“ | The longer I work here, the more I think I understand the hosts. It's the human beings who confuse me. | ” |
–Bernard Lowe |
"Trompe L'Oeil" is the seventh episode of the first season of Westworld, and the seventh episode overall.
Synopsis[]
“ | Dolores and William journey into treacherous terrain; Maeve delivers an ultimatum; Bernard considers his next move. | ” |
–HBO |
Plot[]
Everything Is What It Isn't[]
Bernard awakens from a nap in a hospital chair at his son's prompting, having dozed off. The very ill Charlie eager to hear more about 'The Madman' meaning the Mad Hatter. Bernard quickly opening the book resumes his reading of Alice in Wonderland reading the Hatter's speech about the kind of world he would live in. The nonsensical aspect of how everything would be what it isn't prompting some introspection from the boy, who applies it to himself and his illness. Bernard assuring him he's perfect and that he's going to beat his illness, makes him a promise as to that, before going to resume his reading. As he does however, Charlie tells him to listen to him, and starts to fade badly. coding. Bernard jerking awake in his bed, before reaching for the picture of himself and Charlie at his bedside.
Later at work, Bernard finishes up running a diagnostic on Hector Escaton, seeing he had a blacklisted encounter with a guest in the course of his narrative, and asks what happened. Hector replies that the guest wanted to cut off a piece of him to take home in his carry on to mount on the hood of his car. Hector telling him if he wanted a trophy Hector would cut of a piece of the guest instead. Bernard asks whether this exchange made him question anything about his world/reality. No, Hector replies his usual fatalistic self, stating that the world is as doomed as ever, Just for his peace of mind, Bernard runs him through a Self Awareness Protocol, running Hector through a series of pictures of the modern world. "They don't look like anything to me," he responds. Bernard assessing him is about to release him when one of his techs enters to tell him that they are through 15% of the backlog and should be caught up by end of day, before adding when he's finished with Hector there is a priority request for him from management. Before the tech goes Bernard asks him if he's seen Elsie, covering that she was supposed to give him a hand with something. The tech offering his help instead as, according to the system, Elsie started her leave that morning. Declining the techs help, Bernard is left a little disturbed by her not coming back to him from Sector 17.
Appetite for War[]
On the train they took out of Pariah, William plays poker with Lawrence while Dolores, arms folded, looks disapprovingly away to gaze out the window. Losing a hand, William encourages her to play with them, but Lawrence tells him he's wasting his breath, she's obviously harbouring a grudge. And he doesn't blamer her, he did some nasty things to them both, but, this so called war is the Confederados and the Government against starving farmers armed with rocks is in reality a slaughter. And if he had to do it all again to them, he would. Dolores notes sardonically that they know where he stands at least. But he suggests she not act so innocent, after all it was them who came to him looking to join up with the warmongering Confederados. William tells him that wasn't their idea. Not able to tell them that Logan wanted to see how the 'game' played out, he says Logan wanted to see what was at the end of the conflict. But, Lawrence points out, it's him that is here, not Logan, suggesting that maybe William has more of an appetite for war than he thinks.
William says nothing. But as Dolores continues to look out the window her eyes widen and she moves to it rapidly. Outside there are rows of staked heads lining the tracks. Calling their attention to it, Lawrence explains to her that they’re in "Ghost Nation" territory; “the most savage tribe there is.” And the heads those of the folks who came calling without an invitation. He and his men initiate a mechanism that drops steel shutters down over the windows. The train he says is the only way through. On foot they'd be dead in under an hour. As soon as they're clear of the territory they can stop and the two of them can come with him. But there's nothing from here on but blood and slaughter.
