Chestnut is the second episode of Westworld, and the second episode of the first season. The episode was co-written by series creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and directed by Richard J. Lewis.
Synopsis
| “ | First-time guest William and repeat visitor Logan, arrive at Westworld with different expectations and agendas. Bernard and Quality Assurance head Theresa Cullen debate whether a recent host anomaly is contagious. Meanwhile, behaviour engineer Elsie Hughes tweaks the emotions of Maeve, a madam in Sweetwater’s brothel, in order to avoid a recall. Head Writer Lee Sizemore pitches his latest narrative to the team, but Dr. Ford has other ideas. The Man in Black conscripts a condemned man, Lawrence, to help him uncover Westworld’s deepest secrets. | ” |
–Official Synopsis | ||
Plot
Dolores hears a voice: "Do you remember?" Dolores steps outside her home, dressed in her nightclothes, and digs up a hand gun.
We see a pair of visitors stepping off a train: Logan (played by Ben Barnes) and William (Jimmi Simpson). Logan is arrogant, and William is passive. William is married to Logan’s sister, they work at the same company
William arrives at Delos Incorporated to prepare for Westworld
William is greeted by a female host in a white dress who takes him into a private set of changing rooms. She tells him there are no formal guidebooks or instructions, and that "figuring out how it works is half the fun."
"Are you real?" William asks her.
"If you can’t tell, does it matter?" she replies.
She presents him with an array of clothes and weapons, all fitted to his size. He asks if there's a changing room. "I can help you or, if you prefer, I can step outside." she says. He asks what most people do, and she assures he doesn’t have to worry about that. She starts to unbutton his shirt and he declines, she politely leaves him to change on his own.
In Westworld's control building, Elsie Hughes is working when her boss, Bernard Lowe enters, he asks her how she's doing with "the build for the new narrative". Elsie is working on the problems that Peter Abernathy had after finding the modern photograph. She can't find out why it caused problems in the way it did - he shouldn't have brooded on it all night. Elsie says that it was Robert Ford' addition to the update that caused the problem and wants to rebuild Peter, or at least recall the hosts that had contact with him. Bernard won't allow it.
In Sweetwater everything is bustling and normal, Dolores Abernathy is crossing the street to her horse carrying the shopping, just as she does every morning. Halfway across she pauses and looks puzzled - she hears a male voice saying "Remember" and turns. Looking down the street she sees a very different scene, bodies and wreckage are lying everywhere and a cart is on fire. She can hear faint screams. The only thing moving in the street is a wolf, loping from body to body.
She's disturbed from her unpleasant daydream, her reverie, by Maeve Millay, who asks her not to stand there, in case people are put off her wares in the bar. Dolores, still not really with it, turns to her and says "These violent delights have violent ends." Maeve stares at her until Dolores recovers and walks off.
"These violent delights have violent ends."
William changes and is greeted by the same Host woman as before. She offers him a black or white hat, he chooses white.
While on the train, he goes into the bar where he orders a drink, looking around at the people at the bar. Logan emerges, zipping up his fly. The train eventually comes out of a tunnel and crosses the spectacular scenery of the Westworld park.
A man is about to be hung by what looks like a posse. The gibbet is improvised and the man is having to balance on the handle of some railway machinery, a small handcar. The Man in Black (MiB) rides up and, after a short conversation with the leader, Sheriff Reed, and kills everyone except the condemned man. It's clear that the MiB is a human while everyone else are Hosts. He has no trouble killing them all but they don't manage to shoot him even once, even if they had, guests cannot be killed. The man removes his blindfold to see the dead men and then the Man in Black, who greets him by name and shows him the scalp taken from Kissy. The MiB tells Lawrence that he wants the answers. He binds Lawrence's hands and rides off, dragging the rescued man stumbling along behind him.
Maeve is giving her standard introduction speech, about the little voice, to a newly arrived guest. While she speaks we see her remember being attacked by a native American with an ax. She's dressed in farmers' clothing and has a small girl, assumingly her daughter with her. The new guest sees she's distressed and gets up, excusing himself. Maeve doesn't seem to notice him leave.
We see Maeve in Analysis Mode undergoing a review, she's sitting on a stool while a man talks. He asks her "what did it say?" she answers that "This is the new world ..." The man examines her and can't see the problem and can't see why her success rate has dropped. They decide to double her "aggression" in a last attempt to get her numbers back up.
