‘Westworld’: 5 Burning Questions From Season 3 Episode 6

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched the sixth episode of “Westworld” Season 3.

This week’s episode of “Westworld” was essentially one long therapy session.

William (Ed Harris) found himself in an asylum, surrounded by previous versions of himself, while Maeve (Thandie Newton) sat down for a heart-to-heart with her old pal Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) — or rather a Serac-fabricated copy of Dolores.

One character who was having a far from cathartic experience was host Hale (Tessa Thompson). Having purchased Delos, Serac (Vincent Cassel) turned up keen on burning all the hosts in storage to ashes and rooting out the mole that Dolores planted in the organization. Fortunately for host Hale, she was able to send off the technology needed to reproduce hosts before Serac found out it was her who had been sabotaging him all along.

Hale looked all but done for at several points, but each time she had another trick up her sleek, pink sleeves. When exposed by Serac she let out a poisonous gas in the boardroom, killing everyone in the room except for the maniacal Frenchman who, once again, was merely present as a hologram. A chase through the Delos building ensued, allowing Thompson to show off her full array of badass action moves, the highlight of which involved overpowering a man twice her size in an elevator and putting a bullet in the back of his head.

However, after returning home triumphant with only a couple minor bullet wounds, host Hale and her family were hit by a classic “Westworld” punch in the face.

Without further ado, Variety presents five of the most burning ones from a not-so-therapeutic episode.

Could host Hale have settled down with her human family?

The tragedy of this episode is that host Hale was finally discovering love and other human emotions. It’s clear that she was considering abandoning her ruthless overlord Dolores and settling down with the real Hale’s partner and son. However, that dream went up in flames (too soon?) at the end of the episode. It looked like host Hale will never know true love.

What’s the best way to dispose of a body in the future?

Forget burying your corpses under the porch or dissolving them in a vat of acid à la “Breaking Bad,” this episode offered a far simpler, more elegant solution: pack up your dead bodies in the back of lawn mower. Early in the episode, a Delos board member got popped in the head by one of Serac’s men posing as a gardener, who then popped his limp body into the back of his futuristic lawn mower. There was something distinctly “Fargo” about the whole thing.

What would it be like to be stuck in therapy with previous versions of yourself?

Trapped in a twisted mental asylum, William was forced into a simulation therapy circle with all the former versions of himself: young boy William, Jimmi Simpson fresh-faced William, the Man in Black William, and classy older William. The session is led by Logan Roy, sorry, James Delos, who pushes him to brutally murder the other Williams with a folding metal chair. However, the episode ends with light at the end of William’s tunnel…

Can Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) get William back on track?

William was rescued from that horrific simulation by Bernard and Stubbs, the latter of whom seemed to have dealt with being thrown off a balcony by Dolores rather well. After several episodes filled with torture, misery and existential dread, perhaps things are looking up for William? Surely if anyone can act as the soothing, soft-spoken therapist he so desperately needs, it’s Bernard.

So Hale is basically Darth Vader now?

The end of the episode saw host Hale crawl from the flaming wreck of her family’s car. She lost her boyfriend, her son, and her gorgeous pink suit, but what she has gained was a fetching Darth Vader-esque look and a taste for vengeance. I sense the dark side could be getting stronger in this one.

“Westworld” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.