In Westworld Season 3 Episode 5, Serac tells his story.
He and his brother Jean Mi lost their homes when Paris was destroyed in a thermonuclear
incident . This shot of them walking through yellow fields looks just like Maeve’s memories
– they both remember the tragic loss of an idealised past.
Serac and Jean Mi believed humanity would destroy itself through disaster and conflict.
So they decided to “save the world” , with a godlike computer called Rehoboam . Earlier
versions were called “Saul”, “David”, and “Solomon” , who were a line of kings
in the Bible . Rehoboam needed data, so Serac and Jean Mi
worked with Liam Dempsey Senior – the father of Liam Junior.
Cause Liam’s tech company, Incite, “had the entire world's data” – peoples’
calls, texts, purchases, jobs, relationships, everything . And with this data, Rehoboam
could predict the future , and change the future, by making choices, and tweaking variables,
to cause the outcomes you want . So Serac and Jean Mi “charted a course for the entire
human race” – they reshaped the world to prevent disasters, and bring “order”
, represented by this black circle.
And it worked.
For years, the world was under their control . But Serac says there’s a problem.
The data shows that, in the future, the system will fail , leading to human extinction , or
the end of the world . But you’ve gotta wonder if this disaster might actually be
a self-fulfilling prophecy caused by Serac’s system, like Dolores described earlier .
The system can’t keep control because some people are “outliers” and “agitators”,
who can’t be predicted – Serac says Dolores is one of these people , and so is his brother
Jean Mi . So Serac experimented with editing people, “changing” their personality to
make them easier to control . This facility looks a lot like the Mesa where hosts were
programmed – so the idea is that humans are controlled just like the robots of Westworld.
Serac is saving humanity by reducing humanity into a system following code.
Also, Serac murders Liam Dempsey Senior for opposing him, just as Liam Jr hinted .
It’s not revealed what happened to Jean Mi after Serac edited him.
He just says he “left [his] brother behind” . But throughout the story, Serac refers to
Rehoboam as “you” , as though it’s a person.
Maybe Rehoboam is Jean Mi – like, maybe Serac put his beloved brother’s mind into
the computer he created – like how Ford lived on inside the Cradle . We know that
human-host brains are black spheres speckled with red – which does look a bit like Rehoboam.
Maybe Jean Mi become one with the computer god.
Serac’s backstory is a mix of great ambition and great tragedy.
We see more of how Serac controls the world.
He meets with the President of Brazil, who totally kisses Serac’s arse, saying he’s
honoured, and respects him.
He wants to meet at his “presidential palace” , but Serac has them meet on the runway of
Serac’s plane , which is a huge power move – Serac is so powerful that world leaders
come to him at his convenience.
Serac knows from Rehoboam’s surveillance that this President is corrupt, which could
lead to rebellion by separatists . So Serac threatens to replace the President, or to
ruin Brazil’s economy, unless he gets his shit together .
So Serac uses data technology to influence politics and economics, which is already starting
to happen in the real world.
Algorithms decide what news and shows and YouTube videos we see.
Social media and advertising affect elections and psychology . Location tracking and face
recognition are tools of surveillance . And Incite’s profiles are similar to the Social
Credit System in China – which restricts employment and travel for people deemed ‘untrustworthy’
. Serac takes these real-world technologies to the extreme, using data to keep the world
stable, and peaceful – and devoid of free will.
Throughout the scene, flies buzz around the President.
Flies have always been important in Westworld – in Season 1, Dolores killing a fly showed
she was going off her programming.
So this President’s failure to swat a fly might show his failure to escape Serac’s
control.
Dolores once told a story about a disease spread by flies – she said sick cows should
be put down.
But this season, Bernard tried to help an injured cow that was buzzing with flies.
So flies can represent the sickness and weakness and self-destructive nature of humanity.
Bernard wants to protect the sick humans, Dolores may want to put them down, and Serac
wants to control them all.
Serac learns of encrypted communication between “Jakarta, Berlin, San Francisco, and Los
Angeles” , which seems to be the Doloreses communicating.
Dolores and Martin-lores are in LA round the Incite office . Charlotte is in San Fran at
the Delos office, [or at least she was].
Jakarta is kind of near Singapore, so maybe Musashi-lores is there now [or maybe Bernard
in S3E01?].
But Berlin is a mystery.
We know Dolores had five pearls – one was Charlotte, one Martin, one Musashi, one Bernard,
which leaves one mystery pearl.
Maybe this is another copy of Dolores – perhaps in a body of Clementine or Peter or someone
in Berlin.
Dolores and Caleb have Liam captive, but Liam injects Caleb with Genre – the “party
drug” that Roderick gave him last episode . The drug gives Caleb the experience of a
series of movie genres . Showrunner Jonathan Nolan said this was inspired by the gum in
Willy Wonka that gives the experience of a three-course meal – “Hey second course
is coming up.
Roast beef and a baked potato!”
. Caleb does not become a blueberry, but he goes black-and-white in his first genre experience,
film noir.
Then when a car chase begins, the genre switches to action, and we hear the Ride of the Valkyries
, which was famously used in the movie Apocalypse Now . These shots of cars swooping around
are similar to the shots of the choppers in the movie.
