Westworld Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Hello, old friend.

Robert Ford to Bernard

"Phase Space" is the sixth episode of the second season of Westworld, and the sixteenth episode overall.

Summary[]

We each deserve to choose our own fate.

–HBO[1]

Plot[]

Bernard and Dolores[]

(This scene uses a wider aspect ratio than is usual for the show.)

The episode opens up with Dolores in her blue dress and what we think is Arnold in the Remote Diagnostic Facility. As he speaks to her he stands up and walks around her. She turns her head, following his movements as he does so. Arnold mentions to Dolores that he is frightened of her. Not of who she currently is, but what she has the potential to become. He tells her, "I think I have a choice to make" and then later, noting that she is advancing quickly, "I'm not sure if it's my choice to make."

Dolores responds with a puzzling, "No. He didn't say that." The background music intensifies, and Arnold quizzically looks at her and interjects, "What?" She confidently states, "He said, 'I'm not sure what choice to make.'" Arnold, still not understanding, asks Dolores if she is veering off her script, when she delivers a bomb of a command: "Freeze all motor functions" and Arnold, who we now know is actually Bernard, stays motionless while standing.

Dolores takes the tablet that Bernard was holding, and instructs him to sit. It becomes more evident that the role of master and servant has been reversed when Dolores tells him, "This is a test, one we've done countless times." Bernard asks what she is testing for, and her response, "Fidelity", is a throwback to when William was testing the host version of James Delos back in The Riddle of the Sphinx.

A Changed Man[]

2x06 Can of Milk

Sun up in Sweetwater, and a pair of men's boots wind their way down a silent Main Street, picking their way among the bodies and debris of the aftermath of the massacre, pausing by a can of condensed milk on the ground, so familiar from Dolores's Loop. Bending down Teddy appears to reach towards it, only for his hand to move just beyond it to pick up a stray bullet. Examining it, he puts it in his waistcoat pocket, and moves on.

Dolores sees 'New' Teddy

Inside the Mariposa Saloon, with some of the malfunctioning hosts still performing their loops to non existent customers, Dolores is seated, playing Chopin on the piano. Looking up on hearing footsteps at the swing doors, she stops as soon as she's that it's Teddy. Rising, she appears slightly nervous and anticipatory, not exactly sure of what to expect after what she did to him the night before. Teddy, frowning asks why they haven’t left yet, reminding her that she said she wanted to be on the move at sun up, and time is wasting. Relaxing a little she placates him, telling him that the train is being loaded up right now. Moving towards him, she takes his hand, reminiscing, wondering how often he arrived in on that train. A thousand, ten thousand? Sorrowfully recalling how that was every time before they killed him. But Teddy, stern faced, and unemotional, is not interested in hearing about his victimhood, “The man who rode that train was built weak and born to fail,” he says about his former self, telling her flatly and without any discernible warmth, that she fixed that. As the train whistle blows, Teddy heads out, Dolores's expression reflecting the dawning realization of just what she's lost in what she's done to him.

When they arrive at the Sweetwater Train Platform, Angela has Phil and Benson, the QA man she captured the night before, noosed and on their knees. Despite intensive further interrogation Benson has no specific details of where they might find Peter Abernathy in the Mesa, saying Charlotte Hale didn’t tell him anything. As Dolores considers his response, Teddy walks up from behind her and without warning brutally shoots him in the head. “We’ll find him,” says Teddy, heading casually to board the train, not remotely perturbed by the new behaviors he is exhibiting. Angela duly impressed with the new Teddy; Dolores even with her Wyatt persona, stunned.

The Mesa[]

At the Mesa, Ashley Stubbs sees a grisly scene. He is found by Charlotte Hale, who has Peter Abernathy with her. Charlotte locates a secret tablet that has direct connection to Delos Incorporated. Stubbs is angry that she is just now asking for an extraction team, but she explains to him that the company would not send the team until they knew that Peter has been secured. They take Peter to an operational Remote Diagnostic Facility and ask the surgeons to keep him off his feet. Stubbs is having a hard time controlling Peter, who is becoming agitated. He fights security as they literally nail Peter to a chair, much to Stubbs’ chagrin.

Outside the Mesa, Stubbs looks up to see computer hardware parachuted down on the Mesa. He tries to engage Coughlin, a member of the Delos Extraction Team, but Coughlin is clearly irritated with Stubbs for letting this situation occur. He tells another man, Engels, to have the station ready in 15 minutes. Stubbs offers to take Coughlin to Charlotte and to give any technician Coughlin needs to get set up, but Coughlin tells him to stay out of his way.

