Westworld Season 1 Episode 10 'The Bicameral Mind' Finale Review

Hey guys, wow, wow is all I can say. We finally get to our Westworld finale here, episode 10 of season 1, the bicameral mind. And, um, in this episode, um, we got a lot of reveals, a lot of theories confirmed. I think some of the theories confirmed we pretty much already knew, uh, but it was just very interesting to see, uh, them develop and, uh, pan out, uh, you know, um, I, I think, um As it opens up and we focus on the man in black and his theory about being William, you know, we get to see exactly how he took those steps to become the man in black. William, as is revealed, as he reveals to Dolores in a very powerful scene where she's crying out basically that William will come save her, only not to know that the Man in Black is William. Um, so as the Man in Black in this episode, as he explains what happened to William how he became the Man in Black. You see, um, you know, him looking for Dolores as we get in the last episode, and he's, uh, he looks everywhere for her but he can't find her. But as he helps us to understand, he becomes he finds himself through the process. He learns more about himself, and what really gets him, um, to let Dolores go is when he returns to town and the hosts get replaced back into the Westworld storyline. This next version of Dolores is one that doesn't have the level of, uh, she, she doesn't have the consciousness, uh, or she's not at that level, uh, that she was at in the version that he met with. So he can see that she's, um, not identifying with him, that she's, uh, basically just following her program, uh, that the narrative has given her. And so, uh, the man in black, he goes on to accept and, uh, grasp the new, um, person he's become. But as you know, what we can see is, as we look back on the earlier episodes, we can also see or understand more clearly what happened with, uh, his family life at home, what happened with Logan, and how the pressure of the new person he found he was, uh, what pressures that created and how that impacted his family life back home, to the point it drove his wife, or Logan's sister, to commit suicide. And so with all this mounting up, um, you know, on William, it was expressed back as he went back into Westworld trying to find out what exactly the maze was. It's almost like he had thrown all of his life into the Westworld experience, you know. I would imagine after the trauma and losing so much and creating so much suffering and pain back in his real life, I think the only place left for him, or the only thing left, was his life back in Westworld, or his, his fantasy life, which had become his, his real life. So during this confrontation between him and Dolores and the explanation and him helping her to understand everything the place has taken from him as much as given him. Uh, he's still basically obsessed with finding the maze, and at this point Dolores hasn't quite yet understood what the maze is. She's getting closer, but she's not quite there. So The Man in Black, or William, he loses patience and he starts again trying to attack Dolores. I believe, I guess, in an effort to maybe drive the maze out of her, drive some answers out of her. But this time she fights back, and she fights, she fights back and, you know, breaks his arm. He's in a lot of danger. And, um, he manages to stab her, stab her with his knife. And, uh, but Teddy is on the way. Teddy seems to be going through his awakening, and he's starting to understand more about his role. And he gets there to save, uh, Dolores, uh, or what we believe to get there to save her from the man in black. And they're able to escape, and he shoots the man in black, but the man in black, he doesn't die. He's still able to get up and, you know, continue on trying to find the maze. Um, we get to the next scene where Ford, uh, steps up and he, you know, um, basically gives him— and it gives him the, the answer to what the maze is, that it was just a game, um, and that it's not, um, meant for him, not meant for guests, not meant for human beings, that this is something that's only meant for the hosts and the, you know, the Westworld hosts like Dolores and Teddy, etc. But it's very interesting because as we look at the title bicameral mind, you know, we're also introduced into— as Dolores goes on her journey, we're introduced to what that means exactly. What is the bicameral mind? By meaning to. So, uh, in her mind, as we go back further episodes on the series and we're able to combine everything together, we begin to understand that, um, you know, these hosts are hearing the voice of Arnold and they're listening to Arnold's voice, and Arnold's voice is telling them what to do. But through their awakening and through them reaching consciousness, and you know, it's basically explained with this game that Ford shows Arnold, uh, the man in black, to give him the answers he seek. But this, it's basically a game, it's a maze that, uh, Arnold's son would play with. And, um, so, um, Arnold's able to, uh, to further understand what this, um what, uh, how to get the host to consciousness. He first tries to build, uh, as he shows through a diagram, a pyramid where gaining consciousness is based on going up level after level after level. But he understands it's not that type of journey, but it's more like a maze-type journey. It's more inward journey. It's more of a discovery type journey. And these patterns we keep seeing, this that's representative of the maze, um, you know, is, is basically just a complicated, uh, program or way to gain consciousness. So, um, Dolores is finally able to get to the point of consciousness and understand what it is and that she figures out that it's not Arnold's voice that she had been hearing all that time. But as she awakens, she