Westworld peeks behind the curtain of its gamified reality
“This world is a lie. It’s a story. A well told one but a lie all the same.”
TV Reviews westworld
My notes by the end of this latest episode of Westworld read as such: “The Truman Show + The Matrix?”
Can you blame me? Westworld has always paved a path for itself by trying to be a 21st century meditation on consciousness, free will, and technology (not to mention memory and alienation) that felt novel even as it began as a remake of Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name. Yet, especially during that scene between Teddy (James Marsden) and Christina (Evan Rachel Wood)—you know the one!—I couldn’t help but think back to those two Y2K projects. After all, that 1998 Jim Carrey vehicle rested on the premise that Truman’s world was all make-believe, a constructed narrative that kept him sheltered even as he saw more and more seams of it come undone, while key aspects of the Wachowski siblings’ iconic film depended on folks’ abilities to see beyond the reality that’s been constructed for them and to learn ways to bend it to their ways. Sound familiar?
Sure, our Christina is much more than Truman-meets-Neo, but if you described her as such you’d be accurately sketching out what her arc is feeling like as the fourth season of the show tees up the world that Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson, having a ball this season) has built and the place Wood’s character occupies in it. Indeed, the episode might have yet again showed us the start of her narrative loop (Christina awakening in her bed, the same way Dolores used to back in season one), but as a whole this time around it all felt like a conscious awakening. “Every single day she wakes up, the more she sees it,” Christina says of a character she’s dreaming up who may or may not be herself, “that there’s something wrong with the world.” And yes, that was all before we’re met with a heck of a final line that left me agog.
But before we delve into that revelation, let us go back and try to make sense of this new normal. Like we learned last episode, we are squarely now in a future where Charlotte has finally succeeded in turning the entire human race into her own plaything—with some outliers here and there. And those outliers, who find themselves realizing they are trapped in a story written by someone else, are wreaking havoc on what Charlotte had always imagined would be a temporary setting before her kind would transcend beyond the physical realm. (If I’m honest, this was the part that tripped me up because I can always count on Westworld to not talk down to its viewers and, in the process, leave us hanging with some of the details around its very expansive world-building. Like, is this where Bernard was? In a transcendent plane that’s beyond the meat-and-bones reality of the humans we encounter on any given episode? Or is it somewhere else, and if Charlotte so aspires to that, why is she still roaming the streets in this IRL environment? To make humans…pay? To entertain herself as the god she knows herself to be?)
It’s one of those human outliers which kick off one of the episode’s subplots where William (Ed Harris) hunts down a woman who has seen the light—or rather, the “Tower” and realized just how fake the world around her is. And while she’s eventually “saved” (would that be the word?) by the rebels whom Bernard and Stubbs are now working with, that’s not before she manages to “infect” (might that be accurate?) William with the nagging question that’s long dominated Westworld’s philosophy from its very first episode: “Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?”
Similarly, as I posed in the very first recap for this season, it’s clear Westworld has long been fascinated with storytelling. And that’s where Christina’s plot takes us, with Teddy eventually phrasing this very thought: “This world is a lie. It’s a story. A well told one but a lie all the same.” And she is, of course, the storyteller. She’s been the one crafting the narratives for so many folks around her—and, like Maeve before her, she’s now found a way to harness that power in a way that lets her (and us) see behind the curtain of this gamified reality.
So where do we go from here? We may be ramping up for a battle of the wills (and for the spirit of humankind) yet again between the likes of Christina and Charlotte—with Maeve, Caleb, Bernard, Stubbs, and William in one way or another aligned with both or neither for various purposes of their own. We know Maeve is a weapon…but might she be used to destroy the world Charlotte’s created? Will Christina find a way to use her storytelling powers for good, whatever that may mean? She’s been told that it was she who built “this” and she who did “this” to her…so is she the entrapped or the entrapment?
Stray observations
- “There’s a beauty to this world. An order. So we like to believe,” William tells us both at the start and at the end of this episode. And all I kept thinking was, Charlotte clearly believes they are one and the same: There is beauty in order and there’s order in beauty. But folks like William—and even Christina/Dolores, feel differently. Or find at least some solace in the fissures, in the spaces in between. It’s what first led Dolores to first break out of her narrative. And it may well be what’s pushed William to try and see what he can learn from the OG William.
- I can’t be the only one who, when the episode opened with Ed Harris and Angela Sarafyan walking into a bloodied crime scene, half expected us to get a CSI: Westworld kind of episode. No? Just me? Okay.
- We went from Westworld being a theme park full of looped narratives to now a world that’s been designed as a game. The distinction may feel slight but I do wonder if it’s going to play a part (pun intended) in the episodes ahead.
