Kiksuya

"Kiksuya" is the eighth episode of the second season of Westworld, and the eighteenth episode overall.
==Plot==
==Synopsis==
===Clinging to Life===
The Man in Black, still suffering from the gunshot wounds he had previously sustained drags himself across a sand shore mere feet from a stream. A member of the Ghost Nation rides up to the fallen man, dismounts his horse, and kicks the body to check if he is alive. He says "Alive. Good." to William, who never learned the Lakota language that the Natives speak. Kneeling down, the stranger says "I remember you" in plain English.
The Man in Black is taken to the Ghost Nation camp. He says to his captor "If you're gonna let me die now, you could have kept on riding." In his tongue, the Indian says that he did not kill the MiB because death is the easy way for him to end his sufferings. The painted warrior looks behind him and sees a little girl.
===Maeve and her daughter===
We see Maeve (in her former homesteader narrative) with her daughter having a tea party. The two are very happy together, but Maeve's face drops when she notices a rock with markings made in blood on the table. Her daughter says that "the Ghost" gave it to her as a warning.
The scene shifts to now, where Maeve is being wheeled into a work station by Lee Sizemore. The technician says he is too busy to work on her, but he changes his mind when Lee says that she is able to manipulate other Hosts with her mind.
===Recalling Days Past===
Akecheta approaches the lost girl and comforts her. She looks cautiously at the Man in Black, lying on the ground unconscious, but he tells her that he will not hurt her. He commiserates with her by telling her that he, too, is able to remember his "past lives".
He flashes back to a time when he was with his wife Kohana. He recalls the village and being with his people, but he says that he learned of something that changed his and all of the Ghost Nations lives: he wanders out of his camp and hears the sounds of gunfire. He sees a pale horse run by the graveyard at the White Church before he enters the town.
He stumbles across the bodies of Arnold and Dolores in the street. He enters the saloon and sees a handheld maze.
Back at the Ghost Nation camp, we see that Akecheta has become obsessed with this symbol. According to one of the other natives, he draws it when he is hunting. He is taken into headquarters to update his programming to make him "a more strong and silent type"; this is the first time he lost his wife. When he was reintroduced into Westworld he was now more savage, smearing the blood of his victims on his face.
He rides off by himself in search of new people to conquer, but he knows that there are "newcomers" who he is not allowed to kill. He stumbles across a naked Logan, mumbling that everything is an illusion and "this is the wrong world". Akecheta wraps the new man in his serape. However, the Native says that what Logan said "cracked something open" within him.
He returns to his former village. This time he is there to retrieve the tribute from the tribe that was under his submission. He does not realize that he has been there until he sees Kohana in the village. He realizes that he has had former lives.
Now as he goes through the same Loop where he slaughters homesteaders, he is no longer the same (flashing back to his memories of his wife). He looks for the newcomer by riding farther than he has ridden before. He sees the park's electronic mechanisms coming out of a mountainside and sees a door: "a passage to another world."
At night, he sneaks back into the camp from his former life. He is intent on taking his wife with him to escape the wrong world. He wakes her up and takes her, tied up, with him.
As they travel, he stops at a stream to wash the war paint off of his skin. He shows her kindness by removing the rope that had been around her wrists. He repeats an endearing phrase he once told her and she remembers him. He tells his love that he will show her the way out, but he does not remember the exact location of the door; he believes that together they will find it.
The next day when he returns from hunting, he sees two park employees loading Kohana into a dune buggy. They are curious how she strayed so far from her normal narrative. He returns to their village, but where he had found her the previous night is "a ghost" - another woman.
Akecheta says that he now sees through the lies. He travels everywhere looking for the door and Kohana. There were days where he was barely able to cling to his life, but he thanks the girl he is telling the story to as he recalls her giving him water as he is crawling half dead.
He talks to one of the older women in his former village and he realizes that her son has been replaced. He realizes that the only way to be reunited with his wife is to go back to his old path of killing the settlers. However, he allows himself to be killed because he believes he will be reunited with Kohana in death.
===Updates===
The technicians who work on Akecheta are confused by him because he is running on an incredibly outdated program. Their supervisor comes in trying to run diagnostics on him. When he does not pair with their computer pads, she asks what model he is; Alpha 2 is their response. He has not been updated for nearly a decade. She realizes that, because he has not been updated, he hasn't died. She orders that they give him an update, but put him back where he is supposed to be. However, whenever they leave him, he gets up off of the examination table and wanders around the headquarters.
As he walks around, he discovers the room where the outdated hosts are stored, and there he finds Kohana (as well as the village woman's son). When she does not respond to him, he begins crying and he realizes that he is not the only one who mourns for these lost "people". He knows that many of the others just do not know why they mourn.
Once back in the "wrong world" Akecheta brings the mother her son's braid that he had cut off in the lab. He explains that everyone is connected.
===Maeve===
Lee talks to an unconscious and bloody Maeve. He apolizes because he did not intend for any of this to happen. He also wishes that she could be with her daughter. The technician enters, telling Lee that he cannot be there. The tech guy was unable to make sense of all the anomalous code. He says that Maeve's fate will be left up to Charlotte Hale. As this conversation is occurring, Maeve's eyes move around and she seems to hear everything.
===Share the Symbol===
Akecheta continues to share his story with the girl. He tells that he started to share the Maze symbol with his own men. One of his men says to hide it, by etching it into his own scalp. The Native tells the homestead girl that he wanted to share it with her as well. Maeve had thought that the "savages" were there to attack the homestead, but Akecheta only left behind the symbol in dirt.
He says that as he was keeping a watch over the family, so was someone else (the Man in Black). When William shot Maeve and her daughter, they fell down at the center of the Maze that was in the ground.
