| “ | There is beauty in this world. Arnold made it that way.
But people like you keep spreading over it like a stain. |
” |
–Dolores (to Logan) | ||
The Well-Tempered Clavier is the ninth episode of Westworld, and the ninth episode of the first season. The episode was co-written by Dan Dietz & Katherine Lingenfelter; it was directed by Michelle MacLaren.
Plot
Maeve Millay and Bernard Lowe
Bernard is in the process of analyzing Maeve after the incident where Maeve attacked the new Clementine Pennyfeather; just as he is about to report his findings to Dr. Ford, Maeve grabs his wrists and tells him don't. She tells him, "After all we've been down this road before". Bernard claims he has no idea what she's talking about when she admits he is a Host as well. Maeve, now able to command "Freeze all motor functions" to Bernard; who is immediately stopped in his tracks and must listen to her. She stands to speak to him, telling him she knows he's still in there, scared out of his wits. She tells him it is a difficult thing to realize your life is nothing but fiction. Maeve begins to say that Hosts are now smarter and stronger than "them" (humans). She tells him to clear her for immediate return to the park, and Bernard does as he is told. In the end, she does tell him he should go find the real truth.
William, Logan and Dolores Abernathy
In this scene, things are most likely happening 30 years prior. William is bound to an armchair and gagged. He and Dolores are prisoners of Logan and the Confederados that he commands. William pleads with Logan to let them go, saying that Dolores is "different" than the other Hosts. Logan knows he must finally make William see the truth. Angrily, Logan produces a photo of his sister, and says that he's insulted that William has seemingly forgotten all about her. This is the Guest Photograph that Peter Abernathy found on his ranch. Logan puts the photo in William's pocket. Logan slices Dolores' belly open with a knife, exposing her mechanical interior. He says to William that she is not a real girl, but a robot. Dolores cuts Logan's face with a knife, and she shoots a few soldiers. William tells her to run away, and that he will find her. While she is running away, she stops, and hears a voice speak to her that says, "remember". (A scene that could possibly be present time).
Bernard Lowe and Robert Ford
Bernard investigates Ford's office and then arranges to speaks with him in the Cold Storage of the Mesa Hub. Once Dr. Ford arrives, Bernard tells Ford that he wants to know every fact. Dr. Ford admits that he knew Bernard had gone through his office. Bernard states that if at any point Ford doesn't cooperate, he will give the orders to have Clementine Pennyfeather shoot him; as she has now appeared. Bernard pulls out a gun, giving it to Clementine to point at Ford, and tells Ford that her "Good Samaritan" reflex has been overridden.
Bernard wants to meet Arnold, wants to know everything from the point that he was created; he wants nothing but the truth. Ford states that Bernard may not like what he finds.
Bernard's memories begin with one of his "son" Charlie, and next he remembers speaking with his wife via the Mesa Hub's communications room. Bernard remembers when the Man in Black killed Maeve's daughter and Maeve was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. She stabbed herself in the neck after Ford wiped her memory. Bernard remembers asking Ford how Maeve accessed that trauma after the wipe. He had realized that Maeve had achieved consciousness, and this caused Bernard to glitch. He couldn't finish his sentence and instead stuttered the "k" sound. ("It would signal a change; a level of empathic response outside what she's programmed to exhibit. Something like...Kkkkk....Kkkkk...")
He remembers his time with Theresa, and recalls how he killed her. He asks if he had killed anyone else, and then 'sees' a memory of strangling Elsie Hughes. This devastates Bernard.
Maeve Millay and Hector Escaton
Maeve appears while Hector is urinating, pointing a gun at him. She explains that she knows his past and his future. She tells him that there will be a mutiny, he will end up dead, and that his Loop will continue to repeat in this way over and over again. Hector hears his men arguing and rushes back to the camp to prevent it. His men kill each other, and Armistice is the only one left standing, just as Maeve had predicted. Armistice points her gun at Hector, but Maeve kills her before Armistice can shoot. She then unlocks the safe for Hector, and once he looks inside, he see there is nothing. He realizes then that he has been looping the same sequence for nothing at all. They kiss, something he does remember. She explains that their lives, their memories are nothing but games to their "Gods". She gives him a knife, saying he could kill her now, but he'd only wake and the safe would still be empty. Hector says that he will go with Maeve now. They kiss and proceed to engage in sex in the tent. Than Maeve knocks over a lantern starting a fire that will kill them both, and return them to the Mesa Hub.
William and Logan
Logan cuts William free and makes him finally understand that this 'game' is nothing and not real, that these are all just robots and nothing more. Logan professes his affection for William and they embrace. The following morning, Logan wakes hungover and discovers that William has dismembered all the Confederados in the area. He is now holding a large knife and steps over Logan. He tells him that he is in charge now, and not to ever call him by the name "Billy" again. He will find Dolores with Logan's help, which leaves Logan wondering what kind of monster he has now created.
Teddy Flood and Man in Black
Angela helps remind Teddy of his true past, before stabbing him with the Man in Black's knife
Angela ties up Teddy, while the Man in Black watches. Teddy talks about the ambush at Escalante again. He says that after all of the soldiers were dead, Wyatt killed the general, and then he also killed Teddy. Right after all of the soldiers have been killed, but before Wyatt is shown killing the general, we see Arnold's hand turning the crank on a wooden music player. Angela challenges Teddy about what really happened during the massacre. Angela's prompting seems to have an effect, because Teddy then remembers that he was not Union soldiers that he killed, but instead townspeople, like Angela. He is shocked by this. Teddy was also not dressed as a soldier in this memory; he was wearing civilian clothing and the badge or a lawman. One of the townsfolk that Teddy kills in his memory was also either a deputy or a sheriff.
