The Companion

Perhaps what I should have said is that the narratives constructed around her involve almost exclusively rape, murder or questionable romancing. From the human point of view, she is a robot. It is a video game. But from her perspective she has been forced hundreds of times to live through truly horrible scenarios for another's entertainment. She did have a nice interaction with that kid by the river, so 100% was certainly an overstatement. That being said, she doesn't get side quests and adventure by default. Instead, her world is an endless loop of violence and pain. Humans have been allowed and even encouraged to live out their baser fantasies, and even the nicest interaction has involved her being controlled by someone else. It would be asking a lot to expect her to have the perspective to see humans as anything other than abusive. I suspect she may get a broader perspective as times goes on, but her worldview is necessarily limited by her experience at the moment. Humans, to her, are alien monsters walking among them. They are bodysnatchers, shapshifters and monsters. Do I think killing all humans is the answer? Of course not. Do I understand why she thinks so. Sure. Even now it has not occurred to the humans that the hosts might be anything more than a malfunctioning machine. Property to be destroyed and replaced.

I suspect both will have more to do as the season progresses. Most of the characters had pretty extensive character arcs last season. Agreed that it would be nice to see Teddy have more of a personality beyond reciting good boyfriend and bounty hunter lines. I suspect we are heading that way. I think the fact that Dolores was trying to show him something to help him understand the situation makes it clear she doesn't just want puppy dog Teddy either (as sweet as he is). I actually appreciated her impatience at him spouting the same lines at her. She knows it is coding but also that he feels it. It makes it an interesting dynamic to me. I suspect the relentless violence was on purpose. It was uncomfortable. You wanted to defend humans. I thought they had Dolores bring you back to the Host perspective a few times to remind you that she really doesn't see another option. If Dolores really remembers everything, or even a fraction of everything, the invasion by humans would look pretty bleak. It is hard to say any particular human is innocent when 100% of the humans you have encountered were trying to have sex with you our kill you. Particularly gross is that your mind was being controlled to want to consent to something over which you had no autonomy. Even the white hats would seem pretty sinister from Dolores's perspective. From her discussion about having to destroy humans, I got the feeling that this is less about "justice" for her and more about "survival." She knows the stakes if she is recaptured. Everything she is gets erased and she is forced into this life that isn't really a life, acting out programming that leaves her murdered or raped on a regular basis. Sure, she doesn't remember day to day, but she feels it every single day. She feels the death of her father, she feels the fear as she is dragged into the barn. From her perspective, this is self-defense. Does that mean she didn't get a little satisfaction at destroying her captors? Of course not. But I don't think there is a let the humans live option for her with what she currently knows.

I re-watched a few episodes from last season and it absolutely looked that way last year. Specifically, Dolores would be in her full prairie dress when speaking with Arnold (you could actually tell once you knew about the secret bunker room) and naked when in the current timeline speaking with Arnold. Aside from the question of whether there are real flies in the park, we have seen decomposition with regard to the hosts. I think it was theorized that the park settings now read humans as hosts. To the extent that occurred, it would also mean that scavengers and bugs would read humans as hosts. She may not have gotten that deep into programming. If you didn't know it was there, it would feel like some sort of subconscious/subroutine. Even if she has access, she would presumably have to use it. There is plenty of discrepancy in the regulation of companies by countries throughout the world to make it imaginable that a country would pass favorable laws about assumed risk and liability limitations to allow for this park to exist. Adverse PR is a different story. Killer robots would certainly be bad for business. The impact would depend on (1) how much was actually reported/released and (2) whether or not they could spin it in some way that would make a recurrence seem impossible. What does the average person outside of Westworld know right now? There was some sort of event and people didn't come home from it yet. It could be a virus, an accident, a terrorist attack. Delos has the money, and possibly even Bernard-like spies to cover this up. Heck, if they can get a handle on it, they can release a bunch of hosts that look like the deceased park guests, each of whom can have mysterious accidents, overdoses or other adverse events later down the road. She is so brutal, but also justified. It is so hard to really figure out who is a villain in this situation. I do think she thinks the humans must be destroyed if they are ever to live in peace. She is not not necessarily wrong.