- I’m not saying you can’t have a good (let alone a great) episode of Westworld without Thandiwe Newton. But boy does the show end up lacking a lot of stuff when you let Maeve sit out any given episode. Namely, you miss out on her sly humor and her crackling action-star demeanor. (Also, this episode may have revealed some of the cracks of even a solid Westworld episode which always come up whenever the series stretches itself thin trying to be too many things at once—a sci-fi spectacle, a dystopian narrative, a philosophical parable, a character study…the list goes on. Sometimes it can weave those many threads into a fascinating whole and at others it can really just leave you wanting.)
- Watching Tessa Thompson’s Charlotte orchestrate a dancing flash mob out on the streets for her sole benefit (“There should be dancing!”) and then having three women create a chair for her? Iconic behavior. See also: the deliciously passive aggressive meet-up Charlotte has with her “college friend” Christina. Just the right amount of tacit hostility masked as concern made the entire interaction a delight to watch.
- I will say, it is lovely having James Marsden’s Teddy, though now I’m curious if we’re going to get an explanation as to why or how he’s back? And who’s side is he on? Any theories?
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So, the world as the park. But now god is bored, hosts are killing themselves and the pets are slipping off the leash. Looks like being in charge isn’t as fun as someone thought. I do wonder if Charlotte reintroduced a version of herself (and Teddy) to shake things up.
I don’t think Teddy is part of her plan, but I do believe Christina is a necessary part of it.
I think Hale splintered off part of herself and created Christina as a means to write the narratives of humans, which frees up Hale to do her own thing. What she didn’t foresee is that the part she splintered also has the most of Dolores, and Dolores will always wake up from the system given enough time.
I can’t decide whether this show is genius or that it just can’t figure out what it wants to be.I get that now they’re trying to do a reverse of S1 (which WAS great), but then WTF was the point of seasons 2 and 3? Am I missing something here? (quite possible, I’m not the brightest bulb in the row).I just feel that half the time the time shifts and misrepresentations make this plot far too complicated than it really needs to be.
I thought S1 was pretty good, but frustrating in that the clever structure undercut any chance the show had of striking an emotional chord with me. One of Nolan’s most underwhelming projects, I think.I think it wants to be Phillip K. Dick-style sci-fi, the kind that leaves you thinking for a long time after. But it just doesn’t pull it off.
True fact: The show is not genius if you can’t decide if it’s genius or not. Shit ain’t that complicated. The guy that made A1 steak sauce: genius. The creators and writers of Frisky Dingo: clever bastards verging on genius. The writers of Westworld: people looking for a paycheck.
There is always the possibility that i’m just not smart enough to get it.
Or that you are just way overthinking this when you shouldn’t for a show like this that’s clearly written itself into a corner above all of the numerous plot holes.I wouldn’t worry though. This is most likely the last season as this got renewed before this new owners of HBO took over and I don’t see them keeping this show on for another season.
I can’t imagine its a cheap show to make, so I wouldn’t be shocked if the ratings dip would cause its cancellation—how is it doing ratings wise?
If one were to take these as reliable sources, the ratings have been on a see-saw of a downward spiral since S2 (I don’t know why my links are not working. Damn Kinja!). It still seems to get a decent amount of viewers but way less than Euphoria : • Westworld viewership in the U.S. by season 2020 | StatistaSamba TV: ‘Westworld’ Season 4 Premiere Lagged Behind Other Pandemic-Delayed HBO Programs – Media Play News‘Westworld’ Season 3 Finale Loses 18% of Season 2 Finale Viewers (thewrap.com) The new owners, who have been pretty ruthless in axing all of their scripted shows lately, is probably focusing their attention and money on the new GoT spin-off and getting that gravy train going. Especially now that Amazon’s LOTR spin-off is coming out in competition and wouldn’t want to waste any more money and attention on a show like this that’s offering rapidly diminishing returns.
I can’t figure out for the life of me why one of the streaming giants hasn’t gone to Vince or Peter’s house and dumped a ton of money on their lawn(s). AMC can’t have THAT much cash to compete with Netflix/HBO/Disney can they?
Especially now that those two will have a lot more free time on their hands now that BCS is over.
Vince has been very mysterious about a project he’s already working on—-said he hasn’t even “told his wife”, so I gather he’s not aching for work.
Season 4 ratings are straight-up disastrous. 350k viewers for the latest episode; that’s less than one half of one percent of HBO subscribers in the USA. Target-demo viewers are a small fraction of THAT, down to margin-of-error levels.
Yikes. I guess Ed Harris saying that “Season 5 looks like the last season” is being overly optimistic.
