This episode really underlined just how different Ford and Bernard’s perspectives are when it comes to the hosts, with Bernard having an underlying emotional connection he can’t break, while Ford is much more detached. I like that we see that after 30 years of making the Hosts, Ford certainly has some sentimentality as well (“The least we can do is make them forget”). But at the end of the day, he still doesn’t see them as living beings in any way - underlined when he chastised one of his employees for daring to cover up one of the Hosts as he worked on him.Ford’s attitude was really hit home in the rather heartbreaking scene between Ford and Teddy, as Ford coldly told him, “Your job isn’t to protect Dolores. It’s to keep her here,” complete with all the sexual and violent attacks that includes for the guests, should they wish to subject her to that. If, like Bernard – and myself – you’re beginning to connect to Dolores and want good things for her, this puts Ford in a particularly harsh and dark perspective. And I wonder just how long Bernard will be able to both hide what he’s doing from Ford and also let himself go along with Ford’s wishes, when they differ so dramatically from his, as far as the treatment of the Hosts.
We also got more of the Westworld backstory here via Ford’s story about “Arnold,” his partner who died (though Ford didn’t say how, only that happened in the park- which had me wanting Bernard to say, “AND?” to Ford, as he kept things vague). Arnold it seems wanted to give the Hosts true consciousness in a way Ford didn’t – but now the Hosts are accessing some part of his code, causing their glitches. I’m not quite sure why this would take decades to suddenly happen, but hopefully we get more insight down the line and perhaps some more flashbacks. That was an impressive glimpse of Anthony Hopkins looking young, in the manner we’ve seen Marvel do with Michael Douglas and Robert Downey Jr. in recent films.
Meanwhile, Elsie and Stubbs were sent off to get the “stray” of the title – a Host who had wandered off from his group. There were some nice touches here, like how Elsie froze the group of cowboys around the fire in their tracks – though I’m as baffled as she and Stubbs are by why this broken Host was compelled to carve the constellation Orion on a shell before wandering off.The stray’s confrontation with Elsie and Stubbs was rather predictable – from the moment Stubbs planned to go down to get him, it seemed inevitable he'd be attacked – but the fact that it happened after Stubbs sawed open the Host’s neck gave it a suitably freaky, horror movie feel. And seeing him bash his own head in, rather than Elsie, was both disturbing and also made sense. As messed up as he was, he still couldn’t harm a human (yet).
Meanwhile, it was good to see William call out Logan on claiming there’s more to Westworld than the obvious, only for Logan himself to “f**k and drink” constantly – and now that Dolores has literally run into him, it seems both their stories will intertwine in bigger ways.
Dolores’ big moment in this episode (beyond her notably telling Bernard she wants to discover who she really is, rather than remain happy and unknowing) was when she fought back and killed one of her attackers for the first time. It was a fellow Host, sure, but apparently this has never been how Dolores’ loop ends. And with her seeing visions of the Man in Black also attacking her, one wonders just how long before she might be able to fight back against him too.