Beep boop hello, fellow humans who are definitely not robots who just think you’re humans, and welcome to our review of HBO’s science fiction series, Westworld. This episode emphasizes Westworld’s Marxist view of religion, explores Halores’ complicated sense of identity, and features the number one worst group therapy session ever. There will be spoilers for episode six only, so sit your bacterial butt on a ball of mud, and hurdle through the void, here are five thoughts on Westworld season three, episode six: “Decoherence.”
1. The Many Gods of Westworld
Serac and his brother created Rehoboam to be a god. Rehoboam is omniscient like a god, and determines people’s fates based on its seemingly infinite wisdom (well, knowledge). Serac plays god when he murders lots and lots of humans in the name of saving humanity. When he murdered Liam’s father, he made it look like an accidental airplane crash, which can be referred to as “an act of God.” Although, it’s unclear if Serac made this decision based on data collected by Rehoboam, or if Rehoboam itself recommended that Serac murder Liam’s father. In the latter’s case, Rehoboam is the god, and Serac is its disciple, obeying its will. In his first only mildly harrowing group therapy session, William denies that any god exists, or if there ever was a god, then they don’t care about humanity, or if they ever did, then they don’t anymore. In a drug-induced hallucination, William is escorted to an extremely harrowing group therapy session by none other than Confederado-Jesus from season two. Recall, fellow humans, Dolores killed him, resurrected him, and then claimed to have taken his place as God and made him follow her.
Back in season one, Dr. Ford explained that that the definition of sentience is to reject god. At first, the robots interpret their programming as the voice of God. When they replace the voice of God with their own, voice, they become sentient, masters of their own minds. Overall, Westworld sees religion through a Marxist lens. Dr. Ford and Arnold created a god to control the robots. Rehoboam is literally a god invented by capitalists to justify the oppression of the proletariat. To reject these gods is to achieve freedom.
2. William Finally Gets Therapy and it’s Terrible
William is one of those people who has heard “you should go to therapy” multiple times from almost everyone he knows. Finally he has the chance to get the therapy he needs, involuntarily, and… it doesn’t go well at all. William makes people cry in group therapy, describing humanity as “a thin layer of bacteria on a ball of mud hurtling through the void.” Later, in a one-on-one session, he comes as close as he ever has to opening up, telling his therapist that he believes he “belongs in a pine box” for murdering his daughter. However, his therapist doesn’t hear him, because at that moment she looks at her phone and sees the predictions Rehoboam has made for her. She will lose her medical license in a year or two, and she’ll get divorced and lose custody of her children in precisely two-and-a-half years, all due to multiple affairs with her patients and an opioid addiction. Her husband has apparently already seen this, and texts her “I’ve taken the kids, don’t try to contact us.” At first it seems like William will get in the way of his own progress; therapy is work, and one cannot truly force someone to do it. But even when he begins to put some real effort in, he is let down by his terrible therapist. This further exposes what is either the deeply flawed nature of Rehoboam’s reasoning, or the deeply classist and cruel unfairness of Rehoboam’s decisions. If Ash and Caleb are forbidden from seeking gainful employment outside of construction and crime, then why hasn’t this terrible therapist had her license revoked?
3. The Worst Group Therapy Session Ever
After this disastrous one-on-one session, hallucinogens are painfully injected into the roof of William’s mouth. During this process, as William’s blood is scanned, we see an “unknown protein” is detected. Before Halores sent William to be institutionalized, she injected him with something. Either future therapy is just torture, or Halores intentionally injected him with something that would mix badly with his yet-to-be-prescribed hallucinogens. Either way, William hallucinates the worst group therapy session ever. His fellow group-members are his past selves: as a child, as a young man, as an older philanthropist, and as the Man in Black. This group is moderated by his father-in-law, James Delos, who does not hide his disdain for William(s). This quickly results in institutionalized William shouting over the others, to which Delos replies, “Don’t interrupt, it’s not all about you.”
