Westworld 4×2 Review: Well Enough Alone

‘Well Enough Alone’ is a curious title for a Westworld episode that has many of the characters’ paths converging.  Delores – or Christina – is still off doing her own thing, though.  Of all the characters, she is truly the most alone of them all.

‘Well Enough Alone’ shows the plan to replace politicians with hosts developing fairly successfully.  A host copy of William – which I assume to be a Dolores copy (correct me if I’m wrong) – and the Dolores version of Charlotte seem to be heading up the charge.  The real William is still alive, though.  He’s being held in some sort of weird device… thing.  I don’t know what it is, but it sure is cool looking.  If nothing else, Westworld is an aesthetic masterpiece and the ‘cool looking stuff’ never disappoints.  Thankfully, however, I care a great deal bout the characters, too, so it’s a win for me all around.

I am thrilled to have Tessa Thompson back. I was incredibly disappointed that she wasn’t in the first episode, but now I get a double dose of her this week.  I might even get a triple dose if she’s in next week’s episode, too. First was her return here in ‘Well Enough Alone,’ and then on Thursday I get Thor: Love & Thunder.  It’s truly Tessa Thompson week and I’m entirely here for it.  She’s a highlight of basically everything she’s in and her absence is felt.

I’m trying not to get bogged down in the details of Dolores’ plan.  They slaughtered a bunch of secret service agents when they captured the Vice President, and I have no idea how they will possibly cover that up.  Are they able to make host copies quickly enough for their absence to not be noticed? Did they anticipate these specific agents and have host copies ready? Or are they just going to have them vanish without explanation?

Best not to ponder these details too closely because it’ll definitely distract from the plot.  We just have to operate under the assumption that they have a plan, it’s working so far, and that’s that.  And if this is a plot hole, well, whatever.  There have been worse plot holes in things before.  We’ll be fine.

My favorite team up so far this season is Maeve and Caleb.  Maeve is basically the most badass.  Meanwhile, Caleb is a true ally for the cause.  They work so well together and I think their scenes have been my favorite of the season so far.  I’m generally enjoying everything this show has to offer this season – curious plot holes be damned – but they are definitely a major highlight for me.  I am ride-or-die for Maeve and since Caleb is her partner-in-crime, I’m ride-or-die for him by default, too.

I think my favorite part of their team up is how honest they are with their dynamic.  Maeve is a host.  She’s more powerful than Caleb physically and has all sorts of special robot powers that he doesn’t have.  Caleb is tough as hell, but he’s still the weaker of the two of them.  That doesn’t seem to bother him in the slightest, though.  On the flip side, Maeve really cares about Caleb and his family.  She came out of hiding and found him to protect them.  She could have ignored it and let them just die, but she didn’t.

Honestly, I adore them.  The more they are working together, the happier I’ll be for the rest of this season.  There’s a respect between them that feels unbreakable.  Of course, now that I’ve said that I’m sure the narrative will prove me wrong, but whatever.  It’s how I feel right now.  We’ll see if that holds.

Meanwhile, the Not-Dolores person, whom we so far know as Christina, seems to be operating completely separately from all these other characters.  Every season of Westworld has mysteries, of course, so I’m not exactly upset at how clueless I am about her.  This is normal for a speculative science fiction property.  But man, I am frustrated that she’s so isolated.  I’ve just got to develop some patience I guess.  All will be revealed in due time, I’m sure.

Right now it seems like her story is set to follow the trail of the man who killed himself in the last episode.  There’s a mysterious mental health institute that he supposedly left his fortune to,  Somehow they’ve dedicated a wing of the institution to him in record time.  Only the institution also seems to be abandoned, which makes no sense.  I have absolutely no idea where this is going, but I’m buckled in and ready to be dragged along for the ride.

Evan Rachel Wood is such a joy to watch in everything that she’s in. It’s unfortunate that she’s making headlines for annoying celebrity gossip reasons at the moment. She deleted her Twitter account a couple years back, and the off-screen drama only seems to be mounting.  While I’m ride-or-die for Maeve on the show, I’m ride-or-die for Evan Rachel Wood in real life.  I hope the drama dies down soon.

The biggest shock from the episode is, of course, a brand new park.  Maeve and Caleb somehow boarded a train and ended up in a 1920s themed park.  The callbacks to the first episode, complete with a room turning into a train, the black and white hat choices, and even the same exact dress design and dialogue from the host, were all incredibly eerie.  Now we get Maeve and Caleb in Roaring ’20s attire and I’m totally here for it.  I’m sure there will be mobster and prohibition shenanigans at some point. You can’t explore the 1920s without touching on that, really.

So far this season is off to a great start.  I know this show has lost a lot of viewers when it took steps away from the Western aesthetic and pivoted into hard science fiction, but I continue to love it.  If you’re primary interest was the Western atmosphere, I totally get why you wouldn’t be thrilled with this season either.  For those of us who are sticking with the story through its hard sci fi turn, though, this season is delivering.  I’m very much looking forward to the rest of it.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They identify as queer.

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