/
John and Roberto go in search of The Stray, considering more theories, unearthing further questions, and reflecting on your feedback and responses. Join us in our exploration of the third episode of Westworld!
Check out this video to learn more about the Man In Black’s LeMat revolver!
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
PocketCasts
Spotify
Stitcher
RSS
Thank you for noticing my previous comment and good Paradise Lost reference. I was thinking the same thing while I was watching this episode. I read bits of it in High School and will open up my old copy thanks to this show.
Westworld caught me at a good time, I had seen the episode of Star Trek the Next Generation titled ‘The Measure of a Man’ the day before the premier. It dealt with similar issues that this series is exploring and skipping around. Most notably that if these AIs can understand what is happening to them and can obtain some kind of sentience, however limited, and given the fact that there are so many of them it is not unreasonable to call the “Hosts” a slave race. They are unpaid, restricted in movement ( they can’t leave the Westworld/Delos compound apparently), sexually sterile, and if they “have children” by any definition they can be sold or used as another person sees fit.
To answer you yes, I was happy to see more Delores. But one thing I had hoped you guys had noticed was just how sick her daily life seems to be.
With the release of her flowchart/daily schedule it becomes apparent that she is pretty much scheduled to get raped or have a one night stand by a guest almost every day of her existence. HBO has been criticized for having women characters be nothing but background mannequins to be raped or used sexually to service the drama of the show or to illuminate the character of the men. It seems that Delores’ character is a bit of a lampshade hanging in that respect. Her whole life is that way. She isn’t even designed to be able to defend herself from these attacks. She is also apparently written into her code to respond to men’s overtures. Not only is that disgusting and wrong from a point of view of her as an independent and free person, it is also disgusting from the staff at Daelos who wrote that. Why would they think that is okay to write up? She is intentionally built to be the prey for level one Black Hats.
As to the stray wood-cutter I disagree that he was trying to self-destruct to prevent himself from harming a human. I suggest that his “Arnold” was acting up in his head. He probably got caught up in some kind of schizophrenic feedback loop obsessing about star constellations. It was said during a behind the scenes thing following the episode that this “Stray” began to be fascinated by the stars so he started carving Orion, one of the most visible and well known constellations in the Northern sky. Ford mentioned that his partner, Arnold, intended for his voice to be the inner monologue until the hosts could grow enough to use their own voices. Therefore it can be inferred that he kept hearing a voice of some man he couldn’t see saying in his ear over and over “To see more of the stars, get to higher ground.” That is likely why he kept traveling uphill. After hearing that for every second nearly two days I would hit myself in the head with a rock too.
Also, have you noticed? Delores can “hear Arnold” too. If you watch with the captions in the scene where she shoots the host in the barn, they say “Male voice: Shoot him.”
Traditionally in media like Westworld there is a conflict between the businessmen and the artist personified by in (what I thought for the first two episodes was going to be) the conflict and demands of The Board vs Dr. Ford. But it seems that before that the Artist Dr. Ford, had some kind of civil war or Cain and Abel conflict with The Scientist Arnold. Apparently Arnold realized he was making life and wanted to see how far he could go and the Hosts still have some residual programming from that.
Anyway that is enough for my ramblings. Thanks for the shout out, keep up the good work. I look forward to the next podcast.
Furthering the Greek God theme from a couple of wksago-
Arnold = Prometheus.
A biblical equivalent of Prometheus is Eve & the snake.
In both myths, the one who gives man the ability to evolve (via fire or knowledge) is punished (by Zeus/God).
Also, did you mention Delos was the birthplace of Apollo & Artemis?
In the myth, Leto could give birth there b/c the Delos wss not really “land” – it was not attached to the ocean floor.