understands that it's her own voice, just like we hear our own voices in our head as we speak to the inner person we are, or we have that inner consciousness, uh, in us where we're able to listen to ourselves. That that second mind, or that second brain if you will, that bicameral, uh, mind, uh, which is, which is basically what they have when they show the hosts in Conversations with Arnold. It's like it's a second brain coming in. But in this, when they reach consciousness, it's only one mind. They understand that it's their own voice that they're listening to. Like how we've seen them, um, earlier in, um, some of the earlier episodes where you see all the hosts sitting in the church pews and they are basically going crazy because they're trying to figure out— they're hearing all these voices in their head and they're trying to figure out, I imagine, what it means or where, where it comes from. So a lot of them go crazy, but Dolores is able to understand and reach consciousness and, um, and figuring out that it's her own voice that she's listening to. So just an amazing, amazing episode. And then we move on to, uh, what's going on with Maeve. Maeve, she basically continues her escape plan And just a big action scene there as she's activating her band of hosts, um, or comrades that she's— she's— that's usually with her. And they just, um, go on this big, um, action sequence where the security team, uh, has become aware that, um, there is a, uh an escape in progress because they figure it out, because Maeve takes her band of, um, of hosts down to the cold storage area to, uh, release and free up the large number of hosts being held down in cold storage. So They basically are able to, or they trip some type of security system where they're aware that they're, you know, they have went down to cold storage and have unlocked that area. So they send in a security team, and that's when we get this Uh, this almost— it just reminded me of a Terminator-type, uh, battle sequence with, uh, uh, you know, robots against humans, uh, and, uh, you know, of course the, the, the robots are more, uh, trained than humans and they're more capable, and so they're able to secure weapons from humans and fight an army of the security team and just able to go forward on their escape and kill off all the security team members. And so they're pretty much out. They're about to get out. Uh, one of the hosts is actually trapped in a door, and so she basically has to sacrifice herself so Maeve and, uh, the, um, the host that Maeve, um, uh, who's the leader of the, of the gang, uh, I forget, I can't think of his name, but the, uh, the one she had the hot love scene with on the previous episode Uh, they're, they're rushing to escape along with Felix the engineer, uh, because he's still with him. He's still trying to get him, get him outside the park. And so they have this, uh, uh, um, uh, run for, you know, to run to exit the park. And as they're getting in the elevator and all, you know, almost at the you know, outside the park about to get to the subway system they used to enter, I would imagine. Uh, Maeve, uh, deprograms the, uh, uh, the— her partner, the, the host gentleman who led the gang, um, gang at the very last moment, and explains to him how she's an independent woman and that she can't allow him to escape with her. And so instead of him escaping with her, he's used kind of as a last-minute hold-off against, you know, the remaining forces that are now being sent to stop them. And they actually— she actually, you know, makes it to the subway, boards the subway, and But before she can do that, Felix gets her a last bit of information about her— the location of her daughter, and that her— that a version of her daughter is still in Westworld. But at this point, I think Maeve has accepted that it's all been programmed into her to believe that's her child. And so Maeve reaches a point where she feels she has to let it all go. And so she lets Felix know she's no longer going to be needing that information, and she does board the, um, the subway to exit out into the real world. But, um, you know, I think as Maeve actually goes through that process, she's actually becoming more human And as she's seeing how families react when they're together, she's seeing this go on, go on, on the, on the subway system in the compartments. And she's moved to not go any further but to return to the park to retrieve her daughter. So instead of, you know, after this big, uh escape plan, it's, you know, she's escaped and she's heading to the real world. She actually turns around and heads back to Westworld. So Maeve actually returns to Westworld, you know, but as she does, she does so at a time when Westworld is in utter chaos because What we find out as well is after Dolores gains consciousness, Ford, um, lets her in or enlightens her on a lot of information that we just weren't aware of. And that is, Ford, um, after 30-some-odd years and after Arnold's death Um, at some point over that time frame, Ford begins to understand what it was exactly Arnold was trying to do, what he had discovered, uh, with the conscious, uh, with the, with the host gaining consciousness. And Ford had actually started to work, um, with alongside Arnold, um you know, well, after Arnold's death, but still to carry on Arnold's legacy, to, uh, I, um, to free the host, so to speak, to, to now bequeath the world to, uh, or this world to the host, as to say they will be the new inheritors of that world, and that there is no longer a place for human beings. Because in other words, they have overstepped us, they have become more than us, and, and thus the, the world should be theirs, and that we now are, are surpassed and we are a thing of the past. And so Ford understands that And, uh, he helps now, um, Dolores, and