To add another log the the Bernard is a Host version of Arnold. I'm 99% sure that Ford's basement is where we saw "Bernard" interviewing Delores in all of her dreams. I'm now almost positive what we were seeing was a flashback to Delores as a prototype with Arnold interviewing her.
Then why does Theresa completely act like Bernard is a human and absolutely shocked to find out he is a host? If it ends up he is ill be happy to admit I'm wrong but given what we found out this episode id put the Bernard is Arnold theory at less than 1%. How can someone who works for the board of the company not know what Arnold looks like? It would take a massive amount of suspension of belief.
We know Arnold dying almost destroyed the park and even people like Logan and William know this. How does a senior executive of the company not know what Arnold looks like?
If you remember when Logan tells William about Arnold dying, he said no one know what he looks like there isn't even a picture
Then why does Theresa completely act like Bernard is a human and absolutely shocked to find out he is a host? If it ends up he is ill be happy to admit I'm wrong but given what we found out this episode id put the Bernard is Arnold theory at less than 1%. How can someone who works for the board of the company not know what Arnold looks like? It would take a massive amount of suspension of belief.
We know Arnold dying almost destroyed the park and even people like Logan and William know this. How does a senior executive of the company not know what Arnold looks like?
Logan said he had a team of lawyers working on it, but they couldn't even turn up a photo. Aside from Ford I'm betting no one (no human at least) has been there as long as Bernard, no one there who would know what Arnold looked like.
Now what happened to the people that were there when Arnold was still alive, I don't know, but Logan mentioning that they couldn't even find a picture of the other guy who founded the park and died in it, has to be significant.
The only logical argument that Bernard is Arnold is that Ford somehow miraculously destroyed all photographic evidence of what Arnold looked like. Including all the news articles and videos that surely would have been made after such an event. Which maybe the picture we saw is supposed to tell us is exactly what happened. But that theory would take a hole shitload of suspension of belief.
This is in fact implied in a prior episode when William and Logan are talking and Logan said they tried to find records and pictures of Arnold but it was like he has disappeared.
if this is a world though where a.i. is advanced enough to perform a complicated mental job and pass as a human day-in-day-out (like berniebot), what the fuck does that mean outside the park? wouldn't they be capable of nearly any job at that point, tireless (presumably?), superhumanly strong (apparently), with superhumanly quick reflexes (apparently)? i guess we don't know for sure that robots are employed for any of these purposes outside of the park, but it's hard to imagine they wouldn't be; a superhuman slave workforce? it's hard enough to have to compete with competent indian or eastern european computer programmers, if hyperintelligent robots could do it for the cost of power i'd be "bigly" s.o.l. (and so would almost everybody else).
that seems to lead to a matrix-style dystopia to me (or maybe a wal-e one), just waiting for the singularity to kick it off.
They have made a pretty big point this episode and last that Delos has no idea how to reproduce the Hosts. I think that's the core motivation of Theresa and the Board was to get the code so that they could do more interesting things with the tech other than have people play cowboy.
Something that I think is overlooked is the reference to the back-up of data off site. Maybe Maeve can finally "get out" of the park and into the "real world" with the backups that have been done outside the park.
My only concern for the possibility of this is that if Ford is truly concerned with backups and keeping everything contained, and if he knows everything, why would he let data get out of the park?
I also think the "arrangement" with the Board is that he is perhaps giving them effectively eternal life through converting them to "hosts". Or he already has and that's why they won't stop him. As people get in the way, Ford replaces them. Maybe the Board continually tests him with various challenges (I don't know why).
The secret control words are also really disturbing...
With many suspecting that the bot being printed in the secret basement will be Theresa-bot, I was reminded of item (b) in the Privacy Section of Delos' Ts&Cs on the Westworld website:
(b) By entering the Delos Destinations Port of Entry, you acknowledge that Delos, Inc. controls the rights to and remains the sole owner of, in perpetuity: all skin cells, bodily fluids, secretions, excretions, hair samples, saliva, sweat, blood, and any other bodily functions not listed here. Delos, Inc. reserves the right to use this property in any way, shape, or form in which the entity sees fit.
What if many/most of the WW employees on the other side of the curtain are all bot clones of previous guests?
They have made a pretty big point this episode and last that Delos has no idea how to reproduce the Hosts. I think that's the core motivation of Theresa and the Board was to get the code so that they could do more interesting things with the tech other than have people play cowboy.
yeah, but even the old bots could apparently replace a large % of people's jobs. now suddenly decades later delos decides that has commercial value outside of a possibly financially failing theme park?
Something that I think is overlooked is the reference to the back-up of data off site. Maybe Maeve can finally "get out" of the park and into the "real world" with the backups that have been done outside the park.
My only concern for the possibility of this is that if Ford is truly concerned with backups and keeping everything contained, and if he knows everything, why would he let data get out of the park?
To me that scene read like Ford was actually the one getting the information or that the information sent thus far was inconsequential. He knew that she was attempting to send it out and allowed the behavior anyways. He's been planning her exit since at least episode one (IMO).
With the recent announcement of season 2 and Maeve's declaration that her motivation is to "escape," I can't help wonder if, going forward, the series will expand beyond the park. The creators have said that they plan on 4-5 seasons and I can't see not getting tired of a single setting for that period of time. It would certainly open up many more storytelling avenues as well as increase stakes. Just my two cents. Can't wait for the pod this week!
