# Westworld S2 (show spoilers as it airs) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 30, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495 "2018-03-30T21:47:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/41 "2018-04-25T14:27:44Z")
Have we seen any host actually shot through the head? I’m think their skulls are stronger than normal in order to protect their “brain” which is the most important part. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/42 "2018-04-25T14:38:14Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Have we seen any host actually shot through the head? I’m think their skulls are stronger than normal in order to protect their “brain” which is the most important part. Yes, several were being executed, er, “retired” that way right there on the beach as Bernard and the others walked by. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/43 "2018-04-25T16:04:12Z")
Silly question, I know. But when you’re building a robot, why even put the brain in the head? Just because we’re built that way? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/44 "2018-04-25T16:38:16Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Have we seen any host actually shot through the head? I’m think their skulls are stronger than normal in order to protect their “brain” which is the most important part. There was previous mention of a “cortical shield” which protects the artificial brain from damage due to bullets. When Bernard shoots himself and is repaired, it is mentioned that the bullet grazed his cortical shield. > [@E-DUB](#): > > Silly question, I know. But when you’re building a robot, why even put the brain in the head? Just because we’re built that way? The organic hosts seem to be constructed with synthetic biology but in essentially the same internal layout as humans, no doubt to make them more realistic. This presumably includes the nervous system, and so locating the artificial brain inside the head and in what appears to be the corpus callosum region makes a lot of sense. I would speculate that the hosts’ biological brain matter still serves some function (albeit not the same neuroanatomy as a human brain) besides being dressing since the artifical brain has limited connectivity, although this wouldn’t have been true for the older mechatronic hosts. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/45 "2018-04-25T16:50:54Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Have we seen any host actually shot through the head? I’m think their skulls are stronger than normal in order to protect their “brain” which is the most important part. Ford commanded Bernard to shoot himself through the head. He got better. I think they did mention something about Bernard’s “cranial shield” or whatever being intact last season. I presume referring to that "brain"capsule they pulled out of the host which I also assume is more heavily armored than a human skull. For all we know, the actual brain/hard drive part is the size of a USB drive, surrounded by a baseball-sized lump of space age polymer armor. > [@Gyrate](#): > > We know hosts can die from gunshots (although Hector seems more or less fine), knife wounds (including throats cut) and so forth, but can they drown? Or is this all a clever ruse to make Delos think they’re all dead? Presumably yes. IIRC Maeve provoked one of the guests to strangle her to death so she could get back to the shop. But it does raise an interesting question. When a host is “killed”, how much of that is due to actual damage that renders it non-functional and how much of that is triggering some subroutine that tells the host “fall down dead”? Dolores is an older “clockwork” model host (like a T-800 Terminator). Is there any reason she should “die” if she gets stabbed, other than her programming registered a “hit”? Presumably most of the stuff on her that gets shot and stabbed is cosmetic. I can’t imagine Delos wants to have the guests smashing their expensive androids every week. Newer hosts like Maeve or Teddy (I think) are “printed” artificial human bodies (like the Cylons from Battlestar Galactica). So maybe their workings are a lot more similar to how an actual human’s. While that makes them more vulnerable than a endoskeleton surrounded by real-looking tissue, it also makes them easier and cheaper to fix since their bodies can either be patched up or recycled. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2018, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/46 "2018-04-25T22:44:39Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Reddit speculation: Bernard waking up on a beach is part of a loop (i.e. he’s done it again and again and is “reset”), likely because Delos (or other authority) figured out he was a host and they’re trying to get information out of him. This is based on some odd behavior from Bernard, such as mouthing along with some of the words of the guy who speaks to him. Though if that’s the case why didn’t they just crack open his skull and extract his “CPU” like they did with the other Host? Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/47 "2018-04-26T00:23:34Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Reddit speculation: Bernard waking up on a beach is part of a loop (i.e. he’s done it again and again and is “reset”), likely because Delos (or other authority) figured out he was a host and they’re trying to get information out of him. This is based on some odd behavior from Bernard, such as mouthing along with some of the words of the guy who speaks to him. One of the mercs looked at some trading cards and it appeared Bernard was on one of them. Were the cards hosts or Delos employees? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/48 "2018-04-26T00:26:25Z")
Even though I also noted the oddness of the Delos/Bernard interactions, making me question if we we can really assume it is 2 weeks after the uprising, I am beginning to conclude the oddities are placed there just to mislead the Reddit speculators. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/49 "2018-04-26T00:55:40Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > …Dolores is an older “clockwork” model host (like a T-800 Terminator). Is there any reason she should “die” if she gets stabbed, other than her programming registered a “hit”? Presumably most of the stuff on her that gets shot and stabbed is cosmetic. I can’t imagine Delos wants to have the guests smashing their expensive androids every week… Dolores may have started off as a purely mechanical model, but she’s been upgraded so many times over the decades I’m pretty sure by now all that’s left of the “original” Dolores is her CPU (or possibly just software) and she’s as organic as the other Hosts. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/50 "2018-04-26T06:01:39Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > One of the mercs looked at some trading cards and it appeared Bernard was on one of them. Were the cards hosts or Delos employees? I could only see part of one of the other faces on the cards, it looked like one of the humans that gets Good Bad and Uglied this episode. (the last guy to get put on the burial cross and left to die) ---
