Mystified by Westworld? You’re not alone. We still don’t have many answers, but HBO’s sci-fi brain teaser will surely offer a few from week to week. So we’re following up each episode with a list of the myriad questions we’re pondering.
In “Tromp L’Oeil,” Theresa’s unfortunate enough to discover just what that title really means, William is more deeply seduced by the park’s pluralities, and Maeve gets ready to make a run for it, among other developments. Now if only we knew for sure whether Lawrence will evade Ghost Nation without yet again encountering the Man in Black. If you want to make a Westworld prediction of your own, give it a shot in the comments.
Everyone doing okay?
Just thought I’d check in, given the way things went down in that final scene. Once Theresa stumbled upon those basement blueprints, there was little doubt she’d come across renderings of Bernard. But that doesn’t make her swift and violent death any less shocking. Alas, a human casualty in the park was a matter of when, not if, and Ms. Cullen’s brutal end resolves any lingering uncertainty about the depths of Dr. Ford’s madness. Still, we essentially lost two protagonists in the span of two minutes.
What did Charlie want to tell Bernard in his dream?
Whatever it was, we have to assume Bernard gets closer and closer to capturing it before he jolts awake. Perhaps that’s why he’s been conducting his secret one-on-ones with Dolores — as he approaches his own evolution through repetition, he’s accelerating Dolores’s self-awareness as a window into the benefits and costs of human consciousness. Unless Dr. Ford’s been orchestrating that too.
Is Charlotte actually Dr. Ford’s mole inside Delos?
It’s not out of the question, and not merely because of their parallel prose about blood sacrifice. The notion of Ms. Hale being in cahoots with Ford (and knowing full well Theresa wasn’t long for Westworld) might also explain her — shall we say — casual conduct when Theresa arrived at her suite. As for insisting Theresa steal away Ford’s data, that little speech may well have been delivered under Ford’s instruction as part of the trap that led to her untimely end. Maybe Ms. Hale is a host herself. Or she could be human and better off getting out of Ford’s way. Either way, who’s she going to bum a smoke off now?
Why do the techs wear their robot suits in Sweetwater?
Especially if they’re loathe to be conspicuous in broad daylight. Is something lulling or intoxicating pumped into the air guests breathe? Perhaps only management with certain levels of clearance (e.g. Elsie, Ford, etc., but not the park’s blue-collar workforce) are immunized and can roam unencumbered. Hopefully those suits are climate-controlled, because it can get steamy down in Sweetwater.
Where do we stand on the William = Man in Black theory?
There’s plenty of fodder, now that William’s fully enraptured with the park and its potential for leading him to personal epiphany. At this stage, it’s safer to bet that his and Man in Black’s story lines are allegorical mirror images of one another and that something truly profound will happen if they meet. And should that happen, it’d be just as intriguing to see whether Dolores directs William away from his darkness or suffers most after he succumbs.
What will William and Dolores find across the river?
Anytime Lawrence warns that nothing comes back from a set of territories, let alone ones that are unclaimed, it never bodes well. However, it does guarantee that folks like William and Dolores will be drawn to it. And it’s not as if Dolores can say no to discovering what lies yonder where the mountains meet the sea. If Teddy’s memory is any good, he may get pulled in that direction as well. Will the Man in Black join him? That’s some season-finale stuff right there.
Is Dolores desensitized to morning breath?
She doesn’t seem like the kind of gal who would appreciate a make-out session before a guy’s paused to brush his teeth, but hell, I suppose that’s young human-host love for ya.
When did William get so good at riding a horse?
The horses are probably programmed for easy taming, right? Otherwise, it would be awfully incongruous that William the child pauper took equestrian lessons during breaks from his book collection.
Maeve wouldn’t really kill Felix, would she?
Sylvester, sure. That guy sucks. (Although the actor who plays him, Ptolemy Slocum, seems so harmless in those Domino’s ads.) It’s fun to fantasize about Maeve running away with Felix on the outside world, like an inversion of William and Dolores inside the park. Felix and Maeve could simply ditch Sylvester the way William left Logan behind, and then they can live happily ever after with the highest levels of automated and authentic loyalty. Meanwhile, whatever happens, Dustin will probably be fine. What a world.
Unless Dustin is the one who kidnapped Elsie?
No one likes being outed as a necro-perv, after all.
How well does William’s fiancée know her Shakespeare?
Let’s hope she covered the basics, because it appears poor Juliet might be asking where art her Romeo well past the date they planned to marry. That is, if we believe William isn’t actually the Man in Black, living his public life with Juliet while returning to Westworld to take out his frustration at playing cat-and-mouse with Dr. Ford’s meaning of life on his former love, Dolores.
Is that really the end of Clementine?
It can’t be, right? Maeve isn’t going to just leave her behind. Especially now that she knows how talented Felix is at reanimating things.
