After the immersive and incredible beginning of “Westworld,” the series’ third episode begins to show the weaker elements of the the Nolan brothers’ work. The opening scene of “The Stray” follows a rather on-the-nose conversation between Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright). Bernard has Dolores read an excerpt from the novel, “Through the Looking-Glass,” which is a not-so-subtle way of pushing a theme and telling the audience Dolores is the Alice of “Westworld.”
Luckily, what follows this scene is a much better-developed and thoughtful episode. “The Stray” builds new mysteries while simultaneously continuing to fill in additional backstory.
Bernard comes to Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) with the problem of malfunctioning Hosts. Ford spills out a story about his former colleague, Arnold, who was obsessed with finding the key to the Hosts’ consciousness and lost his life in the park.
More background characters perform larger roles in this episode. James Marsden’s character, Teddy, enters a narrative that seems to be a piece of a new story being built. Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) and Elsie (Shannon Woodard) are paired as they hunt down a stray Host who has wandered too far off the path. Elsie’s dialogue can seem extremely forced at times, yet romantic tension between the two characters makes the pairing exciting to watch.
The show continues to meditate on the consciousness of the Hosts. Evan Rachel Woods puts in another incredible performance as Dolores, becoming the clear lead of the large ensemble. However, the show does seem to imply something extremely dark with Dolores’ full daily loop — every night ends with bandits raping and killing her. The idea that a theme park would even program such a dark narrative is troubling and reinforces the trend of gratuitous violence towards women on HBO shows.
Theories and questions
Considering how “Westworld” fuels and embraces audience theories, it's only fitting these weekly recaps end with a bit of theorizing as well.
The location of the park is still up for debate. Although the showrunners have stated the show takes place in the 21st century at some point, many believe “Westworld” takes place on another planet. This is supported by the employees talking about “rotating home,” and during the video-conversation between Bernard and his ex-wife, Bernard mentions the difficulty of getting a line. Another possible theory is the park of Westworld is still on Earth while everyone else has moved up to space. Jonathan Nolan has said that the location of “Westworld” will become clear in the finale.
The fresh narrative which Dr. Ford is building seems to be something completely new for the park. In Teddy’s new narrative, Ford programs a new adversary with a mysterious man named Wyatt. When Teddy is accompanying a visitor on an adventure, they come across Wyatt’s men, who seem immune to Teddy’s gun. Who is Wyatt and why couldn’t his men be killed? Are his henchmen not be real people?
The identity of the Man in Black (Ed Harris) continues to be a large talking point. Despite being basically absent from this week’s episode, more theories are beginning to form around his identity. One potential theory is the Man in Black could be Arnold, the former partner of Dr. Ford. A possible roadblock in this theory is that the Man in Black was seen last week looking for information on the maze, and one would assume the co-founder of the park would know about this. Another theory is the Man in Black is the older version of William (Jimmi Simpson), which means the show takes place in two different timelines and further complicates the narrative.
Also, really, what the heck is the maze?
Overall, “The Stray” proved to be another strong outing for the HBO series. While the show continues to hit the audience over the head with certain themes and ideas, “Westworld” is clearly meticulously crafted and building towards something special. Hopefully the next episode will give small answers instead of introducing more complex mysteries.
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