The Bicameral Mind

For the hypothesis, see Bicameralism (psychology).

"The Bicameral Mind"
Westworld episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 10
Directed by	Jonathan Nolan
Written by	Lisa Joy Jonathan Nolan
Featured music	Ramin Djawadi
Cinematography by	David Franco
Editing by	Andrew Seklir
Production code	4X6160
Original air date	December 4, 2016 (2016-12-04)
Running time	90 minutes
Guest appearances
Ptolemy Slocum as Sylvester Leonardo Nam as Lutz Talulah Riley as Angela Steven Ogg as Rebus

"The Bicameral Mind" is the tenth episode of the HBO science fiction thriller television series Westworld. The episode aired on December 4, 2016.

The episode received very positive reviews from critics in particular for Anthony Hopkins's performance. Its title is a reference to bicameralism, a hypothesis about the evolution of consciousness mentioned in one of the series's previous episodes.

Plot

The Man in Black questions Dolores about Wyatt's location and the center of the maze, prompting Dolores to have more flashbacks. In the past, after building Dolores, Arnold tries to foster true consciousness into her. He comes to realize that the path to consciousness is not linear, but instead more like a maze, where a person's choices can take them closer or farther away from the center. However, despite his best efforts, Arnold was never able to make Dolores truly conscious before the park was scheduled to open. Not wanting to allow the hosts to be exploited, Arnold instructs Dolores to kill all of the hosts. After Dolores forces Teddy to help kill all of the hosts, Arnold then instructs Dolores to kill him, predicting that his death would ruin the park. Dolores kills Arnold, then Teddy, and then herself. In the present, Teddy is put back at the start of his loop, but experiences a vision of Dolores and breaks his loop to search for her.

Angry that Dolores has no answers for him, the Man in Black begins to beat her. Dolores boasts that William will arrive and kill the Man in Black, prompting him to tell the rest of William's story. After capturing Logan, William enlists Lawrence's aid in searching for Dolores, slaughtering another Confederado camp in the process. William then becomes obsessed with finding Dolores, traveling to the very edge of the park and becoming more ruthless and brutal along the way. He then tells Logan that he plans to seize control of their company, Delos, and buy out the park before letting him go. Afterwards, William returns to Sweetwater to find Dolores back at the start of her loop, and is heartbroken to see that she does not remember him. The Man in Black then reveals that he is in fact William, and that for years he has been following Dolores going through exactly the same loop of returning to Escalante. Disappointed that Dolores has nothing new to offer him, William prepares to kill her but she fights back and manages to incapacitate him, but is unable to kill him. William fatally stabs Dolores before Teddy arrives and carries her off. Ford arrives to meet William and claims that there was never a deeper meaning to the maze, and that all of the narratives are merely games. He then invites William to attend the inauguration of his new narrative.

Dolores pleads with Teddy to take her to the place he promised, where "the mountains meet the sea". Teddy agrees and they ride to a distant beach, where Dolores declares her love for Teddy and kisses him before dying in his arms. However, it is revealed that the entire scene was part of Ford's narrative that he demonstrates to the Delos board. While the guests head off to the reception, Ford arranges for Dolores to be brought to Arnold's lab.

Meanwhile, Maeve enlists the aid of Hector and Armistice to help her escape from Westworld, despite warnings from Sylvester that somebody had modified her programming to allow her to wake up from sleep mode. She hacks the facility's security system to mask their movements and they head down to cold storage so Maeve can say her final goodbye to Clementine. They come across Bernard's corpse and Felix is able to repair him. Bernard reveals that Maeve's desire to escape is actually part of her program as a narrative. Refusing to believe Bernard, Maeve continues with her plan. Felix guides Maeve through a floor with Samurai hosts, when security is triggered. Hector and Armistice stay behind to hold off the guards while Maeve and Felix reach the lobby. Felix gives Maeve the location of her daughter, but Maeve dismisses the information. She thanks Felix for his help and boards the departing train, but when she sees a mother with her child, she has second thoughts. She leaves the train to search for her daughter when the power to the building shuts down.

In the control center, the park staff realize Maeve, Hector, and Armistice have gone rogue, but before they can do anything, the computer system suffers a malfunction and the control center is locked down, completely sealing the staff inside. Lee heads down to cold storage to retrieve the reprogrammed Peter only to find that all of the hosts stored there have disappeared.

Dolores reawakens in Arnold's lab, where she finds Ford and Bernard. Both she and Bernard accuse Ford of playing God by continually rolling them back when they show signs of consciousness and keeping them trapped in the park. Ford instead reveals that he has been trying to help the hosts all this time. He had always felt regret for being partially responsible for Arnold's death, and came to see the hosts' potential for consciousness as well as the next step for humanity. However, Arnold's mistake was that he did not know how to protect the hosts from humans, so Ford spent the past 35 years slowly preparing the hosts by letting them learn how to defend themselves. Ford also reveals that Dolores is in fact Wyatt, as Arnold combined her personality with his to give her the ability to destroy the park. He then explains to Dolores that what happens next is up to her, and leaves the gun she used to kill Arnold before returning to the party. Dolores has another vision, and comes to realize that the person speaking to her in her mind is not Arnold, but herself. By confronting and accepting her revelation, Dolores finds the center of the maze by achieving true consciousness.

