I thought it was disappointing. It was always hard to imagine any resolution of the maze plotline that would make any sense at all, but it ended up being little more than a red herring. Why was it tatooed in the inside of a host’s scalp? Just because Arnold like it? Why was it plowed into Maev’s field (at least in her memory)? I thought it was going to be a (ridiculously simple) diagram of a host mind when it achieved consciousness. Even that would have made a little more sense.
The maze was described as a puzzle for the hosts (and Dolores specifically) to help them achieve awareness, but as far as I could tell, there was no puzzle, just that vague description and a bullshit metaphor about looking for consciousness inside one’s mind instead of at the top of a pyramid.
And William really spent 30 years trying to solve the maze (that turned out to be nothing) based on nothing more than what we saw? What did he do in the park for all that time? I guess he couldn’t dig up the little toy maze Arnold’s son liked (and I’m reminded of the line in Orange is the New Black where one character regrets not giving her child to a rich woman who could provide nice things like wooden toys, which prompts her own mother to respond, “Kids hate wooden toys. They don’t do shit!”) until Ford dug up the town and left the maze in the graveyard with exactly a convenient half-inch of loose soil over it. But what kept him going all that time, then?
What was up the shot lingering on Ford’s hand, when he went to shake Bernard’s hand. Didn’t he say once that you could tell the older hosts by their hands?
There was a lot of extraneous stuff about the maze. But I think the realization for Dolores was about finding her grave and how she doesn’t really die. I don’t know if other hosts were trying to find the center. Teddy had the story about the maze myth, but that maybe deals with what Arnold said about consciousness being a maze and not a pyramid.
I might be misremembering, but I don’t think William has been looking for the maze for 30 years, only since last year when his wife died and he killed Maeve. Before that he was just exploring the place, sometimes with Dolores. And it’s not like he’s constantly at Westworld, he is a famous and successful business titan, who another guest recognized. I’d guess he’s there maybe a few weeks a year.
I don’t think Ford is dead. He’s already shown he can and will create robots based upon his old partner and himself and his family when they were younger. He has a secret lab and secret places in the park that no one knows about or can find. He can easily create a copy of himself to die and then go hide somewhere no one can find.
Will he play a large role in Season 2? Probably not. But he’ll be back.
What’s interesting is that they’ve set up Maeve’s arc like a reverse Matrix. She’s a robot learning what it’s like to wake up in the “real” world. She’s apparently done this escape many times before and that loop has been put there as part of who she is. She’s fulfilling a need of some kind apparently.
The question is: is she sentient? Is there even an applicable definition of it? Can someone be sentient and yet still beholden to programming? She made a choice to go back to the park, but it was to get her daughter - information she specifically requested beforehand and was then used as a reason by her to not leave. Was that just part of her loop to ensure she doesn’t escape?
I’m still puzzled by Ford. I get that he left the gun with Dolores as her path to full awakening. He’d hinted that she had one thing to do to achieve sentience and that was to kill a human of her own volition. (Arnold had programed her to kill him.) Ford hoped that she would choose to kill him and that’s exactly what she did, thus beginning the robot apocalypse.
But Ford had said just a couple of episodes earlier, quoting Mary Shelley, “One life is a small price to pay for the dominion I shall acquire.” As another site comments, this is a man with big plans; this is not a man with a death wish. So are we to believe that Ford hasn’t died or will return as a host? And if not who would inherit his absolute control over all aspects of the Park. Did he pass it on to Bernard?
Ford told the audience that his last narrative Journey into Night was beginning. This implies that he had scripted one last story from beginning to end, the Rise of the Robots. But this also implies that the robots will not have the free will to act as they wish. Say they choose not to slaughter all humans but to coexist peacefully with them? That’s not a Journey into Night and woud run counter to Ford’s narrative. Could they do that or are they still Ford’s actors faithfully following his script?
Kudos on this! Called back in October…I started re-watching the season over the weekend. So the “Deep and restful sleep” line is the power-down voice command…and the “These Violent Delights” is the command (I’m assuming back door command put in by Arnold) to access memories.
