What’s wrong with me you ask? Oh, not much. I’m just trying to forget Western world a scene where a child robot’s face splits open and a bunch of infected flies pour out. Not much at all.
Out on Sunday, the third episode of season 4 is strange. Bernard returns from the Valley Beyond (aka The Sublime) with mysterious prophetic powers. We get a close-up look at Chalores’ fly factory, and then, as I described above, a host posing as Caleb’s daughter unleashes the insect’s wrath on him.
I’m guessing you’re like me thinking about everything that could happen next. While we wait for an update on Caleb’s fate, let’s take a look back at the rest of Episode 3. There will be a total of eight episodes in this season of HBO’s mind-blowing sci-fi series, and I can’t wait to see how all of these different storylines intersect (assuming they even intersect). Grab your trusty fly swatter and let’s get into it.
Bernard is back
We finally get to see a main character who hasn’t been here since the season 3 finale – Bernard! At the start of Episode 3, he’s in the Valley Beyond, a digital plane of existence that we saw a bunch of Westworld hosts enter in Season 2, leaving their physical bodies behind.
When Bernard returns to his world after what appears to be a brief encounter with Westworld host Akecheta in the Sublime, his faithful friend Ashley Stubbs is there and tells him that years have passed. It seems Stubbs has been by his side this whole time, waiting for their next move. (Bernard changed Stubbs’ prime directive to help him in season 3, but it would be wrong to call this bromance a forced friendship).
Eventually, it is revealed that Bernard brought something back from his trip to The Sublime (no – not a snow globe). While there, Bernard could see “the worlds that might have been and all the worlds that might come,” meaning that he could now somehow predict the future. He is also on a mission to save the world.
The goal is to make sure they stay on track, he tells Stubbs. Most worlds end in disaster, but if he can “trigger a certain chain of events” then they might succeed. Note: while in Sublime earlier, Bernard admits that no roads end with him still alive.
A mysterious weapon hidden in the desert
Bernard uses his newfound prophetic powers to easily take down two men outside a desert diner. A car pulls up and Bernard shows the woman driving it an image of the famous Western Maze, making her recognize that they are “with the cause”. Things get a little tense in the car, but then Bernard presents a severed head—a host’s head with a clear-as-day cortical shield inside—and explains that “they” were trying to infiltrate her group. He asks her to take them to the “doomed lands” and she reluctantly agrees.
Later, after driving through the desert, Bernard, Stubbs and the organization woman stop. More people show up and a leadership type character asks Bernard questions. Bernard explains that the man (read: the head) has been looking for the organization and they are in danger. Bernard says he wants to help the mysterious group – he knows they’re looking for a weapon buried in the desert, and he can point them to it.
Problems in the world of the 20s
Meanwhile, Maleb (the duo of Maeve and Caleb) are still at the 20’s theme park. We see a bit more of it in the episode, and learn that it’s home to replicas—or as Maeve puts it, “shabby imitations”—of Westworld hosts like Maeve, Dolores, and Hector. Maeve uses this to her advantage, waiting for an impersonator of Hector (her ex-lover) to come in and do what he would have done in Westworld – rob the Butterfly Club (in Westworld it’s the Mariposa Saloon), then sneak underground with deceased hosts.
They soon realize that this is not the place they are looking for. Instead, it’s another level of gameplay – a Westworld massacre re-enactment, with a gun-toting replica of Dolores to please some pesky guests. Reaching another floor by elevator, Maleb finds himself in the middle of something… strange. The drone hosts (the white worker bees of Delos we’ve seen in previous seasons) do something to the flies. uh oh
Following a sound that only she can hear, Maeve enters a sort of control room where she and Caleb can see people on multiple screens stacking blocks in sync. Maeve says the sound is coming from a cone-shaped device in the center of the room, and Caleb notes that the sound seems to be controlling them somehow. People (not the hosts, Maeve says) keep putting a gun to their own heads and pulling the trigger. Caleb then sees his young daughter Frankie sitting in a cell.
In a heart-pounding scene, Caleb runs to find his daughter and desperately tries to open her cell door. Maeve finally gets through the system in no time. But things are not exactly what they seem.
Caleb flew
I can’t believe we have to talk about this scene again. Well, there it is. While Caleb talks to his daughter in the cell, Maeve fights with host William. It quickly becomes clear that something is wrong with Frankie. In a cut scene, we see that Caleb’s daughter and wife have escaped from a Chalores con man posing as their safe house driver. The little girl with Caleb? 100% robot.
Frankie the robot tells Caleb that Chalores wants him. Then her face falls apart and flies pour out of the gaps. We see one of them crawl into Caleb’s ear and the episode ends with a pained scream. what’s up now Sunday can’t come soon enough.
Strange thoughts
- In this week’s “after the episode” breakdown (they play after the credits), Westworld’s art director explains that flies eat a parasite, become infected, and transmit the disease to humans. OK.
- It took me a long time not to insert the “muhi-jink” pun into this story.
- Ok, am I imagining things, or is Maleb…flirting? In that elevator scene, when Caleb fixes her shoulder after she’s been shot, I felt something there. She even grabs his hand, guys. Reminder: Caleb has a whole wife.
-
Kind of a fun fact: Manny Montana, the actor who plays Carver in this episode (the guy who’s supposed to get Caleb’s wife and daughter to safety but is killed and replaced by a clone), is going to be a main character in an upcoming Disney series Plus Marvel Ironheart.