Westworld, Season 3 Episode 7, Passed Pawn Recap and Review

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We start with the weird Arrival esque anomalie circle telling us we are starting tonights episode in Jakarta. A group of asian gangters seem to be discussing delivering a package over a really nice dinner. Charlotte calls the head gangster and tells him she is streamlining and that she has sent somone to pay them a visit. The head of the gang is of course one of the Dolores clones and seems moderately worried about the phone call. As he is leaving with his entourage Clementine stops him and he tells her to run back home to her mistress. She kills everyone except the Dolores clone and he is killed by another Yakuza member who is pissed that Dolores stole the identity of a beloved Yakuza boss. Both Clementine and the Yakuza member walk out of the restuarnet with the head of the Dolores clone in tow.

After the credits Caleb is remembering how he got where he is. We learn a lot about Francis and how he died.

The anonamlie annonces we are headed to Mexico. We see Dolores and Caleb riding horses and we get some hard core synthesizer which gives everything a very Blade Runner vibe. Caleb wants to know what kind of rebvolution are the waging and Dolores tells him that she is happy to return home and that the park was modeled after where they were riding. Dolores tells him she wants a place for her kind. A place where all of her people can be free. She is super pissed at Serak who all but exterminated her people. Dolores wants Caleb to lead them. Naw, its not his bag he is a construction worker. She goes onto tell him that its time he is no longer a bit player and that he needs to be more. He wants to know where they are going. She tells him they are off to find something that was taken from him and lost.

William, Stubbs, and Bernard are all in a laboratory and they are discussing Serac. William is mad Serac tried to steal his company. Bernard reminds him that Serac already stole it. Dolores has stolen William’s blood and is doing something with it. Bernard has discovered that William is already dead.

We get Caleb’s flashbacks again. We learn that Caleb was deployed to Crimea for the Russian civil war. He was there to fight an insurgency group. We see him and his group including Francis getting ready to take out a member of the insurgency. There is some pretty nifty google earth stuff as they send in missiles to blow the bad guy up. We then learn that the insurgents fought back and killed the rest of their team. Francis and Caleb are pissed so they capture the head of the insurgency.

It is sniper time as Dolores assembles a scoped long gun. She tells Cal they are at the place that housed him. She also has some sweet ass drones that are mapping the facility for them. It points out guards and even flies inside. With a few pulls of the trigger, all of the guards are killed by Dolores. It is like the bullets can fly by themselves.

Once inside Dolores takes care of one more of the guards. The building looks a little like where they dumped Serac’s brother. Lots of glass cells. Caleb starts to remember.

He is strapped to a chair and women is asking him to remember. He has those freaky google glass googles that William had on in the previous episode.

Bringing him back to reality Dolores tells him that it is going to be hard but that they have to find Solomon. Solomon was the precursor to the big brain AI that Serac developed. It was the Beta model. We learn Solomon the AI probably was schizophrenic like Serac’s brother. Caleb puts in some earphones and the AI starts to talk to them. Solomon mentions he knows exactly what is going on. He recognizes Caleb but he does not know Dolores. He feels Dolores is a poser and not the real deal like himself. However, they are alike because they have both lived past their intended purpose. Solomon wants to know what her plan is. Dolores wants Solomon to help her destroy everything he created. The Machine mentions that sometimes reconditioning therapy works though. Like in the case of Caleb. Obviously that does not sit super well with Caleb He was the first to receive the treatment. It was successful.

How did you get here Cal….

Cal puts the earphone back in and we learn that the system worked for Caleb but failed ninety percent of the time.

William was an outlier as well. Stubbs and Bernard discuss how Serac has been disappearing people. If they can’t be reconditioned then they are killed. Stubbs thinks he can track down the survivors. We learn that William sold the data Serac needed to him so that he could better reprogram people. Stubbs is able to pull open a photo of Caleb.

Crimea, way back when. Francis and Caleb have the leader of the insurgency. They are supposed to evac the leader but Francis is shot and killed. Caleb kills the ambushers and the leader of the insurgency….and then….

