Video: Go behind the scenes of Westworld 204, "The Riddle of the Sphinx"

On last night’s new episode of Westworld, “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” we were told the strange story of James Delos, a long-dead corporate CEO whose employees tried to revive him by putting his mind into a host’s body. He’s hoping for to achieve immortality, but it doesn’t go well. William (Jimmi Simpson/Ed Harris) tries to get a working version of James Delos up and running for 35 years, without success. At the end of the episode, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward) find what’s left of Delos, now gone mad.

It’s a good story, and this week, HBO takes us behind the scenes of its conception and execution in a new video. Check it out:

This episode was directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy. As she explains, the situation Delos finds himself in recalls the situation pretty much all the hosts were in back in season 1. “I had this beautifully designed chamber, but it’s circular, it’s a strange kind of room. So much of what the hosts went through first season was, how they’re on loops, how they’re in a track that repeats and repeats, there’s a circularity to that. And this room is a manifestation of that idea.” That idea is reflected in the other circular symbols in the episode, such as the records, the camera pans, and the exercise bike.

One of the most fascinating aspects of “The Riddle of the Sphinx” was the revelation that Delos — the company and the man — are trying to do much more than just provide guests with a futuristic theme park experience: they’re trying to give human beings immortal life, as co-creator Jonathan Nolan explains:

This is the project the park has been working toward. Not developing hosts to become ever more like us, but a path for humans to become ever more like them in the ways that we value: their immortality, their durability, their adaptability.

Well, that’s a terrifying new wrinkle.

The other half of the episode involves Bernard, who is himself a recreation (or at least a reflection) of a real human being: Arnold, Robert Ford’s late partner. And like Delos, Bernard is also deteriorating, albeit because of a blow to the head rather than just because his consciousness is incompatible with his host body.

According to Wright, “Bernard’s relationship with time is distorted. So it’s all readily available and he’s trying to decipher what it the present, what’s the past, and what’s the future…Bernard is experiencing this kind of cyber-existential crisis about who he is, where his allegiances lie, with the hosts or with the humans.”

Westworld continues on Sunday with episode 205, “Akane No Mai.”

Next: Westworld season 2, Episode 4 recap: “The Riddle of the Sphinx”

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