Episode needed more flash backs, perhaps 5 more.
I liked Solomon. He reminded me of HAL from Space Odyssey.
Not without some fun (Dolores vs Maeve), but this might be my least favorite episode of the show? A whole lotta dumped-at-once backstory, clumsy plot setting (So Williams tells the two he's going to kill all hosts starting with them, and they let him wander away to pick up a weapon, which...profit?), and long, long exposition dialogue. The finale better flows better after all the strained set-up this episode has to do for it.
What's the problem with the producers? They decided for an really slow paced storytelling to rush everything at the end of the season? Seriously?! This became just another generic sci-fi with crap writing.
[7.2/10] What does Westworld want us to feel at any given moment? I don’t know. I’m not sure that the people behind the show know. But it treats so many moments as though they are meant to be so impactful, such a shock to the system, that you can tell it’s aiming for drama, even if it doesn't really know precisely what kind it’s going for.
But I think the most common thing it wants us to feel is surprise. This is a show that lives and breathes on twists. There is no Westworld without twists. That would just be a straightforward show where the writers put their cards on the table and have to manufacture drama based on what the audience does know rather than what it doesn't. You can’t introduce a new character like Caleb and have him be what he appears to be. He has to have some twisty, secret past so that the curtain can be pulled back at just the right moment.
So I think “Passed Pawn” in particular wants us to feel surprise. After showing us how Caleb is haunted by the death of his friend in some senseless war (“there was nothing civil about it [vomits]”), it turns out that he and his buddy made it back from the war, and became a duo who did “personals” together until a twist of fate, a case of knowing too much, made it so that Caleb himself killed his partner. Dun dun duuuuuuuuun.
Despite my sarcasm, I don’t hate that twist. I hate the ponderous, melodramatic, poorly-written way in which it’s delivered, but there’s something to the idea that Caleb was trained as weapon of war and force to turn his skills on someone he cared about because of larger forces beyond his control. Maybe I’m still smarting from the final season of The Clone Wars of all things, and the long shadow of Order 66, but there’s something resonant about people programmed to kill and subject to those vicissitudes out of necessity rather than personal choice being unable to turn those skills off or choose whom they’re administered against.
Hell, there’s even a cool Looper-esque tragedy to the idea that “outliers” are dealt wtih by this quasi omniscient system through turning small groups of outliers against the larger whole. That amplifies the tragedy and makes a surprising amount of sense as an efficient way to deal with the problem.
The bigger issue is that it’s just poorly written and utterly cheesy despite the grave seriousness with which this show treats everything. (Seriously, Aaron Paul’s former gig on Breaking Bad firmly proved how much an absurd sende of comedy could make even the most hardcore of dramas feel realer and more engrossing to watch.) Despite the good, if trite, ideas at the center of Caleb’s story, the hackiness of the deliver, the faux-profound dialogue that everything's painted with, makes this one feel far less meaningful than Westworld wants it to be, in addition to how exhausting the show’s twists upon twists upon twists are.
But I think it also wants you to feel sadness. There’s supposed to be something tragic about how Caleb kills Francis, his best friend and maybe somebody closer than even that, because the money is too good not to. There is something affecting in the tableau of Caleb pressing his hand against his comrade’s chest, putting pressure on the wound he created, when Francis grabs his hand back. It’s as if to say he understands, that they’re friends and forgiven despite what each has had to do.
But we don’t really know Francis. He’s a construct, an archetype, and not every character can be fully fleshed out, even in a show as expansive and character-dense as this one. But it makes this very foreign situation (for most of us, I hope) have to get by on the idea that we can understand the emotions of what this would feel like, even if the show has barely dramatized it for us outside of this episode.
I also think Westworld wants us to be horrified, primarily at the cravenness of some uber-powerful (and apparently schizophrenic) artificial intelligence) not only forcing these “outliers” to kill one another in order to maintain order, but also relegating those who won’t comply or are too unruly to be dealt with otherwise to some state of living death. There’s a minor terror to be had from the prospect of all those cold coffins spread out in Solomon’s lair. And yet, everything is so weightless, so quickly forgotten on this show, that it’s hard to take this too seriously despite the horrifying implications of it.