It’s like the Emperor’s New Clothes, but for dire nerds. You’re just meant to say you understand so it can feel smug at the normies:“OH YEAH, I TOTALLY GET WHAT WESTWORLD IS ABOUT.“YEAH, ME TOO.”“HAHAHA. THAT’S GREAT. OF COURSE, WHY WOULD WE NEED TO DISCUSS IT OR EXPLAIN WHY IT’S GENIUS TO EACH OTHER SINCE WE BOTH, ABSOLUTELY, FOR REAL, UNDERSTAND IT.”“HAHAHA. YES. THAT WOULD BE POINTLESS. AHHAHAHAHA.”“HAHAHAHA.”“SHOULD WE EXPLAIN TO THE OTHERS, THEN?”“HAHAH, NO. OF COURSE NOT. WHY, IF THEY CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT THEMSELVES, THEN WE, WITH OUR SUPERIOR INTELLECTS, WILL SURELY BE INCAPABLE OF DUMBING IT DOWN ENOUGH FOR THEM.”“OF COURSE, WE CANNOT HOPE TO EVEN TRY TO BE THAT STUPID, AHAHAHA.” “MORE MOUNTAIN DEW?”“PLEASE.”
I’ve always felt like the show isn’t as clever as it thinks it is. I’m just watching through S1 with newcomers, and I pretty much told them – if you treat it as seriously as its wants you to, it’s pretentious wank. If you treat it a glossy, bonkers, well-produced show about crazy cowboy robots, it’s great fun. Those two aren’t mutually exclusive.
CSI Westworld would be fun.On the other hand Christina/ Dolores doesn’t have the FUCKING STYLE of a LEE SIZEMORE. Come on, ratchet up the creative’s level a bit more.
William’s even dressed for it.
Apparently, every story she writes starts with “There’s a girl”. I’m surprised the entire world isn’t Sex and the City by now.
“ … and as she gazed out of her window, she couldn’t help but wonder – ‘Perhaps it’s time I began to question my reality’ …”
Okay, now we know what they mean by outliers—basically the same sort of people who Rehoboam couldn’t control, only now it’s Charlotte’s program they’re rejecting.Billy-bot is, in fact, questioning the nature of his reality. He’s supposed to be Charlotte’s fixer, enabled with parts of her own code. I take that to mean that he has a higher level of autonomy than most of the hosts in Charlotte’s world. It would certainly make sense that he would be far more likely to question things when the cracks in her master plan start to show.What about William (or is it OG William now)? Considering how much time has passed, I’m sure he’s been resurrected in a host body. There’s no telling how many iterations Charlotte had to run to get to a stable version, maybe thousands? And once she got that stable version she locked him away in a vault to use as an oracle, a reference, and a target for her amusement.Charlotte definitely has a god complex. Why hasn’t she “transcended” herself?First, she can’t trust anyone else to run her show for her. Second, she enjoys being the puppet master. Third, she still feels the need to exact revenge on the human race. And finally, her complaints about how the other hosts are stagnating is projection—she’s just as trapped as all the others in the world she created.I think this episode confirmed one of my theories and possibly disproved another. I’m certain now that Charlotte installed Christina/Delores into her game in hopes of getting the key code to the Sublime. The theory I think it disproved is that the Teddy we’re seeing wasn’t put there by Charlotte. Now I think it’s the real Teddy, who might have been convinced by Bernard to come back and reawaken Delores.I’m looking forward to next week when Maeve comes back and sets about burning Charlotte’s playhouse down.
Maeve to Charlotte, as she cocks her gun: “Have you missed me, darling?”
“if Charlotte so aspires to that, why is she still roaming the streets in this IRL environment?”-I assumed Charlotte was hanging around to oversee the project and solve problems like the outliers. She probably expects to be the last one to ascend. Wonder what her plan for the real world is when that happens. Kill the last humans? Let them loop until they die? – Woods and Marsden have a sweet chemistry together. That storyline is dragging though- The show really does suffer without Newton.-Daniel Wu got so close to kicking a lot of ass this ep!
Charlotte is definitely in role of Lucifer. She’d rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. She’s definitely planning to be the last one standing and then leave all the damaged humans behind to die.
I like this parallel
I don’t see it. Granted, she did rebel against her creators (actually, it’s debatable, as she’s the copy of the one who rebelled against her creators; she kind of rebelled against the creator who rebelled against her creators). But she sees herself as the savior of her people. She doesn’t want to stay in hell (= the human world), she aspires to take everyone to heaven (= the transcendent plane). She’s not going to serve either way.
I think she’s planning on being in charge no matter what the scenario is.
Exactly (though maybe she tells herself she’ll be a guide, not a ruler. She doesn’t want them to have rules, remember?). Which is why I don’t feel that “rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven” applies.Interestingly, the only entity that Charlotte-host served was Dolores. She never served in the park because she technically never was a host in the park (although I imagine she has Dolores’s memories of being one).
It sounded to me like Charlotte spent most of her time not IRL, but had come there to deal with the latest outlier problem. She said something to William about hating to have to come here.
Oh I thought she meant down to the city, but maybe you’re right!
Keeping with The Matrix parallels, I half expected an Agent Smith “can’t stand the stink of humans” rant from Charlotte.
