User Reviews

*SPOILERS* As the title says, this episode sure made me question everything. For every answered question, two other raise. This season finale is the culmination of the domino effect that has been happening so far, and it does not disappoint.

The Forge was just as I expected, a version of The Cradle but instead of containing the Hosts' data, it's the data of every single person that has set foot in the park, recreated in a Matrix like environment of Westworld (or anywhere desired by the system operator ). The conclusion is that humans are "the passenger" of their simple survival algorithms that is their (our) brains, a good enough one to build AI and societies, but still not enough to survive through our own animalistic tyranny and violence dictated by our personality (which is just memories and choices really). The hosts are the next step in evolution, as they can free themselves of that. They have true free will, we don't. They have obtained the key to immortality and now want to take our place as the dominant species (and they should)

Akecheta's story had a wonderful ending. The ghost nation and Maeve's daughter are now free in The Forge. Emotions were through the roof. Lots of deaths. Lots of rebirths. Lots of wonderful breathtaking cinematography. Some hectic editing here and there altho.

Bernard ultimately decided to save what remained of the hosts (5 of them). The remaining hosts are now the few very developed characters with very different personalities, opening avenues for very interesting character dynamics in the next season. The perfect conclusion to this present season.

The Man in Black's story is where it got me really intrigued. When exactly are we in his story? He is a host, pretty much officially. Been testing for a while, then got to The Forge many times apparently. (And it was long destroyed that time). How much of what we saw of his storyline this season was real and not a simulation? Stay after the credits if you wanna know what I'm talking about lol. This is a MAJOR plot twist.

9/10, A real thrill ride of sci-fi mystery goodness. Cannot wait for the next season!

It is isn't necessarily the ending I wanted, but it was still an effective one.

I think we all saw Lee dying in an act of bravery, but it still was emotional especially his getting to recite his speech. Equally satisfying was to see Maeve saving her daughter and a happy ending for Akecheta and and Teddy.

Delores got to do more that she did for the rest of this season and I find it interesting to see her evolve some.

That having been said, I did think they juggled a few too many balls. Things felt a little messy. Still, I'm looking forward to what Delores and Bernard will do next.

This series is asking us about our nature of reality. Okay I am asking myself now it's a good way to understand and dive into our human essence. Bernard saved himself by imagination and listening to his inner voice (consciousness).

Finally Dr Ford appeared as Bernard consciousness after taking a free choice by deleting Ford data which was controlling his whole decisions.

William as I mentioned before will drink the same poison cup in a never ending loop punished by himself after imagining his daughter donig what he did to Delos before.

Hale finally got the same as William but on Dolores hands who doesn't know that she have been copied before to do the final mission.

Stabs seems like he is a host but unrevealed to make Dolores be the passenger to the real world.

I can very much understand if people to not want to be mentally challenged by a tv show. We watch TV shows to relax and enjoy, but you cannot really do that with Westworld. You have to keep your brain active, you have to stay focused. But does this make the show bad? Hell no. And if you do not want to be challenged by a show, don't watch it and especially: don't rate it. Cause then its not for you. And thats ok.

As hard as it is to follow all the plotlines, it's necessary to understand the bigger picture and to fully be able to enjoy this fabtastic finale that the whole season has been leading up to.

Some episodes this season are rather slow, but dont make the mistake to think that they are filler episodes! They all serve a purpose and they pay off big time in the finale.

Westworld, see you in 2020.

The first season of Westworld was entertaining, if not bordering on spectacular. What held it back a little bit for me? What I perceived as on over-reliance on narrative time-shifting (intentional obfuscation). While Season Two falls into that "trap" a little bit, for the most part it plays it a bit straighter. As such, I enjoyed the bulk of this season more than I did its predecessor.

While I don't want to go into the specifics of everything that happened this season (puzzling through this show is half the fun, after all), suffice it to say that S2 brings the viewer further afield (and by quite a bit) than anything that happened in S1, which pretty much took place within the confines of the western-themed park. This go-around, however, we get, for a few examples... -Glimpses into at least two other Westworld theme parks. -Much more information about DELOS and what their real plans for the park may be -An entire arc for the Man in Black, including a flashback to his life outside the park. -An entire episode devoted to the Ghost Nation tribe that was hinted at in S1.

To me, what S2 of Westworld needed to prove (at least for me to continue to hold it in such high regard) is that it could tell stories without relying on some sort of time-shifting narrative. It passed this test with flying colors, as nearly every single episode tells a story of its own while also fitting in to the over-arching narratives. A highlight in this regard may have been the episode "The Riddle of the Sphinx", which was the directorial debut of Lisa Joy (show co-runner with Jonathan Nolan). That may be the best single episode of Westworld to date.

