Akane No Mai

“Spencer Kornhaber:”

“part of me wishes we’d been in Shogun World all along”

“Then again, in Westworld, the very concept of novelty is often a ruse. The show points out how the familiar can be disguised as the new, and that the advances of the technological future might only cinch us tighter in our loops of nostalgia and narcissism”

“Much of the excitement of this hour—both for viewers and the characters themselves—was in recognizing the clone character under the pancake makeup, or in hearing a familiar tune rendered in shamisen. “

“There’s a depressing irony here, well familiar to Western pop culture: To craft a less “tame” experience for consumers, Lee Sizemore simply slapped orientalist clichés on old storylines.”

“The fact that ordering around hostile hosts wasn’t easy even for the formidable Maeve fit with the episode’s larger investigation of the agency the bots have now that they’re freed from their old roles. Hacky plots Sizemore had self-plagiarized mutated in new and surprising ways, starting when Madame Akane (Rinko Kikuchi) broke with her submissive script in an attempt to save her beloved protégé Sakura. “Looks like someone had a choice after all,” Maeve quipped after Akane poked an emissary in the eye, one of a few of this episode’s examples of hyper-stylized violence.”

“While Maeve’s voice commands proved futile with the feudal hosts, she did slowly discover some other way—a “new voice”—of silently hijacking their minds. I’d have to guess she did this by tapping into the intra-host “mesh network” we learned about a few episodes ago. The fact that Westworld’s artificially intelligent beings are telepathically linked is, for now, portrayed as weakness. But it’s easy to imagine the fearsome power of, say, a shogun’s army able to move in true, effortless collaboration. Sophie and David, do you suspect as I do that this “mesh network” means that when the hosts mount their larger revolution, the humans will be as outmatched as a samurai facing down a tank?”

“David Sims:”

“There are hints of tyranny in how Maeve and Dolores are progressing through the park, winning some hosts to their side and compelling others to serve as thralls. But there’s also an undeniable sense of community as they collectively pick apart the systems that were holding them in place.”

” I think it’s easy to say that Maeve has become the real heart of the show, and this was an episode with a lot of heart. Seeing the open compassion of Maeve’s Shogun World counterpart, Akane, a similarly steely mother hen, helped underline just how different Maeve’s awakening has been compared to Dolores.”

“Unlike Dolores, Maeve was programmed with an edge, but she was also programmed as a natural leader, a madam who looked out for her charges and was constantly under siege from (scripted) robberies. That connection to characters like Clementine was crucial in her understanding of Westworld’s simulation, and as she arrived in Shogun World, Maeve witnessed a comparable awakening in Akane, and helped nudge it along.”

“Dolores, meanwhile, lacks that sense of community—she’s defined by her relationship to her father and to Teddy, two protectors who have ultimately either failed her or outlived their usefulness. It makes sense that Dolores has a more mercenary view of her fight for independence”

“Both characters can see the artifice at play here, but they’re using it to their advantage in very different ways—Maeve by hacking the core code, Dolores with her legion of walking dead.”

“Sophie Gilbert:”

“It’s an intriguing move that doubles down on the differences between Maeve and Dolores in their awake states: One is compelled by love she can’t explain, and the other interprets kindness as a character flaw.”

“Maeve’s innate bond with Akane was one of the most interesting moments in the episode. There was the obvious link in that they were two versions of the same character archetype: the hardened entertainer coded, as Maeve explained, to only care about herself. But both had broken out of their loops to care deeply about other people, to the point where Akane resisted Maeve’s efforts to wake her up rather than lose her attachment to Sakura. And Maeve was able to empathize. “Some things are too precious to lose,” she said. “Even to be free.” So does this mean the hosts were able to transcend their programming to form emotional bonds before they were “liberated” by Ford, since Akane is still very much unawake?”

“It’s a retrograde kind of thinking that made Akane’s rebellion in the final scene even more thrilling. After watching the shogun murder her beloved Sakura in front of her (after Sakura had been used as a kind of canvas for the Shogun’s grisly art experiments), Akane danced, as she was instructed to do. Rinko Kikuchi’s performance was thrilling, embodying Akane’s tightly controlled pain and rage in a gorgeous sequence of moves. Then, after smiling serenely at the Shogun, she removed a serrated hairpin from her hair and sawed the top half of his head off. Even Lee looked impressed. Westworld might have treated its female characters like geishas, forcing them to perform again and again despite the agonies they endure. But it’s also—inadvertently—given them the tools to fight back, and Akane’s half-decapitation was only the beginning.”