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Ok, this was a bit confusing, especially if we have several timelines happening at once, which seems likely. Still, the show is done incredibly well, both in terms of aesthetics and intriguing story.
So, in the conversation between Dr. Ford and Dolores when he asks her whether she’s been hearing voices again, she states that her contact with Arnold was 34 years and some change ago. I assume that this is at the same time (or around the same time) that MiB started coming to the park. But since we know this is a lie (she tells as much to her invisible interlocutor once Ford leaves), then does this suggest that she’s going off script, but more subtly this time?
It seems like the maze is some kind of bread-crum programming left by, presumably, Arnold, to lead hosts to self-awakening. But then both MiB and Dr. Ford seem to know about it. This is confusing.
Interesting to see the underlying antagonism between Dr. Ford and MiB. If, as the theory goes, Lawrence and William’s adventures are what precipitated the subsequent changes in the park, including military-style oversight of the hosts, then it seems to make sense that something happens to Lawrence (lets face it, he has it coming).
– Logan and William have a conversation in passing about what happened to Arnold (who apparently killed himself!?) and it seems like it didn’t necessarily happen that long ago. It seems like a fairly recent event they’re discussing.
Was the body ever found, or did Arnold just “disappear”?
Curious to see Maeve’s story play out. The way they subtly hinted at how she kept dying on purpose to meet the “shades” is interesting.
[adrotate group="5"]Curious to see Maeve’s story play out. The way they subtly hinted at how she kept dying on purpose to meet the “shades” is interesting.
Not so subtly hinted at in this episode, eh?
1×06 “The Adversary” thoughts!
–What a fantastic episode. I’m not quite sure what to make of the political machinations going on with the Park workers or even speculating why Therese/someone else is broadcasting new commands to the first generation Hosts but there’s enough to dissect with Maeve and the ongoing Ford/Arnold storyline.
–Beginning with Maeve, there were so many enjoyable (if that’s the right word) moments, like watching her wander the hallways behind the scenes, seeing moments of her life suddenly stripped away to their bare components. It’s like…Alice going through the looking glass and instead of finding wonder, finding reality. The park itself is Wonderland, this is the “real” (that word is problematic in this show…) world and it’s not as glamerous. It’s figures being carved by hand and artificial blood being pumped into blanks to give the appearance of life. Is it anyone wonder that Maeve wants to change her own “code base” so that she is more perceptive? Speaking of, it struck me that while talk of “code base” is awfully mechanic, there’s a human factor to it as well. Humans–the born kind–can do this to. We can’t punch a screen and change our personality, but we educate ourselves, we interact with people of different backgrounds and experiences, we (and this sounds really cliche) live in order to change our own base lines. How do I become more perceptive–by opening my eyes and seeing the world. How do I enhance my intelligence–by going to school, reading, and having conversations.
–I also really loved the scene in which Maeve saw her program play out before her eyes and she froze up. I half expected them to CTL/ALT/Delete her to reboot her program. There are moments in which the show goes to some length to remind us that these machines aren’t human, that there’s more separating us from them than processing power. I think it’s why they keep Maeve naked for 99.9% of this episode. Having her stripped down and unconcerned with that for long periods of time reminds us that she’s a machine; it’s why putting her in clothing when she goes on a tour of the plant help sell the horror of her seeing reality. She’s not just a machine at that point, she feels more real. Not a coincidence it’s also when Maeve sees her daughter and her in a sizzle reel for Westworld–speaking of, did anyone else think that sizzle real was false advertising. It was romanticizing what goes on in Westworld. You have the cowboys and the great outdoors and an interesting little town complete with saloons, but it failed to show what “life without limits” really means–like lots of bloodshed and violence and people acting out their basest of desires.