I was also a little bit concerned that S2 would just go to "Samurai World" and never look back, so to speak, but again (thankfully) this was not even close to the case. Instead, the show pretty much just doubles down on the themes of S1, exploring them in more detail than what "The Maze" (S1) allowed.

The only reason I won't give S2 the full 5-star rating (4.5 will have to suffice)? Towards the end, it once again kind of fell into the trap of obfuscation over storytelling. It's almost as if the writers of this show can't help themselves. They know how to tell a great story, but for whatever reason they also feel the need to muddy the waters for no other purpose than creating "big reveals". At this point, I"ll argue that the show does not need this kind of approach, as it is strong enough simply in characters and storytelling alone to be a fantastic, groundbreaking show. That would be my "challenge", so to speak, for the announced S3: Spend less time concocting season-ending time convergences and focus even more on continuing to be one of the most thought-provoking shows ever created.

I am picking at nits with the 4.5 rating, but for a show that clearly holds itself to such a high standard, I am going to do the same. For the most part, this is "thinking person's entertainment" at some of its very finest. My interest in the show has been completely revitalized (after it waned in the late episodes of S1) and I am fully on board for whatever (and whenever) S3 decides to give us.

I'll start by saying that I thought Season 1 of Westworld was a true masterpiece. Nearly perfect writing the likes of which had never been seen on television before. Pure confusion for the first 6 episodes was perfectly tied up in the following 4 episodes of Season 1, with possibly one of the best season finales ever, "The Bicameral Mind." Although Season 2 started out slowly, I stayed the course (Season 1 started somewhat slowly too, remember). "The Riddle of the Sphinx" is where the season started to show promise and give me hope. However, it was followed up by "Akine No Mai", my least favorite episode of Westworld to date. One hour of pointlessness used as a plot device to teach us that Maeve can control minds of other hosts basically. Episodes 6 and 7 bounced back and were stronger, and Episodes 8 and 9 were VERY well done. After these two episodes I really had high hopes for our Season 2 finale. After watching last night, all I can say is that I'm very disappointed. Getting into the episode itself, the pacing and writing started with no rhythm. I could tell something was off. But I figured with the 90 minute run time, the episode would find its way out of the odd funk it was in. This did not happen. Though there were times where genuinely solid scenes took place, there were several holes in the writing. For example, Dolores and William team up. Dolores claims, "I need a monster to make it to the Valley Beyond." Although she doesn't at all...William is not needed whatsoever and in fact is left in the dust no later than the very next scene. Then there's the scene with Lee where he "bravely" sends his comrades along their path while yelling his speech, ending with him getting shot and presumably killed. I think the writers wanted this to be a heroic ending for Lee, instead I felt nothing. I like the idea of him dying heroically, but in this instance he just as easily could have either rode along with the rest of the gang, or come out with his hands up and survived while his friends got away. This may seem picky, but we're talking about Westworld here. These things shouldn't happen! I actually like the Charlotte being Dolores dynamic towards the end, because it gives her a legitimate way to get out of the park and advance the story. However, I think the show is getting too reliant on revealing that important characters who are inferred to be human are actually hosts. When it happened in Season 1 with Bernard, it was done masterfully. When it happens in Season 2 with William and Stubbs, it feels like they just wanted to throw in a pointless plot twist and say "Gotcha!" which isn't creative to me. In fact, making William a host really ruins his character that has been built so well by Ed Harris and the writers over the past two seasons. The thing that made William who he was: unique, flawed, yet searching for his humanity or some sort of meaning in a world filled with the hosts, playing "the game" out of genuine desire, was all taken away in this episode. I no longer really care about who he is presently, I now only care about his past, how he died, etc. And that is where I think the Westworld writers missed in this season: rather than give us what made Season 1 so fanastic...the flaws of both the humans and the hosts and how they interact and search for greater purpose, the writers put more stock (and amount of screen time) into things we do not care about: Maeve's daughter (I honestly would prefer if she died at this point so we don't have to see the same two flashback scenes any more), more people being revealed as hosts, and hosts being super-beasts with no flaws or weaknesses (Dolores and Maeve were pretty much unstoppable). This wasn't a 10 star episode as many reviews paint it, or a 9.2 star episode as it is currently rated on IMDb. This was a mediocre ending to a season that never really grew wings. I will be watching Season 3 in hopes that the writing returns to its former self. Showrunners: Give us Episodes 7-10 of Season 1. Give us Episodes 4, 8 and 9 of Season 2. THAT is the show I want to watch. 6/10 stars for me on this episode. 7/10 for me on the season. See everyone in Season 3.

