'Westworld' Recap: 'The Stray'

Written by Scott Edwards

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

As Bernard is looking for answers as to what is happening in the park that he has helped to maintain, he turns to Dolores in his time of need. Being with the young robot always seems to calm him down, but when she asks about his past, he is starting to see a change in her. Reminding her not to talk about their sessions, Bernard sends her back into the park, but her time back out in Westworld may be short lives since she is continuing to have visions about her past and the Man in Black who has made her life a living hell.

Elsie is watching the footage from the first occurrence that was captured when the robots started to malfunction and finds that memories may be in play. With one bot killing everyone that killed him in past programming and letting the others go, she has stumbled upon something that might be a big problem if the program update is not uninstalled. Before she is able to move on with her theory, a stray unit has made its way into the hills and she needs to go and retrieve it with Stubbs from park security. Showing up at the bot’s campsite, Elsie stumbles upon a strange carving that the bot has been putting on all of his work. Finding out it is a constellation, she needs to pinpoint where the programming glitch is and put a stop to it before it infects more of the hosts around the park. Finding the bot trapped in the rocks, she is ready to go to work, but little does she know that the bot is experiencing feelings of his own.

Teddy has been able to get his next bounty, but it is not enough for him as he still has eyes for Dolores and Dr. Ford wants to give him a little more reason to try and keep Dolores from trying to leave the park. Giving Teddy a new backstory, the storyline in the park is starting to change a little bit and instead of trying to get Dolores home to a house full of death, he tries to show her how to defend herself. But there is a problem with the programming on Dolores since she is not able to pull the trigger, even in target practice and his attention is quickly turned to the hills. With word that his old friend from the war days is killing everyone that crosses him, Teddy is forced to take revenge, but the old army officer has a group on his side that cannot be matched by one man and soon Teddy will have come to terms that his programming will always have him slated to die.

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William is enjoying the quiet part of the park and does not know what he wants to do next, but that decision is made for him when he is forced to pull his pistol and gun down an outlaw that is threatening Clementine. Killing his first host, William wants to go on a bounty hunt, but Logan wants nothing to do with it since drinking and humping are his only motivations on this trip so far. With the two taking to the hills and finding a good place to hold up for the night, they are met by a visitor that neither one of them expected to see when Dolores shows up and passes out from the night's activities.

The episode really only revolved around Bernard and a little back story of his own, including the fact that his son that passed away many moons ago. When talking to Dolores, she brings it up and he is able to shut down the conversation before it becomes too painful, but when Dr. Ford brings it up, the scares are apparent. Bernard has found solace in talking to the bots during their down time and Ford is forced to reiterate that they are not real people, no matter how much they seem like it. But no matter how many times Bernard is told this, it will not keep him from the one on one sessions with the bots, especially Dolores who seems to be evolving into something that he nor anybody else in the park has ever seen before.

What an episode, pulling more on the feelings of the characters than ever before. I like that we got to see who and what Teddy is supposed to be in the story and why he will never run away with Dolores despite the creator giving him a touch more backstory. Bernard’s digging has brought him some new facts from Ford about how the hosts were created and with an empty top of a progression triangle, it seems like there is one unanswered question that will be found out the hard way. Doctor Ford seems to be getting fed up with all of the questions that are coming his way and wants to make sure that everyone knows that the hosts are robots and not real people and they are run by programming and nothing else. Elsie has found something strange when picking up the stray and it may only be the start of a bigger problem that the park will have to face head on, hopefully sooner than later as the glitch seems to be getting worse in the infected bots. I am not sure what the relevance of Bernard’s son will have on the storyline coming up, but since they have made it really big deal in this episode, I am sure that there is something else about him that we have not seen yet and it was probably him trying to build a ‘son bot’ without authorization, but you never know, and I cannot wait to see what next week has to bring.

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