Westworld Episode 4 Instant Take: “Riddle of the Sphinx”
Westworld Episode 4 Instant Take: “Riddle of the Sphinx”
Westworld Season 2 just keeps getting darker with Episode 4: “Riddle of the Sphinx.” Recorded just minutes after the episode aired, this Instacast quickly outlines what we learned and the big new questions everyone is asking.
If you guessed Delos is trying to create eternal life, you’re right. But did the project succeed? At least we now know what happened to James Delos.
Elsie’s back, and Bernard’s killed again. Or has he? Hard to tell with that wacky memory.
And we finally can agree on who Grace from The Raj really is. But how will she fit into the fate of the parks?
To read all our fan email, theories and more, plus Gene Lyons’ responses to them, visit https://shatontv.com/category/westworld-telegraph/
Westworld Episode 4 Summary:
“Riddle of the Sphinx” Bernard finds himself in a cave in an isolated section of Westworld. He discovers Elsie Hughes chained up inside, having abandoned her there while operating under Ford’s influence. They explore a hidden bunker in the cave and find an insane host of James Delos. A series of flashbacks reveal that William and James attempted to recreate James’ consciousness in a host body to achieve immortality. However, the experiment repeatedly failed and William shut it down. Bernard recalls that Ford had him retrieve the control unit of a second host-human hybrid, but cannot recall for whom it was intended. In the park, William and Lawrence return to Lawrence’s home to find it overrun by Craddock and the surviving Confederados. Craddock torments the other hosts for sport until William and Lawrence overpower the Confederados and kill Craddock. Speaking through Lawrence’s daughter, Ford warns William that one good deed does not redeem him. William rides west with the townspeople in tow where they meet Grace, who reveals herself to be William’s daughter Emily.
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Has anyone done a full scrub of season 1 and 2 to verify if the ‘Arnold was never a human / only AI’ theory holds water?
If it is possible that when we see ‘human Arnold’ from pre-park opening timeline(s) , he is actually just a mental projection in the minds of other hosts ( mainly Delores ).
So in scenes like the basement interviews and taking Delores outside of the park to his house, can this just be Delores being guided by a non-human virtual assistant / Arnold?
There has never been a ‘human Arnold’ scene with a large group that I can recall. All scenes with young Dr. Ford interacting with Arnold are blurred out, behind closed doors, etc. He could very well be arguing with a digital assistant that helped him build the initial 47 hosts.
I think there may still be something there to this theory!
I do not agree with Big D’s piece of the theory that Dr Ford at some point became a host. The aging aspect does not align with this. He is certainly some kind of ghost in the machine at this point, orchestrating ‘ the game’ for MiB, but was not a host when Delores shot him at the masacre. Sorry, Big D – thanks for getting the gears turning, though.
Would be great to crack this theory back open for this week’s Telegraph.
Also a quick +1 on ‘Teddy is Bernard’ in timeline ’11 days later’.
I have found this new episode interesting because of one question; What doesn’t Ford know?
Because as Delores/Wyatt has shown, it is able to process conversation and what it witnesses into its current form, but it simply means that the information was always there for viewing. As Arnold took Delores to the real world and she witnessed interactions, Ford would be privy to them as well. After all, that is one of the ways which the hosts could be used, espionage.
So, wouldn’t Ford know of the plans of Delos? Delores was also there when the Man in Black spoke to Delos about the park being an opportunity. For years the Man in Black has been issuing the fidelity test in a bunker with no one around… you mean he was able to avoid every host eye on a park created by Ford? Also, it has also shown that Ford understands his way around programming and control of the hosts, why wouldn’t he have the same backdoor into all of the hosts/minions?
So, with all this information and the (paraphrased) comment that perhaps the MiB shouldn’t live forever either, is it possible that MiB is also a hybrid and every year that he came in for his “vacation” is another test of the longevity viability?
The man in black said in Season one something like “When your suffering is when your most real” now that the hosts are free the MiB is feeling some guilt. He would have just left with the confederados but they insisted on torturing the village people making the people being tortured more and more real to the MiB. He still wont hesitate to kill hosts but he wont be torturing any of them.
I haven’t really put much thought into the white wolf before today.
After rewatching season 2 episode 1, and reflecting on its appearance after flashbacks of Dolores/Wyat killing Arnold at the end of last season, it appears almost obvious to me that the wolf is an intelligence gathering drone for Ford.
If you rewatch the scene I’m which the MIB first appears in Season 2. The very first thing he does is stare down the wolf.
So Ford, assuming he’s actually dead, sent the wolf to make sure the MIB is ready to begin his “game” this season. The look on MIB’s face as he stares down the wolf reads…game on motherfucker…just as he says in a variety of ways to every other host mentions the game to MIB throughout season 2.
As for the wolf appearance in season 1. This is how ford obtained intimate knowledge of the events at Escalante without actually being there.
If all illness and disease are able to be cured as the MIB and also Dr Ford say in season 1, why did Delos and his wife die? Ford even likens it to them being able raising Lazuras from the dead, which sounds like foreshadowing. Do you think that eventually in the real world they are able to upload a person’s consciousness to a “healthy” immortal created body?