The Dolores Twins

Published January 14, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi again,

In several Westworld episodes, Dolores appears to remember seeing, or even talking with, a host who looks exactly like herself. Conventional wisdom is that there’s been only one Dolores; seeing oneself in a memory is merely a movie-maker’s visual literary device for the sake of the viewers, and if I had to bet I’d bet conventional wisdom is correct in this case.

But if taken literally, those scenes suggest there have been two or more Dolores hosts. This interpretation is consistent with Felix’ description of how host memory differs from human memory: A host remembering a past experience relives that experience. Since hosts (and humans) do not look at themselves from someone else’s perspective (unless looking in a mirror, or having an artificial removable radio-linked eye like Dr. Franklin gave to G’Kar in season 4 of Babylon 5), a host would not see herself when reliving the experience as memory.

Another possibility is that those aren’t Dolores’ memories. They might be memories copied from another host. Or they might not be anyone’s memories; they might be mental models Dolores is constructing, the same way that one can imagine oneself. I don’t recall Westworld exploring (yet) the limits of hosts’ visual imagination. Hosts who have awakened might have good imaginations. When Dolores imagined a narrative in which she’s not a damsel (in distress) it may or may not have had visual elements.

Regards,
Steve E.

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