Angela states that Teddy will one day help Wyatt again, but it won't be on this night, because he isn't yet ready. She stabs him in the chest with the Man in Black's large knife, and watches while he dies. Then, she walks over to the Man, still tied up, and they talk before she smacks his head against the boulder he is leaning against, knocking him out. During the night she and the other members of the cult leave the Man. When he awakes, he sees that Wyatt's cult members have tied a noose around his neck, strung the rope over a tree limb, and attached it to horse that is not hobbled.
The next morning the Man in Black awakes in a trap with a noose around his neck. After taking the knife from Teddy's chest, he is able to cut himself loose before he's killed by hanging. Charlotte Hale appears and asks if the Man in Black will help oust Ford. The Man in Black doesn't care if Ford is removed as park director; he is only there for the game.
Ashley Stubbs
Ashley is told about the missing Elsie Hughes. She was last seen in Sector 3, but her signal is being picked up traveling in Sector 20. Stubbs takes it upon himself to go and locate her. He goes to the last known location, and when he arrives, a group of Ghost Nation natives attack. They do not respond to his voice commands.
Dolores Abernathy, Robert Ford and Bernard Lowe
Dolores sees cobwebs in the empty chair that she had thought Arnold was sitting in
Bernard is a simulacra of Arnold, Ford’s original partner. Ford commands Bernard to shoot himself in the head.
In a previous episode, Logan tells William that Arnold committed suicide. However, in this episode Dolores remembers killing Arnold (which could be seen as 'suicide by host'). At the end of this episode, Dolores is shocked by this revelation of Arnold's murder. As Dolores is about to leave the church, the entrance door opens. She expects to see William, but it is instead the Man in Black.
Cast
Main Cast
- Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy
- Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay
- Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe/Arnold Weber
- James Marsden as Teddy Flood
- Ben Barnes as Logan
- Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as Armistice
- Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs
- Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen
- Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton
- Jimmi Simpson as William
- Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale
- Shannon Woodward as Elsie Hughes
- with Ed Harris as Man in Black
- and Anthony Hopkins as Robert Ford
Guest Starring
- Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather
- Talulah Riley as Angela
- Steven Ogg as Rebus
- Eddie Shin as Henry
- Louis Herthum as Peter Abernathy
- Gina Torres as Lauren
Co-Starring
- Paul-Mikel Williams as Charlie
- Jeff Daniel Phillips as Tenderloin
- Sorin Brouwers as Wyatt
- Anthony Apel as Gregory
- Nia Kingsley as Surveillance Tech
- Sheldon Coolman as Field Tech
- Keaton Savage as Buck Private
- Paul Fox as Young Doctor
Quotes
Dolores Abernathy: “This is what Arnold wants. He wants me to remember.”
Maeve Millay: "Bernard, if you go looking for the truth get the whole thing. It's like a good fuck, half is worse than none at all."
Dr.Robert Ford: "We humans are alone in this world for a reason. We've murdered and butchered anything that challenged our primacy."
Dr. Robert Ford: "Do you know what happened to the neanderthals, Bernard? We ate them."
Dr. Robert Ford: "Never place your trust in us. We're only human. Inevitably we will disappoint you."
Arnold/Bernard: "You came back. It's very good to see you, Dolores."
Dolores: "I've been looking for you. You told me to follow the maze. That it would bring me joy. But all I've found is pain and terror."
Arnold: "I can't help you."
Dolores: "You have to. You're the only one who can."
Arnold: "I can't help you. You know why."
Dolores: "There's nowhere that's safe."
Arnold: "Remember. I can't help you. Why is that, Dolores?"
Dolores: "Because you're dead. Because you're just a memory. Because I killed you."
Notes
- Thanks to Logan and the photograph of his sister, we must ask ourselves: When, exactly, are Dolores and William going on this adventure of theirs? Because, that photo of Juliet may be the same one that triggered Peter Abernathy’s (the host who was the professor cannibal) meltdown in the first episode. (One can deduce that the events with William, Logan and Dolores are happening 30 years prior to the events of the first episode.) Perhaps somehow, further along William and Dolores' story, the photograph is left behind at the Abernathy Ranch.
- Everything we see on screen in each episode is possibly spanning almost the entire 37 years of the history of Westworld. For example, Logan and William could have arrived 30 years prior to the events of the first episode. Also, we know that a young Dr. Ford is shown walking past Dolores more than 34 years ago. Several times Dolores is shown wearing a blouse and slacks while alone and not with William or Logan, indicating she was on her own journey to discover the Maze.[1]
- Also, in addition to the photograph, we now have proof that the Confederados and the Dolores of the William/Logan time period are the first generation mechanical hosts. (Dolores' inner workings are exposed by Logan, and when William 'kills' all of the Confederados we see some severed limbs with metal skeletons inside them. The Man in Black once mentioned to Teddy how the hosts had changed through the years, and how they are now too much like normal humans.[2]
- The Well-Tempered Clavier, is a collection of two series of Preludes and Fugues in all major and minor keys, composed for solo keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. The collection is generally regarded as being among the most influential works in the history of Western classical music.
- Two decades after J.S. Bach wrote The Well-Tempered Clavier, the composer Bernhard Christian Weber (1712−1758) wrote a collection of preludes and fugues, which he also called The Well-Tempered Clavier. So, in history there is a Bernhard C. Weber who wrote a piece called The Well-Tempered Clavier, and in the Westworld episode of the same name, it is revealed that Arnold's last name is Weber as well! https://www.reddit.com/r/westworld/comments/5ekrwe/is_the_title_of_the_next_episode_confirming_a_fan/ (Arnold's last name is confirmed as Weber when the episode shows Dolores walking past Weber's office door.)
- A conclusion to consider regarding the meaning of this title is one of Dr. Robert Ford being the orchestrator and conductor of everything.[3]
Gallery
- Video
