Angela Is Way More Important To the Plot

Published June 6, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Guys,

Angela is way more important to the plot than we are being led to believe.

3 host characters interact with humans and hosts on an admin-type level: Lawrence’s daughter, Akcheta and Angela. They are the only ones we’ve seen, so far, that can understand the difference between host and human. They can break the fourth wall, so to say. EVERY OTHER HOST, AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, BELIEVES/BELIEVED THEIR WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT, INCLUDING THEMSELVES, TO BE REAL. So why these three?

I was drawn to this idea after watching Reunion. There were so many questions I had, first and foremost: how is it Angela is so much further along than Dolores? Was Angela even a host at that time? Was Angela and the Argos Initiative even associated with Ford at the time of the demonstration?

She’s the only other character on the show to demonstrate that type of control (finger wag) over the hosts. Chronologically, she demonstrates it well before we ever see Ford do it. Additionally, we cannot rule out that the Argos Initiative (let’s call it AI for short; let that sink in) isn’t a separate company from Ford and Arnold’s. Logan admits they get lots of people asking for investments, so the market is wide open. Plus, we see Arnold and hear Ford discussing the demonstration and then scrap Dolores. Akcheta and Angela show up and we only assume they are sent by Ford and Arnold because we see Dolores peeking in AFTER her and Logan bump uglies.

Here’s what I find troubling… Ford told Bernard that first-gen hosts like Old Bill were constantly breaking down and a handshake could give them away. Assuming Old Bill immediately went into cold storage upon entry into the park (several years after its funding from Delos) and received zero updates (he is very mechanical in his movements in that basement and repeats the same phrase almost immediately) then we can also assume that the Angela we see demonstrating for Logan, being “newer” than Bill, should exhibit similar if not worse mannerisms to the old Bill we see in cold storage.

If what we hear Ford tell us to be true about Old Bill and Dolores being the two oldest hosts, Angela is, at best, the third host built. Dolores: who believes she is in a dream and repeats the splendor line. Scrapped for the demo. Old Bill: mechanical in nature and audibly robotic; Angela: visibly stunning. Logan calls her perfect. That’s the order.

We must ask ourselves this very logical question. Given what we know, could the third host ever built really secure the funding from Logan? The only host like behavior she demonstrates is standing still when Logan think’s it’s her. I don’t think she was a host at the time, at least not one created by Ford.

Would Ford and Arnold really leave a host in control of their demonstration? Seems unlikely. Angela is far more advanced than Dolores. I think Angela is probably a human when she does the demonstration, or if she is a host, is not Ford’s creation. Perhaps there is more to the story about how Ford and Arnold get involved with Delos. But I still had one aching question I couldn’t theorize: her motivation.

So with that in mind, I went back and looked at all of Angela’s scenes from season 1 in greater detail.
Once you do that, you’ll see that she is no ordinary host. She is special. She is making sure Dolores stays on the Wyatt narrative, not following her and she may even share the same powers as Ford.

In Trace Decay, Lee and Charlotte are discussing the new Wyatt narrative and on the monitors we can see the “new” Wyatt storyline and their characters. Some observations from that scene:
“Act I – Lure” shows the host tied to the tree in episode three, when Teddy is accompanying the female guest and they encounter Wyatt’s men in the daylight and again at night. Teddy is the other picture in the background as part of the Lure strategy and they literally show the host connections (like connect the dots) to show the “flow” of the narrative. So, if my logic is correct, anyone going on the bounty hunter storyline with Teddy and the sheriff would trigger the Wyatt storyline to begin. Tying the host to the tree only lures in Teddy and everyone assumed Teddy was killed in the nighttime ambush. We later learn Wyatt’s men strung him up to the tree to lure in the real target, the MIB.

“Act 2 – Incident”. In this screenshot we see another four hosts, including Angela. So anyone paying close enough attention at that time would have known that Angela was part of the ruse all along. I missed it and only noticed that detail after scouring for clues.

“Act 3 – Assault” shows the minotaur, who attacks the MIB. Teddy and MIB managed to kill him, but during the scuffle, Teddy remembers a little bit to his past. If you watch closely, both the MIB and Angela seem shocked that Teddy is awake and remembering.

Just prior to this, however, when Teddy and the MIB encounter Angela and MIB says “It’s you. I figured they retired you. I guess Ford never likes to waste a pretty face.” Now, as a member of the audience the phrase: “Doesn’t like anything to me/what door? etc.” is our signal that the host is being challenged with something they cannot comprehend. As a default, they don’t even address the challenge, they simply dismiss it and move on. I want you to watch Angela’s face! She doesn’t give the “doesn’t look like anything to me” look all the other hosts do. Lawrence, Teddy, Dolores, Bernard… all respond like normal hosts, they are slightly confused or completely ignore the remark, but it’s always acknowledged. Angela stares back at the MIB and doesn’t say a word. We believe it’s a normal host reaction, but she knows exactly what he said. MIB mentions that Teddy can’t remember shit, but he still managed to lead them to Wyatt’s crew. Teddy mentions he remembered and knocks out the MIB. Angela looked surprised.

