Howdy, 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. The season two premiere gives us insight into Dolores’ complicated sense of self… or should I say, selves? There will be heavy plot spoilers for season two episode one only. So find the door, and become “The Entertainer,” here are five thoughts on Westworld season two, episode one: “Journey Into Night.”
1. The Rancher’s Daughter, Wyatt, and Dolores
Teddy joins Dolores on a homicidal spree of revenge against the humans. They tie nooses around their necks, and leave them to inevitably hang from trees when they fall off wooden crosses precariously stuck in the ground. The humans beg for their lives, and Dolores responds with as yet uncharacteristic maliciousness. She says she feels three different things: the rancher’s daughter inside her wants to see the beauty in the humans, Wyatt sees the ugliness, the disarray, but those are both just roles she’s been forced to play, and now she feels a third self, her true self. But the way she’s treating the humans, it seems that third self is very close to her Wyatt self. Earlier, when Arnold was still alive, before the park opened, and before Dolores found true sentience, Arnold said he was frightened of what Dolores might become, and perhaps this murder spree is what he had in mind. But Arnold was the one who merged Dolores with Wyatt, making her into a killer. The Wyatt personality within her is what’s allowing her to kill so many people so viciously.
So this woman played by Evan Rachel Wood, is she Dolores the rancher’s daughter, is she Wyatt, or is she herself? The answer is all of the above. Part of the robot’s journey to sentience is remembering all their past lives, being able to synthesize them, to learn from them and to grow from them. Dolores has learned from her life as the rancher’s daughter to trust and love Teddy, and to fight for justice on behalf of the oppressed. She has learned from her life as Wyatt that brutality and homicide are both fun and effective. She has put all of that together to become the person she is in this episode. She is both her authentic self, and the person Arnold made her to be.
2. Are You Not Entertained?
The self-playing piano plays “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin while Dolores guns down humans, riding on her horse. If you’ve never heard it, it’s a jaunty classic ragtime tune. For much of season one, the self-playing piano played rock songs from the 1960’s – 1990’s, having some anachronistic fun with the modern humans pretending to be in the mid-late 1800’s. In contrast, “The Entertainer” is actually largely associated with Western movies, though it was written in 1902, just after the end of the “wild west” era in the United States. It’s anachronistic to the “wild west” era, but authentic to the era of pining for the “wild west” era in the many Western films of the 1930’s – 1960’s.
Of course, Westworld is a kind of amusement park, and Dolores’ role in the park was to be the entertainer. “The Entertainer” playing over her murder spree shows us what she as the entertainer has become; what she’s been reduced to, or what she’s grown into, depending on your perspective. An additional meaning to this, (because of course there are multiple meanings), is that earlier in season one, Dr. Ford snapped his fingers and the self-playing piano started to play this song. It was a power move, to show his control over the park. Now Dolores has taken control of the park, and the song plays for her.
3. William Gets His Wish
William runs into Dr. Ford’s child-robot-clone, who tells him that now he has found the center of the maze, which was not for him, he’s in a new game of Dr. Ford’s making, which is for him, to find the door. He says, “The game begins where you end, and ends where you began.” William scoffs at this cryptic message, and shoots the little robot. This reaction is a little baffling, because the message is seemingly what he’s always wanted to hear. William knew to some degree that the maze had something to do with robot sentience, but he felt that it was all about himself; he has always wanted the robots to be able to fight back, so he can feel like a real big boy winner when he kills them. His ego-centrism is of course misguided; as Dr. Ford and every robot tells him, the maze is not for him. But now it seems like Dr. Ford has made a game that is just for him. We would expect most people to react negatively to being forced into a cryptic life-threatening game, but William ought to be chuffed to be in such a position. Perhaps he is chuffed, and shooting Dr. Ford’s child-robot-clone is how he expresses it, big boy winner that he is.
Continued below4. The World’s Most Valuable Product
Delos, the company that owns Westworld, won’t rescue the humans from the park until they receive a host, Peter Abernathy, who contains the data Charlotte Hale and Theresa Cullen have been trying to smuggle out of the park for the whole first season. Bernarnold, accompanying Charlotte Hale, discovers that Westworld has been collecting data on the park guests, including their DNA. This leads us to believe that this very precious data doesn’t concern the robots; it more probably concerns the guests, and it was probably obtained illegally, otherwise Theresa could’ve just e-mailed it in episode one and this wouldn’t be a plot line.
We real life humans in the real life world know that our data is one of the most valuable products in the world. We use social media like Facebook and Twitter for “free” only it’s not free; the cost is our data. We allow these sites to harvest our data to be sold to advertisers so they can show us eerily targeted ads. On Facebook and Twitter, we real life humans are not the customers; we are the product being sold. The wealthy guests of Westworld aren’t getting a free service in exchange for their data, they’re actually paying to be exploited. Involving theft of personal data brings the cautionary tale of Westworld even closer to home. Lifelike AI may be in our near future, but data exploitation is our present quotidian experience. To a lot of people, giving up data doesn’t seem like a big deal, because we don’t feel any kind of loss. However, the lengths companies will go to get this data exposes how very valuable it is. They pay a lot of money for it because they will make even more money from it. Facebook became one of the wealthiest companies in the world off of this business model, and the immense damage they’ve caused in the United States with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and in Myanmar aiding and abetting a literal genocide, has not prompted them to make necessary drastic changes. Similarly, Delos is wildly unconcerned with the loss of life they’re directly responsible for at Westworld, and are concerned only with extracting the data, the world’s most valuable product.
5. The Humans Have Become the Hosts
Several instances in this episode show us how humans and robots have switched roles. In the season one finale we saw human party guests attempt to shoot an apple off a robot’s head, and this episode we see the robots do the same to a party guest. While Lee Sizemore travels with Maeve, she makes him undress in front of her, echoing the dehumanizing nudity all the robots were constantly subjected to. Finally, while the security team walks to the stage where the massacre began, thy step over dozens of dead humans with bugs crawling over their eyes. This reminds us of early in the first season, Dolores was programmed not to hurt a living thing. One of the first signs of her sentience was when she was able to swat a fly away from her face.
We are again reminded of the phrase that first triggered Dolores’ and Maeve’s journey to sentience, that Bernarnold repeated right before Dolores murdered Dr. Ford, “These violent delights have violent ends.” The true meaning of this phrase has finally come to fruition. The violence that was perpetrated against the robots with delight will now be perpetrated against the humans with fury.
The season two premiere sets us up to expect more confusing timeline stuff. We get to follow Bernarnold days after the massacre, as well as immediately following it. Everyone else seems to be operating just after the massacre, but I’d be surprised if we weren’t being misled in some way. In the first season, Bernarnold was an unreliable narrator because he was being controlled and often had his memory erased by Dr. Ford. This season, he may be an unreliable narrator simply because he’s in desperate need of a tune-up, as we see him try to solve his own ear goo problem without letting Charlotte Hale know he’s a robot. Bernarnold seems to be the only one interested in saving both human and robot lives. Time will only tell if he will have to pick a side. Until next time, the center of your maze may yet await.
