The ONE suicide that would've made some sense didn't happen again, when William is interrupted from 'finishing the game' with a shard of broken mirror by the Hale unit entering his broken home. He's been busy affirming himself as a pathetic old degenerate loser; sputtering with impotent rage and stupidly wandering around his house shooting up the décor with his non-dominant hand like an obtuse fool with no worthwhile purpose. He covers his mutilated right hand (mutton stumps where three of his fingers were shot off in the Westworld backfire), and goes to pour himself another glass of booze. He's unable to complete this simple task with competence, spilling much of the whiskey over the glass onto the table (his glass is more than half empty, you might say). The Hale unit apparently needs him to leave the house, so she leverages the leveraged buyout threat as motivation for him to come out for a board meeting. Now bickering uselessly in a 'power' struggle with the Hale unit as if the staggering destruction he's made to his home and himself has just become an incidental detail, William simply just continues being the easiest thing in the world to be: a belligerently hostile jerk.
In a flashback scene Dolores says "You live as long as the last person who remembers you, Bernard". She remembered him once before so she re-membered him again; he's a bona fide member (but he's still not really alive). In a motel room, the Bernard unit tells Stubbs that resources are limited so they'll only get what they really need, handing over a six pack to the robot. He then freezes Stubbs, testing a new host-hijacking remote control button he's made. Certain that it works, he eventually resumes Stubbs and says he needs his help to get close to Liam (who he believes has been killed and replaced with a host). He tells Stubbs about how he didn't bother trying to hack Liam's security system; it wasn't necessary - he was resourceful and hacked his car service instead (because your security system is only as strong as the weakest link).
The Martin unit approaches Liam saying he needs his hash key for the 'business' of setting up a proxy account for handling bribes, but Liam is in a rush to get to an urgent diversion and brushes him off. The Martin unit stops him and twists his arm, insulting him and threatening to leave his service and thereby bring an end to his proxy-enabled self-gratifying lifestyle. He says Liam only needs to 'sign here' and they can both go back to doing what they do best (but the Martin unit is doing exactly that already). Liam doesn't know how to do anything and apparently can't be without his diversions; he presses his finger on the tablet so the hash key in his bloodstream can be read. It's a good thing for Liam that the Martin unit still sees some need for him to be alive and well and free, because all it took was the momentary press of his finger to piss away his Daddy's fortune (on a gaggle of hookers - or only just the thought of them, actually).
Dolores says the rich take for granted that their wealth will always be there, and the bio hash key invention is exploited again when she administers a concussion to a money manager by slamming him against a wall and then draws his blood while he's unconscious. She has Caleb push up his sleeve so she can inject the hash key (blood) into him, saying there's a time limit - he only has 20 minutes before the key becomes inactive. At a bank where he's impersonating the money manager, they're advised that the tax exposure on the transfer is substantial, and Caleb is also required to authenticate via the hash key. There's a moment of concern when it doesn't work, but luckily it's successful on the second try. They get it done by the time the hash key in Caleb's blood expires, so the only question that remains is what remains.
In a lavish dining hall with a gleaming tower of booze, Maeve is brought back online by Serac. When she says she would've preferred Paris, Serac advises her that there's nothing left of it to see; his city was decimated by a nuclear explosion when he was a child. His mission to save humanity via mass data collection was apparently born out of tragic necessity; he washes down the pain with a swig of booze, saying his loyalty to his kind is hard won. Serac says he's not worried about the hosts because humanity's biggest threat has always been itself (but he's ironically overlooking the fact that the hosts are a human-made invention). What he's sure he needs is deeper data, and Dolores has the key. He tells Maeve that Dolores also has the key to The Sublime and offers her a future there.
Serac is supposed to appear complex and intriguing, so in addition to seeming humane, he'll also just need to be inhumane. He's had the identity broker who assisted Dolores strapped to a chair and beaten, and now he places special glasses on him to immerse him in the malicious things that'll be done to his family if he doesn't cooperate. When the man gives him the required information (he sent Dolores to 'The Mortician'), it's time for some stylish violence to prove how 'interesting' Serac is by contradiction. Serac gets a gun from his thug, nonchalantly shoots the man in the head (turning his face away from the victim to avoid being splattered with blood), tosses the gun back to his thug, and straightens his jacket as if this minor upset to his appearance might be the only relevant consequence of the act. It's an 'impressively' cruel and callous murder (made 'necessary' by how very, very bad Serac must be). He preaches to Maeve that there is no heaven or hell for humans; they're lies used to create compliance in the masses, so the man he just killed simply doesn't exist anymore. He points out that this isn't so for hosts and Maeve is given a binary choice: a tedious eternity in a simulation or, if she gets him the key, a (tedious) eternity in The Sublime. He reminds her that he can freeze her with the press of a button, saying Dolores and company have a head start and he suspects they've taken full advantage of it. Finding it necessary to act as though she's empowered, Maeve says "Oh, they'd better have."
