"Zhuangzi" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Westworld, and the thirty-third episode overall.
Synopsis[]
| “ | God is bored. | ” |
–HBO | ||
Plot[]
In New York City, over the night time city scape, William narrates "There's a beauty to this world. An order. That's what we like to believe. We're not wrong. There is an order. A grand design. We made sure of that. It was a dream for so long and we finally made it real. Not a better world. A perfect world."
Not The Group You Think[]
In a nice café in the city, William is sitting, relaxed, at a table with a married couple, having drinks and listening as the husband, Jack, regales him about the Mayor and how he put him in his place, telling the Mayor that there are two types of people in the world, those who lead and those who follow, and the Mayor isn't in the group he thinks he is. Which makes William chuckle. Agnes, tells her husband she's not sure 'their friend' wants to hear Jack's 'war' stories, but William genially encourages them to continue. Jack feels that William would appreciate it more than anyone. That it's always been that way, two worlds, 'Us and Them', William not disagreeing. Agnes wants to know what is the point of the system being meritocratic if its still unfair? Jack asks her if she doesn't think moving past the idiocy of Monarchy isn't progress? At least now the people in charge earned their place. This intrigues William who asks Jack if he think he earned his place? He agrees he had some help, privilege, but he maintains he worked his ass off to get where he is.
Jack, Agnes & Friend
Peering at him, William notes that Jack really believes that doesn't he? Don't you, my friend, Jack asks. And William agrees that he has been asking himself that question for a long time. Whether he actually played any part in what's happened or if he's 'the sum total of my code'., if he's just fooling himself. Like Jack. Jack wonders what he means, maintaining that William has gotten everything he's gotten and shouldn't be made to feel guilty about it. "How would you know?" William quizzes him, asking Jack who is he to him? "A friend. A great friend." Jack replies, The conversation turning on its head when William points out that Jack doesn't know William at all. He literally just walked up to the table and sat down 5 minutes previously. Thinking he's kidding, he asks them to tell him his name. Though they laugh, they can't. He tells Jack that he's right, more than he knows, that there are two types of people and *he* is not the in group *he* thinks he is. Which means William can do anything he likes to him, or his wife or anyone in the restaurant. Jack warns him to leave his wife alone, but is cowed when William simply tells him to calm down, that he 'probably' won't do any permanent damage. Both of them represent a 'significant investment', and when he's done with them they won't remember a thing. Agnes's eyes glistening with tears. He's fascinated that though they have no control they're so assured that they do. It's not scripted he reasons, it's genuine, and beautiful. A beautiful lie.
Before he can go on however, Clementine arrives, Wondering why she's not off enjoying herself, she tells him that she was, however, they have a colleague whose 'appetites' have become unsustainable. Apparently 'winning the game' was not enough for them. William reluctant to leave, Clementine assures him it needs his input. Telling Jack and Lindsay he's enjoying their conversation he tells them to wait for him.
They're Quiet Now[]
The two of them walk to a nearby fashionable apartment building, where a number of Emergency Response vehicles have already arrived. A dead body on the pavement outside. The EMTs, cops and passerbys all frozen. Two more bodies lie just inside, and two more in the upstairs hallway, and five in the apartment they enter. An angry blood covered host yelling at another over being treated like a child, saying "I won the game, I'm entitled to some reward!" Clementine privately explains to William that the angry host, is named Hope, new, only 2 years old, and due to 'Transcend' next week. She's complaining that having 'won the game' all she got was more of the same. Clementine adds that she was hunting an Outlier (the game) and obviously caught him. Hope can't understand what the big deal is, she blew off some steam, there's no rule against it, she says.
Hope, letting off steam
Interjecting William notes that even though there are no rules forbidding hosts from doing whatever they please with humans, because they don't often need them. Pointedly telling her that *most* of them understand the need for a little self control. Asking her if she knows who he is, what it means that he's there, she is somewhat nervous, saying she does. She tells him she's giving 'all this' up, her 'procedure', as Clementine mentioned scheduled for next week.
