Westworld, Season 1 Episode 6 – ‘The Adversary’ | Review – Hosts and Ghosts

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Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers and speculation

I seem to be saying this every week, but what the hell is happening?

It looks like Maeve is now fully self-aware, and has manipulated Felix and Sylvester (Wait a second, why are they named after cartoon cats?) into adjusting her intelligence to the maximum setting, at the expense of her loyalty. Shudder. Elsewhere, the Man in Black is stunned to see a ruthless side of Teddy as the latter massacres a group of soldiers who had held the two captive. We find out that Ford has been harbouring unlisted hosts in the park. Disturbingly, these are modeled on childhood memories of his family, including a version of himself as a boy. This kid-Ford proceeds to kill his own dog, and on being interrogated by old-Ford, reveals that a disembodied voice – Arnold – told him to do it. Ford seems genuinely taken aback for the first time in the series. Concurrently, Elsie discovers that someone has reactivated the old bicameral signals, which explains the voice kid-Ford heard. She also shockingly discovers that Theresa is the one who has been smuggling data out of the park. What’s more, there are some serious code changes being made to the hosts, and the changes have the long-dead Arnold’s fingerprints on them. As she fills a dazed Bernard in on the phone and continues to investigate, there is a noise in the night. “Arnold?” she calls out uncertainly. A moment later, she is attacked from behind and snatched away into the darkness. We have a story on our hands.

In an episode so packed with heart-pounding plot development, Westworld still found time to stamp its class in other ways, such as the fascinating and troubling questions Maeve raises with the two technicians. How do you know you were born and not made? Sure, you remember your childhood, but if what you think of as your history was written into you by a programmer, would you be able to tell the difference? What if your dreams were fragments of real memories that escaped this programmer’s frequent overwrites? In fact, everything featuring Maeve was a home run this week, especially the lovely sequence where she goes ‘upstairs’ and sees the real world for what it really us. With Ramin Djawadi’s orchestral Radiohead playing in the background and Thandie Newton doing some top-notch acting in the foreground, the scene was instantly memorable.

Week after week, Westworld continues to deliver an intense cocktail of action, mystery and philosophy. Get on the bandwagon now!

Overall Rating: 4.5 / 5

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