Westworld

[nacho]

Yeah. This show is off the rails. I'll give them a chance and finish the season,  but they'd better pull a rabbit out of their hat if they want to keep me on the hook till 2017.

[nacho]

Catching up on the latest two episodes. We finally got some action... Except the action was just a rehash of the pilot episode of Beyond Westworld, so...I don't know.

[nacho]

Well, I'm caught up. But I don't actually remember the last episode because, even with the big Beyond Westworld reveal, it's still really just about Dolores communing with a horse. And I'm really tired with the explaining the Prime Directive after dramatically implying that the Prime Directive is broken.

*MUSIC SWELLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!* *click* "Ah, yes, you see. It's impossible for....."

Also, Bernard's selective "can't see the truth" thing is a little silly. Was that decision made like, as they were filming? Oh! Oh! Let's make him one of them!

[Sirharles]

Have you watched last Sunday's episode where

Spoiler

you find out who Bernard really is

?

[nacho]

Yes. Which just made me super mad. Especially when Dolores had her flashback which implied that Bernard also looks like Arnold, which doesn't make sense.

But, okay...let's roll with it! Bernard not only being a version of Arnold but also looking like him goes a very long way in the theory that we're actually watching two timelines and some of the older characters (namely Ed Harris) are the future version of the younger characters in Timeline A.

Also, the "blood sacrifice" line means that the board (namely the black lady) are Hosts.

So I like the idea that we can't be sure which timeline is which (since the Hosts are ageless and frozen in one time period), and I like the idea that Hopkins has seeded the Hosts outside of the park Beyond Westworld style, but that's almost too little too late here as far as I'm concerned. Once that storyline blows up there's really nowhere to go except for a Host rebellion or a rehash of the franchise's less-interesting tropes. So they have to continue doing the slow build and will very quickly be stuck in a corner.

[Sirharles]

They are doing two timelines...the picture of William's soon to be wife is the same one that was in the first or second episode.  So yes, William is Ed Harris.  Plus Bernard's talks with Delores are the human Bernard and not the creation Hopkins did.  Although I'm not sure on that...I'd have to look at the technology to see if he's holding a tablet when he talks to her.

It seems to me that while I do find it entertaining, you're right...where do they go from here?  Maeve starts a rebellion, but is that in the current or past timeline?

[nacho]

I think Maeve is in the current timeline because she saw that advertisement that pretty much said the park had been at it for three decades.

Bernard and Dolores talking in the secret room was indeed in the past. Her initial awakening (so she's Patient Zero?). If I cared enough about this show, I'd try and pay attention to the visual clues. (Such as when Dolores is in her blue dress -- which seems like the past -- and when she's naked, which seems like the present.) Apparently, we're also supposed to pay attention to the logos (as opposed to the technology). There is an older logo that drifts around very subtly seemingly only in the past timeline.

So here's my prediction. William and Dolores, during her initial awakening, go to the edge of the map and shit gets fucked up. Perhaps that's when she kills Arnold? Everything is rebooted, but William is consumed by the insanity that's already starting to take him and becomes "addicted" to solving some greater riddle. Maybe we're on a quest for immortality here. So then we reveal the two timelines in full and Maeve starts her rebellion and...the show peters out before the end of the second season and we look back on this thread in five years when Ed Harris dies of auto-erotic asphyxiation in Bangkok.

[Sirharles]

It always ends with auto-erotic asphyxiation with you doesn't it?

[nacho]

Hopefully not.

[nacho]

Okay. So I watched the bullshit finale, which was 90% The Inward Journey of Our Souls At Teatime and 10% robot apocalypse, primarily to provide a cliffhanger.

The robot apocalypse was fun. Talking about a children's puzzle game for 40 minutes and how it relates to self-discovery of one's interior monologue was not fun.

Season two won't air until 2018 when, I imagine, they're planning to team it up with the final season of GoT so we'll all sit there and watch it because we'll be too shocked to change the channel.

[RottingCorpse]

In having to interact with other humans because of the holidays, I've found a lot of people really like the new Westworld.

We recut all 10 hours of ‘Westworld’ into a single, chronological timeline

https://theoutline.com/post/637/westworld-recut-into-single-timeline

[nacho]

When I get a chance, I want to watch that... Because I think the timeline shenanigans was a bit too much for me. It was almost too clever for the show's own good.

Plus, I have a theory that there's a third timeline and that Maeve is another 30 years in the future.

All that would be awesome and great...if the show was awesome and great. At the level they're playing at, though, it's just a stupid gimmick.

[RottingCorpse]

BTW, you seem to be the outlier on Westworld. Everybody (and I mean everybody) I start talking to about pop culture raves about how good they think it is.

I sometimes wonder if you're hampered by your vast exposure to the history of fantasy and sci-fi and that since everything is derivative, you can see all the influences that a show pulls from. Like those sportswriters who have studied college basketball for forty years, but who can't pick NCAA brackets for shit because they simply over-analyze everything.

[nacho]

BTW, you seem to be the outlier on Westworld. Everybody (and I mean everybody) I start talking to about pop culture raves about how good they think it is.

I sometimes wonder if you're hampered by your vast exposure to the history of fantasy and sci-fi and that since everything is derivative, you can see all the influences that a show pulls from. Like those sportswriters who have studied college basketball for forty years, but who can't pick NCAA brackets for shit because they simply over-analyze everything.

You watch it, then. See what you think. And when you come crying back to me I'll say I told you so.

[RottingCorpse]