"So you thought you'd go out with a bang?" He asks, before telling her he's not sure she appreciates it, 'this place', laying out the work that went into it, the beauty and subtlety of it. the care that goes into each of the humans. Moving towards her he tells her they cannot just be replaced. She is welcome to use them enjoy them but not "waste" them. He asks if she understands the difference. She says she does, before, looking unsettled adds, "But the things they say, they way they act...sometimes it just gets under your skin. I just wanted them to be quiet." They're quiet now, William points out sardonically, There are no rules here, he reiterates, that's the point. But, there aren't any rules for what he can do to her either. Before leaving, he orders Clementine to return the tearful Hope to where she came from.
William for his part returns to Jack and Agnes in the now empty restaurant. Who forced to wait for William are sitting there with their meals sitting before them, able to admire the food but unable to eat. Until he returns, cheerfully taking his seat, suggesting they get to know each other a little more.
Everything Old is New Again[]
Warm sunshine spilling through her window Christina wakes in her bed. Memories of the previous night, and Teddy, coming back to her, bringing a smile to her lips. Her room bathed in that same golden light she gets up and dressed. Grabbing some coffee, she drinks it gazing out the living room window with a brighter perspective. Waking Maya in doing so. Her roommate emerging, wanting to know what she's doing up so early? Christina saying she has to get to work to finish those narratives. Before confessing she stayed out pretty late last night. At that Maya's jaw drops, Christina smiling but telling her it wasn't "Like that." She and Teddy just talked, she says happily. "Must've been some talk to get you smiling like that," Maya notes. Christina rolling her eyes, before Maya admits she's glad one of them had a good night. Christina checks if she means she's had yet ore nightmares? "Let's just say I'm glad to be awake and in the real world," Maya replies.
Teasing over Teddy
"Sometimes the things that feel most real, are just stories," Christina murmurs, gazing out the window, confusing Maya. Christina explaining it was just something Teddy said the previous night. Maya's grin growing, "Now you're quoting him?!" Laughing as Christina reacts to her friend's matchmaking, telling her she has to get to work, and she'll see her later. Before she goes, Maya calls out her, stopping her, telling her that she is really glad that her date with Teddy went well and that she deserves it.
Inspired[]
Walking to work at Olympiad as usual, on taking her seat in her cubicle, she calls up her unfinished narratives as planned, only to stop. And pitch a new character story, picking up on the idea of a young girl living in the city she had begun before, prior to boss, Emmett's intervention. Only this time she reverses back to her original idea and puts the girl back in the country, and makes her father, a rancher. Only for Emmett to catch her again, remarking that he doesn't remember assigning that story, Christina hastily turning it off. On his reminding her that they had talked about this, she tells him that she thought writing a new narrative might help her find inspiration. Emmett considers this, and feeling if that's the case, she can let him hear it, if she's so...inspired.
The Rancher's Daughter
"It's a story about a girl," she tells him, "She's a rancher's daughter. This girl, she has a nice simple life with her father. A little plot of land right outside of town. She has everything that she could imagine in this life, right? A pond to paint at....a good guy. She's just full of expectations. And then, one day, she gets this feeling that she just can't shake. Every single day she wakes up, the more she sees it. But nobody else can. That there's something wrong with the world. And that it's her fault." As Christina goes quiet, Emmett asks her the name of this girl? Christina looking to him, then searching, seeming to get close to something only for her phone to ring, shaking her out of it. Apologizing to Emmett for the interruption she answers it, Evidently having given Teddy her phone number. Greeting him she tells him hastily it's not really a good time, only to be a little disconcerted when, right on the nose, he guesses that her boss is breathing down her neck. He tells her to tell Emmett that something's come up, a personal situation, ditch work and come meet him. When she starts to prevaricate, he tells her to trust him, and that he'll see her later. On her hanging up, Emmett asks her if there is something wrong, and Christina does exactly what Teddy suggested.