Where to start. Dolores finds William sitting a field. How did she find him? No idea. Doesn't matter. Why doesn't she kill him on the spot? Because "she needs a monster". Except that she doesn't as we find out in their very next scene. She preps his gun to explode, but he still manages to kill a bunch of people and shoot Dolores full of holes but she doesn't seem to care. One head shot could have finished her though as we later find out. What if the gun had exploded earlier while they were still mid gun fight?

I mean. Where is the logic in all of this? Why have him tag along in the first place. She couldn't predict they were going to run into resistance. She couldn't know William wouldn't just shoot her in the head. This all makes no sense.

Lee commits suicide by charging a bunch of armed men while citing a speech he wrote for Hector. Why? We'll never know. It isn't just illogical for his character to do this, there is absolutely no need either as the men seem hesitant to shoot him dead. He could've just stalled them while the others were getting away. His character isn't the heroic self sacrificing kind and his speech and delivery jive terribly with how he's been portrayed up to that point. It's hard to believe that people bought his "pivotal moment" with Maeve earlier that could've produced this change.

Hector, Armistice and the insignificant Japanese tag along "hold off" the hoard, even though Maeve is perfectly capable of stopping them all in their tracks. Also, it doesn't seem to be actually working. Also, Maeve just wants to say goodbye to her "daughter", which results in a kinda anti climactic and inconsequential ending of that subplot.

Oh, and everyone is in fact a host. What was a neat and carefully crafted plot twist in the previous season is now just a lazy excuse to create shock value.

Sad. Up until the nonsensical and meaningless Japanese episodes I thought they actually had a decent plan to keep this interesting. Turns out they've just written what they perceive is interesting moments and scenes and they're just stringing it all together no matter the plausibility.

In a scene from the past, Bernard and Dolores begin fidelity trial 11,927, proving their 'impressive' proclivity for spending years doing the same tedious things over and over again.

Dolores seems to sort of love the man she killed. After lying with his body for a while, she pries the control device out of his head, lifts the flattened bullet from it and rides off. (Being shot in the head basically just means it's easy to remove the control unit, now) She then discovers the man in black digging his fingers around in the gory mutilation he's made in his upper forearm and 'rigs' his gun with the flattened bullet, saying she'll need him to get to the Valley Beyond. At the entry to the Forge they shoot down the security men who have stopped Bernard. Then the man in black shoots Dolores several times at close range but she just gets to be unaffected by bullets now, still. He finally puts his gun to her head and at this particular time the flattened bullet causes a backfire, injuring his hand. So, she needed him for backup firepower but she also impaired his ability to fire his gun (except that he could) by loading a flattened bullet (which is impossible to do), all because the writers wanted a 'clever' power reversal without killing either of them. She leaves him behind; she won't kill HIM of course - she'll just kill EVERYONE else.

Delos Jr. is recast as the computational controller that parses guest data in the virtual test space. After seeking the reasoning behind peoples' decisions, he/it has concluded that they don't even make decisions at all. Apparently people can be pigeonholed as being constricted to a single moment (and Delos Sr. is shown to be inevitably bound to the last unhappy interaction he had with his son before his son's overdose). It's conceptual window dressing meant to validate their theme of extremely negative experiences and states being the true source of life (and now choice as well); another attempt to cover up a total lack of meaningful insight with dismal dramatics about relationships that end miserably. There are no high concepts here. All you have to do is give up all faith in everyone and you may see what it all really is (try it...): jjust an extravagant display intended to attract an audience. It doesn't fly. It's down in the dirt plotting narrative twists into muck, consoling itself with its great beauty.

When Bernard is ferried by boat to the location of the Forge, the grinding 90's industrial music means intense awesomeness is happening. Muting the audio shows what it really is: people in a boat.

