The Stray

Plot

When a new day begins, William heads out into town, when he stumbles onto an event where an escaped outlaw takes Clementine hostage. Initially hesitant, William intervenes and manages to kill the outlaw, but is "shot" in the process. Encouraged by his success and a thankful kiss from Clementine, William decides to go out on a bounty hunt.

Meanwhile, Teddy arrives in town and helps a guest hunt down a bounty. He then meets up with Dolores again. Dolores, who keeps seeing flashes of the Man in Black, asks Teddy to help teach her to shoot. While Teddy teaches her the basics, Dolores finds herself incapable of pulling the trigger due to her programming. Dolores then pleads with Teddy to leave town with her forever, but Teddy, sticking to his programming, refuses. In preparation for his new narrative, Ford at last creates the details of Teddy's hidden back story. Teddy's new narrative is to hunt down his old union army sergeant, Wyatt, who has gone insane and now leads a violent cult that terrorizes the countryside. Intent on serving justice to Wyatt, Teddy joins a posse with the sheriff and a few guests to hunt down Wyatt's gang. However, the posse is ambushed, and all of the guests eventually flee in terror while the sheriff and most of the posse are killed, leaving Teddy to face the gang alone. His bullets apparently have no effect on the cultists as they attack him.

In the control center, Theresa confronts Bernard and complains that Ford's veto of Lee's narrative as well as his having unilaterally changed the narratives of multiple hosts has thrown the park into chaos. She is also suspicious at how, even though the glitches have supposedly been fixed, Bernard's team is still pulling in hosts for checkups. Bernard then meets with Elsie, who is inspecting Rebus for signs that he might have contracted a glitch from Walter. She shows Bernard her findings that, during his rampage, Walter killed only those hosts who had killed him in previous narratives, as if he were fulfilling a grudge. Elsie also shows Bernard footage of Walter carrying out an imaginary conversation with an unseen man named "Arnold". Intrigued, Bernard meets with Ford, who explains that Arnold was one of his founding partners who helped build the hosts. However, Arnold was a firm believer in creating artificial consciousness; a belief that was not shared by the rest of the teams. Ford further explains that Arnold had died in the park due to what is officially described as an accident, but does not elaborate. It is also revealed during the meeting and a conversation with Bernard's wife that Bernard had previously lost his son Charlie, and is still emotionally traumatized. Bernard privately confides his feelings of loss to Dolores, and even gives her a copy of "Alice in Wonderland", which he used to read to Charlie. Bernard then asks Dolores whether, if she had the choice, she would choose to question her own existence, or stay safe where she is right now. Dolores responds that she wants to be "free", which surprises Bernard. Interested in seeing how Dolores further develops, Bernard allows her to return to her routine and does not report her odd behavior.

Elsie is tasked to track down a "stray" host with Ashley. As they inspect the stray's tent, they find that he had been carving constellations, even though he is not programmed with such behavior or knowledge. They then manage to track the stray to a ravine, where they find him trapped between some rocks. Instead of waiting till morning for a retrieval team, Ashley goes down to remove the stray's head so they can analyze its data. However, the stray inexplicably awakens from sleep mode, appears to become aggressive and then unexpectedly smashes its own head with a large rock.

Dolores returns home and finds her father murdered by a gang of bandits led by Rebus. Rebus drags Dolores to the barn to have his way with her, and Dolores begins to have flashbacks of her encounter in the same barn with the Man in Black. Visualizing the Man in Black in front of her, Dolores steals Rebus' gun, overcomes her programming, and shoots Rebus to death. She exits the barn just in time to see her mother murdered by the bandits, and flees. She comes across William and Logan at their campfire before collapsing in William's arms.

Production

"The Stray" was written by Daniel T. Thomsen and series co-creator Lisa Joy.

Filming

The episode was directed by Neil Marshall. In the episode, Anthony Hopkins' character Dr. Robert Ford was depicted as a younger version of himself. For this to be done, effects supervisor Jay Worth collaborated with ILP, a Stockholm-based VFX studio. References were pulled from Hopkins' early acting career, when he was in his 30s and 40s.

The scenes in which Elsie and Ashley track down a stray host who then self-destructs were filmed at Corriganville Park in Simi Valley, California.

Music

In an interview, The composer of the show Ramin Djawadi spoke about the hosts playing piano in the episode instead of the humans. He said, "It's got a robotic harshness to it which is very distinctive. When a human plays it, the dynamics are modified. But when the player piano hits a note, it's always the same." Djawadi continued on why Dr Ford would keep a host in his office, saying, "Maybe to keep him company! — And it shows his control, as well. This is his world. He created everything. So he can have as many hosts around him as he wants. I would pick a human, though. There's something about the human performance that a robot could never get close to." The episode featured the classical piece "Reverie L.68", by French composer Claude Debussy and "Peacherine Rag" by composer and pianist Scott Joplin, which was played in the player piano by a host in the episode.

Ratings

"The Stray" was viewed by 2.10 million American households on its initial viewing becoming the most watched episode of the show so far. The episode also acquired a 0.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 1.21 million viewers on Sky Atlantic.

Critical reception

"The Stray" received positive reviews from critics. The episode currently has a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and has an average rating of 8.6 out of 10, based on 25 reviews. The site's consensus reads "The Stray furthers character evolution while providing juicy backstory and twisty plot progression."

Eric Goldman of IGN reviewed the episode positively, saying, "Westworld's third episode put a bigger spotlight on how different Ford and Bernard's attitudes are about the hosts. While Bernard's feelings of love and loss for his dead son transferring over to Dolores aren't subtle, they make sense, and Jeffrey Wright is, predictably, perfect at showing how he cares for her, even as he knows he's going down a road he probably shouldn't." He gave it a score of 8.2 out of 10. Scott Tobias of The New York Times wrote in his review of the episode; "The slight hiccups in Dolores' routine are beautifully handled here. By now, we've seen the shot of her finding the wandering cattle on the ranch and saying 'Father wouldn't let 'em roam this close to dark' several times. But here, there's a slight pause between 'close' and 'to,' because Dolores is struck by an acute feeling of déjà vu. When it strikes her again in a confrontation with her parents' attackers, she recognizes the loops well enough to slip her grim fate and head for the hills." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club wrote in his review, "'The Stray' offers some potentially intriguing set-up, but that set-up isn't worth much if it doesn't go anywhere worthwhile. We'll just have to wait and see." He gave the episode an B+.

Liz Shannon Miller of IndieWire wrote in her review, "The last 20 or so minutes of 'The Stray', in general, are probably the most violent and grotesque of the show to date—between the battle with Wyatt's marauders, the Stray bashing his own brains in and Dolores shooting Rebus dead after an attempted rape. Even for the most inured, there's still some shock value. There's also, frankly, more drag than in the previous two weeks, thanks to some exposition dumps that do bring a new level of enlightenment to the show, but don't move as briskly as they might." She gave the episode an B. Erik Kain of Forbes also reviewed the episode, saying, "All told, a terrific episode that ramped up the crazy factor and the mystery to new heights. HBO is on to something here in a very big way. Westworld is brilliant, mysterious and captivating."