Second episode of the fourth season Western world does something not very common in the series: answers the questions. He does it with a contemplative elegance, striking in its subtlety. Gone are the intersecting lines of time, half-speech and secret plans.
In an unexpected turn the series decided to reveal its secrets soon. And make sure that the whole argument is based on a cold and pure view of the nature of reality. There are no questions about the meaning and purpose of the series. Neither, revisiting its premise. Finally, as expected from the first series, the robot uprising has arrived.
But not as spectacular and cruel as he announced bad season number three. In fact, the series draws parallels to one of science fiction’s most famous tropes and speculates about identity. About Us? Or rather, how reliable is what our senses show us?
As if it were a huge test of Turing for viewers, the series moves down complex paths to question the maturity of its story. He asks himself questions, he redefines his goal. Tessa Thompson’s Charlotte Hale leads a slow perception of a threat turned into a ruse in plain sight. On the other hand, Ed Harris’ William becomes the perfect weapon against a blind world.
All the horrors hidden in Westworld
Between two things Western world shows in the second chapter of the new season that there are no obvious traps this time. In fact, one of the most infamous elements of the chapter was its frontality. William, like the herald of evil he once was in his fantasies, travels from one end of the world to the other, working out the details of the plot. On the other hand, Charlotte rewrites reality with painstaking care.
All the while, Maeve and Caleb are trying to resist the oncoming wave of silent horrors that no one suspects. Western world she seems to have left behind her deceptive state of the general question of time and the nature of truth in order to choose a different path. Actually, the bicameral mind of its first part is again more relevant than ever. Hidden and disguised in human society, robots are not completely autonomous. In obedience to the central will, they advance in the dark to support a large-scale project. The chapter makes it clear that this was something more complex, carried out with infinite and inhuman patience.
Do this, moreover, with the subtle conviction that everything that happens is happening under the peaceful appearance of a society mesmerized by its neatness. And this scenario – a trick under the mirrors of reality – is one of the premises shown in the episode.
Return to the roots and perception of change
Until now, Western world it turned out to be a huge puzzle, the pieces of which rarely fit together logically. It was the plot of his amazing first season. The second lost some of the mystique in favor of action and more dynamic plot development. The third played with a glance about the state of Artificial Intelligence as part of an unmanaged layer of a new reality. And he has lost significant influence in his attempt to be mysterious and build a version of the future that contains the worst collective horrors.
But the fourth season is betting on something much more transparent. He manages to structure his premise at a clear point. There has been a robot uprising. This is not happening and will not happen. With clear echoes in science fiction classics Body Snatchers, the series now considers the narrative of the unthinkable. Seven years have passed since the last events, and although the human world believed that it would restore its will, it lost it. Not only at the explicit level, but also in a more refined and subtle area.
That’s where Christina/Dolores Evan Rachel Wood fits in. For the second episode of the fourth season of Westworld, it is clear that the mystery of its very existence is moving towards more complex places. William travels the world trying to find his location, and the strength of his momentum makes it clear that a point has been opened in the master plan. But there is something even more inexplicable. The influence of the hero on the reality surrounding him is notorious, menacing and final.. The suicide of a stranger shows that his seemingly ordinary life is something more. But instead of surrounding the mystery with empty talk or red herrings, the script decides that the character is walking his own maze.
On a journey of sorts much like that of the original Dolores, her new incarnation discovers that knowledge is a pact of initiation. Thus, she begins to follow the thread of events that connects her to something that overwhelms her. Not only that, but it also shows that the strange sequence of events that surround him is connected to something unimaginable. “I think I’ve lost my mind,” Christina/Dolores says, bewildered. She has just discovered that a man who commits suicide after blaming her for his life’s suffering is an anomaly in a perfect system. “I trust you, Chrissy,” Maya says to Ariana DeBose, increasingly grim and unsettling. And suddenly Christina’s repetitive routine, precise and seemingly simple, turns into something else. A message about a fateful discovery.
The pains of a new world being born over the old world of the Wild West
Charlotte also makes her master move and manages to gain a power that allows her to completely dominate. With the robot William as a handy ally, he gradually takes over or dominates figures of significant importance. The character becomes a puppet of something scarier what happens outside the screen. As if it were a dangerous web, Charlotte weaves her great web of influences. Or, at least, already did, and the second chapter shows how effectively he created a giant trap.
What happened in seven years in the world Western world? It is not yet clear what has changed and where the plot is heading. But with the opening of a second park (much less brutal and more sophisticated than the original), the message is clear. Violent pleasures end in violence, a principle that Western world took it to a whole new level and takes it up again in a new part. An alarming precision that supports something more complex than what could be understood at a glance and even guessed from a distance.