Estranged Bedfellows[]
In his office, Bernard is trying to ring Elsie, but it's reported she can't be contacted, and he's prompted to leave a message. Using the GPS locater on his tablet he searches for her in the Park but the GPS is unable to find her. Concerned, he leaves, heading for the Control Room waiting for Theresa to finish with one of her QA operatives before approaching her. It transpires she had left word she wanted to see him, and he checks if everything is alright. Pleasantly she was just wondering about his rapid exit the night before, and whether there was something he wanted to tell her? His answer of No I don't think so, a little curt. She nods, seeming a little disappointed, then tells him that Hale is looking over every department, and his is running behind in Diagnostics. She feels it would be best if they presented at least a semblance of professionalism to the Board while they are there. Bernard assures her his department will be fine, his people know how to do their jobs. She starts to say that if they spent half the same diligence to their work as they did to second guessing her team...but he interrupts saying that is all over. Are you sure, she asks, and he nods, then asks how she's doing. Theresa's smile reaching her eyes, saying she's fine and thanking him, Genuine. As he leaves, it's clear that she regrets the end of their personal relationship.
Tied In[]
In the VIP residential levels of the Mesa, in the Executive Living Quarters, Theresa makes her way to Charlotte Hale's room, slowing as she hears sounds of sex coming from inside. But knocking all the same. Charlotte answering the door naked, not startling her as much as the sight of Hector tied to the headboard of the bed with his own gun belt, his lip split. 'Apologizing' saying that she thought Charlotte had requested a meeting with her, Theresa says its obviously her mistake. Hale smiling, she assures her she did and gathers her robe, Hector calling for her to get back to him, and on seeing Theresa tells her to bring 'her friend'. Hale turning him off as he is about to ask Theresa what turns her on. Theresa suggesting she can come back later if this isn't a good time, Hale tells her it won't take long.
As Theresa enters, Hale tells her that she's always been good at her job and the Board has been impressed at her performance so far. Which is why they were so surprised by the woodcutter mess and the massive disruption caused by Ford’s new narrative plans. Inviting Theresa to sit, she bums a cigarette off her. Lighting up she tells her that the Park, and the 'people' who work here, she gestures to Hector, don't mean anything to the Board. There entire interest in the place is in the Intellectual Property. The code. Not the hosts minds, but their 'little research project'. That's where the real value is, and due to a lack of foresight on the part of one of her predecessors, 35 years of raw data exists *only* in the Park. Ford has always ensured that. Theresa figures out the reason that they need 'her' to secure that data is because they're going to fire Ford. Hale corrects her, saying you don't fire someone who created an Empire, you ask him politely to retire. And if that person has the ability to snap their fingers and erase the value of that Empire you need to make sure you have a contingency in place first. So she and Theresa need to ensure that is in place before "the rest of the board" arrive. Hale still likes her for this job, and is willing to give Theresa another chance to get a handle on all this, but, she says, "the Gods" require "a blood sacrifice". They need to demonstrate just how 'dangerous' Ford's creations can be. Theresa glances back at Hector, but Hale says no nothing so obvious as him. they need someone "thoroughly unexpected".
Someone Unexpected[]
Waking up, Maeve gets up, dresses and walks to the Mariposa Saloon, as the piano strikes up the usual loop music, albeit sounding slightly more discordant than usual. Maeve now acutely aware of her mundane routine. On entering the Mariposa she goes towards the bar, only to stop on hearing the same old tune. Improvising, she walks over to it, and slams the lid on the player piano before settling at the bar. Seeing Clementine yawn, Maeve starts again to tell her never to open her mouth that wide unless someone's paying her for it - only to remember having said that before and catch herself. Clementine mentions again about her nightmares, and rather than giving her advice on how to wake herself up, she asks her what her nightmares are about. As Clementine frowns a little, Maeve asks her if she ever dreams about being someone else? "I don't think so," Clem answers, wondering why she's asking. Maeve asks her if she's ever thought whether this is the future for her.
Smiling a little, Clem tells her without meaning any offence, that she doesn't intend to make this her life's work. For the first time she tells Maeve her backstory. Her family owning a farm, but it's bad soil where nothing grows. She's been sending money back to help them. They think she works in a dress shop. Seeing Maeve's slightly sad look, knowing the story is a fabrication, Clem misinterprets it, asking what is wrong, saying she's only doing what Maeve told her to. And after a couple more years working there, she can have whatever life she wants. She's going to get her family out of the desert, and take them somewhere...cold, she smiles. Someday.