Still, the area where Westworld excels, where it almost always delivers despite its many other flaws, is in making its audience want to feel like what they’re seeing is super cool. I’m still not sold on the grand philosophical implications that the series seems to want to spin from its security versus freedom debate, but Dolores versus Maeve? Now that’s something I can get behind.
Look, it’s just empty calories, but seeing the two most significant characters on the show doing battle against one another with samurai sword versus gun, sniper drone versus hovering death fortress, would-be liberator versus parental avenger, is cool as hell. Does it mean anything? Barely. But both actresses are talented and can sell the fury of the confrontation, and the fight choreography and technological assists add a wrinkle as well. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. When Westworld just wants to be a dose of pulpy thrills, it does way better than when it wants to try to make some grand point.
The same goes for Bernard and Stubbs and William’s presence here. More than anything in the episode, this part feels like the show setting up things for the grand finale rather than advancing the ball in any sort of significant way within the confines of this episode. But I guess we get a new motivation for william -- trying to eliminate all hosts -- and we show him having condensed into Bernard’s crew, even if he’s holding his compatriots at gunpoint -- so it accomplishes what it needs to, even if it feels like little more than table-setting and wheel spinning in the moment.
But the emotion that Westworld is built on is shock. It wants us to be shocked with its last, oh-so-important reveal -- that Caleb isn’t meant to help save humanity, but to help destroy it. It wants to draw some sort of comparison between Dolores and Solomon. These uber-AIs use people like Caleb to destroy and otherwise neutralize their fellow men. We’re meant to be shocked that Dolores is not, in fact, someone who found common cause and a kindred spirit in someone else who’s been programmed for someone else’s purposes, but rather someone who found a tool her enemy was using and simply wants to use that tool against the enemy instead.
The problem is that for all of this shock and surprise to mean anything, you have to care about the characters, you have to not leave the audience expecting twists and dramatic reveals around every corner. Westworld is fine when it only wants the viewer to feel surface-level emotions, the easy reactions to the sort of storytelling candy the show doles out on a regular basis. But when it tries for something more substantive, in episodes like this one, its palette of emotions feel pale and flat, rather than the brand of piercing the series so often tries for and fails at.
Some more Person of Interest homages/feelings this episode. A second AI! One with less stability/humanity? Hello Samaritan! Especially with the 'if this is now' comment. Definitely reminded me of the machine saying 'is this now?' Then we had some reconditioning with simulations and straight up Carl Elias.
I'm kinda bummed we had Maeve and Dolores at loggerheads tbh. But I guess if they were teamed up then humanity wouldn't have stood a chance. I hope this doesn't mean they're lost to us now though?
Not a big fan of Aaron Paul’s character. And I could see the whole “he killed his own friend” thing coming a mile away.
I really don't like this season. How is it that Dolores is always unstoppable and her plans are never hindered. I have idea what they're trying to do with Maeve who I always loved on the show. Its like she's fighting against Dolores with no purpose. I'm perfectly fine if she doesn't want the humans to die and sees Dolores as being just as bad as the humans because ghosts are also expendable to her, but no clear path is written for her.
Also, why has there barely been any scenes with Bernard. He's my favorite character and we barely get to see what's happening with him and Ashley.
I'm also over William. Here we thought the man was gonna redeem himself. But nope. He still just wants to kill things. They make him so simple minded and fixated on the wrong things.
Something about the storytelling in this season stopped working for me in this episode. Season 3 is an entirely different show. When it works for me, it REALLY works (especially as a cyberpunk thriller); when it doesn't work, stuff just seems to -happen- in a clunky fashion. I wish that I could better express what I dislike about it compared to the first two seasons.
6/10. Most writing is a 1:1 copy from Person of interests last seasons.... they even put the same actors in this episode.
Dolores vs Maeve.
