‘Westworld’ season 1, episode 4 review: The woman with the snake tattoo
Last time on “Westworld” we saw Dolores kill a man that was attacking her and run off into the woods. She ended up finding William (who is off trying to figure out what kind of hero he wants to be) and collapsed in his arms. Now that Dolores is changing (and some of the other AI’s are remembering things too) we wonder if the newcomers will actually be in danger even though they are not supposed to be able to get hurt in this world.
Bernard tells Dolores that he wants her to play a game called “the maze” saying that if she can find the center of it then maybe she will be free. Speaking of the maze, the Man in Black is still searching for it and when he comes up on a woman with a snake tattoo he thinks he’s found a pathway. He tells this woman that he will help her with her quest if she will tell him the story of her tattoo (does this sound a bit like “Blindspot” to anyone else?). When she asks why, he tells her that as great as Westworld is, there’s one thing you can’t do there and that’s die, but the one man who did is Arnold and that he knows Arnold created a deeper layer to this game where there are no rules. He wants access.
The tattooed woman keeps her promise after the Man in Black delivers Hector to her. She tells him that when she was young, men rolled into her town and killed everyone including her family. After that she has hunted them down and killed them all except for one – the head of the snake, a man named Wyatt. The Man in Black and Lawrence head out after Wyatt and they come across Teddy, tied up to a tree and dying (can Teddy ever catch a storyline where he doesn’t end up dead)?
Elsewhere, Dolores is on an adventure with William and Logan, far off of her normal storyline loop as they hunt down a bounty. This brings her to the town where she meets a young girl who tries to help her get started on her quest towards the maze. The moderators try to come in and send Dolores back to her ranch, but she tells them no. After finding the bandit, William wants to turn him in, but Logan has other plans, such as releasing him and having him lead them to a bigger part of the game. After some persuasion, Logan convinces him to be a bad guy for a while.
Maeve is starting to have visions of things that have happened, remembering killings as well as the surgery she had when she got shot. She heads back to her room and looks for a scar, but there’s nothing to be found. What she does see is a spot of blood on her clothing and the memories of the men in hazmat suits. She draws a picture of the man in the hazmat suit to help herself remember, but when she goes to hide it in the floor board of her room, she finds several drawings of the same thing realizing this has been going on for a long time. She gets an opportunity to ask Hector about her pictures. He tells her that it is a drawing of sacred Native lore named “Shade” – a man that walks between worlds, sent from hell to over see their world. After cutting into herself, Hector reaches inside and pulls out the bullet that Maeve knew was there, confirming that she is not crazy.
The message we got from this episode is something we already knew, but was still sad to hear – that nothing really matters. The AI’s are stuck on a loop to no where and the newcomers will leave this world being the same dark souls they were before they came there. Bit of a dismal feeling, but with some of the AI’s growing, we suspect that the message will be changing as the show goes on. Episode grade: B-
What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Westworld” and what do you want to see happen with Dolores? Leave us a comment in the box below. If you are looking for more scoop on “Westworld” then be sure to head on over to the link here where we have more reviews as well as previews on what’s coming up.