Westworld season 1 episode 6 review: Now we’re cooking

Some major philosophical questions presented themselves this week

Westworld aired its most dramatic and densely plotted episode so far this week, with major discoveries for robot and human alike.

Maeve’s realisation that she was not born but created was its main thrust, the savvy brothel owner forcing her death (via sex, this is HBO remember) in order to snap herself back into the Delos lab. Manipulating her technician attendant into giving her a guided tour of the development facility, she watched in awe and horror as other “humans” and “animals” were created around her, an unfathomable mind/motherboard-fuck which was pretty powerful accompanied by a beautiful string arrangement of Radiohead’s ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’ (the show has worked in quite a few pleasing covers of famous songs now, some of them diagetic).

The very broadly drawn ‘Head of Narrative’ (I can’t remember his name, but let’s call him Chad because it seems fitting) popped up after a few episodes away meanwhile, going through a very stereotypical poolside breakdown. Chugging margaritas and howling about his artistic integrity it all felt a bit cliché. I expected that kind of dialogue from Teddy, whose words are scripted, but not from this ostensibly authentic human. It was far too clear Chad wasn’t spilling secrets at the bar to just anyone, and though the bikini-clad girl in question turned out to be Delos’ new Executive Director of the Board, not a reporter as I predicted, I think the latter might have been a more interesting twist. Still, the creators are obviously just keen not to include the outside world and its perceptions of the park yet and I’m sure they’ll get to that in later seasons.

As for Bernard, he went exploring in the depths of the facility (did you spot the Yul Brynner cameo of sorts?) and discovered that a gaggle of hosts were operating off the grid. These turned out to be relics from the ‘Arnold’ days and, when Ford (Anthony Hopkins) appeared out of nowhere like he always does to explain, Bernard couldn’t decide whether these unmonitored bots posed a serious security threat or were merely the glorified train set of an old man with fond memories of his former business partner.

Sinister machinations were later confirmed however, when Elsie discovered that the Hosts were being secretly fed voices by none other than Theresa, Bernard’s peer and occasional sex friend.

Is Theresa colluding with Ford? In spite of his occasional chilling malice, I think he’s ultimately going to fall on the side of good.

The episode ended as it started - with Maeve. She got over her existential crisis oddly quickly, but then again, maybe she’s not capable of one. There were a ton of fascinating philosophical questions thrown up by Westworld this week and this was a new one, how psychologically damaged could a robot be about an earth-shattering piece of information, if its psychology is fundamentally controlled so as not to experience too much pain/confusion? Is being created from a lab even that different from being created in the womb?

It’s when Westworld pokes at these themes that it becomes gripping, because, six episodes in, I’m still not that enamoured of the characters.