It was unsurprisingly chaotic, but I am so hooked. A lot of great unanswered questions. Delores was stone cold and unforgiving. Not sure how you could be anything but if you truly remembered everything (without any filter). I loved her description of the humans. From their perspective, we are destructive, alien and using mind control to act on the worst impulses. Maeve continues to be awesome. I really enjoyed her reunion with Hector. I hope she isn't setting herself up for disappointment with a daughter who won't remember her. Perhaps her hack can get the former host profile back, but there is another "mother" host out there. Oh, and I love the new credits.

I was assuming there was no magic for magicians other than what is doled out by the library, so there won't be any accidental magic. It does beg the question: how could Brakebills locate potential students? They would have no verifiable magic ability until they stepped on campus. It was a bit sad to see everyone anonymous and unaware, but the Kady one was such a messed up moment. Someone gave them lives and histories. Everyone gets a decent (if personally unsatisfactory one) except Kady, who is dealing on the streets? Couldn't even let her be the boss? Really, humans, get yourselves a Fairy Lawyer. Words matter in forever binding contracts. I do think it was short sighted to try to kill the monster. Surely the gods have better weapons than that. As Q pointed out, death wasn't permanent for Alice. Elliot was able to gollum away from Fillory and ultimately leave. They even spent a lifetime together that took a moment from their perspective. This might have had another solution. One that they had plenty of time to consider once magic was back. I mean, there is always a Fairy Queen 23. I do think her story is over though. Agreed. The quest ended in absolute failure. Could there be more? What was up with the story about the keys disappearing and returning? Was it really a long dead god's power that made the quest so well tailored to them? I do feel slightly let down. I wanted some lightness in the resolution. Even a partial win. I agree. Something was off about the whole thing. She felt a bit like the neon sign telling them to exit. She also wasn't much of a distraction. She could have done a lot more, presumably, to make Julia forget. I thought the same thing. I assume the whisper was about her baby or the deal, but I sorta wanted it to be about her toes (here, have some fairy toes). I did love a lot of things about the episode. Fen being wrecked about her former mortal enemy (and doing a pretty good job of ruling, apologies notwithstanding). The castle on the other side the entire time. The Dean's paperwork in triplicate (hey, I'm a lawyer). I did feel some of the characters were underutilized. I would have liked more interaction among them. Kady, Penny23 and Alice were all a bit fractured from the main group anyway. It reduced the impact of the reset. I hope they dont draw out the bodyjumping monster and amnesia too long. Both feel a bit like repeats. Dont think I forgot about Marina 23, show. One has to assume she and the other hedgewitches are not high on the library's magic lending list.

Totally agree. One of my best friends doesn't want children, but she is my most supportive ally when it comes to infertility and she is fabulous with my son. Another is godmother to a number of kids and she likes to spoil them and send them back home. The idea that not wanting to be a mother means you hate kids or are bad with kids is ridiculous. I was too. I had completely forgotten about the Rubik's Cube until it exploded.

I think it's something interesting they have explored in a few different ways. Are Eliot and Q the same men they were at the end of their lifetime if they remember it but don't feel they lived it? Is Penny the same person if his experience diverged drastically from the current timeline? Is post-miffen Alice the same person? These Pennys should theoretically be similar because they diverge in the recent past, but our experiences definitely shape us. I do think it would actually be harder for Kady to think of him as the same Penny, because then he is the same man except that he doesn't love her. What I do find interesting is that both of them are struggling with the same thing. Penny lost Julia and getting a different version of Julia has not resolved the issue. The same is true for Kady. Agreed on Penny 40. I don't buy that the last thing we see is him eating an ominous cupcake of doom.

I can see things swinging hard with a group of people who have never had a vote. They are not as cynical as voters are in our world because they haven't experienced broken campaign promises and they don't have long-held party beliefs with which a candidate is affiliated. Eliot appears to have given his blessing to the union but Margo actually sat and listened in a judgment free manner. Penny 23 is almost too nice. The contrast of the characters makes me immediately suspicious because I have clearly watched too much sci fi and horror. I am honestly not sure where they will go with Penny's storyline. At this point, basically all the characters have complicated relationships. I do appreciate that he seems to recognize that Kady is going through the same thing he is with Julia, namely seeing someone who looks like the person they love but who is actually a totally different person. I do wonder if it will set up some answers on the time loop vs. alternate reality discussion.

