Westworld Discussion - SPOILERS!

[crazy canuck]

You can really only deceive the audience with a big twist once.  After that the audience expects it and the further attempts tend to raise more questions than they answer.  I didn't know what the big twist was going to be on the last episode, but I knew there was one, and when it was revealed I found I didn't really care that much.  It didn't help that I didn't understand what some of the characters were doing.  For instance, I didn't understand why the Delos corporation guys felt a need to program one of the hosts to make the other hosts fight one another.  From their perspective all the surviving hosts were jumping off of a cliff.  Why not just let them jump?  I'm not a stickler for everything making sense perfect sense, some suspension of disbelief is required in these kind of shows, but characters need to have reason why they do things and some of those reasons need to be relatable.

They were not trying to deceive in the second season.  It was very obvious that there were time shifts going on.  It was a key part of the season - Bernard's journey, and that became more and more obvious as the season progressed.

For instance, I didn't understand why the Delos corporation guys felt a need to program one of the hosts to make the other hosts fight one another.  From their perspective all the surviving hosts were jumping off of a cliff.

But they didn't know any of that when they programmed the host to do that.  They didn't even know that when she started to get the hosts to kill eachother.  They were back further.

[Razgovory]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

The deception of the 2nd season was that at the end when they revealed that Charlotte was really Dolores.

[Solmyr]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

Killing all the hosts so they stop killing humans, and getting their data secured? It's pretty much what the Delos team is there for in the first place.

[Josephus]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

The deception of the 2nd season was that at the end when they revealed that Charlotte was really Dolores.

But when in the timeline did this happen? I know we saw it happen in the last episode.....but when was Charlotte Dolores in real time? It's one of those shows that begs to be watched over again, but I can't be bothered. Fear the walking dead did the same thing this season. Why not tell a story in a linear fashion? My guess is the story isn't that good to begin with. It's like The Sixth Sense, when I first saw it, that twist made you think, "wow great movie", but then the more I thought about it, I realized what a hokey plot that was. I did like the last episode of Westworld, but one good episode, does not a good season make.

[crazy canuck]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

The deception of the 2nd season was that at the end when they revealed that Charlotte was really Dolores.

No, Charlotte was Charlotte for most of the scenes you saw this season.  I disagree with Josephus that it was hard to sort out the time shifts.  We knew that was happening from the start.  It is more challenging to watch than a linear story but we were watching the season through Bernhard's POV and he was always challenged to figure out what was real.

[Razgovory]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

Killing all the hosts so they stop killing humans, and getting their data secured? It's pretty much what the Delos team is there for in the first place.

I thought they weren't interested in protecting humans.  And making the hosts get in fist fights seem like a really round about way of killing them.

[crazy canuck]

Why program one of the hosts to send a message to the other hosts to fight one another at all?  What does that accomplish?

Killing all the hosts so they stop killing humans, and getting their data secured? It's pretty much what the Delos team is there for in the first place.

I thought they weren't interested in protecting humans.  And making the hosts get in fist fights seem like a really round about way of killing them.

You are correct, they were not interested in protecting the guests but they were very interested in making their own journey to the Forge as safe as possible and that is why they programmed the host to do what she did.

[Zoupa]

Should have been a 10 episode mini-series.

The characters' motivations often made no sense. The fact that you use pseudo-philosophical language doesn't make you sound deep, Dolores, just vague and pretentious.

I'd be curious to know the ratings compared to season 1. My guesstimate is that they tanked.

[Josephus]

I watched the first episode again yesterday.

Now I'm understanding the timeline a bit better.

First time i saw it, when I saw Bernard in the sand, I thought that was after the big soiree that went bad. But it wasn't. That was AFTER almost all the stuff that happens in season two. In the first episode we get to see all the hosts dead on the beach, those are the ones that jumped off the cliff in the final episode.

[crazy canuck]

I watched the first episode again yesterday.

Now I'm understanding the timeline a bit better.

First time i saw it, when I saw Bernard in the sand, I thought that was after the big soiree that went bad. But it wasn't. That was AFTER almost all the stuff that happens in season two. In the first episode we get to see all the hosts dead on the beach, those are the ones that jumped off the cliff in the final episode.

Yep, there is the initial disconnect, but once you realize it is all out of order because of the way Bernard is perceiving events, it clicks into place - and then the ending becomes that much more meaningful.

[celedhring]

I don't know, watching this season felt like trying to solve a huge puzzle box and then finding out that there's nothing inside.