I watched it and thought it has a lot of potential. Looking forward to future episodes.

I've never seen the original Westworld, so the HBO show is my first exposure to the concept. Seems very cool so far.

I'll give it a shot now that my power is back on. Freaking hurricanes.

If they are able to perfectly replicate human biology to repair our wounds/diseases and make us immortal, as he claimed in the earlier episodes, then it's probably reasonable to assume the hosts are biological replicas of humans, with some type of computerized control unit instead of a brain.

What's to say that the 1 in a trillion anomaly that led to our consciousness hasn't happened to these biological bags of meat.

Totally. He is nurturing her curiosity like he would a child's.......

The black head scientist guy knew about the maze, so I don't think it's a secret. I think it's a form of test for the hosts, to see if they've developed consciousness. They make reference to the hosts getting freedom if they solve the maze.

My theory is that they've been programmed to know about the maze, but not to directly care about it. If one of the hosts decides to care about the maze, they've made some kind of conscious decision to do so.

Not sure what Ed Harris's role is yet, but I love speculating on all this. This is what makes a show good!

I think the maze is only a secret the to monetary backers of Westworld. It seems like Bernard and Ford know about it.

When Ed Harris's character is asking about the maze, the little girl tells him it's not for him, implying that it is only for hosts.

Up to this point I think we've believed all the people on the corporate side of Westworld were all together, but I think in the latest episode we actually learned that they are comprised of two or more groups. The creators and the backers.

Yeah, last night was solid. Anthony Hopkins is such a great actor. Really, everyone in the show has done a good job so far. I'm hooked.

I thought the show already confirmed it wasn't multiple timelines?

I agree that corporate espionage is going to be a part of how all this plays out.

I think Ford has suspected for some time that Arnold wasn't completely out of the picture, and I think maybe the story behind how Arnold really died is somehow tied to the center of the maze.

Ford seems to have telepathic control of the hosts, I think Teddy was acting on core programming (instinct), but when he stopped all the visible hosts when he ate with the woman that was in charge, he seemed to do that without pushing any buttons or saying anything.

I've seen enough articles debunking the multiple timelines that I really don't think it's that.

Good show for sure!

Yeah, what a good episode. Some really tense parts.

Being old doesn't matter anymore in that world. He says people never die in an earlier episode.

I think you are on a good track with the mind in a robot's body. My personal theory is that Arnold and Ford had two very different end games for the park. A lot of the references Ford makes have to do with having power and being God. The things Arnold has been given credit for, like Ford's family, all seem to be very human things to do.

I also think Arnold designed the maze as a new form of Turing test. Only hosts that had developed their own code would be able to find their way through the maze. Arnold might live at the center of the maze or his consciousness might.

There must be some reason they kept the hosts "intelligence" setting at a maximum of 14. Now that Maeve is super smart, I wonder what that comparison will be to humans. Can she take over the park?

One other thing that caught my ear, was when the butcher is explaining things to Maeve, he tells her she is identical to humans except for the brain. Does that mean the biological hosts could reproduce if they were left to their own devices? Could they have a baby?

Following that line of thinking, maybe the maze is just an unmonitored exit from the park. And if a host were to find it, they could potentially go live among the real world without being discovered.

He makes this speech in the first episode:

"Mistake? It’s a word you’re embarrassed to use, yet you’re the product of a trillion of them. Evolution forged the entirety of sentient life on this planet using only one tool: mistake… Of course, we’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive, and one fine day, perhaps we can even resurrect the dead, call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? That means that we’re done, that this is as good as we’re going to get."

Bernard's kid dying is one of the mysteries we aren't supposed to be able to solve yet.

They addressed that in this very episode.

The bearded butcher said they couldn't modify the values without setting off alarms, then Maeve revealed he has a way to do things and reset the host memory without alerting upstairs. Did you catch the part about how he is basically a pimp? He sells that service to other butchers so they can have sex with the hosts and not get in trouble.

