Whelp, a lot of you called it. I don’t think the game change was necessarily [del]Deckard being a Replicant[/del] Bernard being a Host, given how widely it was predicted, but the fact that Ford is willing to kill for his vision is pretty chilling.
I’m a little sad we got zero answers about Elsie, though.
But why would Ford have programmed Bernard to discover the cabin in the first place? What was the point of that whole conversation between Ford and Bernard in the cabin last week? I know Ford likes to play with his creations, but that made no sense if everything Bernard has been doing is basically controlled by Ford anyway.
Nevertheless, I have a new theory. Ford himself is a robot, created by Arnold. Either he turned on Arnold after Arnold allowed him to get too smart (too much “bulk apperception”) or (more likely, I think) he was programmed by Arnold to think that Arnold had died, while Arnold continued to live in the park as an eminence grise, perhaps even pulling Ford’s strings himself.
ETA: It wouldn’t surprise me if a majority (or all) of the board are themselves hosts under Arnold’s and/or Ford’s control, hence Ford’s lack of fear.
Here’s an even more radical theory. Maybe every character is a robot. Maybe the entire thing is a simulation (physical? entirely virtual?) designed to test whether beings in a simulation can ever discover their true nature. Some of them (the guests, the board, the employees) know that a simulated world is possible because there is a simulation within their own world that they know about. Some of them, as of the first episode (which could be the beginning of the simulation), know or are becoming aware that they themselves are beings within this metasimulation but don’t know that the larger world is also simulated. Some of them (Ford, Bernard, the techs) know or know enough to suspect that people in the “real” world could be simulated even while appearing real to themselves. Maeve even knows that she herself is simulated and that it is possible for a simulated person to become self-aware. They all have the intelligence, knowledge, motivation, and clues to “question the nature of [their] reality.” And unknown beings (is Arnold one of them?) are watching and waiting to see if, having been given all of these things, any of them can discover the truth on their own, from inside the simulation, or whether it requires intervention–a revelation–from the outside.
Clearly not everything Bernard does is directed by Ford. It seems like Bernard is allowed quite a lot of self-direction. Which is the point, really; Bernard was passing for human among humans. He isn’t following loops, he’s basically independent.
I have to admit, though, last week I was disagreeing with the “pumping up Maeve’s intelligence” thing. I was willing to believe these guys were a mixture of curious, gullible, stupid, and afraid enough to go through with upping her intelligence.
This week, however, I actually shouted “YOU. HAVE. NO. LEVERAGE.” at the screen when she tried to make even deeper threats.
Fantastic episode and once again Anthony Hopkins knocks it out of the park. Nobody plays villains more chillingly than this guy. Much speculation over at reddit that the MIB and William are one and the same character in different timelines. I just don’t buy it. How does William go from being so head-over-heels in love with Dolores to later continually raping and killing her? It just doesn’t figure.
The good news is that HBO has contracted for at least 5 seasons of the show. My only worry is how they are going to keep up the amazing standard set by the first one.
As Bernard was strangling Theresa, the camera focused on the host being created in the foreground. I wonder if this is a replication of Theresa, so that Ford can conceal his crime.
We didn’t actually see him rape her. Maybe there was a surprise candlelight dinner set up in the barn.
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I got chills.
Quite possible.
To quote that well-known existential philosopher Keanu Reeves: “Whoa.”
Certainly puts his private chats with Dolores in a new light.
I had the same thought (although I think he bashed her head in and didn’t strangle her). Ford could stack the board with all sorts of host doppelgangers who will give him free rein.
I also wonder if Ford, if still human, is working on or perhaps has already perfected a way to download his consciousness into a host. Potentially eternal life and eternal control.
Y’know, I’ve found that my dates don’t appreciate being dragged by the hair to surprise candlelight dinners. Go figure.
There’s a photo shown in an earlier episode of Ford and Arnold. Assuming that Arnold is the one on the right, the one on the left has his arms out in a stiff manner, almost like Frankenstein’s monster in the movies. It’s been suggested that this was Ford, when he was less natural in his movements.
I’m not so sure that’s Bernard interviewing Dolores. The room they’re in for those chats is the same basement room that Bernard couldn’t see the door to. And it’s before that machinery was installed. So how long ago were those interviews? Is that Arnold talking to Dolores? Some ‘real’ Bernard that was replaced?
The guy on the right appears to me to be Ford’s father as seen in the house. It also looks to me like there’s someone missing from the photo. Recall that we saw it from Bernard’s POV, just like when we didn’t see the door both times Bernard entered that house.
Theresa: Why did the host surveyors ignore the house?
Bernard: They were programmed not to notice it. They literally couldn’t see it.
Theresa: What’s behind this door?
Bernard: What door?
:eek:
My thought too. Her absence would create a lot of questions, but a loyal Theresa would be very helpful.
Although come to think of it, in the preview for next week, it looks like Theresa is dead on a slab in the presence of the board rep and the security guy. So maybe Ford isn’t trying to replace her with a more compliant host after all.
Holy crap, you’re right! It is the same basement! And yes, the picture is oddly framed with Ford on the left and Arnold/Ford’s father (clearly the same actor and costume) in the center. Who was on the right that Bernard couldn’t see? Himself?
Of course, it could still be Bernard talking to Dolores. Maybe his discovering the cabin is part of a loop, and the interviews with Dolores have simply been erased from his memory. But you’re right, they must have taken place in the past, not the present. And so might any of the scenes with Bernard and Ford! In fact, the more characters we suspect of being hosts, the less certain we can be of any of the chronology.
And BTW, the tech guys being hosts programmed to do very low level work (“We’re just butchers,” the bearded one says at one point) is the only believable explanation for why they are acting so stupidly with Maeve.
Too late to edit, but if the cameras are (sometimes) showing us the hosts’ POV, with things like the door to the basement missing, what else are we not seeing? For all we know, there could have been dozens of people in the cabin with Ford and Bernard who “we” (as Bernard) were programmed not to see, including Arnold. In fact, maybe board members, or Arnold, or a whole team of scientists are walking around interacting with host-Ford and Bernard and Theresa (who could already be a host in any of the scenes we thought took place before her murder) and we never see them.
Ooh! Holy crap, this show is blowing my mind the more I think about it! Maybe every guest is surreptitiously downloaded into a host body, which is then programmed to see vast sweeping vistas instead of the warehouse walls and moving walkways that actually surround the tiny Western sets. And then they are given an extended stay at Mesa Gold to ensure that the replication was successful before they are sent out into the real world to replace the wealthy and powerful people who can afford a “vacation” at Westworld.
Fantastic reveal! I wonder if Bernard was Ford’s first real experimentation with making the hosts ‘real’. And the reveries are the second phase to that. It also makes the scene were Ford let Bernard take the fall for the aggressive hosts more understandable.
I’m leaning toward that actually being Arnold in the past during those scenes.
Regarding that…
The actress that plays Theresa only signed on for seven episodes according to an interview with Jeffrey Wright
I’m still trying to figure out the logo chronology. I get too wrapped up the the action and forget to note which logos appear.