlotte next week, though!

Episode Grade: A

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