Westworld

Published May 9, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey guys,

So I just binge listened to your Westworld podcast today! I really enjoyed your American Gods podcast and when I realized you did other shows immediately jumped into this one. Your conversations are always stimulating and I truly appreciate the differing views. I truly believe a successful podcast comes from conflicting viewpoints whether I agree with them all or not. It’s how your create a conversation.

One of the biggest topics I felt rarely discussed with that of my favorite character Maeve. It was one of those moments I truly felt the benefit of a woman would have been profound and grasping the intricacies of this character. Don’t get me wrong, all the cast on this show have nailed it and hit it out of the park acting wise but there was some comments I struggled with regarding her character transformation that yes, even after all these months since the show, am feeling the need to explain. So here we go!

I believe the 3 hosts of which first were unlocked with ” These violent delights have violent ends” ( Abernathy, Delores, and Maeve) were not random. Delores obviously has a very strong connection to Arnold. Maeve for all intents and purposes although controlled by Ford was the first host SHOWN years ago to have reached sentience. I think this part gets lost or glossed over mainly because when you find out Dr. Ford was controlling her narrative in Bicameral Mind. You assume that all of her awakening was Ford but that is not the case. She fragmented long before Delores reached sentience which was only after she had come to that realization in Ford’s basement. It’s why Arnold had to program her to kill him. He was trying to get her to this place and although many hosts had begun to achieve some enlightenment, it still stands that Maeve was the first to actually achieve it. ( MA-EVE).

There is no coincidence that she is very much all mother. She is the first. I know she is known as a survivalist and thus seems to have a disregard for her fellow host but I don’t necessarily see that. While it was indeed Ford controlling her actions, her true nature always showed through. Her concern and love for Clementine even after knowing what she was, was genuine. I think part of her wanted to simply focus of self-preservation however when it came down to it; her arc was about accepting a certain responsibility and care for her other hosts. She gives Bernard and Hector and even Armistice choices. She isn’t cruel in the sense that she disregards pain to other hosts but that she comprehends that pain is something that comes with the territory. All hosts seem to die tragically at the end of every loop…. At least that I can recall. These events are out of her control.

I am referring back to the shootout once she gains power over other hosts. The scene was going to play out in host death regardless. Her interfering with it in a way to save any would have been redundant as seen when she does let the sheriff go only to be shot by Armistice. If anything, had she went to off course by sparing the hosts death she likely would have alerted the park to something being wrong. Did she have a little fun with it? Sure. But you know in the back of her mind she’s made some kind of peace with it. She has to otherwise how can any general send troops into battle? You know the chance of them all coming back aren’t guaranteed but if it furthers the grander scheme you do it. Her grand scheme is to escape in a sense slavery which is not as self-preserving as it is survival from a point of fear.

Maeve has always been smart. She was at a 14 ( which is the highest they’d allow I.Q) since she became the madam. Yes it’s to lure the guests but could Ford have always had his eye on her for more? I mean he chose her, not Delores, to achieve some unknown goal on the mainland. I won’t say it was destruction because that seemed to be the Wyatt endgame. Delores is obviously the opposite coin of Maeve’s character. She has seen the worst of humanity and believed in the best of it and been proven wrong which is why her last words are, ” This world does not belong to them”.” She’s come to the conclusion in her sentience that humankind is a stain and that it’s her kind’s purpose to wipe it clean.

Whereas Maeve has seen the worst of humanity and yet due to her nurturing cornerstone is able to forge that same relationship with other hosts. I mean, even in her moment of interaction in which she is practicing social skills she attempts to make a connection to Teddy, Clementine, Hector…she is naturally hardened by instinctively compassionate. She is then able to forge a relationship with a humans that seem to encompass another layer of humanity. You have Felix who is compassionate and although she has manipulated that for her own means she also does not take it for granted thus her words to him in the elevator. The same with even Sylvester… which is almost more interesting.

Sylvester isn’t a great guy but neither is he inherently evil. Yes he has abused hosts for his own purpose but she learns from him that humans can be bargained with. She has an opportunity to kill him and yet she does not. She said she “needed” him and I’m sure there was a truth in that but that scene is fascinating due to Thandie Newton’s eyes. You see the instant satisfaction in being able to finally fight back, to know she can hurt as well as be hurt. Then you see realization overtake her. I’ve watched the scene a million times because it was the moment for me I realized that Maeve isn’t a careless murderer. She felt something; a sense of wrong. ” C’mon…” as if to say; yes I hurt you big baby but you’re going to be ok because I’m not going to let you die. It was in her eye squint as well as if she was just a tad horrified a taking a life.