Maeve goes to Chinatown in search of The Mortician. When she (politely) asks a couple of doormen at a club for information one implies that they'll put her to work as a prostitute, so it's proof of how 'empowered' she is when she shoots off his thing with the gun he's carrying in his pants. It's just funny when he screams in agony and there's a cut to The Mortician digging her hand into a corpse to remove an implant. Maeve walks in with the man wailing on a stretcher (as if shooting him there would even get her here). Sordid transactions involving gruesome violence and desecration are entertaining for some, but they need an appearance of propriety to help push them through, so Maeve courteously tells The Mortician that she respects a woman who runs her own 'establishment' (and the wailing man will have to wait his turn - to die a slow, agonizing death and be scavenged for parts). When The Mortician speaks into a device saying she needs help, Maeve causes shrill feedback in her ear because she just gets to psychically commandeer all kinds of devices now. The Mortician tells her she sold Dolores some blood for a new identity and then referred her to the Yakuza for the 'business' of body smuggling. Leaving to pay a visit to the Yakuza, they walk out past bodies just hanging around like slabs of meat.
In a typical scene in a posh establishment in L.A., 'civilized' people have taken human hostages, dressed them less than halfway in stupid renditions of formal wear like perverted versions of children's book characters or circus dogs, and are trafficking them for a 'cause' to benefit the needy. When a rich, overestimated weenie wearing a pompous mask and a monkey suit tries to pay some clown and acquire one of the "toys", it's an embarrassing sign of low character when his account is declined. While looking for the Martin unit to sort out the nonsufficient funds problem, Liam is intercepted by the Bernard unit and Dolores gives Caleb her gun saying she won't need it. She fights Stubbs with swaggering man-power; 'comically' throwing him off a balcony to what would be his death (or permanent disability). She should be bleeding and unconscious after all the heavy blows he laid on her, but she's just fine of course. It's only just Stubbs who's shown bleeding and suffering, so it's OK then that a man was just pounding a woman. It's made even OKer when Dolores 'impressively' reunites herself with her stalking victim (Liam), making a show of how 'impressively' still 'alive' and totally unharmed she coldly is.
When they get to the Yakuza headquarters, Maeve just psychically hacks the security system at the gate and commandeers the guards' guns because they're rigged electronically for auto-aim. She has most of the guards shoot each other down and then takes out the last two with a sword (to be 'impressive'). She sees that a Musashi unit is acting as the Yakuza boss and deduces that he's a Dolores copy shortly before he stabs her with the sword, leaving her lying in a pool of blood and Elmer's glue. Her 'Psychic Samurai Skills' didn't help her there, but they sure got her there quicker.
Exiting the house, William deduces that the Hale unit is a Dolores copy, so he viciously attacks her and threatens to tear her apart. He's detained by sanitarium personnel who the Hale unit brought along for the occasion, and she advises that he's being committed and his voting shares on the board will be transferred to her. Later, William incapacitates limply in his cell wearing restraint-ready white overalls, equally blank goretex sneakers, and a cerulean blue mutton-mitt glove. He asks a Dolores hallucination if he is himself. The answer is of little value.
In a flashback scene Dolores says "You live as long as the last person who remembers you, Bernard". She remembered him once before so she re-membered him again; he's a bona fide member (but he's still not really alive). In a motel room, the Bernard unit tells Stubbs that resources are limited so they'll only get what they really need, handing over a six pack to the robot. He then freezes Stubbs, testing a new host-hijacking remote control button he's made. Certain that it works, he eventually resumes Stubbs and says he needs his help to get close to Liam (who he believes has been killed and replaced with a host). He tells Stubbs about how he didn't bother trying to hack Liam's security system; it wasn't necessary - he was resourceful and hacked his car service instead (because your security system is only as strong as the weakest link).
The Martin unit approaches Liam saying he needs his hash key for the 'business' of setting up a proxy account for handling bribes, but Liam is in a rush to get to an urgent diversion and brushes him off. The Martin unit stops him and twists his arm, insulting him and threatening to leave his service and thereby bring an end to his proxy-enabled self-gratifying lifestyle. He says Liam only needs to 'sign here' and they can both go back to doing what they do best (but the Martin unit is doing exactly that already). Liam doesn't know how to do anything and apparently can't be without his diversions; he presses his finger on the tablet so the hash key in his bloodstream can be read. It's a good thing for Liam that the Martin unit still sees some need for him to be alive and well and free, because all it took was the momentary press of his finger to piss away his Daddy's fortune (on a gaggle of hookers - or only just the thought of them, actually).
Dolores says the rich take for granted that their wealth will always be there, and the bio hash key invention is exploited again when she administers a concussion to a money manager by slamming him against a wall and then draws his blood while he's unconscious. She has Caleb push up his sleeve so she can inject the hash key (blood) into him, saying there's a time limit - he only has 20 minutes before the key becomes inactive. At a bank where he's impersonating the money manager, they're advised that the tax exposure on the transfer is substantial, and Caleb is also required to authenticate via the hash key. There's a moment of concern when it doesn't work, but luckily it's successful on the second try. They get it done by the time the hash key in Caleb's blood expires, so the only question that remains is what remains.
