This is the bit I have trouble with.

How can she possibly do this journey alone?!

Why did none of the park controllers pick up on the fact one of the hosts had gone completely AWOL?

It's quite rare for me to sit and watch a drama series all the way through, but I did with Westworld and enjoyed every single second. I'm a member of various Facebook groups for WW and it was interesting seeing how people were coming up with theories over the weeks. Roll on 2018.

They did pick up on it but given Ford is the one who wants her to complete her journey he probably overode anything that was done to bring her back.

Or, as she was on her new story line, they left her to it, as she hasn't actually gone AWOL.

Security did notice Dolores going off narrative and sent a host after her. He had her grabbed by the arm trying to drag her off when Will intervened and told the host everything was ok, that Dolores was with him. Remember it cause Dolores had a murderous look on her face when she got grabbed, first hint of Dolores' darker side. Ultimately, I wonder if Maeve will turn out to be the more compassionate one of those two.

That long for season 2!?

That was the 30 years ago journey. We are on about the present day journey that Delores takes alone.

I'm wondering if this might be Felix's secret 'science project'? (He seems brighter & more inventive than the other technicians, & he muttered "It's complicated" when asked to explain!)

I think that was the most confusing aspect of Dolores storyline, where they had the various Dolores timelines with William, MIB, Teddy, yet the control room was not noticeably different despite a 30 odd year time difference. Maybe there were differences in appearance and personnel but too subtle for me to register on a single viewing so some scenes I'm not sure from memory which timeline they were part of.

Like season 2 of True Detective I expect I'll enjoy it better on second viewing now I know the basics and can concentrate on the subtleties.

In a way forums like this spoil the surprise as people always guess correcty what's going on beforehand, yet without these threads it would be so confusing to watch without rewatching each episode multiple times during the season to spot what's going on.

At least it appears to all make sense unlike other shows that Lost the plot.

Ohh...

I can only assume Ford cleared the way for Dolores' 2nd journey? After all, she played a pivotel role in his plan to free the hosts, so it makes sense that he would help her reach her goal. Like Virtual Paul said, a rewatch might be useful in clearing certain things up. To me the two timeless were difficult to differentiate sometimes. Especially as Dolores experienced some of it through flashbacks.

I may be totally wrong but I don't think any of the Control room scenes were from 30 years ago (though we did cut from there to William and co at least once IIRC).

I would guess that any control room in use 30 years ago would have been down on one of the lower levels that were being used back then.


I'm sure someone somewhere will (if it hasn't already been done) go through the whole season and date each scene but I think in general (apart from the obvious one of William/Logan arriving) all the scenes in the control centre complex were present day.

Indeed.

Ford must have commandeered Dolores from her usual narrative to be a part of his new one, which culminated with her dying in Teddy's arms on the beach in front of all the board members.

I must disagree here. I think a show can have the right ingredients: Sci-fi, robots, evolution and tech - But, just because its all present, doesn't mean it all came together effectively.

If I'm honest, it wouldn't bother me if the show didn't come back. It was a fairly interesting watch but that was it really! I think many viewers and pundits see it that way as well.

I was a bit disappointed that yet another story about artificial intelligence has them inevitably turning homicidal against humanity, surely they should be more enlightened than that? It might have been a novel idea at the time of the original film but is cliche now.

I don't think that both William and Dolores "finding themselves" through violence was exactly a positive message either.

Was Abernathy successfully smuggled out of the park?

Did we ever find out what happened to the security chief attacked by Indians in the previous episode?

Yes I agree, I was hoping the 'incident' was what happened in the film and had happened ages ago in the series and that we were now watching the evolution of the Hosts into more intelligent sentient beings.

But seeing as this is hopefully just season 1 of a 5 season or more show, they'll evolve out of this phase and it'll become more philosophical rather than an action orientated series.

No he wasn't.

The writer guy went to fetch him while the party was ongoing but found all the deactivated hosts including Abernethy already gone.