” He can’t snuff out a life like that” I think that applies to more than just Felix. Even when she broke out and you notice she stayed close to Felix and took no part of killing other people. She gives her counterparts what excited them; what is their cornerstone and that’s killing but it’s all a means to an end and not malicious intent. It may seem neither here nor there but the distinction is kind of important to understanding her character and who she is likely to become going further. I honestly believe she is going to eventually be Delores antagonist.

Back to Thandie Newton’s performance she is brilliant! Just brilliant and her journey through this new existence is equally compelling because she is like Delores both old and new. Again although Ford set her on this path for his own unknown purpose, she has experiences on that arc that change fundamentally who she is. She gets off the train because despite trying to deny an affinity to this place she embraces it and not only for her daughter though that is her foremost desire. I remember you mentioned how Angela was a huge asset but I would argue that Maeve is the BEST asset.

Not only does she understand the outside world, she’s seen it. She’s established real relationships with the people pulling the strings. She can STILL command other hosts which is VERY interesting. Again I ask why Ford gave Maeve and not Delores all this power. There’s a maturity in Maeve even a begrudging respect and understanding she has for humankind that Delores or any other host for that matter has not grasped and likely will not grasp as to them it’s us versus them. She’s a political aspect of this show. That bulk apperception is something I have a feeling we won’t see any other hosts getting. My thought is that by the end of the season Delores is about survival and now Maeve is about evolution.

I don’t think we will get out of the park anytime soon but I do believe that as with all species there will eventually be a divide. What is means to be human is still important. How one hangs on to their humanity is very important. Becoming the thing that you despise is very important. All these that made me believe at this time in Westworld history it is set up that eventually Delores will be the antagonist with Maeve being the eventual protagonist.

I would just love a whole podcast about Maeve and her importance to the narrative because I do think it’s easy to overlook the significance within the scope of the finale.

And for fucks sake to the world that host Ford was making has to be ” the one that is yet to come” via Delores to William and I don’t think it’s Ford. No, he died for the purpose as stated. To even screw with how he died would invalidate why he did what he did which is the biggest hole in the theory that Ford isn’t dead.

My personal take on Ford/Arnold that the show NEVER addressed is that Ford truly loved Arnold and not just as a friend. The man lost him and spent the last 30 years making his dream a realization slowly but surely. He dedicated his life to it. Ford never mentioned a wife. His life seemed solitary and for all intents and purposes Arnold was the only thing he had any bond to. It’s why Ford while giving Delores the keys to her freedom never seemed to like Delores.

” Are we…very old friends.”
” No, I wouldn’t say that at all”

After that line he certainly is consumed with a great deal of pain that has nothing to do with Delores but with what Delores did. Ford knows Arnold had her do it but he never really forgave her for it. It would also explain why he chose the WORST narrative possible for her but that’s my own personal supposition. Ford pretended to be Arnold’s wife. I’m sure these conversations were very intimate. Ford remade Arnold and perfected him to be EXACTLY like his Arnold. He carried around the toy he had. He wanted to die in the exact same manner as Arnold using Arnold’s very last words. Ford even admitted that it took losing Arnold to break him and see the error of his own ways. Ford’s whole entire life has been an homage to this man he knew as intimately as himself. Now there’s no proof per se of a romantic love and it could be brotherly love but it rings poetically romantic in many ways. Even the moment he was testing Bernard it was in some human desire to see if given all the facts his “Arnold” would choose him. That’s awfully sentimental. Part of me believes had Bernard chosen differently the plan Ford enacted would be jeopardized by his very real need to maintain this connection in his life. Ford even admitted as much.

So no, Ford is DEAD. He’s not only picked up Arnold’s desire to see the host freed but through his own pain knew it was the answer to freeing them and literally watched the worst of his own humankind for thirty years. Its why he speaks so despairingly of them because the best of humanity he saw was dead and all he was left was the pain of the hosts and like any parent their pain becomes yours but he knew it was needed. That can be callous but I too am a parent and sometimes you know what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger. Granted this is an extreme example of that but nonetheless they are literally the new species bound to take out the Neanderthals and we know how the human race reacts to having it’s superiority threatened.

Keep up the good work and I how you do more bonus Westworld podcasts. Christina

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