–Moving on to Dr. Ford–well, okay then! Little creepy boy is actually Dr. Ford! Created by Arnold! Looking back, the boy and Dr. Ford are dressed eerily similar so maybe we should have seen it coming. But I think the point of this little exercise was showing the difference, again between Dr Ford and Arnold. It sounded like Ford made some upgrades to his “family”–to make them more like how he remembered them and how they really were (like his dad) whereas Arnold wanted them to be more like they could have been. Pragmatism vs romanticism. But what does this mean for Dr Ford’s plans right now? We got a look at the lay out of his new narrative and it doesn’t look like anything groundbreaking; there’s a church (which we saw a bit of a few episodes ago) but what’s his goal with this new narrative? I can’t help but feel that most of Dr. Ford’s motivations are about an ongoing conversation with a dead man “you think the park should be like this, but I think it should be like THIS and I’ll prove it to you, even if you are dead!” The fact that Arnold built Dr Ford a family (a kinder version at that) speaks to the level of friendship between the two, they weren’t just business partners and I get a sense that these two would always keep the other in mind with whatever they did. Actually, did anyone else watch Fringe? Arnold and Dr Ford remind me quite a bit of Walter Bishop and William Bell. Brilliant scientists, great friends, but with some philosophical differences that don’t necessarily cause a split in affection, but yield great conversations and even greater work.
–Finally we get the Native belief of the Maze and the Adversary who resides in the center. Anyone else reminded of the Minotaur/Theseus? But more than that, while Teddy speaks of the story as a myth, it’s heavily couched in metaphorical language, something that Arnold was trying to instill in his hosts (or maybe it was Dr. Ford…?). The maze is less literal and more an ongoing journey for any living body, trying to find their way to selfhood, pitfalls along the way (including self-death and self-rebirth). And if they do manage to become self-actualized, no one else can disturb them because they’ve constructed a “maze” of identity that no one can bypass. I dunno, the fact that the symbol for the maze is etched everywhere (including in Dr. Ford’s notebook) makes me believe that there’s a literal maze, but the way the maze is talked about makes me believe it can’t possibly be literal!
Other thoughts:
–I don’t particularly care about Lee and his tortured artists shtick.
–So why exactly employees of the park (some of them) broadcasting a “bicameral mind” to the first generations Hosts? And who grabbed Elise?
–“You don’t have a choice. Even if you say no, it’s part of your character.”
–I like that the further you get from the central town, the more hazardous the game gets.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Ok, this is going to be a bit brief, but wow, I loved that episode. Maeve is easily one of my favorite characters on the show right now, and seeing her evolve from utter existential, almost animal terror at the discovery of her own past etchings of the shades to this cunning manipulation of the two technicians in the room is so satisfying.
I am also really intrigued what effects an enhancement of perception combined with a decrease in loyalty and pain will result in. Will she become a sociopath? Will she develop a mission for herself? That scene of her discovering herself and the little girl in the sizzle reel is so fascinating, because I had to remind myself that this memory and experience wasn’t actually any more real than the others. But then, this makes you think — would have her suffering at having motherhood literally programmed into her, an the sheer horror of losing her daughter been any less real? Is that something that can truly be undone? And I kept thinking, I am fetishizing motherhood here? Clearly, her new story about being a brothel keeper has the same ontological status, but the show seems to be subtly choosing to emphasize one experience as more authentic than the other. After all, is it as a brothel keeper that she has her “awakening” happen. And she actually uses her position to enable it, while remaining undetected to the forces that be, it seems. Anyway, food for though.
– I am actually curious about what the hosts are made of. The tech mentions that they’re not physically all that different from humans these days. We get a sense of maybe some kind biological 3d printing — done with the same biological components, but the software is obviously added later. But they are also obviously quite resistant to damage. I though it was interesting to hear Ford comment about how what the hosts gained in verisimilitude they lost in grace from their robotic form.
– The maze DID remind me of the Minotaur, @RG. But it also looks a lot like the show’s logo, and that image of the bioprinted host in a circle, which also recalls the Vitruvian Man. So there is some heavy symbolism there about the ways in which all humanity is, in some senses, manufactured. But I think it is both a physical and a symbolic entity. Is anyone else reminded of a geoglyph?
But then, this makes you think — would have her suffering at having motherhood literally programmed into her, an the sheer horror of losing her daughter been any less real? Is that something that can truly be undone? And I kept thinking, I am fetishizing motherhood here?
