re: Westworld Episode 4: Dissonance Theory

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Now, on to thoughts on the maze. I'm thinking the maze, at least for Ed Harris, is a way to turn off the safety protocols or to have such a challenging experience that his life is in mortal danger. The maze could go a few ways for the hosts, though (consciousness, freedom, etc.).

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i think they're setting up delores killing him, possibly as the end of season 1 cliffhanger. that would just throw everything off the rails. he's the representative of the board who is doing this near undercover mission to blah blah blah and he's just being a total dick and interacts with the robots on a completely different level than anyone else (other than mcpoyle's friend). plus he raped her and she remembers that and i think that will come back.

so she goes from not killing anything to killing the fly to now being able to use the gun to kill robots. we all know at some point she's going to kill a human and that's one of the few examples of motivation that we actually have so i'm guessing that's going to happen

But are we sure he raped her? Or did he do something else to get info from her? She is the oldest robot so presumably has lots of useful stuff for him

well i mean

what did he say in episode one about "if i wanted it easy" ? maybe he just scalped her like that other guy

but this makes me think of another issue (that they can resolve it's not impossible). it would be impossible for him to do any secret mission in WW. but let's say he's trying...ignoring the fact that everything is monitored, they apparently take the hosts back every day or so to re-set the stories? so that guy he scalped would obviously have to be re-done and they'd take him back, etc.

just eliminates any possibility that MIB is doing something legitimately off the grid, so to speak. i think last episode kind of reinforced that notion, as it seemed he interacted with way too much (think the explosives) for it to be a hidden mission.

but the whole "how much can the ops see/control?" and the whole "how long do these stories last and how often do they reset?" angle creates a lot of confusion. now it may be on purpose (especially if they get into leveling the consciousness angle with the "humans") but at this point it's more just confusing than anything else

agreed. i don't see how he couldn't have raped her after all that

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Now, on to thoughts on the maze. I'm thinking the maze, at least for Ed Harris, is a way to turn off the safety protocols or to have such a challenging experience that his life is in mortal danger. The maze could go a few ways for the hosts, though (consciousness, freedom, etc.).

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I was thinking about this. The maze may not be an actual physical maze either. It could be a progression and combination of decisions, events, etc in the park simulation to reach a certain figure/host/destination that is hidden from the normal daily functions of the park but requires following "the white rabbit" path of clues and performing the correct sequence of actions to reach it. Consider they've already brought up Alice in Wonderland, and Ed Harris seems to be interacting with normal hosts, just using drastically different actions then anyone else has been doing.

I assume that this is more "the maze" and is symbolized by the drawing of the maze we see than an actual physical maze that resides in the park.

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but she's a robot so i find it hard to say he raped a robot, even if he had sex with her. She is supposed to oblige and anything but just be a malfunction on her programming, not rape.

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well i mean we're getting kind of "in the sky" here by discussing consent of robots, but it's obvious that if they had sex, she was obliged to say no, struggle, and be "raped".

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Another interesting note, I'm pretty sure someone stated that the guests are unable to hurt each other in the game, but MIB threatened to slit homeboys throat, and meant it.

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Never said that.

They are humans and are not under control from anyone. They can't shoot other humans because the guns aren't real. That is all that was said.

The knives, however, are very real.

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plus he raped her

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In her flashback in the barn, he pulled a knife like he did with the guy he scalped.

For all we know, he just cut her open to see what was inside.

I think Ed Harris is just bored with the game and trying to put himself in actual danger and wants the new challenge of the maze.

He's some rich and powerful guy and I'm sure him an Hopkins know each other outside of WW somehow.

Hopkins has a god complex.

Bernard is the one trying to make Dolores become self-aware and free. He even tells her to do the maze.

I’m still sticking with Bernard being a robot though. That is the big reveal. And Hopkins is the one telling Bernard what to do so it’s actually Hopkins wanted them to become self-aware.


Regardless, that lunch scene was incredible. Hopkins is perfect for this role. When he speaks on film, you can't help but listen like your life depends on it.

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I’m still sticking with Bernard being a robot though.

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One thing I noticed from last night was Bernard when he spoke to his wife in the previous episode said that the pain from losing his son is the only thing he has left of him.

Last night, Dolores says almost the same thing to Bernard in regards to losing her parents.

I wasn't sure how to take that, but I think it may be Bernard is a human and that Dolores is showing human like tendencies and emotions.

That was just my take though.