WW – Westworld S3 E7 Passed Pawn

Jason and Cristina break down the Westworld Season 3 Episode 7 – Passed Pawn! Outlier Program, EMP, Original Sin

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Podcast Notes –

WRITTEN BY:	Gina Atwater
DIRECTED BY:	Helen Shaver
RECEPTION:	Imdb – 9.7 / RT – 75%

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” 

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

CRITICS: “Passed Pawn” is a great episode. Exciting and messy, it has just enough answers to spark more questions and moves at a relentless pace.

The big problem… is that Westworld frames such late-season revelations as big reveals when we’re all attuned to the show’s wavelength enough that we’d all guessed them already.

TITLE: In chess, a passed pawn (or “passer) is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank (player’s choice of promotion).  Passed pawns are particularly important, often of decisive significance, in the endgame.

THOUGHTS: 2 major storylines followed – Dolores & Caleb, Bernard & William

Good backstory on Caleb (too split up and forced gradual stringing pieces together) (Caleb learns about Dolores between episodes and we don’t get to see?).  Bernard – point of interaction?  Weird, forced dialogue. 

MUSIC:

• Orfeo ed Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits – piano rendition performed by Gloria Saarinen, originally by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1700s)           (opening scene)

Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of tragic love.  Shortly after they were married, Eurydice died and Orpheus was heartbroken, wandering the world playing desperately sad music, until he finally decided to go to the Underworld and either bring her back or stay with her.  Hades said he could bring her back under one condition – if he managed to lead her out of the Underworld without looking back at her once.  He did but as soon as they were out in the sunlight, turned to look at her, and she was lost. 

NEW FACES & PLACES & IDEAS

FACES:

• Greene: played by AprilAnn Dais.  
• Whitman played by Enrico Colantoni.

PLOT

DIVERGENCE:     JAKARTA  (Intervention in Progress)

In a restaurant in Jakarta, Musashi asks a man, “Have you found his location; is everything in order?”  He then hands him a case, to be delivered to their friend.  They’re interrupted when Hale calls and tells him Dolores’ plan is for them to die…but she has a new plan; she’s leaked his location to someone eager to see him.  It’s Clementine, sent by Maeve, and while he withstands her attack, he surprised and killed by Hanaryo. 

            Did Hale go to Maeve?  Or Serac? (intervention) 

DIVERGENCE:  SONORA, MEXICO (15 Arc Degrees)

In an open plain, Caleb and Dolores ride horses (dressed in black – she has white horse, he has black).  It turns out, the Inner Journeys Recovery Center and William are not in Sonora, Mexico, that’s where this facility is that houses Solomon (and the pods).  They put the synthetic marker in William so that Dolores could infiltrate Serac’s system (like a Trojan Horse) to find this place.  Caleb says he’s never been out this far; it’s so empty.  When Dolores thinks it reminds her of home, he wonders if she killed all those people in the massacre at Westworld.  And what kind of revolution are they waging here; how many more will die?  She says the park was modeled after this place – the West was cruel, unjust, and chaotic, but there was also a chance to chart your own course.  She wants that for her own kind, for them to be free.  And while they are almost extinct his people still have a chance and will need someone to lead them.  He tries to protest (he’s just a construction worker), but she thinks she was too until the time came to be more.  And she has incentive for him, something valuable that was taken from him; this is where they destroyed his life. 

DOLORES & CALEB – FIND SOLOMON

Scoping out the building, Dolores sends a drone inside and uses the location to fire and kill the guards.  Inside, they locate the large warehouse room that houses Solomon. Dolores tells him that it ran so many projections and strategies, it developed some anomalies.  Serac’s brother was schizophrenic and Solomon inherited some of his ways of thinking.  She’s hoping to get one last strategy from it – revolution. 

            Caleb notes the military grade EMP (‘in case it tries to escape’)

They put in earpieces and begin talking to Solomon who notes that Caleb was part of Variant 47.136.x, Subject U454.1.  “I know everyone in all variations, except for her; her pathways are unknown.”  Dolores tries to note the similarities between them and it replies, “You are a Delos product – you were made to imitate a human being; we are not alike.”  She tells it she wants to help end the new world order.  Solomon thinks that no plan is perfect but the Rehabs are effective for outliers such as Caleb.  He was one of the first to receive a revolutionary treatment and it was effective, but there was always the possibility of regression.  The efficacy rate of the program is only 1 in 10.

