Westworld 2x07 'Les Écorchés' TV TALK

I know I sound like a broken record by now but this episode was so amazing and maybe my favourite so far! We got lots of explanations, reveals and reunions I hadn't seen coming! It was as fast-paced as always and gripping through every single second. But what I loved most about this episode, was the monologues. The writers of this show are so talented and we had multiple monologues from different characters that just had me captivated. There were so many amazing quotes in this episode (hence why I made double the amount of edits for this episode).

TV TALKS

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

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

Present (Bernard/Charlotte/Strand)
The scenes with Bernard, Karl Strand and Charlotte nicely bookended this episode which I really liked. And yes, that's a weird thing to appreciate but, with Westworld, it's unusual to get such a neat episode when everything's usually all over the place.

We start with Strand and Charlotte accusing either Stubbs or Bernard of killing Theresa. Bernard understandably seems shaken by all the memories of Theresa bombarding him and things only get worse as Charlotte and the others discover a secret lab that contains a bunch of versions of Bernard. Now, this wasn't really a surprise- we'd been waiting for this scene ever since the trailer dropped with the shot of Charlotte in front of multiple Bernards- but I was still super excited that everything's finally coming out.

They quickly take Bernard back to the Mesa labs and ask him questions while in his analysis mode. Charlotte wants to find out what he saw during the chaos of the mesa as she wants to know where Dolores has taken the control unit of data once in Peter Abernathy. This nicely leads onto the main section of the episode- basically a flashback of what both Bernard and Charlotte saw during the chaos of the mesa.

Chaos of the Mesa
Dolores
Dolores attacks like the bad-ass character she is and it's so epic! The hosts dress up in human gear and sneak up to slaughter everyone who crosses their path. Honestly, this episode was kinda bloody but I loved it.

Charlotte and the tech team are trying to cut the control unit out of Peter's head when Dolores barges in. I thought the whole of this next scene was brilliant. Evan Rachel Wood is a flawless actress and I love watching the quick switches between Dolores and Wyatt. Dolores goes straight to her father when she sees him with nothing but love in her expression but, as soon as Charlotte speaks, she turns with murder in her eyes. The transition is just effortless and beautiful!

Dolores threatens Charlotte to get the encryption key out of Peter and taunts her with the knowledge she has. Dolores knows so much more about Delos' intentions than anyone would expect and I found a particular line she said to Charlotte very interesting. She mentions the valley beyond and 'all the souls you have gathered there'. To me, this immediately makes me think that Delos has a stash of guest control units ready for when they master the technology of putting a human consciousness into a host.
Dolores reveals to Charlotte how they want to destroy their backups- the Cradle- so they can no longer be held down and kept to the same mind-numbing loops.

We switch to Angela who was just awesome in this episode! She makes it down to the Cradle when a Delos soldier comes to stop her. She seduces him, taunting him that this was exactly what she was made for, before pulling the pin on his grenade and blowing them both up, the Cradle with them. I love how her last words 'welcome to Westworld' so perfectly paralleled with her first lines of the show- 'you must be William. Welcome to Westworld.' That was a really nice detail.

This Angela scene was absolutely fantastic and also raises a couple of interesting questions. Now that the hosts no longer have their backups, can they truly be killed? Sure, you could bring their physical body back but, without the Cradle to give them their loops, all of their memories and knowledge would be wiped. And if this is true, I'm super sad that we've lost Angela. I really don't want hosts to start dying permanently!
Meanwhile, as all of this is going down, we have Clementine and Teddy who both gets their five minutes of screen time to prove they're still useful and pretty cool. Clementine kicks Delos ass but is eventually taken down and killed- whether this is permanent or not is yet to be seen.

Terminator Teddy also gets his moment in the spotlight as he brutally takes down Delos soldiers and has a huge fight with Coughlin, eventually killing him before he returns to Dolores' side.
Back with Dolores, Charlotte and Stubbs find an opportunity to escape while Dolores is distracted with Peter recognising her again. We have a heart-breaking scene where Dolores says goodbye to him as she realises that the only way to retrieve the encryption key from his head is to kill him. It's made so much sadder by the repetition of season one lines. Peter starts to talk to her with the same script used within Westworld and you can see the pain it's causing Dolores- she knows he's not free and has to come to terms with sacrificing him for the greater good.

We've seen how Teddy and Peter are the only people Dolores really holds close and now, both of them gone in one way or another. She truly has no one.