Ford returns to the party and gives a speech to the gathered Delos executives, including Charlotte. Ford opens the speech by criticizing Delos for how they have exploited and mistreated the hosts for their own pleasure, and begins to talk about how everybody will be players in his new and last narrative. At that moment, Dolores shoots and kills Ford, and begins massacring the gathered guests. Teddy and Bernard are also present and can only watch in horror. In a nearby field, William has a drink alone when he sees an army of hosts emerge from the forest. One of the hosts shoots William in the arm, and he smiles when he realizes that the stakes in Westworld are real now.

In a post credits scene, Armistice, whose arm is stuck in a security door, cuts it off before facing more guards.

Production

"The Bicameral Mind" was written by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, and was directed by Jonathan Nolan. The climax of the episode was filmed on a cold spring evening at Paramount Ranch in April 2016, with approximately 300 people on set. For that scene, Evan Rachel Wood had to repeatedly point a real gun at the back of Hopkins' head and pull the trigger, take after take. Although the gun was unloaded, it was still a "nerve-racking" experience for her, as she was aware of the ever-present risk of accidents with firearms. The crew spent 10 days in May striking the set, which included having to modify structures installed by the filmmakers, such as the chapel, so that HBO's "intellectual property" would not be "violated."

Music

In an interview, composer Ramin Djawadi spoke about the song "Exit Music (for a Film)" by Radiohead, that was used in the finale scene, merged with the show's main title theme. He talked about when the hosts did wake up and started choosing their own soundtracks, saying "They're picking their songs, rather than the songs picked for them. They're scoring their own actions. This is what they're feeling at this moment, and what the future is holding for them. This song is the climax of that." Djawadi continued about what will come after this, saying, "Whatever worlds they are in, we have to find a way, because it's been so fun, and clearly, people like it, so let's see what's next."

Reception

Ratings

"The Bicameral Mind" was viewed by 2.24 million American households on its initial viewing. The episode also acquired a 1.0 rating in the 18–49 demographic.

Critical reception

Anthony Hopkins received praise for his performance as Robert Ford.

"The Bicameral Mind" received highly positive reviews from critics. The episode has a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has an average rating of 8.9 out of 10, based on 32 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "'The Bicameral Mind' brings Westworld's first season to an explosive end while opening up a brave new world for the series to explore in season two."

Eric Goldman of IGN reviewed the episode positively, saying, "Maeve's big Westworld breakout was an intense, action-packed part of the finale, expertly directed by Jonathan Nolan." He gave it a score of 8.5 out of 10. Scott Tobias of The New York Times wrote in his review of the episode; "The Red Wedding-esque climax wraps up an episode that embraces the bloody, HBO-style thrills the show had been eschewing for so long. It would have been morally irresponsible to fetishize the violations against the hosts, but with the tables turned, it's possible to feel good about the humans getting their just desserts. 'The Bicameral Mind' plays that to the hilt, particularly when Hector and Armistice bust up the lab." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club wrote in his review, "Things happened in 'The Bicameral Mind,' quite a lot of them, and some of them in the moment were exciting enough." He gave the episode a B+.

Liz Shannon Miller of IndieWire wrote in her review, "Westworld confirmed a lot of things in its extra-long finale — specifically, the fact that William's adventures in the park were from an earlier time than the rest of the narrative, and that Maeve's decision to revolt would lead to her freedom... sort of." She gave the episode a B. James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly wrote in his review, "The more you think about this episode, the more brilliant it is." David Crow of Den of Geek said in his review, "We have opened the mystery box and found a wonderfully thoughtful gift inside. It's an elegantly formed slice of misanthropic sci-fi. It is violent, and it is delightful. A fitting Christmas present after a year like 2016, indeed." He gave the episode a 4.5 out of 5. Eric Kain of Forbes also reviewed the episode, saying, "Perhaps the biggest twist of the night was Dr. Ford's role in... well, everything. It turns out it wasn't Arnold's voice in the hosts' heads, nor was it Arnold manipulating the hosts to awaken and rebel. It was Ford all along." Todd VanDerWerff of Vox also reviewed the episode positively, calling it "brilliant television" and saying, "The finale reveals the show to not just be about the dawn of consciousness, but about the dawn of the self."

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2017	Visual Effects Society Awards 2016	Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode	Jay Worth, Elizabeth Castro, Bobo Skipper, Gustav Ahrén	Nominated
	Golden Reel Awards	Best Sound Editing – Long Form Dialogue and ADR in Television	Thomas E. de Gorter, Matthew Sawelson, Brian Armstrong and Fred Paragano	Nominated
		Best Sound Editing – Long Form Sound Effects and Foley in Television	Thomas E. de Gorter, Matthew Sawelson, Geordy Sincavage, Michael Head, Rick Owen, Tara Blume, Mark Allen and Marc Glassman	Won

External links

• "The Bicameral Mind" at HBO.com
• "The Bicameral Mind" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode