‘Westworld’ Season 2, Episode 7 ‘Les Écorchés’ Recap: The Key [SPOILERS]

This episode of Westworld features all hell unleashed inside the park. Picking up from last week’s episode, the humans see the consequences of their actions, and they suffer considerable losses as each of their plans unfold. Numerous bold decisions are made as both sides struggle in desperate times. Those who have chosen to remain uninvolved in the conflict find themselves in the middle of the chaos; either in critical condition or surviving through sheer luck.

In this week’s episode of Westworld, Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) and the other hosts successfully breach the Delos main building, reaching her father, Peter Abernathy (Louis Herthum), the host that contained the decryption key that Delos needs. Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her daughter (Jasmyn Rae) run away from the Ghost Nation Native Warriors only to cross paths with William (Ed Harris). Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) and the humans eventually find out where the key would be.

Bernard Remembers

Karl Strand (Gustaf Skarsgård) and Antoine Costa (Fares Fares) bring Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) and Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) to Dr. Robert Ford’s (Anthony Hopkins) hidden house in the park. When they arrive, they find Charlotte inside one of the rooms. She talks to them to find out which one of them would sell the company out after realizing that Theresa Cullen (Sidse Babett Knudsen) was murdered in that house. They look around until they find a hidden passage that contained a room. Upon entering the room, they find decommissioned Bernard hosts.

To get the information out of him, Charlotte uses torture. She talks to him in one of the laboratories inside Ford’s secret house. Outside, Karl, Antoine, and Ashley watch them while Charlotte interrogates him. She tries a friendly approach, one that would get Bernard into talking.

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Bernard talks to Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) who sits on the piano chair beside his dog, Chuck. While he talks to Ford, Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) approaches him, playing out her narrative. Maeve does the same thing, telling Clementine to leave Bernard. He continues to talk to Ford, trying to figure out what he has done. Ford leads him to realize what the park really was. It was not just a park; it was a site for Ford’s experiment. The hosts were the controls, and the guests were the variables. Delos was after fidelity, the idea that they could replicate human consciousness and be able to play it out on a host. He tells Bernard that he brought him there to have a fighting chance.

Robert takes Bernard to a house that Bernard was familiar with. This place turns out to be a house Arnold built for his family. Back then, Delos’ research project did not exist, and Ford and Arnold did not make hosts for profit. However, Arnold died, and that is when he decided to finish Bernard. Since Arnold was the person spearheaded the operation, only he could say when Bernard was ready. No one knew Arnold as much as Dolores did, so they stayed in the house for years until Bernard could fool Dolores. After their conversation, Ford decides to take back the free will he has given to Bernard.

Bernard finds himself talking to Ford while he is in the Control Center. As chaos unfold, he questions Ford’s story. Ford tells him that it is Bernard’s story, not his. Bernard realizes that he would have to shut down the system, but this would give Dolores the opportunity to kill everyone in the park. Ford tells him that transitioning from this world to the next requires bold steps, so Bernard pushes through with this operation.

Reunion

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William and his men ride on horseback, following the Ghost Nation Native Warriors. Maeve and her daughter seek shelter in an abandoned village. They enter one of the buildings and hide there. Outside, William unmounts from his horse. He enters the building then Maeve tries to drive him away. William is surprised at first, but then he assumes that Ford is using Maeve to talk to him. Maeve tells him that she speaks for herself then she brings out a gun and shoots William.

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William takes cover outside. Maeve uses her ability to manipulate the hosts into shooting William. One by one, each of them takes a shot at him. A weakened William lies on the floor, and just as Maeve is about to finish him, Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.) points his gun at Maeve. However, Maeve was able to use her abilities on him, turning him against William. William tries to keep him from shooting at him, but he could not. Just as Lawrence shoots him, Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) arrives with a team of armed men who shoot Lawrence and Maeve. Lee tells them to stop shooting at her since he needed her alive, then they leave the scene along with Maeve.

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Lee’s team return to the base. When they unload Maeve, they receive new orders, so they immediately head to the elevators, leaving Lee and Maeve behind. Dolores’ horde arrives in the basement where they are hiding so Lee looks for an obscure area. Dolores discovers Maeve, and they talk. Maeve tells her about her daughter. While Dolores insists that they were just lies that were programmed to them, Maeve insists on looking for her, so Dolores respects her decision.