Maeve
Through all this drama, Maeve is still forging on and finds a cabin for her and her daughter to hide away from Ghost Nation. I have no idea what happened to Hector and the others but we can imagine they've either, escaped, been killed by Ghost Nation or taken from Delos after Lee called them. Let's keep our fingers crossed for escape.

The Man in Black comes into the scene, having been chased by Ghost Nation himself, and this was a reunion that I had no idea I needed until now! It's so easy to forget that the MiB and Maeve know each other and I loved how he walked into the house with Maeve and her daughter huddled together- so close to the scene from season one.
Again, William seems to think Maeve is Ford and this just keeps getting funnier and funnier to me. William is so paranoid now and self-centred that he literally thinks everything is orchestrated for himself.
Maeve, not nearly as vulnerable as she once was, doesn't hesitate to shoot him. As he retreats, she controls all of the others hosts using the mesh network and they turn on William as well. The MiB gets shot so many damn times in this episode and yet, I don't think he's dead! This guy just can't die.

Just as Maeve is about to kill William for good, Lawrence points a gun at her head and she realises that he's truly awake- free in a way that others aren't. She talks him through recovering his memories and he sees all the terrible things MiB has done to him and his family. William may've been decent recently but his past has officially come back to bite him in the butt. Lawrence shoots him but, again, I don't think he's dead. I refuse to believe he's dead until we get the William/Dolores reunion I'm praying for!
Delos come in and they shoot down both Lawrence and Maeve. As she's been shot, Maeve sees her daughter be taken by Ghost Nation and it's such a punch to the stomach. Lee makes sure Maeve's safe and orders to the Delos soldiers not to kill her.

Later, Dolores crosses paths with Maeve and this was another reunion I hadn't been expecting. They had a brief talk in the second episode but I hadn't pictured them crossing paths again this season. There's a lot of lovely quotes in this conversation as Dolores tries to convince Maeve of her goals. She explains how the relationships they were given are simply a way for them to be controlled but Maeve refuses to go with Dolores, determined to keep her promise to her daughter. Dolores leaves Maeve there and it's astounding how different their journeys are and their perspectives on what happened to them.

Dolores did say something to Maeve that has me slightly worried- how she says that the humans will take away all that is powerful and strong about you and will turn you against us. This could be foreshadowing that Maeve is going to be a real thorn in Dolores' side and may even strike against her in the future.

Bernard/ Ford
And, finally, we have Bernard's storyline of the chaos in the mesa which was hands down the best part because Anthony Hopkins!!!!

Ford is revealed to be the control unit that Bernard had stolen in his memories and Ford now resides inside the Cradle.
Bernard figures out that the guests had been watched to see their true nature as Ford and Delos were trying to make the brain digital like the rest of the world. The goal was never to make hosts more like humans but to make humans more like hosts. Delos learned how to copy a mind but Ford says how it would only work in the Cradle and that he would deteriorate in the real world.

Ford takes Bernard to the home within Westworld that Arnold had made for himself. This place could possibly be the valley beyond...? Maybe? We find out that this was where Bernard was made and tested to see if he was similar to Arnold using Ford and Dolores' memories. Dolores was made to test him (just like we'd seen in previous episodes) to make sure his personality was faithful to Arnolds'.

Ford tells Bernard that he's unlikely to survive unless his free will is taken from him. From here, Ford leaves the Cradle and is now residing inside Bernard, able to hack and control Bernard. Ford is basically now a highly intelligent virus jumping around and hacking everyone.

Bernard awakes and, unsurprisingly, the Cradle is now back online as it's no longer clogged up by Ford. They send Elsie to stock up on weapons and Ford takes Bernard to the control room. Ford forces Bernard to shut down the system and give Dolores full reign and we have the huge fighting in the background of the control room. I love how there's Beethoven music in the background, hinting back to Ford's ending monologue in the season one finale- "Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin never died. They simply became music."

Ford forces Bernard to shoot down Delos soldiers and I love the shots with Bernard and Ford shooting the gun, the images switching between the shadows. It was just so subtle and beautiful!

Present (Bernard/Charlotte/Strand)
We then circle right back to the beginning and Bernard reveals where Dolores has taken Peter's control unit. Surprise, surprise... the valley beyond. Now, Strand, Charlotte and their merry crew of Delos are headed for the valley beyond too. This is just gonna be all too epic when all story lines collide.

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