HBO’s Westworld just put a cap on its terrific first season. Come talk about it with us, won’t you?
Jason and I stayed up late to record a special bonus episode of The Last of Us: Part II. Bonus reactions at the end of a bonus episode! What will they think of next?
As usual you can listen to the episode on iTunes or Google Play, or listen to it directly right here. (MP3 download here.) You can reach us with questions, comments, and slashfic tribute art at splitscreen@kotaku.com.
We’ll be back with a special IRL Splitscreen later this week, as I fly out to New York specifically to sit down across from Jason, look him straight in the face, and tell him I still haven’t finished Suikoden 2.
Comments
16 responses to “Westworld’s Killer Finale And The Mysteries That Remain”
Pretty stunning episode. Even with some of the things people thought they knew, they still managed to twist the knife and turn them on their head even again! The quality of this show is off the chain. It’s just a pity season 2 isn’t here til 2018 🙁
Wait what? *consults the google* 2018? awwww man!
Anyway great stuff. Sorry to see Ford go but with stars like Hopkins and Harris involved I was shocked that one or both of their characters weren’t killed in the first episode. Mind you this could end up being like Lost and we’ll see Ford back every other episode via flashbacks 😉
Ford would have sent out a host version of himself to be killed to fake his death etc
Lets hope!
I’m just going to put this here:
I wonder what host Forde was constructing in the workshop Bernard killed Theresa?
People assume Elsie, but what if it was a clone of Ford himself? Given the board had a representative in the park by that point, he might have seen the inevitable coming, and decided to go off script a little.
Fake his death, and work in some tucked away outpost nobody knows about. We know there are at least two of those, why not 5, or 10? Its also a massively big headquarters. Why?
We dont know what happened to Elsie or Stubbs, two people capable of helping Ford from the sidelines. And Logan was only seen setting off into the sunset, so to speak. Where did HE end up?
But back to the host being built. Thats my theory going forward. The Ford that was shot was a host copy, Ford returns as the finale of season 2 or 3.
What if Ford was a host all along…
…and Arnold is alive and pulling the strings. I think anything’s possible in this show, its done a great job of misleading along the way, and we could have all been suckered into some pretty big assumptions.
I’m watching a bunch of videos today, ones putting forward the idea of “What if we get to the end of season 5, and in the final episode, a curtain pulls back and we’ve been watching the entire goddamn new narrative the entire time?”
:O :O :O :O :O
Plausible from a story point of view, but I don’t think that’s the kind of thing Nolan would do.
“Oh, after ten episodes we finally explained how it was Dolores that killed Arnold and why he made her do it… Surprise…! None of that actually happened and everything you saw in season one was a lie.”
That’s just going to annoy your audience.
I had originally thought it was a host of Theresa (kill her off and replace her with a host) but then they just announced to everyone she was dead… Then I thought it was a host of himself (Ford) but since they never showed it in the last episode I started thinking it might’ve just been there for effect – hoping that’s not true and it comes up in season two though.
Not much is happening in this show that isnt there for a purpose, particularly things like that. A simple picture in the first ep becomes a big reveal at the end of the season for example, so why would they have something as big as a host making machine, reference it (Bernard pointing out it was like the main ones, only slower) then ignore it?
That host has a role to play, dont worry about that. I think the host being Ford is now the logical one, and it was that host that was shot by Dolores. Meanwhile, the real Ford is tucked away somewhere, as are Elsie and Stubbs.
Not sure who those two are working with, its either Ford, or Arnold in some capacity (or one each), but neither of them have been confirmed dead.
I was wondering about that host too. It seems a large thing to mention for no apparent reason.
See also: Chekhov’s gun
This turned into a hatewatch show for me. It is like they watched Humans/Real Humans and said “like that, but bleaker, more money, less imagination”
GoT has a similar dark, awful tone where horrible things happen to people, but they make up for it by having interesting characters and humour and a fully realised world (which I guess comes from being a book first)
Westworld has literally one joke by Felix in the last episode when he thought he might be a Host, all the female characters are tragic and ineffectual pawns and it felt like they spent so much time working on the plot reveal, they forgot to make characters for anyone to care about.
Also, who the hell keeps physical photos of their siblings in their pockets now, let alone in the future?
Do you think Apple, when they start a new generation of Iphone, just abandon the old factories and let them flood?
I’m not sure you and I are watching the same show.
All the characters are pawns, men and women, humans and hosts – that was one of the plot points, that Ford anticipates everything, controls everything, even people who think they have free will. You complain like it’s bad writing but it’s intentional. As for characters to care about, that’s really your personal issue I think. I care about several characters, myself.
William had a photo of his partner in his pocket because you’re not allowed to take technology into the park. He couldn’t take his phone or whatever other device he had, but he wanted to take a reminder of his life outside with him, so he took a photo. I’m not sure why you had such difficulty following that reasoning in the show.
Westworld’s story threads run in multiple timelines. The train station William arrives at in the past strongly resembles the abandoned station the security team goes through to get to cold storage. As for why it was abandoned, maybe there was sabotage that damaged the lower levels and forced them to be abandoned. It’s currently a mystery, one we may well learn about in future episodes. It would be stupid for them to reveal all of the park’s secrets in the first season when they have five more already written.
For someone complaining about lack of imagination in the show, you seem to have none yourself when it comes to deciphering the plot and clues.
Oh dear… 😐
This ^^^