Westworld 2x05 'Akane No Mai' TV TALK

This was the episode so many of us were waiting for and it was awesome to finally see the world that's been hinted for so long. And Shogun world is way more brutal than anything we've seen before... which was so entertaining! In my opinion, Shogun World makes Westworld look like Disneyland.
The episode's title, 'Akane No Mai', literally translates to 'Akane's Dance' which brilliantly sums up this episode, in my opinion, because that dance was vicious!

TV TALKS

Season 1:  1x01  |  1x02  |  1x03  |  1x04  |  1x05  |  1x06  |  1x07  |  1x08  |  1x09  |  1x10
Season 2:  2x01  |  2x02  |  2x03  |  2x04

SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD- SPOILERS AHEAD

Karl Strand (Present Timeline)
We had a small scene at the beginning of the episode with Strand and the rest of his team back at the control room. They've finished getting all the host bodies out of the water but have found that 1/3 of their data is gone or had never even existed in the first place- meaning Delos has lost 1/3 of their IP.
Karl Strand also goes onto to say 'that's quite a story you gave them' and all through this little monologue, he's looking directly at Bernard. There's a huge question of whether they know if Bernard is a host or not and, at the moment, I'm gonna go with yes.

Maeve
Now this is what we've been waiting for since the beginning of season 2. Shogun World.
Maeve and her group are taken hostage by Shogun hosts. Maeve tries to use voice commands to control them but it doesn't work and Lee later tells her it's because she should've said it in Japanese- a language she can speak.

I will admit that I loved Lee in this entire episode (though, I've loved him constantly, to be honest). He's such a funny character with all his blunt quips and sarcasm and I feel like he's exactly what I would be like in Shogun World- a total panicking wreck.
The group are taken to the first town within Shogun world and as soon as I heard the background song, Paint It Black, but with a Japanese twist, I knew it was gonna be good. We have this beautiful sequence that parallels with Hector's ambush in Sweetwater and I appreciated it so much!! It was so detailed and came together perfectly. I love how the hosts all have their own dopplebots- Hanaryo (Armistice's double) being my favourite.

We have Musashi who's supposed to be our Hector character (though, the two don't seem to get along very well), Sakura who's Clementine's double as well as Akane who acts as Maeve's dopplebot. I love the details in all of their costumes to mirror their counterparts and it was such an interesting concept to see their similarities and subtle differences.
The Shogun sends an emissary for Sakura, wanting her for entertainment, but we instantly see Akane's motherly instincts as she kills the emissary to protect Sakura. The relationship between Akane and Sakura nicely reflects how Maeve feels for her daughter and it's definitely the biggest commonality we see between the two (besides them both being badasses).

They get attacked by ninjas and Maeve saves herself by using the commands but through some sort of telepathy. As soon as she did this, it reminded me of how Ford could control the hosts without saying anything. From what we can guess, I would say she's using the mesh network between hosts in order to communicate with them- it seems the most obvious explanation.
Shogun's men come to take Sakura and then come for Akane since she killed the Shogun's emissary. Hector, Musashi and Armistice distract the Shogun's men to give the others time to escape and are quickly taken hostage.
Maeve, Akane, Lee, Felix and Sylvester travel to the Shogun to attempt to get the others back. On the way, they pass a bunch of Delos' Quality Assurance team butchered and hung as a warning. Lee finds and takes a QA radio and I'm seriously debating whether Lee may betray them or not. Part of me says he will but there's a small hope that he's had enough character development to be loyal to Maeve in the end. It would be a nice redemption arc for him, I think.

They go to meet with the Shogun and we see that he's broken- conical fluid leaking out of his ear in a similar way to Bernard. He's also deafened all of his men so that Maeve can't voice command them but... that was a complete waste of his time now that she can do cool telepathy.
Akane tells the Shogun that she'll pay any price for Sakura and he says he'll give Sakura back as long as Akane dances for him... which seems like a reasonable offer. But you just know it won't end with nice rainbows and happiness.
We have a really touching scene where the girls are preparing for the dance. We find that the Shogun has carved a cherry blossom tree on Sakura's back to make her more beautiful which shows how brutal he is (fun fact: Sakura literally translates to cherry blossom). Akane comforts Sakura and she uses that beautiful story that Maeve had also used back in Westworld which I loved.

Maeve offers to take them to the new world but Akane rejects, saying that some things are too precious to lose, wanting to stay with Sakura even if it means sacrificing her freedom. You can just see how much respect Maeve has for Akane and how she sees the relationship she longs for with her daughter.
Before they even begin dancing, the Shogun kills Sakura which was just painful to watch! But then we have Akane's awesome dance and she one ups the Shogun by cutting his head in half. Shogun World is definitely ten times more brutal than Westworld...

The Shogun's men go to kill Akane and Maeve but Maeve saves them, just in time by ordering the men to turn on each other. And, in hindsight, why the hell didn't she do that earlier? Before Sakura was killed would've been a good place to intervene but.. oh, well.
We end their section with the Shogun's army approaching, all hell breaking loose and I'm so excited! However, while Shogun World was super interesting and entertaining to explore, I do prefer spending time in Westworld.

Dolores
And, finally, we followed Dolores' story line which had to be my favourite because she's unashamedly my favourite character.
They've made it back to Sweetwater and we learn of Dolores' plans to take the train back to the Delos mesa centre. Angela confirms that the mesa is where Delos would've taken Peter Abernathy and that seems to be Dolores' priority at the moment- getting her father back.

Dolores takes Teddy back to the place where they used to watch the herd and it's so bittersweet to see how far they've come and how they've changed since then. Dolores gives him a bucket of foreshadowing in the form of a monologue and... damn! Evan Rachel Wood delivers all of Dolores' lines perfectly and I loved the significance of this scene. She tells the story of how the herd almost died of disease and asks Teddy how he would've fixed it. His immediate solution is to help and shelter the weak whereas Dolores' father burned the weak so the others could survive. This beautifully reflects their conflicting beliefs in terms of this revolution- Teddy would shelter the weak and risk disease spreading whereas Dolores is prepared to burn the weak so the strong can thrive.

After thinking everything through, Dolores tells Teddy that her feelings for him are true and not just something she's been programmed to feel. This was such a sweet and more humane side to see from Dolores and they go on to have their first sexy time together.
But all the cutesy moments were quickly thrown out the window when Dolores led Teddy to the barn and proceeded to completely screw him over. I'll be honest, I thought she was gonna kill him. Instead, she fiddles around with his programming, giving him more decisiveness, courage, cruelty, aggression and self-preservation while taking away things like empathy and compassion. Teddy's sort of like a terminator now.

I'm finding the binary between Dolores and Maeve so interesting this series. Maeve considers love to be a strength and that's what she's fighting for but Dolores, on the other hand, sees love as a weakness and a liability that would get in the way of her goal. The big question I think will be answered by the end of this series is who the Judas steer is. In season 1, Dolores shows Teddy the herd and points out the Judas steer, saying that the rest of the herd will follow wherever the Judas steer goes. Either Maeve or Dolores must end up being the Judas steer but who will the rest of the hosts follow? My instinct is to go with Maeve at the moment. She may not have intentions of leading a rebellion but I think Dolores is becoming too much of an antagonist for the other hosts to want to follow.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment your thoughts. Stay amazing!
Chloe