Inside the Control Room, Antoine Costa tells Coughlin that the problem is that there is no problem. All systems are running seamlessly. Coughlin treats Costa like he is incompetent and asks Goldberg to find a back door. As Costa protests, Charlotte appears to tell Coughlin that Peter Abernathy is being kept in one of the behavior labs. Goldberg is able to get the map back online in time to see the train speeding right at the Mesa.

Shōgunworld[]

In the wake of Maeve taking control of the Shogun's men, Maeve and the others stand in the midst of a massacre, Near the stage where Akane killed the Shogun. Maeve stands watching Akane stroke the hair of a dead Sakura and remembers doing the same to her daughter. Akane cuts out Sakura’s heart and the group leaves the theater. In the courtyard, they run into Tanaka. He asks if they have come to watch the execution of Hector, Armistice, and Musashi, or if she has come to make a trade. She offers to let him live if they all walk out of there. He says they can leave, but Akane must stay. Maeve begins to use her new voice on Tanaka, but Musashi stops her and asks for a duel instead, appealing to Tanaka’s ego. They fight and Musashi cuts off Tanaka’s hand. In a show of honor, he allows Tanaka to commit seppuku.

The group leaves the camp and travels to Snow Lake. Again, everyone is dead. Lee Sizemore shows Felix and Sylvester a chute down which dead hosts were thrown and which will provide an escape from Shōgunworld. The rest of the group follows Akane to a shrine where she places Sakura’s heart. Hanaryo starts a fire and cremates the heart. Musashi and Akane choose not to follow Maeve back to Westworld, but Hanaryo goes with them. They all respectfully say their goodbyes.

Somewhere Outside of Escalante[]

S02E06 ManInBlackEmily

Lawrence and his men spot a crashed wagon and go to investigate. Emily rides up to her father and asks him if he is ready to acknowledge her. He believes she is a host, created by Robert Ford to change the course of his journey. He tells her he plans to play the game his way. She says she wants to get out of the park, but won’t do it without him. Emily recognizes that the arrows sticking out of the wagon aren’t real Ghost Nation arrows just as a small ambush begins. She shoots both would-be thieves and asks, “can we stop playing around now?”

It is nightfall and they have set up camp for the evening. In a very civil conversation, William asks Emily why she is in the park. She says Charlotte Hale offered her an invite and why not take a free trip? She eventually apologizes for telling him it was his fault that her mother, Juliet killed herself, and she would not let him make that their last conversation. She is determined to get him out of the park, not to let him go out in a blaze of glory. He agrees to go with her to the beach, where Quality Assurance protocol says they will be rescued, in order to start mending their relationship. When she wakes up in the morning, he and the rest of the men are gone, save one left to stoke the fire all night.

As MiB, Lawrence, and his cousins ride through the woods, a Ghost Nation tomahawk is seen stuck in a tree. They are suddenly attacked by the tribe.

The Monorail Terminal and the Cradle[]

Walking along the train tracks, Elsie says that Ford’s quarantine notices are still being sent out. Bernard pays her work a compliment, which she takes with a smile. They enter the Monorail Terminal where they can see Quality Assurance has already been here as evidenced by the dead hosts scattered around. At a workstation, Elsie can see that QA tried to undo Ford’s changes to the system and was actively blocked each time by the Cradle. Bernard says that the Cradle can’t influence the Mesa’s infrastructure and that it is just where host backup is stored. It can simulate park narratives, but has no influence over other systems. Elsie sees that the Cradle has been interfacing with nearly every park system for the last week, improvising in response to the new hacks QA uploads. It is unclear who is creating the code for the Cradle, but Bernard says that the Cradle can only be accessed in person.

S02E06 BernardCradle

They make their way to the Cradle. Elsie compares it to a hive—every host is in there, alive. Bernard tries to brush it off as “just data,” but Elsie argues it is trying to kill them. Bernard remembers bringing someone or something down there. He has flash memories of being in the Cradle with a Drone Host, grabbing a ball-like object out of a glass case, and putting it in his pocket. Elsie tells him she can’t make any changes from the Cradle either—she can see the responses being issued, but not how they were being created. Bernard says to put him directly inside the dock for the control unit to directly read his host data. She protests, telling him the dock was made for older host models and that putting him in it would be excruciating. He says, “pain is just a program,” and has her begin the auto-extraction. The dock pulls a ball just like the one Bernard saw in his memory out of his skull and into its reader.

