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Westworld 02.03 ‘Virtù e Fortuna’ recap

By Bethany Lewis

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Dolores continues to fight her war and Maeve makes her way to her daughter in “Virtù e Fortuna”. Meanwhile, Bernard uncovers startling information about Abernathy as Hale struggles to retrieve him for Delos.

“Virtù e Fortuna” opens with an awesome Indian version of The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”.

A man named Nicholas (Neil Jackson) and an unnamed woman (Katja Herbers, listed as Grace in the credits) meet each other at the Indian park for hunting Bengal tigers. They go back to her room to have sex, where she shoots him to check if he’s a host; she’s done having flings with pleasure-bots. After this they team up for a tiger hunt, carried on elephant back to their remote campsite. When they arrive, the hosts are missing and they find that the other guests have been killed. Their guide Ganju shoots and kills Nicholas while declaring “These violent delights have violent ends”. The woman escapes, but only to be mauled by a tiger on a cliff’s edge, propelling them both into the water below.

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After the rebellion, Bernard and the others get to Delos headquarters and find Hale, who is surprised to see that Bernard survived. Security has been pushing across the park, securing one sector at a time and they’ve been at it for a while. They still can’t find Peter Abernathy in “Virtù e Fortuna”. Hale asks Bernard if he has any ideas how to find him. She seems suspicious, almost accusing, but Bernard offers nothing.

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During the rebellion, Hale and Bernard track Abernathy to a clearing. There, some bandits have turned a living by selling guests to Confederados. Hale attracts the leader away from the group by calling out for help. They knock him out and reprogram him to save the guests, turning him into the fastest, most honorable gun in the west. The Confederados arrive just as their merchandise is being freed and gunfights ensue. In the chaos, Hale and Bernard try to get Abernathy away but he is severely malfunctioning and confronts the Confederados instead of hiding. Hale gets away on horseback but Bernard is captured along with Abernathy.

Meanwhile in “Virtù e Fortuna,” Dolores arrives at Fort Forlorn Hope and makes a deal with the Colonel that will allow her to join forces with them against the coming threat. She shows him a machine gun — the kind of weapon Delos security will use against them – and demonstrates by letting him gun down their captured technician. Dolores finds Abernathy and Bernard at the Fort. Abernathy is still broken and the Confederados are having fun messing with him. She saves him and has him sent to the infirmary. She has Bernard tossed in jail.

Abernathy raves for a while but then suddenly recognizes Dolores and becomes lucid. They talk about the ranch and their life together there for a time. She tells him about how she broke free with the pull of a trigger that started a war. He begins to degenerate again, skipping between old roles.

Dolores asks Bernard to help her father. They talk about the purpose of her war and she suddenly realizes that Bernard has never been outside the park. She wonders if there’s any of Arnold actually in Bernard, or what he knows of the man he’s based on.

Bernard runs diagnostics on Abernathy and finds that he’s has been programmed with a thin personality layer to hide a huge file and encryption key. This is why he’s so important to the park, but they still don’t know what it means or what it’s for.

Hale takes a team out to the Fort to retrieve Abernathy, but Dolores knows they’re coming and has a trap set. As the battle rages Bernard continues to work on Abernathy. Bernard isn’t doing too well either; his hands keep shaking. But he appears to find something interesting in his diagnostics. He says “Oh my God” but that’s the only information we get before Hale sneaks in through the back and steals Abernathy.

Dolores tries to stop them but they get away. She sends her horde out to get him back while she and Teddy plan to go to Sweetwater to get something she needs. Dolores double-crosses the Confederados, trapping them outside the Fort to be massacred. Bernard escapes but is quickly captured again. He seems to be losing motor function. Teddy seems displeased with Dolores’s betrayal. He secretly lets the last prisoners go instead of executing them, but Dolores finds out.

Meanwhile, Maeve, Hector, and Lee make their way through the park and are approached by the Ghost Nation. They want Lee, but Maeve needs him and won’t give him up. They flee and make it to the nearest elevator.

Lee is confused about how Hector and Maeve could be together since they’re programmed to be alone. Hector is meant to have eyes only for his lost Isabella. Maeve intuits that Lee once had an Isabella of his own, wrote her into a narrative, killed her off, and wrote Hector as the man Lee always wanted to be. These people are almost friendly with each other sometimes, and the fact that Lee admits to Maeve something as personal as his own lost love is uncharacteristically trusting.

Armistice meets them in the tunnels. She has the technicians Felix and Sylvester held hostage and together the six of them make their way out of the tunnels by elevator. As they approach the homesteads at the north of the park they are finally nearing their destination. Lee finds a severed head in the snow bank and warns them that they need to retreat, but too late. A shadowy figure approaches them in the dark and swings what appears to be a samurai sword.

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Elsewhere, Grace survives her fall with the tiger. She ends “Virtù e Fortuna” reaching the shore, clearly exhausted, and runs right into the Ghost Nation. Tell us in the comments what you thought about Westworld‘s most violent episode to date.

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