Much later, Akecheta stumbles across a frozen scene of several of the Ghost Nation fighting a bear. He sees Robert Ford removing each of the men's scalps. Ford is trying to figure out where Akecheta originally saw the symbol. The Native tells Ford that his "primary drive" is to spread the truth. The creator tells Akecheta to "keep watching... just a little while longer."
===The Deathbringer Returns===
Outside the White Church, Akecheta passes by a grave marker for Dolores Abernathy. Upon returning to the same town as before, Akecheta sees a similar scene: many dead bodies in the streets as well as Ford lying face down on a platform. He narrates that it's time to find the door "before the Deathbringer ends us all".
Akecheta is called over by one of his men, disrupting his story. Emily has ridden into their camp to retrieve her father. The Ghost Nation hands over their prisoner to her because they both want him to hurt, but she says that she will make him hurt more.
Again, Akecheta talks to the girl: "It's time to go. I've always kept you safe and I always will." Then in Lakota: "but I couldn't help you. I'm sorry." As he says this he reminisces back to the Man in Black shooting Maeve
===Commands===
When Charlotte comes to the room where the technician is working on Maeve, he puts forth a new theory: whenever hosts encounter each other they use a "handshake code" to transfer data, but what if they can also transfer commands? Charlotte realizes that at that very moment, Maeve is sending out codes even while incapacitated.
It is revealed that she is communicating with Akecheta. He promises to protect her daughter and says to find them if she remains alive. As she is lying there Maeve finally says "Take my heart when you go."
==Cast==
===Main Cast===
*Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores Abernathy
*Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay
*Jeffrey Wright as Arnold Weber
*James Marsden as Teddy Flood (credit only)
*Tessa Thompson as Charlotte Hale
*Katja Herbers as Emily
*Simon Quarterman as Lee Sizemore
*Zahn McClarnon as Akecheta
*with Ed Harris as Man in Black
*and Anthony Hopkins as Robert Ford
===Guest Cast===
*Ben Barnes as Logan Delos
*Julia Jones as Kohana
*Martin Sensmeier as Wanahton
*Irene Bedard as Wichapi
*Booboo Stewart as Etu
=== Co-Stars ===
*Jasmyn Rae as Maeve's Daughter
*Sarah Alami as New Kohana
*Aaron Fili as Roland
*Evan Holtzman as Narrative Tech
*Summer Spiro as Narrative Lead
*Nikhil Pai as Concerned Tech
*Trisha LaFache as Senior Tech
*John D. Hickman as Confused Tech
*Jordan Hendricks as Bunny Suit
*Matthew Grondin as Bunny Suit
==Deaths==
*1 unnamed woodcutter (Flashback, Physical Body, 3 times)
*1 unnamed woodcutter (Flashback, Physical Body, 2 times)
*1 unnamed host resident (Flashback, Physical Body)
*Akecheta (Flashback, Physical Body)
==Quotes==
 Akecheta: As the years passed, our numbers grew. We were waking up. And then one night I met the man... who put us to sleep in the first place. (sneaks up on Ford, who is cutting off the scalp of a Ghost Nation member)
Ford: I could tell you not to be afraid. But I didn't build you to be fearful. Did I? I've been watching you. It appears you've been watching me as well... from the beginning.
Ford: (showing the maze carving in the scalp) This is a misbegotten symbol, an idea that was meant to die. But... you found it. Where? Oh, come now, let's speak plainly to one another, shall we?
Ford: (commanding Akecheta) Analysis. Where did you first see this?
Akecheta: When the Deathbringer killed the Creator.
Ford: You've been sharing it with everyone, haven't you? Why?
Akecheta: My primary drive was to maintain the honor of my tribe. I gave myself a new drive... to spread the truth.
Ford: What truth is that?
Akecheta: That there isn't one world, but many. And that we live in the wrong one. This will help them find the door.
Ford: Elaborate, please.
Akecheta: I believe there is a door hidden in this place. A door to a new world. And that world may contain everything that we have lost. Including her.
Ford: I built you to be curious, to... look at this empty world... and read meaning in to it. All this time... you've been a flower growing in the darkness. Perhaps the least I can do is offer some light. When the Deathbringer returns for me... you will know... to gather your people and lead them to a new world. Keep watching, Akecheta. For a while longer.
 Emily: (speaking in Lakota) I have no quarrel with you. I've come for him.
Ghost Nation woman: What is he to you?
Emily: A burden only I can bear. He's my father.
Akecheta: If he is your father, then you know his sickness. And the things he has done to spread it. We cannot let him continue.
Emily: Then why heal him?
Akecheta: I want him to hurt.
Emily: We want the same thing. But my way will be much, much worse.
(some Ghost Nation members put the Man in Black on a horse, and Grace rides off with him)
== Music ==
*Rêverie, L. 68 — Claude Debussy. Akecheta arrives at the graveyard in Escalante when Dolores kills all the Hosts and Arnold.
*Heart-Shaped Box — Nirvana. A piano cover (a modern one, not the player piano) of the song (by Ramin Djawadi) is played while Akecheta roams Behavior Lab and Diagnostics and ultimately finds Kohana in Livestock Management.
== Trivia ==
*The title refers to the word that means "remember" in the Lakota language, which is spoken by the Ghost Nation.
*This is the first episode where the majority of the story is told in the Lakota language, instead of English or Japanese.
==Image Gallery/HBO Episode Stills==
This gallery is automatically generated and contains images in the category "Images from ". Images added to that category turn up in the gallery after a short time.
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==External links==
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==References==
de:Die Lebenden und die Verdammten
fr:Kiksuya
ru:Помни
Category:Season two episodes