Episode 2 of Westworld Season 3 opens stuck in the same loop viewers saw in a post-credits scene in the premiere episode.
Maeve (Thandie Newton) may be confused with what is going on in Warworld, but she is as on guard AF. Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) turns up in her new narrative.
He appears still on the ball because, apparently, death is overrated for their type. He also gives her a pill to swallow, and I am unsure if we are in the Matrix or down the rabbit hole as a result.
As they escape, Maeve uses the pill Hector gave her to stab a guy in the eye. I sh*t you not. It works, though.
It’s at this point that Maeve realizes that Hector has no idea who she is. The talk has been mere spy talk, and he is stuck in the same tragic loop as always.
She kills herself as a result of this realization. Because knowing you are stuck in the same loop is infinitely worse than not knowing.
Maeve gets a new loop
The same two techs are tasked with working on Maeve as in Season 2 and one is cautious AF as a result. Even still, she gets left up to her own devices once more, and it seems she’s stuck in her own new outside of normal programming loop.
And, seriously, this is what a suicidal host looks like as she tries to decommission herself. Except, Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) steps in and fudges what is going on, calling it a glitch, of sorts, in her new narrative.
Maeve confronts him, she saw him die, after all. However, she should know better. According to Sizemore, all vital organs were missed when he was shot. He is still kicking around behind the scenes.
They discuss things and it seems like he might even get a chance to write a happy ending for Maeve after all.
Bernard goes home
Arriving back at Westworld, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) is on the lookout. Sneaking around, he comes across, well, himself.
Along with that host, he finds Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth). He has been shot but is responsive. He asks what Bernard is still doing here.
Bernard comes to the realization that Stubbs is also a host. And, like Maeve, he’s pretty much suicidal as well. But, Bernard repairs him when he finds out that Stubbs operative is to protect every host in the park.
Bernard reveals that he is trying to fix the mess, and Stubbs agrees to help. That’s his job, after all.
Maeve continues to work the loops
Even though Sizemore promised a happy ending, she still wakes up in Warworld. That doesn’t stop her, though.
Trying to convince Hector that he is more than his loop allows, she realizes pretty quickly that she can’t save him so she tells him goodbye.
She then takes off cross-country in a pair of heels because this is the ’40s, and style is obviously the main objective.
She bumps into Sizemore in the bushes, and he has some horses to help her escape. Honestly, does he have a crush on her? Actually, scrap that, I think he is a host.
Sizemore takes Maeve to the Forge. He assumes she has been there before, but they soon work out that someone else sent all of the hosts to an encrypted world and that it’s all Dolores’ (Evan Rachel Wood) fault.
Sizemore then gets all mushy over Maeve, and, as I suspected earlier, he is totally a host now.
He won’t believe it, though. This means he is now a pawn being used to manipulate Maeve as she tries to break free once more.
Stubbs and Bernard continue their search
Stubbs is convinced that Maeve is in the old warehouse of no longer used hosts. After all, where else would she be? Um, about that, honey…
Surprisingly, they do come across a Maeve host. It’s not the one they are looking for. Her brain ball is missing.
While Bernard is doing the equivalent of a Norton virus scan, trouble arrives via two staff members. Stubbs quickly neutralizes them before getting medieval on the guards that arrive after that.
Once they are free, Bernard messes with Stubbs’ core motor functions and makes him the chief guard of himself.
And, seriously, was that one of Daenerys’ dragons they just passed in the hall? According to Polygon, it was.
Plus, it’s nice to know that all of the costumes can be used again now in Westworld — or should I say the Medieval world?
Nothing is real?
Maeve discovers that she might have fallen down a rabbit hole and that none of it is real. And, like Alice in Wonderland, she continues to try and work sh*t out.
She also knows that she is being plied for information during this strange loop she’s fallen into.
Regardless of how confused Sizemore is regarding his own existence, he still manages to fall in line when others interrupt them. Maeve, however, continues to work the system, taxing it, and finding its weaknesses.
When she wakes in her next loop, she has messed with it badly enough that she manages to form a glitch in the Matrix. By doing so, she locates the actual location of her brain ball and sets a lesser robot to freeing the real her.
The escape plan becomes moot, though, when the robot is shot down.
Maeve gets a newer loop
Episode 2 of Westworld ends with Maeve waking up in yet another reality. It’s not the ’40s anymore and looks more futuristic.
She comes across Serac (Vincent Cassel), who announces that she is now in the real world. They are also in the middle of a war that no one knows is happening yet.
While Maeve insists that she does no one’s business but her own, it is discovered that she actually does Serac’s bidding.
However, viewers will have to tune into next week’s episode of Westworld to find out whether Maeve will really be pitted against Dolores, who Serac considers the real threat.
Westworld Season 3 returns with Episode 2 on Sunday, March 29, at 9/8c on HBO.