2x01 Journey Into Night

Westworld at its best. I missed the feeling of ending an episode and seeing the confused looked on my face reflected in the black screen, followed by the words "What? Did it... What...Holy crop! Now, that was amazing!" It varies from one episode to another, but the outcome is always the same. This show is a freaking masterpiece. I love the feeling of starting a new episode and finishing it with more questions than answers and an urge to rewatch it as soon as possible.

The hosts run the show now, and we've got a badass Dolores. The music, that shot, that amazing Dolores riding a horse and shooting. That scene gave me life. And poor Teddy! I love him. I thought he was gonna survive the episode but he didn't. First death of Teddy in season 2. I loved that scene when he talked with Dolores. It made me realize that he's either going to die at her hands, or rebel against her.

I loved the change of heroes and villains from last season to this one. Last season Dolores was the hero and faced William, whereas in this one, it seems it's William the hero who has to defeat Dolores. I liked that the game is finally meant for him. At least he got what he has long been waiting for. Now it's not a maze, but a door to get out. Interesting. I loved Mini Ford, although I wasn't expecting William to shoot him, though.

Maeve controlling the other hosts was amazing. I love her chemistry with Hector. These two are made for one another. And of course Sizemore survived by being the weasel he is. I liked his subtlety, though "May some of them even be dressed as if they're human?" and his "I wrote that line for you".

Poor Bernard was killing me. That poor thing is just going through a roller-coaster of conflicted feelings. He mentioned time slippery and other problems. It'll be interesting to see him in the three timelines they created.

So we got Bernard right after the shooting with Charlotte; Bernard in the beach with Stubbs (wonder how he escaped the Ghost Nation) and Floki (I mean, Karl Strand) apparently 11 days and 9 hours after the shooting; and Bernardino some time in between (when he talked to Dolores at the beginning of the episode). So far, three clear timelines in which something happened that needs to be filled in since poor Bernard apparently killed all the hosts.

Last season I hoped Ford could still be alive but I guess maggots mean real death now, so that there no question on that.

Cinematography was on point, even better than last season, dialogue was perfect and the acting, especially Jeffrey Right's was beyond amazing. I loved that they gave Charlotte more screen time. I didn't like her character last season, but it was great to see her more. Also, they're taking guests' DNA? That seems crazy. And we get the promise of getting Peter Abernathy back. Boy, I loved his character. Was it me, or did anyone else get uncomfortable every time that faceless host was on screen? It was disturbing.

I don't want to miss the new intro. Loved the symbolism. So season one was all about creation but now it seems different. Now it's not about creation anymore but as a step forward. Now it's not milk as it was last season, it's all about water and infancy, as if water were the second element in life. Hosts are now perfected in this second phase. I loved that we got the introduction of new animals as the vulture, that bear, and that tiger. And they mentioned Park 6! I wonder when we're seeing all of them.

Charlotte also mentioned that Westworld is on an island, which I though was interesting. Now let's see how all the gaps are filled and what else the writers have in mind for us. Next week's promo looks promising.

[7.2/10] The first season of Westworld was fairly complete. It’s not as though there were no more places for the story to go, or that there was a definitive air of finality, or that the premise of the show alone couldn’t sustain seasons and seasons of more stories. But if “The Bicameral Mind” has been the last we’d seen of the series, I’d probably still thirst for more, but nevertheless be satisfied. There’s a clear overall arc, answers to the major questions, and enough suggestions of the consequences of the actions we’d seen for the season to feel like a full meal and not just an appetizer.

The problem, then, is that in Season 2, Westworld has to re-pilot, at least a little. Sure, there’s bit to mop up from last season’s finale, but “Journey Into Night” has to do more than just pick up the pieces. It has to set most of a whole new trajectory for another batch of episodes.

So we see bits of Dolores doing full on villain monologues, killing any human she comes across, leading the robotic rebellion, and talking with Teddy about something approaching world domination. We see The Man in Black start a new game, one with stakes because it’s real, and one that, as the echoes of Ford tell him, is for him.

