Ww02-04

Published May 16, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Gang,

Been listening all season long (and throughout the first season). I continue to enjoy your consistently excellent and earnest work product.

I truly loved this episode and sadly the couple of co-workers that had watched the show with me have tuned out and my girlfriend is not into the show. I understand and anecdotally can relate to the reduced viewership numbers. Yet, I cannot stop thinking about this show and wanting to discuss whether others see in it as much as I do. I was a fan of the original WW, which I saw when it was released on TV, but this show is so much more than the original ever was. All to say there might be fewer people watching but those of us who are are rabid fans!

For first-time directing, props to Lisa Joy for some fabulous shots…the Delis fishbowl track shot, the eeriness of Bernard’s recollections and mixture of live and past actions, the rainy scenes in Lawrence’s town, the mixing of POV and observer in William’s saloon shooting scene, the full gallop and Grace/Emily reveal against the setting sun. Lawyers are not supposed to be that damn creative!

A few points:

Reasons for burning the Delos fishbowl; (1) you would want to leave no DNA or trace elements of the prior version of Delos to guarantee the controlled environment for the next version; (2) it looked cool (which director admitted was motivation); (3) can’t help thinking of a Hieronymus Bosch modern day painting of a man of dubious character doomed to burn in hell time and again…?

Elsie does look suspiciously well for someone left chained in a chalky cave with nothing but power bars. Something is off and it isn’t “just a TV show.” It feels it has only been hours since he chained her to a stake. How unreliable is Bernard as a narrator? Can we even be certain she is still alive since we do not see her in the “12 days later” time loop.

I have been stewing on a variance of Dick’s theory about William “being a host” since Sunday, mulling over all the riddles we have been provided (young Ford, Lawrence’s daughter, the Sphinx). I am not on Reddit and I have no idea if anyone else has been pushing the same thoughts but I do not subscribe to a “where’s Waldo” approach to picking out which character is a host. I think of this show as a rendering of reality in multiple dimensions or perceptions. So the scenario I imagined is that the red pearl that Bernard pockets is the Door for William that Ford promised him, his consciousness to be uploaded onto a young version of himself (Jimmi Simpson) setting up a choice for old William (and for us the chance to see two stellar actors that otherwise cannot be face to face, Harris and Simpson)? It could be William’s door to an understanding of an AI/host’s consciousness or different perception of reality, a means to re-enter Westworld anew, going back to how and where he began, and experience it in a way that never was possible before, yet not based upon the protocol of securing your own meaningless, deathless immortality (the way James Delos conceived of it as “can’t wait to go on my yacht and fuck my wife”) as much as becoming a new iteration of ‘man’, much as the Sphinx’s riddle describes man in various stages or forms through a life journey…would William, given the choice, really play Ford’s game “to the bone?” What would it mean to us viewers to have him enter the game by becoming a part of it? Do we (does man) enter a new dimension of reality, willingly becoming artificial? What would we decide? Ok so, where’s my tin foil hat?!

Keep on the labor of love. At this point, after listening to dozens of podcasts, I consider you guys (and KG) to be part of my WW experience…kinda freaky!

See you in Shogun World…park 2…

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