Bad Robot/Jonathan Nolan Bringing "Westworld" to HBO - Part 1

[DarthSkywalker]

Messy season finale and messy season all around. My favorite scene from tonight was the part with

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Bernard and his wife

which... ironically is the least expensive scene in the whole show.

It's a shame I'm losing interest in the show, I LOVED season 1, but it's slowly going down hill ever since. This last season made me feel exactly the same way when I was begrudging watching the later seasons of The Walking Dead.

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Arnold's wife.

 

[Kane52630]

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[DarthSkywalker]

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[Kane52630]

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[Closerframe]

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Where do I start, for a show that started strong with Season 1, descended into baffling storytelling elements and story structure for Season 2, has now gone completely aimless with Season 3. This entire season I was convinced this was all a simulation because there’s no possible way the writers became so lazy and for the most part, one note. Last night’s finale solidified that I won’t be returning to this show going forward. Let’s start with the basics

• Caleb managed to get through a riot to access a police vehicle at the perfect time when his friends that we haven’t seen in the last two episodes magically show up to risk their lives to make sure he can take the system down. There’s barely a challenge presented here, and for the most part, it’s barely an inconvenience for him to just walk through dozens of police and psychopathic rioters.
• Serac was essentially Rehoboam the entire time or was just allowing the system to dictate every decision he’s making. If this is the case, and he feels the system is the perfect predictive tool, then why doesn’t he begin questioning its accuracy as things continue to get worse?
• Dolores never wanted to end humanity but just wanted to destroy the existing framework and “strings” of those in power so both humans and robots are free to make their own decisions with no masters. Am I missing something? Was it alluded that Dolores secretly wanted to save both species the entire time because both Season 2 and 3 seemed to go out of the way to suggest she wanted them all dead.
• Caleb’s background story went nowhere. After the flashback showing how his partner was willing to betray him we get no true conclusion to his motivations and why Rehoboam saw him eventually committing suicide.
• William and Bernard was wasted this entire season with Bernard acting as a disjointed add-on and William sometimes seeming like an afterthought—especially in the post credit scene.

 

[Sithborg]

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My only issue with the finale is that we missed some crucial steps in Delore's evolution. Where and when did she get off the kill humanity train. Having this as the twist just feels as if it came out of nowhere, especially with the evidence that she was manipulating Caleb.

 

[dark_b]

I need to rewatch the finale because........if you remove Caleb from the story what changes at Incite with Sarac,Rehoboam and Maeve?

Dolores talks a lot of about free will and choice yet she had to manipulate a lot of characters this season for the plan to work. funny

 

[Snow Queen]

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My only issue with the finale is that we missed some crucial steps in Delore's evolution. Where and when did she get off the kill humanity train. Having this as the twist just feels as if it came out of nowhere, especially with the evidence that she was manipulating Caleb.

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While I would have liked to see the arc of that, I was honestly expecting it to be her character arc this season, I feel like it's pretty consistent with her motivations and how they've been portraying her all season. Her whole thing has been freeing people from control. Season 1 is about her own freedom, season 2 is about everyone else's freedom, while season 3 is about humanity's freedom. Season 2 complicates things in a way I like by having her become the controlling party, destroying Teddy to the point of him attempting suicide, and I think serves as a real wake-up call for the character. It's why she comes into this season seemingly only bringing Bernard and copies of herself, and allowing those copies to grow in a way she stifled with Teddy, even when it comes to her detriment with Hale. The humanity aspect of it feels like a natural extension of learning that the species is also being fed a script without knowing it, and she spells out as much in episodes 3 and 5. I also think the opening scene is a bit of a microcosm of that. She kills the violent rapist murderer guy for what she needs for the bigger picture, but she's not lying when she tells his latest wife that she's set her free. Her beef isn't really with the poor folks whose lives are being controlled by an AI developed benefiting the rich ****s who visit the park to get their aggression out.

 

[CaptainWagner]

That was a wild ride for sure!

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-Hey! Lawrence is back! But is her another version of Delores? Or is he running with Clementine and Hanaryo?

-Speaking of Clementine and Hanaryo, where are they? Weren't they supposed to be working for/with Maeve? What's up with that?

-God-Mode Caleb is the final proof that at least 50% of Westworld is leftover POI plans.

-Marshawn Lynch taps into his original talent: Going Beast Mode.

-Bernard and Arnold's wife is for sure one of the best scenes of the whole show.

-Yeah, I'm pretty sure Delores is gone. Maybe they'll find a way, but they have to break the eternal resurrection cycle eventually. And this team is no stranger to parting ways with a central lead after the third season.

-Loved that final scene. We at last have come full circle to the OG Man in Black.

-It's gonna be a LONG wait.

 

[kvz5]

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Denise Thé, one of the show's executive producers, also shared thoughts on the scene.

