This week brought many of us fans what we’ve been waiting for…hello Shogun World! The time has finally come to experience the park teased in the season one finale and it’s worth the wait.
“Akane No Mai” opens up with the “future” timeline. Karl Strand is getting updates on the damage done so far and the status on finding Peter Abernathy. We see Bernard looking at all of the dead hosts and then it cuts to the scene that episode three ended on, where someone wielding a katana runs at Maeve and co.
This man and his crew capture Maeve and the others. They walk them into Shogun World and into the main town there, in which the group immediately gets into a skirmish with the townspeople. A fight scene ensues, and the instrumental version of “Paint it Black” that is played during this introductory Shogun World moment is epic. Armistice saves one of the female fighters, who in turn cuts her and the others free. Maeve and the rest of her group walk into one of the buildings and meet two geishas, Akane and the younger Sakura.
Over in Westworld, Dolores and Teddy return to Sweetwater while on the road to track down Peter Abernathy. Teddy seems nostalgic about being back in town, and Dolores reminds Teddy this place is not their home. They go into the bar, and Clementine sees that another host has taken her character’s place. She gets emotional before Dolores tells her to go back outside, and she then reiterates to Teddy that this place was never their home.
The Shogun (the apparent leader of Shogun World) has sent a man to ask for Sakura as she’s the best dancer in town. He wants to acquire her permanently for himself, which Akane says will not happen. Lee is explaining to Maeve this is one of the plot lines he created and that Akane will unfortunately have to give up Sakura. Instead, she stabs the man in the eye and kills him, which is not a part of the regular storyline. Oops.
The Shogun’s men attack the building they’re all in that night, and an awesome fight scene ensues. Maeve is almost fully suffocated at the hands of one of the Shogun’s men, but just as she’s about to die something happens and she’s able to command the man to kill himself at the last moment. The other attacker calls her a witch and runs away, sparing Lee as well.
Lee talks with Maeve about how all the hosts are nothing but code. She disagrees as she’s only supposed to care about herself yet here she is with feelings and compassion for others. As they’re walking through the woods to confront the Shogun, Lee says he needs to pee and as he’s doing so sneaks a walkie talkie he clearly knew was there into his pants.
They confront the Shogun, who shows them he has had all his men burn off their ears so that Maeve cannot command them with her “witchery”. He tells Akane he will only give her Sakura back if Akane dances with her tonight in front of everyone. She has no other choice but to agree.
Dolores and Teddy have an emotional conversation back in Westworld and they have sex. Dolores then later tells Teddy she has to show him something. She explains she’s been questioning her feelings for him for days, questioning how much was just a part of her story and how much was actually real. She tells him they’re all real and she knows that now. She then tells him where they’re about to go, only the strongest will survive. Since she doesn’t believe Teddy will survive, she has two men hold him down while the technician with them changes his settings drastically. He warns that Teddy may never be the same. We’ll have to wait to see how he turns out.
Back to Shogun World, the Shogun kills Sakura in front of Akane. He then tells Akane that Sakura is now hers as he promised. Now she must dance. She fights back tears and dances, and as she dances right in front of the Shogun, she pulls out a knife from her hair and brutally murders him. Maeve and her are both put on their knees, about to be beheaded, but when they look at each other, they all of a sudden are able to control the rest of the men with their minds (or so it appears). They turn them all against each other, and they all start to murder each other! Crazy! She tells Lee, “I told you, I found my new voice. Now we use it.” She raises a katana to the group of samurai rushing at them and the episode ends.
Another week, another great episode of Westworld. It has been a bit confusing with all of the timelines which is my only negative these past few episodes, but getting to see Shogun World finally was amazing and it lived up to the hype. The Dolores-Teddy storyline progressed well too. Can’t wait for next Sunday!
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