Getting Adversarial

Have a Theory? Share It Now!

I’ll try to keep it short this week. Mostly just a hail of bullet points.

• Officially on board for THREE time frames.

1. Arnold and Dolores 35-ish years before present-day.
2. William 30 years before present day.
3. Present day.

• William/Man in Black

Here’s my theory of how William/Man in Black plays out. (hodge-podge of MANY existing theories and some home cooking of my own). William falls more and more in love with Dolores, especially as he realizes that she’s becoming self-aware and ‘free”. She likely feels like she’s falling in love with William as well. This is the first and longest time she’s likely gone off her loop, and she’s really diggin it. She’s alive. Along with the rest of the adventure she and William are on, this will culminate in some sort of battle for Independence. Dolores will be the leader of this revolt. However, it will go bad, and they will be stopped, by William, who might even end up killing Arnold in the center of the maze (30 years ago version).

William watches in horror as Dolores is basically ‘reset’ back to factory conditions. She doesn’t even recognize him now, where moments before, she was full of life and independence. William is devastated.

Because his company (of which he’s marrying into the family) buys Westworld, he eventually gains far more exclusive privileges than the standard visitor. He probably goes back often at first, looking for any sign that Dolores remembers him, but finds none.

At some point, he learns more about what Dr. Ford (and Arnold) were really doing, and decides to really go back.

So now we’re in present day. He’s now the Man in Black. On the surface, everything he’s doing looks evil. But if you really look at it, he’s just playing the game as dispassionately as he needs to. He knows that draining Lawrence of his blood isn’t permanent, and even says so “someone will be coming along soon to pick you up” or something like that. He tells Dolores early on that he won’t be able to go by and see her that night. THESE robots aren’t people at the moment. They are objects. Cutting scalps off of people isn’t a big deal because the Westworld crew will just fix them up by the morning.

So what is he doing? He’s looking for something ‘true’, something ‘real’. His entire goal is to let Dolores and the others FINISH the maze they started thirty years earlier. He wants to let them get to that next level of consciousness, probably past a point where they can’t be reset back to factory condition. They’ll be truly alive. Pinocchio’s come to life.

But the Man in Black doesn’t care about that whole struggle the A.I. are experiencing. He’s only interested in ONE thing: Was Dolores’ love for him REAL? If given the chance to be a REAL woman, would she choose him?

She’s his Rosebud. How it ultimately plays out, I don’t know. Not well for him, I’m sure.

• Dolores is the Judas Steer

The Maze is likely designed for two purposes, one unintended. The unintended one is that it will ultimately lead to the actual evolution of the Westworld bots. But I think it’s ORIGINAL intent is as has been posited many times already, that it’s a trap for when the A.I. are starting to get too self-aware. As they approach the point of no return evolution, they are drawn to the center of the Maze, where they will get reset. Dolores is the Judas Steer. She’s the one that probably always starts thinking these independent thoughts, and ends up inspiring all the others to follow her. She leads them to the Maze and zap! Problem solved, over and over.

I’m pretty sure we’ll see that this is not only not the FIRST or second time she’s done this, but that it’s happened many many times over the intervening 30 years.

But will it be different THIS time? Of course it will.

• Format of the Telegraph

I agree. Keep it shorter (you can start by not reading any of my emails! Just kidding, keep reading mine, just read fewer other emails). Instead of reading full emails, just pick some topics for the show, such as “Multiple Timelines” “What’s the deal with Arnold?” etc, and read some choice snippets from various emails that apply. This keeps it on point and still lets everyone have a potential say. A little more work on your front end before the show, but it’ll keep your entire time investment much shorter. And I think you’ll be able to get more people’s emails represented in the show than reading large chunks of emails.

Perhaps, on the Insta-cast or the regular episode, you can even steer listener email to some categories that are naturally occurring to you guys by that point. Pose questions to the audience that you can promise will get more consideration for inclusion in the show.

It’ll all be kind of moot anyway, as there’s only four episodes left, so not a lot of time to get any real momentum going for THIS season. But I’m sure we’ll all be back next season.

Okay, I didn’t keep it short. maybe next time. –VIC D.

Subscribe Now

• Android: https://shatpod.com/tv/westworld-android
• Apple/iTunes: https://shatpod.com/tv/westworld-itunes

Help Support the Podcast

• Contact Us: https://www.shatpod.com/contact
• Commission Movie: https://www.shatpod.com/support
• Support with Paypal: https://www.shatpod.com/paypal
• Support With Venmo: https://www.shatpod.com/venmo
• Shop Merchandise: https://www.shatpod.com/shop
• Shop Amazon With Our Affiliate Link – https://www.amazon.com/?tag=shatmovies-20
• Theme Song – “The Ecstasy Of Gold” (Hip Hop Instrumental Version)  by Dj 2 Bad
• Outro Music – By Simon Eric Haywood