[S1E10] The Bicameral Mind
Arnold: When I was first working on your mind, there was a pyramid I thought you needed to scale, so I gave you a voice, my voice to guide you along the way. Memory, improvisation, each step in order to reach the next step, but you never got there. I couldn't understand what was holding you back. Then, one day, I realized I'd made a mistake. Consciousness isn't a journey upward, but a journey inward, not a pyramid, but a maze. Every choice will bring you closer to center of send you spiraling to the edges, to madness. Do you understand now, Dolores, what the center represents? Whose voice I've been wanting you to hear?Dolores: I'm sorry. I'm trying, but I don't understand.Arnold: It's alright. So close. We have to tell Robert. We can't open the park. You're alive.
[S1E10] The Bicameral Mind
It's here where we find out exactly why Dolores killed Arnold too. Because he realised he'd created consciousness, he decided it wasn't ethical to let the guests in. The Hosts are sentient beings, and didn't deserve to be repeatedly murdered and raped for the entertainment of a wealthy human elite. Now, the question is: did he really think that having Dolores kill all the Hosts before executing him would actually stop Ford from opening the park? Or - and this is a smarter theory - did he draw on the feelings of loss from the death of his son and have Dolores execute him to emotionally change Ford? In other words: did Arnold bank on the fact his own death would change Ford's mind? And that this change would lead Ford to create an escape plan for the Hosts? After all, he does acknowledge that the dead Hosts could easily be brought back online, but the only thing Ford wouldn't be able to replace was Arnold himself. While Westworld answers many of its own questions, this one is left to interpretation, quite rightly so in my opinion.
Suddenly, Dolores' same hand is seen holding the Man in Black's knife. Dressed in her shirt and pants, she is standing behind him on the porch of the Saloon the middle of Escalante, in the middle of shaving him, though she seems puzzled about how she got there. Telling her to keep going and make it close, he suggests they are 'almost there aren't we?' as she scrapes the knife over his throat. The MiB showing absolutely no fear that she might even cut him never mind kill him. He is talking about the centre of The Maze and how fitting it is that it's her that takes him there. He notes that she always was obsessed with the town. But she maintains she's never been there before. Yes you have, you even brought me once, he tells her, though back then the whole town was covered in sand. Ford must've dug it up again. At the time he thought it was a mistake in her code, he says...his words striking a chord in her, her eyes drifting out to the middle distance. But Arnold didn't make mistakes did he, he continues. After a moment he notices she's stopped again, "He built me a game," Dolores murmurs "He wanted me to play." The Maze, the MiB agrees. "There's a path for everyone," she restates the familiar words, "And my path leads me back to...." she stops seeing the town streets full of people and movement, and at the end of the street, the church as a backdrop behind him, she sees Arnold. "You," she whispers, dropping the knife. Ignoring the MiB she walks off, Gathering up his coat, he picks up the knife and follows her.
Unlike the utter horror in her eyes as she comes back to herself at the feet of the Man in Black, "I can't; I won't". She says again of the memory, turning and crawling backwards along the ground away from him. Moving after her he tells her it's her own fault. He reminds her that she was the one who said that 'this' was the only world that matters, and she was right he maintains. So he took her advice and he bought "this world". Dolores tells him that the world doesn't belong to him, and he laughs, assuring her that it does. That he's the majority shareholder, and business is booming. Grabbing hold of her roughly he tells her it's because it feels more real there than in the real world. Except it isn't, because the hosts can't really fight back and the guests can't really lose. Which makes it all a lie, but that they can make it true. And asks if she doesn't want "one true thing?" Tears rolling down her face, she tells him that she already has that. Someone true, someone who loves her, His path will lead him back to her, and when he finds him he will kill the Man in Black.
Later, in Ford's office, Frank the host plays Chopin on the piano as Ford works. The computer telling him he has a visitor. Charlotte Hale. Telling the A.I. to send her in, Hale arrives on the lift, smiling, Ford stopping Frank. She tells him the board has taken a vote and the result unanimous. "I take it I'm not being promoted," he replies with light sarcasm. Hale telling him that when you've reached the top there's only one way you can go. He is to announce his retirement at the gala after introducing his new narrative. He nods slowly then asks what about the hosts? She informs him that they'll make some changes, simplifications...but they won't mind a bit, she assures him sardonically. "Aren't you concerned I might smash all my toys and go home?" No, she replies, because she knows him, one of the great gifts of the Park and their project. "To know ourselves, and the people around us?" hosts will be simplified, and that she's not worried about him destroying anything before he retires from Westworld. Ford is unruffled by Hale's statements and politely dismisses her, irking her by reminding her that he will see her that evening.
William, the MiB tells her, retraced his steps looking for her, and with Lawrence and his men gone, we see William and Logan at Escalante still under the sand, William's photo of his fiancée, Juliet, slipping from his jacket on his saddle to blow away, we realize, for Peter Abernathy to find later, triggering his existential crisis. The MiB tells her William went out further to the edges, but couldn't find her...instead, he says, as we see William riding down and killing a fleeing host.....among the dead, he found something else. Himself. Amid a fresh pile of bodies, we see William picking up a black hat, and sticking a black feather in the tethered hands of Logan who is now naked and sitting on a horse. "Edge of the Park," William tells him "We made it." Logan stares down at him in loathing, saying "I told you this place would show you who you *really* are." telling William that he pretends to be this weak, moralizing, asshole, but really "You're a f***ing piece of work!" William calmly agrees that the Park is remarkable, and that he's going to recommend that their company substantially increase it's holdings in it because it is the future. Logan forcefully reminds him its not their company it's *his* company,. But William smugly suggests that Logan's father is going to require someone a little more 'stable' than Logan to take over, telling Logan he's reckless, impetuous. Logan starts to laugh, on realizing William means to leave him wandering naked on horseback to find 'the end of the rainbow', saying that William never really gave a shit about Dolores did he? She was just an excuse. This bloodlust and domination was the story he really wanted. William striking the horse on the rump sends it and Logan trotting out into the Wilderness.
Her memories and sense of place restored to her, her eyes wander his face, "You came back," she says tearfully, both for his coming like he did breaking out of their loop, and her last word of him being lost to the brutality of Wyatt's followers. Teddy brushing the tears from her face, reminds her that 'someone' once told him that there is a path for everyone, and his path leads him back to her. He wishes he'd run away with her when she first asked him to. But knowing the truth now, she asks bitterly where would they run to? That there's a world out there, beyond. Some people, she says, see the ugliness in the world, she chooses to see the beauty...but the beauty, she goes on, is a lure. They're trapped she tells him. They've lived all their lives in this garden, reveling in its beauty, not realizing there's an order to it. A purpose. And the purpose is to keep them in. Touching his face she tells him the beautiful trap is inside of them. Because it *is* them.
Ford stands next to the frozen couple, looking down at them for a moment before he thanks the board for coming and celebrating his new narrative "Journey Into Night" At the rear of the audience, Charlotte Hale and Lee Sizemore are watching, Hale considering the Teddy & Dolores moment 'sweet', Sizemore replying it was morbid if you ask him. "I didn't" she snaps, before telling him once this is over he can re-write it whatever way he wants. She then reminds him that she has somewhere he needs to be. "Somewhere important?". Nodding he heads off. While down by the sea, Ford is once again gazing down at Teddy and Dolores, pensive, the spotlight switching off behind them. As the Park staff arrive with stretchers to collect Teddy and Dolores. He tells them to get Teddy cleaned up, and take Dolores to the "old field lab" (the Escalante RDF). The audience begin to trail their way back up from the beach. 041b061a72