'Westworld' Episode 3 review: The hosts are on the verge of uprising as creators gear up for new narrative

Let's get some things out of the way before we start wondering about the rapidly thickening plot of Westworld.

In the third episode, three things are bound to catch your attention:

1. The scene in which the eyes of the hosts are made in the puppetmasters' den. The intricate work done to make every iris perfect is mesmerising to look at. This explains two things, it is worth spending $40K per day if they are paying so much attention to detail. Secondly, when the hosts are under close shot, it makes it difficult for guests to tell them apart from real people.

2. The CGI generated young version of Sir Anthony Hopkins as young Dr. Robert Ford. I dare you not to be in awe of that smile which is proud of the creation, but strangely aware of the detachment it needs from it. 

3. Luke Hemsworth. Just another stunning charmer from the factory where all the sexy Hemsworth clan is made.

When we start the third episode, 'The Stray', we see Dolores is still part of Bernard's covert mission. The mission to change by reminding her of it as they read the passages of Alice in Wonderland together. If you combine that with how Dolores is dressed, we realise that she is in a rabbit hole trying to make sense of all the instructions coming from Bernard, her reactivated reveries, remembering, developing a consensus.

This is the path Bernard has chosen for her. Or so he thinks. Because we know he thinks of Dolores as his daughter and he is trying to live the days the way he wanted to live with his now deceased son. But Dr. Robert Ford knows of this tendency and reminds him not to get attached to his creation.

Nevermind the advice Dr. Ford has given Bernard or the dresser who covers up one of the hosts while preparing him. (The smooth run of scalpel and resultant gash reminds the viewer that they are watching a moral dilemma which has thousands of levels.) Ford has a vested interest in the entire park. The way he tells the tale of Arnold shows he cares, but is capable of snapping out of it.

Speaking of Arnold. Elise finds out that one of the infected hosts was having a conversation with Arnold while taking revenge on the hosts who had killed him in past narratives. So Dolores and Maeve are not the only two people trying to process the reveries that were meant to be wiped out. The infected host was talking to Arnold. Arnold was Ford's first Bernard if you will. Started from scratch with Ford. Got more interested in the concept of being a creator. Started with memory, improvisation, and then self-interest as the pyramid of creating hosts. Arnold subscribed to Bicameral Mind Theory. But that didn't work out and the hosts turned hostile. Killing Arnold in return.

The whole point of one-half of the episode was to make all the puppetmasters not care for the emotional attachment with the hosts they create. Ford is perfectly fine with Teddy being killed every day as it is his job to keep Dolores in the town, make sure she is part of a sad story and guests can have their way with her. Until Ford decides to change that.

Teddy, who never had a backstory of his own, because the writers were in a rush and didn't bother (gave me a deja vu of the conversation Benedict Cumberbatch and Steven Moffat had about Sherlock Holmes' past in the modern version of BBC. Moffat didn't bother, so Cumberbatch invented it to bring the character to life. Poor Teddy has no such imagination) Ford makes Teddy a part of his new secret narrative. Recites Shakespeare, "A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once." This gives Teddy a purpose and Dolores another shock when she realises she cannot pull a trigger to save her life. Changes in Dolores and Teddy are the curious one's to be observed. Dolores, a host who is not supposed to know the concept of the uncertainty of time and the word 'some day' is pondering over it. She does something completely out of character and manages to override the command of selective permission to handle weapons. Though her bullets are blanks, the deaths caused by her change her. This Alice will wake up different in the next episode.

On the grounds on Westworld, three small plotlines were taking place in 'The Stray.' There is a new guest in town. A fine gunslinger Marti. She is Teddy's companion interested in the new narrative and goes on bounty hunting with the Sherrif of Sweetwater in tow. She is a good one and I have a feeling good ones fall fast in HBO narratives. Game of Thrones, anyone? 

William, our white-hatted cowboy, is on an adrenaline high after taking part in an impromptu shooting and has gone away with Logan on a bounty hunt of their own, only to have a distressed Dolores fall in his lap.

Stubbs and Elise are tracking a stray host who knows of constellation without the programming. Stubbs comes prepared and is infinitely more aware of the threat the hosts pose if the one line of coding done by Elise fails. He sleeps with his gun on the side table. Wise man, we must say, after watching how the stray does all in his power not to kill Elise when they finally find him.

An uprising of the hosts is on its way. Man in black had not much to do, so did Maeve, Sizemore, and Kullen. But I am sure that the firsts of the domino pieces have been pushed by Bernard from one side and Man in black from the other. Or is it all Dr. Ford's doing? See, like I told you before, the plot thickens.

Westworld airs in India on Tuesdays at 10 pm on Star World Premiere HD