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‘Westworld’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap: Forgiven…but Not Forgotten

*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

  • Westworld is not, in fact, a place where all is forgiven and forgotten.
  • Teddy discovers the truth about himself as Dolores becomes more determined to get her revenge.
  • A surprise twist reveals a secret about the park that could change the narrative quicker than a host reboot.
westworld season 2 episode 2 arnold
John P. Johnson/HBO

Parents like to say that seeing the world through the eyes of their children is like seeing it for the first time. Arnold (Jeffrey Wright) seems to experience the same when he sees the world—our world—through Dolores’s (Evan Rachel Wood) gaze. Yup, you heard us: Arnold.

Arnold wants to show Dolores the world, so he takes her on an excursion to his home, a Frank Lloyd Wright–esque house he’s building so his family and his work can be within close proximity to each other. Arnold talks about his son Charlie, comparing his child’s positive outlook on the world to hers.

Dolores seems insightful as she comments on how most people don’t have the courage to see the world as it really is…and then she returns right back to the beginning of her loop, reminding us she’s, well, not that insightful.

westworld season 2 episode 2 elon musk
John P. Johnson/HBO

Around that same time period, Logan Delos (Ben Barnes) is having drinks at a sky bar when a man with a mysterious business plan arrives with a woman, Angela (Talulah Riley), in tow. Logan doesn’t seem all that interested, until Angela dares him to pick out the robots in the restaurant. Logan perks up at the challenge and gets even perkier when he thinks it’s Angela he’s getting to take for a test-drive. She giggles as the entire room freezes.

Few things render Logan speechless, but his mouth is like a flytrap as he gazes around a room of people frozen in time. And yes, Angela seals the deal. From a distance, Dolores watches as she puts her bra back on, and Angela gives little miss Goody Two-shoes the most human look of all: one of contempt.

dolores massacre westworld
John P. Johnson/HBO

Cut to the night of the massacre when Dolores is in her prime. Teddy (James Marsden), Dolores and a disheveled Angela make it to the lab, where naked hosts are strewn across the cold floor. Teddy’s mind is blown, and the poor guy is in overdrive. This is Dolores’s attempt to open his eyes to the truth, but ignorance is bliss, Dolores! Finally aware of what he is, Teddy appears devastated, realizing he’s been killed time and time again for fun. Aww, kitten…

In the spirit of breaking bad news, the Man in Black (Ed Harris) is reunited with Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.) and tells him that his entire life has been a lie and that they now live in a world where death really means death. Lawrence wonders what the point is of helping the Man in Black, to which MIB responds that it’s a chance to get a glimpse of the men they could have been. Go figure.

westworld season 2 episode 2 man in black
John P. Johnson/HBO

What’s more, the Man in Black reveals that all the violent horrors that took place in Westworld were, in fact, being watched and tallied, and people were being judged. MIB intends to fight his way back home, appeal the verdict of his judgment—because why should you be responsible for repugnant actions if there are no human consequences?—and then burn Westworld to the ground.

In a flashback, worlds collide when William and his wife throw a retirement party for her father, Westworld investor Jim Delos (Peter Mullan), and somehow end up with Dolores sitting at the grand piano as the night’s entertainment. It doesn’t look like William received the “Dolores as entertainment” memo and totally loses his focus in front of his wife.

westworld season 2 episode 2 dolores
John P. Johnson/HBO

It’s still so hard to imagine MIB as young William, who fell in love with Dolores on his bachelor weekend. But as we watch young William tell Dolores in the lab that he can’t believe he fell in love with just a “thing,” we see the beginnings of something cold and evil. What saved him, he says, was the understanding that it wasn’t her he fell in love with—it was himself.

“You’re not even a thing, you’re a reflection,” he tells her. Whatever gets you through the day, Wills—we can tell you still have the hots for the bot. But what William reveals to her next is the real game changer: The place the hosts refer to as Glory and The Valley Beyond is not a place, nor is it heaven. It’s a weapon.

And now, Dolores is going to use it against the people who built it.

westworld season 2 episode 2 recap
John P. Johnson/HBO

What is Glory and did it kill all the hosts in episode one? Who was keeping track of all the guests and what happened to all that information? Is it for blackmail or extreme marketing research? Give us more, HBO!



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Freelance PureWow Editor