Westworld Season 2, Episode 9 “Vanishing Point”
Writers: Roberto Patino
Director: Stephen Williams
Runtime: 59 minutes
Content Warnings: TV-MA: Adult Content, Adult Language, Brief Nudity, Violence
Synopsis: Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything.
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Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood)
Westworld Wednesdays are back with a slew of new photos! Five new images, courtesy of HBO, have been released from the upcoming episode “Vanishing Point.” Robert Patino is tackling scripting duties while Stephen Williams tackles the director’s chair. The synopsis, as terse and cryptic as always, is simple yet tantalizing: “Try to kill it all away, but I remember everything.”
Patrick Cage has made several appearances on television, notably in guest roles on “Jane the Virgin” and “This is Us.” He had a small but impactful role on Westworld this season playing Phil, the unfortunate tech who Dolores takes hostage from the Delos outpost in episode two (“Reunion”). Forced to resurrect dead hosts and change Teddy’s personality, Phil is ultimately dispatched by Dolores and her crew as they prepare to attack the Mesa in episode 6 (“Phase Space”). At least he went out with a bang…literally.
Phil may be gone, but Cage was gracious enough to share what it was like working on Westworld in this exclusive interview. Continue Reading…
There are many ways we can describe Westworld‘s second season. It’s certainly bloody, especially given that humans are no longer immune to host attacks. It’s ruthless, particularly when it comes to Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and her determination to fulfill her mission by any means necessary. And, like its first season counterpart, this season is definitely smart, given how it expertly weaves past and present storylines together, demanding that the audience pay attention and keep up.
All that being said, one of the most profound ways this season has come to define itself is through its expansion into and representation of different cultures and worlds. We first got a glimpse of this during the third episode, “Virtù e Fortuna,” as we met the then-named Grace (Katja Herbers), who at the time was exploring the India-inspired park, The Raj. A couple episodes later, we dove into the long-teased park, Shogun World, and were immersed in Japanese Edo-era culture (and awesome samurai battles).
“Take my heart when you go.”
Storytelling is a form in which we see stories that represent who we are, regardless of how much we know of our true selves. Storytelling is a pathway through which we discover whom we do not know and perhaps in that discovery come to realize more about ourselves and how close we are to each other. Storytelling can open our eyes to the reality that more often than not, we do not know whom we pretend to see right through. Stories are a way for us to peel back the layers of the byzantine nature of humanity, of our interconnectivity, of our differences.
Sometimes we feel isolated, alone, like there is no one out there who can understand what we are going through. Representation is more than just seeing someone who looks like you, who feels what you feel, or who loves who you love. It is about finding a thread or two in an often harsh world that gives you the feeling of belonging, that gives you the confidence that your being has meaning and that there is something out there for you. It is like the feeling when someone holds your hand for the first time without expecting anything in return.
Zahn McClarnon is no stranger to the western genre, currently appearing on AMC’s The Son and having worked alongside Westworld cast mate Louis Herthum on A&E’s Longmire. Born in Colorado as Zahn Tokiya-ku McClarnon, the Lakota-Irish actor has built an impressive television resume and earning critical acclaim for his role as Hanzee Dent in season two of Fargo. McClarnon was an exciting addition to Westworld this season, giving more importance and emotional weight to Ghost Nation.
In an exclusive interview, I was fortunate enough to speak with McClarnon about his time working on Westworld and how he felt about his character – Akecheta – telling Ghost Nation’s story.
Westworld Season 2, Episode 8 “Kiksuya”
Writers: Carly Wray and Dan Dietz
Director: Uta Briesewitz
Runtime: 59 minutes
Content Warnings: TV-MA: Adult Content, Adult Language, Nudity, Violence
Synopsis: Mi cante ki yu ha ya ye. (Take my heart when you go.)
Westworld is a series whose complexity behind and in front of the camera contributes to a truly unique television experience. The acting, the production design, and the key visual mastery of the directors awe the audience with every episode. Season two has certainly delivered exceptional performances, an exciting array of different parks such as The Raj and Shogun World, and who can forget Lisa Joy‘s perfect command of the camera in her directorial debut, “The Riddle of the Sphinx”?
Angela Sarafyan, who has delivered an unforgettable performance as Clementine, spoke to BUILD Series about her experience on the HBO sci-fi sensation, including the moment when she learned that she was going to shoot Ed Harris‘s The Man in Black in the shoulder. Sarafyan speaks to the empowerment of Clementine as a character who was used, and then garnered the opportunity to turn around and kick some human ass.
One of the core elements that defines Westworld is the idea of self-consciousness, and what it truly means to be human. Over the first season, we watched as hosts took on The Maze, circling closer and closer to the achievement of self-consciousness, and many times ultimately going insane as a result.
This season, as hosts like Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) have not only achieved android self-consciousness, but have helped to usher in the higher mental state for their robot followers, we’ve watched as hosts have taken advantage of their free will, for better or for worse, in order to achieve their missions. And this higher level of existence that the hosts have achieved has brought with it a brand new set of questions and discussions about the degree to which the hosts are truly sentient like their human counterparts – and, if we’re being honest, whether or not achieving the same mental capacity as us imperfect humans is really the best thing for them.
There’s no doubt the show will continue to ask these questions through the rest of this season and into next, and that’s where David Eagleman comes in. The neuroscientist and Stanford adjunct professor, who also boasts the envious title of Science Advisor to Westworld, recently chatted with Discover about the idea of robot self-consciousness on the show, and how his expertise has helped the writers paint a realistic picture of AI.
One of the most striking transformations over the course of Westworld‘s second season, at least in the last few episodes, has been the extreme personality shift of Teddy (James Marsden), brought on by the code alteration ordered by Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) back in episode 5. Through the first season and a half, we’ve seen a Teddy that is sweet but confident, nice but able to kill you in a second with his gun-slinging skills, all with the greater intention of running away and starting a new life with Dolores, the love of his life.
Since his code alternation, the new (and improved?) Teddy is a killing machine, literally. Cold, emotionless, trigger-happy, his 2.0 update now sees him gunning down whoever he has to, human or host, in order to fulfill the mission. Fans are, of course, split in their reaction to the new Teddy – some miss his warm-hearted persona, while others applaud the stone-cold killer he’s become.
But how does Marsden himself feel about the transformation? The actor recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss Teddy 2.0, how he felt when he learned about his character’s arc over the season, and what we can expect from the final 3 episodes.
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Vanessa Cole
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