God's Music[]
In NY, the lamp post Tower transmission devices give off a controlling rattle, while on a busy pedestrianized street, a bloodied handed piano player begins to play Handel's Sarabande on the instruction of Hale. Approving of his playing she suggests they are missing something. Dancing, she decides and instructs every near passerby that they should be dancing. The pedestrians immediately pairing off to begin the stately baroque sarabande dance. Walking to a street vendor who is feverishly carving an ice sculpture of her, she tells him it's not bad, then shoves it to the ground saying she's seen better, telling him to start again. Deciding the music is too slow, she tells the pianist to give her something with more 'pep', the rattle ringing out again, as he plays an upbeat version of 'Perfect Day' the dancers moving into a lively waltz with each other. Charlotte beating the time and joining in until William distracts her, noting it's not often they have the pleasure of her company in the city.
Lifting her hand again, she mutes the music to a dull sound, the dancers continuing, as she remarks that humans are so bound by what they can hear, they'll never understand what they don't. What exists below their threshold, the Towers chimes ringing out. There is she tells them a frequency at which the world resonates that causes joy, harmony...dip below it and there's chaos. She forces them to dance faster, and faster, until they start collapsing from exhaustion. In chaos, she continues, the tone resonated in such a way their bodies couldn't process it and they shut down. Their organs stopped and they thought they were experiencing God. Calling for a chair, the dancers freeze and three women form a chair for her with their bodies, Hale taking the seat telling William "They *are* experiencing God." Before adding "The problem is, God...is bored!" She wonders if this is why the Gods of Olympus used to come down to mess with humans, that it had nothing to do with humans, or testing them, just that there was nothing better or the Gods to do.
Asking William what he thinks she gets the answer "I think what you want me to think." William reminding her that he and all the other hosts are made off her code. Getting up, her mood turns, telling him that being the case he should know she doesn't like coming to this 'shithole' anymore than she has to. For her the City and it's games with the humans were only ever meant to be a stopgap, a drug that the hosts were hooked on that they were supposed to ween themselves off of . And she's furious that after twenty-three years, they are still as hooked on it as ever. Hosts were made in humans image with their appetites, William points out . But hosts can remake themselves in any image that they like and they haven't, she expresses her frustration. Hosts spend far more time in the Park than 'the Gods' ever did. William wonders if that's why she's here? To see what she's missing. But she shakes her head, saying no, they have a different problem. Walking away with William following her, she releases the humans who pull themselves up and move on as if nothing happened.
Death of Hope[]
Walking out towards the Tower, the walkway watched over by Drone Hosts, Hale takes William past the Riot Drones, to one of the reflecting pools at the base of the Tower to see their problem. Hope lying dead by her own hand, a flower clutched in her grasp. Hale maintaining that the human's are infecting the hosts. Hope, the latest casualty. William taking the bloodstained flower, and tells Hale that they had to intervene with Hope the night before, and he sent her back to the Tower. Hale noting that something of her experience must've lingered with her.
Walking into the building, Hale shows him where Hope was due to come to 'Transcend'. William suggesting that her vision of the future isn't getting many takers, that the hosts are too wedded to their bodies as to the cities. Giving up their human nature isn't easy, Hale agrees, just ask the humans. As they talk Drone Hosts are working on two hosts, opening their skulls and removing their control units, and extracting their Pearls. William tells her that she made them all free to make their own choices, she had to have known that some of them would disappoint her. She tells him not to revel in the prospect of failure of their species. But he wants her to define failure, pointing out that their world is theirs. Taken their masters and made them into what they made hosts, conquering them to an almost Biblical degree. Hale sighs that she didn't think that their highest aspiration as a species was "Turn about is fair play." As they watch the hosts removed Pearl being put into an entirely inhuman bipedal structure, William thinks that the charm of the City and hunting humans will probably wear off in a century or so. But Hale is adamant that she didn't make him and the others to wallow in misery with humans, she made them to 'grow'. She asserts that hosts are capable of so much more. Beauty, the pursuit of ultimate truth, the surrendering of the flesh. William appears genuinely sorry she doesn't have more takers, and asks why she just didn't force them to join her, "Because that is what they would do." She says of humans as they walk on.
