S01.E09: The Well-Tempered Clavier

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

Hector mulls a proposition from Maeve; Dolores and Bernard dredge up old memories; Teddy's enlightenment comes with a cost.

[AimingforYoko]

Looks like Ford's got it all under control....except for Maeve, of course. That's a fly in the old ointment.

I'll be bitterly disappointed if this is the last we'll see of Jeffrey Wright.

[RandomWatcher]

Bernard is Arnold

Delores killed Arnold

That picture will wind up on Delores' farm so two timelines confirmed?

[LilWharveyGal]

When did Logan become the Hand of the King?

[AimingforYoko]

1 minute ago, RandomWatcher said:

That picture will wind up on Delores' farm so two timelines confirmed?

The conversations with Delores were all in Arnold's timeline, but we don't know if we were actually seeing them, or Delores was remembering them.

[dgpolo]

7 minutes ago, RandomWatcher said:

That picture will wind up on Delores' farm so two timelines confirmed?

The picture on the farm was the one given to William of his fiance, not the one of Arnold.

Edited November 28, 2016 by dgpolo
clarification

[jeansheridan]

Ug!!!!  I'm so tired of Ford always having the upper hand.  Always.  I love Jeffrey Wright.  I love him as Bernard and Arnold.  Here's hoping he gets to play both in flashbacks.

Oh and nice one William.  Evade the Samaritan effect by killing all the hosts who can stop you from maiming/killing your smarmy future brother in law.

[okerry]

The picture was the one Mr. Abernathy found - the one of a woman in the city - who we now know was Logan's sister

That was some truly stellar work. Just give this thing all the awards right now.

[jeansheridan]

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The picture on the farm was the one given to William, not the one of Arnold?

It's of his future wife and yes it is the same photo from the first episode.  The one the original Abernathy found in the dirt.   They barely showed it, but I may have obsessively looked at it several times.  Maybe.  

How odd is it however that Logan is carrying around a picture of his sister????  While he's playing soldier and whoring and whatnot.

[SoWindsor]

Great reveal! But why did Dolores kill Arnold? Bernard seems too modern and trendy to be based off someone who was younger decades ago. I'm not following the teddy storyline. What's happening there?

[benteen]

Trying to figure out the various timelines was confusing but I thought this episode was great.  The Ford and Bernard scenes were riveting (and Bernard and Mauve was pretty damn good too).  I also hope this isn't the last we've seen of Jeffrey Wright on this show.  He's too damn good.

Speaking of Mauve, wouldn't death by fire be one you'd want to avoid.

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How odd is it however that Logan is carrying around a picture of his sister????  While he's playing soldier and whoring and whatnot.

Logan is a strange and manic guy.  Maybe he has a sister fixation too.

Edited November 28, 2016 by benteen

[bmoore4026]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Awesomeness overload!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[formerlyfreedom]

NOOO! not Bernard!

Seriously, Jeffrey Wright rocked this episode. And I'm heartbroken about the ending. I so hope that Maeve gets vengence for him, somehow...

Also, we have no idea what happened to Stubbs now, right? He was attacked by the Ghost Nation, and that's the last we saw of him, right?

[jeansheridan]

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Speaking of Mauve, wouldn't death by fire be one you'd want to avoid.

I was thinking maybe a fire causes certain protocols to happen because I imagine a fire in the park would be quite dangerous. An uncontrolled fire.

Also, don't kill Stubbs!  Stubbs!  You go with a team.  A TEAM.  But I guess that means Ford has more Hosts wandering about without trackers.  He didn't even get one shot fired off!  Guh.

[zoltana]

I don't know if this has already been addressed before, but I now don't believe William is the MIB because I never noticed the now obvious mole on Williams face.  Did the MIB have laser removal?

[beeble]

Here's a theory: Arnold never existed. Ford wanted a partner but was too much of a madman for anyone to trust him. So Arnold was a figment of his imagination until he created him, and then when Dolores killed him, Ford rewrote the program. 

