Westworld Season 3 Episode 5: Genre | Review
On episode 5, Jonathan Nolan emerges from the darkness and Nolanism rises from the dead, as Dolores starts forging her plan.
Forwarded by Kondelle Levi
This episode was quite the fun ride- literally. Jonathan Nolan managed to present major shift in the story and create great drama during one fun joyride, while Caleb is sipping on lean. It was actually a great surprise in our household, at 6 am in the morning, to see Jonathan Nolan name pop up in the beginning of the episode as the writer. Nolan made sure to keep this one a secret, most certainly to surprise the Nolanists and reward them for all the Good Work being done. For it is known, that the Lord loves the one who loves the lord. It is also a well established fact that the Good Work for the Good Lord is hardly ever over. So perhaps if we keep feeding this cycle Nolan will keep bringing us surprises of that sort. Bring it on!
This episode marked the starting point for Dolores’ vicious plan she enlisted Caleb for. In the ending of the episode the entire world left in shambles — everybody fugazi and Dolores is changing the channel. Is what she did an evil act, though? Is telling all these people their trajectories in life really an act of chaos, or perhaps an act for ensuring true freedom? In the past two seasons, it is well established that the humans kept the hosts in their loops, didn’t want them to develop mind of their own and kept them merely to serve their own purposes. This episode however, mirrors exactly what Dolores did in the ending of season 1, but on a much bigger scale. It turned out, that the human are merely a fugazi as well, all inside the loop generated by Cerac and his AI to keep the world at order. By unleashing all the information, Dolores broke the loops and freed everyone- exposed them to the charade and gave them true freedom, something that they never really knew. So this is another point where the show is discussing serious psychological matters like free will and loops in our lives. What if there was a Rexabhamm that knows all about everybody? Would we want to know what’s gonna happen to us? And if we knew, could we now make a CHOICE and change things?
The Genre drug is a drug given to Caleb in the beginning. Supposedly a party drug, it makes you live inside your favourite movies, or just movies, we didn’t quite get it. Is it the same to everyone? Do different people experience it differently? Is it yet another metaphor for Fugazîa? What’s real when you’re living inside a movie and hearing The Shining’s theme music? Can you tell? And how come there was no Christopher Nolan classic in the movies Caleb is experiencing? It seems that the tide-pods era is gone at least. Good riddance.
This episode is the first since episode 1 that was written by the Lord Himself, Jonathan Nolan. We were so sure he won’t write again until episode 8, but boi were we wrong! When you see the title “Written by Jonathan Nolan” you know to expect greatness. As the saying goes: “The Lord loves the one who loves the Lord”, and you know you also need to open your mind a bit, the plot begins to thicken and you need to pay attention. By the end of the episode questions a-la Nolan start to rise, as we get teased with the idea that Caleb might not be who he thinks he is and we start to wonder what does it even mean.
Dempsey is having his final moments, you can feel it throughout the entire episode — something bad is about to happen to the guy. And something bad does happen indeed, as he doesn’t make it to the next episode. In fact, he is a tragic greek hero of sorts. If so, what is Caleb in this allegory? Food for thought.
We also get a glimpse into Cîroc’s past. Apparently he once had a twin, and they created Rexabhamm together, but not before they had several other prototypes that failed, like “Shlomo”, “Noah”, “Yehushua Ben-Nun”, “Avner Ben-Ner”, “Moses, our Rabbi”, “Abraham, our Father” and others based on biblical characters. The fact Nolan chose to name the all-knowing machines as the kings of Jerusalem is certainly an evidence he supports the Nolanism Compound in Jerusalem concept, if anyone needed proof anyway. Btw, hearing Vincent Cassel pronouncing Rexabhamm in a French accent was divine.
We would have said we are excited to see what the next episode holds, but we already watched the next two. So that’s it for now!