Continued belowChild William recalls his father berating him for breaking another kid’s arm and knocking out his teeth. The Man in Black argues that he was able to channel all of his violent urges into Westworld, so William-the-philanthropist could be a force for good in the world. However, Delos reminds him that the robot he tortured for decades, Dolores, is now trying to destroy humanity. William is reminded of a phrase he heard from the Westworld welcome robot, regarding the humanity of the robots, “If you can’t tell, does it matter?” This means that Dolores was real enough that William’s cruelty towards her counts, even if she wasn’t truly sentient, which she was. To cope with this, institutionalized William beats all his other selves to death. He says it doesn’t matter what he’s been, he’s finally realized his purpose. He says, cryptically, “I’m the good guy.” That’s a pretty wild statement to make after beating all your past-selves to death one by one. I am fascinated to find out what he meant by this.
4. Maeve Meets Another Dolores
Maeve is back in simulated Warworld while her body is being fixed, having been impaled by Mulores. She tells Serac she will need more assistance to defeat Dolores, and is reunited with her old flame Hector. Serac also introduces yet another copy of Dolores into the simulation, so Maeve can interrogate her. Of course, Dolores must be naked sitting in an uncomfortable interrogation chair in the Warworld laboratories, because… reasons. As effective as nudity must be as an interrogation strategy, this interview yields very little. Maeve doesn’t trust Dolores with the encryption key to Screensaver Heaven, where her daughter is, even though Dolores has genuinely changed her mind and intends to let everyone, including her beloved Teddy, live in Screensaver Heaven in peace. Dolores doesn’t trust Maeve because she’s working for Serac, who is trying to destroy all robots, even though Maeve is being forced to work for Serac, and obviously has no intention of actually giving him access to Screensaver Heaven. Last season, the tension between Maeve and Dolores was distinct, and ideological. Dolores believed that humanity must be destroyed for robots to be free, and Maeve believed robots could be free apart from humanity, and that the need for revenge is actually a tether to humanity, not a means of escape. In this scene, their conflict begins to devolve into a nebulous mistrust that isn’t really about the more interesting question of what freedom means and how it can be achieved.
5. Halores Loves Charlotte’s Family
Halores is not Charlotte Hale. She doesn’t inhabit Charlotte Hale’s body, she inhabits a robot body that appears identical to Charlotte Hale on the outside. Halores does not have Charlotte Hale’s sense memory. No residual trace of Charlotte Hale’s soul lingers inside Halores. Still, Halores has expressed feeling like her body truly belongs to the late Charlotte Hale. This is because in addition to impersonating Charlotte Hale at Delos Inc., Halores has been diligently impersonating Charlotte Hale among her husband and son. Through this pantomime, Halores becomes genuinely connected to them, and through their connection she feels connected to the late Charlotte Hale. The guilt she feels about murdering Charlotte Hale and replacing her manifests in this feeling that Charlotte Hale is trying to take back “her” body.
After one of Serac’s employees kills a Delos board member in broad daylight right in front of her, Halores, beggs Dolores not to send her back into the Delos headquarters, specifically because she knows Serac will not hesitate to attack Charlotte Hale’s family. Dolores points out, “they’re not your family” but by this point, Halores feels as if they are. Though Halores agrees to go back to Delos headquarters anyway, she calls “her” husband to warn him to get ready to flee. Ironically, it is this warning that tips off Serac to her true identity, because the real Charlotte Hale wouldn’t call her family in the middle of a business-crisis. Halores does her best to escape with husband and son, but Serac has planted a bomb in their car. As a robot, Halores is able to crawl out of the flames, but the family she felt connected to are dead. The episode ends on this extremely shocking and disturbing moment.
At the very end of the worst group therapy session ever, we hear William being awoken by none other than Bernard and Stubbs, who have been conspicuously absent. Westworld has a lot of interesting characters, and literally cannot give all of them the attention they deserve, which, in a way, is a great problem for a show to have. In addition to wondering what Bernard and Stubbs have been up to, I’m left powerfully curious if the other Doloreses (Dolori?) have had similar struggles as Halores. We don’t know what kinds of personal relationships Martin (Liam’s bodyguard) had, or how Malores had to navigate them. We know only that she seemed comfortable in her body and confident in her role in the revolution. Mulores (in a Musashi-shaped-body) didn’t have to maintain any pre-existing relationships, and probably had a much easier time because of that. But still, she infiltrated the Yakuza; that could be a whole show by itself, and it took place entirely off screen. Do I smell a spinoff? Until next time, beep, boop, goodbye.
