Winners and Losers From Westworld's Season 2, Episode 5: 'Akane No Mai'

This recap of “Akane No Mai” from season two, episode five of Westworld contains spoilers.

It’s not easy to care about these hosts. Why should we?

When they’re dead, they’re not really dead. Their freedom — and higher intelligence — seems like it could get wiped from their code at any moment. And as we discovered in “‘Akane No Mai” (translated to Akane’s dance), they’re not even unique snowflakes. Maybe I’m heartless, but I’m not feeling the love for the hosts, nor do I find their love for one another particularly intriguing. (And perhaps I’ll come to the end of this season feeling guilty for this declaration.)

Sure, they’re not technically robots — they’re flesh-ish and bone-ish. They’re free thinker-ish. This episode seemed to drive home the idea that hosts can and do have profound relationships. Ironically, in the plot line where a host loses her daughter (and we’re directed to sympathize), the show-runners also show that Maeve’s gang has a mirrored version of themselves in Shogun World. So if we’re not supposed to feel like these hosts are factory line products, then why emphasize that they were produced in factory line fashion? If we’re supposed to see the hosts as humans, why let Dolores sleep with Teddy — probably for the first time — and then give his personality some sort of superficial boost? Why create faceless hosts?

Well, the hosts (with faces) are complicated.

Armistice and Hector may have likenesses across the park, but perhaps they are still their own unique snowflake. Just like two identical twin brothers or sisters, they’re quite similar but still different. Their treatment as factory line products is the problem with Westworld — Sizemore sees them as hosts for his voice, not their own.

Still, that humanization didn’t soften the slow blows of a plodding episode in Shogun World. Here are the winners and losers.

Winners

Maeve: She is Neo, flexing the Matrix to her will. Yes, she knows kung fu. And oh yes, she can dodge bullets (metaphorically) and Samurai blades (literally). Her power is limitless and inexplicable. Sizemore asked her where she got her power — not even she knew. Perhaps it’s granted in code by Ford. Whatever the source, she is some sort of chosen one. And she seems set to roam park after park until she finds her daughter. Up next? Future World? Roman World? Medieval World? Whatever world, Maeve seems to be competent: “See darling, everyone’s under control.” Her control.

Sizemore: Sizemore, like the rest of Delos, doesn’t seem to realize just how much control they’ve lost — and how much control the hosts have acquired. The good news is that Sizemore found that tablet, so he has surely begun to formulate his escape plan. He and Maeve seem to be developing a rapport, but Sizemore should know that, with her all-controlling qualities, he may soon become useless — and then dead.

Ford: He still seems to be pulling the strings, especially when we learn the hosts are reset to “virgin” status and that the park lost a third of their IP in the process. This episode supported the idea that some hosts might be improvising while a small few may be free thinking. Even Dolores — a host I long thought was a free thinker — could still be under Ford’s control. Meanwhile, Maeve granted Akane “freedom,” which seems to mean he has free thought. Even if Ford’s dead, he’s living through his hosts in these new, chaotic storylines. (Side note, we also know why Ford hated Lee. Lee plagiarized himself: “You try writing 300 storylines.”)

Akane: She lost her daughter but gained her freedom. She also seems like she might join Maeve’s growing party of explorers, whose goal still seems to be to scoop up Maeve’s daughter on their way out of the park.

Losers

Dolores: At the start of the episode, Teddy lay dead during a sneak peak of the moments after Dolores seems to have broken out of the park, discovered the weapon or both. Later in the episode, she told Teddy she would have to “burn” the weak and infected on her way to freedom. The implication was that Teddy was going to be one of those weak hosts who would not make it. But who could have seen her giving Teddy a potentially debilitating upgrade immediately after they had sex, probably for the first time? A new low, even for Dolores. She’s ruthless.

Teddy: “Where we’re going, there’s no place for a man like you,” Dolores said before turning Teddy Lite into Teddy 2.0. We’ll see soon who this new Teddy will become. But he’s destined for death, just like Teddy Lite. Once Dolores’ right hand man, Teddy is now just another souped up pawn in Dolores’ game. With Teddy’s state of mind now fungible, there’s still life to the Teddy = Bernard theories. Though, I haven’t come around to those theories.

Bernard: Instead, I think what’s happening to Bernard can be explained in this video. I can’t pretend like I connected all the dots that this vlogger did. But the theory in the video supports a number of observations I’ve made along the way, and explains why Bernard’s narrative is truncated and, at times, unbelievable.

Shogun World: You know something has gone bizarrely wrong in Shogun World, when Akane’s dance is performed to “Painted Black” — not traditional Japanese music. The sets were beautiful. The production value was stellar. The action was fun. But the plot was underwhelming.