**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:** [April 26, 2018, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/51 "2018-04-26T08:19:34Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Dolores is an older “clockwork” model host (like a T-800 Terminator). Like **alphaboi** said, Dolores is upgraded. Which brings up the question if the “real” Dolores is just the software? Would she still _be_ Dolores if she were in a different body? > [@](#): > > So maybe their workings are a lot more similar to how an actual human’s. Oh, [more similar](https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/20/17262804/westworld-hosts-poop)than you know… ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/52 "2018-04-26T08:46:35Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Presumably yes. IIRC Maeve provoked one of the guests to strangle her to death so she could get back to the shop. > > But it does raise an interesting question. When a host is “killed”, how much of that is due to actual damage that renders it non-functional and how much of that is triggering some subroutine that tells the host “fall down dead”? Exactly. Remember the milk guy? He was still wandering around yammering away when he was so full of holes he was basically a colander. Likewise Maeve’s homicidal squeeze, shot multiple times in the chest and still pretty much fine. I remain sceptical that hosts need to breathe to function beyond the programming that makes them look and act like humans. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/53 "2018-04-26T14:19:11Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Even though I also noted the oddness of the Delos/Bernard interactions, making me question if we we can really assume it is 2 weeks after the uprising, I am beginning to conclude the oddities are placed there just to mislead the Reddit speculators. I think a lot of the oddness is do to the fact that they don’t trust Bernard. He’s the guy basically in charge of all the hosts. All the hosts go crazy and he gets found two weeks later with no memory? I wouldn’t trust him either. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/54 "2018-04-26T15:15:30Z")
I’m not sure how I feel about turning Dolores into a killer. If she’s still supposed to be a sympathetic character, it’s not working for me. If she’s not, well, we’ll see I guess. I’m liking Maeve. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/55 "2018-04-26T15:28:39Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I’m not sure how I feel about turning Dolores into a killer. If she’s still supposed to be a sympathetic character, it’s not working for me. If she’s not, well, we’ll see I guess. It is a bit interesting that the more “human” she gets, the more of a killer she becomes. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/56 "2018-04-26T15:37:17Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I’m not sure how I feel about turning Dolores into a killer. If she’s still supposed to be a sympathetic character, it’s not working for me. If she’s not, well, we’ll see I guess. > > I’m liking Maeve. I do like that the show has set up an interesting question, which is “Who do we root for?” It portrays the humans as the bad guys, but why? 99.99% of them think these are just computer programs. Are they really guilty of anything? I like the conversations between the writer and Maeve, where he explains to her that regardless of what she thinks, she doesn’t have daughter. That’s just another robot that they programed her to think was her daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/57 "2018-04-26T16:24:22Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > I do like that the show has set up an interesting question, which is “Who do we root for?” It portrays the humans as the bad guys, but why? 99.99% of them think these are just computer programs. Are they really guilty of anything? It reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s “[Only You Can Save Mankind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Only_You_Can_Save_Mankind)” where the enemies in a videogame abruptly surrender. We root for the hosts because we remember that there was a time (and in same places that time is still now) when whole races were seen as non-human creatures who could be tortured, killed or raped with impunity while being subjected to brutal living conditions. But you’re right - there aren’t many actual heroes here. Everyone is guilty of - or at least heavily complicit in - unspeakable violence and death. The hosts have only ever seen the worst side of humanity; they have no role models for more benevolent behavior. The humans are now fighting a murderous outbreak. What would be a happy ending here? > [@](#): > > I like the conversations between the writer and Maeve, where he explains to her that regardless of what she thinks, she doesn’t have daughter. That’s just another robot that they programed her to think was her daughter. I was wondering how a happy ending would be possible there too. If Maeve’s daughter isn’t “awake” then Maeve will be left with an automaton that can only simulate the love she is giving it. And if the daughter is awake or can be woken, she will never grow up. Heartbreak all the way. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/58 "2018-04-26T16:27:49Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Dolores may have started off as a purely mechanical model, but she’s been upgraded so many times over the decades I’m pretty sure by now all that’s left of the “original” Dolores is her CPU (or possibly just software) and she’s as organic as the other Hosts. I can’t remember now if we ever saw Dolores getting repaired in “present day”. But it stands to reason that other than keeping old models around as museum pieces or nostalgia reasons, most of the “production” hosts would have been upgraded to the organic models. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Exactly. Remember the milk guy? He was still wandering around yammering away when he was so full of holes he was basically a colander. Likewise Maeve’s homicidal squeeze, shot multiple times in the chest and still pretty much fine. > > I remain sceptical that hosts need to breathe to function beyond the programming that makes them look and act like humans. And yet, according to MrDibble’s link, the hosts go poopie. It’s probably a mix of both. Like their biological nature largely mimics how humans work. But they can do things or endure injuries a human couldn’t (as the plot requires it). Like Old William fixing Teddy last season by filling him up with blood. > [@Maeve](#): > > I like the conversations between the writer and Maeve, where he explains to her that regardless of what she thinks, she doesn’t have daughter. That’s just another robot that they programed her to think was her daughter. I also liked her rebuttal about whether she would be any more or less “real” if she decided to blow his head off. I suspect Maeve, Bernard and Teddy will become more important as the season progresses. The show needs Hosts who are sympathetic and display “human” traits. Otherwise it’s just a show about killer robots murdering rich jerks. Which is also fun. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/59 "2018-04-28T00:33:16Z")
Should have seen this coming, but Eastworld [is being preemptively assumed to be racist](https://io9.gizmodo.com/westworld-has-to-acknowledge-the-racist-appeal-of-shogu-1825507485). ---
**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:** [April 28, 2018, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495/60 "2018-04-28T01:25:09Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I can’t remember now if we ever saw Dolores getting repaired in “present day”. I believe we did in the very first episode when the security chief makes some comment along the lines that she’s been repaired and upgraded so many times you’d never know she was the oldest host in the park [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-s2-show-spoilers-as-it-airs/811495.md?page=4)