Before reading this article, you can read the three articles I wrote a few days ago ( "Westworld" S2 Review + Warm-up (Part 1): Echoes of History "West World" S2 Review + Warm-Up (Part 2): Immortal New "Westworld" S2E1 Clues: Upgrading ), which mentioned a lot of information, the phrase "details determine success or failure" is most suitable for "Westworld".
First of all, it should be clear that both Arnold and Ford in the play actually made the same "mistake": at the beginning, the self-awakening of HOST was regarded as a "pyramid" similar to that of human beings. The cornerstones from bottom to top are memory, improvisation, ( Ford believes that there is a layer of self-interest), and ultimately the core level, the higher the more difficult to achieve.
But Arnold later realized that HOST's consciousness was not a pyramid of linear development, but a cyclical labyrinth.
This is also the main reason why Arnold designed the "maze" for the first generation of receptionists. He wanted to use this program code to guide the receptionist through the process of awakening "from the outside to the inside".
Therefore, in the dialogue between Arnold and Dolores at the beginning of this episode, their understanding of the "dream" is correct: Arnold believes that dreams have no meaning, and are nothing and unreal things from a human perspective; Norris disagreed. She felt that her dream was what Arnold described as "real" and "irreplaceable" - the receptionist's dream was actually a memory fragment of their "past life".
Pick up all the pieces in the maze one by one, and the receptionist is not far from awakening.
This kind of feeling is like the feeling of entering unlocking fingerprints for new mobile phones . The mobile phone system does not record fingerprints according to any rules to follow, but randomly rubs the finger surface. We must constantly fine-tune the fingers to let the mobile phone record each fingerprint. Fingerprint information is the only way to complete the record.
If the central clue character of the story in the first season was Ford, then in the second season it became Bernard , and in his series of flashbacks shortly after the opening, in addition to some scenes from the first season, there are several points worth noting.
One is the appearance of Peter Abernathy.
He is the scrapped receptionist who was secretly sent by Hale to the Delos Company, and the company refused to rescue him because the "express delivery was not delivered" - the search for the missing Peter corresponds to the story line of Bernard and Hale.
The second is the interaction with Dolores.
Looking at Dolores' attire, it is exactly the attire after the "Blood Sacrifice Dinner" - the contact between these two special receptionists corresponds to the story bus of "What happened in two weeks".
The third is Bernard's shooting, and the footage from the main control room of the slaughter (maybe it can be further split).
That's the confusing part, too, because it's difficult to judge the timing -- no matter how you look at it, this scene ties into Maeve's storyline.
In addition, there is also a picture of Bernard (maybe Arnold) walking with Dolores in a dress, which will also lead to another clue in the future... It can be said that Bernard's broken memory is the story of this season. After setting the main tone and figuring out his experience, I basically understood the ins and outs of the story of the second season.
Therefore, I think that the multi-line chaotic narrative still adopted this season is not to make a mystery, but to let the audience experience this process from the same perspective as the receptionist. In this process, there are no 20% and 50% of the staged achievements of human beings, but only 1 -99% failure and 100% success.
After the "Blood Sacrifice Dinner"
This huge timeline can be divided into several branches according to the characters' experiences, but the specific sequence of synchronization is difficult to determine , but it can basically be assumed that it happened before Bernard woke up from the sea.
Bernard & Hale
After Dolores/Wyatt "leads" the receptionists to start slaughtering board humans, Bernard hides in the stable with Charlotte Hale et al. Ford's last story, where everyone becomes life There is no absolutely guaranteed "receptionist".
The villain Rebs (Old Cui) plays and kills the female director is a microcosm of this chaos.
After a group of people kill the stable boy and start to flee, Bernard finds a milky white fluid in his ears, which once again shows that he has understood his identity.
After encountering the trap set by Angela on the road and getting rid of the extra burden, Hale took Bernard to the secret underground laboratory. DNA access control is also effective for Bernard. If it is because of the authority of the late Arnold, then Bernard's identity may have already been worn out...
In the secret laboratory, Bernard also met a labor receptionist with a very "original beauty", but his intelligence seemed to be lacking.
This shows that Ford and Delos are rivals with each other. Although the latter has not completely stolen the information and data of "Westworld", it has made considerable progress.
Moreover, while the labor is extracting the receptionist's central processing unit, it is also collecting the information and DNA of the tourists ...
This is very scary to think about. Tourists who can come to "Westworld" to have fun are either rich or expensive (when William and Rogan came 31 years ago, the price of a day was 40,000 US dollars) , and established a DNA database of this group of people. , How much can the Delos company do?
The current situation is precarious, but the top executives of Delos have put the importance of "data" before the lives of the board members. It can be seen that they are determined to win the exclusive intellectual property rights of "Westworld" - of course, there may also be the nature of killing people with a knife and eradicating dissidents . .
In a word, if the "mobile hard disk" Peter was not delivered smoothly, the rescue from Delos Company would not appear, and Hale could only ask Bernard to help him solve this problem.
