‘Westworld’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap: The Eye of the Tiger

Somewhere in India, an Englishman and an American woman turn a lackluster conversation about hunting Bengal tigers into a hot make-out sesh. Everything is grand until we learn we’re not actually in India—we’re in another section of the park—and this foray into the bedroom quickly turns into a game of human or robot.

“If you are who you say you are, this will only sting a bit,” the woman says, aiming a large weapon meant to kill robots at her suitor.

As it turns out, the poor guy is human. He appears in agony after being pelted in the shoulder, but misery loves company, so sexy time resumes.

Later in the day, when the hunt for the non-euphemistic tiger continues, the couple discovers that their fellow guests have been murdered by a host. The man bites the bullet, but the woman narrowly escapes death, just moments before coming eye to eye with the tiger.

As she tries to outrun the wild beast, she reaches the edge of a cliff with nothing but water as far as the eye can see. The tiger leaps, taking her with him into the depths of the ocean. And that, dear friends, is how the tiger from episode one ended up on the shores of Westworld.

Back in the present, Charlotte (Tessa Thompson) is surprised to encounter Bernard (Jeffrey Wright). “You’re alive?” she marvels before switching her focus to Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum), the host who is the key to saving anyone still alive in the park. The problem? Abernathy has gone MIA.

Meanwhile, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is building an army, and Maeve (Thandie Newton) is dealing with unresponsive (and violent) Native American hosts.

Worlds collide when old Abernathy and Bernard appear as hostages in Dolores’s camp. Dolores immediately separates Abernathy from the group but asks that Bernard get locked up with the rest. Abernathy, of course, is Dolores’s father in the park narrative, but technically speaking, Arnold is her birth father. What’s a daughter-cum-robot to do?

Maeve’s little weasel, Lee (Simon Quarterman), just about loses his mind when he realizes that she and Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) have real feelings for each other. You see, Lee programmed Hector to only have eyes for a woman named Isabella. The problem is Hector knows his feelings for Isabella are just code, whereas his feelings for Maeve are real.

But of course, there’s a twist. It turns out Isabella is Lee’s ex. We learn that she dumped him due to lack of stability and hence why he wrote her into Hector’s narrative.

Dolores and Bernard reunite, and boy, how the tables have turned since season one. While Bernard is but a shadow of his creator, Dolores has discovered her own identity. Although she sees Abernathy as her father, Bernard sees him as precious cargo. So when she takes Bernard to him, Dolores points out that although they will never know death, they are still fighting to live.

“There is beauty in what we are,” she tells Bernard.

Bernard isn’t contemplating the meaning of life, though. Instead, he’s furiously trying to figure out what Abernathy is hiding in his coding. Finally, right when he finds the missing link, he gets taken by Charlotte’s ambush team. Go figure.

After a major bloodbath, Dolores decides she’s done with this troupe. She enlists Teddy (James Marsden) to take out their leader, Major Craddock (Jonathan Tucker), and watches from afar as he tries (and fails) to go forward with the execution before letting the men go free. Poor Teddy could use a hug right about now.

Oh, and remember the woman (Katja Herbers) and the tiger from the beginning of the episode? Well, the tiger seems to have gotten the better—albeit wet—end of the stick, considering our nameless heroine is met by the Native Americans when she swims to shore, and they look pretty eager to scalp someone. Yikes.

Maeve and Lee somehow find themselves in the Klondike narrative. When he pulls a decapitated head out of a pile of snow, he tells them they have to leave—NOW! But it’s too late. When they turn, something (a ninja?!) charges toward them, sword gleaming.

Cut to black.

Can Maeve survive a ninja attack? How long can Dolores love a man who isn’t her equal? What is Abernathy’s package? So many questions!