As Clementine looks away, wistful, Maeve gazes at her with affectionate sadness. Then gradually realizes that Clem has stopped moving. And so has everyone else around her. Stepping back to the bar quickly she fakes being frozen as three masked tech enter, one of them asking which host it is. "It's the one at the bar," comes the answer. Maeve surreptitiously grabbing a knife, preparing to fight. The techs move quick wanting to get done before the guests upstairs finish up. Whatever it is she did they figure it must have been serious for them to authorize her being grabbed in broad daylight, Maeve tensing. Only for them to take Clementine with them. None of them noting Maeve's head moving a little as they lead her away. Her relief slowly turning to fear for Clementine, and then a hardening resolution.
In the Moment[]
On the train from Pariah, Dolores looks back from gazing out the window to see William looking at her, instead of resting as he was supposed to be. Pointing out they are riding a train full of explosives through hostile territory leaves him 'not sleepy', they get to talking again. He asks her if she is sure this place she is looking for exists, and she admits she's not. Her world before felt so certain, but now it feels like a lie. The only thing she knows for sure is that whatever is out there, she is never going back. Then she wonders what it is *he* is looking for? He tells her of how when he was child all he had was books, and he used to live inside of them, go to sleep hoping he'd wake up inside of one of them. Because they had meaning. The park, he says, is like waking up inside one of those stories, and he just wants to find out what it means. But Dolores tells him she doesn't want to be in a story. She doesn't want to look forward or back, she just wants to be in the moment she's in. Her look inviting.
Struggling with the truth, William tells Dolores about Juliet, back home, whose father owns the company where he works, Logan's sister she reasons. He nods, and then tells her when he gets home they are getting married. Dolores is hurt by the news and exits the train car. William goes after her, asking: “How can I go back to pretending when I know what this feels like?” Kissing her, they live in the moment, and have sex.
Blood Sacrifice[]
In the Mesa, Ford approaches the Behaviour Lab where Theresa, Charlotte, Stubbs and other techs and QA staff are gathered. Seeing Hale check herself out in the reflection of the glass, commenting that he wasn't aware anyone with her level of insight needed anymore reflection. "Always charming," she responds. Bernard arising, wonders what's going on, Ford telling him that apparently Charlotte and Theresa have a presentation for them. Hale says, on the back of recent reports of Host malfunctions, she asked QA to check the last 'abortive update' which contained the Reveries, and she's 'sorry' to report that Theresa ad her team made some 'worrying findings'. Theresa saying that in the course of their core review they found something disturbing.
The presentation involves Clementine who is sitting offline in the room next door to them, a tech sent in to bring her online. Telling them that that they've already rolled back all the other hosts after discovering that the last minute addition of the Reveries had made the update 'buggy', they've left Clementine with the upgrade to demonstrate. On bringing her back online, Clementine goes into her 'Not much of rind on you line,' approaching the tech, only for him to start viscously beating her while the managers look on. Theresa visibly uncomfortable while Charlotte doesn't bat an eyelid, even as Clementine, on her knees, begs them for help. When the tech grabs hold of her again, Theresa gets Stubbs to stop it. Freezing them, both of them. Theresa points out that as they may have guessed that the 'tech' is a host who has been coded to appear as a human, and that as of that moment the behavioral security protocols are in place. Clementine is reset - her memory of the incident is wiped. As the group watches, the sequence is started again only as the tech moves to hit her Clementine pre-empts him, head butting him, and slamming her fist into his throat before dislocating his shoulder, hammering him into a tool bench and then repeatedly slamming his head against the glass wall until he drops.
Stubbs enters the room drawing his gun as Clementine stares at her reflection in the glass, touching her painfully bloodied lip, staring at the blood on her fingers. Using standard voice commands he attempts to get her to freeze, but she doesn’t respond, trying to tidy herself up before she turns to look at, and then advance on him. Stubbs shooting her in the chest. Theresa says that in each malfunctioning hosts case they weren't resetting properly, the retention of data that hadn't been wiped overloaded their decision making apparatus eventually causing a system failure that allowed them to override their primary rule set. Their concern with the Reveries being that the hosts can retain some of their experiences and act on them. Bernard asking if they're saying the hosts are effectively acting on grudges? Exactly what she's saying Theresa answers, saying its funny he used that term, as, of most concern to her, was that some of his own techs voiced those exact same concerns, meaning Elsie, to him. She accuses him of putting the code out without proper vetting and without understanding of its ramifications. So either he didn't write it, or he's getting so sloppy he's putting the guests lives at risk.
