Westworld had a surprising cameo on Sunday night’s aptly titled “Reunion” episode.
Giancarlo Esposito, who is best known as the beloved Gus Fring on Breaking Bad and the prequel Better Call Saul, popped up in Westworld’s second episode to fill the role of the Revolutionary leader, El Lazo.
It was one of Westworld’s many brilliantly orchestrated reunions. Lawrence (Clifton Collins Jr.) essentially meets Esposito’s character he used to play in Pariah, the town of indulgent perversions.
Confused? The explanation is pretty simple. Westworld routinely scrambles the timelines and repurposes the bots to play different characters within the park’s sprawling narratives.
Let’s rewind back to season one of Westworld quickly. Clifton Collins Jr. played the big bad outlaw El Lazo, who notably told William and Dolores, “now that we’re all friends, you can call me Lawrence.” Lawrence and El Lazo appear to be one and the same. But now in season 2 episode 2, Esposito plays El Lazo, and Lawrence meets one of his former builds.
Season 2 El Lazo refuses to assist the Man in Black on his new quest for all the Westworld answers, because The Man in Black (Ed Harris) is on his own. This could not be more clear when the soldiers encircling The Man in Black shoot themselves and then El Lazo also off’s himself with a maniacal grin.
Why would they do that? The likely answer is that it’s textbook Dr. Ford, puppeteering his creations to make things genuinely hard for The Man in Black.
But back to the new El Lazo, who essentially just blew himself out of season 2. Whether or not we’ll see more of Esposito is anyone’s guess, but he’s hoping he gets another shot, he said in an interview with the TheHollywoodReporter.
Esposito’s cameo was a crossover dream come true for fans on the internet, who were very excited to see him back on the small screeen.
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