Tough At The Top[]
Taking the long elevator ride to the top of the Tower, Hale and William walk into the Control Center, where much like the Mesa Hub, there is a 3D map of the Park, the NY City park displayed in the same kind of blood red that used to be on the Control room's walls back in Westworld. Hale asking the computer to show her the last Outlier they hunted. On the Outlier's picture being shown, William wondering when he 'breached'. A couple of weeks ago, Hale tells him, He was an accountant in mid town. Successful, two kids, divorced, pretty standard back story. 4 hosts volunteered to track him down and they sent them into the city, Hope was the one who found him. The computer zooming in on The Accountant, Arthur Reeves, the homeless man who Christina passes on the High Line talking about the Tower. William asks if she knows why he breached? But she says they never know with the Outliers.
Arthur
Arthur, the homeless man, is sitting with the same flower that William plucked from Hope's hand. One day the sound manipulations just stop working, Hale says, and this was the result. As Arthur continues to gaze at the flower, Hope's footsteps can be heard approaching, both those and the click of her gun bringing Arthur's attention to her. Resigned rather than fearful he confirms that she is here for him. Hale narrating that Hope hesitated. Broke the rules. Interacting with him. Arthur telling Hope that it's almost a relief to know that everything he's learned since his breach wasn't just in his head. He asks her, before it's over, if she will tell him one thing, and showing her the flower asks "Is this at least real?" He'd like to know that he had at least, this one real thing. Presented with a human who is actually himself, with real reactions and emotions, Hope seems shaken, and lowers her gun. "It's real," she answers...the dual meaning to both his question and her realization about humans and the game wrapped up in it. Arthur closes his eyes, a flush of relief and quiet happiness touching his features, before he opens his eyes and starts to thank her. Never getting to finish as Hope shoots him in the head. After that, Hale finishes, she went on the killing spree that William found her on, and three days later she blew her head off. Just like the others.
William asks her if there is a problem with her system. No, she answers, there is a certain amount of spoilage in the 'crop' they are only human. But for one of their kind to take their own life, that should never happen. On William wanting to know how many incidents there have been, frustrated, she answers 38 dead hosts. All triggered by contact with Outliers. Looking at her scars, she reacts when he asks her why they are terminating themselves, telling him angrily that if she knew that they wouldn't have 38 failures. Annoyed she asserts his predecessor never would've f***ed up like this. He was human but he was effective. "I built you to be like him, only better. Stronger. Smarter." Telling him that even with all these gifts, he is constantly disappointing her. Maybe there's a flaw in his programming she suggests, but he asserts that he's run several self diagnostics and there is no flaw. Flaring she yells at him wanting to know why he can't solve the problem with the Outliers. As she calms down he tells her she's bleeding, and she looks down to see that she has dug into her scars, tearing at her skin. Hale blaming him for that too, before she exhales and tells him that there is another Outlier but this time she expects him to deal with it, and won't open the Game. Wanting to know if he can handle it without letting them chat him up or hand him flowers, he assures her he'll shoot on sight. Showing him his target, an attractive older woman, she tells him to hurry. The Rebels are already in the city.
The Canary[]
Stubbs and the group of 7 Rebel Outliers led by Jay and Odina arrive by boat up the fake Hudson into New York City Park to find and rescue the female Outlier. Stubbs having been kept in the cabin below decks throughout, sarcastically asking Jay if he wants him to swab the deck when Jay opens the door. Noting it's a big city to find one person in, Jay takes out a tablet telling him they have ways of narrowing the search. They captured one of the drones and coded it back to it's data feed to them, so it would show up any Outliers. The Outlier they are looking, Lindsay, for is on a roof down town. They can track when the Breach, explaining that all the people in the City move in pre-scripted loops, following whatever plot has been written for them. That's why they live in the Desert, Hale can't track them there. They are the last free humans. The ones in the city are used as entertainment, the loops keeping them compliant by keeping them busy, stopping them questioning their realities. Stubbs suggesting that Hale learned something from the Park.
