SCENE: Westworld Mesa Hub
The QA force is organizing the recovered host bodies. Karl Strand, who has been overseeing the host extraction process, talks to one of the technicians as the host’s heads are being examined to locate the malfunction. Strand leans that 1/3 of the recovered host control units seem to have been wiped. He wonders, “How did all these disparate threads come together to create this nightmare?”

SCENE: Shogun World
A samurai comes after Maeve and her group, and they are lasso’d by his associates. The samurai orders his men to gag Maeve. They are led through a forest littered with the bodies of QA cavalry. We learn from Lee Sizemore that the hosts have other languages buried in their code, asn can therefore understand or sometimes speak other languages, including Japanese.

They arrive in a Japanese village. Armistice notices that something feels familiar about the village. They recognize a butterfly carved into the sand – a mariposa, Armistice notes. Armistice realizes that the characters are proxies for Westworld characters. Lee admits to having been lazy with some of the park’s 300 narratives.

After being freed by the Armistice proxy, Maeve enters a building where her own narrative is playing out and bargains with the hosts in Japanese.

SCENE: Sweetwater
Dolores and Teddy ride through the main street among dead bodies. They approach the train used to transport the guests from the real world to Westworld. Dolores orders the inspection and repair of the train, in an effort to rescue Abernathy.

SCENE: Shogun World
Maeve and the group are being treated to Shogun World hospitality. Hector announces that he doesn’t trust his own proxy.

The Army of Blood narrative plays out, in which the Shogun Army demands to acquire Sakura permanently. Madam Akane fights back, saying that Sakura is not for sale. She kills the messenger who approached her with the demand.

Lee states that the murder was not part of the narrative. A village elder says that they must hide the body for their safety. Sakura mentions Snow Lake. Lee explains that Snow Lake is Sakura’s cornerstone, but also has an access way back to the tunnels.

Maeve experiences a flashback to her daughter.

At night, multiple ninja assassins stage a sneak attack. However, Maeve summons her power as a madam to command the ninja hosts, and tells them to turn on each other.

One ninja assassin attacks Maeve, putting his hands over her mouth and choking her so that she cannot command him. As Maeve is being choked, she realizes that she can utter commands mentally.

The ninja attacking Hector witnesses this, calls Maeve a witch, and runs away.

It is discovered that Sakura has gone missing, along with 3 ninjas. Lee marvels that ninjas never enter the story, and that the Shogun army never comes into town, as a Shogun army marches into the village.

Musashi announces that he used to be the Captain of the Shogun’s guard. Maeve hatches a plan, and asks the others to distract the Shogun Army. Musashi confronts Tanaka. A battle ensues. Maeve escapes.

SCENE: Outside Sweetwater
Dolores takes Teddy to where they used to watch the herd and talk about their life together. Teddy tries to convince Dolores to abandon her mission and start a life with him, the one they always talked about.

Dolores reminds him of the time they almost lost the herd to a disease called bluetongue. They found out that the disease wasn’t spreading from cow to cow, but that it was the flies that carried it. She asks, “How do you stop something like that, something with wings?” Teddy said he’d “keep the weakest in the barn, out the air, away from the flies, until it passed.” Dolores responds that he’s “a kind man,” but that Abernathy burned the weak and the infected. Since the flies hated smoke, and they went away.

SCENE: Another town within the Shogun Narrative
Lee tells Maeve that their mission to confront the Shogun is hopeless. Maeve says that Lee can’t keep giving the hosts people to love and then getting upset with them for loving them.

Felix and Sylvester accompany Maeve, Lee, and Madam Akane to Shogun’s camp, pretending to be an envoy from the Chinese emperor. Along the way, they see bodies tied to trees, their heads in cages. The bodies are more QA personnel.

Lee goes to relieve himself in the woods and notices that a QA soldier’s walkie talkie is still somewhat connected. He keeps it for himself.

They are pretending to be an envoy from the Chinese emperor. They present a golden statue as a gift. Maeve notices that the daimyos don’t understand her. The Shogun rejects the statue. However, he quickly starts malfunctioning and Maeve and Lee notice that he’s leaking cortical fluid.

The Shogun reveals that he knows about Maeve’s power, and so he commanded the daimyos to mutilate their ears so that they couldn’t hear her commands. He presents Sakura and announces that she will be performing that night. He also unveils Madam Akane and reprimands her for “tempting the dragon.”

The Shogun says that in exchange for Sakura’s freedom, Madam Akane must dance with her that night.

SCENE: Sweetwater
Dolores and Teddy oversee the repair of the train. Angela appears, hauling a badly beaten hostage. She’s convinced him to tell them where Abernathy was taken.

Dolores takes Teddy up to her room. They make love.

SCENE: Shogun Narrative
Madam Akane reunites with Sakura, and finds out that she’s been mutilated, a cherry blossom tree has been carved into her back. Madam Akane repeats back Maeve’s words of advice to Clementine from the Westworld narrative.

Maeve tells Madam Akane that she has a daughter, and that she thinks her daughter would love to meet Madam Akane. Madam Akane asks where Maeve’s daughter is, and Maeve says that she’s in a new world, just like the story that Madam Akane told Sakura. Maeve offers to take Madam Akane and Sakura there. She uses her telepathic powers to inform Madam Akane that they are robots, and not human.

SCENE: Sweetwater
Teddy wakes up, and Dolores admits that she was questioning her feelings for Teddy. She leads him to the saloon. Dolores shows his a carcass with flies swarming all over. Dolores says that Teddy is one of the weak. Her minions descend, and Dolores commands them to seize Teddy and hold him down. A technician with a tablet overwrites Teddy’s persona.

SCENE: Shogun Narrative
Before Madam Akane and Sakura begin their dance, Shogun kills Sakura, fulfilling his promise to Madame Akane. Maeve has a flashback to William shooting her daughter.

Madam Akane is still forced to dance for Shogun. As Madam Akane dances, she approaches Shogun, then takes a sharpened chopstick from her hair, and murders Shogun. Maeve uses her telepathic powers to turn the Shogun’s soldiers against each other, leaving Maeve, Madam Akane, Lee, Felix, and Sylvester to escape.

However, more of Shogun’s soldiers charge the camp. Maeve is confident that she can defeat them with her new powers.

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[SPOILERS] Westworld Season 2, Episode 5: “Akane no Mai” Episode Synopsis