The Adversary – Maeve convinces Felix to give her an eye-opening tour behind the scenes, along with some other requests. The Man in Black and Teddy infiltrate a Union Army outpost but Teddy’s new past complicates things. Bernard and Elsie investigate unusual signal transmissions to some shocking discoveries.
This is a very eventful episode. It definitely gives the impression of business picking up now that we’re into the second half of the season. Maeve’s story plays out a lot better than expected from its setup last week. It wasn’t initially clear where this could be taken but her tour through the elaborate host creation, and programming levels of the complex is easily the standout feature of the episode. The spiralling nature of their ascension conjures imagery of a reverse Dante’s Inferno into Heaven yet for all the more shocking imagery, there are beautiful moments like the deer learning to walk. The musical accompaniment form composer Ramin Djawadi (Pacific Rim, Warcraft) is genuinely stirring as Maeve watches the very ideals of her existence unravelling one by one. Then there is the cherry on the cake with her very own Buzz Lightyear moment of comprehension as she sees herself depicted in a promotional video package for the Parkm seeing that she really is just someone’s toy. Thandie Newton sells it all brilliantly from start to finish but her doctor colleagues don’t fare so well. From their body languagem the pledge is clear that Maeve is meant to be using her programmed madam skills to seduce Felix into showing her everything. Yet the further it goes and the more risk Felix is talkingm the less this makes sense. The idea that he’d risk his job that lightly (Maeve is a decades old host, making her highly likely to be recognised) seems increasingly out of character, especially when he could presumably deactivate her at any moment if panicked.
The Man In Black’s story comes with a very unexpected question: Is he becoming a protagonist? Not only is this the first episode we haven’t seen him committing any villainous acts but he spends the entirety of his story genuinely caring for Teddy’s well being. Yes, there is the impression his motives are ultimately more selfish by needing Teddy to find the maze but it really feels like the writers (which this episode include co-creator Jonathan Nolan) are deliberately using Teddy as a tool to make Mr. MIB more endearing. Their story also packs some great action when their best laid plans go out the window and some nice gruesome imagery the soldiers mutilated my Wyatt. Speaking of Wyatt, the expansion of Teddy’s back-story we witness poses some interesting questions. Not only does Teddy seem unaware of his memories until being told them (which is rather fascinating in itself), it begs a few questions over just how much of his character was changed by Director Ford. Crazy theory time: could Teddy secretly be Wyatt (talk about a narrative twist)? In episode 3, he could have been deliberately leading those people into a planned trap upon hearing them mention his name (with the masked figure being a decoy). It would explain how he mysteriously survived those events and extrapolating from that would imply that he meant to be found and saved by MIB to lead him into a trap. Either way, with the pair having entered the War story mentioned last week, it looks like they’ll soon by running into Delores and William.
The best story work by far comes from the deepening conspiracy work behind the scenes between Ford, Bernard, Elise and Theresa. We’re treated to several reveals ranging intriguing to shocking and further alluding to the supposedly dead Arnold still making his presence felt. Some scenes even conjured genuine horror themes, none more so than Elise in the dark abandoned building. Director Fred Toye (Fringe, Person of Interest) really sustains the tension here with the back lighting and old creepy shaped props littering the room. Jason Voorhees could have jumped out and we would have gone along with it. The Ford family gathering takes the biscuits (we’ve already had a cake metaphor) for most surreal sequence of the episode from '70's riffing facial peel back to learning that the young boy we’ve seen a few times is actually a representation of Ford as a child.... does talking to yourself still make you crazy in this context? These outside Park scenes do have a big weak link though in the form of Mr Dramatic Narrative himself, Lee. His drunken moping scenes added nothing more than some sub-standard comic relief and more than ever before he really came across as annoying. If Tessa Thompson could make Michael B. Jordan knock him out, we’d all appreciate it.
The maze symbols are turning into an episode Easter Egg hunt (the branding iron was particularly curious) but are nothing compared to “the egg”. If you missed it, watch Bernard’s trip down to level B-82 again. At one point, behind him, against the wall ,there’s a figure that’s a clear nod to Yul Brynner’s “The Gunslinger” in the 1973 original. It all complies into an episode of stunning highs but a couple frustrating drawbacks. It made Thandie Newton look like an acting goddess among wax men (she spends most of episode exposed yet her confidence is a constant 20) while furthering many stories... at least that is what the voice in my head told me.