‘Westworld’ Season 2, Episode 8 ‘Kiksuya’ Recap: Guardian [SPOILERS]

This episode of Westworld places the spotlight away from the ongoing war between the hosts and the humans. The writers bring creative justice to one of the show’s most mysterious characters. Perhaps this episode could arguably be one of the most emotional ones in the series. Still, the character’s story does not stray too far away from the main plot.

On tonight’s episode of Westworld, titled “Kiksuya,” Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon) reveals his story to Maeve’s daughter (Jasmyn Rae) as well as his true intentions. Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) brings a dying Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton) to Roland (Aaron Fili) who presents what he had found out to Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson).

The Awakening

Akecheta finds William (Ed Harris) crawling on the shore, struggling for his life. He brings him to the Ghost Nation camp. Akecheta approaches Maeve’s daughter who is visibly bothered by William’s presence. He tells her not to be afraid of him and that he cannot hurt her. After this, Akecheta retells his story to Maeve’s daughter.

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Akecheta’s story begins in a village far away from the park. There, he lived a simple life. He had a wife named Kohana (Julia Jones), and they lived in a village that had peace and harmony. All this changed when Akecheta found himself in the aftermath of Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) and Dolores Abernathy’s (Evan Rachel Wood) death. He sees The Maze inside a tavern. When he comes home, he is driven insane by The Maze as he carves it into anything that he could get his hands on.

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Because of what Akecheta had found, his behavior had changed, prompting the park management decided to change his narrative. When he is sent back to the park, he becomes the Ghost Nation Natives’ Leader. It was a complete change from his previous role since he mainly killed all he was programmed to kill.

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The first time Akecheta encountered the Humans or the ‘Newcomers’ was when he found Logan (Ben Barnes), driven insane by his countless days in the desert after his horse’s death. He gives Logan his saddling cloth then he left him. Logan’s words awakened something in him, making him think that his people were in the wrong world.

Akecheta and his tribe make an exchange of goods in the village where he once lived. He finds Kohana there whom he remembers, but to Kohana, he was just a stranger. Wichapi (Irene Bedard), the tribe leader had a son named Etu (Booboo Stewart) who got angry when he saw Akecheta look at Kohana. Akecheta and his tribe left. With each passing day, Akecheta’s consciousness grew stronger.

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Akecheta decides to journey into the path where he had found Logan. He does not find Logan there, so he goes farther than he had gone. There, he finds machines that are foreign to him. What he had seen was a passage to a new world, so he decides to go through it. Still, he would not leave if he was not with Kohana, so he goes to the village. Akecheta finds her sleeping, so he takes her with him. They make the journey to the passage.

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When they were close to the passage, Akecheta sets Kohana down the horse. He removes her restraints, and after a while, Kohana remembers who he was to her. He tells her that they live in the wrong world. Afterward, they continue to the entrance of the passage, but unfortunately, the passage became been hidden. Because of this, Akecheta and Kohana decide to camp near the passage. However, the Humans discover and take Kohana away with them.

Akecheta thought that the Humans would return Kohana to the village, so he goes there. When he enters her tent, she finds out that the Humans had replaced her with another woman (Sarah Alami). He realized that the Humans had taken her away from him once more, but he does not stop there. Akecheta searches the entire park, hoping to find her. His search led to him almost dying, but Maeve’s daughter was there to help get his strength back. When he returned to the village, he finds out that the Humans had replaced not just Kohana, but even Etu. Wichapi notices this change as well.

Akecheta had a different plan to find Kohana, and it came at a price. He had to be killed by a Human. Once he was dead, the Behavior Techs that handled him were surprised to find him. They had a Senior Tech check on him; then she ordered them to send him back with the latest software update since his version was obsolete. The technicians leave Akecheta since the update took four hours to install.

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Akecheta searches the building for Kohana. He finds her standing beside other hosts in a dark room. Relieved, he talks to her, telling her that it was time to go home. However, he realizes that something is wrong. Kohana was unresponsive to him. She was gone. At that moment, Akecheta became full of pain and grief. He grieved the loss of Kohana and Etu, who was also standing there, deactivated. Akecheta goes back to the examination room, bearing grave news.

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When Akecheta comes back to the village, he approaches Wichapi. He gives her some of her son’s hair. Wichapi breaks down in tears as she realizes that her suspicions were right. However, Akecheta had a plan to keep them safe from the Humans. He starts to teach the symbol to his people, beginning with his men. He also tries to warn Maeve and her daughter, but his presence led Maeve fearing for their lives. Because of this, Akecheta was not truly able to inform them. Eventually, William finds his way to them, and when he does, he kills them almost instantly.

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As awareness had spread among them, Akecheta finally meets Dr. Robert Ford. Robert finds out what Akecheta has been up to. He does not stop him. Instead, he gives Akecheta a hint about when they would find freedom: the return of the “Deathbringer.” After this, Robert left. The “Deathbringer’s return finally arrived when Akecheta finds Robert’s dead body at the aftermath of his party. Now, it was time to look for the way out before the Deathbringer killed them all. He tells Maeve’s daughter not to be afraid.

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Grace (Katja Herbers) arrives in their camp, telling that she needs to take her father, William, with her. Akecheta reasons out that William has caused a great deal of pain to his people and that they wanted payback, but Grace tells them that they are after the same thing. Also, her methods of getting payback were much worse. Akecheta helps her put William on his horse; then they leave the camp. It was time for them to go.

Critical

Lee hurriedly busts into Roland’s operating room, bringing Maeve on a stretcher. Rolan initially turns him away, saying that he had too much work to do, but Lee insists that Maeve was a valuable asset. Lee was able to convince Roland to take care of Maeve. Moments later, Maeve’s data was read by Roland’s tablet as she lay on the operating table.

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Lee enters the operating room and stands by Maeve’s bedside. He apologizes to her, saying that this was not how he had wanted her to end and that she deserves to be with her daughter. Roland comes in, telling him to leave. Lee argues with him, seeing that Maeve was still unrepaired. Roland reasons out that the code Maeve had may be valuable, but Charlotte Hale gets to decide Maeve’s fate.

Charlotte arrives in Roland’s operating room. Roland reports his findings to her in a manner that made Charlotte impatient, so she tells him to get to his point. When Roland finally tells her that Maeve was able to reach out through the hosts using her thoughts, Charlotte that Maeve was doing that at that moment. Maeve was talking to Akecheta, who wishes her well, may it be that she recovers, or she dies.

Westworld continues next Sunday, June 17th, with “Vanishing Point” at 9/8c on HBO.