"I think that it was painful, you know? It was painful to watch and perform on set. It was painful to write," she said. "When we saw these memories of her being sucked out of her, you got to kind of re-live her life with her and see these different atrocities that were done to her. So, for me that moment where she says that she chose to see beauty is much stronger and that much more beautiful because you kind of have walked this road with her again and re-lived these moments with her. For me, it was a very powerful kind of transcendent moment of her completing her arc and really coming full circle, choosing to love these beings that, in some ways, just tore her life apart, and rising above it.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

For those who did not learn to fall in love watching Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice and thus now have the pale robot Adam/Eve/Moses/Jesus on loop in the background, the pertinent information comes around 5 minutes in:



F this stupi show!

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[kvz5]

For those who did not learn to fall in love watching Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice and thus now have the pale robot Adam/Eve/Moses/Jesus on loop in the background, the pertinent information comes around 5 minutes in:



F this stupi show!

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She’s adorable. I didn’t know she had a kid already! Her face when Jimmy said he’s only 2 episodes in made me laugh.

All I heard was “hrjkwjdjjfje Season 4”

 

[kvz5]

ERW’s IG post:

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[Snow Queen]

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Denise Thé, one of the show's executive producers, also shared thoughts on the scene.

"I think that it was painful, you know? It was painful to watch and perform on set. It was painful to write," she said. "When we saw these memories of her being sucked out of her, you got to kind of re-live her life with her and see these different atrocities that were done to her. So, for me that moment where she says that she chose to see beauty is much stronger and that much more beautiful because you kind of have walked this road with her again and re-lived these moments with her. For me, it was a very powerful kind of transcendent moment of her completing her arc and really coming full circle, choosing to love these beings that, in some ways, just tore her life apart, and rising above it.

Oh yeah, Denise, that's fine, just stab me in the heart. Again. For like the tenth time.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Oh yeah, Denise, that's fine, just stab me in the heart. Again. For like the tenth time.

It's her fault POI didn't get a season 6!!! She causes too much pain!!!

 

[Kaleb]

Really hoping they can bring in Amy Ackers for S4.

 

[Man in the Suit]

Oh yeah, Denise, that's fine, just stab me in the heart. Again. For like the tenth time.

Rumor has it "When you're suffering, that's when your most real" is something Denise said in the POI writers room.

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[DarthSkywalker]

Really hoping they can bring in Amy Ackers for S4.

Do you want to kill Snow Queen?

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I liked the finale though it was a slow burner compared to the previous 2-3 episodes

Now comes the long wait until next season. It’s bad enough there’s been a two year gap in between seasons, but now with the coronavirus who knows if it will extend it even longer

 

[Brutikus]

She’s adorable. I didn’t know she had a kid already! Her face when Jimmy said he’s only 2 episodes in made me laugh.

All I heard was “hrjkwjdjjfje Season 4”

Yeah Fallon talks right over her

 

[elgaz]

Some good bits this season, but overall (and focusing mostly on the finale) - disappointing. Some baffling writing and plot choices which you could pick holes in from a mile away.

 

[chamber-music]

I wasn't as enamoured with the finale.

I need to rewatch the finale because........if you remove Caleb from the story what changes at Incite with Sarac,Rehoboam and Maeve?

Dolores talks a lot of about free will and choice yet she had to manipulate a lot of characters this season for the plan to work. funny

Dolores actions contradict what she said often.

 

[Man in the Suit]

It's because her choices weren't black and white. Dolores did what she needed to do.

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Nolan: "From the beginning, the goal with Evan was to create a character that somehow eludes the standard, and frankly slightly pat definitions, of what a hero or a protagonist or a villain would be. Anthony Hopkins as Ford asks Dolores that question, which we put in the recap before the finale to remind the audience. The question with Dolores has always been, whether you understand what she's doing or not, which box does she fit into? The hero or the villain? The answer being that life is more complicated than that."

 

[Sawyer]

Idgaf, I liked it, right down to ending on Pink Floyd and

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moving the Man in Black into the Yul Brenner role

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Plus I really wanna see more of Maeve and Caleb and how they play off of one another.

 

[gohei_]

So, I finally got around to watching this. I've been putting it off mostly because the "real world" setting did not appeal to me as much considering the very thing that drew me to this show was the western setting.
I was nowhere near as excited for watching a new episode here as I was in the first season sadly, and mainly I think it's cuz I just wasn't that interested in the main players. Sure Dolores was interesting but I could care less about Caleb and when we got his backstory I was like "fine, whatever".
I pretty much loved every scene involving Charlotte (and William) though, and one of the strongest moments/scenes is the one where her family gets blown up, I did not see that coming.
Ed Harris is always great and I liked his dynamic with Stubbs and Bernard, and his therapy sessions with himself was golden.

Final thoughts: This season was okay, but nowhere near season 1 quality. I might watch the new season just to find out what Charlotte and William has planned.
I think it's interesting how similar the plot and ideas in this was to another show that came out around the same time,

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DEVS.