Reunion

“Spencer Kornhaber:”

““Up until this point, the stakes in this place haven’t been real,” the Man in Black says to his dim sidekick, and his observation applies to Westworld as much as to Westworld. For the most part, intellectual curiosity rather than emotional investment has been viewers’ primary drive. “

“Yet tonight’s refreshingly informational episode widened the show’s scope, and with it, the reasons to become obsessed.”

“Westworld, we learned, exists in a world resembling our own—somewhere near a coastal metropolis (more fodder for the theory that the park is in the South China Sea?), and some time probably not too distantly in the future (are we not currently at the investment stage of “AI, AR, VR”?).”

“The project is mysteriously tied in with, per Logan Delos (Ben Barnes), the health of our “species,” and Dolores has sought out a “weapon” to destroy us all. So in a way, we’re now in a Marvel movie: Humankind itself hangs in the balance!”

“The encounter between Maeve’s and Dolores’s crews neatly illustrated that the newly conscious robots will differ on philosophy, motivation, and technique just as we humans do.”

“Sophie Gilbert:”

“Westworld gratifies the darkest fantasies of the park’s visitors and then uses their information to … do something bad, probably. This is a tech company we’re talking about! “

“There was something thrilling in seeing the earliest phases of Westworld as a business, and also experiencing the world outside the park for the first time, both for the audience and for Dolores. “

“More depressing, though, was seeing once-sweet William become his sadistic future self, with Jimmi Simpson portraying the character’s awfulness for the first time. Not only did he specifically bring Dolores to the real-world party celebrating his “coronation” as the new head of Delos (putting her in front of his wife and daughter), he proceeded to strip her naked and then berate her for failing to sufficiently redeem him. “You really are just a thing,” he told her, nastily. “I can’t believe I fell in love with you.” What saved him, he went on, was realizing that Dolores wasn’t a person but a “reflection,” a device in which William could discover things about himself for the first time.”

“Robot, meet toxic masculinity.”

“there’s something fascinating in how “Reunion,” by stepping outside the park, was able to comment more explicitly on contemporary questions about morality when it comes to technology”

“David Sims:”

““Reunion” turned what could have been a boring infodump into something a little more oblique. “

“The new “game” Ford has designed for old William, titled “The Door,” seems to be an experience designed to remind him of this pointlessness. “

“How else to interpret that circular conversation with El Lazo (which, let’s not forget, is Spanish for “lasso,” or loop) and the image of all of his henchmen shooting themselves and falling into a perfect circle around him.”