Season 2’s penultimate episode of Westworld, titled “Vanishing Point,” was the darkest yet. It was also so full of twists, I have no idea what the finale will hold. So in the aftermath of all this chaos, let’s try to figure out what the heck just happened on Westworld.
Delores
We may as well start with the episode’s shocking ending. Right before then, Ghost Nation (sans Akecheta, I might add), did a number on the “Deathbringer’s” posse as they tried to keep Delores from reaching The Valley Beyond. Only she and Teddy survived. After that, Teddy finally achieved self-awareness and decided to exercise his newfound free will. His death left Delores in a tailspin—and all alone.
All season it looked like Delores would be leading an army toward what she called the “weapon.” Thanks to a reveal earlier in the episode, we know this “weapon” (a/k/a “The Valley Beyond”) is actually called The Forge. It’s like the Cradle, but much bigger. A collection of servers carrying data on—and maybe even replicants of—all the guests. But how Delores is going accomplish her goal all by her lonesome is anyone’s guess.
My suspicion is that she’ll have to ally with one of the other characters heading there. And it may even be The Man in Black. This episode, the two became shockingly similar. Her actions caused Teddy to take his own life, just like William’s actions led to his wife’s suicide. And his daughter’s death too. Maybe …
Emily
William’s daughter has been one of the season’s most intriguing characters. She appears to have been on a revenge mission against her father, whom she blames for her mother’s suicide. Though earlier in the episode she appears to lie to him and suggest what she really wants is to be in on Williams’ immortality experiment. This seemed odd for someone so young, so maybe it was indeed a lie. If this is Emily at all.
For the second time this season, William suspects Emily may be a host created by Ford as part of his game. Throughout most of the episode, it appears this is just William’s paranoia talking. I believe this is probably the case. But maybe there’s more to it.
When the Delos security team arrives, they scan William, who comes up “clean.” I presume this means the scanner thought he was human, not a host. Yet we never see what Emily’s scan showed. Then, when William believes Emily said something she would not know, it reinforces his belief that she’s not real. So he kills her along with the rest of the Delos security detail, only for her to reveal she’s holding a card with recordings of William’s experiences in the park. The same card his wife accessed before she killed herself.
We know William’s wife put the card back in the jewelry box she gave Emily as a teenager, which Emily rejected. Emily even tells the story of throwing it in the trash, and then trying to retrieve it. But the trash had already been collected. She never admits to finding the box again, so how did she get the card?
Presumably, she found it later. If so, it would suggest William killed his actual daughter, which is both tragic and fitting given his dark character arc. Though if she’s actually a host, it diminishes this tragedy substantially. I suspect we’ll learn the truth next week.
William
Which brings us to William and whether he’s a human or a host. In a flashback to the night of his wife’s death, we see William rubbing his forearm in the place where hosts have a hidden data port. His wife even asks him. “Are you real?”
After he shoots Emily, William cuts into his forearm to find the port. We never learn what he discovers, but we again hear his wife’s voice. “Is this real? Are you real?”
I suppose it’s possible William could have achieved immortality by transferring his consciousness into a replicant. And maybe these replicants (as opposed to true hosts) can even fool Delos’ scanners. The weight of the evidence, however, is contrary to this theory. First, we’ve seen William age, and hosts don’t age. Second, we’ve seen no evidence William has ever been ill. I mean physically, not mentally. So what would have caused him to leave his human life for life within a host? Lastly, if William is a replicant, it lessons the impact of what he did to Emily. So my theory is that William is simply losing his mind. Again, however, the finale should reveal the answer to this question.
Ford
If there are questions surrounding William and Emily, there are even more surrounding Ford. First, it was Ford that gave William the card documenting his experiences in the park. Did Ford expect William’s wife to find the card too? In other words, was this the first move in Ford’s game? If so, it was a twisted one.
Then there’s the question of where Ford’s conscious is residing. It appeared that Bernard was able to delete Ford’s consciousness from his head. Though there is some evidence a piece of Ford may reside now with Maeve. After all, Ford just unlocked her “Core Permissions.” If Maeve wasn’t paying in God-mode before, it sure looks like she will be now. And she maybe even have a super-powered Clementine by her side.
And while I’m thrilled Ford saved Maeve (even if it annoyed me each time he tried to get Bernard to murder Elsie), I can’t imagine him controlling Maeve, whom he claimed was like a daughter to him. Rather, I suspect the rest of Ford’s consciousness is in The Forge. This is the place where I bet he has been running his new game, and he’s used it to draw all the players towards his endgame.
Back in Episode One, young Ford told William: “The game begins where you end, and ends where you begin.” That place, I believe, is The Forge, which according to William holds the answer “to a question no one’s ever dreamed of asking.” All paths this season have led to that place, and the mysterious flood Bernard encounters at the end of Episode One.
Needless to say, next week’s finale is going to be huge.
* Images courtesy of HBO