The ‘Westworld’ Q&A: “Virtu e Fortuna”

By Ryan O'Connell on 05/07/2018 • ( 0 )

Remember all those times you thought how Westworld was kind of like Lost, but not enough like Lost to really seal the deal for you and as a result, you could never fully commit yourself to Westworld? Well buddy, Sunday night Westworld went full Lost and the end result was probably the most direct, easy to digest and comprehend and on even the most basic level, the most enjoyable episode of the show yet.

Were the multiple timelines? Of course there were multiple timelines! But hey, did those multiple timelines get a little too confusing and hard to follow?

NOPE!

Plus, we got to swing by another section of the park we didn’t even know existed and got a glimpse of a park we totally knew existed and couldn’t wait to see. Oh and there was a “battle” at a fort that was actually kind of anti-climactic, but whatever. It served a purpose and on Westworld, that’s good enough.

Let’s get into this week’s Q&A.

Okay, so the opening…?

India World? British Colonization World? The World With Elephants and Tigers? Whatever it’s called, it exists and it’s where the tiger came from that the Delos Dudes came across in the season premiere. Again, that’s enough when it comes to Westworld and was probably the most Lost-ish move they pulled this week. They showed you the tiger in the “previously on” and then showed you how it got there. Bing, bang, boom. Dead tiger.

Who was that lady?

You mean this lady?

I think she’s the Man in Black’s daughter. She had too many tidbits about her to just have her be a throwaway character. You know, tidbits like a notebook full of possibly meaningful diagrams and scribbles she kept close to the vest and most importantly, survived the tiger attack. If the point of the cold open was to show the origins of the tiger and introduce us to the part of the park where it came from, that lady would have died. But she didn’t.

And then she gets captured by the Ghost Nation, which means her story continues.

As far as being Old William’s daughter, I’m going to be honest and give credit to The Ringer’s Recappables pod. But hey, when they said it, I was like, yeah, makes sense to me. Timeline seems to work too, as we saw Young William’s daughter in the second episode and she looked about five or six years old. That was about twenty five years ago and this new mysterious woman looks thirty or so. Plus, if she is William’s daughter, it adds an interesting wrinkle to her story and she could prove to be a human we can actually get behind.

Or she’s not and we never see her again, to which we’d reply that you got us again, Westworld.

Why is Abernathy so important, again?

Because he’s basically a walking, talking, Civil War battle song singing thumb drive and that thumb drive contains all kinds of valuable information Charlotte has been tasked with getting out of the park. And as with most thumb drives, he’s a little bit unreliable and keeps getting lost.

Do you think Charlotte becomes the big bad at some point this season?

Sure, why not.

No, I’m serious.

Me too.

Fine. Is Teddy doomed now that Dolores saw him disobey him?

Oh yeah. It was only a matter of time before Teddy cracked and bucked. We all saw it coming and Dolores probably did too, which was why she was looking on as he ended up not killing the few remaining Confederados. Maybe it was a final test for him. If he had gone through with it, she knew she had a loyal dude to roll with her. If he failed, well, Teddy meet Bernard. Bernard meet Teddy. Now, let’s do a quick switcheraoo and be on our way.

As far as battles go, how do you feel about the Battle of Fort Forlorn Hope?

Well, as the name of a fort, you can definitely tell that that shit was written by a writer looking to prove something. But the battle, well, you know…

Here’s the thing, leading up to it, the idea of a confrontation involving Dolores’ Crew and the Delos Dude sounded good, but if you thought about it, some holes started to show. The biggest hole was the fact Dolores’ Crew was rocking weapons from the 1880’s and the Delos Dudes were rocking futuristic machine guns. It never really seemed like a fair fight, especially if it was going to happen in broad daylight with the squads going up against each other straight up. Dolores’ Crew need to employ some guerilla warfare tactics, whereas the Delos Dudes could just overpower them. Or employ some guerilla tactics of their own.

Instead, we got the Delos Dudes walking nonchalantly across an open field as the Confederados shot at them. Battle of the Bastards it definitely wasn’t. It also felt more exciting than it actually was.

But again, it served a purpose and that counts for something here. It showed just how far Dolores would go and how easily she’d sacrifice her fellow robots and it showed…well…uh…the Confederados need to be more careful when it comes to who they trust and who they don’t trust.

Let’s talk Samurais!

No, first we should talk about the return of Armistice because last time we saw her, it didn’t look like we’d see her again. But now she’s back and has a sweet new robot arm.

She also has Felix and that other dude, the lab techs from last season who helped Maeve become the Maeve we’ve come to know and love. Big picture, probably doesn’t mean much. But it does add to Team Maeve and if this all headed to some sort of Royal Rumble-like situation, Maeve was going to need to add some numbers.

Now can we talk about the samurai?

It was also interesting how Sizemore was so dumbfounded by the genuine love that existed between Hector and Maeve, mainly because it ran counter to Hector’s character. He’s supposed to be a loner, beholden to his one true love who died a long time ago. Doesn’t seem that way though and that bright light blinding your eyes is the light going off above Sizemore’s head that this shit is a lot more serious than he probably thought.

And the samurai?

Yeah man, came running out of the woods. Was super cool. Not much else to add there.

Yeah, that’s kind of true.

But again though, kind of a Lost move. Teasing something right as an episode ended.

So now what happens?

Well Dolores is headed to Sweetwater, the town where all things start at Westworld and my guess is she’ll kill some people there. Is Maeve’s daughter in Samurai World or did they just get lost and end up there? Sorry, that was just a random thought.

I think that the fact that we don’t really know where things are going is part of the allure of Westworld. What is the big culminating act that everything seems to be working towards? We don’t know. We have a pretty good idea, but that’s it.

Let’s put it this way.