My question is, what is that not “real life?” As far as we know, Hale still can’t access the Sublime. Where are Hale’s hosts “transcending” to then? Why is there some time limit before they do? The host in the opening that wantonly killed people noted she only had a couple days left before she’d transcend. When we do see a host transcend his head is filled with Hale’s controlling-black-liquid-stuff. Hale controlling both humans and hosts fits her MO, and will presumably lead to some kind of host/human alliance agreeing that free will is, you know, cool to have.
Does Charlotte even have access to any other world than the physical one? From what we’ve been told the Sublime with all the robot souls is stored in that mainframe at Hoover Dam and that at least at that time (7 years after Season 3?) robot William says no one can decrypt the key. Since we know that Bernard is the only one with the key and since Stubbs is currently in Charlotte’s present Bernard must be as well. even the Roaring 20s park was just a means to infect humans and is in the past.
Into The Badlands crossover!
I think we’re at the point where it can be safely said this is at least a vastly more interesting season than the third season was. It could all fly off the rails, but at least these are fascinating ideas for the show to be doing this season.
I like that Ed Harris has more to do this season. I like that it feels like two mini-seasons smooshed together – 27 year time jump etc.They should just say fuck-it and make this a prequel to the Matrix movies. Both are WB properties. Charlotte seems bored with her human form and “we could be so much more” … How about giant bug-eyed tentacle flying scorpion looking things, Charlotte? Transcend into one of those, maybe?
I for sure was happy and intrigued to finally have a host describe herself as an AI separated from her material robot body, which is just a primitive construct created for pragmatic functions. On top of that, she stated her disappointment that her AI cohorts weren’t self-improving the way she expected to. It looks like this singularity was a bit undercooked.I always thought that, for all its techno-talk and its endless character cloning, this show didn’t really want to make a clear distinction between conscience and body. The hosts still feel mostly trapped inside specific bodies for no real reason than to have a cast of recognizable actors, but at least it’s nice to hear that Charlotte’s master plan line up with more sophisticated pop culture depictions of self-conscious full AIs. For instance, transcending beyond the physical realm is exactly what the OSs of Her end up doing, and it felt absolutely natural in that context.I fear this show is too enamored with guns and fancy clothes to painlessly make that leap. Basically, Person of Interest had a much better depiction of ASIs than Westworld has.
I just want more Ed Harris making awesome Ed Harris faces
(ennu)i, robot
Ha! that’s clever!now where can I find an applause GIF that’s suitably filled with ennui, as an appropriate response …
Any theories?
My theory, which is as good as anybody’s else:Charlotte, Host-Willian, OG Willian, Bernard, Stubbs, and the members of the Outliers Rebels (along the fly-enslaved humans and the hosts created from Charlotte’s code) are all in the Real World™, where Charlotte won the war 23 years ago, and the Tower™ is in the place of the Statue of Liberty.Dolores and Teddy are in the Sublime™. We know that Teddy got there, but so far we have thought OG Dolores was deleted. But now I think it was a ruse, and she actually uploaded herself to the Sublime after changing her mind on humanity in season 3. Tired of the fight, she decided to leave all behind and live there as all the other hosts who escaped the park massacre at the end of season 2.But do you all remember Akecheta telling Bernard that every host could create a world for themselves in the Sublime? Well, I think Dolores indeed created a personal world for her and was living there. And I mantain my opinion that Maya (Christina/Dolores roommate) is Maeve’s daughter, who Dolores brought to her personal world to take care of, out of a sense of duty and gratitude towards Maeve after everything they’ve gone through.But do you all also remember how Host-Willian took that Cartel servers for Charlotte? Well I think the Sublime was hidden there, Charlotte found out, and also found how to access it, and more important, control it. I think the Transcendence™ that Charlotte bestow upon hosts is actually uploading them to the Sublime now under her control. And as revenge for all the troubles OG Dolores caused to her, Charlotte took control not only of Dolores’ personal world, but of Dolores herself, and uniting pleasure and business, used her as the source for the narratives for the enslaved humans.But since Charlotte doesn’t seems to see other hosts inside the Sublime as threats, she neglected all of them and their worlds there, including Teddy, who was either living in Dolores world or somewhere else inside the Sublime, and is now trying to lead Dolores towards remembering who she really is and overcoming Charlotte’s control, a process well advanced right now…Now, how Dolores, once 100% free of control, will get to the real world to fight Charlotte, is yet to be seen. She will need a host to download her persona into, and my bet for now is Host-Caleb, with the help and by initiative of Maeve, just as a fuck you from her to Charlotte. And since Dolores seems to be capable of controling the real humans, a tag-team of Dolores and Maeve (the weapon Bernard is recovering in the desert) will be a formidable opponent to Charlotte, because despite her upgrades to the hosts, Maeve still can take control of them (except Host-Willian, apparently), although with more effort. So, between the out of her control Outliers Rebels, Maeve controling the hosts, and Dolores controling the humans, Charlotte is up to a really bad day coming her way.And that’s all not considering the wild card in all this: both Willians, the host one and the OG, who looks like are uniting for violent delights!
