WESTWORLD - Thibault TOULAT

Hello Mister Cox,

I choose to look at the series "Westworld". I never seen this series before and I was strongly advised to watch it, so I guess that's the right time to discover this series. It's a series of science fiction, created by Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher Nolan himself) and Lisa Joy. The series is broadcast by HBO (which has already retransmitted a lot of fantastic series like "True detective", "Game of thrones","The sopranos" or "OZ").

The frame takes place at Westworld, an amusement park which takes the theme of the conquest of the west. The park is populated by androids with human appearance that have been created to immerse the visitors in the best possible way. However, following an update, some robots begins to adopt unpredictable behavior. The park leaders are worried. What is going on with androids ?

Episode 1 - season 1

At first, a man named Teddy arrived at Sweetwater, the central city of Westworld Park. He finds Dolores, a robot that he follows at home. Arriving at the farm, the young woman discovers her deceased parents. After defeating the bandits, Teddy has to face a man in black, insensitive to his bullets. The man seems to know Dolores. Finally, this one kills Teddy who turns out to be a robot, and drags the young woman into the barn. The next day, Teddy and Dolores start a new day without any memories of the day before.

Many robots show signs of dysfunction in their behavior. Bernard Lowe, director of programming, connects these bugs to the new update "Rêveries" by Dr. Robert Ford, founder and director of the park. He reaches to convince Theresa Cullen, director of operations, not to quarantine the robots up to date. But after a new incident with a robot named Walter, Theresa decides to remove the robots.

Meanwhile, Dolores' father, Peter Abernathy, can no longer detach himself from a photograph of the outside world forgotten by a visitor to the park. Subsequently Dolores is interrupted by a robbery. Asked by Dr. Ford, Peter seeks to protect his daughter and vows to take revenge on his creators. The update allowed some robots to remember their past, yet erased.

Finally, Peter and Walter are evacuated from the park while Dolores, which is the oldest in the park, is put back into service after inspection. The next day, without remembering the day before and endowed with a new father, she nonchalantly kills a fly, which she should not be able to.

Episode 2 - season 1

William comes for the first time at Westworld with his future brother-in-law Logan. He has trouble for integrating this world because of his kind nature. Logan understands the rules of this world. The day after their arrival, William meets Dolores and is not insensitive to his charm.

The man in black saves Laurent, a brigand who was about to be hanged by the sheriff. He takes him back to his hometown and questions him about the "labyrinth". After a shooting with the locals, he kills Lawrence's wife and his daughter gives him a clue to find the labyrinth but she says that the labyrinth isn’t for him.

To Sweetwater, Dolores has strange visions. She makes a dream of her life with her daughter who has been attacked by the man in black. This affects her and after several worse arrangements, the park staff decides to finally replace her with Clementine, a prostitute. After, she wakes up in full maintenance to the surprise of technicians Felix and Sylvester, and escapes into the corridors. But she is caught up by the two men who prefer not to report the incident, thinking they have simply forgotten to put her on standby.

Elsie, a programmer, wants to continue investigating the causes of Peter Abernathy's malfunction and to make sure Dolores has not been touched. Bernard refused because he’s secretly tenanting conversations with Dolores. Meanwhile, Lee is preparing a new scenario involving Native Americans, but he is ultimately rejected by Ford who decides to create this new story himself. The director takes Bernard into the desert and stops in front of the bell tower of a church buried in the sand.

Episode 3 - season 1

While William is walking to Sweetwater, Clementine is taken hostage. William saves her but gets shot. Thanks to his success, he decides to accompany a bounty hunter to the adventure.

Theresa complains to Bernard of Ford's actions, after refusing Lee's script, he changes without warning the scripts of many hosts, creating chaos in the park. Elsie shows Bernard that Walter apparently avenged hosts having killed him before. The latter was holding a conversation with an imaginary person named Arnold. Ford reveals that Arnold was the co-founder of the park and he accidentally died within the park several years ago. Meanwhile, Bernard continues his secret discussions with Dolores but is worried about their repercussions on her.

Dolores finds Teddy and asks her to run away with her the same day, but the young man refuses. Later, Dolores, haunted by the memory of the Man in Black, asks Teddy to teach her to shoot, which she cannot do because of his programs. Teddy joined a sheriff-led group to end the murders of a former comrade and union army sergeant named Wyatt who had massacred all the villagers. They fall into an ambush and Teddy finds himself alone and destitute in front of Wyatt's disciples, his balls having no effect against them.

Back home, Dolores again finds her parents dead. One of the bandits, Rebus, dragged her into the barn to rape her and the young woman recalls a similar situation with the Man in Black. Obeying an unknown voice, she manages to overcome her programming and defeats Rebus before fleeing into the night. She falls on a campfire where Logan and William are, and collapses in the arms of the latter.

Episode 4 - season 1

At first, Bernard learns of the existence of the labyrinth in Dolores and tells him that it can be free if it finds the center. The young woman wakes up at the camp of William and Logan and accompanies them in their adventure of bounty hunters. After capturing the criminal, Logan realizes that they have unlocked an important quest and decides to follow it rather than return to Sweetwater.
Theresa confided the investigation of the incident with the host lost to his own team, having no longer confidence in Bernard and Elsie. Then she confronts Ford about her new scenario and the chaos provoked in the park. Ford then shows him the full extent of his power and advises him not to get in his way.

The Man in Black is looking for snakes near the river in accordance with Lawrence's daughter index. He joins a gang led by Armistice, an outlaw with a snake tattoo, who is trying to get his leader, Hector, out of jail. Finding that their plan will take too long, he himself will release him in exchange for information about the Armistice tattoo. The latter explains that he represents all the men she killed to take revenge for the massacre of her village, and that the last part is reserved for Wyatt. The man in black, always accompanied by Lawrence, sets off in search of Wyatt and falls on the way to Teddy, seriously wounded, which he decides to take with him.
Maeve continues to have visions of her past life but also the maintenance technicians in combination that she takes for the god of the Amerindians. In addition, she remembers being shot but has no scars. When Hector, who had lived several years with the Amerindians, arrived in town to steer the bar, she forced him to answer his questions. She also asks him to open it and finds a bullet in his belly, proving that his visions are real. She is then let down by the men of the sheriff, understanding that it no longer matters.