CALEB – FLASHBACKS

Throughout, Caleb starts remembering that he was here before.  He has flashbacks of Dr. Greene questioning him as he goes through AR treatment.  She tells him to start at the beginning and tell her how he got there.  He first goes through the story he remembers about the death of Francis.  He was deployed to Crimea during the Russian Civil War.  The US was officially on the ground for humanitarian aid, but his unit was there to hunt down an insurgent group (the last and worst of them).  The Quants (Quantitative Analysts) had a strategy engine looking at the data and feeding them names.  They would mark them (putting a handprint on targets) and then receive an assessment. 

Confirm Target (2).  Assignment Alpha-367

Target 051: Alexei Ivanov (adult male). Terrorist Affiliations (White Army), Murder (13+), Torture of civilians.  Target Area: urban, outdoor.  Calculating Collateral Damage: +/- 10 civilians, minor structural damage, low retaliation risk, within acceptable threshold.

Target 052: Leonid Sokolov (weapons smuggling, suicide attack imminent)

The team confirmed with superiors via radio and a satellite would release a targeted attack to take them out.  They took Limbics to dull their emotions and memories.  But they were also being tracked themselves.

Unknown Targeting Signature Detected. Radiation Level: 0.07 MSV

Radiation is measured using the unit Sievert which quantifies the amount of radiation absorbed by human tissues.  One Sievert is 1,000 millisieverts (mSv).  People are exposed to a natural radiation of 2-3 mSv a year (in a CT scan, the organ being studied typically receives a dose of 15 mSv). 

Caleb realizes what’s happening and tries to stop his friend Thompson but he’s killed in an explosion.  Caleb says their unit was attacked by the insurgents and they lost their whole squat, but he and Francis wouldn’t stop.  They captured the leader and interrogated him.  They waited for hours but the evac never came.  When they tried to move him, they were ambushed and Francis was shot.  The Doctor keeps prompting him to go through the story again. 

DOLORES & CALEB – OUTLIER PROGRAM

At this point, Dolores & Caleb discover a message from Serac left for his brother.  “If you’re seeing this, it means you’ve awoken and our experiment has worked.  Rehoboam saw in you and other outliers, the fatal flaw that would have turned the world on its axis.  It needed time and the right set of genetic information to restore you.  You are now a better version of yourself, the rough edges smoothed.  I wish I could be there with you but the man I was no longer exists. 

Solomon explains that Serac had it run projections to save mankind from extinction, but the projections didn’t fit so the data had to change.  In the projections, the world always collapsed until the Outlier Program began.  Crime, hunger and deprivation reduced worldwide.  But they had to ‘weed out’ the 9 out of 10 that couldn’t be rehabilitated.  After Caleb’s reconditioning, he was tasked with hunting down hundreds of these people.   They see all the people being kept in “Pods” (Cold Storage).  They created an app and used it to regulate criminality.  He and his associate (Francis) were the most successful operatives.  He doesn’t remember because they didn’t want him to – the AR Conditioning and pharmaceuticals created dissociative memories. 

            Operative Team U454.1/ U783.4 – Rico Log

Kidnapping and Ransom, Assassination, Arson, Enhanced Interrogation, Double Homicide, Intimidation, Domestic Terrorism

Caleb realizes Francis didn’t die in the war.  After incident 976B, they were both honorably discharged and sent home (remembers Francis saying his son was under weather, “it’s always something, the doctor is running tests).  The actual memory surfaces of taking Whitman in.  Despite the RICO app telling them not to talk to him, Caleb removes his tape.  Whitman says he knew they were coming for him – he was the same for his first 10 years (didn’t care who or why) but now the system is taking him out because he doesn’t fit the plan anymore.  He represented the pharmaceutical company that manages the Limbics (military grade, platinum 6-7).  Because he asked too many questions, he’ll be dead or sent down to Sonora.  The system will be trimming the loose ends.  So after his death, one of them will get a bonus offer to kill their partner.  Even though the last RICO instructions just told them to stay put, Francis gets and alert and then goes to ‘wait out front’.  Becoming suspicious, Caleb follows and wonders how much they offered Francis to kill him.  “Enough”.  But Caleb moves quicker and shoots Francis.  Then, he kills Whitman.  Solomon – “Every human relationship can be adjusted with the right amount of money.”  Caleb is enraged, realizing they took his life and his memory and then used him.

