Westworld season 3 continues its upwards streak this week with Decoherence – an episode that more than lived up to its title.
Following on from last weeks experimental Genre, Decoherence is a welcome return to the Bond-esque pace that the programme has been keeping up ever since its soft-reboot at the start of the year.
Tonight, we had shock returns, surprise revelations and the mother of all cliffhangers, so we’re once again thanking Tessa Thompson for basically just existing and asking…what happens next?
1. Will the fallout of Dolores’ data leak continue?
Dolores made her power move last week, as she leaked the date to omniscient AI Solomon to the entire planet. Now, everyone knows their pre-determined destiny, as predicted by the algorithm.
Her actions caused a schism, but we’ve seen now that it’s caused a fundamental change to human society, after all – would you like to know your future? We didn’t think so.
It was her biggest move yet on the chessboard of season three, and it looks like it will continue to have severe consequences. If Westworld was Game of Thrones, we’d say Dolores is just one second away from pulling a Mad Queen and burning society down to the ground. Is it bad we kind of want to see that happen?
2. Did the show just confirm The Man In Black is a host?
The Man In Black (Ed Harris) has been the show’s most consistent villain, but there’s always been questions over whether in fact, he is human, or a host.
It’s a question that plagued him too – in the most heartbreaking sequence in season two, he killed his own daughter after (mistakenly) thinking she was one too.
But it’s fair to say poor old William isn’t having the best time of it lately, he spent most of the episode in a drug-induced haze in a psychiatric ward, and the most interesting tidbit could be found when they scanned his blood upon entry…and it wasn’t entirely human.
We think our hearts just skipped a beat. Is this it? Is it finally happening?
3. Serac has won – or has he?
Serac (Vincent Cassel) has so far managed to be the show’s most effective Big Bad, although Westworld has done well so far to not colour any one character totally as the villain.
But he made his big move tonight to oppose Dolores, finally taking control of Delos corp, content to swipe the secret data mined from Westworld’s human guests and burn the rest to the ground.
However, Serac made one fatal error – underestimating Miss Charlotte Hale (more on her in a bit, we promise). So it doesn’t seem as if this is the all-out victory it seems. Serac has won the battle…but he’s yet to triumph in the war.
4. Can Maeve defeat Dolores with help from…Dolores?
Westworld was full of returns tonight. From the younger version of The Man in Black (Jimmi Simpson) and Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) as Maeve’s very own Jiminy Cricket. But the most surprising return by far was the original version of Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), whose consciousness was gifted to Maeve by Serac so she could learn how to defeat her.
What’s clear is that even Dolores isn’t sure of what she’s up to – admitting that ‘we were the same once, but our paths have diverged.’ It’s a great little throwback to how innocent and idealistic Dolores was in the first season, even though her idealism has been tainted by her own quest for power, we would argue.
But Maeve clearly got some sage advice from Dolores 1.0 – namely, that she needs more backup for the inevitable showdown between the two.
5. How will Charlotte Hale get revenge for her family?
We’re just going to take a quick breather now and say – thank you, Tessa Thompson. Truly.
Westworld season three has, at times, been an odd juggling act of wildly differing tones and narrative arcs, but the one pin so far keeping it together has been Thompson’s performance as the conflicted Charlotte Hale – an android learning how to love for the first time.
She may have entered this season as a femme fatale – giving us probably the best character entrance we’ve ever seen, strutting along in an all-white suit and smoking a cigarette – but her icy demeaour has well and truly melted. It’s been a powerful, affecting performance to watch – proof that genre does not denote one-sided performances ruled by archetypes.
This episode gave the Marvel actress her biggest moments yet – her escape from the Delos compound was heart-racing spy fiction at its very best, but we think it’s the loss of her family by a car bomb at the end of the episode that will signal the biggest turning point yet. Charlotte Hale’s journey this season has been to love…and now she’s lost it, she will have to get revenge.
Westworld season 3 continues Mondays at 9pm on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV.
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