he's, he's brought in, you know, Bernard. I'm, I'm sorry I skipped over Bernard had been recommissioned, but not by Ford, uh, seemingly by Maeve. Maeve wanted to, uh, um, uh, during her process of her escape plan, they actually cross, uh the place where Bernard had— where Ford had made Bernard shoot himself. And when she saw Bernard lying on the floor, she basically had Felix the engineer to put Bernard back together, and he was able to retain his memory and consciousness, and thus he was able to help to look at Maeve's programming, as he wanted to— as, I'm sorry, Maeve wanted Bernard to find out who had a backdoor program into her, her, um, her program, uh, basically feeding her information and telling her what to do. They was trying to get to the bottom of that, and Bernard was, um, trying to revealed to her that someone was still controlling her and, um, writing, still in control of her programs. But Maeve at this point did not want to accept it. She wanted to just ignore that because she really felt she was in control of herself. And I think at this point Maeve had reached a point where she was just tired of being controlled, and she really felt that she had been free from being controlled, you know, by humans. So Maeve just couldn't accept it. She wouldn't accept it, although it was pretty clear that someone still had control of her. And which begged the question that when Maeve does actually board the subway at the end to leave the park but then turn around and return to the park, it begs the question, did she do that of her own free will Or was it that whoever wrote the code, were they making her do that? And was it Ford? Was it Ford writing the code so that Maeve would do everything to ignite this revolution she ignited with freeing up the hosts? But folks, just bear with me. It's a lot of information. And this is going to have to be one of these— it just shows the complexity of the Westworld series. I watched it kind of late. I'm a bit tired, but I wanted to try to get this video out, uh, you know, while it was hot and while everything was going on. So I will have to revisit— I will have to revisit this, um, this, um, this video review and, uh, really get in depth into detail. So I think this is more going to be more or less a summary of the episode than a lot of my personal feelings and, um, careful study of what really was going on. But to jump back to what we were discussing about Ford and him revealing that he's been part of the entire, uh, situation, or with Arnold, and, um, and he— how he had changed and started to agree with Arnold and work, uh, with along with what Arnold was trying to do. Um, it's possible that Ford could have put the coal into Maeve to ignite this revolution, because also what's happening is Charlotte, um, the board member, she's, uh, pretty much let Ford know every— it's over, that he has to, uh, announce his resignation in a gala party they had, um, scheduled for that evening. And Ford was, uh, surprisingly to me, um, very accepting and pretty much laying down and not fighting her back, which initially made me feel he had some grand plan like he always has. And he did basically have it, but what, what was true and what he was saying was that he, he was stepping down and moving on. And, um, so he let her know that he would, he would be there and he would announce his resignation and that the board had, um, you know, um, were taking control of, of Westworld. But as I jumped ahead to kind of take a step back, in the revelation of William to Dolores, or the Man in Black, about whom he was and how he got to that place or that position he was in, the Man in Black reveals, you know, as William, he reveals that he holds most of the stake in the Westworld theme park, and that it was him. It was him that was able to keep the park going all these years from his investment and funding of the park. And I'm still skipping a lot of major things, but that was important that the man in black keep the park going because When Arnold discovered that the hosts in the park had consciousness, he basically created a program called Wyatt and mixed it with Dolores. So Dolores— that's another theory that's confirmed— Dolores is Wyatt and was Wyatt. And in this program, he wanted Dolores to kill all the hosts, kill herself, and kill him as well. And in order to hopefully through this disaster make the park not open and make it hard for it to open. In other words, he was trying to sabotage the park to keep it from opening after the host had become conscious because Arnold understood what would happen to the host and that the host would be held prisoner, would be conscious beings held prisoner in this park. So it, it would have worked, and it almost did, but the man in black, uh, William, after his, uh, experiences with the park, he felt he had to keep it open. And in his wanting to understand what it was all about, his funding kept the park open. So, you know, it's basically revealed that the man in black is basically in control. His shares and his The board is basically in control of Westworld, and so Ford knows his time is over and limited. But what he does is the same gun that, um, the same gun that he— that was used to kill Arnold by Dolores acting on the Wyatt program, uh, is left um, in the same room where he's explaining to Dolores everything that's went on and what's been his role in this entire thing. And he lets her know that that gun's there. And, um, you know, also, uh, you know, indicates to her she knows what she needs to do with that gun. And not in so many words, but she gets the understanding that she knows she has to take that gun, and there are certain things she's gonna have to do at that gala party that's going on, that's coming that evening. So, uh, basically, uh, during the gala, uh, Ford's giving