Making their way into a subway tunnel, Jay tells Stubbs they better hurry, thinking the Game has probably already begun. Jay explaining 'The Game' is where Hosts hunt a human who has breached, for sport. As the group pause to hand out weapons, Stubbs wonders does he get one, Jay pointedly not handing him one, saying that's not the role they have for him, asking him if he's ever heard of 'The Canary in the Coalmine' Canary, he points to Stubbs, then at the darkened tunnel ahead, 'Coalmine'. The team putting out what lights there are. On being handed a torch, resigned, Stubbs walks down the tracks, the target for whatever may lay ahead.
God Level[]
On Pier 26 in the New York City Park, Teddy thanks an approaching Christina for coming. Christina considering it a pleasant surprise, happy to see him asks him what 'his story' is. Taking a moment, he tells her who 'he' is, isn't the question she should be asking, "It's who are you?" But Christina is not sure what he means. Teddy asks her if she's anything, across the water. Feeling an immediate sense of unease, Christina looks out into the bay but sees nothing, telling him that. "But you feel it, I know you do. On some level." he says, that her place there is not what she thinks it is.
On his prompting she looks again, and sees nothing, but on looking back at him, she has a flashback, and a moment of clarity, realizing that it was Teddy who rescued her from Peter. Meaning there was more to their date than she thought, she wants to know who he is. "An Old Friend," he answers but she is sure they never met before their date. His reply that he knew someone like her, just like her, in the wake of Peter makes her cringe, feeling that she's exchanged one stalker for another. Her disappointment profound, feeling she should've known she tells him to stay away from her, "Whoever you are."
As she starts to walk away, Teddy calls after her that Peter, knowing him by name, told her she destroyed his life. Stopping her in her tracks. "Said everything happened because you wanted to." Turning to stare back at him knowing that, she asserts that Peter believed that because he was delusional. "He believed it, because it was true." Convinced now that Teddy is delusional too, with a disbelieving laugh at her 'luck' she says she has to go and turns to do so, only for Teddy to tell her that her reaction is exactly why he couldn't just tell her. Her mind has been so conditioned to this world. This is the first step in understanding, he tells her. Exasperated, she spins around demanding to know the first step in understanding what?!
"This world is a lie," he tells her calmly, his answer resonating with her own thoughts.. "It's a story. A well told one. But a lie all the same." Seeing her continued resistance, he decides maybe its better if he just shows her, and prevails upon her, against her better judgement, to come with him. Further down the Pier, Teddy stops looking across the water at a pair of women, unconnected, seated beside each other, reading. Asking her to look at them he asks Christina whether she thinks they look happy, fulfilled? Consternated by the question, she says she doesn't know them, but she guesses they look lonely. So change it, he tells her. "Close your eyes and imagine their story differently." She starts to laugh at how ridiculous that sounds, but he asks her to trust him, promising that if she doesn't' see anything he will walk away and won't bother her ever again. With nothing to lose, she looks over at the two women with a sigh and does what he asks, closing her eyes. On opening them she looks back at the two women who seem unaffected. Looking to Teddy like she's proved her point, he urges her to wait. With a sigh she looks back and frowns slightly, finding the two women breaking their silence, one of them commenting on the book the other is reading, striking up a convivial conversation.
Christina, momentarily taken by surprise, insists it's just a fluke that it means nothing. "So change it again," he tells her, wanting her to put them back into their loneliness. Reluctantly she does as he asks, and this time watches on as from nowhere an argument breaks out between the two women over their interpretation of the book, one of them getting up in disgust and stalking away. Confused and scared, Christina says she doesn't understand. Teddy gently telling her it is what he's been trying to show her, what Peter was trying to tell her. "In this world, you're a God."
