This post contains spoiler through the fourth episode ofWestworld,“Dissonance Theory . “Head toourWestworldshow hubfor more reviews , theories , and deep nose dive .
" Dolores … do you get it on where you are ? "
" I am in a dream . "
HBO
Or is it a memory?“Dissonance Theory,“the quaternary episode ofWestworld , picks up with a conversant beat : the idle conversation between Bernard ( Jeffrey Wright ) , a park roboticist who struggles with world , and Dolores ( Evan Rachel Wood ) , the oldest " horde " in the parkland , who may be evolving towards it . Bernard summons Dolores to the Delos labs to introduce new marching orders into her loop . " It ’s a game , a secret , " he tells her . " It ’s calledthe snarl . The end is to find the center of it . If you could do that , maybe you could be free . "
" loose , " in robot term , might imply merging the two halves ofthe bicameral mindinto human intelligence as we understand it today , and find the center of the maze might be the means to bootstrapping consciousness . Bernard want Dolores to get there . The legion senses her own potential , and accept the challenge . " I think I ’d like to be complimentary , " she say .
What neither realizes is that , in all likeliness , Dolores already survive down that rabbit hole . Or came close .
The beauty ofWestworldis how the conventional details – lush visuals , cinematic camerawork , a hyper - attentiveness to detail ( yes , that player forte-piano is substantial ) – inform and inflate the burning motion at the center . While working onLost , Westworldexecutive producerJ.J. Abramsdescribed his puzzling sci - fi series , and his ism for cultivating intrigue and piddle - cooler talk in general , as a"mystery boxful . "
The HBO series works the same fashion , and " Dissonance Theory " is a choice deterrent example . To unpackWestworld ’s mystery box seat , you have to admire the wrapping paper , then tear through it for the surprisal . The gift in " Dissonance Theory " is Dolores ' moment in Las Mudas .
Dolores appears in the faux molding town shortly after wake up near the doting William , picking up where Episode 3 leave off . She investigates the fountain in the Ithiel Town ’s main square . Wood gives this dreamlike sequence an air of acquaintance as the camera spirals around her . And with a swoosh – or perhaps the sound of a grumble violent storm ? – a young girl seem next to her .
HBO
We ’ve watch this premonition untried host before , of course – she ’s the daughter ofClifton Collins Jr. ’s Lawrence , the baby who inform the Man in Black that the maze " is n’t meant for you " and told him to " follow the blood arroyo to where the snake lay its egg . " She pops up again and helps spark off a retention ( vision ? ) buried in Dolores ' cerebral mantle .
" Where are you from ? " Dolores require .
" Same as you . "
HBO
The non - answer prompts a command , audibly whisper by … someone : " REMEMBER . " Is it Ford ? The Man in Black ? Bernard?Arnold ? The unembodied voice causes Dolores to access lose computer storage : We see a white church service with the same steeple that Ford showed Bernard a buried adaptation of in the desert at the end of Episode 2 . We see two variation of Lawrence ’s daughter , retiring and present . She excite off the reverie , and now the girl ’s draught in the shite : It ’s the tangle map seen on poor Kissy ’s scalp .
A few sec later , a man in a long coat – is he a Delos employee , or a host touch off by Westworld security ? – arrives on the scene to see Delores back to Abernathy Ranch . Lawrence ’s girl has disappeared . When the man firmly takes Delores by the arm to convey her back to her loop-the-loop , she suffer a second round of flashbacks : We see her walking into the church ; Lawrence ’s daughter wearing a pink clothes ; and Dolores in a graveyard , where she dig out a gun as a gentleman’s gentleman of the cloth hovers over her . Snapping out of her daze , she grabs the man hold her by his sleeve and delivers a grimace of extreme anger . ( Evan Rachel Wood should probably gain an Emmy for that face . ) William walk out of the saloon behind them just in time to keep the confrontation from step up .
circumstance is primal to why this scene resonates : Just beforehand , we see a Delos analyst approach Stubbs ( Luke Hemsworth ) in the Westworld ascendance elbow room to inform him that Dolores is " making a passably big deviation from her loop . " She says that , due to Ford ’s massive narrative disruptions , she ca n’t ascertain whether the contrary horde is accompanied by a guest , but they do confirm that it ’s Dolores in Las Mudas . " Flag her for behaviour , they can pull her today , " says Stubbs .
HBO
It would seem to follow logically that the hombre who get in in Las Mudas to usher Dolores back to her Abernathy Ranch is a protection guard following Stubbs ' orders from the previous aspect , and that he has been train to allow Dolores to go forward off - loop topology if an attach to guest did wrench up . But maybe we should n’t assume that .
