Westworld Season 2, Episode 4 spoilers ahead!
Westworld Season 2 has been surprisingly slow so far, compared with Season 1. Bernard has been piecing events together, while Dolores is making her way to The Valley Beyond. In Season 2, Episode 4, “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” Bernard investigated a secret lab with Elsie (who’s alive–yay!) and last week’s mystery woman turned out to be William’s daughter, Emily. But let’s not gloss over the extraordinary revelation: Delos, under William’s guidance, has been trying to recreate actual people, memories, tics, and all, as android hosts.
That’s been the most major revelation yet during Westworld Season 2, but it wasn’t the only new thing we learned in “The Riddle of the Sphinx.” Read on to find out what else was revealed this week.
1. William made a horrifying Jim Delos golem.
This was the big one, William’s “greatest mistake,” and also likely the park’s “true purpose,” as Dolores described it. And it’s going to have dire consequences–or maybe already has.
2. The hosts are building a railroad to somewhere new.
Bill thinks it’s Ford’s way of forcing them to detour to Lawrence’s hometown. But is that really why they’ve changed the track’s direction? And why are they driving spikes through people’s heads?
3. Elsie is alive.
Hi Elsie.
4. Bernard knows about Ford’s game too.
Bill’s not the only player.
5. Elsie is just as confused about Bernard being a host as we are.
“You rotated out. Where did you go when you rotated out? You have a family. You have an ex-wife. You have–a backstory.”
6. Bernard is fully aware of his time displacement problem.
It’s the most meta way yet for the show to make sure we’re confused.
7. We’re experiencing that time displacement literally from one shot to the next.
When Bernard opens the hidden switch in the cave wall, the camera switches from past to present in the space of a single cut. You can tell easily by the condition of his suit.
8. This is secret lab number 12.
And if this is what went down here, how bad must the other 11 be?
9. Bernard confirms that Delos was “watching the guests” from their secret labs.
Although he doesn’t explain why.
10. That dopey couple from season 1 is still alive.
You might remember these two from Season 1. Or you might not. They’re not exactly important. It’s just funny that they’re still around.
11. This is what happened to Stubbs.
Captured by the Ghost Nation, then mysteriously set free in the park. That doesn’t exactly explain anything, but it does fill in one blank.
12. Emily doesn’t want to leave the park.
Katja Herbers’ character–who we learned this week is Bill’s daughter, Emily–isn’t trying to escape. That means she must have some other goal in the park.
13. Emily and Bill don’t have a good relationship.
This has been hinted at before, but Bill confirmed it this week. When Lawrence asks if Bill thinks his daughter would want to see him gunned down in front of her, his response is, “Probably.”
14. William has run the Jim Delos experiment almost 150 times over 30 years.
That’s pretty f***ed up.
15. Delos is a wasteful company.
Do they really need to torch the entire room every time?
16. William and Delos went to great lengths to hide this from Westworld’s engineers.
Elsie says “whoever did this” used a completely different operating system written in a computing language she’s never seen before.
17. Ford sent Bernard here to shut this s*** down.
Although whether that was to stop the experiment or to cover up something even worse–Ford also had Bernard print a new control unit–isn’t yet apparent.
18. Jim-Bot’s mind is “not code at all.”
As Elsie puts it later, “So they printed his body, and they copied his developed mind onto a control unit like our hosts.” and Bernard says it’s “both” a human and a host. This gets more messed up by the minute.
19. The problem with the human-host hybrid experiment is a “cognitive plateau.”
“Your mind is stable for a few hours, a few days, and then it starts to fall apart,” Bill says.
20. Logan overdosed years ago
“Couldn’t face reality either.” Well that sucks.
21. That woman from last episode is Emily, Bill’s daughter.
Who saw that coming?
