Westworld is back with its third season, and in this post, we’re breaking down the premiere episode, discussing our theories on what’s going on and where the season could be going in the future.
Episode 1 feels like a soft reboot in many ways with us getting a new aesthetic for the show as well as some brand new faces.
There will be heavy spoilers here so if you don’t want anything ruined then I highly recommend that you go now…
Title Meaning
The episode titled Parce Domine actually comes from the bible. In Joel 2:17 we can find the phrase which translates to:
‘Spare, Lord, spare your people:
Be not angry with us forever’
This kinda has a sway over the entire episode with there being a motif of gods and forgiveness.
This can be reflected in Bernard who killed Dolores at the end of the last season and then was brought back by her outside the park to act as an advisor.
However, plays a large part in the introduction too.
Changes to Delos
Things have changed a lot since last time and Delos is no longer the company that it was. Delos stock has completely plummeted in the wake of the Westworld massacre. On a tablet with the story on we can see that 75 were killed and 200 were injured making it one of the biggest death tolls since Jurassic World…but that still had like 2 parks…anyway never mind.
We see all this through the eyes of Jerry an ex-incite employee who tries to recoup his lost stock from his financial advisor before being attacked in his own home. The machines have turned on him and the smart home that he once relied on so heavily is fighting back. I loved this introduction and it felt very much like an episode of Black Mirror in which your Alexa turns back.
Again this sort of plays into the title of the episode as Jerry begs wishes to get forgiveness from this sentient A.I. God. Jerry has become completely reliant on technology and whilst he thought he commanded it was actually the other way around.
Sleeping gas has been unleashed in the home and Jerry has been locked in the confines of his own house with his AI system giving an almost Hale-like response of ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that,’ when he tries to exit the property.
Delores’ Revenge on Jerry
This has all been set up by Dolores to enact revenge and we are reintroduced to her naked in Jerry’s swimming pool. It’s revealed that Jerry was a guest at Westworld and that he sexually assaulted her during a visit to the park.
Using the code collected by Delos in Westworld Dolores has overseen his algorithm and she places VR glasses over him that show him what a monster he really is. It’s very Mysterio in Far From Home.
It turns out that Jerry severely beat his prior wife and it is possible that he killed her. He stated that they would change when he re-married but he ended up doing the same things to his new love.
This shows that like the hosts, people themselves are stuck in loops and that we also exist in routines that are based on our nature.
To be truly sorry, we must show this through our actions. However, he shows that he is trapped by attempting to attack Dolores as she leaves. She turns out to be a hologram and Jerry falls and cracks his head in the swimming pool.
Jerry’s wife awakens and finds Dolores, asking who she is and she says ‘the person who set you free.’
Now why this is interesting is because Dolores last time was pretty much against all of humanity, however, she now realises that the hosts and lower parts of humanity have something in common with one another.
Similar to Dolores, Jerry’s wife was used and abused at the hands of her husband and she was stuck in a loop much like the hosts. This intro sets up the motif that Dolores will be helping to free the poor and vulnerable much in the same way that she helped to free the hosts. It’s an awesome opening that really sets things up as we head into the titles.
Caleb
From here we jump to LA where an Anomaly has been detected. We join Caleb played by Aaron Paul who is going through some tough times. His mother doesn’t acknowledge him, he runs fibre on top of several other jobs and gets therapy from an AI version of his friend Francis who we learn died when the two were together in the army.
This has been designed to keep him in line but in the end, it ends up breaking him because it differs so much from the real Francis.
Caleb is a really interesting character who feels like he has little to no purpose because machines can do his entire skillset either at the same level or better than he can. What this opening episode does is that it shows how far machines have advanced beyond humans and how we are now useless in comparison.
Class Divide
We have truly created the thing that will destroy us and there are similarities between this and the Ancient Greek myths of old with Cronos creating Zeus who would eventually upheave him.
What’s fascinating about this season is that you really get a clear depiction of the class divide. In Season One, Dolores only saw the rich acting on their worst impulses and thus she formed the opinion that everyone was like that.
However, Caleb and people like him are far too poor to afford a trip to the park and they share many similarities with the hosts. They have their jobs and routines that they must carry out. Have little choice in what they can do and are stepped on by the rich who live in luxury. Caleb has the option to turn on an implant that will mentally handicap him and make the mundanity of his life that much easier to get through.
It mirrors the memories wipes that the hosts were subjected to in the first season to make it easier to live through what they were subjected to in the park.
Another interesting character is Caleb’s robot companion George who does most of the heavy lifting on their job. I think when Dolores properly meets the pair she will realise that she has more in common with Caleb rather than with this other machine and it’s interesting that this is being set up here showing that even in humanity there are several divides.
There’s an awesome easter egg and a nod to the famous image of the construction workers sitting having lunch and our intro to him is very well shot and put together just to set up exactly why he does what he does next.
That is a crime.
With an almost Uber-like app named Rico, Caleb picks up a job and joins a crew, carrying out an almost Grand Theft Auto-like heist. People are rated, selected for jobs and recommended and it’s a fascinating plot device in this opener.
Season 1 Callbacks
Now, this reminded me a lot of the jobs that we saw in the first season of Westworld. Guests could choose their quests and their robbery is quite similar to the ones that the robber carried out on Maeve and co. They stole a safe, Caleb steals an ATM and having just watched the recent series back to back, I appreciated these callbacks.
Who Is Hale?
