Westworld: Années Folles

July 11, 2022 7:00 AM - Season 4, Episode 3

You can never go back again. But if you do, bring a shovel.
posted by jquinby (9 comments total)

I was holding my breath to see Rodrigo Santoro again, but the knockoffs were brilliant. And is there any doubt that the worst moment in Westworld's history be redone as a part of a new "hidden" game that everyone seems to know about? Sure there might be more money flowing into the park's development but the subtleties introduced by Ford are now long gone and it all seems extravagantly...cheap, I guess.

So many flies! And I guess the theory that Caleb was a host is now put to rest, at least for the moment. Still hoping we find out about the lighthouse. And can we get a whole series starring Zahn McClarnon, please?
posted by jquinby at 7:11 AM on July 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

This season is so much easier to follow than the last season.
posted by jordemort at 12:23 PM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

i am having a very difficult time following the storyline, this season. maybe i just don't care enough, it seems unnecessarily complicated.

hey jquinby - yes, you CAN get a whole series starring Zahn McClarnon! it's called Dark Winds, on AMC, and it's pretty damn good!
posted by lapolla at 2:49 PM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Mmmmm. La garçonne flapper dresses.

I forgot how much I loved the era re-interpretation of modern pop songs. The orchestral 'Enter Sandman' sure hit the spot.

I see lapolla's 'Dark Winds' and raise a 'Reservation Dogs.'
posted by porpoise at 3:56 PM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Perhaps it's my recent mindset, but I have the impression that this season of Westworld is its strongest criticism yet of capitalism, particularly in the way capital appropriates, re-contextualizes and manipulates culture for profit: Delos employing its own worst tragedy as an "adventure" in a new theme park; Dolores' tragic past being mined as pitches for NPC's by an entertainment company, all capped with Caleb's emotional instincts being used to trap him with host-Frankie (the most horrifying scene in the episode, for me.)

I'm really glad they've apparently tied off the Rehoboam storyline, with the exception of flashbacks: I always felt that was a distraction. I'm also enjoying the callbacks to the first season, with Delos reusing lines, themes and scenarios in its new park, in the same way that Disney recycles sequences from its own animated films in new properties.

I suspect that we might be experiencing the split-time thing again. While eight years have passed for Caleb and Maeve since the end of Season 3, I suspect that the scenes with Bernard and Ashley are quite a bit more forward in time, closer to the moment The Man in Black is reunited with Emily at the end of season 2... and that the woman Bernard and Ashley met up with in this episode may be a grown-up Frankie.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 4:04 PM on July 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

hey jquinby - yes, you CAN get a whole series starring Zahn McClarnon! it's called Dark Winds, on AMC, and it's pretty damn good!

I see lapolla's 'Dark Winds' and raise a 'Reservation Dogs.'

aw yiss
posted by jquinby at 4:46 PM on July 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Aw, welcome back, Bernard. And Akecheta, last seen in season 2.
The Sublime came up in the second season finale. It looks like Wikipedia deleted the useful page, so, a brief recap of the not-exactly-the-same but similar idea: In Iain M. Banks’ science fiction Culture series, civilizations can sublime and switch from our material universe to the Sublime, another plane of existence, much more interesting and faster-moving and safe and stable. I’m unsure where the virtual peeps are - in the datacenter near the Hoover Dam? - but it’s unlikely that they could keep going if the Earth breaks down.
I’m unsure when Stubbs and Bernard are, and for that matter, if they're in a sim or not. Bernard may have had the equivalent of 7000 years to make plans.
I’d love it if the teddy bear *does* know martial arts.

I feel like I'm saying "back in the season 2 finale" a lot this season, which feels like a nudge to rewatch.
posted by Pronoiac at 9:14 PM on July 11, 2022

I forgot how much I loved the era re-interpretation of modern pop songs. The orchestral 'Enter Sandman' sure hit the spot.

My wife was so disappointed by the use of "Enter Sandman". As soon as she saw the theme of this park, she was waiting for a jazz "Paint It, Black".
posted by cardioid at 5:59 PM on July 12, 2022

host-Frankie's head opening up was 100% pure unadulterated HORROR.

I have been thinking that the woman Bernard & Ashley encounter is an adult Frankie...we shall see
posted by supermedusa at 12:04 PM on July 18, 2022 [1 favorite]