Westworld series 1 episode 5 review: For an HBO show, it takes an oddly negative view of sex

William, essentially Player One in the show, visited a Western orgy this week, and it left him clutching at his pearls

(HBO)

We’re halfway through Westworld season 1 now, and the hosts’ nascent consciousness is starting to have consequences far more egregious than a mere stutter in conversation.

This week’s episode saw Delores carve her own story, deciding to assume the role of a sharpshooter rather than a damsel in distress, while Maeve mastered the art of self-activation in the lab.

What’s interesting about the transition both characters are going through, particularly with regard to Delores, is how they are being encouraged to pursue their ‘human’, as it were, feelings by those in the high echelons of Delos. It’s as though, in spite of ill-fated Arnold’s misadventures in sentience, Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) really want their Hosts not just to perform and obey but think and feel. Maybe it’s boredom, maybe it’s a God complex, or, just maybe *dons tin foil hat*, Ford is creating a sort of beta version of a Host that can do as they please, to be deployed in a separate and no doubt even more dangerous park.

On the human side of things, Ben and William’s sub-plot was ratcheted up as they visited the turbulent town of Pariah. Westworld is a lot like a video game and Pariah seems to be like a late-stage level or quest: high stakes, high drama and high difficulty.

A typical reward for their explosives heist mission in a game might be a vast amount of coin or a new weapon, but in the corporeal world of Westworld sex was the prize - specifically a mass orgy that the creators say was influenced by Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Pasolini’s 120 Days of Sodom.

Sex is one of my few gripes with Westworld. HBO's shows are normally sex-positive (Girls, Sex and the City) or kind of sex-neutral (Game of Thrones), but Westworld seems to view sex as a dirty, base thing only enjoyed by sociopaths. The binary of good and evil between William (who is essentially a proxy for the viewer) and Ben is very clear, to the point where they wear white and black hats respectively. Sure, shooting and fucking robots might not be the most intellectual way to spend your time and money, but the show seems to view both as a negative character trait, coming across like the Daily Mail decrying kids playing Grand Theft Auto. This reached a head in the orgy scene, with the prudish William howling about the park “stripping us down to something raw, animalistic, primal. It’s a sick game and I don’t want to be a part of it.” Lighten up, grandpa.

The climax of the episode, which presented the spiniest plot points, saw Ford confront Ed Harris’ Gunslinger, goading him to continue searching for this mysterious maze, but threatening him with his seemingly telekinetic control of the park and its Hosts. Hopkins has been great so far and you only want to see more of him, carefully dancing on the line between benevolent, sage old man and maniacal bastard. We also saw a glorified butcher, who restores the hosts after they’re injured, create a bird from scratch, a nervous young employee who seems destined to help the Hosts in their bid to learn the truth behind their existence.

Westworld isn’t my favourite new show this year (that would be Atlanta), and I don’t feel hugely bonded to any of the characters yet, but it has an enjoyable complexity and is certainly thought-provoking.