We see Bernard and Hale retreat around the same time, escaping from the immediate aftermath of that fateful evening from the last episodes, escaping to a bunker where Bernard repairs himself and Hale let’s him in on her plan to use a host as the back-up for IP. We all see the beginnings of a new storyline, where a new security guy revives a version of Bernard from a couple weeks after the start of events that Ford’s death kicked into gear, and tries to figure out what happened.

And then there’s Maeve, who does the impossible -- she makes Sizemore interesting and entertaining. I found that guy endlessly annoying when he was a generic shitheel writer last season. But watching him try to be a weasel and get squeezed under Maeve’s footheel as she’s the one in charge makes both characters incredibly entertaining.

That’s the biggest theme of this pilot -- role reversal. When it’s time for Sizemore to change, he’s the one forced to be nude around the hosts with no concern for his modesty, not the other way around. When Dolores has some guests standing on tombstone crosses, she taunts them, the same way the guests used to do to her, replete with bitter echoes of lines she was forced to say. After fruitlessly questing for meaning in the maze, The Man in Black is finally reinvigorated at playing for keeps. The balance of power has shifted, and that means possibility.

But it also means dragging a few things out, and resetting the mystery box, and reverting to the general weirdness and cryptic hints that made me start to lose patience with the early part of Season 1.

To wit, at the beginning of the episode, we flash back to a conversation between Dolores and (presumably) Arnold where he talks about a dream where the hosts are all by the ocean and the water’s rising. And at the end of the episode, Bernard finds a mass collection of hosts floating in a sea constructed by Ford. There’s some obvious symbolism about a changing of the guard, but for the most part, it feels like imagery for the sake of imagery rather than anything particularly arresting.

There’s also the same cavalcade of flashbacks and flash forwards, and the same unnerving images of dead bodies scattered beneath the sun. It’s enough to both gesture toward what’s to come and provide the sort of in-your-face visuals that HBO’s prestige genres are known for. There’s nothing wrong with it exactly, but it’s a little tiresome to be thrown back into the puzzle box after Season 1 only truly came into its own when it started to deliver answers and embrace some clearer and more forthright direction as opposed to wallowing in the same old open questions.

But then again, I suspect that’s what many if not most folks like about the show. There’s plenty to speculate about, plenty of clues to pour over, plenty of mysterious flashes to what may be the past or the future to try to unscramble. I don’t mind a good tease, and I especially understand the need for a television show to do a bit of resetting and repositioning at the start of a new season, I’m just hoping that Westworld can do more to build on what it accomplished in Season 1 rather than just reverting to the same formula they unleashed then with a new coat of paint.

“Journey Into Night” seems to be promising that things are genuinely different. The prospect of there being other parks, including ones where characters (or at least fauna) is making its way into Westworld is in the offing. Hale is upfront with Bernard about her plan to smuggle some data out to her benefactors, and conspicuously missing in the scenes set in the “future.” And a different type of security force is around but seemingly being bested by the robotic revolutionaries.

Whether that will amount to a genuine difference remains to be seen. “Journey Into Night” has some cool elements. The Man in Black gets to play a mostly silent badass. Dolores, despite her cheesy intro speech, is different in her cadence and manner, reflecting the changes she’s been through. Maeve is firmly in control and Bernard is at his wits end. There’s promise in all of these things, as the chickens Ford spent much of the first season preparing to call are now coming home to roost.

But color me a little skeptical. Westworld is back to couching its ideas in the same sort of riddles that are fine when you’re kicking things off for the first time and slowly easing a new audience into your world, but become more of a stretch the better and better acquainted the audience becomes with the setting and rules of your story. Who knows where Ford’s newest “game” will take us, or what Maeve’s search for her daughter will bring, or how Dolores’s nascent revolt will turn out. Hopefully they won’t just take us back to places we’ve already been.