Westworld Rundown: The Adversary is Twisted in All the Right Ways

Westworld is displaying more of its characters' strengths, and also their motivations.
By J. Delano

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Parental Advisory

The episode The Adversary has a an intimate scene on one of the rooms of the Mariposa and some nudity in the scenes at the laboratory.

     In an episode abound with twists, Westworld finally exposes who the power players are.  You may recall in the last episode that the Man in Black also known as the reclusive Arnold wanted to be the villain in this made-up fantasyscape to give the hosts a purpose.  This time around, some of them hosts and some of them human, have elevated their conscious selves of bringing on the hurt towards the rest.  Warning as spoilers scatter the upcoming paragraphs.

Using Plastic Well

     Halley Gross and Jonathan Nolan share writing props for The Adversary and you've been drawn in by the curious cliffhanger of Contrapasso to then see Maeve figuring out the process of landing back into the laboratory with Felix.  She's smart but not that smart, as Felix said, because she needed the skills and smarts to manage the Mariposa Saloon but Westworld engineering dumbed her down just enough so that she would be docile.  The really cool and well directed part was she asked Felix something life-changing, shown in a montage that acted like an epiphany flashing before your senses to which it then motivated her to be more.  And Felix obliged her with upgrades.

     What was way cooler and supremely beautiful was how director Fred Toye and the writers incorporated Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees into the player piano of the Mariposa as Maeve walked in.  Sweetwater was not real and now she knew.

Impressive Stuff

     Teddy Flood emerged a tough-as-nails cowboy which even surprised Arnold.  The complicating part though was the signal that Elsie discovered inside a old theatre and how Arnold was connected to it.  Here, the second twist left Elsie in a tough situation and doubled the stakes as not only was Westworld the park in trouble but Westworld corporate as well.  

     While at the Mesa Bar at Westworld Corporate, Lee Sizemore was getting away from work and tried to pick up Charlotte Hale who, unbeknownst to him, is Executive Director to the Board.  Her introduction though benign but awkward to Lee is part of a brewing larger conflict on the series' 21st Century side.  We've only seen the technicians, Bernard, Elsie, Ashley, Felix, Dr. Ford and Theresa engage rather professionally but with The Adversary they are moving quickly to a showdown.  

     Bernard, Elsie and Theresa will go head to head eventually with all of them showing us they have enough strength to tussle each other and this adds weight to the story in good ways.  On the otherhand, Lee's actions looked more like antics than power.

     In The Adversary, we now find out who are the other characters who can act with gail force.  The worrisome thing about it is that we have to wait another week for its continuation.  All I'm thinking about is what's coming next.

About the author

J. Delano is an amateur photographer and story buff.