At this time, Bernard proposed a new setting: all the receptionists are connected, and like an ant colony, they can transmit some basic information, and he can use this to find Peter's location.
Bernard's move was to help Hale and himself. If he hadn't drawn the fluid from the receptionist to "charge" himself, I'm afraid he wouldn't be able to last for the next hour.
Dolores & Teddy
Arnold had been afraid of the future Dolores, and his concerns were justified, because Dolores even murdered with a trace of spirituality. The phrase "You are in my dream" is said at a unique level, and all the experience of the receptionist today will become the "dream" of tomorrow.
Dolores has two personalities : one is the daughter of a farmer, who is good at discovering the beauty and infinite possibilities in human nature; the other is Wyatt, the great devil, who only sees the ugly, ugly and dirty of human nature...
If Dolores knew nothing but murder, she would have just become Wyatt, but now she has a third personality .
"...But these roles are all imposed on me by you. Now that I am born in an old womb, I will play the last role, myself."
I agree with Bernard that Dolores killed Ford on her own volition, not on Ford's legacy . Instead of directly killing the three human captives, Dolores hung them up and gave them a slim chance of "living"—if they could have the same luck and strength as William.
Teddy was confused about this new life after a long run of 20 miles and blood spilled over the travelers. Seeing this, Dolores naturally wanted to comfort her lover and bodyguard.
Humans feel that receptionists look the same as themselves and need to be vigilant and even hostile, and vice versa - "foreign races" have long controlled our lives, thoughts and memories, and are our enemies.
Teddy was obviously reluctant to have such a war career. He felt that since he had a choice now, why not go away and avoid all this?
My dear, you are too naive... There is a bigger world outside, and it is not enough for us to win here .
Teddy worries that the receptionist "knows nothing" about the outside world, but Dolores says she does because she remembers it .
This is important information. There are obviously many gaps in the story of the first season. Dolores will then use her "dream" to fill in the rest. She may have been taken into human society before, or she may have been in human society before. She has experienced the human world (other parks?) in "Westworld", so she has the confidence and confidence to continue fighting with humans——
Combined with the teaser footage, a new timeline will follow, continuing the memories of Dolores' "past life" (the younger William will continue to appear).
In addition, Dolores also vowed to say, "We will end this" ... This also planted suspense for Teddy's appearance in the water.
Then Angela came to report "found", which is the "truth" that Dolores intended to let Teddy see, which should point directly to the real secret hidden in "Westworld".
"You humans only want to survive and kill, so you created Westworld and us." Following Dolores' words, the secret may not be too "friendly".
William & Robert
"Extreme Player" William survived the blood sacrifice dinner and climbed out of the corpse to start a new round of survival challenges, but the first living thing he saw was the mysterious dog that appeared more than 30 years ago .
There are too many brain holes in this paragraph, so I will not list them for the time being.
He dragged his exhausted body back to the hut, comforted the frightened mount Ned, desperately defeated the two armed receptionists, went into the house to treat the wound, and put on his level 99 black man costume, William's blood-stained face showed A long-lost smile.
This is my personal favorite scene in the first episode. Only people who have been pursuing for decades without fruit and suddenly heard about it can show such a cheerful smile.
This time, the gameplay experience of "Westworld" has undergone a qualitative change, and there are real dangers, and real consequences.
A dialogue in which William encounters Robert again is the equivalent of an eye in an entire season of puzzles: What are you going to do now?
Ford is dead, but his will lives in every corner of the "Westworld", and what Robert said is exactly what Ford said .
The MAZE (maze) designed by Arnold has blossomed under the catalysis of Ford's upbringing, and what is being staged now is Ford's newly designed program code and storyline DOOR (door) based on the "maze".
In Ford's game, there is no difference between humans and receptionists, everyone is just an ordinary player, and if you want to pass the level, you need to find the exit, the key "door" .
"This game is designed for you, William." Robert was right, and Ford gave William a little extra out of his "gratefulness" and unabashed "admiration" for his many contributions to William's history. Hint: The game begins at the end and finally begins (similar to the idea of HOST's awakening).
William took the game prompt calmly, and made a different move-in the past, he would deliberately avoid when killing, but this time he killed Robert who "needs no longer".
It was the little boy who was shot, but it was Robert Ford who fell in William's eyes.
Maeve & Heathermore
Heather was almost killed by the Wyatt of her own design, but Maeve, who turned back, saved her life—probably she felt that a man who was so cowardly was not worth killing.
Dolores and Maeve are currently the two receptionists with the highest awakening degree and the strongest dominance in "Westworld", but unlike Dolores, Maeve's control largely depends on her. Her high-level administrator privileges.
Need to recognize a reality: Except for a few awakened people, the vast majority of receptionists who "revolt" against humans are still driven by Ford's revised program instructions (of course, I have to insist that Demei and Mei are still under the control of the program. I also no way).
This makes Maeve look especially bleak to see those "ignorant" kindreds, which is why she helps the dying receptionist to escape.
For safety reasons, Heathmore volunteered to help Maeve, but he did not expect that the main control room had already fallen (this is a time doubt), and Maeve still insisted on going home to find her daughter.
