He did not actually program Dolores to shoot him. He saw something in her code showing she was predisposed to do so and he triggered her to act.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Agree, really good episode. Best of the season, maybe the series.

The episode, for the most part, was compartmentalized (similar to the Samurai episode) and worked really well.

We weren't exposed to the schizophrenic jumping from scenes, timelines, perspectives with zero transitions, that have been the hallmark of the episodes this season (unfortunately).

Interesting to learn who and what the Ghost Nation is.

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That was a good thing.

Really enjoying the story they are telling this season. First season was driven by sex and violence, whcih can be fun but doesn't make a story.

Here's hoping they have the story mapped out to its conclusion better than the writers of Lost.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

That was a painful episode. To further bastardize that quote, there are no more heroes left to cheer for

Yup, tough one. It's interesting that you have two protagonists who have killed, or caused to be killed, the thing they love, and two that are fighting to protect the ones they care about. Dolores and the MiB really do deserve each other.

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Live long and surf!

I think you can still cheer for Bernard and the Ghost Nation. And probably the woman he left in the woods. Other than that you are out of good guys.

This is one of those series that I would probably enjoy more if I waited until the end and just watched straight through instead of having to wait a year+ for the next season.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Wait a minute. The brain scanner are in the hats. But, not everyone wears a hat, especially the womens. In other parks, hats are even less commonplace. So, how does that work?

I'm still not sure I see the end game here. We all thought it was eternal life. If that is the case, why are they scanning the hosts without their knowledge? Is the plan to have the data ready to go, then sell the guests on the eternal life angle? What about someone who wants eternal life, but is not aware of the scanning, so he/she does not make enough trips to the park to get enough data? How many trips are necessary?

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Yeah, I don't know where they are going with that. I hope that isn't the start of some lazy writing. They looked like they were starting to answer one question last night, how Emily could have found her dad twice now in a huge park, but they kinda punted on that answer.

I was really hoping Teddy was going to kill Dolores. That would have been shocking. I hope his death wasn't in vain, I hope it wakes her up to what she has become.

And of course Reddit has a great screen shot of William's personality profile. I presume Subject Number 001 was Delos. And they spelled "psychological" wrong.

I watch on my iPad. I had to freeze that image and go over it with a fine tooth comb.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

I'm not loving this season, I think it's actually pretty bad. I enjoyed season one, but, considering they had 18 months, the writing is not great. And how hokey are Delores's monologues? Her character became less interesting once she decided to lead the host crusade for freedom.

I agree Dolores has actually faded into the background in terms of most compelling characters. But, I am really enjoying this season. I just feel a little like they are filling holes with goofy facts. For example - the brain scanners are in the hats. That's pretty stupid b/c not everyone wears a hat.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Agree. I almost want to fast forward at times during some of her monologues.

As someone mentioned above I wish I had not started watching this and just binge watched it in the last season.

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"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "

So, did everyone catch the after credits scene? Wow.

So is Stubbs a host or just someone more deeply involved with Ford's plan than he has let on?

I think the EW recap author had one line that more accurately describes Westworld than any I have seen: "Westworld is weird because it keeps telling us how horrible and simple-minded we are as a species yet also expects us to follow the most complex narrative to ever air on TV."

We still don't have confirmation that MiB is a host and not just batshit crazy. He was digging around in his arm but didn't pull out the port.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

From what I have read, that post-credit scene happens several (many) years from the end of that episode.

he was (to me) clearly a human, who had lost the ability to distinguish between realities. but in the post-credits clip, that's an interesting question: whether he's a host or a human. one thing i didn't think to look for is if he has both hands in that clip. if so, he's a host (unless he got himself a cyborgy arm). his daughter in that clip is clearly a host. we don't get to know all this until next season (if then).

one interesting and timely (to me) element of this series are the questions of: what is life? what is sentient life? what is sentient life with inherent rights? and the hubris of homo sapiens.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

In the 12 - 18 months before the next season they should run through all of the episodes with commentary on just WTF is going on and when.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

In one article, one of the creators says the MiB scene happened FAR, FAR in the future. It also says the MiB is not a host, in the sense that he is not a robot. However, she teased this may be a new form of consciousness referred to as "fidelity" when the consciousness of the person lives beyond the body.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

it should also be noted that MIB was recovered (alive I think) and was on the beach.

In the post credit scene that Emily is a host (MIB did actually kill his own daughter thinking she was a host).

I think this is purgatory for MIB in a virtual world reliving everything at least over 1000 times. as I remember it Delores did not kill him when she had the chance but in effect made an indirect reference to this living hell

They used a haunting and spare song by Radiohead in the finale.


See what they did there? Radiohead?

Nudge, wink.

Pretty good season finale.

Comments in no particular order:

