Westworld Episode 103 – Flashback Podcast with Paul and Caroline

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One unexpected brain-dump of Westworld mythology later and now we have Arnold. With him comes tons of new questions like:

• Is the Man In Black somehow related to Arnold?
• Is Arnold a first name or a last name?
• Is Arnold like a ghost in the machine presence in Westworld?
• Did Ford tell the whole truth about Arnold?

Immediately, I’m reminded of Jacob from LOST. For a looong time, Jacob existed only in the shadows, speaking through others (sound familiar?). We had to watch all the way to just about the end of the final season before we got the entire backstory on the guy. It’s unknown with only 3 episodes in the can whether or not Westworld is a show that condones entire-show flashbacks or not, so we may never get a filmed version of “This Is What Arnold Did”. I hope we DO get some corroborated info from some other sources on Arnold though. Ford seems like the kind of guy that takes Obi-wan Kenobi’s “truth from a certain point of view,” from Return of the Jedi and RUNS with it. Honesty, but not the whole story.

Quick recap of where the main characters wound up:

• Bernie: Bad day at work, found out about Arnold, and decided NOT to reset Delores’ programming. Also, has a dead son. Sad.
• Delores: Starting to overcome programming limitations, but it’s having a bad effect on her mind. She winds up in William and Logan’s camp. Being able to pull that trigger, no matter where you think the gun came from, was pretty huge.
• Teddy: All the sudden, he’s got a nemesis: Wyatt. Too bad Wyatt and his been don’t seem to be affected by bullets.
• Ford: His agenda became muddied for me this week. Last week I thought he was trying to expand the hosts beyond their programming through reveries and possibly introducing religion. This week he demonstrated is ardent belief that hosts are machines capable of nothing more than their programming allows. At least we have his Arnold story to noodle on this week.
• William: Got into the swing of things and killed a host! Hooray for robo-cide!

We try and dig into the bicameral mind stuff and other questions this week, so have a listen!