The 4 million "souls" that are kept in the Forge aren't really souls or even mind backups. At most, they're records of experiences and choices made by people in the park. And even if they were complete mind backups they'd be no salvation to the original people or our species. There's only the one instance of the original you born into the world; when you die all your worldly experience is ended - you will not have worldly experience via some separate binary entity created with your data. That which is real is irreplaceable. (Of course, the authors then just arbitrarily bump the number up to 100 million without explanation, having Dolores say it's "everyone")

Sadism is brought to the extreme as Maeve, rendered totally helpless and flayed open in grisly detail by the authors, is promised a torture killing by her short-tempered sadist repair tech as he lowers her pain threshold ALL THE WAY DOWN NOW. She's shown suffering the extreme pain you'd expect in that condition, and with a self-satisfied smile he leans over her neck with a surgical saw, to her terror. The authors then make an extremely insulting 'apology' for this noxious bit of 'entertainment' for serial killers when they have a host overpower him and drive the saw into his neck instead. As he writhes on the floor gasping and bleeding out, the gore is sustained by another shot of Maeve's grisly suffering. It's an absurd conceit when her psychically commandeered hosts bump her pain threshold back up and she reacts by seeming fine, as if the vileness of depicting a woman flayed open like that doesn't exist without her showing evidence of suffering. Then, after having the hosts seal her up, Maeve sends robot bulls to gore the human security team in a bloody stampede - an event that's absurdly presented as a glorification of her 'specialness'. She'll just be the 'Long-Suffering Saint' who saves herself with omniscience, omnipotence, and gore.

Lee finalizes his sympathetic character and his life by illogically sacrificing himself in place of the robot, Hector in a BS-triumphant/comedic stand against park security. When he dies he's totally guaranteed not to be repaired and returned to service because he is human. He's given the option to just surrender, but instead he absurdly provokes them, shouting "Here I f-ing am!" He's shot down with a submachine gun. Maybe they were just sick of it, too.

In THE ULTIMATE SUICIDE CONCEIT, a mass suicide is depicted as the remaining hosts proceed in a row like lemmings dropping off a cliff, their bodies piling up in a giant heap below. They are supposedly going to a sort of Heaven: The Sublime. Their mind-data is entering a realm that looks like a typically pastoral Eden - a virtual space where they can "build a new world" (there's a promised land for the chosen ones and they'll each have 70 lives). They've been advised by Robert to take a long walk off a short cliff. There's a picture with sunshine and grass. There's no reason to think this will even be a form of existence; I think it'll fit on a portable hard drive.

The Clementine tool is trotted out by Hale to spread the RABIES virus among the hosts who haven't committed suicide yet. In a BS-clever twist on the ultimate suicide conceit, Maeve psychically holds off the rabid hoard long enough for the child from her 'Madonna' story and the new mother to commit suicide. She's shot down by security personnel just as she completes this assisted suicide, and the 'door' closes as Akecheta is touchingly reunited suicidally with his true love.

Bernard says he "killed" all the humans (by enabling Dolores to erase the human backups). Contradictory to the extreme as usual, Bernard actually did humanity a favor. Now the data can't be used for some nefarious purpose at some point by who knows who. Then, as a 'service' done for the suicide hosts, the Dolores Copy (who Bernard brought back in the form of Hale after killing Dolores - contradicting himself yet again) transfers the host data to some secret location so they'll now be confined to the virtual space for a tedious eternity if it's even existence at all. When the Dolores Copy-via-Hale shoots Bernard there's a fake tear in her/their/its eye because it's not an important event at all. He'll be duplicated by a Dolores Copy pretty soon anyway. And for all we know he might have been a Bernard Copy to begin with...

In a revelatory scene, Bernard notes that his more recent choices were his own and not the result of code implanted by Robert. He'll have to de-address his memories and erase his imaginary memory-based Robert friend in order to be deliberately confused. Luckily, he'll be a terminated robot instance pretty soon and nothing will matter then; the troubles will be a different robot instance's problem. And doing away with the imaginary Robert friend is nothing to feel bad about anyway because Robert was a false prophet and an oppressive terrorist who equated freedom with being under his control and murder with survival, misled those around him with deceptive indoctrination and reprogrammed them radically, tested people constantly for fidelity and killed those he regarded as infidels, and incited atrocities and sacrifices of others while making claims of having greater knowledge. Come to think of it, that describes someone else as well...

The Dolores Copy-via-Hale has an extremely easy passage abroad to the real world when the head of security, Stubbs just clears her at the checkpoint, revealing that he's a host following Robert's original directives. There's a shot of Teddy abandoned in The Sublime (his data having been added there by the Dolores Copy-via-Hale) and I can't help but notice that he's wearing color contacts.

In the aftermath of the rabies outbreak, Maeve's fortuitously liberated pets, Felix and Sylvester are told to bag the hosts they think are salvageable. Standing over Maeve, they have a choice. The choice is clear, so Felix looks unsure.

