Phase Space officially takes us into the second half of Westworld season 2 and while Iād love to report that Doloresās storyline has come into its own and things are finally starting to come together for a shocking finale of epic proportions⦠thatās sadly not the case as episode 6 delivers the worst hour of television of the new season so far. Weāre still talking about Westworld of course, so itās certainly not bad TV, but by HBOās standards Phase Space is pretty boring and largely just full of plot points which āhave to happenā and play out with little-to-no excitement. Definitely one you could miss, episode 6 feels more like a storytelling tool as it picks up with every character and plot thread so far and slowly shuffles them all along in an unentertaining and clinical way.
Note: From here on out there are specific plot spoilers for Westworld season 2, episode 6 - Phase Space.
In terms of plot, thereās plenty - and simultaneously very little - to talk about in episode 6. Things happen, thatās for sure. Maeve and her group leave Musashi and Akane (and anything of interest) in Shogun World before returning to Westworld and finding Maeveās daughter. The Man in Black and his daughter have a bit of a chat before he leaves her behind to continue his game. Dolores and the newly reprogrammed Teddy move forward with their painfully slow plan to⦠well, itās still not clear what theyāre actually doing. Charlotte and Stubbs keep Peter Abernathy locked down and call in the reinforcements (who turn out not to be Strand and his men). And Bernard and Elsie break into the Cradle (CR4-DL) to investigate how the Westworld system is fighting back against its former masters, but for some reason avoid their co-workers wandering around the same complex. The problem is that nothing really happens. Every storyline merely moves each characterās narrative along by a minute degree, so that together it makes an ok hour of TV minus any real entertainment.
Maeve stumbles across her daughter way too quickly given how long her group has spent getting to this point, and it doesnāt help that sheās apparently shocked that her child has another mother now. How did she not see that coming? Nothing about this plot thread is resolved either, so I guess we have to wait until the next episode for some sort of pay off. The Man in Black and his daughter Grace have a truly touching conversation, which continues the season 1 villainās transformation into a relatable and emotional character, and the performances by both Ed Harris and Katja Herbers are to be commended, but this is basically all that happens to them in the entire episode before theyāre split up again.
Dolores and Teddy⦠oh god, what can I say about this storyline that I havenāt said before?! Itās just so slow. They finally get on the train in this episode and it in fact leaves Sweetwater(!), but only to travel a few yards down the track and deliver a bomb to the Westworld control room HQ. Oh, and Dolores is also shocked that Teddy is now a bit evil. How did she not see that coming? Charlotte and Stubbsās storyline feels pointless as theyāre joined by a combat team weāve never seen before meaning theyāll almost certainly die soon, and we already know she loses Abernathy at some point thanks to the ācurrentā timeline (AKA, the Strand timeline) so why should we even care? Finally, Elsie and Bernard spend all their time just standing in front of a computer! While they certainly donāt achieve much, at least their story thread hints at something much more exciting to come - *cough* Ford *cough* - but even the ābig revealā at the end of the episode isnāt enough to save Phase Space.
Given my feelings on episode 6 you might wonder why Iāve given it a 3 star rating and as Westworld episodes go, this is certainly one of the worst. However, much like the MCU, even the worst Westworld episode is still ok/good TV and my frustrations with Phase Space stem more from the fact that weāre a mere four episodes from the finale and Iāve seen nothing yet which proves weāll be getting the high-quality ending weāve come to expect from Westworld. Believe me, I would love to be proved wrong and Iām still clinging to hope that in those final few episodes weāll see Doloresās storyline really take hold and push this show into unexpected areas just like its first season did. For now though, Phase Space on its own is a pretty medorice episode and while it may come to be seen as a semi-boring blip in the overall awesomeness which is Westworld season 2 (fingers crossed!), it could equally mark the beginning of the end of a show which is struggling to live up to its first season.