Westworld Season 2, episode 4 recap: The Riddle of the Sphinx

This week’s Westworld was filled with twists and mind-bending moments. Here is everything that went down in The Riddle of the Sphinx.

The episode starts out with James Delos in some kind of holding room. Young William enters the room and tells James the observation period is over. He then begins to give him what he calls a “baseline interview”.

Back in the present, William tells Lawrence they will need to go back to Lawrence’s hometown for Ford’s game. Clementine leaves Bernard at the entrance of a cave. He hears noises coming from inside the cave and investigates.

Inside the cave he finds Elsie! Understandably she is not trusting of him. We learn that Bernard chained her in the cave and left her with protein bars and a bucket. Bernard starts shaking and stuttering. He asks Elsie to grab his tablet and she realizes he’s a host.

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She restarts Bernard and he has a flashback of the secret Delos lab. When he wakes up, he begs for Elsie to help him. Bernard has a vision of himself walking into the cave. He suspects there’s a way to the secret Delos lab in there. After Bernard has another vision, they find a hidden elevator.

They discover the lab a mess with dead bodies everywhere. Elsie sees one of the creepy,non-human hosts and shoots it in panic. She finds cortical fluid, which would help Bernard. Before injecting into him, she asks him if he is still in Ford’s control, to which he replies he does not think so.

Ghost Nation take the woman from The Raj to a camp where they have other humans, including Stubbs. Stubbs reassures her they have evacuation protocols, but she tells him she does not want to leave. (At this point I am like 99.9% certain she is William’s daughter.)

Lawrence and William arrive in Lawrence’s home where Craddock and his men ambush them. Craddock has taken the town hostage as a means of getting their weapons supply. Lawrence tells William where they are located. William tells Craddock he can lead him to Glory.

Again, we see James Delos going through his same routine from the beginning of the episode. William visits him and they have the exact conversation as before. William gives James a paper and it is James’ experiment results. He tells James it has been seven years since he has passed away.  James also learns his wife has died due to a stroke. He tells William he wants to leave and get out into the world but struggles with his words.

William leaves the room and tells the assistant monitoring James to put an end to it. James is a host. The assistant pauses him and sets fire to the control room.

Flashing again to the present, Ghost Nation take the hostages to their judgement. They tell the woman from The Raj her fate will be decided by the “first” of the Ghost Nation. Soon later, she breaks free and runs away.

The “judge” of Ghost Nation summons Stubbs and whispers in his ear: “You live only as long as the last person who remembers you”. After this, Ghost Nation seemingly disappears.

Bernard wakes up in the secret lab. Elsie finds an OS she has never seen used in the Delos workplace before.

Bernard tries to remember if he was in the lab before and what Delos was doing there. They hear banging coming from behind a locked door. Elsie tries to break in.

Craddock terrorizes Lawrence and his family. During this, William flashes back to his wife’s suicide. William kills Craddock’s men and lets Lawrence kill Craddock.

Again, we see James in the control room. However, it is old William who visits him this time. James begins the same conversation and begins to choke on his words again. William explains it is not his mind rejecting his new body, but his mind rejecting reality. He tells James this was the 149th time they brought him back. Every time he glitches, but that time he lasted 35 days.

William informs James his daughter has passed away. He says that maybe some men aren’t meant to live forever. James has a meltdown in the room.

Elsie opens the door and finds the control room in ruins and a worker dead. She finds an injured James, who attacks her. Bernard saves Elsie and Elsie terminates James.

Elsie is done with Delos’ games. Bernard states he thinks Ford sent him to the lab to find another human’s control center.

Suddenly Bernard remembers what happened in the lab. He ordered hosts to kill the humans and then themselves.

William packs up his things and Lawrence’s wife thanks him. Lawrence’s daughter tells him: “If you are looking forward, you are looking in the wrong direction”.

Next: Westworld Season 2, episode 3 recap

As William and his new men ride off into the sunset, they come across the woman from The Raj, who reveals herself to be William’s daughter! ( I knew it!)

“The Riddle of the Sphinx” was an excellent return to form. Though it was 74 minutes long, it held my attention throughout. With this episode, Westworld finally gave us some needed answers while digging deeper into its core themes. I am excited to see where the revelations in this episode lead.

Westworld airs Sunday nights on HBO.