What Are Maeve's Memories Of On 'Westworld'? The Madame Seems To Be Waking Up

On Sunday's episode of Westworld, the brothel madam Maeve, played by Thandie Newton, was not at all her usual cheerful prostitute self. And it was affecting her job performance. In the middle of her go-to seduction speech, Maeve is struck with a disturbing flashback, and her would-be John decides to leave. In fact, it seems that any time Maeve tries to deliver this speech, about her dreams and being whoever she wanted to be, she was overcome with traumatic memories. What are Maeve's memories from on Westworld?

It appears that in the way that Abernathy was a professor (and various other characters) before he was Dolores's father in the park, Maeve was not always the madame at the brothel. Her flashbacks at first depict what looks to be a fairly peaceful life as a single mom, before she and her daughter are attacked first by Native American warriors, and then by the far more sinister Man in Black. As a guest, the Man in Black is totally invincible to hosts. So while Maeve seems formidable crouched against the wall with a shotgun at the ready, there's nothing she can do to protect herself from him except close her eyes and count backward from three.

As Elsie the engineer is doing her diagnostics, she explains to her colleague that the robots don't have actual memories or dreams. Can you imagine what would happen if these poor robots remembered all the things the guests did to them? This is a little on the nose, as it appears that this is exactly what's about to happen, and it may be contagious. Abernathy got the bug when he found the picture of the woman in Times Square, and passed it to Dolores with the phrase "These violent delights have violent ends," which she in turn passed to Maeve.

"We speak the right words and we create life itself," Anthony Hopkins' god-like character Dr. Robert Ford tells his little robot-child friend. It appears that words may be the key to unlocking the robots' stored memories, and perhaps could be the key to their eventual revolt. If they do somehow learn to hurt people, Man in Black better watch out. Maeve looked ready to do some real damage there.