# Westworld - premieres Sunday (show spoilers as airs) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413 "2016-10-01T21:12:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 19
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/362 "2016-10-31T21:03:21Z")
I was kind of hoping the bird would land on Slim, just brought in for repairs, and _ka-blammo!_ …the revolution begins. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/363 "2016-10-31T21:52:48Z")
Kind of weird that even the birds are robotic. Is this supposed to be some sort of Blade Runner future in which all of the animals and birds are extinct? Because in the real world, you do see regular, living birds everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/364 "2016-10-31T22:12:47Z")
I haven’t seen so much pubic hair since I watched _Debbie Does Dallas_. I don’t know if this reinforces the theory of multiple time periods; one being set in a 1970’s which contained fictional advanced technology along with fact based fashion for magnificent pubic hair. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/365 "2016-10-31T22:20:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Kind of weird that even the birds are robotic. Is this supposed to be some sort of Blade Runner future in which all of the animals and birds are extinct? Because in the real world, you do see regular, living birds everywhere. Snakes too, as we learned previously. A few possibilities come to mind: - They just want an absolutely controlled experience. Robot animals mean fewer points of uncertainty. - The animals can be part of a quest–snake biting someone, bird lands on shoulder, etc. - Surveillance. No need for immersion-breaking drones when you can have robotic “familiars” keeping an eye from above or below. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/366 "2016-10-31T22:49:06Z")
So, protecting Ford is the hosts’ Zeroth Law? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/367 "2016-10-31T22:54:40Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Snakes too, as we learned previously. > > A few possibilities come to mind: > > - They just want an absolutely controlled experience. Robot animals mean fewer points of uncertainty. > - The animals can be part of a quest–snake biting someone, bird lands on shoulder, etc. > - Surveillance. No need for immersion-breaking drones when you can have robotic “familiars” keeping an eye from above or below. And as someone pointed out earlier in reference to horses, no excrement to deal with or fall on guests. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/368 "2016-10-31T22:58:38Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > I had the same thought/speculation. But on the other hand, the behaviorist was able to blackmail that third tech with video of him having sex with a ‘dead’ host. Strange if a robot would have been programmed with that kind of behavior. Didn’t that tech also say he needed the job? The way the man in black described the outside world, it didn’t sound like people would need jobs. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/369 "2016-10-31T23:09:45Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I was kind of hoping the bird would land on Slim, just brought in for repairs, and _ka-blammo!_ …the revolution begins. I think a reasonable assumption is that even the “real” nitro wasn’t really nitro. Remember the bit last episode with the exploding cigar, where we saw a call into central to get permission for a pyro effect. Otherwise it would be way too easy for guests to get killed, if a guest just mishandles a bottle of nitro. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/370 "2016-10-31T23:49:34Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I think a reasonable assumption is that even the “real” nitro wasn’t really nitro. Remember the bit last episode with the exploding cigar, where we saw a call into central to get permission for a pyro effect. Otherwise it would be way too easy for guests to get killed, if a guest just mishandles a bottle of nitro. Well, heck, the hosts were just tossing a bottle back and forth and seemed programmed for disappointment when they didn’t all get killed. Sure, we can assume it’s not real nitro and that somehow it’s part of the storyline that Slim’s body is filled with “explosives” that in fact can only be set and triggered from the control room (though the mechanics of this are unclear and likely to remain so). I was a little surprised when they boarded the moving train that they didn’t find that fancy dining car with the door in the other side that led back to the white hallway, using some fanciful application of Looney-Tune physics. Anyway, guests (at least at this level of the game) _can_ be hurt, or at least smacked around. That’s interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/371 "2016-11-01T01:41:47Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > As for what (if anything) we actually learned this episode: > (1) The conversation between Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins strongly suggested to me that Ed Harris invested a lot of money in the park 35 years ago, which would explain why he has carte blanche to wander around and do whatever he wants > (2) The conversation between the two lab techs, on with a bird, contained a