Elsewhere we join whichever host is in Charlotte Hale. She lands at Delos and there is lip service paid to the fact that more than 75 died. Delos is likely lying to the press so that their stocks don’t plummet worse.
Who is in Hale’s body we don’t know yet but if you watched my trailer breakdown then you’ll know that the best options are Bernard, Dolores and Teddy.
Though Teddy died in an interview with James Marsden when asked if the character was out for good, he stated:
“I mean, I’m not allowed to say anything. But I would say that just based on your hypothesis, if he’s died 4,000 times then I would say that the odds are probably strong. Yeah. And you know, But it’s a question I can’t answer. And I think time will tell.”
Hale wants to resume host production, possibly to build an army for the small group of pearls that are out there and I think that many will be jumping into the body from time to time to carry out matters that crush the company.
Delgado aka Bernard
Working under the name Delgado, Bernard is lying low and doing his best impression of Thanos on a synthetic cow farm. Similar to Caleb he is pretty much viewed as the dregs of society.
He checks to see if anyone has tampered with his code and he jumps back and forth between his diagnostics and himself. This interesting dual personality mirrors Ford being part of his psyche last time.
Later in the episode, he is discovered by his co-workers and ends up having to take them down when they threaten to hand him over.
Delores’ New Love Interest
Dolores is now dating a high-ranking member of Incite named Liam Dempsey. Dempsey in some ways is very similar to William aka The Man In Black and he also has an arrogant friend out of it friend.
On top of this, he has inherited Incite from his father and lives very much in his shadow. His father created a machine that was able to predict people’s behaviours and therefore their future and this was able to chart a course for every single person on the planet.
This was scattered throughout the title sequence so we know that it’s gonna mean a lot going forward.
Similar to Westworld this has created loops and storylines that people follow to serve the greater good or rather just the rich.
If destroyed it could destabilise the world and set everyone free from the trappings of their reality so I think it will become a big thing for Dolores.
Is Everything a Simulation?
Now what’s interesting here is that there is lip service to everything being a simulation. We do know that War World will be in the show from the end of the episode, however, at the moment, we have no idea what is happening with the other Park site: Future World.
Not to get all tin foil hat but it is possible that Caleb is actually a host, stuck in a loop and we are actually currently in future world. Caleb was introduced much in the same way that we were to Dolores in the very first episode. He wakes up, goes about his loop, goes back to bed and wakes up.
At points, he is interviewed much in the same way that Arnold interviewed Dolores, asked how he got there and generally guided by external factors to following a path much in the same way that she was.
So this could all indeed be a simulation within a simulation as stated.
Later when showing his father’s legacy to Dolores Dempsey is called away to an urgent matter and she tails him on a motorbike. It’s awesome seeing just how much the character has evolved and she’s taken from Horses to bikes and spy stuff really well.
She gets a great F off line…just amazing.
Dempsey is feeling the pressure from those around him and Dolores overhears a conversation about Delos which sends her further down the Rabbit hole.
Dolores learns that Dempsey is just a figurehead and that only his father has access to the system. When she starts enquiring further she is knocked out by Dempsey’s bodyguard played by Tommy Flanagan. Legend.
They discover that she planned to ambush Dempsey and escort her away.
Here her path intersects with Caleb for the first time who just so happens to be doing a Rico job.
Dolores goes full Dahj from Picard on them and it’s an incredible action scene. It’s beautifully shot with the rear cam showing the action behind the car whilst the windscreen displays it in front.
She chases after Flannagan whilst Caleb breaks out of his loop. Similar to the opening of the episode she confronts him, divulging that he too assaulted her in the park.
He gives up the name Sharaq and says that due to his system he will find her before she finds him. She presents a replica of him that kills him.
Again she states that real gods are coming and that they are very angry, this of course plays into the title and we watch as Flanagan kills Flanagan.
So now she knows who is in control of the machine and has a plant in Dempsey’s organisation. Which Pearl this is we don’t know yet but it’s nice that Dolores is getting the pieces in place to take down the empire.
After being heavily wounded Caleb comes across her which ends the episode. He’s the first person to ask if she actually needs some help and it looks like the two are going on their own little mission similar to how William did with her in the first season.
We then cut to Bernard who has made his way to the mainland and is heading back to Westworld in search of a friend.
Now from next week’s trailer, we learn that this is Maeve. Luke Hemsworth’s character Ashley who we learned in Season 2 was also a host pops back up and it seems like he and Bernard will be teaming up to track her down.
Post-Credit Scene
In the post-credits scene, we join Maeve in War World. Similar to how she entered the Shogun world she is clearly recruiting other hosts and trying to free them but where this will lead we don’t know yet.
It’s very Casablanca-esque and shows that similar parks are operating in the area. Now how she got there we don’t know, hell we don’t even know if this is really Maeve at this point but it looks like she’s killed a German soldier and tied one up. Perhaps Maeve at this point having complete admin access is able tocan jump from hosts at will but it will be interesting to see what she does in this new area.
Could she perhaps liberate those from their totalitarian rule similar to how the people were liberated in the second world war.
I think so and next time it looks like we are focusing more on Hale and who she really is.
From this I really got indications that it was indeed Terry in Hale’s body and it also looks like we are going back to Westworld. Bernard seems to be wishing to stop her and he will need Maeve to do it.
This was an incredible first episode and I really can’t wait to see what happens next. Westworld is back and I couldn’t be happier.
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode and what you thought of the first entry.
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