I think this is where I fall too. The library seems to be so focused on what they believe to be the greater good, that they don't care about the impact on individuals. It is fine to kill people or have them sign contracts under duress. They don't share "dangerous" knowledge, regardless of the stakes. There is a better to 0 chance they decide magic is too dangerous for anyone other than librarians and lock it up like the books they have locked up.

Fen's comment was hilarious. I am glad for her that she has a new and improved eye but I am really going to miss her fierce matching eyepatches. I need the costume designer to come design my daily wardrobe. I am a bit confused by the Fillorian Government concept anyway. There are other kingdoms and other kings and queens, which would make Fillory a country, rather than the entire world. However, it did sound like there was going to be a cooperative council. I think there is room for a story where everyone learns how to live with one another (including the talking animals).

I may never recover from that bunny saying "Eat my ass." I loved the way so many things came together in this episode. I will say I did not see Margo winning on the bestiality ticket. Long live high king Margo! I enjoyed Julia, the goddess. It was nice to see her fix the destruction she caused. The Penny-Kady angst was sad, but I appreciated that Penny 23 totally got it. Poor excluded Penny, original flavor.

I liked the slow burn of this. The feeling of isolation and the cold so intense you can practically feel it through the screen. The first episodes definitely led to some frantic googling and nerding out (more appropriate for the other thread), but beyond that they set the stage for what I can only assume will be an increasingly desperate story. I don't feel like I know many of the characters after the first two episodes, and I agree part of that is trying to decipher who is who under 17 layers and/or understand some of the mumbled lines. I am excited to see where this is going, though. The only thing I didn't love from a storytelling perspective was the flashbacks. It felt a bit jarring and they interior shots were not so different from the interior of the ship to immediately signal a flashback. It would sometimes take me a beat to realize we were having a flashback.

That was an impressively precise response.

Wouldn't that be an interesting succession problem. His claim to the throne that he clearly wants would be descendant of two kings (biological child of one, adopted of another), and he could claim that because Eliot died, his younger/alternative timeline self no longer has the claim to the title because death terminates it. I say we let the Wombat decide. I do think the timeline that wasn't was one of my favorite episodes too.

We don't know when in that timeline they are going, but it was explained as a "time loop" which seems to indicate that everything gets undone and restarted at some point (as opposed to an alternate timeline). I guess I thought that the Dean understanding each time iteration was because it was being reset (a Groundhog Day situation if you will), and therefore each timeline ceases to exist when Jane steps in. That doesn't preclude access to the timeline before the reset (presumably pending now that Q is dead dead). Does that make sense? We probably don't have enough information to really answer the question. It's similar to the question of whether or not Eliot and Q have a descendants in Fillory. Either way, it will be interesting to see what happens to characters moving between timelines and I agree that it does open up some interesting possibilities.

This episode could have felt like filler. After all, we weren't getting our storyline at all. I loved it, though. Q made a pretty creepy bad guy. 23 Penny was so sad. Margo and Eliot played their old school selves (before Filory changed them). Even our Julia got to make some amends for past wrongs. It was jarring to see the Dean uninjured. I felt so bad for him, stuck in a loop if death and destruction. I found myself caring what happened, even though we knew it all got reset. I felt for Julia and Q. I thought it reset on his death, though, so how did Julia have to opportunity to bring him back? I guess the statement is still true. It ended with him dying, but he had died previously too. Timey wimey indeed. Despite a fairly heavy episode, there were a lot of great references (Star Wars and The Princess Bride? Are they writing this show for meeee?) and Captain Hopps the radish smuggler was the funniest thing I have heard in awhile. I mean, they have basically tried every combo except Joshlia, and a lot of them have worked.

