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- We see what motivates - what lies inside, "under the skin" - of characters such as Bernard, Dolores, Maeve and Ford, but we also see them pulled apart and rebuilt, tortured, tormented.
- We see what motivates - what lies inside, "under the skin" - of characters such as Bernard, Dolores, Maeve and Ford, but we also see them pulled apart and rebuilt, tortured, tormented.
HBO's series Westworld draws inspiration from any number of different sources. Just this season (season 2), Episode 3 entitled "Virtù e Fortuna" drew from the famous early Italian political theorist, Machiavelli, while the following Episode 4 entitled "Riddle of the Sphinx" was heavy with references to the ancient Greek myth of Oedipus, the most recent episode that aired last this past Sunday, "Les Écorchés" seems to be drawing from the famous 14th-century Italian poem by Dante Alighieri, the Inferno.
Translated from the French, "Les Écorchés" means "the flayed." As such, it often is used as a technical artistic term, a style of drawing a human (or animal) figure without its skin, so that the viewer can see the muscles underneath. Made famous in the Italian Renaissance, this technique is still practiced to this day. But in the popular imagination, flaying conjures other types of (unpleasant) images to mind. It suggests torture, perhaps punishment, perhaps even Hell.
And this, I think, is intentional. In this most recent episode of Westworld, the characters we see are revealed in both of these senses. We see what motivates - what lies inside, "under the skin" - of characters such as Bernard, Dolores, Maeve and Ford, but we also see them pulled apart and rebuilt, tortured, tormented. They are all each in their own way in Hell.
SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers for Season 2: Episode 7 follow.
Season 2, episode 7 of Westworld has 2 themes emerge: descent and betrayal. The humans discover that Bernard is indeed a host. Bernard discovers that Ford downloaded his consciousness into "the Cradle," and by the end of the episode has downloaded himself into Bernard. Maeve confronts the Man in Black once again, and once again loses her daughter. Dolores and Teddy stage an assault on the control hub of the park, the Mesa, and destroy the Cradle that stored their backups. And the Delos corporation has been betraying the park's guests by collecting data on them, trying to recreate humanity to be more like the hosts. By the end of the episode, everyone and everything is shattered and exposed. All are in torment. None of them have what they're searching for, in part because someone they've trusted has betrayed them.
The fact that much of the action in this episode occurs at the Mesa is important. As pointed out on Reddit last year (and fair warning to stay off the Westworld subreddit if you don't want spoilers!) the layout of the Mesa resembles nothing so much as Dante's imagination of the Inferno. For those unfamiliar with this medieval 14th-century poem, it begins with Dante wandering, alone in a dark, wooded valley where he's met by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Virgil offers to be his guide towards surety, towards Heaven, but warns Dante that he must first pass through Hell to get there.
By the end of the poem, Dante and his guide have passed through 9 circles of Hell, witnessing the torments of the damned. In that 9th circle, they encounter the betrayers, where Satan himself dwells and where Judas - the apostle who betrayed Jesus - is perpetually... flayed. Judas' skin, what covered his true self in Dante's eyes, is stripped away both literally and metaphorically to reveal what lies beneath.
Dante and Virgil don't stay there long. Having seen this horror, they climb past the Devil and through the center of the earth to emerge from the depths of Hell on the other side of the world. As they descended into the Inferno through a valley, they emerge from below ground in another valley. This time, however, they won't descend. They'll ascend - climbing out, towards Purgatory and ultimately Heaven.
In the first episode of Season 2, the Man in Black (William) meets a young boy in the park. We know from Season 1 that this host is actually a young version of Ford. Ford tells the Man in Black that what's now happening in the park, the hosts' revolt, really is for him. But Ford also importantly tells the Man in Black that "The game begins where you end and ends where you began."
This season of Westworld seems determined to reveal all of the characters' true selves. And in this particular episode, "les écorchés" (the flayed) are everyone and everything. Through suffering, through torment, we're beginning to see what's really going on.
If we take Dante as our guide, it's probably no coincidence that figuring out what's going on means going backwards, in a sense starting over. So, by the end of the this most recent episode all the characters are leaving the Mesa, emerging from the Inferno. They're all heading for the enigmatic "Valley Beyond." They're all heading, in the word's of the little boy, for the end of the game, where it all began.
All of the major characters -- Dolores, Ford, Hale, Maeve, etc. -- have done things they know to be horrible, but they've done them in the name of what they think to be a "greater good." But as we move towards the end of Westworld's Season 2, we should wonder along with Dante what waits for them in the "Valley Beyond." Will the path there ultimately lead upwards towards redemption, towards salvation? Or will the "Valley Beyond" really take them back to where this all started - at the gates of Hell?