This phrase was whispered to Dolores by her Father after he found the picture and “asked”. This kicked off her memories, which introduces the William/Logan memories in Ep 2. (I bought the multiple time-line theory, but couldn’t figure out the “Why” until I heard it was Dolores’ memories)
In Ep 2, in present…Dolores says “These violent delights have violent ends” to Maeve, which is when she starts being able to access her memories. (Also to note…Maeve woke because in she used the “Come Online” command [Counting down 3, 2, 1] when she woke up in the lab)
Then in this Episode during the incident to keep the park from opening…Arnold says it just before Dolores kills him. But who was he saying it to?
I was under the impression that Ford started the narrative a few episodes ago…when he introduced Wyatt as Teddy’s nemesis.
MIB was under the impression that Wyatt was a hidden portion that he was just uncovering, but he really is just being introduced to the new narrative.
I need to re-watch a few more episodes…but right now I’m trying to figure out if the current day incident and the incident to keep the park closed is Ford copying Arnold’s idea, or if it yet another long term narrative loop.
(Also whether Bernard telling Maeve that she had awoken before was true or a misdirect)
I’m not sure it is a spoiler or means anything. We already saw that map of Elsie’s tablet being located. Somebody showed it to Security Chief Hemsworth in episode 9 (I think?)
My guess is that Elsie saw the programming and realized what’s going on and went into hiding. She got the painted guys to grab her buddy Stubbs to help her.
I interpreted it as the “maze” was a series of puzzles, situations and whatnot (kept intentionally vague in the show) to determine if the hosts had consciousness or self determination. A sort of advanced Turning Test.
The realization for Dolores was at the end when she realized the voice she had been hearing the whole time was her own. IANA psychologist or anything, but I think it’s supposed to represent that Dolores has a sense of “self” and can act as her own subconscious or inner monologue or whatever that can make decisions based off past experience. As opposed to a very sophisticated animatronic going through a loop based on programmed instructions.
For Mauve, even she isn’t sure if she’s acting autonomously, or following programmed instructions. Until she decides to get off the train to find her “child”. Presumably no one made her do that.
I was hoping that Maeve would stay on the train as it exited the park, as I want to see the outside world. One of the recaps (on EW.com, I think) said Robert said she would reach the “mainland” if she remained on the train. If that’s the case is the park on an offshore island? And why is the train station so far below ground level? The elevator trip that she and Felix took seemed to take a really long time.
And did those hosts really kill all of those board members? Because we saw them shooting and we saw the board members/guests running but we didn’t see anyone dying, except for Ford. Because I can’t imagine the park has a future if there was wholesale slaughter of the Delos board.
As with all shows except NCIS, elevators are programmed to take exactly one conversation to arrive at the destination. On NCIS, they have to flip a switch to do it manually.
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn]
And did those hosts really kill all of those board members? Because we saw them shooting and we saw the board members/guests running but we didn’t see anyone dying, except for Ford. Because I can’t imagine the park has a future if there was wholesale slaughter of the Delos board.
[/QUOTE]
We saw at least one or two of them get hit in the back, so at least some of them are seriously injured. Dolores was picking them off from the stage. I imagine next season will tell us their fates.
I need to rewatch the episode at some point, but it seemed to me that as Maeve came out of the train and back to the escalators, the whole “scene” shut down or went off line in that the train seemed to go black. I interpreted this to be part of Maeve’s story and I wonder if Felix led her to a fake arrival platform as part of that story. The body count was huge though and I can’t imagine they are all humans to ever be done as part of a recurring loop- except for the first two technicians perhaps??? When Felix and Sylvester looked originally at Maeve’s programming, it was marked as Arnold’s work as Felix commented he had no idea who that was- so there is still more at play in Maeve’s programming than we know.
This would mean that Maeve have been practicing to leave the park, Dolores has been practicing to find her self, and (during Ford’s final discussion and wishing him luck in keeping up the practice) Bernard is also the most adept at fooling humans. So it seems that if these three combine their efforts, the hosts win! But it also sets up next season (William getting control of Delos 30 years ago, and the fearsome threesome honing their crafts), the third season (the threesome joining forces), and the fourth/final (the attack on the outside).
I wish I could have seen this episode without having figured out the WIlliam = MIB as it would have been awe inspiring for weaving everything together, but even a casual viewer would have been hard pressed not to see it.
I saw that as part of the hosts rise up narrative. Ford shut down the train systems as part of it to prevent easy reinforcements from the outside to shut down the park before the host rebellion did what it was supposed to do. Or to prevent the guests from leaving. (I’m guessing there may be a way to get in not using the train system, but it’d be a lot more difficult?)
Still works for me.