Dr. Robert Ford and Bernard Lowe are watching a host being manufactured. Lowe tells Ford that the two hosts have been retired, he also says he found it quite hard to do it. Ford tells Bernard that the photograph was not being enough to cause the failure to host Peter Abernathy. They discuss the possibility of sabotage. Ford thinks it's more likely to be something just going wrong, that the task of creating lifelike machines is complex enough to guarantee strange failures.
The train arrives at Sweetwater, they Guests disembark and walk into the town. The big man who bumped into Teddy Flood by the station does the same to William, the man on an obvious loop. William apologizes, and Logan chastises him for being too polite. Clementine tries to tempt them in as they pass, but Logan tips his hat and carries on.
A man is thrown off the back of a passing cart as they cross the street. He lands face down in the mud and William is once again chastised by Logan for trying to help the old man. Logan's obviously come across the man before and knows he wants to take them on the narrative of treasure hunting. William notices Dolores leaving the general store and loading her goods into her saddle bag. She sees her reflection in a window and pauses, troubled by something.
Briefly we see her in Analysis Mode being told "Bring yourself back online." Dolores says "Hello" to Bernard who asks her if she remembers their last conversation, she says she does and he makes sure she hasn't told anyone about the conversations he has with her. This is not a normal session with a programmer, she's sitting on an ordinary wooden chair, and she's clothed.
He tells her to go into Analysis Mode and asks if anyone else has updated her core heuristics, her deep programming. She says that no one has. He brings her back into character and says that she's not to mention him talking to her. She asks if she's done something wrong and he tells her to remove the entire conversation from her logs. He sends her back into the park.
We see Maeve being more aggressive - it just makes the guests uncomfortable now. Maeve talks to Clementine, asking if she's having nightmares. She shares her trick on how to wake from a nightmare with Clementine- counting backwards. We see her remembering something traumatic and Teddy asks if she's OK.
In the Control Room they're monitoring her performance and decide to give Clementine the role of Madam, and withdraw Maeve in the morning.
Theresa Cullen is smoking, joined by Bernard. She quizzes him about the main update and he reassures her.
William and Logan are eating a meal in the hotel dining room. William stops Logan from shooting another guest. They're joined by the old man William helped in the street. Logan tries to get rid of him, when he doesn't take the hint Logan stabs him through the hand with his dinner knife, pinning him to the table; this showing just how mean Logan can truly be.
We see Logan having sex with three women. and William chatting to Clementine. He is uncomfortable about having sex with her because he is already engaged to Logan's sister.
In the control room we see Lee Sizemore berating a designer for not doing what he had requested. Theresa watches him and talks about his request for 50 additional hosts - he's getting 20.
Ford has still to approve the new narrative.
We see Ford going into the park, he walks through the desert and meets a Host Little Boy of about ten, he says he's wandered off from his parents. They chat and walk together. Ford seems unbothered by enticing a boy away, as though he has known him for quite some time.
Man in Black saves Lawrence from hanging, then drags him to his home.
The Man In Black is still towing Lawrence. He questions him about Kissy. He's taken Lawrence home and they sit at a table outside a Mexican cafe. Lawrence's Wife and daughter are there as well. The MiB tries to get Lawrence to tell him the entrance to the maze, Lawrence denies any knowledge and the Mib abruptly shoots the cafe barkeep, Lawrence's cousins who came upon the scene and then Lawrence's wife (in the head, after toying with her). The little girl doesn't act very alarmed, in fact, she acts quite creepy in a way. She tells the Mib that the maze isn't meant for him but tells him to follow the Blood Arroyo (a dry creek or river bed) to the place where the snake lays its eggs. Lawrence tell him to go now, the MiB says that he's never going back, and once again brings Lawrence with him in tow.
Elsie interrogates Maeve.
Ford and the boy are still walking. Ford tells the boy to look at the town with the white church and listen to its bell (there's nothing there) the boy says he can hear it. Ford shows the boy how he can control a rattle snake with gestures. At the bottom of the slope is a dark spire. He tells the boy to head home, and that he won't be back. The boy drops his stick and obediently goes - it's obvious now that he's a host.
