Westworld 2.8: The Wrong World

An exquisite, almost standalone episode 2.8 - much of it told in Lakota, and brilliantly performed by Zahn McClarnon (who was great in Fargo 2, but even better in Longmire) as Akecheta, who comes to realize his part of the Westworld is not the real world, is the wrong world, and like Dolores devotes his life to getting out of there.

Of course, that part is not standalone, and it's the best part of this part of the story.  Although Dolores and Akecheta share the goal of getting into the real, aka our, world, their methods are very different. Akecheta wants to get there, with the woman he loves, and only kills when necessary.  Dolores wants to get there with Teddy, but she has no problem changing his mentality to be more pliable to her wishes, and otherwise is "The Deathbringer" (in Akecheta's words) of everything and everyone around her, including Ford.

The difference between Akecheta and Dolores, who is actually barely seen in this episode, gets us back to Maeve and her daughter, who play a huge role in Akecheta's life.  Based on the final scene, either Maeve is actually Kohana, Akecheta's true love, or Maeve is able to read her mentality, wherever Kohana is.   Occam's razor says the latter - we already know Maeve can control hosts through her telepathy - but I prefer the former.  What is indisputable is that Akecheta is devoted to protecting and liberating Maeve's daughter (opposite of the implication at the end of previous episode - a nice turnaround).  This raises the question of why, one answer being what I mentioned last week, that Maeve's daughter is really Maeve as a girl, though there's still not much evidence for this.

What is undeniable is that Akecheta and Maeve are on the same side, and their vision of the right world, and how to get there, is sharply at odds with Dolores' (likely because she was already there). With every episode in the second season, the most important battle looming ahead becomes not between hosts and guests, but hosts and hosts.  No wonder they all want to get out of that world.

See also Westworld 2.1: Maeve's Daughter ... Westworld 2.2: "Narcissus Narcosis" ... Westworld 2.3: The Raj and Guns of the South ... Westworld 2.4: Questions Pertaining to Immortality ... Westworld 2.5: Telepathic Control ... Westworld 2.6: The Dangling Conversation ... Westworld 2.7: Maeve vs. Dolores

And see also Westworld 1.1: Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick Served Up by Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, and J. J. Abrams ... Westworld 1.2: Who Is the Man in Black? ... Westworld 1.3: Julian Jaynes and Arnold ... Westworld 1.4: Vacation, Connie Francis, and Kurt Vonnegut ... Westworld 1.5: The Voice Inside Dolores ... Westworld 1.6: Programmed Unprogramming ... Westworld 1.7: The Story of the Story ... Westworld 1.8: Memories ... Westworld 1.9: Half-Truths and Old Friends ... Westworld Season 1 Finale: Answers and Questions