TV Review: Westworld - Season 2, Episode 1

TV Review: Westworld – Season 2, Episode 1

April 23rd 2018, 4:37am

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

This recap/review of Westworld is written with the expectation that everyone who reads this and comments below will have seen the episode already. Thus, if you’ve yet to see the episode in question, DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER. SPOILERS!

EPISODE: Season 2, Episode 1: Journey into Night

PLOT: The hosts continue their brutal insurrection, while the higher-ups at Delos attempt to retreive valuable property.

REVIEW: After numerous production delays, including a ballooning budget that had everyone predicting it would be a disaster, “Westworld”’s first season quickly became something of a blockbuster, and HBO’s most critically acclaimed stab at genre since “Game of Thrones.” To their credit, a second season wasn’t rushed, with this coming along a good eighteen months after the first season finale.

Now, there’s an issue here. The season premiere dives right back into the action without any kind of refresher, so unless you’ve watched it recently, a revisit isn’t a bad idea, as this show is complex. The first episode back picks up right where the finale left off, with the hosts having turned on the guests with a vengeance, killing anyone unfortunate enough to cross paths with them. Of course, given the depravity of the guests, one can’t help but sympathize with the park’s revolutionary, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood). with Teddy (James Marsden) her loyal lover.

In fact, “Westworld” has never shied away from making the hosts more human than the actual humans, with all of the guests and Delos workers portrayed as callous and cruel to varying degrees. The only one that was kind of OK was Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), but then it was revealed he was a host too. As in season one, the time frame is mixed, but to how much of a degree isn’t yet obvious, with Bernard helping Delos workers searching for “valuable equipment”, which we learn is Abernathy, aka the host that was Dolores’s father.

The rest or the majority of the timeline centers on the immediate aftermath of Ford’s death, with Tessa Thompson’s Charlotte taking a bigger role as she and Bernard try to find Abernathy, while he tries to hide that he’s not human. Meanwhile, Maeve (Thandie Newton) is back, trying to find her host daughter, enlisting Rodrigo Santoro’s Hector, who survived, and less willingly, Lee (Simon Quartermain).

Of course, the season finale also revealed Jimmi Simpson’s William and The Man in Black (Ed Harris), were one and the same, and now William is truly unleashed, relishing the real stakes, blissfully battling it out with rogue hosts in a great, muscular action scene (although let’s not forget he’s a psychopath).

Happily, the show hasn’t lost a beat with all the elements intact, including the old-timey piano covers, although they cover an oldie this time, Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, or as others may know it, the theme from THE STING. The action is well-shot, and the acting is impeccable, making this an intriguing start to the season. That said, apparently it’s around episodes two and three when things really kick in to high gear. Me – I’m just happy it’s back. This is a great show.