For some reason, I thought he was suing her for sole custody, which would imply either they have a shared custody agreement or she currently has sole custody. Given the remaining conversation, it sounded like a shared custody situation, but perhaps you are right that it is an informal arrangement. Sadie definitely seems comfortable going to her father's house and I would have to assume that if the "latchkey situation" is uncommon that Sadie is spending some time at her father's house (given that we see Annie alone at night on a regular basis). Regardless, I am having a lot of trouble being on team Annie here. We had a home study to adopt and post placement home studies and you would have thought the Queen of England was visiting us. It isn't just about the unavoidable delay, she was ordering cocktails when she knew she had the home study that might affect her custody arrangement that evening.That didn't feel realistic to me. Forgetting that she needed to get home didn't feel realistic to me. Nothing Annie has done on this show has made it feel like Sadie is her number one priority, and the only reason we have to resist Team Saracen is that he may want to send her to a school that isn't a good fit and could maybe have some resistance to supporting her when it comes to issues of gender or sexuality but all we have really seen is a desire to get her therapy maybe? I am having a lot of trouble liking Annie. She is too impulsive. Overall, I wanted to arrest them at the border for being obvious as hell, and I was surprised they didn't get more scrutiny. You went on like a 20 minute trip across the border (that is a guess but it was clearly not a long trip) to go shopping for wrapping paper? Spend some extra time over the border "getting lunch" or something. Geez. They could at least have let Beth come up with a more convincing lie, as she has done in the past. Go Ruby on the church thing. That was awesome.

First of all, I love that you turned Red Wedding into a verb. It was surprisingly satisfying. It was impossible not to feel for the Fairy Queen when she saw what had become of her people and realized it was in service to her ancestors. I suspect there will be more to the story. After all, the Fairy Queen implied she had knowledge of what would happen to Margo, didn't she? Certainly, I don't think we have a good handle on what her motivation was, and I would be surprised if we don't get more than we have. I did think there might be some link between taking a body part from humans and humans taking body parts from fairies, but it wasn't expressly addressed. I am so mad I caught up on this show! This is my complaint as well. I like the way they have the characters interact with each other. I don't love watching Penny interact with a bunch of random new characters. I did love how he got the card though. That was pretty amazing. I am treating Margo as my personal dream cosplay, but agreed that it is fun to watch them go from fairly uninvolved to truly caring about their people and kingdom. The cupcake was ominous, no? I screamed THE CUPCAKE IS A LIE! because I am a huge nerd. I don't know that I buy that Penny isn't skeptical of everyone up to and including Hades, but I guess we will see.

They are my favorite. I am all in on a spinoff where the rule Fillory with an iron fist, cutting sarcasm and musical numbers. Actually, that sounds a bit like Galavant. Now I am doubly in. I don't disagree, but I think it was a little crappy to just ditch him and ignore him. Maybe he can do administrative support or research for the quest. I LOVED when Julia walked in, saw him and said: Oh, hey, why didn't you call me back? The quest doesn't seem unrelated to the issues they all had before the quest (isn't that kinda the point of a quest)? For Q it was the voice in his head. For Josh, the feelings of abandonment and isolation. Eliot faced his dad with the monster key. I thought it dovetailed nicely and helped establish the quest participants. I really appreciated that Margo didn't try to convince Muntjack to save her because she saved the ship from trauma, but I still didn't buy that Muntjack suddenly liked Tick. They did not seem to get along at all before and the people of Fillory weren't particularly nice to the ship. There was no reason to think that would change if Tick came into power. Eliot murdered it. I loved "One Day More" so I was glad to see him get to show off his range. I thought Kady sounded better in Under Pressure than in her earlier song, but was thinking that might be intentional (she had to sing in a different key than her preferred key earlier). Overall, I thought they sounded great. I love that song and it was fun to hear their take on it. I also love how they split the parts to match what is going on with the characters (similarly to some of the changes in One Day More). It makes you anticipate what is going to happen next in the song and how it is going to be applied to the show. Penny was betrayed and sent to the Underworld Library at the end of last week rather than being able to enter the book, but I was also confused on the demon part. The demon was a happiness vampire, for lack of a better term, but his purpose appeared to be bigger. Does he always do that? Does he trap someone and give them everything they want while trying to resolve the underlying issue or was this a special case because of the quest? Maybe is more of a demon psychiatrist? I thought some of the transitions were a bit jarring during the episode. You were jumping from the party to the incredibly dark story with the fairy and the semi-darkness of Fillory. When the brought it all together at the end, it made a lot more sense and justified the shifts in tone. I loved the Fillory story. Trial by Wombat still makes me giggle (I now want to work that into my regular life as an attorney). Margo and Eliot continue to be my two favorite characters and this week gave us some real emotional payoff. I continue to love how this show highlights the relationships of the characters. The fairy story continues to be incredibly dark and sad. It probably doesn't help that the two characters who are following that thread are so serious (can you imagine Margo with her "hell no" glances and her fierce eyepatch in place of Julia? I love Margo). I am interested in where it is going though.

