The maze and weird church thing on “Westworld” are maybe related

The headline should really read “the maze and weird church thing on Westworld are maybe related, ENORMOUS QUESTION MARK?” because after watching the second episode of Westworld I have a lot of questions about these two plot elements.

While it seems like the main plots of Westworld is obviously going to be the hosts gaining sentience, since we’re already seeing that in Dolores and Maeve, I’m waaaaay, way more interested in Anthony Hopkins’ secret story for the park, and in what that dude in black is running around trying to accomplish. I’ve seen Dollhouse, I’ve seen Ex Machina, I’ve seen Prometheus, I’ve seen iRobot, I watched the downward spiral of Microsoft’s Tay. True AI is a dangerous thing, the monster will inevitably turn on Dr. Frankenstein, blah blah blah. We’ve all heard this story before.

So let’s talk about something more interesting. First of all, the man in black’s crusade for this mysterious sublevel of Westworld.

I’d just like to clarify that although I started calling him the man in black based on the obvious, that’s actually what his name is listed as on IMDB, so I’m not just making that up. (No relation to Westley.) But anyway, he’s pursuing some additional, difficult to access level of the game for which he found a map ON THE INSIDE OF SOMEBODY’S SKULL.

Am I seriously supposed to buy that Anthony Hopkins planted a secret Westworld narrative assuming that somebody would continue returning to Westworld for thirty years until somebody figured it out? Because that would be TRULY ridiculous. So in my humble and perpetually confused opinion, this leaves three options. (I’m sure there are more, this is just what occurs to me immediately after watching.)

Option A: the maze/secret narrative is part of whatever nefarious ulterior motive the management has. Option B: the man in black is actually an AI and is part of Anthony Hopkins’ secret story, thereby connecting it to the church bells/cross thing at the end.

Option C: the Westworld writers are going to convince me that Anthony Hopkins planned a secret deeper layer of Westworld that requires players to return to the park for thirty-years on end, scalp a guy, massacre a bunch of people, and follow some obscure clues to some kind of maze.

Whatever the outcome, only time will tell, and I’m pretty curious to see what the answer is. (Probably none of the above, but hey, can’t blame me for trying…)