Heather didn't understand Maeve's behavior, "Shouldn't you understand that it's all fake?" - Fake? What about my dreams, thoughts, and body? Neither is true?
Insisting on retrieving this "false" family relationship is the only annotation that proves Maeve is "true".
After killing the security team, Maeve didn't plan to quarrel with Heathmore, because he was going to return to the park next, and Heathmore was the most suitable guide.
And on this dangerous road full of unknowns, the two of them alone are not enough, so Maeve went back to Hector, the "brute force", and asked him to go with him.
Afterwards, the plots of healing, retrieving equipment, and changing clothes are the final preparations before going on the road.
Here I have to mention the "female bandit" Amesti who was in the rear earlier. She was also the first-generation receptionist and was designed by Ford as an important clue character. She also knew how to cut off her hands and shoot when making a scene in the backstage. , at the end of the first season, she survived with a wicked smile, and I wonder if I can see her appear again.
two weeks later
When Bernard woke up by the sea, two weeks had passed since the "Blood Sacrifice Dinner", so this timeline was to selectively reveal the "mystery", allowing the audience to guess what happened in the two weeks.
The re-emergence of the security captain Stubbs was the first suspect, and he went out of his way to help Bernard out of the search.
Stubbs had been "removed" by the receptionist secretly arranged by Ford before, and his life and death were uncertain , and Delos Operations Director Karl Strand obviously did not want to see the negligent security captain, which shows that he was in the incident. After contacting the main force - although he may have gotten away with it, he is more likely to be stolen by the receptionist.
The Delos Company has reconstructed a rudimentary holographic map on the coast. From this point of view, human beings have basically lost control of this place .
At this time, they are executing the captured receptionists in an orderly batch to ensure that the "retake control" battle plan is foolproof.
Among them is the villain Libus who "changed the target", which is also a proof of two timelines (not considering the possibility of restoring the production line for the time being).
The large-scale landing of the security forces and mercenaries of the Delos Company has drawn warnings from the Chinese military. It can be seen that the park is likely to be located on a large (artificial) island in the Chinese waters .
As early as the first season, the female steward Teresa Cullen had talks with Chinese managers. It is not difficult to imagine that the Chinese side also participated in the "Westworld" project and coveted the technology inside ...
At this time, the main force had just landed, and it was not an exaggeration to say that he was "blind", so Carl urgently needed "professional" Bernard to help him familiarize himself with the environment. The first step was to find a receptionist's corpse and extract it from his brain The core processor backtracks and reconstructs the blank history (scalping the "Indians" is really bad fun).
The "maze" pattern appeared on the inside of the scalp again, and the technician Costa and others didn't even know the meaning of this, let alone the "gate" designed by Ford (when Carl saw Ford's body later, he thought Ford was also ignorant. Victims)... Therefore, this group of emergency personnel who went to the island to deal with the funeral, like the group of panicked directors two weeks ago, did not know much of the truth.
The processor shows the final image of the receptionist before he dies: it was killed by Dolores 11 days ago.
Listening to Dolores's tone, she did not recognize the "qualification" of this same kind. In the literal sense, she carried out a "cleansing" of the receptionist shortly after the blood sacrifice dinner.
The most incomprehensible thing for everyone is that almost all the receptionists gathered together and became "floating corpses" in the sea - this sea only appeared out of thin air in the past two weeks, and even Ford couldn't do this silently. thing...
I think this is probably directly related to the "truth" in Dolores' mouth and the "secret" behind Westworld.
"animal world"
The specific area division in the park has never been introduced. The alarm in this episode mentioned riots in District 35 and District 42, and the fall of District 53, and reconfirmed that District 15, where Maeve's daughter lives, is a "harmonious family demonstration area".
In addition, there is the existence of the 6th area of "Animal World" , and there are many shots of artificial animals in this episode.
The first is the corpse of the bear in the occupied main control room , which is the main reason why I doubt the specific time of the branch.
Animals have always been decorative items in "Westworld", and wild animals such as large bison are not easy to see...
In this episode, there are several shots of the bison, and even the trailer and the new title show the bison. It seems that it is imperative to upgrade the receptionist to become a "Druid" ...
Now Carl and others have found the body of a Bengal tiger . It is said that "there has never been a precedent for a lost animal to cross the park", and there is one more abnormal phenomenon.
If you can understand what happened to the animals, it will be very helpful to understand the development of the whole story.
story puzzle
After seeing the "floating corpses" of the receptionists, Bernard fell into confusion again, and then he made another big news: I killed them.
Unlike the first season of " Cracking the Fog of Time ", the second season's story is more like playing a large-scale jigsaw puzzle , and the first episode has already put the frame and a few core puzzles in the hands of the audience (and a bunch of small puzzles). board), and then each episode will release some content to enrich it until the final splicing is completed.
This will be a whole process of "guessing puzzles". What I am doing now is just sorting and summarizing. How about giving you the part of opening up your brain?
[Everyone is welcome to pay attention to my public account "You Love Comment Area". 】
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