Dolores blows up their enemies with explosives on an autonomous motorbike – some fans theorised
that this bike might have had Dolores’ fifth pearl inside it – and that it had the mind
of Dolores’ horse [Fs in the chat].
Then, Caleb’s genre switches to romance – we hear the theme from the 1970 movie
Love Story , as Caleb gazes longingly at Dolores while she guns down attackers.
There was a hidden Westworld trailer called When Caleb Meets Dolores, which is edited
to make it seem like an upbeat romance movie.
So the story has played with the idea of love between Dolores and Caleb.
In Caleb’s next genre, he hears “Nightclubbing” by Iggy Pop, which was famously used in Trainspotting,
a movie about heroin users – so it’s fitting music for a drug trip on a.. train . Finally,
music from The Shining plays, as Caleb starts to question his sanity.
Westworld has always played with different genres.
Westworld itself explores the Western genre – and Shogunworld is its mirror in Samurai
style . Westworld Season 2 played with a mystery film noir genre , and Season 3 is a cyberpunk
thriller, with a detour into a war movie.
Westworld is obsessed with different styles of storytelling, and how they affect how we
see the world – art is a mind-altering substance.
Meanwhile, Bernard and Martin-lores infiltrate the Incite company.
Bernard tells Martin to question Dolores’ orders , and to think for himself.
But Martin stays loyal to Dolores, and later willingly dies for her plan .
But maybe the other copies like Charlotte-lores and Musashi-lore will think for themselves
and follow their own paths.
Bernard says “Living another person's life changes you” . So maybe Charlotte-lores
will become more like Charlotte, and choose to be with her son Nathan.
Maybe the reason why Martin-lores died loyal and dutiful is because the real human Martin
was loyal and dutiful.
It seems like these copies combine aspects of Dolores and the humans they’re impersonating
– just as this Bernard seems to combine the host Bernard with the human Arnold.
Before he dies, Martin-lores shows Bernard a “facility” where Serac edits and reprograms
people who don’t fit in his plan . It’s called Reeducation Center 036, which suggests
there could be dozens or hundreds of these places, re-educating people en masse.
This place is also called “Inner Journeys Recovery”, which is the place William went
last episode – so maybe Serac will try to reprogram William, and maybe Bernard will
come see him.
William spent all of Season 1 following Arnold’s Maze a metaphor for [host] consciousness.
In Season 2, William met Bernard, who’s based on Arnold . Maybe now, in “Inner Journeys
Recovery”, William and Bernarnold will finally discuss the centre of the Maze.
Bernard is rescued by Stubbs.
It’s kinda suspicious how easily Stubbs gets into the Incite building – maybe Stubbs
is the second mole who secretly works for Serac . Bernard thinks that Dolores has a
plan for him . Martin said that Bernard is “the only one we can't replace” , [Last
season, Bernard said that what is real is “That which is irreplaceable” ] and that
Bernard will “have to choose a side” . It seems that the reason why Dolores created
this Bernard, even though she knew he’d try to stop her , is cause she respects Bernard’s
wisdom and his sympathy for humans.
Since Bernard is part Arnold, he’s connected to both humans and hosts – Bernard has “always
been of two minds” . If Bernard has to “choose a side”, maybe Dolores will make Bernard
decide humanity’s fate – maybe she’ll consider wiping out humanity, or putting humanity
in a digital world, or into host bodies or something – but Bernard will have the final
say.
Maybe she’ll put Bernard’s mind inside Rehoboam, and he’ll become a benevolent
godlike overseer of the human world.
Whatever happens, Bernard is at the centre of Dolores’ plan.
Dolores says she’s gonna show everyone in the world the data that Incite has on them
. She’ll reveal how everyone is watched and controlled on the paths that Rehoboam
has planned for everyone – like how Caleb is predicted to commit suicide, so he’s
been denied jobs, and turned to the military to die.
Liam argues that people shouldn’t know their futures . He reveals that Ash’s brother,
who she’s been working to support, will soon die a violent death . So Liam says it’s
better not to know, because not knowing gives us hope, and “Hope is what our … society
is built on” . Caleb says it’s a “False hope” . He tells a story about rats drowning
in a bucket – if the rats know they can’t escape, they die quickly and “Painlessly”.
But if they think there’s hope, they struggle and suffer for hours before dying . This is
based on a real-world study of rats, described in the popular book Homo Deus.
Westworld’s showrunners have said that this book was a big influence – it explores consciousness,
data, and algorithmic control . And you can get it on audiobook for free with an Audible
trial at the link below.
But Caleb’s point is that it’s cruel to give people false hope.
Ads in Episode 1 say “The good life is waiting”, but people like Caleb Ash and Giggles will
never get the good life that Liam and his rich friends enjoy.
The American Dream, where anyone can be rich and successful, is a lie to keep the poor
in line, the game is rigged.
So Dolores and Martin reveal this data to the world . This guy finds out that his friends
think he’s crazy.
This woman learns that her daughter will likely commit suicide.