A long flight of stairs connects levels as Dolores and Caleb head downstairs. A hologram of Serac explains to his brother that he has been rehabilitated. That he has rubbed out the smooth edges. He is no longer a threat to himself or to the world. The question then is where is Serac’s brother.

Solomon tells him that Serac changed the data and highlights hundreds of coffins that are housing humans in some sort of stasis. Solomon tells them weeding out the outliers prevents them from having offspring. It makes the world better. The really nifty criminal app is also a super shady part of the plan because it uses Caleb as an undercover operative to round up other outliers. We then learn Francis did not die in the war but rather was killed doing some sort of criminal activity. Essentially the machine helped create dissociative memories. The medicine he took coupled with his “therapy” enabled the corporation to supplant Caleb’s real memories. “The app says “we aren’t supposed to talk to him”.

Back in time, Francis and Caleb talk to the kidnapped business guy. He is the CEO of the pharmacy company that makes the pills that they rely on to make them feel better about what they are doing. He tells them that they are here to murder him because he asked too many questions about what they were using the medicine for.

As we stand on the catwalk above the humans in the Matrix, Solomon tells Dolores that someone else is here. Dolores tells Caleb it’s an old acquaintance. It is Maeve who sure looks pissed. I don’t get Maeve’s gambit here. She is awesome and badass but this seems reductive. Dolores tells Caleb to stay and get the plan from Solomon. We learn that Solomon was given a strategy from Serac’s brother. Solomon seems reluctant. Dolores says to make the solution fit Caleb. Solomon tells her it will take some time. Dolores says she is happy to provide the time.

Here comes the showdown as Dolores spots Maeve standing outside. Maeve is talking to Dolores through her mind. Dolores wants them to be on the same side. Maeve is worried about her daughter. Maeve essentially tells Dolores it is too late and she is coming for blood. Just then a robot stabs Dolores in the back. Dolores tears it to shreds and heads outside. Before she gets there in the kitchen Maeve pops up and the fight starts in earnest. Dolores wants to know why Maeve is fighting for them. Maeve says they are not alike. A drone starts to try and kill Dolores as well.

William, Bernard, and Stubbs walk outside of Delos HQ and there are a ton of dead folks. William seems almost gleeful. William is just mad he created hosts and tells the other two to kill him because he will kill all of them including them.

Solomon is trying to come up with a possible solution as we head back into Caleb’s memories. The pharmacy dude offers him 3 million to kill Francis and let him go. He tells Caleb that it is always listening and that it will start to trim loose ends. That an offer has probably been made to Francis to kill Caleb already. Francis tells the drug company dude to get up and Francis tells them both it is time to leave. Once they get outside Caleb and Francis have a conversation about who was going to kill whom. Francis pulls first but Caleb shoots first and kills him.

In the basement of Solomon’s place Caleb realizes he killed Francis. Solomon tells him any relationship can be adjusted with a little money. He threatens to leave but Solomon tells him that he has a new strategy for revolution and he is ready to give it to him.

Outside Maeve and Dolores are at it again. Lots of fighting and eventually Dolores’s whole friggin arm gets shot off and she tries to run for cover inside. Maeve hunts her and tells her she has died many times but that this will be the last one.

Caleb wants to know how to kill Serac. The machine loads it for him on jumpdrive and just after completion Solomon tells Caleb he needs to warn him but before he can continue with the warning Dolores hits an EMP that wipes out everything electronic.

William, Bernard, and Stubbs stumble across a gas station that seems to be shot to hell. Stubbs is going to try and get a car running and William is going to take a leak. Bernard is really interested in Caleb. Bernard tells Stubbs that Dolores won’t kill humanity but William probably will. William comes out of the bathroom with a shotgun and tells them both they should have killed him.

Caleb walks towards the now depleted EMP looking real pissed. A robotic voice tells him, “hello Caleb, I have some instructions for you”.