Westworld Season 3 Episode 1, Parce Domine, Recap and Review

Spare, Lord, spare your people:Be not angry with us forever.

First Stanza of Parce Domine

As episode one opens we get a map and coordinates for somewhere in China.

In China

A businessman is learning about the blood bath at Westworld. He demands to sell his shares of Delos but the banker tells him he cannot. That he must wait in line behind the other folks. Our businessman tells him he pays him to be able to do that, so he better make it happen. He proceeds to go downstairs and set his fancy alarm and tells his wife not to go into town anymore.

In the middle of the night, some sort of rogue code has messed with the settings in the house. He wakes up and his hands are tied and a mask is on his face. His wife is unconscious or dead. His home computer is not paying attention to him. He sees Dolores swimming naked in the pool. She puts on a robe and walks up to see the businessman. She asks if he remembers her. He brutalized her in Westworld. She places a pair of glasses on him to help him remember some things. His wife is a robot as well (maybe). He beat his first wife. He killed her in a pool. Dolores asks him if he remembers what happened in the pool. He says she drank too much and had an accident. Dolores tells him he can’t hide from himself. His name is Jerry. Dolores wants his money. Dolores already took his money, but he used to work for Insight, and she wants his confidential files from Insight. She tells him it’s the origin of a new species and wishes him luck. She walks away, and he tries to hit her with a golf club, but he still has on his glasses, and he swings at a hologram. He misses and hits his head on the edge of the pool and dies. Jerry’s wife comes out and wants to know who Dolores is. Dolores tells her “the one who set you free”.

In Los Angeles.

Now we meet Caleb who wakes up as Francis gives him a call. His apartment building looks really cool. Francis appears to be some sort of therapist. Caleb is discussing his old job “better living through technology”. His current job is to work with an industrial robot as they build a building. These seem to be a series of flashbacks as he is constantly ignoring phone calls from Francis. He is visiting his mother in the hospital now. He tells her goodbye, and she doesn’t know who he is. The doctor says a state-run facility may be better. As he leaves the hospital he pulls out an App called Make Money Motherfucker. He takes a job from the App. This is crime by gig economy which is fascinating. He has agreed to be a courier. He meets someone on a subway who gives him a bag. He takes the bag and meets two other individuals at a different location. One of the people recognizes him and comments on how shitty his stats were. His were really low. The person demonstrates a jamming technology and the three rob an ATM. The app pays him off.

Charlotte arrives at a business meeting. They are trying to figure out what Delos does next. Charlotte is not selling. The other board members want to sell. Charlotte is in charge as long as the machine who is proxy agrees with her. It does, and she orders that Delos start making robots again.

In Southeast Asia

Bernard is going by Frank now and finds a calf with a broken leg. His new name is Armand, and he works in a meat processing plant. It looks pretty awful. He walks back to some sort of camp at dusk. He is running some sort of diagnostic. He wants to make sure Bernard is not secretly meeting with Dolores. He isn’t.

In London.

Dolores is heading somewhere in driverless car. We get a distinct feel for how EVERYTHING is automated. She has a really rad dress that changes color with the tug of a cord. She enters a party where we see John Gallagher Jr. He is AWESOME. They clearly are in a relationship. Dolores is here to meet JGJ’s friends and family. His brother is high and trying to discuss the Delos robot revolt. Dolores says people believe what they need to, or they evolve to believe in god. JGJ’s is interrupted by a grey-haired gentleman who tells him it’s time to buy. He rejoins Dolores and asks her to go with him to L.A. She agrees.

In L.A.

Caleb is interviewing for jobs, and he does not look optimistic about the interview. He is talking in-person to a therapist, and we learn Francis and Caleb served together in war. The therapist tells him he needs to move on. The therapist wants to know how he got here. He tells Caleb he needs to try to talk to Francis. It’s time to MAKE MONEY MOTHERFUCKER. He agrees to a cleanup job. He arrives at a party. It is one weird-ass party. There is a guy who has overdosed. The guy is screaming and yelling. He took a lot of drugs and is now screaming about shadow people. Caleb and another of the guys who robbed the ATM end up corralling the drugged-out guy.