Bernard goes back to his living quarters, Theresa arrives and we see that they're in a secret intimate relationship. Later inn bed together they talk - about how he never talks but that his hosts.
We see Maeve being analyzed in Behavior Lab and Diagnostics. Elsie is examining her, she doesn't approve of the extra aggression "those morons" have added. She saves Maeve's current config and makes some small, precisely targeted, adjustments. Her assistant asks if they dream. Elsie says they don't, but that they do have the concept of dreams as a safety precaution. She notes that Maeve has some physical discomfort and schedules a full physical examination at her next rotation with Livestock Management. Elsie passes her as fit and puts her back to work.
We see Maeve flirting, very successfully, with a guest. Elsie's adjustments have worked and she's back on form.
Maeve flashes back to a memory of protecting a child, presumably her daughter.
Teddy and Maeve talk about their various sins, together they seem friendly. All of a sudden a guest shoots Teddy repeatedly. Maeve shows mild disapproval but remembers a previous violent episode. In a dream she remembers being happy with what appears to be her daughter on the farm, but she becomes confused with her memory of being attacked. She runs for her daughter and locks the door of the farmhouse, getting a shotgun in the process. The door opens, and instead of it being a Native American attacker, it is actually the Man in Black. She tries to shoot him but with no effect, as he is a guest. Maeve counts backwards to wake herself, the very trick she had told Clementine about.
She wakes on the examination table, it's her physical; and two technicians Sylvester and Felix are cleaning up an MRSA infection in her abdomen. She opens her eyes and looks around her - scared. They see her moving and are shocked and afraid. They try to control her with no luck, blaming each other for not having her properly in sleep mode. She threatens them with a scalpel as she gets off the table, telling them to keep their hands off her. She escapes from the room and runs, holding her abdomen together.
She finds herself in an area where damaged hosts are being stored and repaired. That's when she sees Teddy dead, with the gunshot wounds he obtained while in the saloon. While she's looking at him, confused, the two technicians retrieve her by sedating her immediately. They hide the fact that she awoke.
Maeve awakens on the operating table.
In her nightgown, Dolores finds a gun and takes it indoors.
Lee Sizemore is performing, excited as he is outlining his new narrative to everyone, including Dr. Ford. "Odyssey on Red River" is his idea. He speaks about how wonderful it will be. Ford is watching, as are Theresa and Bernard. Ford simply says "No, I don't think so." He doesn't see the point and humiliates Sizemore in front of everyone. As Ford speaks, we see William crosses the street to pick up Dolores' stray can of food (the same as in every loop). They don't speak but William tips his hat to her and she smiles back at him as Logan calls him away.
Ford says that the new narrative speaks more about Sizemore than about the guests. He says he knows what the guests want. Later, he's showing Bernard the black spire he was looking at earlier, it appears to be part of of a new narrative that Ford has been working on for some time. It appears to have something to do with religion.
Trivia
- The guests' clothes look authentic but, sensibly, have modern conveniences. Logan has a zip-fastener in his trousers, his pants, and we see him pulling it up when he enters the the bar. Zip-fastener or zippers weren't in common use until the 20th century.
- It is mentioned that Lawrence was responsible for the deaths of Donald Pardue and his brother.[1]
- Lee Sizemore writes a new narrative called Odyssey on Red River.
Cast
Main Cast
- Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy
- Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay
- Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe
- James Marsden as Teddy Flood
- Ben Barnes as Logan
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence
- Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs
- Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen
- Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore
- Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather
- Jimmi Simpson as William
- Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes
- Ed Harris as Man in Black
- Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford
Supporting Cast
- Ptolemy Slocum as Sylvester
- Leonardo Nam as Felix Lutz
- Talulah Riley as Angela
- Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy
- Oliver Bell as Little Boy
- Sal Lopez as Cigarillo
- Josh Clark as Sheriff Reed
- Izabella Alvarez as Lawrence's Daughter
- Jasmyn Rae as Homestead Girl
- Price Carson as Barkeep
Co-Stars
References
- ↑ In the episode "Chestnut"
Notes
- The episode was released four days early on HBO Go for free streaming, before its official premiere on Sunday Night.
External links
Chestnut at the Internet Movie Database (rating {{{3}}}/10)
