In Westworld Season 2 Episode 4, Bernard is dragged on his arse by Clementine, who grabbed
him last episode.
She drags him to a cave that’s “miles” from anywhere , which means A) Bernard’s
butt must hurt, and B)
there’s a secret here.
Inside, Bernard finds Elsie – last season, Ford programmed Bernard to capture her, cause
she almost found out Ford’s plans.
Apparently, Elsie’s survived on protein bars ever since . Bernard frees Elsie, and
she finds out Bernard is host.
She takes the news pretty well that that her boss was a robot along.
Her curiosity as a programmer is greater than her fear – so she helps with Bernard’s
brain damage.
They find a secret Delos lab, like the lab in Episode 1 where drone hosts record guest
data . But this lab is something more – it has James Delos.
About thirty years ago, James died of a disease . But his company, led by William, copied
his mind into a robot body – a hybrid of human and host . The goal was to make James
immortal.
But this human-host is unstable, it breaks down . So the company keeps burning James
and making a new one, achieving a longer life each time.
Over thirty years, he is born then dies one hundred and forty-nine times , having the
same conversation with William over and over.
The imagery of a spinning record and exercise bike and circular room evoke the loop that
James is trapped in.
He finds out that his wife and kids are dead over and over.
He’s burned alive over and over, to the soundtrack of the Rolling Stones’ Play With
Fire.
He had tried to “cheat the devil” and live forever, but he ended up in hell.
By the time of Season 1, William’s wife Juliet has died, and he’s stopped believing
in the immortality project – saying “People aren't meant to live forever” . So he leaves
James to break down, and then the robot revolution happens so there’s no one to terminate James
until Bernard and Elsie find him two weeks later.
By then, James is mad and suffering, which may be the closest he’s been to alive.
Cause one of the big ideas last season is that suffering makes hosts conscious and free
. So maybe in Jim’s pain and death, he felt alive for the first time in decades.
So this is part of the Delos secret project that’s been hinted at all series . They’re
trying to make humans immortal by putting their minds in host bodies.
But how does this connect to the Westworld guest behaviour data recorded in these labs
? And whose brains are these?
To clone James, he has an “observation period” and “baseline interview” – they make
a record of who James is so they can copy him with high “fidelity” . Westworld is
kinda the same thing.
William says the park reveals who guests really are , through their choices and sins – and
Delos has been watching.
With this “baseline” data , maybe Delos can make human-host clones of all Westworld
guests.
And as we see with Jim’s script, these hybrid hosts are predictable.
Maybe Delos could use this technology to control human behaviour . This could be Glory – Dolores’
weapon , William’s mistake , the burning of the species Logan mentions – not human-like
robots, but robot-like humans . We don’t know the details, but Glory must be something
that combines humanity and hosts, immortality and control.
And there’s another mystery here.
We find out that sometime round Season 1, Ford sent Bernard to this lab to kill the
techs and make another hybrid brain of some human.
Whose mind did they build?
One possibility is Ford – maybe they’ll bring him back.
But Ford’s death made a point about the end of the humans and rise of the hosts . Ford
said he’ll live on in his music – he exists in the code of his hosts like Lawrence’s
daughter and young Robert.
So bringing back Ford as a hybrid-host would undermine the climax of last season.
Maybe this host could be a young William to confront old Bill at the end of his quest
– he is told to revisit his past . Or maybe this mind will be Arnold’s – Ford’s
partner who Bernard is based on.
If they wanna get tricky, it could be that the Bernard we saw in the week ahead timeline
in Episode 1 is actually Arnold as a human-host hybrid . Because he’s acting super weird,
and he has flashbacks of Arnold with Dolores.
How could Bernard remember Arnold’s life?
Last season, Westworld showed us Arnold and made us think it was Bernard – maybe they’re
pulling the same trick this season.
So this hybrid mind might be Arnold’s.
But there is one more complication – what’s the data in Peter Abernathy’s head.
Is it a copy of James Delos’ mind?
Or Arnold’s mind?
Charlotte said there’s “Thirty-five years of … data” in there , so maybe it’s
all the guest behaviour and DNA data – that might explain why Delos needs it so bad.
William and Lawrence see Chinese railway worker hosts who kill their overseers and use their
bodies as railroad ties.
Chinese railway workers in the real American west suffered dangerous conditions and discrimination.
So along with colonial India, and Confederate slavery, Westworld explores real historical
injustice to parallel the treatment of hosts.
It also looks at violent revenge, personified by Dolores.
Is it justice to kill your masters, or, as Maeve suggests, does revenge just make you
just as bad as them ? Bill and Lawrence arrive as Las Mudas, the home of Lawrence’s wife
and daughter.
Lawrence says that his family loves him, but really he’s “a son of a bitch”, so it’s
kinder for him to avoid his family . This is similar to William’s situation – he
had a wife and daughter , but he’s a bad dude, and spent time in Westworld instead
of with them . The town is controlled by Craddock.
He holds court in a church and brags about his resurrection earlier – says he’s the
chosen one of death . This annoys William, because he believes death is final, and people
shouldn’t be brought back . And then Craddock starts murdering and tormenting the townspeople
– just like William did when he was here last season.
So Bill is faced with his own past sins, and this time, he feels some sympathy for the
hosts.
Lawrence’s wife reminds him of the death of his own wife, Juliet.
So the Man in Black takes on the role of death, and kills Craddock and his men in the rain.
Showrunner Lisa Joy says this represents washing away Bill’s past – trying to achieve redemption
. Lawrence’s family thank him for the help , but Lawrence’s daughter, speaking as Ford,
says one good deed doesn’t erase William’s crimes . So this season, we’re getting a
more morally ambiguous William.
Last season, he was a villain, but now he’s trying to make things right.
As Lawrence’s daughter says, “If you're looking forward, you're looking in the wrong
direction” – William is facing his past.
We see Grace, the woman from The Raj last episode.
She’s been captured by Ghost Nation, along with some guests from Season 1 – tourists
who get more than they bargained for.
There’s also Stubbs, captured last season.
He says that while Ghost Nation does kill hosts, they don’t kill humans.
Ghost Nation takes their prisoners to Akecheta, who they call “the first of us” . Maybe
Akecheta was first Ghost Nation host created – we do see him as an early host in Episode
2.
Grace escapes, then Akecheta threatens Stubbs, and says “You live only as long as the last
person who remembers you” , which connects to the themes of legacy and immortality with
James.
Then the Ghost Nation hosts disappear – apparently letting Stubbs leave and meet up with Delos
for the week ahead timeline.
Why would Ghost Nation capture humans then let them go?
Are these hosts programmed, or free?
Are they protecting humans, or doing something else?
We still don’t know.
In the end, Grace meets William, and reveals that she is his daughter, Emily – maybe
Grace is a fake name.
We know from last season that Emily and William have a difficult relationship.
She blames Bill for the suicide of her mother Juliet , and Bill says his daughter would
“Probably” like to see him gunned down . So this isn’t the happiest reunion.
But Bill and Emily seem to have the same goal – to reach Glory, symbolised by this hexagonal
pattern that appears in Delos labs.
Now that we know about James’ immortality project, this symbol almost looks like an
infinity sign, or an hourglass tipped on its side.
William and Grace might need to work together to reach the mystery at the centre of this
season.
Thank you for watching.
And thanks to the Patrons, including MELINDA RUBIN, Matthew Athey, isrightkev, Gareth Foot,
and hayburtz.
Cheers.