“Sophie Gilbert: “
” If you discount the flashback scene in which “Arnold” was revealed to be “Bernard,” and in which “Dolores” was revealed to be “Dolores-Wyatt hybrid (Dolyatt? Wores?),” this episode began and ended with characters sitting at the mechanical piano. “
“In the first scene, Dolores trilled a few keys before chatting with her newly hostile and homicidal lover, Teddy, about finally breaking out of their loop for good. And at the very end of the episode, “Bernard” (I have no idea anymore but am guessing) entered the Matrix-like hard drive of the park only to encounter Ford sitting at the piano, happily making music.”
“Westworld, as we know, loves symmetry, pairings, and parallels. Consider last week’s “Akane No Mai,” when Maeve, Hector, and Armistice encountered their Shogun World counterparts, or how the show foreshadowed the reveal that “Grace” (Emily) was the Man in Black’s daughter by having him rescue Lawrence’s child.”
“So now we know that Ford is secretly still around in some form inside the “cradle” of the park, literally pulling the strings of the piano to make it play his tune. Is his pairing with Dolores a clue that she’s under his control? Or is it a sign that she’s as empowered as he is?”
“Spencer Kornhaber:”
“Exploring the theme of believability was apt for an episode that made for such a rich showcase of acting. I don’t recall Ed Harris being called upon in Westworld to put in the kind of work he did here: showing sensitivity and tenderness, generated both from cynical performance and, surely, actual fatherly love.”
” Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores continues to cannily mutate in her affect—the old farmgirl never got to crisply enunciate words like agency or fidelity—but more fascinating is what James Marsden is doing as Teddy. He appears physically different (older even?), with his personality tweaks conveyed not only in dialogue and action, but also in mannerism.”
“Thandie Newton, meanwhile, was pushed to show yet-rawer compassion and heartbreak in her farewells to her pseudo-Japanese friends and her reckoning with her pseudo-daughter.”
“The revelation of the “cradle” is a literal game-changer: Maybe scenes we’ve seen before were actually taking place in this shadow world, and scenes to come surely will take advantage of the trippy notion that Westworld’s hive mind is actually just another Westworld.”
“David Sims:”
“Bernard has journeyed into the source code of Westworld, and sitting at that piano is its ultimate architect, Ford, a gray-haired master of riddles, here to present Bernard with a few more from beyond the grave. As Maeve, Dolores, and even Lee continue to fiddle with Westworld’s programming from their vantage points, it makes sense that the real showdown will have to happen within the park’s server rooms, so I’m eager to see how that’ll look.”