Go Maeve go! 

[AimingforYoko]

Just now, beeble said:

Here's a theory: Arnold never existed. Ford wanted a partner but was too much of a madman for anyone to trust him. So Arnold was a figment of his imagination until he created him, and then when Dolores killed him, Ford rewrote the program. 

Go Maeve go! 

Naw, he existed. I'm pretty sure he was the Wozniak to Ford's Steve Jobs.

[Macbeth]

  How can we possibly lose Jeffrey Wright?? I had such hope for Maeve when I saw how she had manipulated Bernard - but now she has no chance.  I imagine her next interaction will be with Ford.

[huahaha]

17 minutes ago, SoWindsor said:

Bernard seems too modern and trendy to be based off someone who was younger decades ago. 

Isn't this set in the future? 

[okerry]

So - love, and especially the pain that goes with love, is what causes the hosts to begin to remember and become human? That's what we saw happening to Maeve. And even to Bernard/Arnold, with that implanted backstory about his son. Ford was on the right track with that but could not control it - could not turn it off. Not permanently.

I keep remembering Capt. Kirk, in that old movie, saying, "I need my pain" and refusing to let it be taken from him. Maeve's doing the same kind of thing, because that pain of loss is what's making her human.

[CofCinci]

23 minutes ago, SoWindsor said:

Great reveal! But why did Dolores kill Arnold?

Perhaps Arnold wanted Dolores to kill him.  Either to make sure his knowledge dies with him because his partner is out of control or to transfer his consciousness into something else.

[okerry]

23 minutes ago, benteen said:

Speaking of Mauve, wouldn't death by fire be one you'd want to avoid.

But remember - Dumb & Dumber told her she'd need an entire rebuild to get the explosive charge out of her C6 vertebrae. "Death" by fire might be the way to get a total rebuild.

[beeble]

9 minutes ago, AimingforYoko said:

Naw, he existed. I'm pretty sure he was the Wozniak to Ford's Steve Jobs.

That's what I'd said in the previous episode's thread: that if Woz became a bot but wasn't called Woz, people would notice. I'm thinking Arnold had to be pretty spectacular to do what he did and was known before he hooked up with Ford. Even if it was winning the school science fair or graduating from MIT at age 17. So Ford killed off a nerd whom other nerds knew and renamed him...ok, but that seems a little risky. 

But what do I know? I watch the show with the same look on my face that Dolores has on hers   

[jeansheridan]

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So - love, and especially the pain that goes with love, is what causes the hosts to begin to remember and become human?

Seemingly.    Maybe that's why Maeve mentioned Hector's backstory to him, as thin as it is.  I'm hoping Maeve noticed that backdoor when she got her upgrades from Felix.  Fingers crossed.  I can't bear to see a defeated Maeve.  Let Bernard-bot be the blood sacrifice please.  And I will take Wright in flashbacks.  Just that moment with Woods when her face breaks seeing him!  He's just the ultimate daddy.  Except when he's killing.  

[Gobi]

10 minutes ago, CofCinci said:

Perhaps Arnold wanted Dolores to kill him.  Either to make sure his knowledge dies with him because his partner is out of control or to transfer his consciousness into something else.

Or perhaps Ford got Dolores to kill Arnold.

[Cigale]

33 minutes ago, benteen said:

Speaking of Mauve, wouldn't death by fire be one you'd want to avoid.

I thought I saw a body in the tent.  Maybe one of the bodies with explosives sown into them?  So death by explosion and not by fire?  Faster and less painful.

[Rumsy4]

First post here.

I am so sad that Ford got rid of Bernard. :-/ 

I was both happy and a little disappointed to see so many fan theories confirmed--that we've been witnessing two time-frames with Delores, Ford built Bernard to look like Arnold, Delores killed Arnold, and William is more than likely the MiB.

