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| ‘Westworld’ Season 1, Episode 5: The Search for Meaning | |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| The paradox of Westworld as a theme park is that guests come seeking a taste of freedom — no laws, no standards of decency, no limits beyond the horizon — but are, in fact, submitting themselves to a world that’s controlled, surveilled and quite literally programmed. It’s a fantasy of Old West freedom, and a potent one for thrill-seekers who give themselves over to it passively, chasing their animal desire for realistic shoot-‘em-ups and readily available android sex. But the more time spent in Westworld, the more the seams begin to show, and the behavioral patterns and loops start to look just as mundane and predictable as the domestic routines they’ve left behind. | The paradox of Westworld as a theme park is that guests come seeking a taste of freedom — no laws, no standards of decency, no limits beyond the horizon — but are, in fact, submitting themselves to a world that’s controlled, surveilled and quite literally programmed. It’s a fantasy of Old West freedom, and a potent one for thrill-seekers who give themselves over to it passively, chasing their animal desire for realistic shoot-‘em-ups and readily available android sex. But the more time spent in Westworld, the more the seams begin to show, and the behavioral patterns and loops start to look just as mundane and predictable as the domestic routines they’ve left behind. |
| Which leads me to this counterintuitive thought: Is the Man in Black really a villain? | Which leads me to this counterintuitive thought: Is the Man in Black really a villain? |
| Every week, including this one, the obvious answer would appear to be “yes.” He’s like Judge Holden in Cormac McCarthy’s novel “Blood Meridian,” a figure of fearsome intelligence and implacable evil who rapes, tortures and kills his way through a condemned Western landscape. The West in McCarthy’s novel is abstracted, too, in the way it amplifies the atrocities of scalp-hunters who trolled the United States-Mexico border in the mid-1800s, but the comparison ends there. As a technician pointed out earlier in the season, the Man in Black can do whatever he wants. His $40,000 a day entitles him to all the grotesque privileges the park has to offer and perhaps more, because he seems to enjoy benefits beyond what a normal guest is granted. There’s no evidence that he’s getting any pleasure out of what Alex in “A Clockwork Orange” called “a little of the old ultraviolence.” | Every week, including this one, the obvious answer would appear to be “yes.” He’s like Judge Holden in Cormac McCarthy’s novel “Blood Meridian,” a figure of fearsome intelligence and implacable evil who rapes, tortures and kills his way through a condemned Western landscape. The West in McCarthy’s novel is abstracted, too, in the way it amplifies the atrocities of scalp-hunters who trolled the United States-Mexico border in the mid-1800s, but the comparison ends there. As a technician pointed out earlier in the season, the Man in Black can do whatever he wants. His $40,000 a day entitles him to all the grotesque privileges the park has to offer and perhaps more, because he seems to enjoy benefits beyond what a normal guest is granted. There’s no evidence that he’s getting any pleasure out of what Alex in “A Clockwork Orange” called “a little of the old ultraviolence.” |
| The worst thing the Man In Black does in Episode 5 is slash Lawrence across the throat and dangle him from a tree like a stuck pig, collecting the blood that drains down from his neck. But Lawrence is not a human being. As the Man in Black says to the kid who fetches him water: “Don’t worry about him. Someone will be along for him shortly.” His reason for killing Lawrence is a practical one: He needs a blood transfusion to keep Teddy alive, so he can continue pursuing the deeper mysteries of the game he’s been playing. As viewers, “Westworld” has us questioning what it means to be human and whether the development of, say, a complex and independent conscience has turned the synthetic likes of Dolores and Maeve into more than just machines. But the Man in Black doesn’t see the hosts in that light. They are his means to an end. | The worst thing the Man In Black does in Episode 5 is slash Lawrence across the throat and dangle him from a tree like a stuck pig, collecting the blood that drains down from his neck. But Lawrence is not a human being. As the Man in Black says to the kid who fetches him water: “Don’t worry about him. Someone will be along for him shortly.” His reason for killing Lawrence is a practical one: He needs a blood transfusion to keep Teddy alive, so he can continue pursuing the deeper mysteries of the game he’s been playing. As viewers, “Westworld” has us questioning what it means to be human and whether the development of, say, a complex and independent conscience has turned the synthetic likes of Dolores and Maeve into more than just machines. But the Man in Black doesn’t see the hosts in that light. They are his means to an end. |