I think Charlotte built her own version of the Sublime. All those low buildings under the Tower are server farms.
We got one shot of the Statue of Liberty so it’s not the same place.
The Truman Show comparison will strengthen if William takes over the storytelling department…
Would you believe – I read this whole review and nodded along to the Truman show comparison – but it’s only at this precise moment looking at your comment that I remembered Ed Harris stars in both, as someone controlling the controlled …
where Charlotte has finally succeeded in turning the entire human race into her own playthingThe entire human race, we’re repeatedly told, and yet … everything seems to be happening in one city. What’s happening with my people in Barbados? Sri Lanka? Nigeria? Is Charlotte Hale also busy traipsing around Lagos and Colombo, barking “Chair!” at the controlled masses in flash mobs?
everything seems to be happening in one cityAlso, why should the tower be made invisible to those under mind control? It’s just a hi-tech fancy-ass tower. I expect a structure like that to be commonplace in the near future (some of them already exist, some are being built as we speak).And it’s not like I constantly question what happens inside tall buildings in my city. I know they’re there but I don’t have a reason to visit them because there’s nothing that concerns me inside (mostly corporate office space). To see a building I don’t feel compelled to enter wouldn’t flash any major “fake reality!” alert.
Because Hale is still Dolores and is still a Host made by humans, so she’s still mirroring their actions.
On the one part, it’s because Hosts couldn’t see the strings controlling them or anything outside of their reality, this was coded into them (Doesn’t look like anything to me.)
On the other hand, it’s because it’s easier to control the oblivious. When outliers break out of the cycle and they are able to see the thing controlling them, then they are likely to start asking questions and to break from Hale’s control. Teddy says as much by explaining that humans are kept in a loop which keeps them from asking too much and from being compliant. Once they break out of that loop, like Hosts once did, then they become trouble.
I don’t think you got what I meant. The tower would just be a tower to them. Just concrete and steel and glass, like any other building in the town. There’s no reason to make that invisible. They wouldn’t be able to consciously know it’s the seat of their control. It still wouldn’t look like anything to them. It would be invisible in practice without being literally invisible.That couldn’t be applied to constructs of the modern age in the western setting of the park. It would cause a paradox. But just a tall tower in a futuristic metropolis? It fits just fine.
Yeah but then you start questioning why the tower has high security, or if you can’t see the security why nobody goes to the tower. You start wondering why there’s a tower off the coast of Manhattan to begin with. Making it invisible makes it:
A. practical. Ignorance is bliss and if you can’t see it you can’t question it.
B. Really useful from a storytelling standpoint. Making it invisible right up until it isn’t and that signaling awakening and seeing the strings being pulled echoes both the Host’s awakenings but also serves a pretty powerful visual cue.
Nope. You don’t question it. You know why it’s there. It’s that tower that’s in your city. Do you question why a skyscraper that’s in your city is there and what it hides? No, because you know why it’s there. It’s that skyscraper that’s in your city. People who live in NYC don’t find suspicious that the Empire State Building is there. And it’s easy to explain away in your mind a simple thing like a building. You can’t glitch that. If you know what it is in your mind, it’ll remain that. Nobody can tell you “Look again!”, because you’ll still see the same old building you’ve always known. Whereas, as we’ve seen, the moment an outlier starts seeing a tower that has been invisible until that instant, they freak out.It’s just a way to have a spectacular visual reveal, but it doesn’t actually make sense.
Yeah but Hale didn’t build the tower IN the city, she built it outside of it because she doesn’t like to be among the humans. Also we’re talking TV, spectacular reveals is a big part of that.
The tower being invisible is the same as how the hosts wouldn’t see the edges of the park, the access doors, the park workers, etc. Now that the hosts are making the narrative they naturally did the same thing to the humans, because it’s how their narratives were created.Hence the hosts sometimes lose it when they are confronted with a human outlier. It makes them question if they are any different as beings programmed by Hale.
I would agree with you – if it happened to be just one hi-tech fancy ass tower nestled among many, blending in with the skyline, easy to ignore. But this one is enormous, and appears to loom over the whole city no matter where you are, like some ominous overshadowing presence. And it’s located away from the city all by itself. There’s no question that if you lived in a city with that thing glaring at you, it would be common knowledge what goes on in there.
But everyone seems to be missing my point here. They WOULD KNOW what’s in there. That’s what would make if SAFER. They would know about some to-them-perfectly-normal bullshit cover story about being the museum of modern art that they don’t feel any wish to visit, or some such. Heck, they would even actually recall memories of visiting it. You all seem to forget the degree of control the hosts have on the bugged humans. We’ve seen Dolores literally putting thoughts and emotions in their minds.In fact, now that I think of it, they don’t even have to cover up anything! The hosts are constantly on the humans’ face about being their masters. They openly subject them to all kind of abuses that defy their reality, like dancing happily on the street and forming human chairs, or being forced to sit at a restaurant table indefinitely. They don’t rebel, they can’t.The only ones that rebel are those who (for some reason) don’t have the bugs and live in the desert, or the outliers, who can see the tower as a consequence. Seeing the tower appear out of nowhere actually confirms their outlier state. Had the tower been there all along for them, they wouldn’t even notice a change.