A: “Wyatt’s men, they kept whispering, they said this world didn’t belong to the old settlers or the new”
T: “That it belonged to something that had yet to come, that it belonged to him.”
A: “You remember”^
W: “You two seem to have found yourselves in the same new narrative.”
Teddy continues on and Angela just looks at MIB.
(cont.) A: “Kill him, give him what he wants.”
T: “He’s tied. Unarmed.”
A: “So was the little girl he killed. He’s worse than Wyatt’s men.”
T: “I can’t”
A: “These things take time. But we haven’t got much left. Perhaps I can help you. You’ve been gone a long while, Theodore. It’s time you came back to the fold. Wyatt will need you soon.”
^ This is clearly her breaking character and recognizing he’s waking up. Telling Teddy to kill the MIB was stupid, however, as he clearly is incapable of doing so. This was a test to see how close he was, she knew the MIB couldn’t be hurt.

A: “Theodore, welcome back”
W: “You really landed us in it this time, Teddy… You tracked down the very whore who can lead us to the gatekeeper of the maze. Then your little memory glitch fucked us”
T: “You’re one of them? What did you do? Where’s Wyatt?”
A: “Wyatt has yet to return… you’ll find him where you saw him last”^
*A flashback scene is triggered*
T: “Escalante. Wyatt went missing while out on maneuvers. Came back with some strange ideas. He told me he needed me. I couldn’t resist. It was like the devil himself had taken control of me. We mutinied. We killed every soldier. Then Wyatt killed the general and then he turned on me.”
A: “Are you sure that’s how it was? Look at me, Theodore. Don’t you remember?”
*Another flashback is triggered, showing Teddy the truth* +
T: “No. No. I couldn’t have.”
A: “You did, and you will again. This time we’ll be fighting with you. When Wyatt returns, you’ll be by his side in the city swallowed by sand. But you’re not ready. Not yet. Maybe in the next life.”

^ – Knowing what we know now, she is narrating the storyline: Dolores wasn’t Wyatt yet and the last place Teddy saw her last was Sweetwater, not Escalante.
+ – Angela is capable of unlocking the truth about Teddy’s past. It wasn’t until she said to “remember” that he did. Lawrence’s daughter does this with Dolores. Akcheta triggers this reaction in Maeve.
Ford programs the narrative into Teddy and yet it’s Angela who ultimately unlocks Teddy. Then she kills him. How does resetting Teddy help Wyatt? It doesn’t, it sends him back to Sweetwater.

When Dolores has a flashback of Escalante, we see Angela in town, strolling by and she smiles at the camera. She is gripping an umbrella. Watch her fingers on her left hand. They come off the umbrella and then do the Jedi finger wave thing that controls hosts. Probably nothing, but I noticed it. We hear a tech compliment Maeve (who the viewers probably agree is the most powerful host on the show) for basic dance moves. Armistice can’t even stay with her partner. Why was Angela not participating? I understand plenty of other hosts weren’t participating in the dance, but Angela is obviously further along than any other host we see. It’s quite possible she is still a human at this point.

Angela was also the last one Teddy shoots in town, as she is begging for her life over the body of a man. Even though we see him pull the trigger, it cuts away before we see her shot. I think it is at this point that Teddy killed the human Angela, who is executed in a similar fashion she to the guest she executed.

When Dolores is having a flashback to the church, she enters into a very dimly lit scene. Everyone is in dark clothing, mirroring the agony some of the hosts are experiencing on their path to consciousness… except Angela, who is in bright white. Watch her face as Dolores strolls by and compare it to all the other hosts. The hosts are all exhibiting significantly stronger signs of trouble than Angela is. Angela is only holding her hand to her head. Similar to the way she did with the private demonstration with Logan.

Every interaction Angela has had, in terms of life as a host, has been a relative cake walk compared to the others. She is unlocked and can play the game as well as control it. What is her motivation?

I think Angela was a real person, not a host. At some point Ford and Arnold cloned her and turned her into a host. Her job in the park has always been cush, so her reasons for killing humans seems unfounded. The MIB’s game ends where he began, which was with Angela, not Dolores. There are a lot of theories that float the MIB is actually a host and this is his maze journey. William asked Angela if she was real “Well if you can’t tell, does it matter” – that may come to have deeper meaning for William.

Every other time we’ve seen her this season she seems to know exactly what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Additionally, she just happened to catch up with a QA member who assaulted the fort and kidnapped Peter? Angela worked in the Mesa and knows exactly what is in there. Just like with Teddy in the scene in Trace Decay, she is acting ignorant and is actually ensuring there is no deviation from the storyline.

Still working on this theory, but wanted to get it out there now before anything new happens and before episode 6. Big fan of the show, I’m here in Tempe and think you guys should do a fan get together! Keep up the good work.

Watch for Angela to become a key player, probably has been pulling the strings all along. She knows this is a game!

Jeff Higgins

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