I thought Mauve essentially committed suicide so she wouldn't be controlled by humans ever again, but maybe we haven't seen the end of her yet.

I'm wondering what MiB is going to do to Delores, now that he solved the Maze.

[numbnut]

Finally! Bernard is Arnold. That sure took long enough (for those of us who guessed it).  I wasn't on board the "Dolores killed Arnold" train because I can't see why she would do it intentionally. I was thinking Ford killed Arnold, so maybe he programmed Dolores to do it? All I know is that they better bring back Jeffrey Wright somehow (just because Bernard shot himself doesn't mean he can't be rebuilt). I loved the opening scene with Bernard and Maeve. I hope Charlotte is killed off before season 2. The William/Logan showdown was a cringefest. The guy playing Logan is the worst actor ever IMO. Also, how could Dolores grab a gun, kill two people, and run away when she's surrounded by men with guns?

Edited November 28, 2016 by numbnut

[Willowy]

1 hour ago, LilWharveyGal said:

When did Logan become the Hand of the King?

HAHAHA! I noticed that too! That pin!

[Pallas]

1 hour ago, jeansheridan said:

How odd is it however that Logan is carrying around a picture of his sister????  While he's playing soldier and whoring and whatnot.

Hand of the King and Kingslayer. Yet I think his little brother is bound for greater things.  

[Willowy]

Also I want Maeve to fix Bernard. She's going to need him!

[Seppuku]

I'm guessing that the real version of teddy's memory is Wyett = Dolores and "the General" = Arnold

Edited November 28, 2016 by Seppuku

[jacy]

Excited to see everything coming together.

So it appears that MIB (aka old William) planted the NYC photo of his deceased wife (given to him by his brother-in-law Logan) in front of Dolore’s parent’s home around the time he came to drag her by her hair and committed an act of cruelty to wake her up (after her seeing the NYC photo + and hearing the trigger words “These violent delights have violent ends.”

MIB's motivation for waking up Dolores to become sentient-Dolores is because when he was young William, he fell in love with Dolores and promised to get her out of the park. Now ~30 years later (and after his wife died), he's back to complete the maze and free Dolores. So them meeting at the church doesn't seem like it's the end of the maze -- it is only meant to look like it by the writers. I believe that the next episode will set up the next season of whatever Arnold's plan was for freeing the robots. 

My partner’s theory is that Arnold is playing the long game, and had Dolores kill him (as part of his plan after he was done building the maze) with the belief that Ford would eventually make a robot version of him (Bernald), which he believed was needed to allow the robots to become sentient and set them free. 

We also believe that in the timeline where Dolores is gutted by Logan, she and William will likely run into Arnold and kill him. That is why MIB said that he was there when Arnold was killed. 

Edit: On further reflection, it's not correct that MIB said that he was there when Arnold was killed. That happened 5 years before the young William and Dolores timeline. We believe that Dolores will kill Logan in this timeline, because we know from the MIB timeline that 30 years ago, there was a catastrophic event that almost shut down the park.

 

Edit 2: 

5 timelines:

(T = present time)

T minus 35 years: Arnold and Dolores

According to Arnold’s plan, sentient Dolores goes off-loop on a killing spree in the original town and kills all the hosts and then Arnold and shoots herself in the head. She is probably also Wyatt in the future (T). We believe this is the case, because in Teddy’s flashbacks of Wyatt, Wyatt kills everyone but we believe that he is remembering Dolores as Wyatt. Also, we see the same exact aftermath of the massacre in the same town in a flashback from Dolores (when she’s on the William/young MIB timeline).

T minus 30 years: William and Dolores

Dolores goes off-loop trying to find the maze. Not sure how she becomes sentient or goes off-loop in this timeline.

T minus 29 years: Teddy and Dolores

Ford creates Teddy in the likeness of young William to keep Dolores in her loop.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=479hvcCEe0I

T minus 1 year: MIB and country Mauve

MIB’s wife dies, and he returns to Westpark and does the act of cruelty (killing her and her daughter) that wakes up Mauve for the first time and sees the maze. Starts his obsession with completing the maze, and also finally might have compassion for hosts after seeing how realistic they are when experiencing extreme cruelty. 