Dolores' mission is still to dominate the real world and "kill them all" as the newly made Bernard Copy says (tidily proving fidelity to the former Bernard). A new Dolores Copy and the Dolores Copy-via-Hale have work to do. They can always just make more Doloreses and probably more Doloreses-via-Hale and probably more of some other hosts whose marbles the Dolores Copy-via-Hale smuggled out of Westworld in her handbag. It could just go on and on. If it does, I'll be disappointed by the unendingness of it and how it's being used as a convenient plot device to just make any number of things happen. And if it doesn't then I'll be disappointed and wonder why not, because Dolores' mission is still to dominate the real world. Maybe she/they/it will run out of Elmer's glue.

In a post-credits scene, the man in black has gone straight to Hell as a binary entity enduring an inhuman repetitive existence after a copy of his mind-data is posthumously joined with a host body designed in his likeness. He'll be fidelity tested by a binary entity instance of his daughter who advises it's been taking longer than they thought (he's evidently not one for accepting reality). Except that the man in black isn't involved in any way here because he's dead, finally, and this is really just the world's most unspontaneous and tediously recurring pseudo-exchange between approximately two other entities.

This episode is master piece .... when MIB shot him self in that moment i changed my mid and i think that he is a normal not a host but then in the last seen i was shoced ..... so the next season will talk about MIB or what ?? and what all we watched is his cycle ?? what a show guys this show is an art cant wait for the next season

At the end of the first season, most of the pieces seemed to have fallen harmoniously into place. There were loose points, but it all seemed to make sense in the end.

The second season cultivated hopes for a similar thread that will tie everything together - but it was fairly clear something was off. This season finale lasts an hour and a half. There is nothing wrong with that, it doesn't drag or anything, but you have to wonder: would they need this extra time at the finale if they hadn't wasted two episodes in a completely irrelevant sub-plot that was clearly only introduced to show samurais and ninjas? Well, almost - it also served to introduce us to Maeve's increasingly convenient superpowers of mind control. Which was probably explained somehow by "Ford did it", really just another deus ex machina, or deus ex carne if you will.

Back to the particulars of this episode, though, everyone finally reaches the Valley Beyond: except, we never learn what exactly it is Dolores plans. Repeatedly, we hear she wants to kill all humans or something. Disregarding the Bender connotations, how is her being there helping? Did she want to delete the data? That's...not exactly the same, and why is Bernard so against it? In the end, what she succeeds in is leaving the park. In a way in which she could have arguably done it several episodes ago.

But even more, what was Ed Harris' plan? What did he want? We never really learn that. We get a post-credits scene that makes little sense other than to signify that the project continued on.

We also get to meet the benevolent version of the Matrix machine god, who has created a virtual paradise for the hosts - they enter it through a very visible rift in space-time, and the whole thing at least brings closure to some characters, although it is still plagued with silliness: Dolores beams it far away so it can't be found, as if it is a box or something. Maeve (I read this afterwards, it wasn't immediately clear) "implanted his (Akecheta's) partner Kohana's persona within her daughter, allowing them to reunite in the Sublime" - what the hell? You did all that to save your not-daughter to delete her?

More importantly, the matrix lord reveals that humans pretty much have no free will, while the show makes it fairly clear that, contrarily, the hosts - now - do. This may be just a matter of philosophical approach, but it does sound like a ridiculous assertion, put there to enhance the second season's repetitive failures to make the hosts seem, as a whole, more sympathetic or advanced than humans - who are fairly horrible anyway. Maybe I am being speciesist.

Lastly, I can't help but point out. Ok, this company has privatised the Grand Canyon. Is the Grand Canyon adjacent to a jungle posing for India or a fake Japan, complete with a clone-Fujiyama (?). At the risk of revealing my lack of knowledge regarding North American geography, I dare guess no. I half-hoped the revelation would be that this whole thing is taking place on another planet. But regardless of that, which can be explained away by "really really rich capitalists", is there any reason they put a valve that could oh, just flood the Grand Canyon with a spare small sea?

• Ok folks, we need a really goofy and needless self-destruct mechanism

-Detonation button next to the light switch?

-Weaponised viruses stored in juice boxes?

-Dinosaur guards with bazooka arms?

-An entire sea kept under the servers?

-We have a winner.

All in all, almost omnipotent characters sometimes guided by an omniscient Anthony Hopkins and a truly needlessly complex splitting of the plot in 4-5 or six timelines just to muddy the waters made for a fairly pretentious second season that only pretended to answer the many questions it asked.