What we know about Westworld's boss level, Shogunworld

Christopher Hooton
Sunday 20 May 2018 17:53 BST
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Westworld gave us a good look at its India-set park, The Raj, in season 2 episode 3, but set almost the entirety of episode 5 in the third park of six, Shogunworld.

It's "for guests who find Westworld too tame," narrative director Lee told Maeve. The Delos Destinations website elaborates:

'For those for whom Westworld is not enough, the true connoisseur of gore can indulge their fantasies with the slash of a katana. Modeled after Japan's Edo period, Shogun World offers a chance for guests to embrace their inner warrior, in a landscape of highest beauty and darkest horror. Let your true self take shape in the land where self-discovery is an art form.'

This all sounds very magical and Shogunworld does indeed look beautiful, but as we discovered in the episode, many elements of it are just facsimiles of the original park, Westworld.

"I may have cribbed a little from Westworld," Lee confesses to Maeve. "You try writing 300 stories in three weeks!"

The action centres around a building similar to Sweetwater's Mariposa saloon (there's even a butterfly-shaped zen garden) and several of the key characters seem to be simply the Japanese counterparts to the ones we know, in particular, the mercenary who has a dragon tattoo similar to Armistice's snake one.

As in Westworld and The Raj, hosts in Shogunworld seem to have established some level of consciousness or are at least malfunctioning, apparently having the ability to harm humans and frequently going off-script. They are initially impervious to Maeve's commands, though later she has them all killing each other without even saying a word (we're left to wonder as to how).

If this park is a difficult one, why isn't the Man in Black over there? And does Shogunworld have its own seas of dead?

At least three other parks have been revealed to exist in the show, though, as far as we can tell, their themes have not been referenced yet.

Westworld continues Sunday nights on HBO in the US and through Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.

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