3rd Time’sThe Charm With Apologies

Published May 3, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Guys,

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. This Westworld podcast is in a class by itself. See? This is exactly why I love your pod, so much. I spend some time thinking about and responding to your pod and that consequently leads me down a whole new line of thought, often leading to my greater understanding of the bigger picture.

Through listening to your pod, I have come to realize that William’s visits to Westworld resulted in a complete paradigm shift, of the entire Westworld universe. Because of his visits, William changed, he eventually lost his family and became the Man in Black. William’s visits have a massive impact on the hosts. Obviously, William effects Dolores; but, notice how much he effected Maeve? I certainly didn’t at first. When Maeve was a homesteader after she met the Man in Black, she was never the same. Once the Man in Black shot Maeve’s daughter, Maeve not only overcame her mortality response and pulled the knife out of her stomach, it’s somewhat unclear in the episode, but I think she overcame any Samaritan reflex and/or core programming and cut William’s throat with the knife! Subsequently, Maeve is still freaking out back inside the mesa. Ford plays “Reverie” to calm her down and tells Maeve, he’ll take the pain away. Maeve, I believe “consciously” asks Ford not to delete the memories. And when he does, she “consciously” stabs herself in the throat! Because of this specific visit of William’s, Ford changed. Once Ford sees the hosts reacting against their programming, he sees them differently. William’s visits effect Delos. William becomes CEO and increases investments substantially in Westworld, likely only then making 5 other Delos Destinations. William’s visits effect Logan. While it’s unclear if or why Logan is now a junkie, he’s certainly not CEO of Delos, because of William’s visits.

Clearly, the result of William’s visits changed everything in Westworld’s universe. The most dramatic effect William has, is on Ford though. By showing Ford, that Maeve could make the decision to kill herself after Ford deleted the memory that caused the trauma, he inspired Ford to begin his new narrative. I’m now believing that Ford went about his new narrative in two ways. He constructed the Escape narrative for Maeve. And now, I’m realizing he may have simply given Dolores, access to all of her memories. In the Season 1 Finale on the beach, he told those technicians to take Dolores to the old field lab, for a reason. I believe it was, so he could, repair her bumps and bruises, talk to her, introduce her to Bernard, since Ford knew Maeve would wake Bernard up, and give Dolores all of her memories. With Maeve and Dolores, Ford has two chances of the hosts becoming truly conscious. And, both work. But, they come through different means. Dolores now having all of her memories, knows the truth and she’s filled with hatred, because of it. Her first conscious act is of hate. She kills Ford. Now wanting to exterminate humanity. Maeve becomes conscious, by being given a narrative making her leave her child. Her first act is of love. She decides to not leave her daughter. I believe Dolores and Maeve will be the light and dark side of the hosts going forward, as alluded to in a scene in this most recent episode.

In all different sorts of Westworld discussion, I have heard of the concept of transferring human consciousness into a host. I am a very literal person. I have always thought this idea to be ludicrous and too sci-fi for Westworld. How can one expect to “download” a living or dead person’s consciousness into a computer? I now realize that is wrong. Because I was thinking of the idea too literally and in the incorrect way. Your most recent pod gave me the inspiration for this thought, which lead to the entire idea I’m presenting now. Specifically, when you guys were reviewing the different time frames contained in Season 2 Episode2.

You guys pointed out that Jim Delos is terminally ill and appears to be running out of time. In thinking of that, I recalled in that scene, Delos refers to the hosts as “the merchandise.” The hosts are not the merchandise of Westworld, the entire experience is. Remember. In this scene the park has been open for years. Delos knows this to be true. I believe he is referring to the hosts as, the merchandise because while we cannot “download” the human consciousness into a host. Perhaps, we can transplant the brain of a human on their deathbed into a host’s head. The human brain is pretty much all electrical impulses anyway, right? Figure out, how to connect all those impulses to the correct points in a host’s body and when combined with an infinite supply of synthetic organs, blood, bone, skin, and whatever else the hosts have, we have immortality. In this future scenario, Delos could sell host bodies, in the real world as vessels of immortality. Then the host bodies would absolutely be, “the merchandise.”

This next step comes from your pod, as well. There was discussion about people being multiple people or something. During this Peter Abernathy was mentioned. I’m thinking this is William’s biggest mistake: Believing, he could make is father-in-law immortal. I believe they tried somehow, with Peter Abernathy. It failed. After it did, perhaps William’s wife never forgave him for what he did to her father. Eventually, they would have purged everything they could of Jim Delos, from Peter and put Peter in rotation as Delores’ father. How sweet is Ford? He gives William’s former love, Dolores the “same” father as William’s wife. But they didn’t purge everything of Delos from Abernathy. Because he reacted to the picture of his daughter strangely. Remember. Elsie said when the hosts see something that freaks them out, that they are not supposed to recognize, “the reaction is immediate. But, this guy makes it all the way home. It’s like he’s mulling it over.” Even Peter cannot recognize why it’s fucking with him so hard. He focuses more on where the woman in the picture is. But, maybe he doesn’t just shut down, like the others, because his sub-conscious (Jim Delos,) wants to keep seeing his daughter.

Endgame. I believe this could all tie into the weapon, as well. As Big D (not a penis reference) mentioned on the pod, the weapon is likely metaphorical. William did not build a death star ray or anything like it, in Westworld. But, he may have built the lab where they tried to make Delos immortal. Whatever the intention was, like Dolores says, she know the truth. If it happened how I am thinking, she knows the technology doesn’t work. But, she also knows, she can probably make the technology look like it does. What if Dolores wants to escape the park with some hosts and create a new company, selling the false hope of immortality. If everyone signs up, with the flip of a switch, Dolores can end the human race and start the valley beyond.

Great work, as always.

Wes D (also not a penis reference)
Richmond, VA

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