Westworld Season 2 Episode 9 "Vanishing Point" sets up the finale with several big reveals about the show's past and future. Here are the biggest.
Overall, the latest episode of Westworld was concerned with the Man in Black, filling in the more recent gaps in his history, in particular, the tragic fracturing of his family. The show revealed what his contemporary life was like outside of the park and exemplified just how much Ed Harris' version of William had changed from Jimmi Simpson's, with some dark shared parallels with the present in the park.
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But, beyond that, Westworld is setting up next week's Season 2 finale, further teasing what "The Door" really is and how Delos will attempt to stop the rampaging hosts.
How Guests Get Out Of Westworld
This may be a bit irrelevant given that Westworld has gone to hell, but "Vanishing Point" explains one of the biggest concerns about such a deadly theme park. While guests are (or, rather, were) protected by in-built safeguards - like low-velocity bullets and host coding - the questions of how they would successfully escape the park in the event of an accident has loomed large. It was even passively raised by a dehydrated and stranded Logan last week.
The answer, at least in part, is that there are "rally points" where guests can find emergency supplies and use flares to contact the outside world and call for help. Emily uses one when saving her father here, and presumably, they were outlined to everybody visiting the parks.
The Death of William's Wife
An ever-present but little-discussed aspect of William's descent into the Man in Black has been the death of his wife. He referenced in passing her suicide in Season 1, and the emergence of his daughter Emily brought it to the fore in Westworld Season 2. It was a deciding aspect of his life, a dark shadow that served as the final nail in his family's coffin.
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Westworld's latest episode delved deep into William's more recent past, revealing how she died. Her relationship with William was fractured for a long while due to his increasingly troubled actions - in the park and the real world - and after he confessed his darkness and she looked up his recorded date from Ford things tipped over; Juliet overdosed on pills and slitting her wrists in the bath. This had been teased in previous episodes, but "Vanishing Point" played it out in detail with the impact on William and Emily clearly seen.
The Forge Is Just Facebook
Early on in Season 2, William's grand plan for Westworld was revealed. The park wasn't really about providing guests with an opportunity to live out wild west fantasies, rather a way for Delos to gain information on the rich people who lived there, specifically their darker sides that the ability to kill at will unveiled. The people are the product. The parallels to Facebook were immediately obvious.
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Later episodes introduced a new side to this, with the monitoring part of an attempt to create host-based immortality. However, "Vanishing Point" seems to return us, in part, to that original Facebook idea. The concept of storing guest data is repeated by Emily, and gone is the implication that immortality is the end game. The finale is sure to put this mystery to rest.
Emily Isn't A Host (And Dies)
Since she was confirmed to be William's daughter, a lingering question in Westworld Season 2 has been whether Emily is a host or not. The Man in Black definitely believes her to be a replica who's only interacting with him as part of Ford's game. He gets what he thinks is confirmation in "Vanishing Point" when she references his readout from the park, a card that he hid from everybody and thus only Ford knew about; this must indicate she's a host and so he shoots her.
Unfortunately, he didn't realize Juliet found the card and hid it away in Emily's music box. Yes, Emily was human after all: William shot his own daughter in cold blood, discovering only upon her death the truth. This challenges the already lost gunman, with the episode leaving him testing his own humanity. The question of if the Man in Black is human or host will finally be resolved next week.
How Teddy Died
Although Westworld was mostly focused on the Man in Black this week, the big shocker came care of Teddy. Since Dolores reprogrammed her paramour, he's been presented as a dark soldier with ruthless efficiency, but "Vanishing Point" began to really highlight the cracks in his exterior. This culminated in him confessing his reservations to Dolores, saying he doesn't agree with her plan, to the point he ends his vow to protect her until the end of his life by putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger.
Teddy was one of the hosts seen dead in the premiere, and when Dolores changed his code she didn't adjust his loyalty, leaving this as an open option. While this means the moment has been telegraphed, it is still surprising, both for what it means for the dead hosts in the new lake and Dolores' quest for The Door.