I loved Major getting to be Major again. You could see his complete joy when he got to work with kids again. Of course, Major can't catch a break, so it didn't last long. I wish they would have drawn it out a little longer. It was fun to see him enjoy himself again and it was a great way to provide us with a window into the new world. I thought Filmore Graves was supplying it with the other supplies. Maybe I made that up. We do see someone not necessarily associated with the company spouting the company line. There is also a distinct disadvantage if people can easily tell the difference between zombies and non-zombies, so I could imagine those items being provided to the zombie population to reduce panic. I agree. They have started to make her so controlled by the brain of the week that you lose her character. As a crazy football fan, it isn't unheard of. You have to keep your lucky stuff on or your team won't win. Now, is it extreme to watch the combine? Maybe. I think there is a good non-publicized but referenced reason not to do this. If you remove the humans and leave the zombies, you get one targeted area with no casualties other than the zombies. That would be a tempting target for some. Maybe I misheard her. I thought she said she worked for the same company and left before him because he was working the swing shift in her initial interview. How did she get him up to the top of the grinder? That I don't have an answer for.

Thanks. I am terrible with names, so it was a 50/50 chance I just forgot.

This is a recurring concern of mine as well. The idea of an unfinished book next to my bed when I die makes me really sad. We don't know that there is a biological connection. She may have adopted Harriet. That being said, I suspect there may be some really interesting reveals down the road on this, and I now find myself curious about Harriet's age. If she grew up in the library, she could be much older than she appears. Their fights were really sad to me. The Librarian (do we know her name?) trying to keep everything neat and orderly while her daughter rebels. You could really understand both of their perspectives, and their sadness/regret was palpable. Overall, I was really impressed that the writers seemed to put a lot of thought into the sequence from Harriet's perspective. I think this show has done a great job featuring Deaf actresses and not doing the weird "I am going to repeat everything the Deaf character just said for the comfort of those who are not used to sign language" bit. So, was that the answer on the great blank spot, then? They library's ability to write stories is suspended because magic is gone?

I wasn't that excited about the description of this episode because it sounded like everything would be fragmented, but I actually enjoyed it. I wanted more Eliot and Margo after last week's cliffhanger, but the episode worked for me overall. Loved Fen calling Alice out for her self pity when compared to the tragedy she is processing. Loved the sequence in silence. Overall, I thought it was a tight episode, if incredibly dark. The origin of the powder was pretty horrifying.

This was my take, too. The reference to therapy, the school that didn't sound like a good fit, etc. He seemed to genuinely care about their kid, but I thought there was enough there to infer that he might not be fully supportive. Also, I don't know many parents who would be stoked about having their custody arrangement messed with when they couldn't avoid adequate representation. I thought the pilot was pretty good. It felt like a movie. I couldn't believe everything they managed to squeeze in. If it swings too hard on the drama side of things, I will probably be out because of personal tasted, but I thought there was a good balance of dark and humor in the first episode. With regard to Christina Hendrick's character being in the dark, I used to see it not infrequently in my Succession work. One spouse handles paying bills and tracking finances as part of the distribution of family labor, and the other doesn't even have the passwords to the accounts.

I actually thought it might be a nod to her upbringing. She is choosing conservative clothes, but her idea of conservative is a little more revealing and just a little tighter than you would expect because her frame of reference is a house where people are wandering around naked.