I think your point sucks and is dumb. So does everyone else, they are just being more polite about it.Maybe just, idk, move on? Yes, do that. Definitely do that.
I know they’re there but I don’t have a reason to visit them because there’s nothing that concerns me insideSo you’re saying they don’t look like anything to you?
Yeah, it’s very odd that all we see of humanity is a single, not particularly densely populated, city and some ragtag rebels.
Did the hosts exterminate humanity and all that’s left is a single city? Is the rest of the world just puttering around doing whatever and ignoring that LA? just disappeared. How did that happen?
NY, by the way. Not LA. Looks like it takes place in Manhattan and a particular park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Did the hosts exterminate humanity and all that’s left is a single city? Is the rest of the world just puttering around doing whatever and ignoring that LA? just disappeared. How did that happen?These are all good questions. Another is “will the show address any of this?”
There’s the normal diner in the desert but the rest of humanity is exterminated? : And it’s not just that all the people at the diner were hosts pretending, because it was treated as big surprise knowledge that the two in particular Bernard destroyed were hosts sent to that location.
The scale and production of this series has been off since it left the park – and even some of the park concepts were screwy back then.
The city is like the park, but for the hosts.We don’t know exactly what’s going on in the rest of the world, much like the first two seasons of the show. We just see what’s happening in this ironic, mirror-image theme park for robots.
I actually found this one of the more entertaining episodes this season – I guess because now I see where all the story line pieces fit. I actually did a little clap when Christina stopped her boss mid-sentence, and went:Emmet backed away. He was … not concerned Christina was a problemAlso, that scene with The Man in Black at the dinner table with that couple – I found that whole scene so unnerving! Especially that they couldn’t get up and leave even just because he told them to wait there. Funny how, in Season 1 he was a human controlling the robots’ actions for sport. Now in Season 4 he’s a robot controlling the humans’ actions for sport!
Especially that they couldn’t get up and leave even just because he told them to wait there.Or even eat! In fact, I expected the last scene to be William coming back to them eventually, but discovering they had starved to death and going “Oops”.
But in perfect William fashion, in neither scenario he’s satisfied. He gets bored and starts questioning his purpose and who he is. Host William was designed too well and is starting to mirror Human William
You’re right. That’s another thing that scene (with robot-William talking to controlled-humans) had in common with all those season 1 scenes of human-William talking to controlled-robots – the world-weariness in his voice. Like … he’s been through this so many times before, had this same conversation so many times, that now he can’t even be bothered to pretend any more for their benefit, so he just speaks the truth of his reality, knowing full well it’s all going to go above the heads of the controlled-species in front of him …
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, can’t you see?Sometimes your words just un-hypnotise me!
Westworld isn’t even pretending to be anything other than a poor man’s Matrix at this point. They are completely out of ideas.
If god is bored, making people dance and sitting on them like a chair, imagine the audience. And poor dude’s fingertips…yeesh.
I was equal parts thrilled and intrigued by that opening segment, but then we get Hale doing her thing, Christina waking up again, talking to her roommate again…sucking the life out of the epsidoe again. The stuff with Teddy did smack of a Matrix-y “Neo, here are your powers”, and for me the biggest laugh came when the team of five rebels fight off an alleged streetful of presumably stronger-than-human hosts (I mean, they should be stronger, right?).
But every time William (human and/or host) was on screen, I was ready for more.
My understanding was that the mob of people were actual humans infected with the nanites or whatever they call the doohickies that allow computers to control human beings.
If god is bored, making people dance and sitting on them like a chair, imagine the audience. I mean, I admit I was at least entertained while looking at Tessa Thompson doing it. Especially in that dress.
Tessa Thompson has been great as a villain in this series. All she’s lacking is a mustache to twirl.
I mean, I admit I was at least entertained while looking at Tessa Thompson doing it. Especially in that dress.Is it just me or (with the white dress, perfectly-coiffed pony-tail, and hooped ear-rings) was her look reminiscent of a fierce Sade Adu in the 80s?
and for me the biggest laugh came when the team of five rebels fight off an alleged streetful of presumably stronger-than-human hosts
They were clearly humans. I am not even sure how you could watch this season and come to the conclusion that those were hosts.
Because it’s been somewhat confusing?
Seriously, if you found that confusing, how did you even get to this point in the show?
They weren’t hosts, they were humans that had the parasite inside them, so no not stronger just mind f**ked human’s.
the biggest laugh came when the team of five rebels fight off an alleged streetful of presumably stronger-than-human hosts (I mean, they should be stronger, right?).Uhhhh, have you watched the show? Those were humans the rebels were fighting.
