Tonight in alarming news that no one saw coming, Westworld actually delivered an easy-to-follow episode. It's almost as if they heard the mass confusion of fans and were like, "Shhhhh, guys, let's just all hold hands and take a trip to Ghost Nation that you barely need explained to you." AND IT WAS AMAZING. But let's take a deeper dive into exactly what happened—because there's a bit more to unravel than meets the eye.
Here's the Deal with Ghost Nation
Long story short: Back in ye olden days of around 35+ years ago, Akecheta becomes the first member of Ghost Nation to reach consciousness after stumbling upon the aftermath of Dolores killing Arnold. He finds a wooden maze toy, and it triggers his journey to independent thought.
Over the course of multiple decades Akecheta manages to 1) Break his loop, 2) Discover The Valley Beyond, which we'll discuss more in a moment, 3) Successfully avoid death for years, 4) Find his girlfriend in the Delos Cold Storage, 5) Meet Ford, who confirms he'll get to a new world eventually, and 6) Help his fellow Ghost Nation members achieve consciousness.
Pretty self explanatory (again, THANKS WESTWORLD!), but one thing that's worth going a bit deeper on? The moment Akecheta runs across Ford's dead body after the Delos party massacre. If you recall, some corners of the Westworld fandom think Present-Day Bernard might be in a loop based on significant continuity errors between scenes depicting The Man in Black and Bernard at the massacre scene.
Well, Akecheta gives us another perspective on this scene, which matches up with TMIB's POV:
While the man in the background has his leg up in both TMIB, Bernard and Akecheta's POVs, only TMIB and Akecheta's POV includes a blood splatter on both tables to the left. All this is the proof that Present-Day Bernard saw an entirely different (and perhaps fabricated) version of this scene than TMIB and Akecheta.
What's Up with Akecheta's Maze Drawings?
Westworld finally cleared up something that's been confusing since Season One: Why members of Ghost Nation have maze drawings on the underside of their scalps. Apparently, Akecheta carved them there as a means to get his loved ones to achieve consciousness; we even see his friend ask to have the maze drawn on his scalp as a way to ensure continued self-realization. Sounds pretty simple, but what doesn't make too much sense is a scene from Season 1, when the Man in Black scalps Kissy and finds the maze:
Kissy already had the maze on the underside of his scalp, which presumably means he'd been scalped before and had it drawn there by Akecheta. But if Kissy had been scalped before, it also stands to reason he'd have been sent back to Delos labs for repair. So...why didn't the Delos techs not notice the maze drawing on the underside of his head and flag it to Charlotte Hale? IMO, something seems off here.
What Is the Valley Beyond?
Akecheta found The Valley Beyond (and a very sunburned Logan Delos) this week, and he seems to think it's a portal—or "Door"—that takes hosts to the real world. But I'm pretty sure that's not what's up. What seems more likely is The Valley Beyond is some sort of super computer:
Thanks to a geologist who lurks on Reddit, we know some interesting information about The Valley Beyond itself, which appear to be filmed at The Trona Pinnacles/Tufa Towers, located in southeast California.
Here's a picture, illustrated by Redditor earth2christine, that depicts the Valley when William shows it to Dolores at the end of Episode 2:
More importantly, it seems pretty clear that The Valley Beyond is the massive lake with dead hosts we saw at the end of Episode 1 this season. Here's another brilliantly-illustrated photo from earth2christine for proof:
So, who floods the valley? Guess we'll find out!
The Link Between Akecheta and Maeve
This week, we also learned that Akecheta never intended to hurt Maeve's daughter. He simply wanted to bring her to consciousness, which is why he gave her a bloody rock with the maze on it (wow, what a not-at-all creepy gift!). Maeve is now using her mind control skills to connect with Akecheta through her daughter, which means she heard his story and knows the exact same information that we, the viewer, knows.
Even more wildly, Akecheta seems fully aware that Maeve is connected to her daughter, assuring her at the end of the episode that he'll take care of the little girl. Kinda cool that Maeve is clearly still able to control everything in the park despite being on death's door!
A Quick Barely-There Note on The Man in Black
He's alive, was briefly captured by Ghost Nation, and is now chilling with his daughter. So little happened with TMIB this week, I would have almost preferred the Westworld writing team to leave him out of the episode completely and give him a more complete story arc next week. Other than that...