• Re the bonus scene with the MIB. If you watch the other bonus clip with directors comments, they make the comment that that scene takes place in the far future and was supposed to reflect there was desolation everywhere, surrounding the place. My take may be that perhaps the Hosts have let loose havoc on earth. It may be that they are trying to resurrect MIB to help battle the out of control Hosts. They also made the comment that he was re-living the whole timeline of him killing his daughter over and over again, testing for fidelity. Makes me wonder if what we saw of MIB this season, if it was even real, or were we reliving his memories from the past.
• We don't know if MIB was a host or human in what we saw this season, when he was digging into his arm, it was never resolved if he found anything
• We also don't know if Emily (his daughter) that he killed, whether she was a host or the real human. He started to dig into her arm, but then stopped when he found his memory card and was interrupted by Delores.
• So now we have three types of lives that we'll be following: Hosts on terra firma, Hosts in the virtual world, and Humans.
• Seems like there was a logic gap on the whole linking of Emily, to her mother, to the missing music box, and the memory card. Emily recounted the story of the music box being removed from the trash can and gone, however in a later scene, we see that the mom was the one that got the music box out of the trash, but apparently Emily did not know this. However, the mom placed the MIB memory card inside of the music box, and this apparently found its way to "Emily" that MIB killed. Unless it was an incomplete story, Emily could not have the card and at the same time believe that her music box disappeared. This makes me think she was a host, or something else goofy going on.
• Hale has to be one of the most annoying actress/characters ever in a series. Every line that came out of her mouth and the way it was delivered, was cringe worthy. But looks like they're doubling down and bringing her back next season.
• Another loose string. In the opening episode this season, we see Teddy I thought floating in the lake. However we saw at the end, that he offed himself in a house way far away. So what's up with that.
• Where are the Virtual Reality Host world being kept? It has to be kept on servers and powered up. Never understood this, where did they port and uploaded to? Are we to assume they are now living in a distributed network of computers all over the world (encrypted) or are they being housed somewhere specific with an endless source of power.
• I think the plot line lost itself with respect to the humans. Never really closed out on what Arnolds/MIB/Ford/Delos ultimate motives/goals were. At least to me. I have no idea what MIB was ultimately trying to do and after.
• I believe ultimately, the higher questions that the series wants to stir up discussion on is what constitutes a life. Human vs biological Host vs virtual reality Host....

I think i need to go read some recaps to see if any of what i wrote above holds water....


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"We don't know if MIB was a host or human in what we saw this season, when he was digging into his arm, it was never resolved if he found anything."


I think this interview with Jonathan Nolan says that MIB was human in all we saw, except the post-credits sequence:



Your Marvel-like post credits sequence with William and his daughter that brought us back to the horrifying James Delos fidelity apartment. My read was that Dolores printed out a version of the Man in Black and his daughter using the park’s secret guest data to leave them entombed in The Forge to do the fidelity test for all eternity and that scene takes place many years later. But that it doesn’t mean the Man in Black was a host previously or that he’s not still alive in the real world like we saw with him in the tent. Is that more or less how we should be interpreting this?
I’d agree with a lot of that. They do explicitly say they’re not in the system. And we do see the ruins of it. So that does suggest in that scene we are further in the future. We’d always said with this story we wanted to consider the beginning, middle and the end the of the emergence of a new form of life on Earth and we managed to cover a lot of those bases in this season.
Based on that final scene, should we assume there will be a time jump for season 3?
Not necessarily. We just love the ability to play in perceptual terms with the hosts being immortal. There is a subtle shift in this season, when you started seeing more and more backstory of the Man in Black, it should raise suspicions, and it has for a lot of people but, um … returning to the last question, your take it on it, which, as usual, is astute, is we’re watching a series of events play out: We see Emily’s dead body, we see the Man in Black in extremis — but not quite dead yet — but we also understand we’ve explored Delos’ greatest mistake, the one unalterable moment, the cornerstone decision he makes in his life, and we’re seeing that play out with the Man in Black. We’ve seen how it is that, using The Forge, that you’d be drawn back to these key moments and you’d run them again and again…

"We also don't know if Emily (his daughter) that he killed, whether she was a host or the real human. He started to dig into her arm, but then stopped when he found his memory card and was interrupted by Delores."


If you believe that the post-credits showed MIB in eternal purgatory, revisiting the cornerstone decision of his life over and over, then I think you can fairly state that Emily was human, and that the MIB was going crazy at that point.


"So now we have three types of lives that we'll be following: Hosts on terra firma, Hosts in the virtual world, and Humans."


And you can divide category 1 into 2 groups, hosts in the park and hosts out of the park. That ending on the beach seemed to indicate that Maeve will be coming back, after Sylvester and Felix are tasked with salvaging host bodies. Remember, she was not shot in the head.


And, from the same interview above, we may still get to see the other 3 parks, but maybe not see the virtual world anymore:


Is it safe to assume — and perhaps it’s not — that Zahn McClarnon’s character, the Ghost Nation leader Akecheta, and others who went through the portal to the virtual Eden are not going to continue on?
I think that’s on the safer end of things to presume. But there’s a big story we’re telling here so … yeah.
I know you’ve drafted the broad strokes of your multi-year plan, can you say if next season largely take place outside the park?
Yes. We’re very excited about where the third season goes. It’s been a long build-up to get outside the park. And we’re incredibly excited about what that looks like and sounds like and what exactly our hosts discover out there.
I was surprised you didn’t reveal the remaining three park worlds since your characters were leaving anyway. Is that because it wasn’t necessary to the story or because you have future plans to reveal those other parks?
Well, not all of our favorite characters have managed to escape yet, so…

"Hale has to be one of the most annoying actress/characters ever in a series. Every line that came out of her mouth and the way it was delivered, was cringe worthy. But looks like they're doubling down and bringing her back next season."


She was great as Valkyrie in Thor Ragnarok. But she doesn't seem to have much written for her. None of the humans left do.




"Another loose string. In the opening episode this season, we see Teddy I thought floating in the lake. However we saw at the end, that he offed himself in a house way far away. So what's up with that."


I thought that maybe the house he was in was part of the valley that flooded, but just hard to judge distances in the show. How long did Dolores ride before she found MIB, and then how far until The Forge? But I am with you, there is no clear answer.

Well, I think MIB believes he killed his real daughter. But we don't know that is the case and seems to me this was left open for a reason. Maybe i'm just reading too much into it though.

Ah, I didn't remember she played Valkyrie in Thor. Yes she was good in that. Maybe she plays a better physical ruffian bad-ass than she does as a corporate bad-ass. Whatever the reason, i didn't buy her character at all in WW.

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I just want to know if the ending means that we're going to see Dolores and Charlotte in some hot girl-on-girl action while Bernard just stands there, looking confused.

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Live long and surf!