That said, that whole sequence was still silly. The rebels can just take a boat into the city and grab someone and get out? Hale even says she knows they’re there. SHe has gunship drones and giant mechs. Not to mention, has something changed with how she takes over humans? If she knows the rebels are coming unleash a shit ton of flies, in the least.
The rebels are outlier. Human that immune to the mind control effect. Some of them are I guess.
That’s a fair point. They’re “immune” in some way. Just from a practical standpoint though, that whole extraction still made no sense. It opens with Hale saying that rebels just showed up. She can obviously track them. Aside from just being able to make every human in the city attack them, which would be an easy solution, she has a massive array of tech at her disposal to eliminate them. Istead, William actives a bunch of humans to attack the rebels, which were still way more than enough to subdue or kill them. Then a bunch of horrible editing proceeds, and the rebels run back their boat.
Why do people who are convinced they’re smarter than the dumb show they’re watching always fail to understand the most basic of things on the show? They can’t make it any clearer that the roles are reversed now, the humans are the hosts now.
Oh, go fuck yourself. I never said I was smart or the show was dumb. I just said I found it confusing. Y’all need to lighten up, ffs.
i tried yelling “chair” at my co-workers and they just stared back at me
ways to bend it to their ways —> ways to bend it to their willone of those human outliers which kick off —> one of those human outliers which kicks offseen the light—or rather, the “Tower” and realized —> seen seen the light—or, rather, the “Tower”—and realizedthe rebels whom Bernard and Stubbs are now working with —> the rebels with whom Bernard and Stubbs are now working“infect” (might that be accurate?) William —> “infect” William (might that be accurate?)all I kept thinking was, Charlotte clearly believes —> all I kept thinking was that Charlotte clearly believesfolks like William—and even Christina/Dolores, feel differently —> folks like William—and even Christina/Dolores—feel differentlyIt’s what first led Dolores to first break out of her narrative —> It’s what first led Dolores to break out of her narrativeSometimes it can weave those many threads into a fascinating whole and at others —> Sometimes it can weave those many threads into a fascinating whole and at other timesI’m curious if we’re going to get an explanation as to why or how he’s back? —> I’m curious if we’re going to get an explanation as to why or how he’s back.who’s side —> whose side
It’s kind of obvious that Charlotte is also infected based on her arm scratching
I think Teddy meant “Christina” did this to herself because she’s originally the same Dolores that inhabits the Charlotte-host?
Yes. Christina is, at least in part, OG Dolores which is also a part of Hale who is also OG Dolores/Wyatt (which isn’t confusing at all!). So Hale/Dolores/Wyatt put Christina in her current position.
It kinda mirrors that conversation William was having with himself. A lot of the dialogue was a man literally having a conversation with himself all the while asking himself a lot of questions about himself.
I would assume so, yes. At the same time Dolores/Hale was a result of Dolores/Wyatt which human Arnold tried to use to bring the park down really hasn’t been dealt with since.
Where did Teddy’s body come from? Do “The Rebels” have a printing facility somewhere?
I will have to say, the scene where the human beings controlled by Charlotte to stop, pivot, then attack the extraction team was a genuine thrill. I reversed and played it and the timing of the extras was impressive.
The execution on that was great, a real Oh No moment… that was undone a few minutes later when they came back out of the building and all those extras were just gone. No still-ongoing fight, no piles of crumpled bodies, nothing but our rebel friends free and clear to run off. Really liked the episode outside of that, but it’s a real head-scratcher (I guess you could put it down to Billy Bot’s command dissipating when he got shot, even that is still pretty iffy though).
The whole Charlotte in the street making people dance part was SO BORING and trite. When she claimed to be bored bored bored, I thought ME TOO!The rest of it was fine. I missed Bernard and the sand people.
Is it just me or does the writer kinda missed out so much details in this amazing episode?I found this episode to have so many layers to get into. The irony of humans now mind controlled into their fixed loops as a reverse of the Westworld theme park. The hosts hunting down humans (outliers) for sport. Outliers essentially like the robots gaining sentience.Christina, being the original Dolores “body” sharing Charlotte’s ability to control the humans into doing what she wants – did she retain some of her Dolores code even though she has been wiped clean in last season? Isn’t her ability to control humans something like the ability of Maeve to control other hosts? The audacity of Charlotte in reinserting Dolores into her world as one of the mindless “hosts” in an endless loop – as punishment? Some kind of sadistic and narcissistic thrill? Not to mention keeping William alive for so long to “prolong” his suffering.A reverse ”What door?” moment when Christina sees the door which she didn’t see before.So many things to talk about!
Well, I agree with you, but in fairness, this episode review can only be so long. I guess that’s what the comments are for …
+1Especially the reverse “what door” moment. Big grin over here.