Hale tells him that the level of negligence in this is breath taking, and tells him that they are way beyond rollbacks. In the next few months they will have to re-build the hosts from the ground up. Asking if she means they want them to lobotomize them, she says no, not him. This is his responsibility, unless he has something to share with him in terms of his culpability for the Reveries, allowing him a chance to implicate Ford. Hale promptly firing Ford. Bernard starting to scoff, until he realizes that Ford intends not to intervene. Which he does not take. code update went so wrong. Bernard takes the blame for Ford’s code and is fired. Ford says nothing. Bernard leaving the room, Ford maintaining a steady gaze at Hale.
Frying Pan to Fire[]
The next morning, William wakes up to find Dolores dressed and drawing something on canvas draped over some crates. A landscape drawing of a river winding through mountain canyons She tells him that she knows the previous night was unexpected, and that he has someone waiting for him, but he tells Dolores he doesn’t regret the prior night, and everything outside the Park seems so unreal to him. That he's changed his mind about it, previously believing the Park catered to your basest instincts, But it doesn’t cater to your lowest self, it reveals your deepest self. It shows you who you really are. And more, he believes she has unlocked something in him. Listening to him, Dolores is gentle but warns him that she is not a key to anything. She's just herself.
He looks to what she's drawing, asking what it is. She's not sure, she admits. At home she would paint the world around her, but that morning she woke up and thought what if she tried something new, something genuinely creative, So she imagined something beautiful. "A place where the mountains meet the sea.” William wonders at the fact that everyone who goes to the Park is looking for excitement or conflict and she's dreaming of the opposite. Looking up at him she asks him what he's dreaming of? But before he answers the train lurches to a halt the track blocked by rocks. Further up the train Lawrence looks out to see the Confederados ride up in numbers, a Gatling Gun, exactly like the one used by Teddy, mounted on a wagon. On their arrival Lawrence tells Dolores and William that for them the Confederados are worse than the Ghost Nation. The point made when they open fire and the Gatling Gun turns the passenger carriage to near kindling, even taking the metal shields off the windows.
As some of the Confederados get down to check out the survivors, the door to the freight carriage opens and a man on a horse rides from the train carrying a white flag. But on closer inspection, the man is Slim’s corpse dressed in Lawrence's clothes, the ntiro-glycerin pumped into it leaking from his eyes and ears. Both Slim and his horse exploding when Lawrence shoots Slim's body. With some of them killed and many of the soldiers knocked off their feet, undercover of the smoke created by the explosion, Lawrence and the others ride their horses out of the train setting up a chase, right into Ghost Nation territory. With Lawrence yelling at everyone to keep close while he leads the horse with the other nitro filled body, some of his men are picked off, William taking down a couple of Confederados before Dolores pulls her gun and shoots another, but doesn't see the branch ahead of her which knocks her from her horse. William coming back for her gets her up behind him, but things get worse when the wagon with the Gatling Gun catches up and starts to rip bullets through the trees barely missing them. Until an arrow takes out, first the man on the Gatling Gun, and then more and more of the soldiers.
"Ghost Nation!" Lawrence yells, as the chalk white painted warriors sweep down on the soldiers a full on pitched battle breaking out. Dolores yelling at William and Lawrence to go! The three of them riding full pelt away they get away from the trees, out and up onto a sweeping ridge overlooking a broad river below. Until Dolores shouts at William to stop. Jumping down she walks closer to the edge staring out, at exactly what she had drawn in the train. What she dreamt, real. Lawrence suggests they get on, the Ghost Nation bound to come after them once they're finished with the Confederados, and he has to get the bodies with the nitro to the Revolutionary forces. But Dolores tells him she's had enough of War. Looking to William he asks what about him, "You got a knack for killin'." Dolores looking to him, William tells Lawrence this is where they part ways. Lawrence warns them to be careful on the far side of the river they may leave the Ghost Nation behind, but they'll be in the Unclaimed Territories. When Wiliam asks what is out there, Lawerence tells him he'll have to ask the dust, nothing has ever come back from there. He heads off, leaving William looking a little uncertain, but Dolores energized.