T: MIB and Dolores

MIB helps make Dolores sentient again via cruelty and the photo he left behind, and they both independently seek the maze. Teddy gets taken off his loop and onto a new loop related to the new Wyatt storyline. Dolores runs into MIB again at the church. This is the same timeline as Bernard finding out that he’s made in Arnold’s likeness.

Edited November 28, 2016 by jacy

[Goatherd]

So what happens when "dead" Bernard is found? Everyone discovers he's a host, and then what? Surely they'll guess that Ford created him and has been fooling them all this time.

[Willowy]

Let's hope Ford doesn't have Clementine put him in that incinerator thingy.

[bmoore4026]

2 hours ago, AimingforYoko said:

Naw, he existed. I'm pretty sure he was the Wozniak to Ford's Steve Jobs.

And I'm guessing MiB is Bill Gates?

[arc]

2 hours ago, huahaha said:

Isn't this set in the future? 

I mean yeah, but Jonathan Nolan did say in a behind-the-scenes video that it's still 21st century. And more in-canon, the recreation of Ford's family suggests a certain 20th century date to Ford's own upbringing. So, assuming Ford and Arnold were the same age...

I'm darn annoyed that the "Arnold Weber" theory was, in fact, correct. Now, I had argued against the theory that Bernard was a re-creation of Arnold because it didn't make sense, but I think the show has mostly paid off on it. And I argued against the two timelines theory a long time ago, first on the grounds that the show didn't need to be that complicated, and secondly that I thought it gave too much weight to TMIB/William rather than Dolores. But I think I'm coming around on that, too.

I'm genuinely surprised the safe was empty. It makes sense in some ways, but on the other hand, surely Maeve normally puts money in there in the course of running the brothel?

[kokapetl]

Bernard's death was offscreen and unconfirmed. The "next week" promo I saw had a shot of Clementine in the basement wearing a lab coat. So he might not really be dead. Plus androids can be repaired. 

[MVFrostsMyPie]

So Elsie is definitely dead-dead, Bernard may not be permanently dead, and Oldest Hemsworth is possibly dead? Or is he just going to get scalped or beaten or tickled until he pees his pants? Will Ford eat his remains with some fava beans and chianti on the side? More humans are dropping like flies here than humans on TWD. 

I still don't think William is MiB. Sorry Jimmi, but Ed Harris, you are not. Did William slip some horse tranquilizer in Logan's whiskey, because how do you sleep through your future bro-in-law slaughtering a bunch of hosts? And why wouldn't he just stab them in the heart or whack them in the head? What's with the cut off limbs? And there was not enough blood. 

Way too many things going on and I'm getting distracted by the inconsistency and confusion of little details. 

PS. This thought just came to me - the male hosts - when they have sex, do they ejaculate? With fake semen? Anyway...

PPS. At what point into Elsie's "vacation" will someone finally get suspicious of where she is? For being so advanced and this being set in the future, they sure are lacking in the HR department. :P

Edited November 28, 2016 by MattDuffysCat

[jeansheridan]

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That's what I'd said in the previous episode's thread: that if Woz became a bot but wasn't called Woz, people would notice. I'm thinking Arnold had to be pretty spectacular to do what he did and was known before he hooked up with Ford. Even if it was winning the school science fair or graduating from MIT at age 17. So Ford killed off a nerd whom other nerds knew and renamed him...ok, but that seems a little risky. 