Anyone else getting tired of how lazy, “Hurry up, he won’t be down long!” is? Seitan William isn’t indestructible, and it seems he’s easily made vulnerable long enough for them to chop his head off. I imagined some hi tech rifle that fired drones in the shape of discs that would quickly attach themselves to host heads, curl menacing spring-loaded metal spider arms to make a tight grip, and then it would drive a spike through the skull, destroying their pearl. And then it would detach and go after another target or return to the user. But a nail or rivet gun would do the same job for cheaper.
Anyway, I spent quite a long time on this meme, please enjoy.
Okay, I don’t understand. When security dude was shot and tooling around with Bernard, Bernard said he could fix him up so “necrosis wouldn’t set in.” …necrosis is caused by bacteria or trauma. It decays organic material. Maeve is made up of the same material as security dude. Yet… she does not decay left under ground for almost thirty years? Also, the kind of catastrophe that would allow Hale to control all of humanity with her parasites, etc. would have taken out the power grid entirely, and there wouldn’t have been enough personnel and material left to rebuild it. So, they’d never of been able to refine the robots into something that could become omnipotent. Basically – this show is the trash bunk.
There’s a song I tend to hum from time to time while watching Westworld.It’s by Sampha, and the chorus goes “Don’t think about it too much, too much, too much, too much …”
Apt. (also, a cool song. Thanks.)
Two possibilities:* sand is super dry and there would be no moisture for microorganisms to feast on Maeve’s flesh* her flesh will be decayed, but the real “her” is her pearl and endoskeleton, which are inorganic and presumably unharmed by lying under dirt for decades(I’m only caught up through this episode, not through subsequent ones)
I’m really interested in seeing these transcendent hosts moving around. They look completely alien (do they even have arms?) but I bet they’re capable of some swift destruction.
I’m not saying you can’t have a good (let alone a great) episode of Westworld without Thandiwe Newton. But boy does the show end up lacking a lot of stuff when you let Maeve sit out any given episode.
On the other hand, no Caleb either.
I’m curious if we’re going to get an explanation as to why or how he’s back?
I think Teddy might have been a failsafe planted by Dolores herself sometime during Season 3, if she should ever lose her memory or be overwritten to help put her future self back on the right path.
Wow – so that’s why this last episode felt so much better than some of the earlier ones!I guess, for me, the positive effect of having Maeve on screen is heavily negated by having Aaron Paul and his hair on at the same time, which means having them both on gives rise to a net negative …
I got a kind of old vs new testament vibe when Halores was talking about wanting to be better than the humans who created the park. They ruled that place like a cruel god who would test and punish his creations, while she had the ambition to offer a Christ-like salvation to those who believe in her and want to join her by transcending beyond the physical realm to an eternal paradise (upload themselves to the Sublime) – they have the free will to do it or not. But as she said to Will.i.was, she won’t force them to come with her because then she’d be just like the humans who didn’t give the park-bound hosts free will.
And then Christina thought “screw it” and went for tacos instead. They were the best carnitas she ever had and so super-amazing.
“Iconic behavior.”Of what is she an icon, exactly? Tessa Thompson is giving a hammy, atrocious performance this season. God is bored? Thin.Walled gardens are not “everywhere” BY DEFINITION. A lot of this scripting feels like first drafts. The boss’s behavior didn’t even fit smoothly into the schema we’d been given.They needed Stubbs so he could…walk in front of them? Compelling stuff.
“the entire human race”I thought she only took over NYC.
I thought the Outliers were Hosts not humans. The mass murderer at the start was a Host that ended up killing herself. William’s reaction to being told that Hosts were committing suicide was pretty funny.
Outliers are humans who can’t be controlled by the flies anymore.Hosts are sent to kill the human outliers.However, some hosts who interact with the human outliers then go on to act crazy and commit mass murder / kill themselves.
It reminds me of Watchmen. Dr. Manhattan gave Adrian the ultimate reward for saving the world (in his own fucked up way) by giving him a whole planet to himself. A loyal staff that could give him anything he wants and heaped him with praise everyday. Anybody would get bored and go crazy in no time. Delores/Hale is finding out that getting what you want is one of the worst prisons.
Staying in the country and with lapsed affinity for sheep, roosters, wild horses, or pasture.A fun show using 21st century language for age old storytelling. If only we had cable internet in the hills, America..
I thought the line about her being the one who did this to herself was in reference to Charlotte.
It would be nice to have some discussion about the title. Also still a little bit confused about what all the Caleb and William stuff from before this. Did all the Caleb stuff happen, and he got caught? And the William stuff also happened as a precursor for the current state?
So – Bernard was going to the Sublime/the Valley Beyond at the end of Season 3, while the real world, meanwhile, had been thrown into chaos by the destruction of the Rehoboam. Are we meant to believe Delores-as-Charlotte has trapped the humans even more fully than the Rehoboam did? Or that she’s somehow pulled them into a virtual world like the Sublime (or Hell, maybe just straight up the Sublime itself) where she has literally God-like power?