It is interesting to frame a story in this way. There is no chance of success and Bernard knows it. Nevertheless, he continues, being honest with his host friends (or anyone who asks, for that matter) along the journey. Frankie/C (Aurora Perrineau) is more concerned with seeing her father alive again, but Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) and Bernard share a nice last (?) moment together before the assault, with Bernard giving him some last-second advice before they send off. him to die. Knowing the outcome of something and doing it anyway because it’s the right thing to do is a bold stance for Bernard to take, and I can only imagine that it somehow pays off for him, otherwise will “Metanoia” be the high-water mark for a depressing season finale for Westworld.
Authors Desa Larkin-Boutte & Denise Thé give Bernard an out. He can only see the events of Hale’s plan and his reaction to it until his death. Obviously, dying means you lose insight into what happens after you’re gone in a meaningful way. Humanity has already died a single death in the wake of the revelation of Rehoboam and its subsequent disruption. Seven years later, nothing had changed. Admittedly, this outbreak of violence looks more serious than previous outbreaks, judging solely by what Stubbs, Caleb (Aaron Paul) and Frankie have to contend with and what Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) and Teddy (James Marsden) witness on their trip through. the city.
The Larkin-Boutte/Thé script gives the actors a lot to work with. Any scene with Maeve tends to be a good one, and while she may have programmed her into the sublime as a test subject, she still has a witty comment about the quality of her writing being subpar, and Thandiwe Newton still makes hay of every chance she gets to be sharp and dry while not overshadowing her character’s emotional yearning to be reunited with her child. The reunion between Frankie and Caleb is beautifully done by both Aurora Perrineau and Aaron Paul; the two haven’t shared a moment of screen time this season, but this little moment feels like a reunion, entertainingly entertained by a walled-off Stubbs interrupting to plead for his release. (Luke Hemsworth gets a lot of funny comedy this week, and he handles it very well, with a sharp, dry delivery on at least one good camera tip for good measure; he’s been the unsung hero of the Bernard arc.)
The heavier, unhappy emotional elements, especially Christina and Teddy’s walk through town, are brilliantly executed by Evan Rachel Wood. Dolores has been a villain for so long that it’s hard to remember the traumatized farm girl she once was, the girl who wanted to see beauty among the ashes. Wood is able to win it back with Christina, and Marsden ably plays Teddy as her tour guide toward awakening, in a funny house mirror alternative of Teddy’s attempt at sentience thanks to Dolores. It didn’t work out well for Teddy; this one seems just as traumatizing for Christina, not least thanks to the horrific violence she desperately tries to stop but can’t. There is an anguish to her reaction to this violence that parallels the original Dolores, the one before William became The Man In Black, and her reaction to the violence in Westworld.
Part of that credit undoubtedly goes to director Meera Menon for not only capturing Wood’s brilliant reaction, but making her anguish a small part of the bigger picture. She merely adds to the chorus of screams, gunshots and mayhem with her chaotic reaction. Even the few characters unaffected by the violence, whether hosts or deviants, must contribute to the chaos just to survive it. It’s all frantic violence until Teddy snaps it away (for Christina), turning it from a chaotic mess into an even bigger mystery. Is this really happening? Is this just some kind of fidelity test for Christina?
What is real? The host William asks himself that very question, only to have his question dismissed as foolish foolishness by his non-host self. William says, “We’re not here to transcend, we’re here to destroy,” and his host version, the seed of himself who will live forever, goes into the darkness to carry out this vision of reality as a great battle royale game. In the mind of the man of black, the false thing is not the parks of Delos or the sublime, it is civilization; culture is a shared delusion to allow people to hide from the truth of what they really are, selfish, destructive creatures about as useful as cockroaches.