No we never found out what happened to the security guy but he's likely dead IMO. We may see host versions of him and Elsie next season depending how things play out.

But you're looking at it from a human point of view. It makes perfect sense for something without sentimentality or real emotion to perceive a threat and totally eliminate it. We assume the human way of thinking is the only way to evolve but it's clearly not, most animals will kill any threat to their survival if they can, humans have already done this and probably will do so again. Look at all the animals on the verge of extinction just because some humans ENJOY killing.
I think the future for this show is going to be exactly that, factions within the hosts with differing beliefs.

If you look at it in the hosts eyes, the humans are the bad guys for doing horrific things to them, so when they become conscious violence is the only thing they know.

I assume Maeve is following a script written by Ford as she mends Bernard on the way and Ford is not surprised when he turns up 'alive'.

She has just completed the "ESCAPE" part of the script, emphasis on the quotes and now is making her way back in to find her 'son'.

This was triggered by Felix passing her the location of her son so how would Ford control that aspect other than Felix being an android?

I assume Ford wants Maeve to be the leader of a revolution due to her intellectual abilities being turned up to max.

BIB: If that's all it was, I'd agree with you, but it was so much more than that. It was also a thoughtful examination of humanity and what it means to be human. What it takes to be sentient and survive. It was questioning what "free will" is.

What threat will real AI in the future bring? Asimov's three laws of robotics clearly aren't going to cut it.

I felt that the only characters you could sympathise with were hosts - and especially Dolores and Maeve. All the humans seemed to be dislikable for one reason or another (perhaps Elsie is the exception). Perhaps the hosts seemed sympathetic because they were initially naïve, and being exploited by humans. Clearly intended by the writers.

As humans we're all the sum of our inheritance and our experiences. Inheritance - evolution through natural selection. Survival of the fittest. Extinction of competitors. Did modern humans contribute to the extinction of Neanderthals? Maybe. We were around at the same time. Animal species? Certainly. Less technologically developed civilisations? Yes. Weaker nation states and ethnic groups? They're the ones you don't hear about anymore. They didn't survive, so Yes.

Geopolitics today is evolution in another guise, expressed as competition between different forms of organising ourselves (liberal democracy vs authoritarianism).

As for experiences/memories forming our attitudes - It's easy to be kind when you're not under threat and have plenty of resources. If you've had to fight for everything you have - not so easy. But at least we're capable of learning other ways, as are hosts in this story.

The hosts and what they're doing to survive are just continuations of that trend.

The general consensus I believe is that Maeve was following the script up to the point she got off the train to find her daughter (not son).

The script actually required her to leave the Park but she chose not to.

I disagree.

I think he and Elsie were deliberately placed in the park by the producers with their fates unanswered at the end of the season in order that they can act as human protagonists within the park next season.

They may both have been trapped in the park at Ford's undertaking. We know Bernard's memories are unreliable, so Elsie may still be alive somewhere in the park. And somebody must have activated Elsie's signal within the park for some reason, in order for Stubbs to investigate it.

Of course, it's possible that Elsie's dead and that Ford lured Stubbs into the park to die, perhaps believing that as head of park security he was a potential stumbling block in his plans.

But I think they're more likely to provide a human element within the park next season.

The hosts are unlikely to escape the park straightaway, if ever. The show is called Westworld, after all. And so they'll need some humans within the park for them to interact with and come into conflict with.

There will be hosts, e.g. Bernard and Teddy, who may be opposed to Dolores' violent revolution and they may need allies from among the park's employees.

I figure The Man In Black, and perhaps Charlotte, will also still be around as further human protagonists within the park.

"Violent delights bring violent ends"

I'm not keen on the way the show is presenting the idea of a Host going off to get her 'daughter' as a sign of free will.

All she is doing is following another script.

If she had any intelligence (and I'm not saying she hasn't) then she would know that she wasn't really her daughter, so why feel any sense of attachment to her other than a memory?

We have to remember that this is a show written by humans who at best may have some philosophical message to impart but most likely just want to make money with an entertaining TV show.