Welcome back to westworld!

Published March 19, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi guys! Welcome back Gene and Big D, and welcome to Ashley!

I’m Tommaso, italian listener from Begium. Brief (unnecessary probably) introduction: started following you on the infamous second season of American Gods, you were one of the few things that made it bearable. No well actually I didn’t hate it that much to be honest while I was watching it. There is some gold deep inside, if you really don’t let everything else distract you in my opinion. Then the final season of GoT, then Watchmen where your podcast was as perfect as the season itself… I wrote you only once, after the finale of Watchmen, and once got a shatout from Rog on reddit because I commented on r/mrrobot looking for a podcast for that show that was as good as what you do for the ones you follow!

Speaking about the episodes, I have to say that I really liked it. Joy and Nolan (can I call them the Jolans? Probably better not) have proved to be masters in putting us in a world, a completely new world, without need of exposition, to not be confused more than they want us to be confused all the while giving us the right amount of kickass action and intrigue. The Pilot was a masterpiece for this, and for me remains one of the better things seen on tv.

I just have some doubts about the kidnapping scene, and I wonder if I missed something or what. First of all, do we agree that Tommy Flanagan was setting Dolores up and that there’s no dead Ukrainian teenager, right (Btw, how cool was TF in a suit? He’s a great actor, I loved in Sons of Anarchy and you really broke my heart when you said it’s not worth watching… and I’m relieved that it wasn’t the last we’d seen of him, though now I wonder: who’s in his body? I vote for Clementine, or maybe Hector?). Anyway, there’s a couple of things I didn’t get. First of all, what was Caleb and the other guy delivering? Will we find it out when host Conells opens the packages in the futurecopter? Then, what interrupts the attempted murder was a car arriving. From the reflection on the windows it seemed to me that there was someone inside, and Conells called the others to go there, but who was inside? Or was it just a self driving machine called by Dolores to distract them? I really didn’t get it.

I’m starting to think that one of the themes of the show is the humans willingly though unconsciously giving up the “libero arbitrio”, the free will, since from the advertisements it seems that that’s what Insight does, make the choices for you, while the hosts have just gained it and maybe help the humans get it back? I don’t know, it just came to my mind so I haven’t really rationalised it yet, but maybe it could be something interested (for you to) discuss…

Finally, I want to welcome Ashley to the podcast. I really like how precise the points she makes are, it never seems like she’s improvising because everything she says is explained very clearly and shows that she’s done her research, so kudos for that. However, and don’t take this as a criticism but as a suggestion from a listener, sometimes she seems a bit too strong on her points. First regarding the opening theme, which she said was “obviously a reference to Narcissus”. I mean, yeah, could be, but maybe not, and also for me it doesn’t really resonate with the themes of the show. Maybe it’s just a cool image, I didn’t see any hidden meanings in the opening of the first two seasons. Also, concerning the eagle flying, at first I thought too that it was flying towards a jet engine, but maybe it’s one of those air blower from a wind tunnel? that’s the second impression I got. Also when speaking about Caleb, Ashley said that he’s “obviously” a host. The repetitions, the painful backstory… I think that’s quite controversial and it was said kind of too much as a matter of fact thing. And Joy and Nolan have always been masters of misdirection, so maybe those are fake hints to make think he’s a host. Also wasn’t it said publicly that he was a human before the show started? I don’t see them saying one thing and then doing the opposite. Also I don’t understand how he could be a host, how can there be another rogue host in the world, with memories related to the “outside world”? It really makes no sense to me, unless the world we were seeing was Futureworld but that has I think been already denied by them and also I don’t understand why Dolores would be in another park and when she entered it. Only the parts in the town are in Futureworld? It really doesn’t convince me. Anyway sorry for my ramblings and my too long email, keep up the good work, looking forward to enjoying this journey with you!

Tommaso

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