I think that about sums up this episode. It seemed very much like they had a 10 episode commitment but only enough story for 9. So we got 2 minutes of plot and character development plus 55 minutes of cool Shogunworld.
Which is the only possible reason Maeve didn’t use her new voice when they first got to the Shogun’s camp. Maeve is a little like Superman in Justice League comics now I think.
I’d add: “Flies!” The writers do love them their flies.
(a) not clear she knew how
(b) she may also be insatiably curious to see what happened. Shogun World is neat to us, but it’s the first “different culture” she’s ever seen in her entire existence
I think Maeve tries to minimize her meddling with the other hosts. They could become aware or, worse, even be aware and who knows where that could lead. (Witness Maeve and Dolores agreeing not to interfere with each other.) In the case of the Shōgun specifically, they thought that he was in fact aware.
Exactly as dumb as you’re programed to be. The Shogun was just playing his role in the narrative the whole time (though I think cutting his samurais ears off to protect them from Maeve’s “witchcraft” was an improvisation).
That would be some dark territory to explore, even by Westworld standards. Black Mirror has already sort of gone there, not with slavery but with the death penalty in Black Museum. (And the prisoner’s race is no accident, nor is the title.) I have no doubt that a “Slavery World” would be quite the draw for a lot of people. For that matter, a “do whatever the fuck you want world” that’s just a recreation of a modern day city with no historical trappings, just real-life GTA, would also be pretty popular. That’s another avenue that it’d be interesting to see the show explore. But they probably won’t. The quality seems to be declining and the story is getting bogged down, X-Files style.
I would rather see a “monster of the week” series of vignettes of park guests doing various fucked up things, and the management trying to deal with unruly or dangerous guests, and the odd rogue “host”, than this muddled “myth-arc” that we’re getting that I have by now totally lost interest in.
Also, the show is suffering greatly from the lack of Anthony Hopkins, compared to the first season.
Yes, I miss Dr. Ford, and still hold out hope he’ll show up towards the end of the season, still alive and pulling strings from a secret bunker somewhere deep within the park.
I have loved every episode since the first but this was my favorite. I have no complaints about this show. I am totally enjoying the ride.
They explicitly found he wasn’t playing his role nor was he self-aware as they first thought when crazy off-script events started happening; it turned out the Shogun was broken and therefore behaving erratically and insanely.
Indeed - neither the ninjas nor the army were supposed to come into the town in the first place.
I was half expecting Maeve to pull a Dolores at the end and resurrect Sakura. There’s no reason besides programming that a stab to the gut should shut down a host permanently.
Also: “I was born in Hong Kong, asshole!” 
The katana looked deep enough to sever the aorta and maybe even reached the spinal column. For wounds that severe they probably need the facilities of the Body Shop.
It’s very realistic for a person in power to underestimate a “weak” peeson
There’s a certain irony in the fact that the recycled “You can be whatever you want to be” speech was almost certainly written by Lee, given that he’s at the mercy of both hosts being what they want to be.
So, if the geisha house was running the same robbery story as the tavern in Westworld, that means that all the bots there get murdered every day. So if the park is on the fritz, who’s fixing all the murdered bots at the end of each day?
Dolores had her Stannis Baratheon moment and ill never forgive her.
and to make another comparison, Maeve had her “Dracarus” moment and it was awesome.
That bothered me, too. How could that possibly be explained? (Sloppy. What odds this is ever addressed?)
Who said the tavern robbery was a daily event? Remember, it’s only been two or three days since the start of the robot rebellion.
If I’m remembering correctly it was pretty well established last season that the tavern robbery happens at the same time every day. Just like the parades in DisneyWorld. There was one episode where they did it like five times.
Hmmm…for that first robbery I believe Lee mentions moving the time up for the Mariposa Saloon raid to fill missing narrative holes created due to glitching characters.
An every day event doesn’t seem to square with Hector having to be rescued by William from a prison. Or that a couple of guests sign up for a posse to hunt Hector. Presumably there are multiple ways for storylines to play out - Teddy for example is killed by William defending Dolores in the Black Hat scenario of raiding the farmstead, but also dies saving Dolores in the gunfight in town( allowing a guest to comfort a grieving Dolores? ). I suspect that the timelines are often longer than a day. Look at Young William’s Dolores quest - it took half the season :). Maybe every three days, once a week or whatever - there have to be times guests capture/kill Hector and his gang. The fact that it is shown happening over and over again doesn’t mean much - they could all be a week apart.
Hmmm… guests could arrive by sea-plane instead of a train, and they would be B-list or retired actors, greeted by Khan and a little person, and we get to see their wacky hi-jinks.