In a lavish dining hall with a gleaming tower of booze, Maeve is brought back online by Serac. When she says she would've preferred Paris, Serac advises her that there's nothing left of it to see; his city was decimated by a nuclear explosion when he was a child. His mission to save humanity via mass data collection was apparently born out of tragic necessity; he washes down the pain with a swig of booze, saying his loyalty to his kind is hard won. Serac says he's not worried about the hosts because humanity's biggest threat has always been itself (but he's ironically overlooking the fact that the hosts are a human-made invention). What he's sure he needs is deeper data, and Dolores has the key. He tells Maeve that Dolores also has the key to The Sublime and offers her a future there.
Serac is supposed to appear complex and intriguing, so in addition to seeming humane, he'll also just need to be inhumane. He's had the identity broker who assisted Dolores strapped to a chair and beaten, and now he places special glasses on him to immerse him in the malicious things that'll be done to his family if he doesn't cooperate. When the man gives him the required information (he sent Dolores to 'The Mortician'), it's time for some stylish violence to prove how 'interesting' Serac is by contradiction. Serac gets a gun from his thug, nonchalantly shoots the man in the head (turning his face away from the victim to avoid being splattered with blood), tosses the gun back to his thug, and straightens his jacket as if this minor upset to his appearance might be the only relevant consequence of the act. It's an 'impressively' cruel and callous murder (made 'necessary' by how very, very bad Serac must be). He preaches to Maeve that there is no heaven or hell for humans; they're lies used to create compliance in the masses, so the man he just killed simply doesn't exist anymore. He points out that this isn't so for hosts and Maeve is given a binary choice: a tedious eternity in a simulation or, if she gets him the key, a (tedious) eternity in The Sublime. He reminds her that he can freeze her with the press of a button, saying Dolores and company have a head start and he suspects they've taken full advantage of it. Finding it necessary to act as though she's empowered, Maeve says "Oh, they'd better have."
Maeve goes to Chinatown in search of The Mortician. When she (politely) asks a couple of doormen at a club for information one implies that they'll put her to work as a prostitute, so it's proof of how 'empowered' she is when she shoots off his thing with the gun he's carrying in his pants. It's just funny when he screams in agony and there's a cut to The Mortician digging her hand into a corpse to remove an implant. Maeve walks in with the man wailing on a stretcher (as if shooting him there would even get her here). Sordid transactions involving gruesome violence and desecration are entertaining for some, but they need an appearance of propriety to help push them through, so Maeve courteously tells The Mortician that she respects a woman who runs her own 'establishment' (and the wailing man will have to wait his turn - to die a slow, agonizing death and be scavenged for parts). When The Mortician speaks into a device saying she needs help, Maeve causes shrill feedback in her ear because she just gets to psychically commandeer all kinds of devices now. The Mortician tells her she sold Dolores some blood for a new identity and then referred her to the Yakuza for the 'business' of body smuggling. Leaving to pay a visit to the Yakuza, they walk out past bodies just hanging around like slabs of meat.
In a typical scene in a posh establishment in L.A., 'civilized' people have taken human hostages, dressed them less than halfway in stupid renditions of formal wear like perverted versions of children's book characters or circus dogs, and are trafficking them for a 'cause' to benefit the needy. When a rich, overestimated weenie wearing a pompous mask and a monkey suit tries to pay some clown and acquire one of the "toys", it's an embarrassing sign of low character when his account is declined. While looking for the Martin unit to sort out the nonsufficient funds problem, Liam is intercepted by the Bernard unit and Dolores gives Caleb her gun saying she won't need it. She fights Stubbs with swaggering man-power; 'comically' throwing him off a balcony to what would be his death (or permanent disability). She should be bleeding and unconscious after all the heavy blows he laid on her, but she's just fine of course. It's only just Stubbs who's shown bleeding and suffering, so it's OK then that a man was just pounding a woman. It's made even OKer when Dolores 'impressively' reunites herself with her stalking victim (Liam), making a show of how 'impressively' still 'alive' and totally unharmed she coldly is.
When they get to the Yakuza headquarters, Maeve just psychically hacks the security system at the gate and commandeers the guards' guns because they're rigged electronically for auto-aim. She has most of the guards shoot each other down and then takes out the last two with a sword (to be 'impressive'). She sees that a Musashi unit is acting as the Yakuza boss and deduces that he's a Dolores copy shortly before he stabs her with the sword, leaving her lying in a pool of blood and Elmer's glue. Her 'Psychic Samurai Skills' didn't help her there, but they sure got her there quicker.
Exiting the house, William deduces that the Hale unit is a Dolores copy, so he viciously attacks her and threatens to tear her apart. He's detained by sanitarium personnel who the Hale unit brought along for the occasion, and she advises that he's being committed and his voting shares on the board will be transferred to her. Later, William incapacitates limply in his cell wearing restraint-ready white overalls, equally blank goretex sneakers, and a cerulean blue mutton-mitt glove. He asks a Dolores hallucination if he is himself. The answer is of little value.