Hey party people! I am back again for this weeks “Westwords with Spencer”, the only Westworld recap series that matters! As you may have noticed, last weeks edition was cancelled due to the episode taking place during the very busy RuPaul’s Drag Con. Before you get mad, check out all of the wonderful interviews we did and you’ll forgive me! Anyways back to Westworld, this show is absolutely insane! I tried to explain this weeks episode to someone who has never seen the show and I sounded like I was speaking another language. There is a lot to cover this week, so let’s get to it! Brace yourselves!
Spring Cleaning
The episode opens on a confusing flash back… or flash forward. Who really knows at this point? The militia is tearing through Westworld which gives the audience a pretty good grasp of the destruction left in the wake of the rogue Hosts. Every camera angle is just revealing bodies on bodies. As we have learned in the past few episodes, the team is looking for Peter Abernathy. I don’t really know what secret is that is being held with Peter, but it must be important. There is a whole army looking for him and they are literally draining the lake in search. One of the soldiers was tasked with bringing Peter back alive so we will have to see how that plays out in the future. Bernard is just kind of aimlessly following the militia around not knowing whats going on. I guess Bernard and I have that in common.
Dolores Buys a Train Ticket
Dolores and her crew show up to their old stomping ground, Sweetwater. However things are different this time. Pretty much everyone is dead except for the Hosts with important jobs like the bartenders and prostitutes. One interesting aspect of this scene I noticed was that the bartenders and prostitutes were still working even though everyone was dead. Perhaps they were inserted not to long before the beginning of the new narrative in Westworld, so they aren’t programmed with the same revolutionary attitude that the others have? I don’t really know, but it was incredibly heartbreaking watching Clementine observe her prostitute replacement. Imagine living your life, dying, then coming back to your old life and finding out you were replaced. Clementine realized at this moment that her life had no real value to anyone. Dolores prepares the train so that her crew can depart to find her father. That night however, Dolores decided to seal the deal with her long romantic interest. After a long, not very revealing sex scene, Dolores and Teddy finally confirm their attraction to one another. Much like all Westworld stories though, Dolores had to change the narrative on this romance and tricked Teddy into a creepy looking slaughterhouse. There Dolores had her men hold Teddy down as they… reprogram him? I am not exactly sure but it to me it sounded like they planned on making Teddy a certified bad-ass killing machine without emotions. I suppose only time will tell!
Welcome to Shogun World
The majority of this episode was focused upon Maeve’s storyline. The last time we saw Maeve, her group was surprised by a man with a very menacing sword. This man turned out to be a warrior from another Delos park known as…. Shogun World! WOAH. The group is bound and taken through the woods and into a small Japanese town that awkwardly felt just like Sweetwater in Westworld. After the warriors that captured our group start to attack the town, we realize a very startling fact. The story-lines in Shogun World almost directly mirror those in Westworld. Maeve calls out Lee for the pure plagiarism, with his response being something like “you try writing a story-line for every person in every park!” The team that created these parks just copy and pasted the Westworld story line, and then changed the names and appearance.
The two groups quickly realize that there is something wrong here and they decide to come together as one. Maeve meets her Asian madame prostitute doppelganger named Akane. After a very bossy Shogun sends an emissary to the town to purchase one of Akane’s girls named Sakura, the team decides to stand up to the Shogun and protect Sakura. Maeve’s plan was to get Sakura out of the town so that way she can sneak away with her original group and get back to Westworld. Of course, things do not go right and our group is attacked by some ninjas and a horde of angry warriors. Sakura gets captured and all hell just breaks loose. Maeve ends up getting attacked and choked out, but then somehow uses… the force? She literally used some sort of power and convinced the warrior to kill himself. Yeah, that happened. Maeve, Akane, and Lee escape in the darkness. Meanwhile Hector, Armistice, and the Ronin warrior fight off the warriors.
Now that Maeve has realized she is a robotic witch of some kind, she starts to get a little feisty and decides to just go to the Shoguns camp and rescue Sakura. Lee is obviously opposed to this plan but now that Maeve is a witch, he follows her. The Shogun is kind of a jerk and says that the only thing better than watching Sakura dance… is watching Sakura AND Akane dance. Later that night, it’s dancing time. Maeve and Akane have a motherly heart-to-heart even though Maeve barely even knows her daughter. The two prepare geishas prepare to dance but for some reason the Shogun stands and kills Sakura. I am not really sure why but he did and we all just kind of move on except for Akane. Akane begins to dance and enchant the Shogun. As she steps close to him she pulls out a knife from her hair and begins to slowly saw off his head. This was probably the most gruesome decapitation I have ever seen. Obviously a wide panic begins and our group is prepared for execution. However Maeve takes advantage of her new abilities and somehow manages to make all of the warriors kill each other.
I realize after reading all of this that this show is actually CRAZY and I will likely need therapy after this season.
Well, that was definitely a lot. I am absolutely in love with Shogun World. There is just so much depth to this show and I love all of these different stories. One week we are watching William free a town from a much of bandits, then the next week we are watching a geisha decapitate a shogun and Maeve learns she has super powers! I can barely keep up! Wouldn’t it be crazy if Maeve used these troops to build her own army and fight back in Westworld? Well, I am definitely looking forward to the next episode. Though we all maybe be recovering from our annual Memorial Day drunkness next weekend, Westwords with Spencer will be back. Sayōnara watashi no yūjin!
