BLUE SKY WORKSHOP
BLUE SKY WORKSHOP
Westworld Season 3 is here! Yay! Season 2 seems a lifetime ago (2 years), which is a long time to wait. But we are finally here. This review contains SPOILERS! So if you don't want to know anything about season 3. Read no further!!!!!!!
Note on Timeframes: Westworld has the habit of jumping around time lines. So when I can place the timeframe for a scene I will.
(Timeframe: Westworld Robot Revolution has just happened.)
The ep starts out with rich white asshole dude (Jerry) at his amazing house on the ocean. Clearly he's a jerk. He is rude to his Chinese wife, and yells at his broker cause he can't sell his Delos stock (the death toll at the park from the "accident" hasn't been confirmed so trading has been slowed). Later that night, he goes to bed, an AI that controls the security system and house turns the light out.
Rich asshole awakes to loud opera music. His house is acting funny and his AI can't help him. He sees a beautiful blond woman swimming in his pool. It's Dolores (Evan Rachael Wood) of course! She has hacked his house and has complete control.
Rich asshole asks who she is and Dolores replies that they met at the park. He was there for his bachelor party before his first marriage. He asks if she is going to hurt him and she says only if you try to hurt me. (Plot point: A big attitude change from season 2!) Dolores puts VR glasses on Rich asshole and has him relive the murder of his first wife several times. Dolores has read his book and knows everything about him. This of course upsets rich asshole.
Plot Point: An important implication here. Not only does Dolores have the personality algorithm of any guest book she read, she also has ALL of their memories. This would truly make it possible to replace a human with a host.
Dolores informs rich asshole that she has stolen most of his money and would also like the software code he stole from the company where he made his money, Incite (Plot Point The antagonist company for this season). Rich asshole signs over the encrypted data to Dolores. As she leaves, rich asshole tries to kill Dolores with a golf club. She tricks his vision with the VR glasses, he misses her, falls into the pool hitting his head and killing himself. Dolores leaves a very wealthy person.
Note: Dolores states that she is alone at this point. She has not built Bernard apparently. But the Hale host must exist.
Now we meet Caleb (Aaron Paul) a construction worker who runs fiber for highrises. Caleb is introduced through conversations with his friend Francis. Throughout the first part of the ep, Francis keeps calling Caleb, but he doesn't answer. We see Caleb working with a Delos robot named George. Caleb talks about getting his scores up so he can get a better job. His job pays most of the bills, but not quite enough.
Plot point: Francis asks Caleb if he will get his "implant" turned back on. He says no, he doesn't need it. This is an Incite controlled device. It will probably be imporant this season.
He visits his mother in a care facility. She doesn't recognize him. (Plot Point: Does she have Alzheimers or is there something more this. Hmmm....) He talks to a nurse and is clearly having trouble making ends meet.
On his way home Caleb pulls up the "Rico" crime app. Pull up a job, agree to do it and the app sends you to your crime location. Caleb agrees to a job. He picks up a backpack and is then directed to meet his team for the job. He notes that he does not do personals. (Plot Point: Personals are murder or kidnapping.) Caleb is clearly frustrated that there seems to be no options for him because of his "scores".
Caleb meets up with Ash (Lena Waithe) and Giggles (Marshawn Lynch) to do the job. He clearly enjoys the company of other "outcasts" and has worked with Ash before. Ash seems to be the leader and has some high tech gadgets to prevent detection. Giggles appears to be the muscle and comic relief. Their job is to rob an ATM. Ash thinks Caleb should do personals but he has no interest in that. They cleanly and easily rob the ATM and escape.
(Timeframe: It has been 3 months since the robot uprising.)
Hale arrives for a Delos board meeting. Many of the board clearly don't like her. They want to sell the parks. (Hale mutes a dude when he tries to virtue signal that he cares about the employees. Cool! lol) Hale thinks since it was just the board and employees that died, the accident just ads additional danger cred to the parks reputation making them even more popular in the future. Charlotte is planning to take Delos private given the low share price. (Thoughts: She is right on the business. The rest of the board are weak idiots.) A board member points out she can't does this without "his" approval (implying the Man in Black methinks). He has appointed a robot proxy in his place who agrees with Charlotte. We find out that Hale has pinned the robot uprising on Bernard (Jeffrey Wright)!!!
Big plot hole: If the police find Bernard and jail him, they will surely figure out he is a host tipping off the world to their existence. Seems like a terrible idea to me. Makes absolutely no sense. The only reason to do this is to give Bernard a reason for hiding. But he is a freaking robot, he needs to hide anyway!
Rather than getting a coding job or becoming the world's greatest hacker, Bernard is in the middle of nowhere working at meat packing plant as a butcher. To change his appearance he shaved his head and added a beard. When not working, he spends all his time in a yert testing his code to see if it has been tampered with.
