WW 2x09 – Happy Fathers Day, William!
“Tell me one true thing.”
“Is this real? Are you real?”
Well, pretty sure this episode just derailed my William is a host theory. I’ve been waiting for Emily to get shot since her first episode to close the loop on her way of testing her potential lover to make sure he wasn’t a host. However, I was not expecting William to be the one doing the shooting. If William were a host, his killing Emily would lose all emotional impact. Plus, based on that final scene, it’s clear that William is hoping he is a host so he can have an excuse for what happened rather than face is own breakdown.
The flashback to the gala for William was a nice parallel to the flashbacks of Jim Delos’ retirement party, even to the point of William displaying a physical discomfort with the way he was rubbing at his arm to parallel Delos’ cough of impending death. But now, what makes that parallel even more interesting is the fact that we saw Delos’ reaction to finding out he was a host and not in control of his responses and action, how his consciousness was too much for the external storage unit, and how that made him slide into madness as a result of the degradation of the technology holding his consciousness. So now, I am expecting to see the juxtaposition of William’s reaction to finding out that he is not a host and is in control of his responses and actions, and that his slide into madness is not a technological failure, but rather the result of his obsession with the park and with Dolores.
All along I was assuming that Ford’s ultimate fuck you to William would be setting up this game for William, who has been on a suicide march since S1, to discover that he has been a host who can be brought back to life over and over again, regardless of how many times he tries to die. However, at this point, I would not be surprised to learn that part of William’s goal in setting up the Forge was to find a way to implant his consciousness in a host body and go back and live in the park with Dolores for eternity, as his twisted version of a heaven.
The parallel between Teddy and Juliet’s suicides was also interesting to see. Each of them devastated by the person they love, being turned into something else as a result of their love and trust in that other person. Each thinking that the only escape from the other person’s control was by taking their own life. And each one’s suicide being used to further their SO’s story…
The one disappointing aspect, to me anyway, was that the playback of William’s profile showed him attacking Dolores from the 1x01. I had been under the impression that William started his search for the maze after Juliet’s death and that he didn’t start getting violent with Dolores until then. In other words, I assumed Juliet’s suicide was the trigger for William to start his full emersion into the park. Which would fulfill the parallel of Teddy’s suicide being the trigger for Dolores to stop or change her march of death and destruction and change to a more compassionate/conscious goal.
Things I’m still thinking about:
Ok, first things first, the final battle of the robot revolution is going to take place at Valley Forge? oy vey...
Teddy and Bernard each fighting so hard to overcome the forced changes to their personalities by Dolores and Ford, respectively.
The buzzing/network overload sound effect every time one of the woke hosts fights being controlled fitting in with the original fly theme, and also perhaps showing the strain on the network caused by hosts becoming conscious?
Although Bernard didn’t have to fight at all to avoid the effects of Clementine’s control over the other hosts even though he was in close proximity to her.
Did the moustache twirling tech isolate to few lines of code so that Clementine has no control over any host that is some level of woke?
Or is Clementine’s reach limited to hosts that are within five feet of her? Which will make her useless in a fight against Maeve.
Was Ford’s ride along with Bernard long enough for Ford to have time to integrate himself into the hosts’ mesh network?
Speaking of, if the mesh network is still up and running that must mean there is a different server somewhere hosting that right? If the cr4-dl was the server, wouldn’t the network have gone down when the server was destroyed?
Also, is there a little bit of Ford in all the hosts now? The creator is a part of them all?
Alright, Dolores is Arnold’s child and Maeve is Ford’s – so are we getting an Adam and (St)Eve, Cain and Abel set up?
I still can’t get over the revolution being fought at Valley Forge…
Calling the server for the human consciousness “The Forge” feels more like greek or norse mythology than the typical Christian symbolism the show has been (over) indulging in.
I don’t buy Ford/Bernard’s explanation to Elsie about the purpose of the Forge. It felt like Ford took over in that moment to stop Bernard from telling her the truth.
What exactly did Elsie ever do to Ford that he’s so hell-bent on having Bernard off her?
We’re calling Ford in Maeve’s head Faeve from now on, right?