I am really wondering where this will go in the second season. Will the first one end with deeper mysteries to be explored within the park or will the show expand to show the robots released into the real world? I’m hoping it’s not the latter, I’d hate it to turn into The Invaders.
However the first season ends there clearly has to be a hook to keep us waiting for the second. Some things will be resolved, some will be left hanging. We know Ed Harris is signed up for the next season but no indication as to whether Hopkins is, although I can’t imagine Westworld without him, the show would lose much of its appeal for me were his character to be killed off. (I’m sure the producers will be doing everything in their power to retain him.)
Right and was uninjured. To steal from a comment over at the AV Club, Dolores seems to be in at least three timelines:
Blue Dress - More than 30 years ago before the park opened and the guests arrived, getting debriefed by Arnold and eventually killing him.
Pants and blouse, gaping gut wound - ~30 years ago? Leading William to the now buried town where they had tested hosts ( and where she killed Arnold? ) and getting stabbed by Logan.
Pants and blouse, no wound - Current day, on a self-discovery quest that leads to the now once again unearthed town where she finds the MiB.
ETA:
Got to be careful going forward about not hanging too much plot on even the most marvelous 79-year old actor. Long may he live, but planning a 5 or 7 year series around him might be risky.
I believe it is. However the greatest mystery is why, in the future, Logan is carrying around a 4x6 glossy photo of his sister? When was the last time you carried around a picture that wasn’t on your cell phone?
I agree with these, but I’m unclear on what’s going on in the current day. She was assaulted by MiB and then…what exactly?
Is she alone? The scene in the control room about a host wandering off that seemed to be contemporary with William and Logan–didn’t they say that she was with a guest? We thought they meant William, but that was obviously deceptive editing, cutting from her reverie/flashback to the present. What was she really doing then?
I could see William doing that, but Logan does not seem like the type to think, “OMG, I won’t be able to access pictures of my beloved family for a my whole vacation unless I print some out! I’d better get on that! Remember, Logan, you’re not just murder-raping robot prostitutes for fun. Taking care of yourself means you can take better care of them.”
Dolores said to Logan and William, “You both keep assuming I want out, whatever that is. If it’s such a wonderful place out there, why are you both clamoring to get here?”
So I wonder if we are going to ever see the outside world. Is it a post-apocalyptic hellhole? Is it just really, really boring? Because watching the show, I wonder why this place, where people pay a lot of money for a vacation, is so dark, violent and primitive. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d prefer to stay at the resort where Lee Sizemore, the narrative director, was getting drunk. Or even Disney World.
Ok, now what we need is someone to turn all that into a simple and easy to read infographic!
Also, I had to look it up, but apparently the “reveries” they keep mentioning is a code upgrade that allows the hosts to “remember” minor sensations and gestures from previous lives in order to give them more realistic reactions. The presumed “bugs” are that it causes them to remember actual events - specifically who murders them, rather than just feelings and sensations when someone puts a gun in their face.
And Ford put that update in and blocked attempts to roll it back. He wants them to remember. He’s the one who keeps insisting they aren’t alive and treating them like objects, dehumanizing them at every turn, but he also talks about them as pure and better than humans. What is his goal, and what exactly was the disagreement he had with Arnold?
This is kind of a bachelor party for William. There are probably other reasons why Logan and he are there, but it’s definitely part ball and chain send of. Logan knows, probably first hand, how the park can affect someone, and he figures he might need a simple visual aid to remind William of his outside life.
We take Logan to be a villain, but I think he’s more of a troll, the kind you find ruining other people’s multi-player games by exploiting the game. He really does see Westworld as a GTA-like open world video game, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad or immoral stance based on what he knows.
He certainly could care a lot about his sister and because of that, planned for the visual aid.
… or he could have thought to pin it to a whore droid’s forehead while making William screw it… I don’t know.
Preview for the finale. There are some intriguing clues there, although like much else in the show they may be designed to mislead. From the glimpses we get of Ford though my guess is he’s still very much in control.
So what do we feel about the theory that Dolores = Wyatt? Dolores does seem to have been involved in a massacre in the old town, perhaps also the moment when she killed Arnold
Is it Teddy “can’t see it” as per his memories shifting yet again last night and the blond host that “killed” him is urging him to work towards the real truth? Is Ford’s new narrative, including uncovering the church again, a recreation of an event from 35 years ago? Did Dolores kill Logan as well back then, forcing William to kill her to stop her rampage and thereby cease regarding her as human and become jaded?
I really like this theory, but then again, I’ll like any theory that doesn’t involve William being the MiB.
As for “how does the MiB suddenly show up and freak Delores out”, I thought it was pretty clear that it was a young MiB that came through the door, but Dolores had a freak out moment and made it old MiB.
I couldn’t see it when the guy was still shadowed, but he was definitely younger. I almost thought he looked like Teddy, but there’s no way that’s a thing.
Although now that I think about it, it makes sense that William has some kind of change of clothes, comes in as the MiB, Dolores sees him as Ed Harris MiB and freaks out. Then she rejects him and he spends the next 30 years being pissed about it and messing with her at any point he can
During one of the Ford/Bernard conversations Ford talked about how the Neaderthals had disappeared because modern humans had eaten them. And that humans had always had the need to subjugate. Then he said that now that there were no creatures left to subjugate, this world had been created. So maybe humans are the only animals left and the board knows they could make a ton of money if they could bring the hosts out into the real world for everyone to “play” with, not just the wealthy. And not necessarily just the “human” ones. People might want dogs and cats again.