My Opinion: WTF!!! This is freaking stupid. Who would mess with his code??? He could see another host coming a mile away. And there are likely only 2 others in the real world! I don't get the point of this. Silly.
Dolores arrives in London for date with Liam (Liam Dempsey played by John Gallager Jr). She has a super cool dress that changes styles at the push of a button. Liam is the son of a Steve Jobs type dude that built Incite. He is very rich and high up in the company. Dolores arrives at a fundraiser or award banquet in Liam's honor. After dinner, one of Liam's friends suggests that they are living in a simulation. (Theory: Many people on Reddit have postulated that the entire Westworld show is just a simulation. I sure hope not, because I think that will be just as satifying as Game of Thrones Season 8.)
Dinner is interrupted by tough Scottish guy (Martin played by Tommy Flanagan). Tough Scottish guy tells Liam that their partners want a meeting and he should take it. Dolores agrees to travel to LA with Liam.
His story is still told with conversations with Francis. We learn they served together in the Military. He goes to an interview in a suit and a tie. (Weird, but almost no one in tech wears a tie anymore. Jacket only for most jobs now.) He meets his shrink. They talk about him not taking calls from Francis. His shrink seems to think he isn't trying hard enough. Caleb is not sure about the whole system. More military flashbacks.
Caleb takes a "party cleanup" criminal job. A rich dude is freaked out on drugs. They are there to drug him and take him away. If the police show up, he would do serious jail time. Caleb feels more and more like the system is rigged.
Liam take Dolores to LA in an air ship thingy. He shows her the AI system that is controlling the world "Rehoboam" (the System). (In the Bible, Rehoboam is the son of Solomon and a bad King. He doesn't listen to is advisors and loses most of his kingdom.) The computer is a giant ball in a large office building. (Probably not very realistic, but the giant ball looks cool!) Their date is interrupted by tough Scottish guy. The partners want a meeting NOW!
Liam leaves Dolores to go to the meeting. Dolores follows on a motorcycle, James Bond style, with some cool gadgets. She secretly watches and listens to Liam's meeting as he talks to Mantis from Guardians of the Galaxy. Liam's partners think someone is messing with the System and its not them. They threaten to kill him unless he fixes the problem.
Two dudes at the meat plant recognize Bernard and are planning to turn him in for a big reward. Using a remote control, Bernard turns himself in a terminator and kicks their butt. He then leaves where he has been hiding.
Thoughts: It's like Bernard has regressed to the begining of season 2. No plan, no guts, just a useless muttering mush ball. I would expect some level of maturity after all he has been through. But alas, he is just a wimpering piece of mush, still.
Cabeb takes a call. He didn't get the job. When he asks how he could improve for his next interview, he quickly realizes he is talking to a generic HR AI.
Dolores is hanging out at Liam's home. He's upset about the death threat. He reveals to Dolores that he doesn't know anything about the system. His father's partner, locked him out when his Dad died. Just when he is about to tell her his name, tough Scottish guy walks in and tasers and drugs her. He explains that the name Lara Espen was stolen from a dead Ukrainian child. (Which makes NO sense since she isn't pretending to be Ukrainian.) Liam agrees to tough Scottish guy taking Dolores away and killing her.
Plot Point: Clearly neither the taser or the drugs have any affect on Dolores. She has setup this situation on purpose to get tough Scottish guy in the open.
Caleb is hired to deliver an SUV and a package to where tough Scottish guy is gonna land his air car with Dolores. (The streets are AMAZINGLY empty for a big city.) Tough Scottish guy and his pals climb into the SUV with Dolores and drive off with another SUV to a nearby location to dump the body.
Caleb finally takes the call from Francis. Turns out Francis is an AI of the real Francis that is supposed to help Caleb deal with his grief. After the AI tries to get Caleb to conform to the system, Caleb rejects the AI totally. The plan he and Francis formulated had nothing to do with conformity. Caleb unsubscribes from further help from the AI.
Tough Scottish guy is gonna make Dolores death look like a drug overdose. They start giving her lethal doses of the drug. Just then a car drives up. A twin of tough Scottish guy is sitting in the car. When tough Scottish calls for help, all hell breaks lose. Dolores frees herself and starts killing henchmen. She kills them all except for tough Scottish guy who flees in the other SUV.
Tough Scottish guy drives back to the park where the air car is with Dolores in pursuit. As he makes his way to escape, Dolores shoots him in the stomach and leg. Dolores reveals that tough Scottish guy met her in the park. The twin of tough Scottish guy (clearly a host) walks up and kills him. Not before tough Scottish guy reveals the system architect is named Serac. Host tough Scottish guy jumps into the air car and flys away. Dolores takes on 3 more henchmen. Defeating them, but taking some damage in the process. (Thoughts: Dolores's gun has unlimited bullets.)
Caleb meets Dolores in a walking tunnel as she collapses into his arms.
Somewhere in Asia, Bernard hires a fishing boat to take him to Westworld.
Post credits Maeve is shown in Warworld.