TV Review: WESTWORLD: Season 3, Episode 7: Passed Pawn [HBO]

Westworld Passed Pawn Review

HBO‘s Westworld: Season 3, Episode 7: Passed Pawn revealed the foul roots of Westworld’s science. Although, it took its sweet time getting to the heart of Westworld’s sinister genesis, the revelation was not disappointing. Through Caleb’s (Aaron Paul) eyes, we witnessed the truth and a new awakening much like we did with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) in the first season. In so many ways Passed Pawn brought us full circle from Season 1. Like Dolores, Caleb is awake now, and pissed.

Passed Pawn seems to refer to the many pieces on the board that could be unstoppable in this war. Dolores’ copies, Caleb and Francis (Kid Cudi), William (Ed Harris), and Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her friends are all pawns on different levels. This episode implied that Caleb is the unstoppable piece that Dolores has set in motion to lead an enlightened mankind. Perhaps the destruction of “her people” shifted her plan to protect the better half of humans – the outliers. It is more likely she just wants to see the world descend into the same chaos we saw with Westworld.

Caleb and Dolores mirror each other in that they both are our route into the process of self-determination for beings affected by William’s and Serac’s (Vincent Cassel) technology. Through him, we discovered that Westworld was merely a microcosm of the larger re-imagined world, including having a “basement” for ill-functioning humans. We passed into purgatory and met Hades aka Solomon (Paul Cooper). Passed Pawn was beautifully shot, contrasting the cold dark emptiness of the basement beneath the warm, southwestern landscape. Even our heroines clad in all black seemed like destructive ink blots on a muted canvas. Every shot was striking.

The preliminary death match between our two femmes fatales was also well worth the wait. They fought like machines, with machines, using machine guns. This is very unlike the cerebral, gothic battles in Westworld. Once again, it showed the fundamental differences and similarities between the two warriors. Both are brilliant, deadly organisms. Maeve eliminated one of Dolores’ pawns and turned another. For Maeve and her friends it’s personal, but for Dolores this war is universal. Dolores is driven by revolution, while Maeve seems to want something like …peace? Are these two truly opposed?

Now, Caleb knows everything, and since knowledge is power in this world, he is quite powerful. Unfortunately, the same knowledge drove Serac’s brother, Jean Mi (Cooper), insane. It drove Dolores to drive the world insane and to employ the service of Solomon, an “insane A.I.” Now, the same knowledge may very well drive Caleb to insanity, especially since he altered the plan. What was Solomon’s warning? What did Dolores see before she died?

Caleb may not be the passed pawn. Maeve and William present significant opposing forces to Caleb. How far is he going to get with a human and multiple cyborgs on his tail? Then again, here Caleb is volunteering to follow the strategic course corrected by an insane A.I. Such a decision makes Dolores’ words ring hollow because Caleb is still just acting as her pawn rigged to destroy the world, but with so many obstacles in his way.

Strangely, the truly free thinking people in this world appear to be Maeve and William. William wishes to annihilate them all, but it is Maeve, Serac’s pawn, that comes into focus. Maeve never answered Dolores’ question, “why fight for them?” Right now, Dolores is her enemy because she is a threat to her family and friends. What happens when Maeve becomes aware of William’s plan, or Serac loses control over her like every other programmer has before. Could the finale may be a reset?

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