How Long Was Elsie in the Theater?

Published December 3, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hello Shat on TV hosts. Love your podcast and would like to share some questions I have after watching WestWorld S1E8 (season 1, episode 8 “Trace Decay”)

In episode 6, Elsie was at the abandoned theater in Sector 3. She learns Theresa is behind the satellite transmissions and informs Bernard of her findings. In a later call to Bernard she says “…for weeks someone else was re-tasking older models – newer models don’t have receivers. I’m going to transfer all the data and bring it to you. You need to see this.” An indeterminate amount of time later she is grabbed from behind – and killed by Bernard, or so we are lead to believe from events revealed in episode 8.

Bernard was in the Mesa offices during the phone call with Elsie. And Bernard wouldn’t on his own accord immediately go to the abandoned theater to kill Elsie. The likely scenario is Ford learned of Elsie’s discovery, ordered Bernard to go to the abandoned theater in sector 3 and kill Elsie.

How much time would it take between those events? Just how long does it take to “transfer all the data”? We didn’t get a sense of how long Elsie hung around the theater; maybe awhile since she did appear to be reviewing the data and discovered something profound just before investigating a noise behind her. Keep in mind, in episode 8 we saw Charlotte Hale transfer (presumably) a lot of data into Peter Abernathy in seconds, before asking Sizemore to program him with a story to get on the train out of WestWorld. And he’s an “older model.”

Unless Elsie hung around for at least 30 minutes after the conversation with Bernard, I’m not sure Bernard killed Elsie. I don’t think Ford would have the time to intercept the call and “task” Bernard to walk to the theater and gank Elsie.

If it was Bernard, how did he remember killing her? Ford would have erased that memory from Bernard, so how did Bernard remember killing her? Unless that scene was only there for our – the viewers’ – knowledge. OR, there are two (or more) Bernard robots.

Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Malchore

Subscribe Now