Dame sans merci

Watching this episode, I couldn't help but remember the discussion I had online about the Ted/Rebecca relationship where I was snottily told to 'learn some media literacy' because I didn't think it had a romantic endgame. Am I a petty, petty bitch who allowed herself a chuckle thinking about that snotty shipper after the finale? Yes, yes, I am.

I think this is much more likely than him ending up with Rebecca: i'm going to be utterly flabbergasted if he turns out to be straight!

But Keeley was coming out with lines like 'dipping my toe back into the lady pool' back in season 1: this isn't something they've just pulled out of their arse, she's always been written as bi.

There was one recently where Southampton's Mara attempted a bicycle kick and managed to kick Chelsea's Azpilicueta in the face: it initially looked pretty nasty (the noise was HORRIBLE) but thankfully he was okay. But, as you say, incidents like that are pretty rare.

Hello, fellow long-suffering Spurs fan! Yes, Spurs being knocked out by lower league opposition isn't a surprise at this point, either in reality or fiction...

Their game against Tottenham last season was an FA cup quarter final, I believe...?

Was that the scene where Mordo is explaining the dangers of dream-walking to Strange and Chavez? The guy next to me muttered to his companion that it looked like a 'Meatloaf video'. 😆

Mine too, even though it was opening day. The vibe was very flat. I think...I kind of hated this? Somehow both dull AND over-stuffed, characterisation that was shallow as a puddle, horrible dialogue, a forgettable score, and direction that looked distractingly dated. Welp.

As irritating as that moment was, I didn't think it's something that's gender-specific - the last time I can recall the MCU doing something similar, it was Peter Quill losing his mind over Gamora's death and ruining the plan to take down Thanos.

Jamie's accent? That's a Manchester accent. He's a 'Mancunian'.

I appreciate that Herron's been put on the spot there...but that branch can't have been pruned, or we wouldn't have had old Steve visiting Sam in the present day time frame.

Perhaps - if that is the case - our Loki will see the version of himself who's achieved all the power he could ever want, and then ultimately reject that path for himself. So much of what we've seen in the show thus far is about whether we have choice and free will . For Loki, learning that there's a timeline where he DOES win, but being able to turn away from the version of him that acquires all that power and control, would be a huge character moment.

Especially since whilst he was in the Sublime - unaware and defenceless - he could have used Stubbs to keep him safe back in the real world.

There was an absolute mountain of stupidity this week, but for some reason the thing that sticks out as the pinnacle of all the idiocy is Serac leaving that message for his brother...in English. Why?!

I just assumed that the simulation (which seems to have...just kept running based on the fact that Lee has been merrily programming away in there - why though?) was on a mobile server or similar. Maeve recognises at one point when the world 'shimmers' that they've been plugged into the Delos servers. That wasn't Hector's original pearl - they found him in cold storage and transferred the data from his pearl over to the Delos labs, before they torched the bodies in cold storage, A new question: we learn in episode 2 that time moves faster in the simulation, so the real world looks slower. Errr....why didn't that happen here?

Oddly enough, i've just taken a look at the Westworld Reddit page - which is just post after post about who is inside Charlotte - and decided I might be checking out for now. If your show has nothing BUT mystery, then it - as you say - just one big, expensive gimmick. How did Nolan manage to turn out the fascinating, thoughtful 'Person of interest' on CBS (!!!) and yet use his HBO riches to make...this? A glossy perfume commercial of a show, shallower than a puddle.

In answer to your questions: 1) I think the body on the floor is one of the discarded Bernards - he took the non-explosive C6 from its neck and put it in Stubbs. 2) I believe the bullet Stubbs coughs up is the one he shot himself with. He was supposed to shoot himself, triggering the explosive charge and taking out all the evidence that Bernard is a host with him (and yes, considering hosts take bullets all the time and all have the explosive charge, it would seem to be a very, very bad idea to have them be able to be triggered by a bullet. Westworld's gonna Westworld, I suppose). 3). 'The winter line' was a series of defensive military fortifications built by the Nazis to protect the road to Rome against the Allies in World War 2.

Episode 1 had a lot of streaming viewers, which bolstered the live total considerably, but I haven't seen any figures for that for episode 2 yet. However, it IS concerning for the show: it seems to be the only one not showing gains at the moment. They can't even get new viewers when they have a literal captive audience...!

That Lee simulation was very good apart from understanding his relationship with Maeve, which made me wonder if they'd pulled his information from what Rehoboam gathered on him in the real world. For some reason, it couldn't collect data from his time within the park, so they extrapolated based on what they had - wrongly - because they couldn't account for/anticipate that period of intense change in him.

We know who Liam's Dad is though: Liam Dempsey Sr from this video:

Well, that was more like it. Amazing the difference it makes when I actually give a shit about the characters involved. Not too impressed by Bernard re-programming Ashley's core drive without asking given his own history of being controlled, but they seem like they could bounce off each other as a duo really well. Also delighted to see my favourite duo Maeve and Lee reunited (...sort of) given they continue to have some tremendous screwball chemistry. That secret lab of Serac's is a ticking time-bomb with all those host pearls - Dolores could create a mini army if she finds out about it.

Did you see the post-credit scene? Maeve wasn't completely AWOL...

That take on Bernard was how I read it post-season 2 as well BUT i've seen several season 2 reviews (the ones of half the season) include Bernard as being among the 5 marbles. I'm not sure whether that's made specifically clear for them to state it, or whether they're just assuming...? Perhaps 1 or more of the pearls were empty when Dolores took them from the park? She presumably still needs a way to 'save' her re-remembering of Bernard.

I'm interested as to why you want it to be Teddy? Letting Teddy go and saving him from the horrors to come was the most humane thing Dolores did last season and reversing that bit of emotional growth for her would be deeply unsatisfying for me.

1. Remember at the end of last season Dolores left the park in Charlotte's body, but then switched back to her own. So somebody else is inside Charlotte's body now - we have no clue who yet! We know that one of the mystery mind-marbles was Bernard, but the rest are still unknown. Some people think that Dolores is likely to have taken the pearls of her host comrades - Angela, etc - to take control of those bodies, but i'm of the opinion that she could have downloaded the human minds from the Forge and 'tweaked' them to match her needs (similar to what she did with Bernard). We learn that Conells also visited Westworld which supports this a little bit, as his mind would have been within the Forge. As of now, there's still two mystery pearls from the bag 'o balls. 2. Yep, Tommy's character was a human before.