In Defense of Logan

Westworld Telegraph

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Hey Guys,

Huge fan of the podcast- love the analysis, the highbrow (and lowbrow) discussion, and the banter (for the record, give poor Big D a break – every group needs a cynic because without one people start trying to spin tin foil into gold).

Anyway, I’d like to make a case for Logan. It’s a long one, so feel free to cherry pick for the podcast if this makes the top 20.

I think it’s easy to demonize Logan since he presents himself as a massive douche, but I think he’s actually a decent guy deep down. Let’s break it down point by point:

Logan takes William on a $40k/per day vacation as a way to bond. Sure, there’s business, but Logan is the son of guy who owns Delos (I assume)- he could have brought anyone or gone alone, but picked William. His presentation is indelicate, but I think one of his key motives is to bond with his new brother and get to know who he really is – “I can’t fuckin’ wait to meet that guy”

Logan is pushy about William’s choices in the park, but imagine you’re an experienced gamer trying to show your buddy this amazing game you’ve played and they want to keep playing the tutorial over and over. Or you’re taking your buddy to Hawaii and they prefer the hotel lobby to the beach. Sure, it’s more complex than that with the white hat/black hat choices, but I think a lot of Logan’s frustration is that William doesn’t seem interested in seeing the park’s full potential. He goes about it wrong, but his intent isn’t bad. He was genuinely proud of William taking down that bandit and agrees to go on William’s quest.

Logan’s understanding of the hosts is fundamentally different than that of the audience and I think this is the MAIN place where we are unfairly biased against him. First impressions matter and our first look into this world was from Teddy’s and Dolores’ point of view – we see their suffering up close. Then the show takes one of the most “human” characters – Bernard with his dead son, estranged wife, lover Theresa, mentor and friend Ford, mentee and friend Elsie – and tell us he’s a host. So of course we empathize – of course we see cruelty to hosts as wrong. But Logan doesn’t know any of this. If anything, he’s been inundated with exactly how NON-human the hosts are because he’s a potential investor. Imagine the pitch – “here’s this place where you can do whatever you want to these Hosts because it’ll feel good, but have no consequences since they’re not people at all.” It goes to Seizemore’s point in Ep. 1 about how no one wants to think their husband really fucked a beautiful woman. So to Logan, killing a host is killing a robot and sleeping with a host is not being unfaithful since it’s a glorified sex toy. This is all he knows, and while Dolores is “different” William gives him no reason to believe it and Dolores barely does.

I’ll go further – Logan ultimately gets betrayed and decides to forgive William anyway. Once William says he wants to get Dolores out of the park because she’s real, Logan loses it. This isn’t a game anymore. His sister is about to marry a guy who is in love with a damn robot. He’s justifiably pissed. To him, THIS is cheating – screwing a robot means nothing, but the emotional connection to one as a person crosses a line. Even so, he acknowledges it was at least a little his own fault and tries to show William that Dolores is literally a thing and not a person and to just get back to the damn vacation. Again, good intent, bad execution. Ultimately, Logan is willing to forgive and forget, promises not rat William out to his sister for a moment of bad judgment, and is genuinely excited to continue to get to know his new brother.

Bottom Line: Logan has the presentation skills of a frat bro, the patience of a sixth grader, and a heart of solid gold.

Cheers,

Ken L.

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