Dolores and Rehoboam

Published March 19, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi All

Just found your podcast and have only listened to your S3 content so far. Very much enjoying your deep dives and perspective on what is happening.

I’d like to share some theories i have.

Firstly Caleb
It seems you guys were coming down on the side of Caleb being a host? I’d like to offer that they are presenting Caleb in that way to show that he is not a host but he is in fact a human that goes about his day stuck in a loop, in much the same way that the hosts are. Essentially i think they’re trying to show that the people like Caleb in society are also oppressed in much the same way the Hosts are within the Delos parks. I think his whole arc in this episode was showing how and why he has become disillusioned with the life he has been presented with and why he is driven to break free of that. It seems to me that Calebs role in Dolores’s story is to provide her with something that she has never seen before and that is a view of how the normal workers of the real world are manipulated and controlled by the wealthy and powerful in much the same way the hosts within the park are. Dolores’s only experience of real humans are as brutal and cruel and Caleb’s role is to provide her with a perspective. A slight adjustment on who her true enemies are. I think the Francis character is simply the last straw for Caleb. He catches the AI out when it says something that the real Francis would not say and it is the moment he decides to fully disconnect from the life he has been presented with. Essentially it does drive him to Dolores but I don’t think she is the one manipulating that situation in order to meet him. More on that later….

Oh and I am one of the few who didn’t watch Breaking Bad (For no other reason than I missed that boat the first time around and just haven’t got to it yet). Consequently and i think fortunately for me, I have no predetermined idea of Aaron Paul…. I think he’s great in this.

Anyway….
I have a theory on Rehoboam.
In conversations with Dolores, Liam Dempsey Jr gives very little away about Rehoboam but he does give some details….. He mentions a timeframes of inception to completion of Rehoboam. Quote “My dad sketched it over a weekend and it took him 15 years to build” He also says nobody knows what it’s been doing since the last optimisation. And
When he was a kid he thought Rehoboam was more important to his dad than he was. He also talks about his dads business partner who has control of the system who we learn from Martin Connells right before he is killed by his host copy is names Serac….. BUT
only a few lines later Liam makes a reference to the system Architect and to me he is making a very subtle but clear distinction between the business partner (Serac) and the architect. I believe they are two different people Now I’m assuming Liam is in his mid 30’s
It seems that this is set in 2058 and working backwards I would assume by “When I was a child” he meant somewhere around the age of 10….. so approximately 25 years ago. The optimisation comment seems to suggest that happened a while ago but i’m thinking it was years….. probably not more than 5 though. Now again give the 15 year window of creation of Rehoboam i’m suggesting that generously it’s inception was 40 years prior to this conversation, placing his fathers original concept of it in 2018. Now….. It’s believed that Ford and Arnold began coding hosts in 2021 according to the Westworld timeline…. My theory is that Arnold created the A.I. that Rehoboam is based on and then took the money he made from that to create Westworld. essentially…… Rehoboam and Dolores (And all the other hosts) are built on the same A.I. platform. Now what this means I don’t know and where they’re going with it I have no idea but it does set up a few different scenarios…..

First scenario is that Dolores knows that Rehoboam is Arnolds creation and her plan is to actually “team up” with it to destroy the humans. Rehoboam also knows about Dolores and has brought about the events that lead Caleb to rebel against his place in society and has essentially lead Caleb to Dolores…. I believe you are correct in suggesting that the RICO crime app is being controlled by Rehoboam as a means of controlling those in society who are rebelling against the pre determined paths that mainstream society have subscribed to through Incite. Ironically they are rebelling against the control of Incite and Rehoboam by subscribing to the control of RICO which is also controlled by Rehoboam.

Second scenario is that Dolores will go to war with Rehoboam and its control of society.

I think it is most likely that Dolores in meeting Caleb will discover that the blue collar workers of the real world are just as oppressed as the hosts in Westworld and adjust her target to bringing down the oppressors. The wealthy and the organisations that opress and control humanity and hosts alike.

I loved Ashley’s deep dive into the meaning of the name Rehoboam and without going into it too much it seems that the story of Jeroboam actually is a parallel to the Eagle represented in the opening credits…… It seems to me that the eagle represents Dolores/Jeroboam. Dolores is leading a revolution and even though she will be resisted and it may well destroy her she will keep moving forward to free her people….

I also have a few questions and would love to hear your thoughts…..

I believe they are in fact in the real world and possibly everybody is living in an augmented reality as has been suggested. I just don’t think it makes any sense that they would trap Dolores in a futurworld type park. It just seems pointless. I do however wonder what the meaning of the graffiti of the maze on the wall of the tunnel where Dolores and Caleb meet. Not only is there a graffiti version of the maze on the wall behind them but there is also a huge person from the centre of the maze painted in white on the wall at the far end of the tunnel. It is in fact highlighted by shadows….. I have no idea what this means but I feel like, as you guys suggested, we are being trolled to some extent by the show runners. we are defintely being lead down a path with all the references to us still being in a park…..

there was so much in this episode…. It’s beautifully shot as always and the music is fantastic….. The “Common People” scene in the car is incredible….. On shot from the backseat and you see everything that happens….. The blood spatter on the car windshield caused not by Dolores shooting the guy in the front seat but by a wayward shot from the guy in front of the car…. The car doors on the display opening and closing…. It’s executed like a ballet…. Just a masterpiece. Standing ovation for Jonah Nolan here!! Oh and the song “Common People’…. A girl wants to break away from her privileged life as the daughter of a wealthy person but in the end the lyrics say she will never know what it’s like to be truly like one of the common people as she will always have the safety net of daddy’s money….. The song is literally about the difference between the wealthy and the normal working class and how the wealthy are just not capable of understanding what it’s like to be not wealthy It’s next level GENIUS writing and directing!

I’ll leave it there for the time being cos to be honest there’s so much in this ep that we could talk about (haven’t even mentioned Bernard or Maeve) but i’m going to finish with this final question just to do your heads in…..

In the S2 finale Dolores sent the contents of the Sublime (Valley Beyond) containing all the hosts to an undisclosed location where “nobody will be able to find” it…. What if she sent the sublime and all the information from the Forge to Rehoboam?

Have fun with that

In any event I love where this is all going and am super pumped for this story to play out.

Cheers

Dan

Subscribe Now