The philippines makes a cameo in ‘Westworld’
When even the Philippines pops up in HBO’s Westworld, you know the future is closer than you think. It’s only a cameo, but when robot host Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) turns up in Rizal Municipal Fish Port in Palawan during the third season’s premiere, you know we’re entering weird times.
This could mean Delos, the theme park where Westworld exists, is located somewhere off of Palawan in the South China Sea. (Much of the season was shot in futuristic Singapore, so it’s conceivable the crew ventured to Palawan for R&R and some second-unit shoots.)
But this is just the prelude to a season that pits two Delos androids — Maeve (Thandie Newton), who’s wised up to her A.I. status, and long-suffering Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), who’s gunning for revenge in the outside world — against one another for control of the future. Will it be human or robot? Dolores mostly does her thing by looking badass (that dress that instantly shifts from LBD to sheer gold lamé gown is killer) while destroying as many humans as necessary.
Overseeing all this mischief is investor Serac (Vincent Cassel), who’s seen Paris destroyed in a nuclear attack and wants to control everything else on earth before it happens again; then there’s Caleb (Aaron Paul), an army vet misfit having a hard time fitting into the techno-marvelous future, until he chums up with Dolores in her anti-society crusade, not fully realizing her A.I. status. (Shades of Sebastian helping Daryl Hannah in Blade Runner.)
Show creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are still playing deep games here, and that’s what’s made Westworld both a sheer pleasure at times and a frustrating leap at others. Now that the final showdown is coming into focus — Maeve thrown into face-to-face confrontation with Dolores, or maybe both of them against Serac — we can sit back with our popcorn and coronavirus-mapping apps and just enjoy.
Showing on HBO
