Wicked Games

Last week, I mentioned that the reveal of Hale’s true identity would likely be one of the big twists of the series. Which pearls did Dolores smuggle out of the park at the end of season two? Who expected that particular question to be answered by episode four? Not this guy.

We are Dolores

Season one revealed that Bernard was in fact a host all along. Season two kept an AI version of Ford on the table to show Bernard that Delos was “not coding the hosts, but decoding the guests,” (and damn it if that isn’t an awesome line).

Well, season three has just set a new high-bar for Westworld twists, as we’ve already been given the answer to the who is Charlotte Hale question. Turns out, she is Dolores.

Oh, and Martin is Dolores.

Oh, and Maeve has stumbled across host Musashi who is – you guessed it – also Dolores.

Yes, we now know the identities of four of the five pearls that Dolores smuggled out of Westworld. One, of course, was Bernard’s human infused host psyche, but three of the others are simply copies of Dolores’ pearl.

The reveal is delivered incredibly well, with each character revealing their true identity at the same time in separate conversations as the narratives of the opening three episodes converged in an hour of television that had the gravitas of a season finale.

Bernard said what we were all thinking when he suggested that Martin was actually Teddy. He was soon corrected. Maeve creatively managed to track down Dolores’ associate Musashi who set the record straight. And Hale simultaneously revealed herself as Dolores to William all while condemning the now former head Delos bigwig to solitary confinement in an institution.

Dolores, Queen of Multitasking, still has at least one secret up her sleeve as we are still missing the identity of one of the four pearls we saw on the table in episode three. We know that it’s not a human-host composite because it didn’t have the signature red markings that we observed on Bernard’s pearl, so I doubt it has anything to do with Caleb.

Given that William is sitting in a dark room questioning his reality right now, I’m guessing the pearl might be Sector 16 brew of himself.

I have seen Will

Will returned to our screens this week and was at the centre of this episode’s cold open, as he descended into a madness fuelled by what we presume to be the memory of his daughter Emily. The last time we saw the two together was in the intriguing end credits scene to conclude season two, where it appeared that Emily was testing for fidelity in a host version of her father.

Hence why it’s entirely possible that the William we are seeing at the moment is actually a host version of himself – an immortal clone as a result of his secret project that we were let in on during the second season.

I mean, William shot a mirror at the start of the episode so… smoke and mirrors foreshadowing??

Fingerprint scanning stress

Sure, the episode featured bonkers plot twists, two machines fist-fighting and a man getting shot in his unmentionables, but the most edge of the seat moment was delivered by a man trying to use a fingerprint scanner.

Dolores injected Caleb with the blood of one of Liam’s associates and in 2058, encryption keys travel within your bloodstream. That’s a fun Sci-Fi beat right there, and it lead to one of the most tense scenes of the series so far when Dolores and Caleb posed as one of Liam’s financial associates and transferred all of his funds out of his account.

Caleb has 20 minutes until the trick wears off and we get the impression that we’re right on the wire when his fingerprint is declined as he attempts to complete the transaction. Dolores’ bag of tricks includes an impromptu cloth, sweat wiped off of Caleb’s finger tip, attempt number two works.

It’s a sign of a great Sci-Fi flick. A financial transaction in amongst all of the action sequences is the peak of the episode. Absolutely thrilling, and Aaron Paul and Evan Rachel Wood are once again an absorbing on screen combo.

Thanos, Joker, Serac

The best villains are the ones with clearly defined motivations. None of this, “I want to destroy everything and wear black and shout about my vague intentions.” This episode finally offered some details regarding Serac, who we can now assume is the villain of the piece – or at least the threat to Dolores going forward.

And Serac is destined to join this elite-villains club based on his tangible motivations. We discovered that his home city Paris was flattened by a bomb when he was just a child. He views the unhinged nature of humanity as the cause of the carnage and Rehoboam seemingly delivers the oversight required to regulate the madness. To keep humans on a predetermined path. Of course, Serac’s intentions are muddied and if you were thinking that maybe this guy isn’t all bad, shamelessly gunning down an affiliate of Dolores in cold blood cleared that wrinkle up.

He’s ruthless and now has Maeve in his armoury – a powerful ally given that her mind-bending powers now allow her to manipulate any machinery on a dime. Serac v. Dolores promises to be a titanic clash.

Ramin Djawadi knocks it out of the park (again)

The scoring for Westworld has been fantastic throughout all three series’, so it’s news to no-one that Ramin Djawadi has the ability to deliver impressive work. His orchestral covers of pop and rock tracks spring up every now and again. This time, the soundtrack to the party in which most of our protagonists, antagonists and humanagonists congregated was a cover of Wicked Games and it was one wicked track.

Add it to every playlist you have. Lock it into top spot on your Spotify wrapped. Play it at every glamorous party you attend. It is spectacular.