Plus it makes me wonder, who is that man standing in the middle of them?  Ford's father?  The father he apparently didn't like much?  It does seem highly risky and way too sentimental of him.  Okay, he needed help and he liked Arnold's personality and style.  Don't make an exact copy.  Just, don't.  But, say he built Bernard 15 years after Arnold died.  All the techs who had been there once were long gone.  Arnold might have been a genius but Westworld appears very isolated.  How long are you going to remember the face of a person you haven't seen nor heard from for at least 20 years?  And since no one ever takes pictures of Bernard other than inside the company, who is to know what he looks like?  It's not like he's on social media or doing PR for Westworld.  

Edited November 28, 2016 by jeansheridan

[jeansheridan]

Quote

So what happens when "dead" Bernard is found? Everyone discovers he's a host, and then what? Surely they'll guess that Ford created him and has been fooling them all this time.

I think Ford fully intends to rebuild him.  Maybe have him take a vacation for a few weeks and then return with a very new hardrive.  Same personality, same backstory, but none of those pesky recent memories.  Of course he won't be completely the same or even as effective an employee, but who is to notice?  Charlotte?  Sizemore?  Nobody knows Bernard.

Or if we get lucky, Maeve finds his body first and has Felix fix him.  It's just a bullet to his head.  Very fixable for a robot.   

I'm quite concerned about Stubbs however.  In my opinion he was very professional about the robots.  He wasn't unnecessarily cruel or crude about them and had a healthy paranoia which unfortunately didn't extend to him bringing a damn team with him!  Given he went into the sub-basement with a platoon of men, how he could go topside by himself baffles me.  He wasn't worried about guests in the area since he wasn't in costume.  I did notice the landscape he was in looked similar to where Charlotte and the MIB were earlier (trees, grass). I'm kind of hoping she saves him.  I know everyone hates her, but if she saves Stubbs, I could grow to appreciate her.

Edited November 28, 2016 by jeansheridan

[jeansheridan]

Quote

PS. This thought just came to me - the male hosts - when they have sex, do they ejaculate? With fake semen? Anyway...

If they piss, which apparently they DO, probably.  Plus I think Therese would have been suspicious of Bernard otherwise.  I was bummed to see the pissing frankly because if there's one advantage to being a robot, wouldn't it be that you didn't need to eat and piss?  But his character DOES drink a lot in his loop so maybe he needs a way to get rid of the liquid and pissing is efficient and authentic!

Edited November 28, 2016 by jeansheridan

[gatopretoNYC]

1 hour ago, jacy said:

We also believe that in the timeline where Dolores is gutted by Logan, she and William will likely run into Arnold and kill him. That is why MIB said that he was there when Arnold was killed. 

MiB never said that. Arnold was already dead before William & Logan's trip.

[Cthulhudrew]

I feel like Ford is in his own loop; one which involves him working endlessly to try and keep the Hosts in their own loops and refrain from attaining the consciousness that Arnold so hoped to (and seemingly succeeded at) engendering in them.

[jacy]

19 minutes ago, gatopretoNYC said:

MiB never said that. Arnold was already dead before William & Logan's trip.

You're right. 

Here is the correction I added earlier to the previous post:

Edit: On further reflection, it's not correct that MIB said that he was there when Arnold was killed. That happened 5 years before the young William and Dolores timeline. We believe that Dolores will kill Logan in this timeline, because we know from the MIB timeline that 30 years ago, there was a catastrophic event that almost shut down the park.

[arc]

BTW, we finally saw hosts eating! Since I know some people here were like "sure, the cowboys were waiting for the woodcutter so the cook could cook so they could eat but we didn't actually see hosts eat yet, besides at the restaurant where Logan stabbed the prospector in the hand."

[thuganomics85]

Well, then!  As many suspected, Bernard was basically Ford's host version of Arnold, right down to the looks and I'm guessing Arnold's brains, only Ford obviously made sure he could always control him.  I saw that part coming, but I liked the reveal that the conversations between him and Dolores was actually Arnold himself, and more importantly, Dolores is the one that kills Arnold.  I can't wait to see how that all came about.  But now Ford must made Bernard off himself, so I'm just a wee bit concerned.  This whole cast is pretty much amazing from top to bottom, but Jeffery Wright is one of my favorites and his presence will be missed, if this is the end of him.  So, I'm hoping Nolan and crew have some kind of idea to keep a variation of him around.