weird reference to something like “you were meant for this, from the embryo”. Any chance that all of those lab techs are also robots? > (3) Laurence was killed and had his blood drained and then, moments later from our perspective, was busy with betrayal and nitroglycerin in the other storyline. Support for multiple timelines? Support for there being multiple copies of some hosts? > (4) Hosts apparently can hurt guests a fair bit when it comes to fisticuffs, even if the guns won’t kill them. > > (I think that there was _some_ evidence against the theory that different plot lines are 30 years apart, however. Didn’t the rich asshole brother-in-law refer to his family investigating the park and finding that someone (Arnold) died around 30 years ago? If so, then they can’t be decades off from the timeline that Anthony Hopkins is currently in.) 1. That would make sense, but I’m still curious about what regular guests are allowed to do, I got the impression that they are allowed to do a lot. 2. I am enjoying the show but it is a bit too ambiguous, like on this point. It could just be one guy razzing the other saying not to dream big. But I also saw someone theorize that there’s some sort of genetic engineering in that world, like Brave New World or something, so maybe those lab techs were bred to be lab techs. I wish we knew more about the outside world. 3. It could be either, but in such an immersive world where they take such pains with all the details, I wouldn’t think they’d have two copies of the same host running around, even if they are different ends of the park. I’d guess that there is a non-linear narrative timeline, but that could mean that there’s a 30 year gap, or something else. 4. Yeah, that was interesting. We’d already seen William be knocked back when he was shot, it makes sense that there is some harm allowed. I’d guess that there are all sorts of forms that you fill out when you’re paying or signing up to come, including what you’re interested in and how much harm you’re willing to have happen. The asshole brother-in-law mentioned the park’s financial trouble and the mysteriously covered up partner, but he didn’t mention when that was. [From the io9 recap:](http://io9.gizmodo.com/westworlds-sex-and-violence-filled-attempt-to-outdo-gam-1788416056) > [@](#): > > The most interesting detail is actually one that seems the most mundane, given all the journeys of self and gameplay mechanics in this episode. It’s Logan saying that the rumor is the park is “hemorrhaging” cash and that “we’re” considering buying them out. “Supposedly, this place was all started by a partnership. And right before the park opened, one of the partners killed himself,” Logan says. “Sent the park into a free fall. I mean, I don’t know any of the details, I don’t even know his name.” So I’d guess it could be like follows: [ul] [li]Ford and Arnold start up the park[/li][li]A few years later Arnold kills himself[/li][li]The park is losing money[/li][li]A few years later William and Logan visit[/li][li]30 years later the Man in Black visits[/li][/ul] At some point in there Delos takes over, which could be who Logan works with. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Snakes too, as we learned previously. > > A few possibilities come to mind: > > - They just want an absolutely controlled experience. Robot animals mean fewer points of uncertainty. > - The animals can be part of a quest–snake biting someone, bird lands on shoulder, etc. > - Surveillance. No need for immersion-breaking drones when you can have robotic “familiars” keeping an eye from above or below. Keeping everything under meticulous control makes sense. But it makes me wonder more about where the park is, because you could have fences and barriers to keep out regular horses and cattle and snakes and other critters, but I think it’d be a lot harder to keep out regular birds. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/372 "2016-11-01T01:54:39Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Keeping everything under meticulous control makes sense. But it makes me wonder more about where the park is, because you could have fences and barriers to keep out regular horses and cattle and snakes and other critters, but I think it’d be a lot harder to keep out regular birds. Maybe they’re… _under the dome!_ ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/373 "2016-11-01T04:27:59Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > The asshole brother-in-law mentioned the park’s financial trouble and the mysteriously covered up partner, but he didn’t mention when that was. [From the io9 recap:](http://io9.gizmodo.com/westworlds-sex-and-violence-filled-attempt-to-outdo-gam-1788416056) > So I’d guess it could be like follows: > [ul] > [li]Ford and Arnold start up the park[/li][li]A few years later Arnold kills himself[/li][li]The park is losing money[/li][li]A few years later William and Logan visit[/li][li]30 years later the Man in Black visits[/li][/ul] Yeah, if he doesn’t say when it was… Another thing…I’m not sure why exactly everyone seems to think it’s William who might turn out to be the Man in Black. He’s obviously smart and empathetic and perceptive, and who we’re mostly supposed to be identifying with, so I guess in that sense he seems to be a/the “main character” in that story