Westworld Season 1 Episode 3 Review

Westworld (2016-)
Season 1 (2016)

Westworld - Season 1 Episode 3 - The Stray

Created by: Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy Nolan, Michael Crichton (1973 movie written by)
Starring:  Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Jimmi Simpson, Rodrigo Santoro
Rating: TV-MA 

Plot: 
A futuristic theme park recreates the wild west for visitors, but bliss doesn't last forever.

Verdict
This show continues to impress. This episode focuses primarily on Dolores as we see hosts operate outside of programming. Bernard is still concerned about the glitch, and Ford's big new story begins to take shape. We also learn more about how the park operates. Each episode continues to build upon the last and the park keeps getting larger.
Watch it.

Review
Westworld is a western theme parked stocked with androids, this show calls them hosts, that fully recreate the experience for visitors. The creator wants to make the most lifelike experience possible, continuing to perfect the core program even after thirty years. A recent software update has introduced a glitch. Read my previous episode reviews.

This episode provides a glimpse of hosts operating outside of their programming. A stray host seems to be chasing the stars, which links to a conversation between Ford and Bernard about sentience in the hosts. With sentience hosts could think they speak to god and other hosts may follow them. The park would break down when hosts fail to follow their programming, but we're on the verge of that.
Bernard is playing a dangerous game by allowing Dolores to evolve and change.
That's the overview, read on for an in depth break down of the episode.
Also, read my previous Westworld reviews.

Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) is still talking to Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood). He has her read a passage from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland about how strange everything is but the world continues as normal. It's less than subtle, and it just seems odd that Bernard does this unless he truly thinks Dolores has awakened somehow. He has little indication to think such has occurred, though it certainly has. Dolores remembers more than she should. Her failure to inform any of the technicians has to be willful, though perhaps no one has asked the right questions.
Bernard mentions his son who we later find out died young. He's been using Dolores as a crutch to fill the emotional void.

William (Jimmi Simpson) runs into a fugitive. He gets shot and is knocked down. Since he's a guest the bullet doesn't pierce him, but how does it knock him down? How can a hosts bullets pierce other hosts but not guests, yet knock them down?
William is going to bounty hunt, though Logan (Ben Barnes) is reluctant stating bounties are j.v., he follows anyway.

As we found out in the last episode, Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is planning a big story though no one knows what it is. Elsie (Shannon Woodward) puzzles over the behavior of a host with Bernard. It seems the host killed six other hosts that had killed him in story lines over the years. It looks like a grudge, though hosts shouldn't have memories.

A host goes stray and has to be tracked by Elsie and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). The host has a wood carving hobby with some strange designs carved into a few of the wood animals. He's eventually found, trapped in a ravine. Elsie thinks this isn't a typical stray. This host went outside of his programming, like he had an idea.
Stubbs is going to cut off the head and leave the body for convenience sake. Despite being in sleep mode the host wakes up in the middle of the 'procedure' and proceeds to crush his own skull with a rock.

Teddy (James Marsden) plays hero with a guest before starting his Dolores story line again. She's desperate to run away with him, which makes you think this is less programmed host and more sentient being. He tells her someday they will which feels like a canned response to her and she calls him on it.


Ford talks to Teddy, wanting to give him a part in the big new story line that seems to include a crazy military deserter Wyatt (Sorin Brouwers) that thinks he hears God speaking to him. This also ties into Dolores and the sentience conversation.
Teddy gets wrapped up in the story line where he tracks down Wyatt. It doesn't end well, facing a group of foes that look inspired in part from the baddies in Bone Tomahawk.

Bernard approaches Ford, still hung up on the aberration. Ford's office is more than a little creepy, filled with artifacts, heads and faces. There's even a host playing the piano. Bernard feels they haven't found the problem. Two hosts were both having conversations with no one visible, despite calling the person 'Arnold.' Ford seems to recognize the name.
Ford recounts a bit of history. His business partner was Arnold. They worked on the park for three years before opening the doors. Hosts were rubber and metal framed. They passed the Turing test within the first year. The CGI to make Hopkins look young looks amazing. Arnold wanted the hosts conscious. Arnold was scrubbed from the records after dying in the park. Ford lives on, though he adds that Arnold was too careful to have died from an accident.

Bernard talks to Dolores again. He's wrestling with whether he should change Dolores back. He's been using her as an emotional crutch since the death of his son. Is Bernard in part responsible for the aberration? He has some responsibility in the changes with Dolores. She's evolving and he knows it. He doesn't want to stop that.

Dolores is put in peril once again with a host outlaw as per her programmed story. Previously in this episode she couldn't pull the trigger when Teddy was teaching her to shoot. It was programming, as the park strictly controls which hosts has weapon privileges. Dolores has lifted the gun from the outlaw, and we're momentarily left to wonder whether she can over ride programming. A voice tells her "kill him", and she does. I assume it's Arnold as that seems to be the same voice other hosts heard. This is the second time we've seen Dolores over ride programming. At the end of episode one she was able to kill a fly, and hosts are programmed to not harm living creatures.