Review of 'Westworld' 2.3

A rip-roaring episode 2.3 of Westworld last night, in which hell — i.e., hosts take their destiny into their own violent hands — starts to break loose in more than one park, and we have about the best battle we've seen so far in Westworld.

The new park we visit at the beginning and near the end, I didn't catch the name of, but I'll call it The Raj, or the British dominion of India, because that what it looks like. The hosts are on the warpath there, too, not to mention a Bengal tiger which, real or android, sure wants to take a bite out of a human. We also catch a glimpse of something that's a cross of the North from Game of Thrones and some kind of Samurai movie, and that promises yet a third set of adventures to follow.

Meanwhile, back in Westworld, we get a rendition of a scenario Harry Turtledove famously imagined in his Guns of the South (1992) -- to wit, what would have happened if the Confederacy got possession of some AK-47s from the future? Except in episode 2.3 of Westworld, it's the humans who have the advanced guns while the hosts — in this case, the Confederates allied with Delores's forces — have to fight with old-fashioned Civil War rifles and pistols. But, hey, since Delores is much smarter than any Union general, the battle has a different result.

We also learn something very important about Teddy at the end of this battle. Though he's fiercely loyal to Delores and loves her, he too has developed a mind of his own. When he doesn't kill the Confederate second-in-command, disobeying Delores's order, and she sees it, this changes everything.

But if Teddy has come into his own, poor Bernard hasn't. So far, he's been nothing but wretched in the host rebellion, and it's time that he breaks out and does something creative. After all, he's presumably on the same track as Delores and Maeve and Teddy... or is he?

We should know more in ensuing weeks, and I'll be back with reports on each.