We waited so long, that idea that they were going to form a team never crossed my mind.
They both want full control and think the other is the real problem here.
I think it will be one or the other, but I hope I am wrong and they can be a team, because those two can be indestructible. But now I think about how much Halle wants to kill Dolores and that's another problem to add to her list.
One episode left to see how this will progress or end.
This is the classic Westworld style! Unexpected twist plot episodes that leaves you wanting more! I expext at least a great Season Finale ('cause this season is not as good as the other two).
Nothing in this episode felt earned and because of this nothing felt real. Sure there was setup but it didn't make enough sense to make it reality. The scenes I should have felt emotion, ofcourse cued by sensitive music, didn't do anything for me cause... I don't care about any of these characters anymor. I rooted for them in season 1 but then they stopped being "human". And for the story... We're just going through the motions, following the rails from point A to B with whatever leaps they force on us.
To think there would come a day I'd be bored when two attractive women are fighting.
Maeve is a dumb killing machine now, lol.
Only 20 flashbacks in this episode why are the writers holding back? Cmon you can add more so you can have another another turn and another twist and another big secret and another whatnot.. Also is it just me or is the soundmixing getting worse from episode to episode..?
ugh. god, i was really trying to like this season but i'm at the end of my rope, this is such trash.
it's always sad when a show has to resort to an infodump to explain it's plot.
there was no natural reason for caleb's past to be explained here - we just happen to meet a robot who monologues the entire thing to the characters for no reason. just no reason for this robot to go on and on like that.
caleb raging at the robot at the end is absolutely cringe. "viewer, do you get it? do you GET how mad caleb is?! do you get the themes? how humans can be reprogrammed?". aaron paul can't even save this writing.
there's still absolutely nothing coherent about delores' motives. does she want to save the humans or kill them?
maeve is an absolute waste of a character at this point. it's such a shame they brought her back only to also have her motives make no sense. they forced the issue by having charlotte kill hector but it was just a lazy plot device to justify why maeve would go along with serac's blackmail.
i feel sort of the same way that maeve and the snake girl felt about the samurai guy - that he was brought back but he's not the same and it's a mockery to the real him. that's how i feel about maeve. she was a great character for 2 seasons, the star of the show, but then they brought her back because they felt they needed to, and they've just come up with whatever writing they can to justify it, slotting her into whatever role they need for their manufactured drama. that's how i feel about every character they've brought back. it honestly would have been better if they just left the dead characters behind and fully embraced this season being a new direction. why is clementine back? she died. they turned her into a living weapon and then she died. it was a fine ending. it's like they just bring everyone back for fanservice, like "oh, you missed this character?! well, our writing team got together and figured out some justification for why they could come back". hell, william's story was basically over too. we fully understood him and his life and his motivations and it came to an end. but he's gotta come back so they just retread it.
what even was the point of the whole mystery with caleb? at least with most of the past mysteries in the show they had a purpose - their resolution played into the plot, gave you something to think about it, etc. this just feels like "so when we introduce this guy, we're gonna give him a mystery, just for the sake of it, and then 7 episodes later we'll reveal it all and it'll be totally mindblowing". yeah it's kinda surprising that his history was a lie and he killed his dead friend himself but i mean. i just don't care? i'm not invested enough for this payoff to matter to me. again, quite unfortunate because aaron paul is a good actor and i like the concept of the character but the writing is just so bad.
i liked episode 6 but 5 and 7 have just been awful. i pray the finale is good. but i've heard season 4 is better so just gotta push through it, maybe...?
"Passed pawn" is a term in chess defining a pawn which has no enemy pawns to stop it from becoming a queen.[1] This refers to Dolores and Caleb being insignificant at the beginning yet becoming something big and global at the end.
Shout by GouthamBlockedParentSpoilers2020-04-27T15:32:58Z
I knew Aron Paul had a better role than being a sidekick.
also Maeve's outfit was fire, fight with Dolores was mind-blowing.
this episode had me at my end of the seat the whole time. can't wait for the next week's finale.