These are all really good points–one thing that stands out with Maeve in this episode is that her “motherhood” trait carries over to her work as a madam. She mothers the girls under here, even if it’s in a more “crude” manner. Does that mean that somehow her defining characteristic was one that wasn’t programmed as part of her baseline? Or can you even program motherhood–isn’t it really made up of many other traits like compassion, level-headed, nurturing, ect (and is that ME fetishizing motherhood cause certainly motherhood isn’t all sunshine and roses and there not so pleasant traits to go along with the good…?)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"These are all really good points–one thing that stands out with Maeve in this episode is that her “motherhood” trait carries over to her work as a madam.
Yes. Then one had to wonder if this is a combination of her high empathy and loyalty traits, or whatever these were. And one wonders if they redesign their personalities radically between roles.
What do you think is happening to Teddy? Is he rewriting himself after Ford gave him his “carry on directive”? He’s becoming a lot more ruthless, and I wonder if that’s the result of not having actually been properly “rebooted,” as far as we know, from his pretty horrific experiences.
Also, what did you make of Host!Mini Ford killing the dog? This is clearly foreshadowing something about Arnold’s master plan, but I wonder what…
What do you think is happening to Teddy? Is he rewriting himself after Ford gave him his “carry on directive”? He’s becoming a lot more ruthless, and I wonder if that’s the result of not having actually been properly “rebooted,” as far as we know, from his pretty horrific experiences.
I honestly don’t know what to make of Teddy. Is it that he wasn’t rebooted properly or is that giving him a real backstory and not just a vague one cemented his baseline and this is who he was intended to be all along.
Also, what did you make of Host!Mini Ford killing the dog? This is clearly foreshadowing something about Arnold’s master plan, but I wonder what…
Here’s why this show gives me fits. Based on what Host!Mini!Ford said, it sounds like Arnold was advocating for mass robot genocide in order to free the Hosts. BUT does that make any sense given that Hosts are really robots that can be rebuilt and reprogrammed?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Here’s why this show gives me fits. Based on what Host!Mini!Ford said, it sounds like Arnold was advocating for mass robot genocide in order to free the Hosts. BUT does that make any sense given that Hosts are really robots that can be rebuilt and reprogrammed?
See, I read the the exact opposite way — I thought that maybe Arnold is advocating for mass guest genocide, precisely because the killers are, mostly, the guests, and it’s almost like he’s saying being killers is in their nature (i.e. they cannot be reprogrammed). Like it is in the nature of a predator (dog) to kill. The hosts, we know, can be anything, they are not overdetermined in the same way.
Here’s why this show gives me fits. Based on what Host!Mini!Ford said, it sounds like Arnold was advocating for mass robot genocide in order to free the Hosts. BUT does that make any sense given that Hosts are really robots that can be rebuilt and reprogrammed?
See, I read the the exact opposite way — I thought that maybe Arnold is advocating for mass guest genocide, precisely because the killers are, mostly, the guests, and it’s almost like he’s saying being killers is in their nature (i.e. they cannot be reprogrammed). Like it is in the nature of a predator (dog) to kill. The hosts, we know, can be anything, they are not overdetermined in the same way.
Okay, that makes more sense and fits with the first time we heard Arnold’s voice–when Dolores heard him telling her to kill the guest who was about to assault her.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"*blinks*
Wow.
I have two pages of notes, a lot of jumbled thoughts, and the only thing I can say right now is “Oh. My. God.”
I’ll be back when I’ve sorted through it all but I sorta feel like everything was just upended.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I thought the dog was a host, not a real dog.
When the brothel girl beat up that other host who was assigned to be a human for awhile in the underground complex, i thought, if that can be done, a host thinks another host is a guest, then could the guns be reassigned in a similar way so they can kill the guests and then the host be reassigned to kill the guests just with a flip of a switch. Obviously we have now seen Bernard kill a human, but he is one of the older designed humans, right? So that is different.
I just think we could see some sort of mass murder situation in the future.
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