After years of production delays, teases, trailers, and anticipation, HBO’s Westworld has finally arrived and the first episode delivered on the hype.
Westworld was originally supposed to premiere in 2015, but after a lot of off-screen issues, HBO was forced to push back the premiere to Oct. 2, 2016. Reviews flooded in praising the premiere as fantastic and they were all right. After one episode, it looks like HBO has found its next hit.
Before we dive into the actual episode itself, it’s necessary to point out how well done and intriguing the title sequence is. With the piano in the background and accompanying instruments, the pictures on the screen begin to tell the story of the show. That same idea is present in another massive HBO hit’s title sequence, Game of Thrones.
https://youtu.be/QeBik_YHBYM
OK, enough about production delays and title sequences — let’s get into the episode itself.
Before the show even aired, it was well known that Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) was the main character and the oldest host in the park. It was easy to tell within the first couple minutes that Dolores was a focus of the story. We learn that Dolores is a host during the first scene because she is being interviewed by employees of the park in what seems to be the lab where all the hosts are made. Later on, the episode revealed that, despite appearances, she was the oldest host in Westworld.
Shortly after being introduced to Dolores, we meet Teddy Flood (James Marsden). It’s quickly easy to assume the two are in love and that theme will continue throughout the show. It was interesting how this was presented to us for a couple reasons. One, while it was known already that Dolores was a host, Teddy’s introduction made him seem like a visitor and not a robot like his lover.
However, minutes after meeting Teddy, it’s pointed out that he’s a host when he gets shot by The Man in Black (Ed Harris). When TMIB gets into the extremely one-sided gun fight with Teddy, this helped explain a lot of important information to the viewer. By showing Teddy’s inability to shoot TMIB and TMIB’s ability to shoot Teddy, viewers were able to understand that visitors can’t be hurt while hosts can be killed with ease.
The first sequence as a whole, from when Dolores wakes up the first time and then when she’s shown waking up again (possibly the next day in real world time), was really to establish how the world works and how there are storylines within it. On top of that, it was important for the show’s writers to make it clear Dolores and TMIB have a history and will continue to run into each other.
Nearly 15 minutes into the show, viewers finally leave the theme park world for more than a few seconds. This next long sequence follows multiple human characters who run the park and introduces us to their positions. Those characters are Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright), Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward), Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), Theresa Cullen (Sidse Babett Knudsen), and the creator of the park, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins).
Over this sequence that is full of scenes showing Bernard and Elsie critiquing hosts, Stubbs challenging Bernard, and Dr. Robert Ford speaking with an old host (who’s apparently supposed to be Buffalo Bill), viewers learn who does what behind the scenes for the park and what their role could be going forward.
The rest of the episode jumps around a lot and really gets the ball rolling on long-term plot points that will be important for viewers to keep in mind going forward.
Rather going through the scenes one by one, we’ll generalize them and talk about what they could mean going forward.
When one of the hosts goes inactive in front of the guests, this begins to get the ball rolling on the plot point revolving around the “update” given to some of the hosts. It appears that this update has caused issues with the hosts, and that’s what resulted in a large-scale pullout of hosts. This was discussed at length by Bernard and Theresa. It seems like Bernard is obviously arguing against it as the update’s creator, while Theresa is there to watch over Bernard with the investors’ and owners’ pockets in mind.
The update issue leads us to what happened with Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum), Dolores’ father, who found the picture of a woman in what looks like Times Square. This led us all the way to the end where Peter began to lash out at Bernard and Dr. Ford in a way that gives viewers the idea that maybe at some point, hosts will begin to attack guests. This idea was driven home more by the “homicidal host” who attacked and killed another host. It’s important to note that the homicidal host was cornering two guests inside the bar as well.
Another plot point that could become a major factor going forward is the desires and goals of TMIB. He already looks like a villain, but unlike the hosts that are having issues and may be attacking the guests, TMIB is a guest himself. It’ll be interesting to see what his objective is going forward, although right now it looks like he wants to discover why exactly the park was made. TMIB comes across as treating the entire world like a game and he wants to not only beat the game, but discover how it operates.
Overall, a lot stood out about this show. For one, on a completely non-plot related note, it was beautifully shot, acted, written, and edited. Part of the reason why the show premiered in 2016, instead of 2015, was because of production delays. Right off the bat, it looks like those delays paid off.
Another thing that stood out about this episode is that viewers are going to be continuously asking who is a host and who is a guest. The writers did a good job of differentiating between the two in this episode, but I imagine the line between the two will be blurred a lot to keep viewers on their toes.
One final note that stood out was how many different plot points were presented in the first episode. Here’s a quick rundown of the ones I caught on to: defective updates in hosts, hosts rebelling against each other, hosts rebelling against guests, hosts rebelling against their makers, TMIB’s motivation, and the desires of the shareholders, investors, and owners of the park.
Westworld started out with a bang and it’ll be intriguing to see how the story unfolds going forward. At the end of the episode, HBO released the following trailer for the rest of the season that not only hinted at the plot points above, but also many more viewers have yet to see. The next nine weeks should be fun.
[You can read all of The Comeback’s Westworld coverage here.]
