Westworld Orgy Scene in Episode 5 Causes a Stir

Lots of (mostly) artificial people having sex = upset real people, or so it seems.

Remember just a few weeks ago when we were musing about how there really wasn’t that much sex on Westworld? Yeah, you can toss that opinion right out the window after episode 5, “Contrapasso,” arrived this week.

As regular viewers already know, “Contrapasso” had William, Logan and Dolores Abernathy journey to the lawless (even by Westworld standards) town of Pariah. it was made clear that anything goes in this town, which is pretty remarkable because there really weren’t many behavioral restrictions even in the much calmer starting town of Sweetwater.

To get this point across, after completing a mission for a local bandit, the characters were invited to a celebration that night. The scene that followed was the raunchiest one yet, with plenty of nudity and all kinds of sex acts going on all over the place.

Dolores seemed bothered by the spectacle of it all, witnessing various male-female and female-female pairings as she walked to sit down with a tarot card reader (who in classic fashion for this show, turned out to be her). The orgy was, as some of the actors have always promised, well within the context of the show.

In other words, when the guests can already explore most of their sexual fantasies even in Sweetwater, the only thing left to do to draw a contrast is go really crazy. It’s also worth noting that none of the main characters even take part in the carnal pleasures — even Logan, who has proven to be down for whatever in the past.

And yet, perhaps not surprisingly, some viewers were upset by it. Fox News ran a nice breakdown of Twitter reaction to the Pariah party, ranging from outrage to people who found it gratuitous but weren’t bothered by it to still others who felt it fit naturally within the narrative of Westworld.

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Without taking any of those sides, here’s the thing: Westworld has made no bones about the fact that it would feature disturbing violence and sex from the start. Those parts of the show were never secrets.

If they both you, then Westworld might not really be for you. But if the orgy is all that sticks in your mind, it’s possible the finer points of the storytelling are lost on you, which would be a shame.