I think there are a couple of different plausible reasons:

I get the feeling that there are different levels of modifications. The butchers seemed to just be messing with behavior attributes. They even referred to the pad they had as a behavior terminal (or pad, I cant remember).

Elsie said that Arnold was changing core directives. The things Arnold have been changing in code have also gone undetected until Elsie discovered the active transmitter.

The people responsible for detecting this stuff, QA, are obviously not detecting it. Elsie referenced them several times when she was talking to Bernard. Bernard also referenced how the two departments were supposed to keep each other in check.

Is it a coincidence that the head of QA is sending data out of the park through secret satellite uplinks? Maybe that has something to do with overlooking these changes being made.

Or maybe QA just does a shit job.

You guys are giving a lot of credit to workers for being aware of what's going on around them.

I work in a pretty big office building, and we have a "cold cut bandit" that they can't catch. He or she goes around to break rooms and will mess with food occasionally. Take a bite out of a sandwich, steal a dessert, etc.. The best was a veggie tray. The cold cut bandit took the time to bite off every single vegetable on the tray. All of them.

They even tried hidden cameras, but the bandit still rides today.

Point being, it's not prison, it's an office building. Weird shit happens all the time.

Good call!

Will he replace her with a host?

He may also be able to make more powerful hosts in his secret labs than the normal hosts.

What I do know is Anthony Hopkins is a freaking amazing actor.

I'm guessing this is the stuff that MiB invented.

Yeah I don't understand the argument. Those techs entire job is to return the hosts to new condition. The tools would of course work on a normal human body too.

One of the premises of the show is that humans no longer die from anything if they are treated in time. This has created the evolutionary problem that Ford has described.

There is so much untapped potential for upcoming seasons.

Sure seems like they are setting up for that, or they are making it so obvious as a red herring. Ford was able to stop Clementine even though she had no prime directives, which tells me there are more secrets Ford has buried in the hosts.

I'm gonna be the odd man out and say I still don't buy the dual timeline theory.

Elsie, and I agree that I don't think he killed her.

Season finale tonight. Anyone doing anything special?

Drinking games?

Every time someone says "that doesn't look like anything to me", take a shot. Every time a twist in the finale blows your mind, chug your beer.

I think there was something important there.

Ford said the way for a host to truly become awake is to make a choice not based on programming.

When Bernard was telling Maeve what her programming said, he said:

"You recruit other hosts to help you. Then you're to make your way to the train. Then when you reach the mainland..."

Except Maeve never went to the mainland. She made a choice to get off the train and go look for her daughter.

I think Maeve and Dolores are the only two hosts that are truly "awake" per Ford's definition.

(I got the text from the subtitles)

There's nothing that indicates Maeve will be the only one with that power.

Plus, if the theory about Ford's consciousness being alive and well in the software is true, Maeve and he will probably but heads at some point with regard to controlling hosts.

Alternatively, it's a weird thing to have Maeve pull puppet strings. She wants the awakening, but also wants to treat them like hosts when she needs something. There has got to be some internal conflict over that for her at some point. Maybe Ford will control her and she will realize she still can be forced to do things.

Loved the episode last night, confirmed a couple of theories too.

100%.

Everyone in the show has had some really hard acting to do, especially the hosts, but Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins are just one level above.

Yet....

How so? Teddy is basically a Terminator that never misses. Baba Yaga.

Hahaha, I definitely agree with that. William is not dead, even after all the damage he has taken.

Though, there are a lot of theories out there that William is a host. That he is the first successful transfer of a human to a host brain, he just doesn't know it. I don't know if I subscribe to that one, but it's out there.

One point that theory makes is that Ford told Bernard they hadn't figured it out yet, so William being a host would be a surprise to Ford which would be a good twist. Up until now Ford seems to be omniscient, or he knows that William is the first new-gen host and the game is to get him out of the park.

Didn't she print a new Dolores shell at the end? Just like she printed a new Bernard shell.

I couldn't agree more with that, it was used so much I'm just straight up confused at this point.