“The Mother of Exiles” is functionally a cat-and-mouse sequence, with multiple cats and multiple mice, all working at cross purposes to one another. Caleb and Dolores are at the same party as Liam and his friends. Have they set a deliberate trap for Ashley and Bernard, or is that simply a happy accident? It’s not explained, though Connells does indicate that their friends (meaning Bernard and Ashley) have arrived early.
That sets up one of several brilliant fight sequences that are scattered throughout the episode. Most of them involve Maeve (Thandie Newton) and her trip through the underworld in search of Dolores. Dolores might have a three-month head start, money, and resources, but Maeve’s ability to control electronics, from gun-aiming arm braces to doors and the menu monitors on noodle carts might serve to be her ace in the hole as she uses that skill to first track down the person that sold Dolores her Laura Essman identity and further to Musashi AKA Sato (Hiroyuki Sanada), the brand-new boss of the Yakuza in Singapore who helped her smuggle four bodies out of the country.
Gunfights, sword battles, and knock-down, drag-out brawls are scattered liberally across the episode, and all of them are wildly different, and wildly entertaining, courtesy of director Paul Cameron. The fights between Hosts are more drawn-out contests, considering both sides are nigh indestructible, and the battles between Hosts and humans are pretty simple affairs for the Hosts, with Maeve using her trickery to force the Yakuza to shoot themselves before gaining access to Sato’s hideout and engaging in a sword fight with the Shōgunworld version of Hector Escaton. Similarly balanced is the brawl between Ashley and Dolores, which takes place in front of a bunch of drugged-out rich people in Eyes Wide Shut masks.
However, it’s more than just blood and guts and fighting. Lisa Joy and Jonah Goldberg take time and care to punctuate the action sequences with a surprising vein of comedy. Maeve has always been quippy, and Thandie Newton’s comic timing, especially after gunshots, is impeccable. Dolores generally isn’t as funny, but she gets a few solid laugh lines this week, particularly her little salute in acknowledgment to Roderick (Rafi Gavron) as she leaves the party following throwing Ashley over the guardrail and into something fragile and breakable.
It’s necessary lightness, because William’s scenes are all wrenching, particularly at the end of the episode when it is revealed that he’s essentially being set up by Charlotte to take control of Delos. The one thing he had, snatched away from him. His mansion traded in for a sparsely-furnished room in a mental hospital. The Man In Black cuts a pathetic figure in white pajamas and slippers, and the way that Ed Harris can shift in a scene from enraged and dangerous to pathetic is incredibly impressive. In a show loaded with great actors, he’s still one of the most arresting screen presences, as evidenced by his final moments of simply shuffling around his room prior to having one last conversation with the farmer’s daughter that’s consumed decades of his life, Dolores Abernathy.
