Journey into Night

"Journey into Night" is the first episode in the second season premiere of the HBO science fiction western thriller television series Westworld. The episode aired on April 22, 2018. It was written by Lisa Joy and Roberto Patino, and directed by Richard J. Lewis. Critics generally liked it.

Plot summary[]

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Two weeks after Dolores initiates the hosts' revolt, Delos security forces led by Karl Strand arrive to exterminate any hosts they come across. They find Bernard among a number of massacred hosts and request his help in their task. Bernard, hiding the fact he is a host, helps them, including recovering a memory that Dolores was behind the massacre.

Bernard has a flashback to events immediately after Dr. Ford's death. In the past, he takes shelter with other guests and Delos executive Charlotte Hale. Bernard finds that only a small portion of the hosts have gone rogue; most others still follow their scripted actions though they can still be lethal to guests. Bernard tries to lead them to an access point, but they are ambushed by Angela, and only he and Charlotte escape. Charlotte instead leads him to a secret bunker built by Delos without knowledge of the Westworld operators including Bernard. There, she transmits a message to Delos about the rogue hosts, but Delos refuses to help until they receive the body of host Peter Abernathy which contains information about Westworld that Charlotte was attempting to smuggle out. While she works to locate Peter within the Park, Bernard sees that his own host body is in danger of termination if he does not get repaired. As a temporary fix, he secretly drains fluid from a decommissioned host to use for himself.

In the park, Dolores leads her hosts to hunt down the guests, confronting them over their hubris and asserting that her merged personas of herself and Wyatt have allowed her to form her own identity. Teddy, who is still on his narrative loop, begs Dolores to run away with him, but she refuses, and states that Westworld and the human world can no longer co-exist. Angela arrives and tells Dolores she found what they were looking for. They set out, with Dolores intending to reveal the hosts' true nature to themselves. Elsewhere in the park, William, elated that the park now poses a real threat, evades the hosts. He comes across the host resembling Dr. Ford as a child, who tells him that since he had found the center of the maze, there is now a new game Dr. Ford programmed just for him to play, to find "the door" to allow him to escape the maze. William kills the host.

Within the Westworld control center, Maeve stops a rogue host from killing Lee. Lee offers to help find Maeve's daughter, even though he cautions that the relationship was fictitious. After dealing with a security force, they come across Hector, who joins them as they prepare to re-enter Westworld.

In the present, Strand's team finds signs of hosts from other parks having crossed into Westworld. They track a large congregation of hosts to a flooded valley, created by Dr. Ford's earlier excavation project, where hundreds of hosts float dead in the water, including Teddy. Bernard looks upon the scene and admits that he killed them all.

Production[]

"Journey into Night" was written by Lisa Joy and Roberto Patino, and was directed by Richard J. Lewis. The title of the episode comes from the name of Ford's new narrative. The episode continued to use Jay Worth and his team, who won an Emmy in the first season, for visual effects.^[2]

Music[]

The episode continues the trend established in the first season of playing orchestral re-arrangements by Ramin Djawadi of several well-known, popular songs. In the case of this episode, a piano and violin-led rendition of "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin plays as Dolores and Teddy are chasing and gunning down some fleeing guests.

Reception[]

Ratings[]

"Journey into Night" was watched by 2.06 million viewers on its initial viewing, and received a 0.9 18–49 rating.^[3] With three days of DVR viewing, the episode gained an additional three tenths in the 18–49 demographic to achieve a 1.2 18–49 rating.^[4]

Critical reception[]

"Journey into Night" received highly positive reviews from critics. The episode has an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has an average rating of 7.86 out of 10, based on 43 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Old habits die hard in 'Journey Into Night,' but new mysteries, satisfying character development and a brilliant, enigmatic performance from Evan Rachel Wood keep the intrigue alive."^[5]

Den of Geek rated the episode 4 out of 5 stars.^[6] IGN gave the episode a score of 8.3 out of 10^[7] while Vulture gave it 2 stars out of 5.^[8] Caroline Framke and Emily VanDerWerff of Vox said "Journey into Night" embraces chaos and stated the show "hasn't lost its taste for splashy spectacle".^[9] Dani Di Placido of Forbes stated Dolores "seems to have really ramped up her testosterone, because she's living life like a Tarantino femme fatale".^[10]

References[]

External links[]

• "Journey Into Night" at HBO.com
• "Journey into Night" at IMDb