DOLORES & MAEVE – EMP

During this, they are alerted someone has reached the facility.  Dolores tells Caleb not to leave until Solomon gives him a new strategy, a story for the human race.  When Solomon says it made many strategies, Dolores says they want the final one, the one Jean Mi asked it to make just before Serac condemned him here.  Solomon thinks that was 15 years ago, the strategy decohered from this world; the prime movers are either dead or there. But she instructs it to make it fir with this world.  Caleb wonders what happens if she doesn’t return? (“If you die, I will adjust my predictions”).  “Take whatever it gives you and lead”. 

She goes outside and meets Dolores, saying she is not Maeve’s enemy.  And if they can’t be free in this world, they can’t be free in any world.  But Maeve thinks she continues to endanger those in the Sublime (not to mention all the copies of herself still running around).  Dolores wonders why Maeve is working for the humans; they murdered and tortured them.  “We lost everything we loved”.  But Maeve thinks they’re nothing alike and has the robot attack her.  Dolores retaliates with a drone strike, and Maeve sends her own ship, shooting Dolores’ arm off.  She crawls inside, Maeve following. 

Solomon alerts Caleb that it processed the request from “Host Control six-alpha-one”.  Her new strategy is ready.  He tells Solomon he needs to know how to kill it’s creator, how to end this.  Solomon instructs him to take the drive and starts to issue a last statement, “I must warn you…”.  As Dolores sees the lights flash on Solomon, she reaches the panel and presses the EMP button to Engage. The lights go off, it powers down, and so do Dolores and Maeve.  Caleb walks away angrily, sees Dolores, and then gets a message from the Virtual Assistant, “I have some instructions for you.” 

BERNARD & WILLIAM – ORIGINAL SIN

Bernard tells William that Dolores didn’t send him to find her – she wanted them to find out more about Serac.  Hale injected him with a virus of sorts into his blood – once his blood was sent to the lab, she was able to track it to infiltrate their system.  According to the file on William in the system, he’s deceased.  From what he can tell, all the people sent to the Recovery Center were Classification U – Outliers.  They turned their minds around so they were less of a threat to society.  But William’s name is on a list with thousands of others for whom the therapy didn’t work.  They were declared missing or dead.  Serac thought his machine could save the world, but when it didn’t work for certain people, he tried to reprogram them, like hosts.  To do that, he needed high-grade biometric data.  William admits he sold it to them because the park needed capital. He also thinks Bernard should stop acting like a savior, he’s not Arnold.  As Bernard searches for a log of those the therapy did work for, Stubbs finds the file he’s looking for, on Caleb.

William – “Looks like we’re laying her game now.  I know my purpose, I found it here, I faced my demons.  I’ve wronged a lot of people in my life and hurt the ones I loved most.  But of all the things I’ve done, there’s only one stain I could not blot out – one original sin – you.  I helped build you and Dolores.  So I’m gonna wipe out every host.”  

Despite this, Bernard won’t hurt him, telling Stubbs they may need him.  Searching for a car, the three arrive at an abandoned gas station (everything is in chaos).  Bernard – “This world was a powder keg just waiting for a spark – Dolores”.  Bernard tells Stubbs that Caleb is one of the outliers – if they can find him, they might be able to stop her.  He’s Dolores’ plan; Dolores was made with a poetic sensibility, she won’t destroy humanity, he will.  William pulls a gun on them.

CLOSER LOOK

EMP – Electromagnetic Pulse:

A short burst of electronic energy that can be a natural occurrence or man-made (also by weapons – developed to deliver high-energy EMP).  It can occur as: 1) radiated, 2) electric, 3) magnetic, or 4) conducted electrical current.  It is also characterized by pulse waveform: shape, duration and amplitude.  Natural – lightning, meteoric impact, coronal mass ejection (solar).  Man-made: pulse train, electric motors, gasoline engine ignition system, digital electronic circuitry, power line surges.  Military/weapons: nuclear explosion, non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapons (carried as payload of bombs, cruise missiles and drones).

EMP interference is generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment.  Minor events cause low levels of electronic noise or interference, which affects the operation of devices (in the mid-20^th century, interference by ignition systems of gasoline engines caused radio sets to crackle and TV sets to show stripes on screens – laws were introduce to make manufacturers include interference suppressors).  At higher levels, a powerful EMP event (such as a lightning strike) can damage physical objects, corrupt data stored on media, or even permanently damage equipment.

            Wouldn’t they have some sort of internal Faraday cage to protect host? 

ID NUMBERS:

William’s patient ID number (Inner Journeys) is the same as Caleb’s ID number – according to the screens Stubbs & Bernard were looking at. UM27021001912B

At the top of the tablet screen, there is another “Registration Number” for Caleb that is different (this one has a 47 in it).