Dolores and JGJ are riding over a future L.A. in a rad ass giant drone. The land at a high rise. It’s the headquarters of Insight. There is a supercomputer at the core of the building. This super computer has like a gazillion thoughts per second. His father wanted to plan everyone’s life out and the computer was supposed to help him realize that. The silver-haired guy is back and JGJ has to go to a meeting with him. Dolores is left to her own devices. She asks a computer to find her something fast. She identifies a motorcycle and is off. Dolores is tailing JGJ. She walks into a building and starts spying on JPG. Someone is trying to hack into the supercomputer. The person he is meeting with represents a He. They accuse JGJ of spying on “them”. JGJ gets pissed and leaves.

In Southeast Asia

Bernard brushes his teeth and heads to work. There are two other workers who know he is Bernard. They have his wanted poster. They taze him. They want money. He tells them he needs their help. They taze him again. He hits the clicker we saw him use before and triggers Bernard who kills both of them. He then clicks Bernard back off.

Back in L.A.

Some bad shit happened to Caleb while he served. Caleb did not get the job and takes the news really hard. He learns the guy who called him is really A.I. It’s time to MAKE SOME MONEY MOTHERFUCKER.

Dolores is getting ready and JGJ is talking to someone. The meeting from earlier has really gotten under his skin. Dolores wants to know what exactly is wrong. He sometimes explains he wants to kill the system. He confesses he has no idea what the system is actually doing. JGJ only knows the outer layers. The original architect is the only one who knows what’s going on. Just as he is about to tell her who the architect is the grey-haired guy tazes the fuck out of her. He knows Dolores is pretending to be someone she is not. The grey-haired guy runs security for JGJ’s company. He tells JGJ he will clean up the mess as he has done for 25 years. He loads up Dolores and they head out.

Caleb picks up a package and a car. While Dolores rides in the suped-up Drone. Caleb is at his destination and gives the package to a dude. It’s the same location that Dolores is brought. Caleb wants to know what is up. One of the guys he gives the package too tells him to scram and points a gun at his head. Caleb tells him it’s not the first time he has been shot in the head.

They grey-haired guy loads Dolores into a car and gives her a bunch of drugs. She will not O.D. because you know she is a fucking robot. A mysterious car pulls up. The Grey Haired Man gets out to investigate the car. It was Dolores all along. She kills everyone in the car but the Grey Haired Guy gets away. She gets in the car and takes off after him.

Caleb is talking to Francis who we learn is not real but rather an A.I. created to talk like him. There was some sort of mission that went wrong and Francis died. Caleb tells Francis he needs to find someone real and then unsubscribes from the service.

The Grey-Haired Man gets out of his car and is shot by Dolores. She asks him who is in charge of the system, and he tells her Cirac. She made a copy robot of him. The robot copy is going to find out all the answers. Our robot copy finishes off the Silver Haired Man. His guards hear the shot and immediately head towards the noise. They start shooting at Dolores. She dispatches them quickly. She has been hit so things aren’t looking great for her. Dolores calls in her motorcycle to help her. Caleb on his way back to the scene finds Dolores bleeding to death in the tunnel. He asks her if she needs help. She falls into his arms. Again the music is spot on here.

In Southeast Asia

Back with Bernard he has trimmed his beard and hires a boat in what looks like Thailand. He points to a spot on the map and asks for transport to Westworld. End of Episode…Wait for it… Maeve is back, and she has a sharp suit on and wakes up holding a pistol. We can tell by the dress we are in a period piece of sorts. She is in some sort of castle and has beaten a couple of soldiers up. She looks out the window and its Nazi Germany. Oh, shit this is like World War I World. HELL YEAH.