line. But that’s basically the exact opposite of the MiB, and _Logan_ is the one who talks about “the game,” and is high up in the wealthy company, and a few other things (obviously, he also plays the “black hat”). I just can’t see William smacking Dolores around like the MiB does (even after 30 years, though I guess he could feel betrayed by her somehow), whereas I can _totally_ see Logan doing that. My thought is that if the William/Logan story is a past timeline, William’s relationship and interactions with Dolores could be what allows Logan to witness the previously hinted-at “incident” (death of William?) and cause him to suspect something potentially larger is going on in the park. Then his company’s investment to save the park, and his 30 year quest to figure it all out. Logan doesn’t seem like MiB material right now mostly I think because of his immaturity. He acts like a brat. But right now he’s relatively young and he thinks he’s just playing in a sandbox…I could see if he witnessed something that inspired him to take the whole thing pretty seriously, that he could morph pretty quickly into icy cold ruthless no-bullshit hardcore player. It would also be quite a (years-old Game of Thrones season 1 spoiler) Ned Stark moment if William were to be suddenly killed soon. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/374 "2016-11-01T04:42:25Z")
Well, could the character’s full name be William Arnold? ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/375 "2016-11-01T04:48:46Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](#): > > I haven’t seen so much pubic hair since I watched _Debbie Does Dallas_. I don’t know if this reinforces the theory of multiple time periods; one being set in a 1970’s which contained fictional advanced technology along with fact based fashion for magnificent pubic hair. There wasn’t any “fashion” for pubic hair in the 70s, that was just normal pubic hair, like most people have had since forever. In the 80s, trimming and shaving started to catch on in porn, and that eventually _did_ become a fashion, leading to people today having no idea what normal pubic hair looks like. My take on the pubic hair in the show is that the hosts are supposed to look like normal people from before the era when shaved pubes became a fashion. Sadly, they don’t, because the pubes we’re seeing in the show are clearly pubic wigs because most actors nowadays, especially the sort that will do nudity, are shaved. Looks distractingly fake to someone who was young in the era before shaved pubes caught on and is familiar with how normal unshaved pubic hair looks. Why the makers of the hosts would bother giving them pubic hair when there are plenty of other anachronisms that are apparently just fine is another question. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/376 "2016-11-01T04:51:45Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Sadly, they don’t, because the pubes we’re seeing in the show are clearly pubic wigs because most actors nowadays, especially the sort that will do nudity, are shaved. It’s an a-Merkin tradition! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/377 "2016-11-01T08:13:11Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > But it makes me wonder more about where the park is, because you could have fences and barriers to keep out regular horses and cattle and snakes and other critters, but I think it’d be a lot harder to keep out regular birds. > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Maybe they’re… _under the dome!_ Huh. I honestly always assumed that _is_ pretty much where they are, more or less. I mean I just assumed the sky was fake and everything is simulated with total control of the environment. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/378 "2016-11-01T08:47:41Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Huh. I honestly always assumed that _is_ pretty much where they are, more or less. I mean I just assumed the sky was fake and everything is simulated with total control of the environment. Well, it occurs to me that we haven’t seen the moon yet (or have we?) so maybe there’s a _Truman Show_ thing going on _but_ Orion is apparently visible, so if there is a dome, it’d have to be a clear one, as opposed to the opaque one in _Truman_. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/379 "2016-11-01T09:21:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Anyway, guests (at least at this level of the game) _can_ be hurt, or at least smacked around. That’s interesting. It would also be necessary for those guests who like a little bit of rough, as shown in the second episode, where …what’s his name, Logan? William’s BiL-to-be…was getting smacked by one of his pile of hookers. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/380 "2016-11-01T09:24:28Z")
Hookers are best measured in piles. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/381 "2016-11-01T12:45:17Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Hookers are best measured in piles. True, but as just a term of venery, there are better ones for this purpose: I like “a flourish of strumpets” myself, but am also partial to “an anthology of pros” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413.md?page=18) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413.md?page=20)