Helpless[]
Back on the table for repairs, having engineered another death, Maeve is being attended to by Felix but with a female Tech. While the woman looks away Maeve, grabs Felix’s arm, startling him. But thinking quickly he tells the tech they're almost done and he'll close up for them. When she leaves he whispers urgently to Maeve that she's been up in the Park for less than 24 hours, if she keeps getting herself killed people are going to start noticing. "Where's Clem?" she asks urgently, but he doesn't know, he's not seen her, and asks why? She demands he find her, now. Grabbing his tablet he searches for her, but reacts on seeing the results, Maeve picking up on it, wanting to know where she is. He tries to pretend nothings come up, but she grabs the tablet and sees that she's in The Body Shop, her status as set for Decommissioning. She wants to go but Felix tells her they can't, that Management will be there. But Maeve tells him not to f*** with her, and to take her there now.
The elevator to the Body Shop level opening, they repeat the same walk through they did before, but with Felix telling her to slow down in her anxiousness to get there. As they approach, they see Sylvester preparing the same kind of drill used on the old Peter Abernathy, with Theresa behind him, Clementine on the chair before them. Asking Clementine to tilt her head back, Sylvester stops, seeing Maeve staring at him. Theresa looks at him wondering if there's a problem? No, he answers a little shakily, and starts the drill, inserting it up Clementine's nose. Maeve staring in horror, unable to say or do anything, as Clementine is lobotomized before her eyes. As a tear escapes her, Bernard enters the room looking to talk to Theresa. When they both leave, Felix moves on, Maeve giving Theresa a hard glare as she follows him past her. A trickle of blood snaking down from Clem's nose as she stares vacantly ahead.
Some Kind of Change[]
In walking with Bernard, Theresa tries to say that his show of professional collegiality in how he addressed her wasn't necessary in light of his 'change of employment status'. But Bernard cuts to the chase saying he knows the test with Clementine was a sham. Completely transparent from a technical perspective to the point of being embarrassing. If he see saw through it he can only imagine what Ford was thinking. There were glaringly obvious markers of human intervention in Clem's code, pointing out that if QA's coder were any good they would be working for *him*. And, he reveals that he knows she was behind the stray, and the satellite transmissions. That catches her by surprise. But he cuts off any attempt to explain with "I don't care." Going on to focus on his primary concern. "40 years ago Ford's partner wrote half the code this place was founded on." Essentially what she said in lab was right. They don't know how the hosts work, and he thinks there is something wrong with them. Ford's 'explanation' only bolstering his hunch. The ability to deviate from programmed behaviour arises from their ability to recall events from past iterations. That there is a connection between Memory and Improvisation, she checks, Bernard nodding. Out of repetition comes variation, he says, and after all this time the hosts are on the verge of 'some kind of change'. Taking that in, Theresa nods, and taking his arm tells him that he needs to know that her chief concern has always been the welfare of the Park, and the people in it. "I know," he says, which is why he needs to show her something, heading with her into the nearby elevator.
Just Another Loop[]
As Maeve sits staring silently back in the lab, Sylvester whispers "Talk to her," to Felix, who replies "You first." Sylvester looking to Maeve who is draped in a lab techs coat, glaring balefully at him, tries to explain that 'he' didn't want to retire Clementine, that he knows she was her friend, but if he didn't do it they would've just got someone else to, and be suspicious of him...trying to make out he did it for her. Maeve derisory "Always doing things for other people, aren't you?" dismisses his weak explanations and leads to her telling him it's time to do one more thing, She tells them she's prided herself on being a survivor, but surviving is just another loop. "I’m getting out of here," she says to them, "And you two are going to help me."