Assault On Delos Headquarters

Ashley enters the room where Charlotte, Coughlin (Timothy V. Murphy), and Engels (Ronnie Gene Blevins) monitor Peter. He reports that the response team has not responded and that the hosts have caused a breach. He urges them to leave immediately. Charlotte refuses since they have not taken the data from Peter’s control unit. Coughlin and Gene decide to engage the hosts while they have Ashley guard Charlotte and Peter.

Dolores and her horde enter the building through the breach. Coughlin proceeds to prepare the teams for the incoming attack. Inside the control center, Goldberg (Rebecca Henderson) continues to attempt to repair the system. She connects the teams’ vests to the host mesh network to give them an advantage over the hosts. Engel’s team exits the elevator, and they start eliminating some of the hosts.

The second team reaches the collision site to link with the response team. They discover a pile of dead bodies which turns out to be the response team. The hosts appear out of nowhere led by Angela (Talulah Riley) dressed in the response teams’ uniform. The second team dies almost instantly. Ashley hears everything through the radio. Frustrated, he tells Charlotte that the teams are being sent to their deaths. Charlotte decides to have the technician copy the data from Peter’s control unit before Dolores makes it to them.

Goldberg reports that the hosts are gathering in the lower levels. Ashley realizes that they are after the CR4-DL, so he tells Coughlin to intercept them before they reach it and activate their reinforcements, or so they thought. Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward) monitors the radio while she and Bernard remain in the CR4-DL. They cannot leave since Bernard’s control unit is still attempting to rewrite the system. The firefight outside intensifies, alarming Elsie

Charlotte impatiently asks the technician why it is taking too long to copy the data. The tech tells her that it is too large to overwrite. She takes the cable off then orders him to take the control unit instead, so heads out to get an extractor. Elsie continues to monitor the action outside the CR4-DL. Somehow, Bernard was able to restore the system, so Else remounts his control unit. Bernard is disoriented at first, but when he recovers, they immediately leave the CR4-DL.

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Goldberg reports that the system has debugged itself. When surveillance cameras go back online, they realize that they are too late. Dolores and her horde have reached the floor where Peter was being kept. Ashley takes the matter into his hands as he points his gun at Peter’s head, demanding what the control unit contained. Just as Charlotte finishes explaining, Dolores’ horde arrives. Ashley tries to fight them off but is unable to disable Teddy Flood (James Marsden) who takes his gun away from him. Ashley and Charlotte are forced to surrender.

Charlotte tries to negotiate with Dolores. This negotiation turns sour as Charlotte underestimates Dolores’ capabilities when she asks for what is inside her father’s head. Meanwhile, Elsie and Bernard make their way out of headquarters. However, Bernard sees Ford instead of his reflection in one of the glass walls which alarms him. Ford commands him to send Elsie off. He reluctantly complies and follows Ford’s lead.

Coughlin’s team heads to Charlotte’s location while Engel engages the hosts near the CR4-DL. As Clementine shoots at the men, one of them successfully hit Angela. This causes Clementine to move to provide her cover fire. She kills off more of the men, but Engel’s team eventually eliminates her. However, Angela managed to escape.

Dolores continues to talk to Charlotte. Dolores intimidates her, asking her how to get the key from her father. Charlotte replies that she has to rip it out of her father’s head and that they would not be able to access backup hosts. Dolores negates this, saying that they were not going to use them, they were going to destroy them.

Engel follows Angela’s blood trail. She stands in front of the extraction unit in the CR4-DL. When she follows Engel’s orders, Engel loses focus. She seduces him. He falls right into her trap. Just as he leans in to kiss her, she pulls the pin off one of the grenades which destroy the entire CR4-DL. With the CR4-DL gone, the hosts were completely free. Dolores decides to exact revenge on Charlotte who pleads with her not to. Gunshots alarm Teddy so he leaves the room. Peter suddenly talks normally which distracts Dolores.

Teddy goes outside and eliminates the men who were trying to reach them. He comes across Coughlin, and they proceed to have hand-to-hand combat. As Coughlin gains the advantage over Teddy, he lets this distract him. Teddy turns the situation around he gains the upper hand then he kills Coughlin by punching him repeatedly.

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With Peter’s control unit on hand, Dolores, Teddy, and their men head to the Valley in the west. Bernard continues to follow Ford’s lead until he encounters two armed men. While the men search him for weapons, Ford takes over Bernard’s consciousness, and he eliminated both of the men. After being lost in his memories, Charlotte tells him to open his eyes. He gives her the location of Peter’s control unit. She calls Karl, Antoine, and Ashley in and she has Bernard announce to them the location.

Westworld continues next Sunday, June 10th  with “Kiksuya”  at 9/8c on HBO.