Is Big D The Man In Black? And… Fidelity

Published June 28, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey folks —

Again, thanks for doing this. You guys have great thoughts, and interact really well (all that time in the Cradle has paid off). Seriously, though, your podcast and the forum you’ve created for the rest of us to chime in is fantastic and has enhanced my enjoyment of the series.

1. What color is your hat?
In the deep dive, Big D expressed his frustration about the lack of consequences when hosts are able to be revived/reset, i.e. “what really matters” in this setting. I am sure others will point this out, but that sounded exactly like MiB’s lament about Westworld in Season 1…. What color hat was Big D wearing when he said that?

2. Fidelity as a larger theme….
Also, I mentioned this in an earlier post (after ep. 4 or 5 or 6) but I think that an overarching theme of the season was “Fidelity” — not just in terms of testing AI, with hosts or human host hybrid versions of James Delos or whomever, but also between characters. Interesting that in the midst of a park-wide/system-wide rebellion, so many questions of fidelity between characters drove their narratives. Of course, Maeve and her daughter, MiB and his daughter, Dolores and Teddy (and Teddy and Dolores), Dolores and Abernathy, the characters in Shogun world, the way Felix and Sylvester end up (presumably) being faithful to Maeve and her team, Sizemore ultimately siding with Maeve and the hosts… these are all tests of “fidelity” in terms of dedication to or at least caring for another character. For Dolores and Maeve, there is also some form of fidelity to their cause (freedom/rebellion, the cause of consciousness). For many, including Akane and Maling in Shogun world, these are real or virtual parent/child relationships as well.

Bernard, and perhaps his relation to real and virtual Ford, faced a number of fidelity “tests” regarding the cause, either to the hosts and their consciousness, or to the park and its success (the years working with Ford in the park). He also has to deal most directly with a dilemma of saving hosts or saving humans (perhaps best represented in his interactions with Elsie), and the idea of being true or “fair” to organic or mechanical entities.

I think it’s worth asking a question based on Dolores’s assertion that “not everyone deserves to make it to the Valley Beyond” — were the hosts who made it across to Digital Eden rewarded for their “Faith”? Akecheta, whose drive to consciousness was based at least in part on his fidelity to his lady love Kohana, is reunited with her in the Valley Beyond; that certainly seems like a reward for his fidelity to the cause/path of conciousness.

This makes the final post-credit scene richly ironic — it seems that a virtual MiB is going to be perpetually tortured by a virtual version of Emily by going through an endless fidelity test.

I don’t know whether this will seem more compelling to you, but I hope so. I do know I would not have noticed this if it weren’t for the conversation you guys have hosted and sustained. Thanks again for all that!

Best,
Brendan

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