Sylvester stunned tells her does she have any idea how far Delos will go to protect their I.P.? "Every part of this building, including the skin on your park is made to keep you here." Looking from her to Felix and back he tries to tell her it'd be suicide. She smiles a little, replying that, at first, she thought he and the other humans were Gods, then she realized they were just men...and she knows men. "You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times. I’m fucking great at it." Eyeing Sylvester she adds, "How many times have you died? Because if you don't help me. I'll kill you."
Taken for a ride[]
In one of the Sector Elevators going up to the Park, Theresa asks Bernard if, if there is a problem in the park shouldn't they have a Security Team with them? Who would they trust, Bernard asks, noting that he had thought he could trust her. Theresa says she's not going to explain herself, she was charged to protect the Parks I.P. Why would it be in danger, Bernard asks shrewdly, "You were the only one who was stealing it." She counters that Delos *owns* the host's minds, the storylines, and Ford never allowed any of it to be backed up offsite, all of it could have been destroyed. "In the event of what?!" he demands. Ford is done she tells him, the Board are done indulging him, and they were concerned he would destroy all of the Parks data on his way out the door. He denies he ever would have let Ford destroy all the hosts and all their work. But she confesses there's far more at stake than the hosts profiles, asking does he really think that Delos's interest in the Park is hosts playing cowboy? Shaking his head Bernard replies that the longer he works there the more he thinks he understands the hosts, its the humans who confuse him.
When they emerge it is into Sector 17, Bernard leading her to the old cottage. Lighting a paraffin lamp they enter, Theresa noting that the cottage isn't on any of the field surveys of the Park. Bernard pointing out that they use hosts to do most of the surveys, and they are programmed to ignore the cottage, Literally unable to see it if they were staring right at it. Looking around she sees no sign of the 'unregistered hosts' that lived there, Bernard suggesting he may have moved them. As he looks in one direction she wonders what is behind the door beside her. Moving the lamp around he asks what door? But follows her through as she opens it. Heading down the stairs beyond it they enter a remote diagnostic facility, that has a manufacturing tank currently printing a host body. The room that Ford interviewed young Robert in. When Theresa queries the age of the place given the printer, Bernard agrees it is newer, albeit older and slower than the ones back at the Mesa, but it would make a host body in a few days . So Ford has been making his own hosts out there and telling no one she concludes, and finds host blueprint schematics on a desk.
Looking through them she sees ones for Young Robert, and the prototype for Dolores, As Bernard looks around Theresa pauses, seeing it, he asks her what the matter is? Affected by what she's looking at, she asks him if he's seen these, carrying them to him, asking him what it is. Putting on his glasses he looks down at the host blueprints for himself, she's found. Then staggers her when he says, “Doesn’t look like anything to me.”
What Dreams May Come[]
"They cannot see the things that will hurt them," Ford says from behind them as he enters the facility confirming Bernard is a host. Maintaining hosts lives are 'blissful'. Their existence 'purer' than humans. Freed of the burden of self doubt. Bernard struggling to understand. Gazing at Bernard with a sad smile Theresa looks to Ford and tells him he's a 'Monster'. Is he, he queries, after all she was the one who would so blithely destroy the hosts, even Bernard. After everything the two of them have shared. Bernard still can't understand what he's saying. Theresa shakily asks Ford if he told Bernard to get involved with her, but he reminds her that the intimacies were her idea, and Bernard was glad of the company. What they mean finally seems to impinge on Bernard as he reacts "I'm not one. I can't be! My wife. My son. They're real. I was a father. My poor boy..." he says getting upset, only to go silent when Ford tells him that's enough, he shouldn't get himself worked up.
Theresa stares at Bernard as he stands there frozen. Ford commenting on a theory he once read that the Human Intellect was like Peacock Feathers, just an elaborate display to attract a mate. Every great composer, writer, artist, architect just an elaborate mating ritual. But maybe it doesn't matter that humans have accomplished so much for the basest of reasons. But, he points out, the Peacock can barely fly, lives its life in the dirt., consoling itself with its great beauty. He has, he says come to think of so much of consciousness as a burden, and they have spared hosts anxiety, self-loathing, guilt, making the hosts the ones that are free. Here, under his control.
