HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

Spoiler: Generation Loss

• called it regarding C being Caleb's daughter Frankie and Bernard / Stubbs being not on the same time as Maeve/Caleb.
• Awesome that Maeve is THE Weapon, loved how she took out MIB again
  
• Not surprised Caleb is a host now. Initially expected Maeve to turn him into one because of the injuries he sustained (in s3 finale, but that got nixed last week before creepy flykid scene)
• Also, I think Maya could be Maeve's "daughter" (Flies > Family picknic) whether that's in the sublime who is under attack from Halores or elsewhere

 

I just couldn't resist looking at spoilers this week, and it's kind of disappointing for me that the series went where it has,

Spoiler

because the thing I liked the most about Caleb was the fact that he was human.

Taking that away feels kind of cheap in a way that killing William and replacing him with a Host doesn't, and also has me concerned that we're being set up to learn that what has been said thus far by cast and crew about the character of Christina has been a deception and she is just another version of Dolores after all, and after what happened with Game of Thrones, that's precisely the thing that the show doesn't need (production being caught in a lie, in case there's confusion about what I mean).

Of course, my assessment of all this is based solely on secondhand recaps and the entire situation may in fact work better for me once I see it unfold onscreen, and if that ends up being the case, I'll retract my misgivings. For now, though, I remain concerned that the show is setting itself up for a fall in certain aspects, and I'm sad that I even have to consider that possibility given how much I've enjoyed it to date overall.

 

Rule 1: Producers lie.

 

That was a pretty neat twist, it has finally made the season interesting.

Spoiler

It seems to point to the last scene in S2 as Charlores doing the same to William as we just saw her doing to Caleb.

And it explains how Christine could have the ability to write real humans’ behavior, if she somehow has subconscious access to the bugs. And it’s interesting Ted seems to be the same Ted we know.

We still don’t know if THEY are in the same time and why she looks like Dolores. And how it all ties in to Bernard’s Dr Strange-esque timeline surfing.

It’s also a small victory to Caleb that his daughter is one of the few remaining free humans. And interesting that the maze is being used by humans as a symbol of freedom now. Whether it’s just a symbol or some subconscious override.

 

No.

 

I promise you they do. A lot.

 

When you assume that anything that someone associated with a film or television series says is a lie, you have a problem.

 

It's no use. People have had this same discussion with him over and over again.

 

I would not recommend assuming everything is, I would recommend assuming it might be. Especially in mystery box shows. Damon Lindelof has admitted they lied their asses off in interviews about Lost, but also put in truth as well. They aren't going to give things away in interviews, so sometimes that lie. How many times have we seen producers say, "Nope, that character is now 100% completely dead." Only to have said character show up later in the season. It happens.

I know, I remember going back to the first season and his insistence there weren't multiple timelines. Sometimes I can't help it.

 

So why turn Caleb into a robot? If he has the memories then that must mean the human version is still around, like William.

 

@EnderAKH When the people making a television show resort to lying, they demonstrate their own weaknesses as storytellers.

I would also point out that no-one has thus far asked Jonah, Lisa, Evan, or anyone else about Christina being human; that is a detail that they themselves have been insistent on consistently emphasizing, which is why I made an allusion to what occurred on Game of Thrones with They Who Shall Not Be Named consistently describing one particular character as a hero only to abruptly turn said character into a villain.

 

Double post.

Having gotten to watch Generation Loss for myself, I still don't like that they made Caleb a Host all that much, but it worked better in execution than the recaps I read indicated.

The sequence as shown also explains - or at least sets up - the post-credits scene of Season 2 through Charlotte talking about rebuilding Host!William, which will make future rewatches of the full series from the beginning more interesting.

I'm still concerned about the bad optics of Jonah, Lisa, and Evan possibly ending up being caught in a lie vis a vis Christina being human, but we'll see what happens.

 

So apparently you can spot Christine in the lobby when Caleb runs through it, or someone with the exact same hair style, he runs right past her.

This is why you shouldn't read recaps. They miss context and nuance.

 

Stubbs: “Tweet f*cking tweet”

According to MIB:

Spoiler

Hosts can “use, but not waste" humans.
Probably because if they are dead they can not be rebuilt
While they can me made rather quickly, it takes a lot of time, effort and resources to "regrow" them to be useful

Did I get this right?

Spoiler

flygoo infected/controlled human outliners (aka the ones that realize it's all fake and see the tower) can make hosts question their own reality somehow

MIB teamup happening in 3-2-1 ...

Spoiler

Host MIB will work/rescue "Freezed" MIB (who either still is human or has passed the fidelity test long ago - “jury’s still out on that”)

Who did Jay see when going up the stairs?

Spoiler

He can't be a host as he "shot" host MIB on the roof rescuing the human outliner lady just afterwards

 

Show is becoming Blade Runner.

 

If it wasn't confusing, it wouldn't be Westworld....

Spoiler: Free Humans

Seeing the free humans trying to rescue an outlier made me wonder if they're all outliers. However, Frankie was around before Charlotte took over the world - how did she not get taken over? Who was the first "free human" - I thought Frankie at first, but she was just a kid when it went wrong. Maybe her mom?

I love how things have flipped from season 1: "have you ever questioned your reality?"; Teddy being the one telling Christina/Delores the truth; etc.

Besides Bernard, Stubbs, and possibly the Host MIB, I also wonder if there are other hosts who think things aren't right.

Charlotte's complaints to Host MIB were wonderfully theological.

 

So who brought back Donut Lord? Did Delores do so without knowing it?

 

Spoiler: Free humans

The first outlier was Caleb, that's why Halores was so shocked at his ability to resist her. Seems to be somewhat genetic.

Spoiler: Season 4 E 5

Who does everyone think RoboMIB's Human predecessor was? I don't think it's OG William.

 

* Sigh *

Everything that I was afraid of vis a vis Christina after reading recaps of last week's episode turned out to be true as of this week's episode, and so I'm left feeling disappointed and frustrated.

There was no reason to feed us lines about Christina being human, and no reason to drag out revealing the 'truth' about her character through half the season.

The fact that the Outlier who was mentioned last week turned out to be some rando also left me disappointed.

The show is going to have to do some heavy damage control in the next few episodes and narratively justify Evan and the Nolans lying about the nature of Christina's character, or else Season 4 won't feel satisfying for me.

On the positive side, I did find Host!William's crisis of existentialism and his interaction with the human version of himself to be enjoyable, and Charlores Hale going stir-crazy with boredom and as a result of the slow but steady breaking down of her 'perfect world' adds some intriguing layers to her character.

 

They didn't lie, they were just telling the truth from a certain point of view.