Westworld season 2, episode 4: The Riddle of the Sphinx Summary
The episode opens with a flashback to Jim/James Delos in what appears to be his quarters. He’s visited by William, who tells Jim that he has to stay in the strange apartment for a little bit longer. William leaves.
The scene repeats later on in the episode. It’s revealed that Jim Delos actually died several years ago and William is talking to a host. William used his memories and made a host of him, essentially giving him immortality. It’s all a bit like Black Mirror with downloading digital consciousness.
Jim's consciousness lives on in a host. He's been dead for seven years. He's being kept in a tank but the host is still having problems.
Jim is brought back for 149th time as a host. William is trying to create a long-term version of Jim.
But it’s not working, so William terminates the host of Jim. The whole apartment is incinerated, along with host Jim inside it.
It’s also revealed that William's wife committed suicide and his brother-in-law Logan overdosed.
Meanwhile, in what appears to be rise of the machines, the hosts are going mad as they kill guests and use them to make the railway tracks.
Luke Hemsworth and Co are being kept prisoner by the native Americans
Elsewhere it turns out that Delos engineer Elsie Hughes is alive! We thought she was dead and this is the first time we see her alive since season one when she was attacked.
It emerges that Ford wrote a game where all the hosts are free. Ford made Bernard kidnap Elsie and leave her in the cave.
Bernard – who is a host - is shutting down and is still struggling to survive. But Elsie saves him.
SKY
Elsie and Bernard are in sector 22. It's all getting very much like Fight Club and David Lynch. Elsie and Bernard go down a lift shaft and find a lab.
The secret lab that Elsie and Bernard find is the same one containing the apartment/tank where experiments were being carried out to create a viable Jim Delos host.
On top of that, Elsie and Bernard make the mistake of entering the tank where Jim the host is very much alive but very burnt. He’s angry.
A flashback reveals Bernard has been in this area before. Also, it looks like the drone hosts are watching the guests in the secret lab.
Bernard is trying to remember what was being made in the lab. Towards the end of the episode it emerges Bernard instructed the drone hosts to kill the people in the lab but why? Whose side is he really on?
SKY
SKY
The man in black is back with Lawrence as he continues his mission. They get taken prisoner but manage to escape.
The mystery guest (played by Katja Herbers) from last week’s British Raj/Colonial World is revealed to be William's daughter at the end of the episode. She first appeared last week and fled after getting chased by a Bengal tiger.
William’s daughter and the old William/Man in Black meet at the end of the episode. It’s a big moment as there was much speculation about her character.
Westworld airs on Sky Atlantic on Mondays at 2am & 9pm.