As Bernard unfreezes and looks at him Theresa counters that Bernard is not under his control, he was the one who brought her there to show her all this. He brought her there, Ford says, because he told him to. Which shakes her. Ford telling her Bernard has been very loyal for many years. Theresa shakes her head telling him his time running the Park as his insane little kingdom, playing God, is done. Bernard protests that he just wanted to 'Tell my stories' it was Delos that wanted to play God with their 'little undertaking'. She puts it to him that Board won't stand for this, but the Board, he says will do nothing. Their arrangement too valuable to them, the board likes to test him from time to time. This time they sent her to do it. Sadly, he says, in order to restore things the situation requires a “blood sacrifice.” Confirming to her that he knows every word that passed between her and Hale, and he's been playing them both the entire time. "Arnold and I built every bit of this place. It was our dream. Did you really think I would let you take it away from me?"
Realizing how much danger she's in, she asks him is this what happened to Arnold? Did he have Bernard take him out into the woods and kill him? But Bernard wasn't working in the Park back then, Ford says. Reaching for her phone, Theresa tries to call for help but can't get any connection, Ford approaching her to murmur in her ear, "Like I said. I built ALL of this." Leaning back he tells Bernard that Theresa has 'grown weary' perhaps he can help her? Taking off his glasses, Bernard neatly puts the blueprints aside and takes off his jacket and tie, Ford softly quoting Shakespeare 'And in that sleep what dreams may come.' as he walks away and Bernard walks towards her. Theresa pleading with him. Ford looks away as Bernard smashes her head against the wall twice, killing her. As Bernard impassively walks away to put his jacket and tie back on, Ford tells him they should get back, as they have much work to do on the new storylines. The two leave Theresa's body behind as the lights go dark.
Trivia[]
- The episode title "Trompe-L'Oeil" refers to an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the objects in the image exist in three dimensions.
- Clementine Pennyfeather is the third Host to be lobotomized in the series, the first two being old Peter Abernathy, and Walter in "The Original".
- Theresa Cullen's death in this episode is the first depiction of the death of a human at the hands of a host in the series.
- Ford's Shakespeare's quote is a slight paraphrase of the line "For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come," from Hamlet's famous 'To Be or Not To Be' soliloquy - Act 3, Scene 1.
- "Trompe L'Oeil" is the second top-rated episode in the show after "The Bicameral Mind", having a rate of 9.5 on IMDb.
Music[]
- Rêverie, L. 68 — Claude Debussy
Deaths[]
- 1 unnamed Sweetwater resident (Physical Body)
- 1 unnamed host technician (Physical Body)
- Clementine Pennyfeather (Physical Body)
- 1 unnamed horse (Flashback, Physical Body)
- 8 unnamed Confederados (Flashback, Physical Body)
- 2 unnamed Lawrence's men (Flashback, Physical Body)
- 1 unnamed Ghost Nation member (Flashback, Physical Body)
- Charlie (Flashback)
- Theresa Cullen
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy
- Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay
- Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe
- James Marsden as Teddy Flood (credit only)
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Lawrence
- Luke Hemsworth as Ashley Stubbs
- Sidse Babett Knudsen as Theresa Cullen
- Rodrigo Santoro as Hector Escaton
- Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather
- Jimmi Simpson as William
- Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale
- Ed Harris as The Man in Black (credit only)
- Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford
Guest Cast[]
Co-Stars[]
- Paul-Mikel Williams as Charlie
- Jamieson Price as "Confederado Sergeant"
- Craig Michaelson as "Behaviour Tech"
- Karl Sanders as "Cleanup Tech"
- Alex Urbom as "Cleanup Tech"
Uncredited[]
- Liana Legaspi as "Host Homesteader"
Quotes[]
Charlotte Hale to Theresa - Our interest in this place is entirely in the intellectual property. The code.
William to Dolores - "It doesn’t cater to your lowest self, it reveals your deepest self. It shows you who you really are."
Dolores to William - "I'm not a key, William. I'm just me."
Lawrence to William - "You go a knack for killin'"
Maeve to Felix and Sylvester - "You think I’m scared of death? I’ve done it a million times. I’m fucking great at it."
Ford to Theresa - "See, Arnold and I designed every part of this place, It was our dream. Did you really think I would let you...take it from me?