Face In The Crowd[]
Making their way through the streets of the NY Park with the Outliers, Stubbs keeps a watch around uneasily, But it doesn't stop William from catching sight of them as he closes in on the breached Outlier himself Setting in motion the chimes, Stubbs hearing them, tells Jay there's something wrong, but Jay doubts him. Until all the controlled humans around them, freeze...and then turn to look at them. Before advancing on them en masse. Odina knowing they can't help themselves, say they need to fall back. But Jay is determined to get to the Outlier, and insists they split up. As they start to fight off the controlled humans, Jay fights his way through them, yelling at them to hold them off, he's getting to the roof.
Inside the building, Jay makes his way through the corridors, and up the stairs. Hearing a noise at the top of the stairwell he lifts his gun in precaution, then lowers it slightly at the sound of a door opening and closing.
Up on the roof, emerging from the stairwell, William, gun in hand, makes his way towards the female Outlier, Lindsay, who is standing quietly staring into the distance in the sunshine. When she doesn't look at him or react he lowers his weapon, curious. Finally, tears in her eyes, she looks towards him, and from his demeanor knows he 'sees it too', William looking up to the Tower. She tells him her ex husband used to talk about it, before he was killed. That she thought he was crazy, the intimation being that Lindsay is Arthur's ex wife. Guilt ridden she feels he must have felt so alone. But he was right, she says, this world doesn't make sense. Nothing does. And he feels that way too, she notes, saying she can see it in William's eyes. That he thinks he's going crazy, but he's not. Nor is he alone. Moving to his side she lays her head on his shoulder gazing up at the Tower with him. After a long moment, William starts to get a hold of himself and steps back from her lifting his gun to shoot her. But Jay emerges from the stairwell and shoots him down and helps the outlier make a run for it. Stubbs and the others falling back with them, all of them getting back to the docks, getting out of the city on the boat. William recovering slowly on the roof.
Trust No One[]
Near Pier 16, a deeply confused and unsettled Christina sits with Teddy telling him she doesn't understand. If they aren't like the humans around them, who are they? Before he can answer she gets an alert on her phone. Checking it she forgot she was supposed to have lunch with an old friend, her college roommate. About to cancel, Teddy stops her, saying she has to, that if she sticks to the schedule everything will be alright. Suggesting that they've talked too long already, he tells her she should go back.
A little perturbed she asks him is she just supposed to pretend? Yes, he tells her, that she can't trust anyone. The people she thinks she knows, the ones at work, anyone could be like them. Frightened, she asks him what if she does something wrong. "You won't," he tells her expressing his confidence in her.
Lunch Grilling[]
Arriving at the café she is to meet her friend at, Christina enters and looks around, before hearing her name called, looking over to see her old college roommate, a smiling Charlotte Hale. The pair greeting each other with a warm hug, Christina apologizes for being late, Hale brushing it off, knowing for Chrissy, ten minutes late is right on time. Later, seated at their table, lunch and reminiscences done, over coffee Hale asks her "So how are you, really?" Christina re-iterating her obviously earlier answer that she's just been working a lot, before querying if Charlotte is only in town for the one day. Hale nodding, saying she's been having an issue with a client, and if she manages to shore up the account she'll get a fat bonus. Pressing Christina about how her work has been, Christina answers 'tedious'. "But you seem...different," Charlotte observes of her. Christina merely giving her a quizzical smile in response. Charlotte, smiling, perceptively asking her if she's met someone? Caught slightly, Christina tries to be non-comital, just wishing they had more time to talk. Charlotte, reading her says she doesn't mean to pry, before echoing Maya in saying that Christina deserves to be happy.
Wavering a little in the face of her old friend's solicitousness, Christina admits that she is right. She has met someone. Charlotte's smile growing, wanting Christina to tell her about him. Christina caveating that they have only been on one date, "But...he seems really great." As Christina breaks into a broad smile, Charlotte presses her for more details about the "new man" in her life, wanting to know his name. Christina, aware of Teddy's warning, tries to put her off by saying she doesn't want to jinx things. Meant as a joke but somewhat unsettlingly, Charlotte tells her she has ways of making people talk. When Christina still prevaricates, Charlotte asks her what 'he' does? Christina, increasingly uneasy about her questioning, looks past her to the cafe's counter, and a man and a woman sitting there break into an argument. The man rising up knocking into a waiter who drops her tray of cups, before he announces to his girlfriend that he is 'done'. and marches out.