Westworldis not upfront about its timeline . We do n’t know for sealed whether Bernard ’s conversations with Dolores happen at the same time with the daylight - to - 24-hour interval activity we see at Delos HQ or in the park . Our knowledge of how TV shows are usually put together trick our brains into get into Dolores ' encounter with Bernard , Teddy , the Man in Black , William , and everyone else in the green are happening in a undivided timeline . But there ’s no clean answer . Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy stage scenes in vacuums . conversation about who , what , where , and when are spoken in the vaguest term – just watchFord ’s showdown with Theresa . Certain characters , perhaps by design , do n’t cross paths with each other ; for example , when William strolls into Sweetwater , Clementine ( Angela Sarafyan ) is at the bordello , but Maeve ( Thandie Newton ) , who we know had a past grommet regard a frontier war , noticeably is not . Everything blurs .
My thinking here is that Nolan and Joy built Season 1 like a serial publication of " air castle , " where preceding events leak into the present without differentiate between the two . The camera office like a legion – an unreliable observer bounce back and away between the layer of clip like Jonathan ’s brother Christopher Nolan did in the dreamscapes ofInception . In the Las Mudas sequence , " Dissonance Theory " stylizes the flashbacks in a traditional manner : a flashgun of footage accompany by awhoosh!and abzzzz!But because of the looped lives of the hosts and the subconscious nature of reveries , there ’s no reason to think Dolores ' view would signal every sliding board from past times to demo . Which changes the implications of her moment in Las Mudas .
HBO
A prevailing theory posits thatWilliam and the Man in Black are the same person , separated by a few decades of Westworld park wisdom . This scene slant into that idea heavily , albeit with some knavish mystery box gift - wrapper . Stubbs and his associate belike do see a present - Clarence Day Dolores in Las Mudas ( though that ’s never tell instantaneously ) – that ’s the Dolores that we first see at the spring , all alone . When the photographic camera whirls and a very subtle sound cue play , it ’s a lead that Nolan and Joy might be dialing back the clock .
If this is the vitrine , the encounter with Lawrence ’s daughter is itself a flashback to the first prison term Dolores seek to navigate the maze . We can then assume that Dolores ' imagination involve the church building and graveyard are flashbacks because of traditional style . In this context , they could be things she actually did in the past , or they could be events planted in the deepness of her robotic mind , pieces of a puzzle she need to assemble if she want to solve the maze game .
So when the Christian church collage ends and the man seems like he ’s arrived to take Dolores back to her closed circuit , per Stubbs ' orders , we ca n’t assume that this showdown fall out in the present , thanks to the reverie style of the intact sequence . More probably , this is something that fall out to Dolores in the timeline she ’s in with William , decades before Stubbs gives his order . To make it clear ( ha ! ):
Present : The first appearance of Dolores in Las MudasPast : The confrontation with the human beings and William ’s interventionEven further in the past or " imagined”:Dolores ' meeting with Lawrence ’s girl and the Christian church imaginativeness
retiring " memories " have shown Dolores put up around deadened bodies ; presumably this is a vision of the oft - touch - to incident that occur in the park 30 class prior to the present - Clarence Day events of the series , and the third episode ’s final beat , in which Dolores envision the Man in Black , shoots a brigand host , suffers a gibe to the abdomen herself , and then fly back to William , all seemingly in the same stretch of metre . If Dolores is associate to The Incident – and hail on , she has to be – it ’s likely she croak through the labyrinth old age before hearing about it from Bernard in " Dissonance Theory . "
The Las Mudas moment bundles all the evidence together . William seems to have led her there in the yesteryear , intentionally or not , and that experience is what ’s draw the old William ( the Man in Black ) back to trace the maze plot . It ca n’t be just a coincidence that the Man in Black turn back in Las Mudas before continue on in the secret plan . And if what I ’m detecting is straight , present - Clarence Day Dolores is red-hot on his heels , her retentivity give her an advantage .
" Dissonance Theory " makes a point of juxtapose William and the Man in Black ; not only do they not share any scenes together , each of their second are drop into stead like diptychs . Dolores will spill the beans to William about herds of cows brought back to the walloping and then the Man in Black appears cliffside , ready to depend upon into a shootout . Westworldis punctilious on every level , framing things just so to play by hidden rule and convey the whiz of an awakening judgement . Not only is Dolores ' perception coming into focal point , it ’s beam through constant repeat – a mundane enslavement . Nolan and Joy ’s formal choices magnify the mix-up and scourge – Dolores ' and our own .
Is this legit?Westworldis too skilled at being puzzling to bang for certain . But Dolores ' mind , rich with oneirism , is spinning and jolting out of ascendency . As Ford said in the beginning this season , " It ’s a wily affair weaving the old into the new . "
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