desmondluverbrotha

I can't wait to see what happens next

stlavin95

Sure it will be great

desmondluverbrotha

It was pretty amazing, I guess the show is ramping up for the season finale I am excited to see the next episode but bummed that it is almost

stlavin95

It's going to suck when the season is over

desmondluverbrotha

It is because we had to wait so long for season 2 and probably will wait awhile for the third season

stlavin95

Probably another 2 year wait

desmondluverbrotha

I hope not

PhoenixRising

Wow, that was certainly a tragic, shocking episode. This was heartbreaking for William, realizing that he'd just killed his daughter, mistaking her for a host, and how far gone he is to where he can't tell what's real and what isn't anymore, even cutting into his own arm to see if he's a host-human hybrid.

Oh, and did anyone else notice that scene when William and Juliet were at the party at the start of the last episode, when Juliet asks him if something's wrong, and he tells her, "No, of course not," and she replies, "Good. Look around, everybody's here for you. What could possibly compare?" Then she walks away and he sees Dolores walking towards him with a tray of champagne glasses, which then turns out to be just an unknown blonde woman serving champagne. After 30 years he still can't get her out of his mind, which is why he told Juliet that he never really belonged to her or to this world, and that he belonged to another and always has.

And with the Cradle gone, both Teddy and Clementine are permanently gone because as Dolores herself said, it was what chained them to Westworld and now they're free. But being free also means that there's no coming back from death. The only thing that's stored in The Forge are the minds of the humans who have had their consciousness copied and transferred into control units waiting for implantation, like James Delos, and apparently Logan. Teddy's final act of free will and rebellion was to throw Dolores' hypocrisy right back in her face and show her that she'd become just as bad as the thing she was fighting against.

I think it's all gonna come down to Maeve vs. Clementine. And did you notice how Maeve is the only one who's managed to keep her entire group alive? Hector, Armistice, Lee, Hanaryo, Felix, and Sylvester are all still alive and finally catch up with Maeve in the season finale trailer. They all look on in astonishment as Maeve unleashes attacking host bison on the Delos guards.

Here's the trailer. And am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Is that William pointing his gun at Dolores' head and then Dolores is holding William's gun and setting the hammer back at 0:41, and William and Dolores riding side by side towards the valley at 0:37? Talk about couples' therapy.

stlavin95

Me neither, but I doubt it will come out next year

Mori

The wait sucks, but I'd rather they take the time they need to make something amazing than rush out something awful. As bad as the wait is, it sucks even more seeing something you love go downhill. Just hope I'll still be alive then to see it.

PhoenixRising

I hope the wait isn't that long either. I hated having to wait from December 2016 to April 2018, and it felt a lot longer than it actually was. But I also don't want them to rush things either. I just hope they have story ideas already planned out.

I found this cool article on all the literary references that inspired Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy when it came to creating Westworld, aside from Michael Crichton's 1973 movie, that is.

What the Literary References in ‘Westworld’ Might Tell Us About the Finale

William himself is based on a character from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five(the same book William put his profile card into that his wife found), about a man named Billy Pilgrim(William hates being called Billy), a soldier who survives the firebombing of Dresden in World War II and then becomes “unstuck” in time. Westworld’s disjointed, nonchronological storytelling parallels with Billy’s story in the book. William's love of books is also a reflection of the show runners, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who have William making references to Plutarch and Greek mythology. The Maze is also a reference to Greek mythology, as it comes from Theseus and the Minotaur, which is another Plutarch story about a protagonist trying to find a monster at the center of a maze(Wyatt).

And then there's Romeo and Juliet, which is the inspiration for William and Dolores' story. How do we know that Romeo and Juliet is an inspiration and a reference in the series? "These violent delights have violent ends." This is the most popular phrase in the series, and it comes directly from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, spoken by Friar Laurence when he secretly marries Romeo and Juliet:

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

And what was the name of the host who met William and Dolores on their journey together in season 1? Lawrence. Like Romeo, William fell in love at first sight and spends half his time asking a guy named Lawrence for help. Also, William’s wife is named Juliet. Instead of William and Dolores’s love being forbidden by warring Capulet and Montague families, it’s the species divide between hosts and humans that derails their relationship. William and Dolores are headed for a showdown in the season finale and may end up with a Romeo and Juliet type ending. Who knows?

And there's also the Biblical references. Ford constantly quotes Genesis and the story of creation - “I don’t think God rested on the seventh day. I think he reveled in his creation, knowing one day it would all be destroyed" - and the flood in the valley can been seen as a reference to the great flood of Noah's ark. There's also Exodus, with the reference of the parting of the Red Sea, and Moses leading the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, which parallels Dolores' journey to find the valley beyond. And perhaps The Forge is a lot like the Ark.

There's also Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, where The Riddle of the Sphinx(the title of episode 4) is about birth, life, aging, and death - What creature walks on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening? Answer: Man. This references James Delos' quest for immortality. Delos itself is the name of an island in Greek mythology where the Titaness Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis, the gods of the sun and moon. And like Oedipus, William accidentally kills a family member, only Oedipus kills his own father, and the realization of this causes him to stab his own eyes out, whereas William cuts into his own arm, wondering if he's even really human.

In Episode 4, James Delos is reading Kurt Vonnegut’s The Siren of Titan, which is about how all of human history culminates in delivering one guy one small metal piece to fix his spaceship. The obvious parallel is that the horror that all of the hosts have gone through in Westworld is just a means to an end for the humans. The main character, Constant, concludes at the end of the book that: “A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” This is of course, the key to Maeve's sentience, her love for her daughter.

Mori

Wow, that's really cool stuff. They really know what they're doing.

PhoenixRising

I know, right? Nothing is just off the cuff or made up on the spot. There's a reason for everything.

stlavin95

That's really cool

desmondluverbrotha

Thanks for sharing that, very interesting stuff. The finale looks awesome