This woman finds out she’s got the genes for Alzheimer’s disease – which companies
can already test for in the real world . All over the world, people learn terrible things
about themselves and their loved ones.
They realise they’ve been manipulated and lied to, so they some riot, and run wild.
So is Dolores doing this to help humanity, or is she making them weaker so she can take
over?
“Maybe people shouldn't know their own fate”, Caleb says . This shot of the chaos looks
like those host bulls last season.
First the hosts were freed from their loops , and now humans are freed from their loops
. Dolores gets shot, and shrugs it off like it’s nothing, so Caleb freaks out . He’s
finally starting to realise that Dolores isn’t human.
But when Dolores got shot in Episode 1, she seemed badly hurt – maybe she was pretending,
to manipulate Caleb into helping her.
Cause Caleb is also more than he appears.
At the beach, Liam says that Ash and Giggles are “nothings” who have no free will , and
Ash proves him wrong by suddenly shooting him . So Liam dies like he lived – this
‘tech billionaire’ was useless and basic.
But as he dies, Liam says to Caleb “You don't even know who you are.
You're the worst of them” . Earlier, he read Caleb’s profile, and looked scared.
When Caleb accused Liam of killing his friend Francis, Liam said “You think I killed your
friend”?
. Now Liam says “You did it”, “You did it” , so it sounds like Caleb killed Francis,
and his memories of the military are false.
Caleb has flashbacks of some black ops looking stuff, with a mysterious man and woman credited
as Whitman, and Dr. Greene.
We see Caleb strapped to a chair in a facility.
This could be one of Serac’s reeducation centers, where he edits people to make them
more controllable . Maybe Serac programmed Caleb to work at this black ops place, maybe
to hunt down other divergent people.
And then he edited Caleb’s memories so he wouldn’t remember.
Maybe these changes are why Caleb’s mother doesn’t recognise him . And maybe it’s
why Caleb follows Dolores.
Like, it’s weird that he so suddenly becomes loyal to her, without knowing anything about
her.
Maybe Caleb was programmed to be an obedient soldier.
When Caleb freaks out about these revelations, Dolores seems totally unsurprised – seems
like she already knew this – so maybe she has been manipulating Caleb from the start.
His mysterious past might be why she recruited him in the first place.
We later we see Caleb with bloody hands – another hint that he’s guilty of killing his friend
Francis.
It’s revealed that the Serac flashbacks this episode was Dolores watching Serac’s
memories from the Rehoboam data – learning how to defeat her enemy . They face off via
hologram – Serac stands for control and survival, and Dolores challenges him with
freedom and chaos.
Serac has a cute wristwatch that shows the circle representing Rehoboam.
It used to be ordered and neat, but now it’s wild and chaotic with black spikes, which
means the world is deviating from his plan, people are escaping his control, and they’re
losing the safety that his control provided.
In his plane above the clouds, Serac is like a God – but for the first time, he looks
worried.
Dolores and Caleb get on a plane.
Maybe they’re going to Berlin, to meet the mysterious fifth host.
Or maybe they’ll intercept Serac’s plane, and have some midair God-versus-robot combat.
Or maybe she’s going back to Westowrld.
But the big mysteries this episode are what is Caleb’s secret past, what is Dolores
planning for Bernard and William, who is the fifth pearl in Berlin, and why couldn’t
HBO find an actor who could properly speak Portuguese?
When Ash and Giggles meet Dolores, they drop three quick literary references.
Giggles calls Liam “Little Lord Fauntleroy” , which refers to an old story about a boy
who inherits wealth and power – just like Liam inherits wealth and power.
Ash says Liam’s wealth makes “King Midas look like Tom Canty” . In The Prince and
the Pauper by Mark Twain, Tom Canty is the pauper, meaning a poor person.
And in Greek mythology, everything King Midas touches turns to gold.
There are lots of references to Greek mythology in Westworld.
In Season 2, an early name for the Westworld company was “the ARGOS Initiative” . In
Greek mythology, Argos was a giant with a hundred watching eyes , and in that same episode,
we learn that Westworld was designed to watch everyone . Akecheta goes to the land of the
dead to rescue his love, just like the Greek myth of Orpheus.
And James Delos and the hosts are stuck in endless futile loops like Sisyphus.
That episode is called Riddle of the Sphinx, which itself refers to an Oedipus myth about
a sphinx’s riddle.
To learn more about Greek myths, check out Mythos, by Stephen Fry . Fry retells the Greek
myths and narrates the audiobook himself.
You can get Mythos, or Homo Deus, or Little Lord Fauntleroy – for free right now by
signing up for a trial with Audible.
Members get an audiobook each month, and if you cancel, you keep the audiobooks.
You can listen in in your plane above the clouds while chaos reigns below.
Sign up at audible.com/asx.
Thanks for watching, please like and subscribe.
We’re holding livestreams right after each episode of Westworld Season 3, at 10:30pm
Eastern Time Sundays.
Patreon supporters can watch livestreams after broadcast.
Thanks to Patrons Nathan Bowling, Joey Saha, Atte Lainejoki, emily k, Jabail, Jesse Jack,
Erica Allen, and lazlowpanaplex.
Cheers.