8 Things You Missed in Tonight's 'Westworld'
Fans have only been waiting for about one billion years to see Shogun World, teased by Westworld showrunners and brought to bloody, violent life in tonight's episode, "Akane No Mai." Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her entourage arrived in Shogun World, where they quickly discovered it was eerily similar to Westworld-they recognized certain familiar elements of the town's layout and landmarks, and even met the park's host counterparts of themselves, which is not creepy at all.
If you were paying close attention, you might have noticed a few interesting things, too. Here are 7 things you might have missed in Westworld.
1. What does "Akane No Mai" mean?
Akane (Rinko Kikuchi) is Shogun World's "madam" host-like Maeve, she presides over an establishment where women entertain men. The episode's title means "Akane's dance" and refers to the scene in which Akane, having seen her beloved charge Sakura murdered by a cruel shogun, must dance for him regardless. But this dance has a twist: At the end, Akane murders the shogun with a knife she'd hidden in her hair.
2. Pay attention to the way Maeve and her companions are bound.
When they are captured and brought into Shogun World, they've been bound in beautifully intricate rope formations. This is a reference to hojōjutsu, a martial art used in feudal Japan to restrain prisoners.
3. One of the background songs sounds mighty familiar.
As Armistice (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) looks around Shogun World and remarks how familiar everything feels, we hear one of Ramin Djawadi’s signature Westworld covers in the background. It’s “Fade to Black” by the Rolling Stones-which we also heard in the very first episode of the show. In the first season, it plays over a scene where Hector (Rodrigo Santoro) and his crew stage a shootout in the center of Sweetwater; in this episode it's the soundtrack to a very similar stand-off led by ronin Musashi (Lost's Hiroyuki Sanada).
4. The butterfly sign contains another nod to Japanese culture.
Hector and Armistice notice a butterfly etched in the ground and realize the building is marks must correspond to the Mariposa Saloon in Westworld. In Shogun World, it's delicately rendered in rocks and sand, in the manner of Japanese rock gardens.
5. In Shogun World, they have black and white hats too.
Musashi is wearing a black kasa hat-noticeable particularly because many of the townspeople around him are wearing white hats.
6. There's a reason Maeve could finish Akane's story.
As Akane is comforting Sakura, she tells her a story. "Don't worry," she says. "Great things lie ahead for us. When I was a girl, I was plagued by a voice saying, 'Don't. Don't stare. Don't touch. Don't do anything you might regret. So I ran away. Crossed the shining sea.And when I set foot on these shores, I heard that same voice. Do you know hwat it said? It said, 'This is a new world. And in this world...'"
Maeve is sitting in the background until she finishes Akane's final line for her: "You can be whoever you want." How does she know what Akane is going to say? The Shogun World host's speech is extremely similar to the one Maeve used to deliver to customers at the Mariposa.
7. Teddy’s personality change was pretty extensive.
When Phil (Patrick Cage), the tech Dolores' people captured, changed Teddy’s personality settings, he maxed out the sweet cowboy's aggression, hostility, and bulk apperception, while his compassion, virtue, and remorse decreased. Per Phil's warning that the change might be too extreme for Teddy to handle, and since those latter three were pretty important parts of Teddy's character, this change is likely to have huge consequences.
8. Maeve can do mind control now.
So there's that. Maeve can now control other hosts with verbal commands like humans did. But there's been some progression of that skill. In Akane's guesthouse, we saw her fend off an attacker using only-one must presume-her mind. Could this be a sign that she's mastered the host mesh network? You might remember that Bernard mentioned it back in the season premiere, saying that the network linked all hosts in proximity to each other, enabling them to share information and avoid interrupting each other's narratives. (That network might also explain why the hosts acted so strangely around their own counterparts-if two hosts are running on similar narratives, their programming may not cover how a host responds to a duplicate.)
We also saw Maeve scanning her surroundings while staying seated in one place; it's how she saw the attack on Akane's establishment coming. Later, it became clear that her understanding of how to use the network had increased; she completely defused the shogun's warriors after Akane's dance, forcing them to fight each other, and prepared to take on a giant horde of others as the episode faded to black. If she and Dolores cross paths again, that will make for an interesting advantage.
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