Maeve Millay from Westworld
Racing through all three seasons of Westworld during lockdown, there was a particular character that stood out from the impressive ensemble. I haven't seen Thandie Newton in a while (perhaps not since the second Mission Impossible film) but she easily steals the show here.
Oozing with charisma and delivering an utterly fearless performance, Newton's Maeve Millay is the madame of a wild west brothel, wryly commenting on customers but also projecting a maternal vibe for the girls under her care. What she doesn't know is that she isn't actually a real person, but a robotic host at an elaborate theme park, whose identity can be changed whenever the engineers see fit.
But something is changing in Maeve's artificial mind: memories and notions that she can't recall with any clarity, but which distract her as she goes about her daily business. As she comes to realize, she's been gradually gaining sentience over several decades, and in several experiences rife with Katabasis imagery and allusions, travels to the “underworld” (or the testing labs) to discover who she truly is.
Gathering allies with the sheer force of her personality, it’s almost amusing to watch her seize self-actualization at such a brisk pace, while other hosts in the park remained trapped in their endless loops. Tenacious and determined, she uses every weapon at her disposal to ferret out the truth, and eventually begins to walk her own path.
Or is she? The trouble with being an automaton is that you’re never really sure whether you’re making choices or following programming. Her storyline isn’t great – throughout the second season she’s on a mission to find her missing daughter, even though it’s instantly obvious to all viewers that said daughter will have been given another host as a mother, and in the third she’s bribed into becoming the muscle of a manipulative super-genius.
It’s a far cry from her previous role as someone who simply wants to stay out of the conflict and forge a future for herself, but in many ways Maeve is the most human of all the characters – whether or not they’re hosts. That she can inspire so much devotion from her allies and the grudging respect of her enemies means that she’s an intrinsic figure in the ongoing story, and I'm hoping the writers will give her the development she deserves in the forthcoming seasons.
Thandie Newton is amazing (I'm still sore that her character was wasted in the Han Solo movie) - and Maeve is also for me the most compelling character on Westworld.
ReplyDeleteI did think she got shortchanged a bit this season (as I don't care a whit for Caleb, and William's only true value seems to be the very gratifying rejection of the woobie narrative)
But it seems clear that she is the one who will be carrying the torch from now on with Dolores Prime gone, and I expect her to be truly front and centre going forward.
Or is she? The trouble with being an automaton is that you’re never really sure whether you’re making choices or following programming.
Personally I think she achieved true consciousness at the end of the first season when she got off the train, because she was explicitly going against Ford's narrative (that she escape and cause havoc on the mainland) opposed to Dolores who yes made a choice, but the choice Ford wanted her to make.
I also think the Ford/Arnold and Dolores/Maeve parallels are quite interesting and the power play between them - Dolores was always Arnold's favourite host, and Maeve was Ford's, and yet rather than aping their creators, Dolores cleaves closer to Ford's role/narrative and outlook, and Maeve to Arnold's - I'm not sure where Bernard fits in all this, possibly that place/median between the two.
I'm still sore that her character was wasted in the Han Solo movie
DeleteThat's par for the course with Disney SW though. I saw today they're supporting John Boyega's activism in BLM, though they sure as hell weren't when they took away his role as lead male character of the sequel trilogy and gave it to the white space nazi.
Personally I think she achieved true consciousness at the end of the first season when she got off the train, because she was explicitly going against Ford's narrative (that she escape and cause havoc on the mainland) opposed to Dolores who yes made a choice, but the choice Ford wanted her to make.
Yes, she definitely broke programming when she went back for her daughter, but I've no idea what her endgame is in that regard. I mean, she knows that her "daughter" has a new mother now, and that that she's not *actually* her child. This doesn't seem to be something that's actually been discussed yet, which makes her motivations a little difficult to parse (I mean, she works for Serac for the chance to see her daughter; but like I said - what does that actually mean for her now? I think I would prefer to see her try and free Hector, Armistice and Clementine; the hosts she had true connections with).
Hmm, I didn't have the same issue with Maeve and her daughter - she's not Maeve's biological child, but she still spent close to thirty years in the role as her mother and retains all those memories, so while she knows it wasn't "real" it doesn't erase that connection. What she intended to do if she made it to the Valley Beyond I agree should have been fleshed out (co-parent with her replacement I guess?) and a goal of saving Hector, Armistice and Clementine would have served her character better.
DeleteInteresting - I started season three and was surprised to hear that Maeve was being bribed with a promise of getting to the Valley Beyond, simply because I felt that storyline had closed, and that Maeve had accepted her daughter had never actually been hers. Dolores was very much against "the lie" of the Valley, and figured that Maeve (as a parallel) was seeking out truth in regards to her relationships with Sylvester, Felix, Sizemore, Hector, Clementine, etc. I felt that Maeve in general was rather wasted in season three, and... correct me if I'm wrong, but have we learned what Ford's original plan for her was, in getting her out of the park?
DeleteI don't think we have, just Bernard's shock at whatever he read before Maeve stopped him.
DeleteSadly, I think they just decided to put Maeve (and Bernard) in park this season and focus on the Dolorii and set up (eyeroll) Caleb's arc, and didn't put that much thought into actually giving her much to do other than be badass, and because she was being coerced, the Dolores/Maeve showdown and ultimate reconciliation didn't have the impact as it could have (although Dolores' sacrifice and that final scene between them was emotionally satisfying enough for me)
I guess at the end of season 2, Maeve was happy to sacrifice herself so her daughter and her replacement could get to the Valley Beyond, but given the choice she absolutely would have gone with them, so season 3 is her truly letting go of that idea to instead throw her lot in with with Caleb/free the humans plan. But yeah, it's very flimsy.
Hopefully they'll eventually loop back around to telling us what Ford had planned for her - and whether she'll follow those instructions or not. (Hopefully not).
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