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Westworld S2 E1: “Journey Into Night” recap and review

The most intricate, theory-driven show since ‘Lost’ is back.

April 22, 2018

Almost a full year and a half since its thrilling, twist-filled first season came to a close, Westworld is finally back for more. I find the show to be the most intricate, theory-driven show since the masterpiece that is Lost, and I have been eagerly awaiting its return. Season two begins with “Journey Into Night,” a 70 minute thrill ride into the next chapter of the Westworld story. Be warned, SPOILERS ahead.

The episode begins with Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) speaking to Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) in diagnostics, flashes through a few of the scenes that took place in season one, and then Bernard wakes up on a beach. A woman is pointing a gun at him until he’s spotted by none other than Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), who tells the armed mercenaries they’re pointing their guns at the guy in charge. Stubbs is alive!? Okay. Head of Operations (at Delos presumably) Karl Strand (Gustaf Skargsard) begins talking to Bernard. He explains to him that it’s been about two weeks since the hosts staged their uprising in the season one finale, and these mercenaries he has with him are taking out every host in sight and are here to clean up the mess. If only they knew Bernard was a host…

We cut back to the uprising as it’s happening two weeks prior. Bernard escapes the area where Ford was killed with Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) and a handful of other guests. They head for a station a couple miles away, but it’s a trap and everyone is murdered except Bernard and Charlotte, who figured out what was about to happen moments before it did. Charlotte takes them to another secret station that Bernard didn’t even know about. We find out here that they can’t be extracted because Delos won’t help anyone until they receive a certain host. Charlotte describes it as an “insurance policy.” Interesting. That certain host is Peter Abernathy, father of Dolores.

In the meantime, Dolores is killing every human in sight. Teddy (James Marsden) is accompanying her, but he doesn’t seem as sure about her murderous spree as she does.

Images courtesy Entertainment Weekly

William aka The Man in Black is alive, still in the area where the massacre took place at the end of season one. One other human is alive and calls out to him, calling him Bill, which I found quite hilarious for whatever reason. That guy is immediately shot and killed, and William takes out the two hosts in badass style. He comes across the young boy host (young Ford), who tells him he’ll be playing a new game soon and that it will find him. William then kills the boy and continues onward.

Maeve (Thandie Newton) is still in the HQ area and finds Lee (Simon Quarterman), who she takes along with her. He tries to double cross her at one point when armed men come across them, but hosts appear and kill them all. Maeve decides to spare Lee despite his betrayal, as she can use him to help find her daughter.

The end of the episode finds Bernard, Stubbs, Strand, and some others driving to a location where apparently all the hosts are located. They find a dead bengal tiger along the way, and a comment is made how far the animal is from where it’s supposed to be and that nothing has ever crossed from one park to the other. Apparently bengals are in park 6. Just how many parks are there??? This is such a tease for Shogun World. I love it.

Images courtesy Entertainment Weekly

They continue on and find all of the hosts dead in a body of water that none of them seem to know existed. When Strand asks Bernard if he’s regained any of his memory and if he knows why these hosts are all dead, Bernard responds with “I killed them. All of them.” Cut to black! What!?

The episode itself had moments of confusion, as all Westworld episodes tend to, and it was somewhat slow in comparison to previous episodes, but it was a very solid setup for what’s to come. How did Bernard supposedly kill all of the other hosts? How did Stubbs survive the Ghost Nation attack? Where’s Elsie? What’s the new game for William? What’s up with the goo that dripped from Bernard’s ear? I could go on and on. There are SO many questions to answer, and I can’t wait to see many of them answered over the course of the season. Most of the storylines have been set, this two week in the future plot is very intriguing, and I’m eagerly awaiting next week’s episode to see it all start to unfold.

Westworld season two premieres this Sunday, April 22 at 9PM ET/PT.

Westworld S2 E1: "Journey Into Night"

Is it good?

Westworld returns with even more mysteries introduced, and while the premiere isn't the most gripping episode, it does a good job at laying a solid framework for what's to come in season two.

Introduces the interesting future timeline about two weeks after the host uprising began

Solid introduction to season two and the different storylines we'll be following

Some hints dropped about Shogun World and other parks

A bit slow

Lots of new information to decipher, some of which feels like it should have been introduced prior

Good