| The Man In Black’s intentions are revealed in a conversation with Dr. Ford, who ambles his way into a bar to share a whiskey with him. We’ve only gotten some hints about what the real world is like in the unspecified future in which “Westworld” takes place, but the Man in Black asserts that “every need is taken care of except one: purpose.” He says that, for most people, the park placates that need. They come for some thrills and scares and “sweetly affirmative” bromides, and then return home with some pictures, just like at any tourist trap. “But I think there’s a deeper meaning hiding under all that,” he tells Ford. “Something the person who created it wanted to express. Something true.” | The Man In Black’s intentions are revealed in a conversation with Dr. Ford, who ambles his way into a bar to share a whiskey with him. We’ve only gotten some hints about what the real world is like in the unspecified future in which “Westworld” takes place, but the Man in Black asserts that “every need is taken care of except one: purpose.” He says that, for most people, the park placates that need. They come for some thrills and scares and “sweetly affirmative” bromides, and then return home with some pictures, just like at any tourist trap. “But I think there’s a deeper meaning hiding under all that,” he tells Ford. “Something the person who created it wanted to express. Something true.” |
| The Man in Black is a seeker, in other words, looking for the same deeper sense of purpose and meaning that most of our principal characters are grasping to find. Perhaps he really is divorced from humanity, but there’s no evidence yet that he’s not merely playing the black hat in this enormous role-playing game, with a larger goal in mind. One of the more popular “Westworld” fan theories posits that the Man in Black and William are the same characters on separate timelines, but without indulging that theory too much, this episode does suggest some meaningful parallels. From the beginning, William has been reluctant to use Westworld for its intended purpose as a libidinous playground. He turned down the sexual advances of his escort and has actively tried to resist resorting to violence, at least until this week, when he wipes out three Union soldiers in a skirmish over a nitroglycerin heist. | The Man in Black is a seeker, in other words, looking for the same deeper sense of purpose and meaning that most of our principal characters are grasping to find. Perhaps he really is divorced from humanity, but there’s no evidence yet that he’s not merely playing the black hat in this enormous role-playing game, with a larger goal in mind. One of the more popular “Westworld” fan theories posits that the Man in Black and William are the same characters on separate timelines, but without indulging that theory too much, this episode does suggest some meaningful parallels. From the beginning, William has been reluctant to use Westworld for its intended purpose as a libidinous playground. He turned down the sexual advances of his escort and has actively tried to resist resorting to violence, at least until this week, when he wipes out three Union soldiers in a skirmish over a nitroglycerin heist. |
| In the sinner’s paradise of Pariah, with an “Eyes Wide Shut” orgy raging around him, William sulks over the events of the day, which have turned him against his vile brother-in-law and finally revealed his own capacity for violence. In a certain respect, he’s on the soul-diminished journey we expected him to take from the beginning, when he chose a white hat and tried to navigate Westworld as a hero. He’s on his way to becoming a Man In Black, because that’s what the park does to its guests over time. | In the sinner’s paradise of Pariah, with an “Eyes Wide Shut” orgy raging around him, William sulks over the events of the day, which have turned him against his vile brother-in-law and finally revealed his own capacity for violence. In a certain respect, he’s on the soul-diminished journey we expected him to take from the beginning, when he chose a white hat and tried to navigate Westworld as a hero. He’s on his way to becoming a Man In Black, because that’s what the park does to its guests over time. |
