I'll admit that I may not always "understand" what's going on in Westworld, but even I know enough to call bullshit on a particular moment from last night's episode, "Kiksuya." The story took a step back from our usual Dolores-driven narrative, and instead focused on Akecheta's (Zahn McClarnon) rise to the fully-awake member of Ghost Nation we've been wondering about all season. While this episode cleared up a lot of mysteries, it still managed to leave me frustrated, albeit for a totally different reason. So I ask you, creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, do you really expect me to believe that a host knows how to use an escalator?
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This isn't just any host, but a host who has only ever lived inside the confines of a make-believe desert world, a host who we learned literally hasn't been updated since his creation. I'm supposed to believe that host did this:
Even I approach an escalator with more trepidation than Akecheta, and I use them at least once a week. If this episode were realistic — as well as the episodes about Maeve (Thandie Newton) and Co.'s initial journey into the human world — the hosts would 1) spend the first full hour screaming 2) finally venture out and 3) take at least ten minutes to realize that what they're looking at is a machine that takes them downstairs. And even then, it would look a little more like this:
C'mon, HBO. I can only suspend my disbelief so far — and it stops just short of a robot being more deft and intuitive than I could ever hope to be.
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