For real though, why can't the two techs just turn Maeve the fuck off and lobotomise her like they did Clem?
Because that can't turn her off, no one can maybe not even Ford.
If that's the case I don't know why there wasn't a scene where they tried to shut her down and failed.
But there is. When whole bar was shut down, the first time she wakes up on the table, when she gets herself strangled and wakes up again. I believe the show has shown us multiple times that she can't be shut down. Before I thought that she could just wake herself up, but after the bar scene I now think she "plays dead"
For real though, why can't the two techs just turn Maeve the fuck off and lobotomise her like they did Clem?
Because that can't turn her off, no one can maybe not even Ford.
If that's the case I don't know why there wasn't a scene where they tried to shut her down and failed.
But there is. When whole bar was shut down, the first time she wakes up on the table, when she gets herself strangled and wakes up again. I believe the show has shown us multiple times that she can't be shut down. Before I thought that she could just wake herself up, but after the bar scene I now think she "plays dead"
She is playing dead (I thought it was obvious) and the scene we saw last night just went to show she can play "frozen" as well.
Even though the internet figured out that Bernard was probably a host in like episode two, I was really impressed with how well the show made that reveal, the sudden musical cue when he said "What door?" and Sidse Babett Knudsen's reaction to the infamous "it doesn't look like anything to me" still gave me goosebumps. I'm still desperately hoping that she will be back (in 'host' form of course) because I'm a huge Borgen fan, but I just came across this image (http://imgur.com/a/SsvVD) on reddit* that I must have missed on the preview for next week.
As a side note, I made a post in a different forum and from what I have seen loosely through friends, the reveal hit as it should have. The only ones really "in the know" were Reddit visitors, podcast listeners and those who visit forums such as this.
Also, I believe I was against Bernard before, to those that stuck with it, congrats you weee right.
My estimate on Bernard's Attribute Matrix. Hardly any self-perception. High level of loyalty, cause he fell on his sword for Ford. High level of sensuality cause he'd give Theresa what she needed. Hayyyyyyy!
Not sure if it's been posted, but Ford's "blood sacrifice" line was his way of telling Theresa that he has the whole compound under survellience, right?
I'm amazed by all the positivity. The sappy bullshit between McPoyle and Dolores made the episode almost unbearable for me. And the Bernard reveal brings us into territory where we can trust nothing we see on screen and literally any hairbrained theory could be true, because the show is not above presenting false memories as if they're happening in real time before our eyes. Moreover, none of this secret identity shit speaks in any way to the subject of A.I. It's just the same "what if what you thought was real wasn't actually real???" stuff we've been getting for decades.
Ok while I agree with you about the Dolores/McPoyle stuff being a little to sappy it all took a distant backseat to the amazing reveals/confirmations of certain things this episode. And even if you are so entrenched with reddit/baldmove theories that it didnt surprise you the acting by Anthony Hopkins and Bernard in the firing scene and host scene were beyond breathtaking. Stop being "that guy" and enjoy the show for what it is....
Maybe I'm jaded from five seasons of the EXACT same plot on Battlestar Galactica, but the ol' "make it look like he couldn't be a robot and then reveal that he is a robot" trick, no matter how well executed, isn't amazing. Can't deny that the acting is amazing, through, and even if they turned this show into an extended pudding commercial I would still be tune in to see Hopkins and Wright act. And 'cause I like pudding.
@alexander.klassen I think the writers are aware of how hacky the robot reveals can become. For Bernard's, the reveal itself wasn't remotely near as important as his reaction to finding out. They really just teased it here and there, and then when the time came they just revealed it and moved on. The Walking Dead writers would have blindsided the audience with the reveal at the very last second of a season finale, and then spent 3 episodes of the next season showing Bernard's confused face.
For real though, why can't the two techs just turn Maeve the fuck off and lobotomise her like they did Clem?
Because that can't turn her off, no one can maybe not even Ford.
If that's the case I don't know why there wasn't a scene where they tried to shut her down and failed.
But there is. When whole bar was shut down, the first time she wakes up on the table, when she gets herself strangled and wakes up again. I believe the show has shown us multiple times that she can't be shut down. Before I thought that she could just wake herself up, but after the bar scene I now think she "plays dead"
Touche. I was thinking specifically of dumb and dumber - maybe we're supposed to assume they know she can't be shut down, but I don't think that's ever acknowledged. Unless one of them was frantically hitting the off button on their ipad to no avail and I just missed it.
EDIT: And to the original point, I feel like they could still just jam a screwdriver up her nose for the desired effect.
So a few weeks ago we were discussing why the staff wear hoods and lab gear when cleaning up the park, what with guests being potentially around. Well in this episode they walked into the bar in broad daylight, suited to the hilt, their only purpose being to collect Clementine. No blood, no "blood," no bodily fluids, no reason to be concerned about contamination at all, but they still show up in full hazmat gear.
And BTW, even assuming that the hazmat gear is necessary from time-to-time, why aren't they wearing the hoods in the butcher shop -- where they are dealing with open "wounds" and other fluids the hosts might be contaminated with?
@James i still don't know why they are in hazmat suits. When they did the recall there where tech in period wear. I can't think of a good reason for the sometimes hazmat sometimes regular clothes.
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Also, I believe I was against Bernard before, to those that stuck with it, congrats you weee right.
EDIT: And to the original point, I feel like they could still just jam a screwdriver up her nose for the desired effect.