SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from the Westworld Season 2 episode “The Riddle of the Sphinx.” Proceed with caution.
Westworld was firing on all cylinders this week as Bernard reunited with a familiar face, William visited an old friend, and the mystery woman was revealed. If you had money on the blonde woman from Raj World being the Man in Black’s daughter — the Indian Themed world from last week — then collect your winnings! Grace or Emily, as she has been called, is the Man in Black’s daughter. That means she is James Delos’ granddaughter and the fullest and truest heir to the park and the Delos fortune.
This week’s episode also revealed the “true nature of the park”, as well as two resurrections. Let’s jump into it.
Elsie Returns
One of the best and biggest surprises of the episode was the return of Elsie Hughes. Elsie was last seen being strangled by Bernard in Season 1. Before Bernard knew he was a host, he was looking for Elsie when she went missing. He didn’t know that he was the one who hurt her until Ford triggered his memories at the end of last season.
When Clementine dropped Bernard off in a cave during the beginning of the episode, he found Elise, alive. She freaked out because she thought he was going to hurt her again, until she realized he was a host. Together they found an off-the-books tech site where Delos was doing research neither of them were aware of.
Elsie topped off Bernard’s fluids, which we now know is called cortical fluid, and then they tried to figure out the secrets of the site. Bernard’s memory kept slipping, however, so it was difficult to tell if Elsie was even really there.
So what did Elsie and Bernard find? The host of James Delos.
The Resurrection of James Delos
The last time we saw James Delos, he was retiring from the company he founded and being replaced by a younger Man in Black, William. It was presumed that he had died, or at least was no longer a key figure on the show.
James returned tonight in a very “Desmond in the hatch” from LOST, kind of way. (Check out the clip from LOST below.) He’s isolated, listening to music, and living alone in a study room. When William asked James where he was, James was convinced he was in a medical facility in Carlsbad, California.
This was not the case. Especially since every time William came to visit James, he was older and older. The truth was, James Delos died and his host has been “living” in that white room for at least seven years, and more, once the Man in Black came to visit him. For many years, his host couldn’t live past seven days, as his basic mental and motor skills would break down after a simple conversation. He made it to 35 days, after the 149th attempt, but the Man in Black felt like it was never going to work.
This scene was also a powerful look at the effects of Alzheimer’s. The actor portraying Delos, Peter Mullan, really made this scene powerful and heartbreaking. It didn’t help that the Man in Black told Delos that his wife, daughter, and son were all dead. His wife from a stroke, his daughter from suicide, and his son from an overdose.
When Delos’ host body completely fritzed out, William left him in there, alive, to completely implode. This is who Bernard and Elsie found inside the tech bunker.
The Real Purpose of the Park
Bernard knew that the host they found was James Delos. He understood that Delos’ mind was secretly uploaded into a host body. Elsie was not excited about the “death of us all, so one man can live forever.” Before she and Bernard left the tech site, Bernard remembered one thing: Ford had him create another human host body for human upload. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember which human.
So, what human out there is actually a host? Is it Ford? Is it the Man in Black? Is it Elsie? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
Westworld is currently airing on HBO.
