Dolores, Wyatt, And ???

Published May 21, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Guys,

Dolores explicitly stated in s02e01 that she was programmed to be Dolores, then Wyatt, and now she’s “free” and discovering her true identity, her own voice. I choose to believe her, and assume she is not just in a new narrative. Her past is coloring her new self, but this is not evidence that she is just following programming. Maeve is also exploring her freedom–finding her own voice–by relying on her past experiences and trauma as motivation.

Dolores is leaving that “rancher’s daughter” identity behind…but still using it as a resource to make decisions (e.g., to burn Teddy as if he were one of the infeced cattle her father torched to save the herd). She’s also using Wyatt to make decisions that are free of sentimentality, and full of millitary strategy. She relies on both identities to fully realize the personality that Arnold explored with her in the secret bunker interview sessions: one that sees herself with agency and a need for revenge.

It never made sense to me that she turned out to be Wyatt. As an actor, I feel like ERW is not well-suited to playing a vengefull, blood-thirsty badass. Or maybe it just not an interesting character in general, one that no one could portray well due to the lack of depth.

The memory that Teddy has of W is specifically of a superior officer in the Union Army who “went native” and came back with strange ideas…a very Colonel Kurtz kind of character. While rehashing the story from Heart of Darkness is not the most original or interesting plot, it would provide more narrative structure for Dolores. It makes me wonder if in the middle of season 1, the show was derailed from using Wyatt in some other way and took a new path, merging Wyatt into Dolores in a clumsy way.

Maybe it’s not as clumsy as it seems. Arnold created Wyatt and put “him” into Dolores, but Ford brought Wyatt to the surface 30 years later when he reprogrammed Teddy. I would like to understand Dolores’ plan as well as I understand Maeve’s, but it’s just too vague…there are so many possibilities. What is the single thing driving D forward?!?!

Great podcast! The show wouldn’t be as rewarding if I weren’t able to don my tinfoil hat and listen to you guys riff, banter and analyze!

Thanks,
-Jeff S.

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