Westworld - S3E2: The Winter Line
WESTWORLD / HBOWriters Lisa Joy and Matthew Pitt proceed to play more of their old deceitful tricks, as Westworld continues to fool around in its sophomore hour. The Winter Line marks the return of Maeve (Thandie Newton) as she mysteriously finds herself back in one of Delos’ other park attractions. The most probable scenario is that she, along with many other hosts, is on a brand new routine in Warworld. However, first impressions are not always accurate.
The Winter Line is largely a self-contained adventure as it follows Maeve unraveling her situation. The episode is a modest improvement over the season premiere, as fans can find Newton’s character rather amusing when she attempts to figure out solutions to a sequence of complications. However, that isn’t saying much. Although the end result is straightforward with some answers that help clear the clouds, it does very little in advancing the overarching narrative, as the teleplay is too fond of carrying out riddles. It’s much more considerably exasperating when parts of the mystery unfold into identical territories to past revelations. How many times do the writers have to reveal that the characters that are supposed to be human aren’t human at all before they can realize that it’s already a tired trope in the series?
But it’s not Maeve’s overlong side-quest that bombards the episode’s runtime. Bernard’s (Jeffrey Wright) trip back to Westworld feels just as unimportant. Aside from the inclusion of a major reunion/team-up between him and fellow host Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), the whole thing is utterly pointless. Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy keep failing to present the logistics of everything that is going on in the series’ universe. Why does a portion of the park seem operational after a tragic incident involving a hundred people being murdered? Forget logic when it seems like they just throw every sense down the drain. This is made even more insulting when they even decide to slip a Game of Thrones cameo with the infamous writing duo, Benioff and Weiss simply hanging out with Drogon resting on the workshop. Try thinking how a massive dragon can fit such a human-sized setting.
After the first two hours, the third season of Westworld proves that it’s just like its sophomore slump that occurred two years ago: empty spectacle trying to impress audiences with high production values and overwrought monologues that pretend to be intelligent discussions of metaphysics. While it is still consistently good-looking and the acting is still good for what it’s worth, there’s barely any reason for this science fiction show to keep going when the big picture feels more counterfeit than the robots themselves.