this, um, this very, uh, interesting speech because, uh, one of the gala festivities— or I'm sorry, one of the gala uh, presentation, presentations, or, uh, uh, um, one of the galas, uh, um, I'm at a loss for words now, but, uh, there, this, it's a, uh, it's almost like a stage production because what's happening is as we're watching Teddy and Dolores and, uh, she's bleeding out after the man that death stabbed her, she wants Teddy to take her where the mountain meets the sea, which we keep hearing references to, uh, throughout the series. And she's having these flashbacks where she dies there, and that's basically what happens is Teddy's carrying her off as one of her final wishes to this area where the mountain meets the sea. It's actually part of the narrative or part of a story, the story production. That's the word I was trying to look for, the narrative production And it's, it's, it's actually all part of Four's narrative. So when Teddy gets her to the sea, the lights come on. It's like they're sitting on a stage and the entire, uh, board and, uh, visitors and, uh, attendees of this gala party are there just sitting, sitting down and, uh, as an audience in chairs watching it like it's a stage performance. So You know, basically he has Teddy and Dolores, you know, he freezes the program or freezes their program. Then he has them cleaned up and taken away. And then he gives this speech about his retirement, you know, about, you know, his legacy. And I believe he quotes some poetry, some famous poetry from someone. And, um, so Dolores, at this point, she's been, um, you know, back online, you know, back active. And she remembers, uh, the conversation that Ford had with her and about explaining everything and all the work he'd done with Arnold. And that they were basically working together, that Ford had, uh, basically come over to his line of thinking and had started actually working towards helping the hosts come into their own. And so, um, that's when he mentions he puts the gun in front of Dolores so that she can, uh, understand, uh, what's— what she needs to do. That in order for them to have a, uh, what I'm getting at, the idea is in order for the hosts to really be free, they're gonna have to get rid of the humans. So, uh, during the gala, as Ford's giving his speech, uh, Dolores walks up behind him, pulls a gun out, shoots him in the back of the head, and then she starts firing on everybody in the crowd. So, uh, you know, basically it, it would seem that the hosts are trying to, um, are basically understanding that they have to get rid of all the human beings in order to really be free, that they're not going to be able to live alongside human beings. So, um, you know, uh, the hosts that were in cold storage and then these marauders we we have been seeing, uh, throughout, uh, the, um, earlier episodes. And some people were saying that they were like the minotaurs or the who guard the maze, uh, those figures, or Native Americans or whatever they were, uh, a band of them at the gala party. They just emerge out of the woods. So it looks like it's going to be a slaughter of every human and everybody at this gala party. And it looks like it's, it's just going to be this big host revolution, and they're going to fight off everyone there. And I don't know if they're going to venture off into the real world, which may be what season 2 is going to be all about. And I imagine this was the prequel to everything season 2 is going to be about, maybe the hosts now going on to um, you know, uh, make the world their own. Because that's the overall message through the episode, uh, I seem to understand, as well as Dolores was telling the Man in Black that there, there's something better and they're gonna walk over their bones. So it seems to be this overall idea that the hosts really need to get rid of the humans. And so it's going to be interesting to see what's happening with season 2 and who survives. Because as everyone was being slaughtered at that gala party, we don't know who's gonna survive. But I have heard that, uh, Ed Harris, who plays the Man in Black, or William, he is signed on for season 2. I don't know how long he's gonna be part of season 2. I don't know if he's gonna just have a short role where he's dying, but everybody's being shot and killed at the gala party at the end. So I don't know if there's going to be any human survivors at all, or any survivors from the first season, or I don't know if the second season is going to just be a totally different direction. It could take place in the future, it could take place so many months after. Just never know how this is going to go down, but just an awesome episode. And like I say, I will have to revisit this when I'm more coherent because It was late after I finished the episode. Um, it is just a lot of information to digest and put properly into words, and I am doing this ad-lib, so I didn't really take any notes. I just kind of, uh, tried to take in as much as I could with my brain and just put it out. So I do apologize for that, but I just want to keep you all set, um, get you all set up for what will be my revisit video to this, where I can really break down scene for scene what's going on. But anyway, anyway, folks, that was Westworld for tonight, and I hope you all enjoyed the episode as much as I did. Stay tuned to this channel, like and subscribe if you enjoyed this content, and and check out my other videos as we're going to try to find something to fill our Westworld slot. And I think we have some candidates in mind as 2018 looks like it's going to be the date that the show is going to be put back in production, and that's a very, very long time. And so we're gonna have to cope and try to get through it. Well, anyway, take care, folks, and thank you for being with me.