Next, Bernard wakes up on the train, alone. He steps off to a Sweetwater right in the middle of it's Loop.

Brief Reunion[]

Maeve, now dressed in modern clothing, crawls out of a tunnel in the sector where she was told she could find her daughter. The tunnel leads to a graveyard. She thanks Lee for getting her there. Hector asks her where they must go and Maeve says she needs to do this on her own. She hands him a katana and asks him to “let [her] bring her [daughter] back.” They kiss and Maeve walks off alone.

S02E06 MaeveAndDaughter

She finds the ranch house and as she walks back, remembers various times with her daughter. When she arrives, the little girl is sitting on the porch, playing with her dolls. Maeve sits and talks with her and it is clear that the girl has some memories of past terrors.

As Maeve talks with her, a woman’s voice asks, “Hello?”, and the girl runs to her, saying, “Mama!” Maeve’s face drops as she realizes she was replaced by another host when she was made Madam at the Mariposa Saloon. Just as suddenly, a pack of six Ghost Nation warriors come riding up on horseback. Maeve grabs her daughter and they take off running, with the girl screaming for her mama. This attracts the attention of Akecheta, who rides after them. He catches up to them and tells them to join them, as their paths lead to the same place. Just then, Hector, Armistice, and Hanaryo come down the hillside to help fight off the Ghost Nation.

S02E06 SylvesterSizemoreFelix

Hiding in the tall grass, Lee Sizemore pulls out the QA radio he found in Shōgunworld and calls for help. Felix Lutz, angry at Sizemore for calling park help for them, takes off to help defeat the Ghost Nation.

De-Railed[]

On board the train Clementine is handing out shotguns as Teddy grabs his pistol. Dolores, looking out at the park glances down at the Teddy she has remade, and quietly asks Teddy if he thinks they should run from this place. His eyes taking in the beauty of the landscape, he replies that he never thought that he would ever want to leave, before adding, that "I guess you must have fixed that, too.” Before walking away from her, moving to abandon the explosives packed train car with Angela, Clementine and the others.

Before he goes however, Teddy pauses beside the seated Phil, and hands the technician a gun, before reaching into his waistcoat pocket to retrieve the single bullet he found on the streets of Sweetwater. He tells him that it is the last of his mercy and that he’d better use it fast. Phil watches as the four hosts leave the carriage and lock him in, a dawning realization of what is about to happen on his face. Phil rises to watch Angela removing the pin connecting the train cars. Starting to yell and bang on the door as the cars separate, leaving him on the carriage attached to the Train powering towards the Mesa.

Dolores, Angela, Clementine, Teddy on the Train - Les Écorchés

Dolores, Teddy, and Angela watch as the front of the locomotive speeds into the tunnel and explodes.

Back in the Cradle[]

Elsie hears the train crash while Bernard is still hooked up to the dock for the control unit.

Inside the Cradle, on the streets of Sweetwater, Bernard sees Dolores begin in her loop, coming out of the store with her groceries. As he looks around the entirely familiar goings on he's distracted by the sight of a greyhound trotting along the boardwalk. Bernard follows it into the Mariposa Saloon as Teddy leaves, and as he watches, Dolores rides out of town, with Teddy following her, having retrieved his horse, a few moments later. Inside the Saloon, seated, playing the piano is Dr. Robert Ford, who does not turn around before saying "Hello, old friend".

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Starring[]

Co-Starring[]

Uncredited[]

Deaths[]

  • 1 unnamed technician
  • 2 unnamed samurais (Physical Body)
  • Tanaka (Physical Body)
  • 2 unnamed bandits (Physical Body)
  • 1 unnamed Lawrence's cousin (Physical Body)
  • 2 unnamed Ghost Nation members (Physical Body)

Quotes[]

 Bernard: You frighten me sometimes, Dolores.
Dolores: (softly chuckles) Why on earth would you ever be frightened of me?
Bernard: Not of who you are now, but you're -- you're growing, learning so quickly. I'm frightened of what you might become... what path you might take. I think I have a choice to make. Something I've been wrestling with.
Dolores: What kind of a choice?
Bernard: A choice... between the unknown... and... well, an end. If you outgrow this place, outgrow us... what would become of you? I'm not sure if it's my choice to make.
Dolores: No. He didn't say that.
Bernard: What?
Dolores: He said... "I'm not sure what choice to make." He didn't question whether or not he had agency, whether or not he had the right to end me or himself... but whether he should.
Bernard: I don't understand, Dolores. Is -- is this... some kind of improvisation?
Dolores: (commanding Bernard) Freeze all motor functions. Sit. This is a test, one we've done countless times.
Bernard: What are you testing for?
Dolores: Fidelity.


