Why Debussy’s ‘Reverie’ May Be a Clue on Westworld

Photo: HBO

Last week’s episode of Westworld gave us not one but two Radiohead songs in Maeve scenes (“Fake Plastic Trees” and “Motion Picture Soundtrack”), and this week we got a sense of just how Maeve feels about having a soundtrack to her fake plastic life: She slams down the player piano when she walks in the saloon. “It was sort of like saying, ‘F— you to the loop, to the programming,’” show composer Ramin Djawadi told us. “That’s why we resorted to the Delos theme for that moment, rather than a contemporary song.”

So far, we know that when we hear modern rock songs that we were in a park setting, that the music was either for the hosts and/or guests. But we also learn in the latest episode that the classical music may operate in a similar fashion. Debussy’s “Reverie” — which we heard in a separate episode on piano — seems directly connected to the “reveries” programmed by Ford and experienced by the hosts, since we hear the tune playing on the harp in Bernard’s “memory” of his “son.” If we should hear that song again, that could be our clue that a host is having a reverie. “It seems appropriate, and it also gives the emotion of the dream-state mind,” Djawadi said. “It could be part of the loop, part of the programming, part of the host auto-connecting to their memories. And then you might wonder, ‘Is this part of the dream?’”

Following each week’s episode of Westworld, show composer Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones) will be Vulture’s guide to the music

Why Debussy’s ‘Reverie’ May Be a Westworld Clue