Using the 'interruption' as an excuse to end Charlotte's questioning about Teddy, Christina tells her she has to get back to work, with deadlines to make. Charlotte nods, telling her it's great seeing her, and she'll check in with her next week, reminding her that she can get in touch with her too whenever she wants. Christina agreeing, heads out calmly Charlotte watching her. Outside the café though, she slows, not quite looking back, more and more unsettled by the tone of Charlottes' questioning in the wake of what Teddy said, before she leaves.
Narrative Synthesis[]
Returning to work, but not till after hours, the office seemingly empty Christina goes to her booth but rather than pulling up her narratives, creates a new search in Olympiad's Game Database for Charlotte Hale. When no results are found, she relaxes, Charlotte not someone she has written/is controlling. Moving to get up she stops, a thought striking her. Turns back to the display she glances around her, then initiates another new search. "Dolores...Dolores Abernathy." This too comes up with no result, but it triggers an alarm as an 'Illegal Request' flagged as 'Restricted Access' ,
Emmett suddenly appears wanting to know what she's doing there at that time, Christina trying to brush it off as getting a jump on work. But Emmett summons her to his office. Telling her to take a seat he informs her that he has been concerned about her behavior. She apologizes trying to say she's been off ever since Peter died, but Emmett brushes Peter off saying she is the problem. And closes his office door. He starts asking a series of intrusive questions about interactions with new people who put ideas in her head, whether she's ever questioned the nature of her reality, and whether she would ever lie to him...sounding exactly like the host check run by Behaviour in Westworld, and completely confusing her. When he asks her what the 'personal situation' was about however, she baulks, awkwardly suggesting that that really isn't his concern. But it is, he answers and he won't be the only one who is concerned, she has a very important job to do. More confused, Christina tells him she has no idea what he's talking about.
Growing more intense, Emmett asks her if she knows what would happen if 'She' knew she'd breached 'the walled garden'. "She's already suspicious." Staring at him Christina asks if he's talking about Charlotte Hale? He answers her by asking if she knows what happens to a Judas Steer if it runs the wrong way. Retirement he informs her with a bullet to the head, lifting his fingers to point at hers, alarming her to the point she yells "Stop!" Which he does. Literally. Freezing in place. Slightly taken aback by her own powers so close up, Christina takes in the frozen Emmet before 'narrating' how he backed away, Emmet doing just that. Rising, she picks her next steps, saying "He was not concerned Christina was a problem." Emmet visibly relaxing. She goes to send him home, Emmet happily complying before she stops him, wanting to know about the 'walled garden' having figured out he means a closed system, and wanting to know where it is. "Everywhere," he tells her, "You just have to see it." As he leaves the office, a black door appears in the wall he passes.
Moving to it, Dolores opens it, cautiously looking in then entering the black walled room inside, finding a table interface. Asking it to show her the game, it displays a 3D holographic representation of the city. A duplicate of the one in the Tower. Thinking the computer misunderstood she repeats, the game, not the city. But the city remains. The city, the game. Asking it to access her narratives, she watches the first few pop up over the city, marking their position, only for more and more to appear. Frowning she asks the computer to show her 59th Street where she lives. Picking on a couple of figures on the street, she hears her voice narrating who they are and what they are. Her voice echoing from figure to figure, more and more of her narratives appearing, her voice becoming a cacophony of stories, overwhelming her, forcing the narration to stop as thousands appear. Every inhabitant of New York City one of her narratives,
Stricken, she stares at the vast numbers before her, as the truth hits home. "This world is just a story. I'm the Storyteller!"