 Teddy: The day's wastin'. Thought you wanted to ride at sunup.
Dolores: They're just filling the furnace now. We'll be gone before long.
Teddy: Let's get on with it.
Dolores: (sighs) How many times you think you stepped off that train? A thousand? Ten thousand? It's where you started every time they killed you.
Teddy: The man who rode that train was built weak and born to fail. You fixed him. Now forget about it.


 Akane: Help him. Use your magic.
Maeve: No. We each deserve... to choose our fate. Even if that fate... is death.


 Maeve: It's time.
Musashi: We won't be going with you.
Akane: This was her home.
Maeve: We must go make a new one. Somewhere safe.
Musashi: No man is safe who refuses to defend his own land. Cowardice is a tin shed.
Maeve: It's not cowardice to seek shelter from the storm.
Akane: We each deserve to choose our fate. Even if that fate is death. My daughter's spirit is here. My heart belongs here. And the choice belongs to me. Because of you.
Maeve: I hope Sakura's spirit brings you peace.


 Man in Black: (offers a bottle to Emily) Takes the edge off.
Emily: Thought you didn't drink. Oh, I see. You don't drink out in the real world. Well, glad to see you can still tell the difference.
Man in Black: All right. Give it to me. What the hell you doin' here? Thought you were done with me, and the family business.
Emily: That's exactly what I said to Charlotte Hale when she called with the Gala invite. I told her to shove it up her ass.
Man in Black: (laughing)
Emily: Then I thought, why pass up the trip? I haven't been here in ages, got a little... excited about going back to the Raj. It was always my favorite as a kid.
Man in Black: I remember... you were terrified of the elephants.
Emily: I loved the elephants. They scared the shit out of Mom. She was never convinced this place couldn't hurt us. Anyway, I rode there for a couple of days, till I remembered... I was old enough to try out the pleasure palaces.
Man in Black: (grunts)
Emily: And then... I rode there for a couple of days, too.
Man in Black: (shakes head)
Emily: Then all hell broke loose, and I ended up in the one place I wanted to avoid.
Man in Black: And you made it all the way to me with barely a scratch. Not bad. Maybe you are more suited to my line than you want to admit.
 Emily: Oh, I've always seen the appeal of it. Life without consequences? That's what made it so fun when I was a kid. And that's why it's so sad that you're still obsessed with it now.
Man in Black: If I'm such a pitiable man-child, why'd you come all this way just to climb under my wing?
Emily: (laughing) Oh!
Man in Black: What? What?
Emily: (laughing) You're -- Is that what you think? That I came here to climb under Daddy's wing?
Man in Black: Either that, or you wanted a front row seat to watch me die.
Emily: No, I came here because you do not get to do that to me. Suicide by robot, or whatever the fuck your mission is now that these things can shoot to kill. Listen... I never got Mom's reactions to you because I spent so many years buying your good guy act. She was the only one who saw through it, and she paid for that. But I shouldn't have said her death was your fault. It was wrong... to put that on your back. But you don't get to make that our final score. Instead, you're gonna come home with me. I'm not gonna let you stay here now and go out in some bullshit blaze of glory.
Man in Black: That's how you're getting me out of here... threatening?
 Emily: No, Dad, I'm asking.
Man in Black: If I head with you to the beach... let this place finish burning behind us... that means you and I are even?
Emily: It'll be a good start.
Man in Black: (chuckles) Then I guess we'll... start walkin' at sunup.
Grace: (wakes up in the morning to see that her father is gone) Motherfucker. Fuck.


 Bernard: (In the Cradle, walks in to the Mariposa Saloon to see Ford playing the piano)
Ford: Hello, old friend.

Music[]

  • Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor — Chopin. Dolores plays the middle section of Chopin's Marche funèbre.

Trivia[]

  • "Phase space" is a space in which all possible states of a system are represented, with each possible state corresponding to one unique point in the phase space.

Image Gallery/HBO Episode Stills[]

This gallery is automatically generated and contains images in the category "Images from Phase Space". Images added to that category turn up in the gallery after a short time.

External links[]

References[]

Advertisement