| Yet here’s the main thing William and the Man In Black have in common: They both recognize the park as a debased experiment, conducted by people with contempt for humanity. As William tells Dolores, it’s a “sick game” and he doesn’t want to be part of it. And so his journey, like the Man in Black’s, will have to take another form. | Yet here’s the main thing William and the Man In Black have in common: They both recognize the park as a debased experiment, conducted by people with contempt for humanity. As William tells Dolores, it’s a “sick game” and he doesn’t want to be part of it. And so his journey, like the Man in Black’s, will have to take another form. |
| So, too, will Dolores’s. In the most rousing moment of the episode — and maybe the season so far — Dolores guns down the nasty “confederados” who confront her and William about a double-cross over the nitroglycerin heist. “You said, ‘People come here to change the story of their lives,’” she says to William. “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.” | So, too, will Dolores’s. In the most rousing moment of the episode — and maybe the season so far — Dolores guns down the nasty “confederados” who confront her and William about a double-cross over the nitroglycerin heist. “You said, ‘People come here to change the story of their lives,’” she says to William. “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.” |
| For a character whose loops have forced her into daily violation and tragedy, Dolores has finally taken control of her destiny and there’s no denying the mike-drop thrill of her rebirth as righteous gunslinger. Perhaps she will come to share William and the Man in Black’s contempt for the game-makers — she likely shares it already — but for the first time, she has the freedom to see it through. | For a character whose loops have forced her into daily violation and tragedy, Dolores has finally taken control of her destiny and there’s no denying the mike-drop thrill of her rebirth as righteous gunslinger. Perhaps she will come to share William and the Man in Black’s contempt for the game-makers — she likely shares it already — but for the first time, she has the freedom to see it through. |
| Paranoid Androids | Paranoid Androids |
| • “Westworld” is a show in love with its metaphors, and Ford’s story about the greyhound and the cat sets up the theme of the episode nicely. Dolores has caught the piece of felt she’d been chasing around in circles, day after day, since the park opened. What does she do now? | • “Westworld” is a show in love with its metaphors, and Ford’s story about the greyhound and the cat sets up the theme of the episode nicely. Dolores has caught the piece of felt she’d been chasing around in circles, day after day, since the park opened. What does she do now? |
| • The Man in Black’s deep knowledge of the park’s origins comes through in a conversation with Teddy. He suggests that the hosts used to be a “million perfect pieces” but time and budget cuts have diminished them. “Your humanity’s cost-effective,” he tells Teddy. “So is your suffering.” | • The Man in Black’s deep knowledge of the park’s origins comes through in a conversation with Teddy. He suggests that the hosts used to be a “million perfect pieces” but time and budget cuts have diminished them. “Your humanity’s cost-effective,” he tells Teddy. “So is your suffering.” |
| • What to make of Lawrence’s appearance in both the Man in Black-Teddy story line and the William-Dolores-Logan story line? This would seem to support the fan theory that the characters are operating on different timelines, but how different are we talking? I’m terrible at speculation, but I encourage you to speculate away in the comments. | • What to make of Lawrence’s appearance in both the Man in Black-Teddy story line and the William-Dolores-Logan story line? This would seem to support the fan theory that the characters are operating on different timelines, but how different are we talking? I’m terrible at speculation, but I encourage you to speculate away in the comments. |
| • The threat of Dolores — and with it, the buried threat of Arnold — leads Ford to share another beautifully wrought metaphor with her: “Someone under all those updates, he’s still there, perfectly preserved. Your mind is a walled garden. Even death cannot touch the flowers blooming there.” | • The threat of Dolores — and with it, the buried threat of Arnold — leads Ford to share another beautifully wrought metaphor with her: “Someone under all those updates, he’s still there, perfectly preserved. Your mind is a walled garden. Even death cannot touch the flowers blooming there.” |
| • Intimations of robot revolt come through again in the cliffhanger, in which Maeve springs confidently to life on the slab. Her days as a docile sexbot are over. | • Intimations of robot revolt come through again in the cliffhanger, in which Maeve springs confidently to life on the slab. Her days as a docile sexbot are over. |
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