So season one of Westworld just ended. I kind of liked it, but agree with the sentiment that it was a little bit too much of a puzzle box — both in terms of the much-discussed twists and the attention paid to painstakingly laying out pieces that would or will or might add up to something in episodes or seasons down the road, at the expense of character.
* Spoiler Zone Ahead *
And how about those twists, huh? (I said there would be spoilers.)
William was the Main In Black! Bernard was a host! And he was Arnold, to boot! Ford wasn't such a bad guy after all! ... despite the unfortunate murder thing.
But for me, the biggest and most interesting twist, and the one that has me looking forward to season two, is actually — surprise! — character-related. Namely, the way Dolores and Maeve essentially swapped roles at the end.
Maeve, presented early and often as calculating and revenge-driven, was all set to go wreak havoc out in the real world — until memories of her non-existent daughter made her hop off the train and return to the lion's den, in hopes of finding said daughter. And Dolores — sweet, naive, loving and very forgetful Dolores — is the one with gun in hand, mowing down the fancily dressed and completely terrified Delos board. (And yes, I will stop to note the similarity of those names.)
Part of the setup for this twist was beating the "Maeve is assembling an army" drum for a few episodes — which we were led to believe would involve drafting the dormant hosts left cooling in the basement locker. Maeve even stopped by there during the finale — but only to check in on poor Clementine. It turned out she only needed an Army Of Two (Bloodthirsty Killing Machines) to make her escape.
And then Lee The Story Guy and Convenient Plot Pawn (whose name I had to look up) went down to the locker as well — and the place was empty! The hosts were all gone. They're now part of an army alright, this one creepily coming out of the woods, guns blazing (there's something new for you, Man In Black) and heading toward the real general: Dolores/Wyatt (oh, did I forget to mention that twist earlier?).
I liked the way this role swapping was handled. The show did a good job of keeping the Maeve and Dolores storylines separate — which made for some boring storytelling at times, but served the ultimate reveal well. It wasn't telegraphed the way the William/MIB reveal was.
We were certainly invited to compare and contrast the differing ways in which the two reacted to programmed stimuli and/or dawning consciousness. And I could see Dolores heading toward a place where Wyatt reemerged. And enough was made about how the death of Maeve's daughter became a foundational part of her personality (programming?) to soften some of the madam's killer instinct (and fuel it as well).
But much more emphasis was placed on the "obvious" reveals, and particularly in the finale on the emergence of Ford as a let's say slightly...flawed...man with good intentions — leading initially down a path that was focused on Ford's endgame, and pointed toward questions about free will and what, exactly, it takes to jump-start true sentience.
I say initially, which is another reason this worked for me. Maybe I'm slow, but the Maeve/Dolores switcheroo didn't even occur to me at the time. Meaning that the end of the finale worked as story first. Dolores was inexorably led to replay an earlier loop, with much greater consequence and much less chance of future deprogramming. Maeve faced her first big test of selfhood (I assume....). Stuff was happening.
It was only in retrospect that I saw where they had landed in relation to each other. It made me reconsider what we saw earlier in the season, and added a level of nuance that seemed to be missing much of the time. In contrast, consider the drawn-out speech the MIB made to Dolores revealing that he was William — that scene felt more like Exposition 101 than a dramatic dawning of awareness (even as good as Ed Harris and Evan Rachel Wood were).
To be fair, the William/MIB reveal was the end of a chapter. Positioning Dolores as the head of a host army, while having Maeve at least temporarily abandon her revenge fantasy and head off on a mission of mercy, sets up what could be a really interesting season two — not just host v. human, but conflict between differing factions within the host ranks.
This could, fingers crossed, make for some exciting storytelling, while also opening up the opportunity to explore Big Questions beyond free will — ideas about consciousness and conscience and morality and forgiveness, and how societies form, crumble and respond to evil. (Nothing topical there.)
So the season definitely ended on a high note. And maybe, like Jonathan Nolan's earlier series, Person of Interest — which evolved from a barely watchable vigilante procedural to become one of the best shows on tv for a season or two — now that all the throat clearing and infrastructure building is done, we'll get to see something amazing unfold in...wait, 2018? You're kidding me, right?