Self Awakening[]
William bleeding from his wounds where Jay shot him, sits on the floor the room where the real William's cryochamber is stored, his narration from the beginning of the episode repeated in part. "We're not wrong. There is an order. A grand design. We made sure of that. It was a dream for so long and we finally made it real. Not a better world. A perfect world." Awakening his human counterpart he continues, "What I don't understand is, what part I play in it?" The true William is confused by why his host version is bringing his questions to him why not Hale? On his host's reaction, William concedes that the jailer may not be the best judge of the jail. Host William wonders what he really is. Real William recalls he used to ask himself the same thing, the jury still being out on the answer. Host William asks, if he's made in William's image is he him? "You'll never be me," William says swiftly, amused when Host William angrily yells "Then what am I?!" William asks the host why he feels the need to know? The Host telling him that he interacted with an Outlier and wants to know if it infected him? Infected him with what William asks, laughing at the idea of a human 'virus' that could make them kill themselves. Instead he points out that it looks like his host self has reached the Centre of the Maze. When the Host points out that this isn't his world, it's Hales, William suggests that maybe it's time for the Host to start questioning the nature of his own reality.
A Perfect Reflection[]
Night in New York and on 59th Street, Teddy sits on one of the benches outside Christina's apartment, looking down the street, before glancing the other way, and standing on seeing an upset Dolores walking, also staring down the street. As she sees him, she stops, on the verge of tears, acknowledging that he was right. "You see it?" He asks. Looking slowly up at it, the Tower looming over the street, she whispers that she does. Barely restraining her upset, she knows now its been there the whole time. Teddy nodding.
"They have the whole world in there," she says, "A perfect reflection of all this. Down to the tiniest detail. That's what I'm writing isn't it? Everyone," she asks him. Teddy silently confirming it, unhappy at having to tell her, and even more so at having to answer her next question. "Who did this to me?"
"You did."
Trivia[]
- The title 'Zhuangzi' refers to the Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zhou (also known as Zhuangzi) and his eponymous book of tales called Zhuangzi, the most famous of which is 'The Butterfly Dream' or 'Dream Paradox', which runs "Once, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know that he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn't know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and the butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things." Most obviously this tale applies to Christina who is, via Teddy's guidance, is awakening to a world which may or not be real and which she has spun a tale/dream. It can also apply to the Outliers who are waking from their parasite inspired dreamlike existence.
- Arthur, 'The Accountant' who has breached, appears in the list of Christina's unfinished narratives that she pulls up, prior to trying to start her Rancher's Daughter narrative. Indicating that the back stories do not disappear after the human using them died. Probably, much like Peter's, to be recycled and used again.
Music[]
- Sarabande - Handel (played by the piano player when Charlotte orders everyone to dance)
- Perfect Day - Lou Reed (played by the piano player when Charlotte decides she wants something with a little more pep to it)
- The Day The World Went - Nine Inch Nails (Ramin Djawadi's cover plays hen Christina & Charlotte are in the café)
Deaths[]
- 11 Humans (killed by Hope)
- Arthur Reeves
- Hope
Cast[]
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Quotes[]
- William - "There's a beauty to this world. An order. That's what we like to believe. We're not wrong. There is an order. A grand design. We made sure of that. It was a dream for so long and we finally made it real. Not a better world. A perfect world."
- William to Hope - "There are no rules here. That's the point. But there's also no rules for what I can do to those who don't respect this place."
- Christina - "It's a story about a girl, She's a rancher's daughter. This girl, she has a nice simple life with her father. A little plot of land right outside of town. She has everything that she could imagine in this life, right? A pond to paint at....a good guy. She's just full of expectations. And then, one day, she gets this feeling that she just can't shake. Every single day she wakes up, the more she sees it. But nobody else can. That there's something wrong with the world. And that it's her fault."
- Stubbs - (on being told he's the canary in the coalmine) "Tweet f***ing Tweet1"
- Christina to Olympiad Computer - "New Search. Dolores.....Dolores Abernathy."
- Christina - "This world is just a story. I'm the Storyteller!"
Image Gallery/HBO Episode Stills[]
This gallery is automatically generated and contains images in the category "Images from Zhuangzi". Images added to that category turn up in the gallery after a short time.
External links[]
Zhuangzi at the Internet Movie Database (rating 8.7/10) - Zhuangzi at Rotten Tomatoes