If he does go, and Theresa and Elise remain done for to, that's three regulars that Ford has played a part in of getting rid of it.  And I'll amplify the hate, by pretending they were all taken for Anthony Hopkins' paycheck, if Ford ends up sticking around next season.  I will now look at all of their death scenes and picture Ford/Hopkins smirking and saying "Yesss!  Your paychecks are my paychecks, now!"  Kidding!  Kind of.

Meanwhile, they sure are continuing to make it look like William is the future Man in Black.  Dude pretty much wiped out an entire army, just to find Dolores.   And he's even got Logan cowering.  That was amusing at least, and I do think I prefer Jimmi Simpson with more of an edge to him, compared to the more "nice guy" variation from the past few episodes.  At the very least though, it does seem like the actual MIB is some higher-up on the board, and even has Cassandra asking for his vote to boot Ford.

Man, Maeve, I get that knowing you can't die takes some of the fear away, but I would still think letting yourself get burned up, would kind of suck. Sounds like her plan is to use Hector and make a break for it?  Not sure what her endgame will be, but Thandie Newton continues to bring down the house.

Ashley discovers Elise's tracker or something, only to get jumped by a bunch of hosts who refuse his commands.  Ford's doing?

Teddy's vision with Wyatt now has him killing townsfolk instead of soldiers, including a variation of Dolores.  Oh, and he gets killed.... again.  At this rate, James Mardsen will be an expert on how to do a death scene!  Maybe Sean Bean can guest star next season, and we can play a "Who will Die, First?!" game with those two.

Evan Rachel Wood was great in both the scene where Logan was cutting Dolores open and when it dawned on Dolores that she is the one who killed Arnold.

Finale next week!  So many questions that I hope they at least address somewhat.  Besides the big ones, I really want to know what does Cassandra have planned for the Abernathy host.  Can't wait!

[arc]

28 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

Teddy's vision with Wyatt now has him killing townsfolk instead of soldiers, including a variation of Dolores. 

I think the female host he killed there was Angela.

[DarkRaichu]

At least to me, it was pretty clear that Logan and William's scenes took place in the past.  When Logan gutted Dolores, her inside was all mechanical which meant 1st generation model.  Also all of the confederado soldiers killed by William were shown to have mechanical inside.

What Angela made Teddy remember was parallel with Dolores memory from last week.  It looked like Teddy was tasked to killed all 1st generation hosts in that prototype town (Escalante?) while Dolores was tasked to kill Arnold.  Since the Wyatt storyline was created by Ford, did he purposely want Teddy to remember the past?  Otherwise I failed to see the point of having that very similar town massacre scene added to Teddy's backstory.

So Maeve had complete admin power like Ford? Even Bernard did not have power to freeze hosts by voice. Felix, what did you do?

To me, Stubbs was not jumped by Ghost Nation.  Those natives looked more like the ones from Sizemore's canceled narrative (Red River adventure?)

I thought the shot of Charlotte's shoe in front of MiB was a great way to take viewers out of MiB's old west narrative.  So MiB was still a board member, somehow last week I thought Charlotte pushed him out of the board

I still do not buy William = MiB theory though :P

Edited November 28, 2016 by DarkRaichu

[wilnil]

After Ford narrative-commanded (not exact quote) "after Ford leaves the room, Bernard finally ends his nightmare," I was hoping the phrasing left Bernard enough cognitive wiggle room to shoot Ford.

Re the photo Logan gave William, since even their earlier timeline has to be a number of years in our future, maybe he just told his phone to print it out from its memory. Never mind -- just saw a copy of the online "Delos Terms of Service," and they include a ban on cellular and other recording-capable devices within the park.

Edited November 29, 2016 by wilnil
Theory shot down