Christina and NYC and Maslow

July 27, 2022

Hey!

So glad you all liked my theory from last week. I’m sad you didn’t like this last episode on first watch. But I’m confident that you’ll have changed your mind after you see it again.

And if you haven’t yet, I’m hoping to change some Shaton hearts and minds. Here me out…

It’s all about the human connection, the bond formed between people to build trust and feel valued and seen. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy, love and belongingness are the most important needs after physical and environmental needs are met. Without it, we humans don’t develop properly. We can’t make our way up his triangle to self-actualization and finally transcendence (his words, not Hale’s). For the hosts, self-actualization equals consciousness.

At the direction of Olympiad Entertainment, Christina has put the humans in loops and it takes away their ability to experience compassion, empathy, love, loss, tolerance, understanding, etc. All these things that define our human experience and make us feel valued by valuing others. There isn’t a lot of bloodshed, just good old-fashioned loneliness. The feeling of being surrounded by people but having no connection to them.

Once a human has the capacity for the human experience, they become an outlier. And once a host interacts with them, they realize what they are missing. They have a choice to seek out and spread self-actualization as Acheketa did or go on a killing spree like Hope because they hate what they can’t have. They end themselves as OG Teddy did when Dolores changed his code in S2 to remove the capacity for compassion (and could see that this is where Dolores was heading).

The outlier on the roof triggered HIB’s self-actualization by showing him that she was experiencing compassion and she simultaneously asked him for compassion. She wants to feel valued by valuing him. Hale asked OG Dolores for this in S3 but she didn’t receive it. So she only knows how to create a world and hosts with the fleshy side of the human experience. She can never understand true belonging.

And this is why I loved this episode. Because this NYC is so flat and boring and nothing adds up. Of course it is! No one is experiencing any real emotions that lead to connection. It feels like bad writing because it is bad writing on the part of Christina. Our greatest pieces of art (IRL) are ones that ask us to feel connection with the subject. This NYC is no great piece of art because its asking you to not feel connected.

Our new Teddy has got it, he’s reached self-actualization. And because self-actualization is really about belonging, he’s going to spread it. The date scene in E4 was moving because it was so real. We could read all of that human experience in James Marsden’s expression and words. And we also see joy from Rachel Evan Wood when Christina actually laughs. It’s a great juxtaposition to Christina’s relationship with Maya which feels flat, unnatural and makes no sense. Why would it? It’s a badly written story of two characters with no real connection, no depth.

S3 focused on free-will and choice. But free-will for the sake of free-will is pointless if it doesn’t get you to transcendence. And I think this is where we’re headed in S4.

I really do love your podcast! Look at me, a self-actualized human valuing you. Look at you, self-actualized (podcast) hosts creating a sense of belonging with your audience by showing compassion and empathy.

Cheers!
Maria

P.S. Not for nothing, but I find it so interesting that S4 is addressing a lack of connection with an audience just coming out of isolation.

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