'Westworld' Recap: A New Theory on The Door
Westworld's penultimate episode delivered so much goodness, I am literally happier than poor Teddy was before his code got altered by Dolores. The episode was a wild ride, but the good news is that it all took place in just two timelines: Two Weeks Ago and The Not Too Distant Past. Let's jump right in!
Two Weeks Ago: Maeve and Ford
Fun Fact: Ford Is a Piece of Code
Last week, Maeve used her mind control to contact Ake and make sure he watched over her daughter. This week, she spent yet another episode lying on a table with pieces of her flesh peeled open, and the Delos team managed to replicate her code anomaly and upload it into Clementine-who's now a killing machine. The better, maybe, news is that we finally know what's going on with Ford: He's a piece of code. Like, a literal piece of code that updated itself into Bernard's brain unit.
Ford also updated himself into Maeve's unit remotely-presumably using Delos Mesh Network-and unlocked her core permissions an attempt to help her fight back. This was slightly confusing to me because I thought everything in Maeve had already been unlocked, but okay, sure.
Two Weeks Ago: Bernard and Elsie
The Never-Ending Saga of Bernard's Scar
As I mentioned last week, something royally f*cked up is happening with Bernard. For most of this season, Two Weeks Ago Bernard was recognizable due to a prominent scar on his temple:
Then, he entered the Cradle with Elsie and the scar suddenly went missing.
I have no way of knowing this for sure, but my theory is that some of what we've been watching-specifically the scarred Bernard scenes-has been a Cradle simulation that Ford used to predict the future. This would mean that Bernard post-Cradle (and post-scar) is the show's actual reality, and one Ford couldn't simulate in the Cradle because Bernard is now sentient. Again, this would also mean most of what we've been watching with Bernard this season was Ford's simulation.
Ford Leaving the Cradle = Him Opening "the Door" (MAYBE!)
Taking this theory one step further, I think we could argue that Ford's time in the Cradle was spent simulating what we, as viewers, have been seeing on screen. It's only now that Ford has exited the Cradle-or perhaps opened "The Door"-that he's stopped the simulation, which means everything we're seeing on the show is no longer being controlled by his puppet strings.
Think about it somewhat metaphorically, and it makes sense. This episode was all about choice. Teddy's choice to kill himself (again, more in a minute!), Bernard's choice to delete Ford from his code, William's choice to put that gun to his head and not pull the trigger. The emphasis on choice, I think, is further proof that much of what we saw on Westworld before this was simply Ford's Cradle simulation playing out in real life.
Bernard Is Officially Free
This week, we saw Bernard and Elsie ditch the Mesa and head to the Valley Beyond, where Ford gave him the "choice" to kill Elsie. Not only did Bernard choose not to, he deleted Ford's code-which means he's operating completely independently from him at last.
Two Weeks Ago: Dolores and Teddy
So poor Teddy is dead-again, he finally made a choice of his very own!-and now Dolores is stuck in the middle of nowhere. So, where does she go from here? My theory is that Dolores will hook up with Bernard, Ake, the Man in Black, Maeve, and Delos, (read: all the major players this season) and that their story lines will finally overlap at the Valley Beyond. It's still unclear why the Valley gets flooded and why Teddy's dead body is floating in the water-but I will note that said floating body does have a bullet wound consistent with what happened this week:
Two Weeks Ago (and The Recent Past!): The Man in Black
Welp, the Man in Black appears to think he's a robot, something we all presumably saw coming. There's not much to break down here, but it appears as though memories of his wife's suicide, the "darkness" inside him (TMIB is so emo!) and accidentally killing his daughter caused our usually cool, calm, and collected friend to spiral.
My thoughts? The Man in Black is not a robot, and is simply a human with no chill and relatively little grip on reality. Then again, I do think there's a fairly good chance that the season's major reveal will be TMIB coming face-to-face with a robot version of himself that Ford secretly created.
As I mentioned during our Season 6 recap, a Redditor pointed out that this theory is supported by the trailer for Futureworld, which ends with the musing "even those of us who create them can’t tell the original from the duplicate" and shows Peter Fonda shooting another Peter Fonda.
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